How I Changed My Mind About Content Creation

I used to think, to put out content, you had to be an expert. You had to be the best in your field. The best musician, the best audio engineer, the best designer, the best football player. However, since this time, I changed my mind.

A couple of realizations/things happened that helped change my mind.

#1. No one has all of the answers.

I used to think there was a group of folks, who had been awarded all of the answers in their field, they had done it long enough that they were the true outliers, ten thousand, no, TWENTY thousand hours. I imagined a secret club of excellence held a meeting where they handed out wreaths of majesty and adorned said masters in ceremony. I know, it sounds crazy, but I really didn’t believe ANYONE could put out content, then, I found my self watching coding videos from a guy, who clearly stated he wasn’t the best, and that he didn’t know everything and that he was just trying to make his vision happen in code, and excuse the mess, and it clicked.

It clicked because I realized that what I needed was a peer at that moment that I could level with, bounce ideas, grow together, not someone looking down on me with disgust at the beginner vibes I was throwing down. I realized that through this “amateur” sharing his work and encouraging others to engage and participate in the discussion, I was learning and growing faster than I could have imagined, as a designer and developer.

I changed my mind.

#2 I hate regret.

I was sitting at my desk at Ramsey Solutions one day early February of this year, talking over the internal Ramsey Battle of the Bands ideas with a fellow team member, we discussed about how it’s an outlet for the music has beens like us to get the wiggles out. Has beens getting the wiggles out?

I threw up a little bit.

We’re in our late 20's! I REFUSE to be a “has been” already, give me like another 20 years and we’ll talk about has beens. I decided right then I needed to be making music for myself again. Not for anyone, not for money, but for ME. It just so happened that on this same day I listened to Gary Vaynerchuk talking about, if an artist was good enough and talented enough they could put out a song a week. I thought to myself, this is perfect.

I CAN PUT OUT A SONG A WEEK.

After having released 29 songs so far this year. I can say I changed my mind. I decided that it was possible for me, a mid twenties husband and father, designer, social media lover, musician to put out content that isn’t perfect, that doesn’t claim to know everything but that just wants to connect like minded individuals who want to learn how to do some cool crap.

❤Z