If you create stuff, for a living or a hobby, you probably don't do it for the money.
That's not to say you don't want to get paid for creating content; of course you do. It's just that there are better ways to make much more money; although most of them require going to Stanford.
More likely you create stuff because you want to put new ideas out into the world, in new ways. You create, at least in part, just to create. Hopefully you get satisfaction from seeing your ideas out there, and from the process itself, and that's reward enough.
If so you don't have to worry too much about what people think of your ideas, once they're out there. You couldn't care less how many views or downloads your content gets.
Yeah, right. In today's world it's impossible to avoid the relentless feedback loop of engagement data, comment threads, and social media. And, unless you are dead inside, it's impossible not to feel things when you see it.
Even the most principled creatives struggle with that, as we learned from this excellent interview with Denver-based podcast creator Josh Mattison.
Josh is a creator's creator. He makes his show, and other creative works, because he's got ideas and believes there's a place for them in the world, even if it's a small place.
But he's also not immune to letting the download stats and engagement numbers get him down — to the point where he had to take a year-long break from his podcast to reckon with his discouragement.
In his interview he talks about how he came out of that funk, and dishes a wealth of insights — about creating content that's not for everybody (but is emphatically for somebody), about making something sophisticated without a big production budget, and about lots more. Even his tech setup is worth hearing about. Give it a read.
Also helpful, maybe
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Back in 2018 Descript became the first creative tool to introduce AI voice cloning when we released Overdub. Now there are lots more. Which ones are the best? We asked our resident AI-creativity expert, Briana Brownell, to find out. Her findings are fascinating, though clearly biased — Descript's AI voices were built in Canada, and Briana herself is Canadian. With that disclaimer, you should check out what she learned.
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At first, this might seem like a counterpoint to our blather above about creating for love, not money. But it's not: it's about two podcast creators who have lovingly made a show they care deeply about — and found a way to get paid for it. Here's how Beyond...with Mike Kelton has managed that high-wire act — and how they use Descript to save immense amounts of time editing and making social clips.
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The Ramdy Rules
One of the things they don't tell you about creating video — or podcasts for that matter — is how much writing it involves. Take it from Ramdy: to make good video it's not enough to be super charismatic on camera and look good in a Descript t-shirt — you also need to know how to write a script. Here he is to show you how.
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Creative mastery, live
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By now we've established that Descript has everything you need to make a podcast — end-to-end, soup-to-nuts, recording-to-publishing — plus AI tools and other techy things that make the process faster and easier. So you can focus on the single, by-far-most important part: making a great podcast. Let Descript maestro Harmony show you how, live. Tuesday, May 7. Register here.
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AI tools are already making it possible for marketers to create more content, faster — and to make it look and sound really good. To help you understand what's already here and what's coming from AI, we've enlisted the expertise of the Marketing AI Institute's Cathy McPhillips. Learn what AI can do for you, plus some advice for introducing it into your workflow. Tuesday, May 14. Register here.
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AI can't create anything—without you
Descript's AI tools are built to save you time and eliminate tedious stuff so you can stay in flow, and focus on making something great. Because for all the talk about the power of AI, it's still useless without you—your ideas, your creativity, your originality...just, you. So click below and jump straight to Descript to get started. The AI has nothing better to do.
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