I most identify with being a writer.

I think that's warranted, because I do write a lot. Just about everything I do has some element of writing involved – there's this newsletter and articles for my blog, but there's also scripting for my podcast, participating in social media, etc.

But when I think about my future as a writer...I imagine myself writing long-form pieces like articles and even books! But it's been a while since I wrote something truly long-form.

Why is that?

Well, I have ideas for long-form pieces. I have a whole document capturing them – and I'm excited to write them!

Or is that just what I tell myself?

Because if I WAS excited to write them...wouldn't...I be...writing them? 🤔

The truth is, every time I have an idea I'm excited to flesh out into something longer...creating a deep, thoughtful, nuanced look...I tell myself, "I don't have time right now." Or, even worse, "Well, I'm almost done with my rebrand, and I'd prefer to save the traffic until I'm really happy with the whole website and reading experience."

That's me hiding.

At the moment of inspiration, I have SUCH confidence in an idea that I begin to weigh it down with HUGE expectations. I have high esteem and expectations of what I'm capable of creating, so if an idea is as good as I believe it is, that means I could create something AMAZING.

But, I certainly don't have time to create something amazing right now...I'll wait until the timing is perfect.

You and I both know that there is never perfect timing.

But I use this line of thinking (which is logical in a way) to hide away from the scary, confronting challenge of PROVING that my idea truly is, in fact, useful. And PROVING that I can, in fact, create something amazing from that idea.

I suspect there's a part of my psyche that knows, "If I never ship it, I can't fail. If I never have to find out if I'm good enough, then I can't realize that I'm not as smart as I think I am."

I know I'm not alone in this.

I've seen it time and time again with other creators too. We become so infatuated with an idea that we don't actually take any action towards it – because we want to do it right. We want to do it well.

But in reality...we're hiding. We're hiding from failure and we're hiding from doing the work.

And THAT is what the true failure is. Because we aren't sharing our best ideas. We aren't helping people improve themselves, improve the way they interact with the world, or improve their own work.

It's like we need some sort of system to call your own bluff. Some sort of idea escrow account where you place your ideas, and if you don't take action on them, they get shared with the world in their fragile, embarrassing, nascent form.

You need some way to push yourself through that confronting fear of, "What if I'm not capable of making this as good as I think it can be?"

Because if you just keep your best ideas for yourself, you'll rob them of oxygen. They'll suffocate and they won't be able to serve you or anyone else.

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#70: Nick Huber [Getting Sweaty] – What online creators can learn from sweaty startups

Nick Huber is the "sweaty startup" guy. He created Sweaty Startup in December of 2018 because he believed the Shark Tank and TechCrunch culture was ruining the real spirit of low-risk entrepreneurship.

He created a pickup and delivery student storage company with a partner in 2011 as an undergrad in college. The company has grown to 34 major colleges in 9 states and we service over 10,000 customers each year with a team of 5 full-time employees and over 200 part-time employees.

Today, Nick has more than 140,000 followers on Twitter, two podcasts, a Real Estate Masterclass, and more than $20 million in self storage assets under management.

In this episode, we talk about Nick’s experience building a “sweaty startup,” Nick’s approach to building a following on Twitter, why Twitter has accelerated his career 20 years, and how you can make your creative business stand out by getting a little sweaty.

​Click here to listen​

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It has been a WILD week. On a whim, I spun up a free challenge on Twitter called #Tweet100. It's intended to be a lightweight, fun, but impactful 100-day challenge. You just create ONE good Tweet (or Thread) that you're proud of each day.

Jay Clouse (8/100) 🐦 @jayclouse The more you tweet, the more your following grows. But if you're like me...it's easy to de-prioritize writing on Twitter. I wanted a system that forced me to write at least ONE tweet per day. So I created the #Tweet100 Challenge. It's free, and you can join too (thread) 🧵... August 20th 2021 24 Retweets 197 Likes

As long as you use the hashtag #tweet100 your Tweet is tallied for our public #Tweet100 Leaderboard. And so far, more than FOUR HUNDRED people have signed up to join the challenge!

It's a rolling challenge, so you can join any time. All you need to do is enroll here.

Otherwise, have a great week and I'll be talking to you soon!

Cheers,
Jay

PS: A new issue of Life In Progress comes out next week! If you want to receive that monthly newsletter sharing a behind-the-scenes look at the life side of my work-life balance, just share this newsletter with a couple of friends.