Let’s talk about my creative process and how I come up with creative ideas – a podcast episode read directly from my notes app (my creative process at work in real-time.) 

I’m gonna read you something that I wrote so that you can understand my thought processes and my creative process. And then I’ll come back and we’ll discuss how I would turn something like this into different pieces of content. 

If you did like this episode be sure to screenshot and share on Instagram and of course tag me, @erinmayhenry

TOP 3 SOURCES OF INSPIRATION

There are three ways that I get inspired or that I learn when it comes to being able to speak about the things that I speak about. It’s really like a three-pronged approach.

1) My own personal consumption of media and knowledge really contributes to my ability to be able to teach in the way that I teach online. It’s the accumulation of all the different things that I’m inspired by or all the different things that I, or the ideas that come from, let’s say, watching a TV show or watching a movie.  Whenever I’m reading a book or whenever I’m watching a movie, or whenever I am consuming any type of content or media, I am really taking little tidbits of information or ideas that pop into my mind and then documenting them in my notes app.

So that then I can, you know, come back to the middle later stage and tell a story from them or share a lesson or share an experience. I like this process because when I’m taking a note, the note is my interpretation of the media. You know, it’s not that I’m going and copying exactly what somebody said in a book or in a video or anything like that. 

I’m writing it down as my interpretation, the thoughts that have come from me of what is actually happening there so that when I do go and share it later on or immediately, it is my interpretation of that, which means that it is actually something new and unique because then what it is is it’s an amalgamation of that and other things that I’ve learned in the past, as well as my own experience. 

2) The second way that I actually get content ideas is to, through my own experience, you know, things that are going on in my life or things that I’m thinking about or conversations that I’m having with people like my friends, my family. This has also got an added benefit of the fact that when you do start to look at your experiences as opportunities to learn, as well as opportunities to then be able to empathize and share with your community, it sometimes can take the intensity out of these experiences. 

I really embrace my own personal challenges for me, things around content creation, around confidence, around identity, all the different things that I personally love to teach on. I embrace the challenges that I’m going through because I really do help. It really does help me not only, continue to improve and iterate my own strategies of overcoming these particular issues. But then it also helps me to really just connect. 

3) The other way that I learn and therefore then can teach is through my community, my students, my clients. I am so hyper-aware that every single time I’m having a conversation with someone and they ask me a question, there’s something in that, you know, if someone’s confused about something or if they’re they have a block or a barrier, or there’s something that’s stopping them from showing up. I take note of that. 

Learning from the people that you actually wanna help is in my opinion, one of the absolute best ways to make your content extremely, extremely relevant and resonate with a lot of people. And then your own experiences help you to more emotionally connect to what people are going through and really care because it’s your experiences. Well, and then obviously it is important to learn from resources, credible resources, and get inspired by different outputs of media because that is going to help you to create something totally unique to you.

One of the biggest things that allows me to create so much content quite consistently, or I should say communicate quite consistently is that in all of these experiences that I have in these three different areas, I’m constantly taking notes. 

THE NOTE

The note below is really about identity. It’s about our need as a society to categorize ourselves and to fit in and how that actually can be sometimes extremely detrimental to our personal growth and to our creativity.

And this actually came from watching the series inventing Anna. 

Title: I don’t know who I am.

“I’m sitting here watching, inventing Anna. I cannot help to be attracted to the glamorous lifestyle, the access, the glitz and the glamour. I see the story unfold, not the actual story, but the story in Neff’s experience. Of this hard-working, hustling boss bitch, and being a part of it just made me wish that I could be that girl. But then I think what about the part of me who adored the concept of the four-hour workweek, you know, setting up your life so that you actually didn’t have to work and that you could spend your time doing fun stuff like travel and adventure, no hassle, no glitz, no glam, just smart business models and the desire to challenge yourself. 

But then I also think what about that part of me that wants neither. The part of me that honestly is just happy making enough money to live a good life, take care of the people who I love and spend time chilling with my friends and family.

Then I think about the part of me that wants to fly first class, but also the part of me, that’s just as happy sitting in coach, as long as I’m on my way to discover a new magical place. 

What about the part of me that wants to build a legacy and an empire? 

And then the part of me that honestly just doesn’t wanna work at all. 

I dunno if anyone can relate to this, but it is something that I think about often. 

I ask myself on a regular basis, am I just too easily influenced and have no idea who actually the fuck I am or where I fit in and how I should show up in the world. 

Or maybe it just doesn’t matter. And I really can have it all. 

See, I’m not actually sure if the problem is my weakness to influence.

I mean, am I intrigued by absolutely everything cool. I see. No, I think snow is pretty cool, but I’m not desperate to jump out there into the snow. I know for me personally, there is a big difference between appreciation and genuine desire, yet I still find myself feeling guilty for having so many conflicting desires – wealth, humbleness, a total tomboy of high fashion hot. I’m not sure that the problem is influence. I think really at the end of the day, the problem is that we are taught to conform. 

We are taught to put ourselves into a box, to choose a type of style and never change our minds. Messaging like there are only two types of people in this world is challenging us to choose a side. We have this savage need for acceptance, and we are all desperate to find the camp of people that we can be defined by so that we can adopt everything to really fit in.

We think that we will be loved that people will understand us and that we will never run the risk of being seen as flaky or contradictory if we become a style of person and just stick to it. However, I believe that this keeps people stuck. I believe that this stops people from experimenting and evolving into something truly unique. 

What about if we could take little bits from every piece of influence, like take an ingredient from here and one from there and create a totally new and unique dish. 

Or what if we didn’t need to be just one type? What if we could change from day to day? And that would be totally accepted by the people around us. 

I may not know who am by society’s categories, but I know who I am. And I know that I’m a kind and genuine person with a curiosity that leads me to appreciate so many different aspects of life.

So if you see me one day talking about saving money and thrifting and the next day going and chartering a private jet, just know that that’s okay. 

If one day you see me in a pair of Docs and a band t-shirt trying to skateboard. And the next day you see me trying a ballet class, that’s okay too. 

I’m just here trying to live my life and experience every single, tiny thing that tickles my fancy, some of which I keep. And some of which I realize just isn’t for me, but I would’ve never known otherwise. I really think it’s important that we don’t try to categorize ourselves. 

I really think that it’s important that if you have interest in something to follow that, because there may be something magical there.”

TURNING A NOTE INTO CONTENT

1. I just let myself free flow and get out exactly what I was experiencing and what I was feeling at that moment. 

2. I sit on it until the time is right. 

3. Then I will be able to edit it into a caption or turn it into a podcast episode.

The takeaway from this episode is twofold. 

1) Obviously, there is the whole piece around identity and being okay with change and evolving and growing and trying new things and not necessarily having to categorize yourself as one type of person. 

If you want to be a skater chick one day and you want to be a gardening boss babe the next that is okay. 

Those two things can go hand in hand. 

2) The other thing is “just take a shit ton of notes,” really be conscious of your thoughts. Think about the three pillars or the three prongs of learning.

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