Why Creativity Is Hard & the Business of Doing It Anyway
September 4 2025 – Thursday
Entry #16
Well, I’m officially 26 years and one day old. I spent most of my day, kidding, all of my day yesterday organizing the shop again. I almost got it done, but ran out of time because of our dinner reservation at The Keg last night. I got a free Crème brûlée, which was awesome. I love that shit. So I spent another day not filming, not "chasing after my dream." I think to myself, "Am I wasting my time?" I mean, I could be recording what I'm doing, but then I feel like I'll be creating a video with no structure, no "point." I do plan however to make a video showing how I organized my shop using 3D prints. Do I have a plan, structure, or "point" for that video? No. Will I be recording random shots of what I printed and me installing them? Yes. I mean, I could sit down and actually plan how the video will go, but I'm not sure of what to actually share to give the video an actual meaning other than to satisfy people’s interest in shop organization.
I bought 4 new books yesterday, and maybe I ordered 2 more on Amazon, don't judge me ok? But the 4 from Indigo was 20% off because it was my birthday month, what a fire deal btw. Anyways, I started reading "Steal Like an Artist" (Affiliate) this morning, and the chapter I stopped at before beginning this writing, they said "Write the book you want to read." In other words, create something you wish there was for yourself. I suffer from severe analysis paralysis, and I felt that when planning my 3D prints for my workshop. I searched the internet for examples or references to help figure out what I should do. I kept coming out empty-handed, or with references that could be helpful, but a bit too technical to actually know. Maybe this video could be the "Book I want to read." I mean, I pretty much wrote the opening hook.
I could try making the video as simple and honest as possible. Like, I can share my complete beginner approach to modeling my own things, or share the advice I found but am too scared to try (0.8mm nozzle instead of 0.4mm for a faster print, as an example). Maybe I could even face the fears, "in the name of science!". It's crazy to me how this tiny idea of sharing me organizing turned into a brainstorming session just from writing. It's becoming a bit addicting. One thing I was going to say before I went off on my idea explosion was that I often think of recording things I'm doing, like this multi-day shop organizing session, which I didn't film any of, should be filmed and *possibly uploaded. I mean, it's a good opportunity to practice, and attempting to turn random footage into an engaging video/story is extremely good practice.
*Possibly, if the video has the quality standard I'd deem worthy of uploading, I wouldn't want to share crap that could lose me subscribers. But then again, what if what I think is crap is gold to another? Why does creativity need to be so damn hard? :c
The issues I have with this practice method are:
Recording can easily double the amount of time a simple task would take,
I would start to rush and decrease the quality in the filming or task because I don't want to truly be recording.
Is it beneficial to have moments to yourself, where you can jam to music and only worry about what’s in front of you rather than around you?
Well, the third isn't much of an issue, but you get the idea.
You know what's a great feeling? When you make profit for the first time in your creative journey. I've sold on Etsy many years ago (only 5 times to be exact). Since starting this all again, I've only made one sale, and it was ~$6.00 profit. I offered free delivery to help get some sales on my Etsy profile, also hoping to get some reviews. BTW, that ~$6.00 sale never left a review. Yesterday, I made another sale, this time a profitable one. It's being shipped to Pennsylvania with a gift note attached. My total profit from it is $47.67. Customer paid the shipping but I'm very satisfied with that win, hopefully she'll leave a review too! How do you even ask for one when it's being shipped as a gift to someone else... I'll probably send photos of it all packaged up, and once shippe,d notify her and ask for the review.
The thing I generally hate about selling products online is shipping. Why the fuck are boxes so damn expensive! So much of me wants to use Amazon boxes, but that wouldn't look right. Maybe I could mention we use those boxes to reduce waste and are supporting the earth, but in reality, I'm just cheap lol. I really want to get custom boxes though. I generally like exotic or unique packaging when I order things. The issue is, will the extra cost outweigh the profit I'd be losing? probably not.
But I've always liked to say, "Run your business the way you'd run it if it was highly successful, while it's not, it'll be how you find that success." When I was running my construction company, I'd always aim for the high-end, wealthy clients. Sure, I'd have to take the cheap jobs to stay busy, but I'd present my business as if it were high-end, even though it was just me. I'd either scare away cheapo's or they'd feel they're getting a deal on a high-end treatment. Unfortunately, I really only started to see those ideal customers I wanted near the end, when I decided to make this switch.
