How to write without restrictions
Before I jump into today's post a quick FYI: This week’s podcast is out, and the theme aligns with what you're about to read. It's all about how to break through rules and restrictions so you can write and publish — and frankly, achieve just about any goal — by doing things your own way. My guest in this episode is Kate Solovieva, a coach, community manager, and contrarian by nature. In our conversation, Kate challenges some of my own ideas and assumptions about writing, publishing, and thought leadership. If you like to do things your own way and/or find yourself struggling with resistance, apathy, or consistency when it comes to your writing I think you’ll really like this one. Check it out: Website, Apple, Spotify, or Google.
And with that, here’s the premise for today’s post:
Rules are only as good as they work for you.
Recently, I met with a fellow small business owner (someone I really like and respect) and we were chatting about podcasting. We’d been talking about this on-and-off for months. But while I recently launched mine, he… hasn’t.
“I’ve got four episodes sitting on my computer,” he explained.
“But the person I’m working with is adamant that we can’t launch until we have at least ten episodes. People need to be able to binge them in order for it to be successful.”
He added, “The problem is, I just don’t have the time to interview more people, the guests I want aren’t getting back to me… I just can’t come up with six more episodes now. So I’m stuck.”
This is where I said: “rules are only as good as they work for you.”
Let’s be honest, if launching 10 at once is the rule, I’m breaking it.
I launched The Storytelling with Heart Podcast with precisely one episode, and I’m releasing new episodes every other week. That pace might seem slow for the content-bingeing universe we live in, and it might not be ideal to make a big splash.
I don’t pretend that I am doing this (or anything else) perfectly. But I know that a steady, sustainable pace works for me; after all, it’s allowed me to keep this newsletter going for over six years and counting.
Starting small and steady can offer real benefits, like:
🚀 Momentum and accountability. Announcing to the world that you’ve launched a podcast isn’t a guarantee you’ll be able to keep going, but it’s more likely you’ll continue if you’ve actually started, and told people about it.
🤔 Get feedback. Isn’t it better to get feedback (especially constructive criticism) sooner rather than later? People with experience shipping work know it’s better to get feedback while in an early or draft stage than after investing tons of hours in a massive project.
📚 Add to your body of work. Suppose you release a mini series of just four podcast episodes. That’s cool; at least you put something out into the world. Isn’t it better to have made something, to add to your body of work, than have nothing at all? Ship what you got.
👬 Slowly build listeners and relationships over time. Is a big splash where a bunch of people listen to you and then promptly forget about you really better than releasing slow-and-steady content for the long haul? I’d argue that the rule my pal is following is more about vanity metrics (getting a bunch of listeners in a short amount of time so you look successful) than building a long-term listenership and a lasting project that serves your business goals.
Here, though, is my key point:
This is the primary difference between someone who succeeds with their creative projects and someone who doesn’t.
The people who “succeed” do the thing. The ones who “fail”... don’t.
Or, to put it another way:
The reason most people fail isn’t because they didn’t adhere to some rule.
The reason most people fail is because they never ship, or never start.
And by the way, this has nothing to do with a lack of courage or smarts or ability. I see brilliant people fall into this trap all the time. We are taught that we need to do things “right” to succeed. And hoo boy are there are a lot of people out there telling us what those “right” things are.
I’m not against rules. There are indeed many best practices, and principles, and guidelines are probably worth following.
In fact, if you’ve been following this blog for a while, you can probably pick up on some themes that I preach again and again.
Stuff like: write and publish consistently; strategize and plan; know your audience; write with a clear purpose in mind; etc.
But get this, my most recent podcast guest challenged me on all those preachings and teachings!
That’s right, she too has been writing for years, has a strong personal brand, and an industry-recognized reputation… And she doesn’t do any of these things! (At least not exactly the same way I do.)
Kate Solovieva (aka Solo) is the Director of Community Engagement at Precision Nutrition, an experienced coach who’s worked with over 1000 clients, and an expert in behavior change with two psychology degrees to her name. She has also been writing her own blog and e-newsletter for years at solovieva.com, and is the author of her self-published book, Half Pregnant.
In this episode, Kate brings both her experience as a coach and a writer to the conversation. She shares how we can overcome perfectionism and get better at the whole writing and publishing thing — without getting hung up on all the stuff we “have to” do.
If you:
- Love to break the rules / go your own way
- Struggle to stick to schedules or rigid plans
- Tend to feel intimidated or overwhelmed
…. This podcast is for you. 💝
Meantime, if you find yourself doing NOTHING because a particular rule or guideline is holding you back, try this:
Ditch it. Pretend it doesn’t exist. Then, see what happens. Find out if you can make progress without that pesky restriction getting in the way.
Let me know how it goes. :)