the SPARK ~ #129 Creative Monetization
By the time you’re reading this, I’ll be happily spending time with a couple of dear friends in an Airbnb on the beach in Oregon (Lincoln City, to be exact).
Even though it might be cold and rainy, it’s hard to have a bad time at the beach with friends.
Besides the obvious (spending time with them and our mini-mastermind), I’m looking forward to the solo road trip too.
There’s something about that uninterrupted time in the car where I can’t do any work, and I get to listen to books and podcasts that feels like such a treat.
As much as I wish I could, I can’t really listen to anything other than instrumental music or nature sounds when I work unless I’m doing things that require zero writing.
While running errands for my trip, I listened to a recent episode of Mel Robbin’s podcast. The episode I listened to was, You’ve Got Money All Wrong, where she interviewed Ramit Sethi, of “I Will Teach You to Be Rich.”
I’m a huge fan of Ramit’s work.
Side note: talk about the power of content marketing… all his online work led him to getting his own Netflix show!
Back to the podcast…
One of the things I love about Ramit and his approach to money is that he’s super direct and doesn’t preach the same advice as many other ‘money’ people.
He’s a big believer in creating a “rich life” based on what that means to each person. For some people, it might be luxury travel. To others, it’s always eating out or hiring for things you don’t enjoy doing (I don’t think I’ll ever go back to not having a housekeeper).
Mel’s “rich life” is ordering one of every dessert when she eats out at restaurants. 🍦🍨🍰🧁🥧
Ramit is kind of like having a financial coach, motivational speaker, and no-nonsense therapist all rolled into one person.
He’s all about empowering people to take control of their finances to create the life they want; not one society tells you is acceptable or that you have to follow a traditional trajectory.
As I was listening to this, it made me think that this is exactly how we should be running our businesses.
✔ Hate doing video? Don’t do it.
✔ Love writing? Go all in.
✔ Only enjoy two social media platforms? Focus on them.
✔ Love AI? (🤚) Ignore the haters.
✔ Want a 4-day workweek? Make it happen.
We live in a world with a LOT of “shoulds”… have you ever thought about why you think you “should” do something? If so, see if you can drill down deeper with “why” behind every reason you give yourself.
Example:
I should be making video shorts.
– Why?
— Because everyone says I should, and they’re working for other people.
A pretty weak argument to keep doing something you don’t enjoy.
How much better would your business run, how much more profitable would your business be, and most importantly… how much happier would you be if you truly did what you wanted to do?
Not what you *think* you should do.
There will obviously be times when you have to do things you don’t want to, but ideally, you’re doing them because they lead you to a business and life you love.
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My sister & I do this, just not from the same room, and we send TikToks 🤣
I hope you’ve had a great start to May.
I’m still wrapping my head around the fact that we’re already in the 5th month of 2023.
What the bucket?
I will focus on staying present and enjoying the upcoming warm summer months.
I have so much I want to get out into the world this year… I’ll share a little of that update with you next week after I’ve finished up this time away with friends.
Undoubtedly, it will be a soul-filling trip with lots of laughter, ideas, and plans to implement.
May the 4th be with you! (That is literally the first time I’ve ever used that, 😉).
