your mind is playing tricks on you
I never classified myself as a "creative"... It was something I felt I needed to earn the title of..
Strange..right?
It's funny how we think we need to tick off certain criteria to be someone or something we admire.
Starting The Millennial Crisis, my second "creative" endeavour but one that had a lot more love than any previous project I had worked on, was the first time I felt I understood creatives...
I really struggled to make it, but more importantly, I really struggled to make it to the level I expected myself to create...
So not only do we put expectations on ourselves to tick particular boxes to feel as though we can call ourselves something...successful, creative, entrepreneurial...
We also expect ourselves, when we first begin, to be just as good at those we look up to, those who inspired us to take the leap and do.
Alex Blumberg, the founder of Gimlet Media & the creator of the podcast "start-up" was my inspiration, I wanted the Millennial Crisis to be an audio documentary of my struggle to find a career I love.
Where did that pressure, those expectations and that self-doubt lead me...
1 full season unpublished
40+ unpublished conversations
...and hours of crippling fear and worry about something that was likely to have 5 listeners (with 4 of them being me & the family & friends I forced to listen)
The idea of the podcast was to be candid, transparent and real...yet all I felt like I needed to be was perfect.
After finishing and publishing 20 episodes, and preparing for season 2 I have a few things I'd like to remind myself, that I learnt along the way.
YOU ARE A CREATIVE: We are all creative in our own way, being creative is seeing something through your unique perspective...one of the most creative people I know is my accountant, the way he looks at the papers and information I give him blows my mind every time 😂
IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE PERFECT, CONSISTENCY IS BETTER THAN PERFECTION: Every episode you post, puts you one step closer to become the content creator you look up to, every piece of content you post closes the gap between the work you produce and the work you know you can produce. If you don't publish you will do yourself and your community a disservice. Think less, post more.
IF IT'S NOT FUN, INTERESTING OR SPARK YOUR CURIOSITY...IT'S OK TO STOP: You forced yourself to create solo episodes every week of the podcast, some of them were necessary and literally fell right out of you, those episodes were your favourite... the rest, felt forced, they were like pulling teeth & they took you waaaay too long to make. Why? You hated them, but for some reason your stubborn ass stuck through them and was consistently disappointed with 6 out of the 10 bonus episodes you published - do a bonus if you feel you need to...otherwise. Do what you love, facilitating interesting conversations with EPIC people!
I'm so excited to get stuck into the next season of The Millennial Crisis...Season 1 lead me to quit my 9-5 & take my first "Gap Year", speak on my first panel, connect with incredible people...not only the ones I interviewed but the amazing community and friends who listened.
I don't know what the next season has in store for me, but I do know there will be a lot of mistakes, a lot of new findings and a lot of fun had!
If you know somebody or are somebody that would be interested in being a guest on The Millennial Crisis podcast, DM me or send me an email demi.kotsoris@outlook.com.
My criteria: You are passionate, have something you want to communicate to others, don't mind me dropping an F-bomb every now and then and are ready to dive deep and have a laugh!