[Vol. 2 Issue #25]

Thursday

A longer reflection today on storytelling and how it could be easier to step onto the stage and sing your song once you've "got some life under ya!” Sing your song, write your book, and tell your story, do it while embracing the boos. When you are finished putting yourself out there, celebrate by dancing at an IKEA⁉️🤘

In other words, today is a little “long in the [horses] tooth.”

Bigmouth Strikes Again:

Stories | News | Music | Art & Design - With A Shout (out)

🤘We are here every day, and every minute you spend with us sends ripples of gratitude through our souls! 🤘

Big Stories

Big Story

A Different Perspective

An interesting prompt has come from the Storytellers Intensive Workshop I found myself in this week. The last year has been littered with writing workshops, design discoveries, and mindset cheat sheets. None of them have been completed, not that they don't have incredible value, but the breakthroughs and the insight need to hit a graying mohawk like me fast and hard. In the first assignment this week, one of the concepts discussed is the Storyteller’s Dashboard. It’s a simple set of categories that help you identify with the type of storyteller you would like to become. In my case, the type of storyteller I've been over the last year of writing With A Shout.

Thinking

Once the framework starts to take shape, the next question is about problems you love thinking about. A fantastic way to reframe a problem: what problems do you love thinking about. I read this as: what's the challenge you chew on and write about. We were asked to come up with three problems; here is my initial list:

3 problems I love thinking about:

Are we trying to make a point or a difference?
How can more people embrace the “boos” the same way a successful artist or speaker does?
What systems can we build and teach to reward listening and open discussions? How can we encourage people to return to “The Things We Learned in Kindergarten” instead of social media?

Embrace the Boos

A less obvious but significant result of my continuing education is boosting my confidence and security in whatever I do. A common theme shared by all artists who publish and perform for an audience. Sometimes, we use perfection as an excuse, but the fear of rejection, low engagement rates, or the thought of the empty club stops many of us from “shipping our work."

I started my first business in my twenties, knowing just enough to get started, hire some people, and go out and find customers. Many people think starting a business, a band, or as a writer is easier to do when you’re young and have fresh legs. Showing up on that stage is much harder if you have a family, mortgage, and responsibilities. As a person who has been there - done that, graduated, and got the watch, there is also a benefit to starting a new creative endeavor later in life. If you were blessed and survived the family years and have a few dollars saved, the benefit is this.

Young or old, embrace the boos, the critics, the people who look at your cross-eyed and ask you questions born from envy. Consider them the cost of doing business, and it is a price you must pay. Whether you asked for it or not, each piece of writing, video, and song you publish will come with feedback. All it needs to do is strengthen your conviction in your work, your determination to make more art, and get more feedback. Pay that bill enough times, publish your art enough times, and you will climb to the top of your mountain.

Show & Don’t Tell

Another great writer, Sahil Bloom, includes several points worth reading in his latest newsletter, all about his reflections after attending his ten-year college reunion. One of his insights goes well with the reflection above:

Big Shout

5 minutes of good cheer every day. Become a Fan to get daily posts and updates.

Subscribe now

Share With A Shout

Join Discord

Lights & Sounds

Sound Checks

Repurposed Dance Floors

A new club in Tottenham just opened called Drumsheds, and the 15,000 square feet of space used to be an IKEA! The story from The Guardian goes into all the positives of recycling a huge space of consumerism and turning it into a huge space of experience-ism. Oliver Wainwright writes the story, and it goes with the story we wrote last week on the disappearing pubs in the UK.

Photographs: David Levene/The Guardian