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Sustained enthusiasm is the best leading indicator for success as a creator, but most creators passively create.
And maintain their enthusiasm, which puts their business and creative careers at risk. I believe that creators that crush are the most enthusiastic about their topics, their businesses, and their creative lifestyles. So welcome to creators that crush the show that helps you move from crushed to crushing it.
As a creator, I am your certified high performance coach and host, Shawn Buttner. And in this episode I'm going to share my initial case for. Enthusiasm and talk a little bit about the work I've been doing the last couple months, how it applies to you and where we're going moving forward. Because again, I believe that creators of crush are the most enthusiastic.
And taking that perspective and taking a look at a couple of different creator areas, it's been pretty [00:01:00] interesting. So let's jump into it. So this year. For this show has been very interesting in the fact that at the beginning of the year I rebranded from the meaningful revolution to creators that crush as a way to better align the things that I talked about and the people I wanted to help with.
The idea of high performance, and that's evolved over the year. There's been a lot of work, a lot of journaling, a lot of trying to figure out, you know, what's the best way to. Create an idea that resonates, uh, to borrow from my friend Jay Zo. Uh, but where we're at now is, you may have noticed it's been a little bit since I posted one of these solo episodes, and that's because I've been working on and thinking through and researching this idea that.
The [00:02:00] reason why people become YouTubers, or podcasters or authors or create digital products is because they are enthusiastic about putting their idea out into the world. And what is enthusiasm? It's to paraphrase the dictionary. It's it. Deeply excited feeling for something, it's this like obsession or it's nerding out on something you absolutely love and in a way that's sharing it and in with the world and engaging with it in the world, and.
I found that this is true with most creators, but more interestingly, uh, a month and a half ago, I started researching YouTube channels that have, I quit videos where the subscriber count was at least a hundred thousand people. And what I found is there's this story of chasing enthusiasm, of [00:03:00] losing enthusiasm that causes people to quit, especially creators.
And. It's, there's So many different angles that it comes down to, but what I noticed is that it, it's either people not being enthusiastic 'cause their identity changed or who they thought they were in front of the camera changed. We could go into, um, examples of that maybe in further episodes. There are people that.
Are so overwhelmed, they try to off source in a way where they make bad decisions because they've lost enthusiasm for the work and for the business and for who they are as creatives. They lose that agency of directing their creative energies. And what that Leads to is further burnout. Further Disengagement from the thing that made them popular
And how do you recover from losing? Like I love doing comedy sketch [00:04:00] shows with my best friend to the friendship busts and the show, the company that owns the channel now, it's not even mine, has gone bankrupt and I don't know what to do here. And, and how do you, you move forward with that?
It's very compelling. So. I've been collecting stories and, and case studies like that. I've been interviewing other creators to, and, and talking to people about this idea of enthusiasm being the currency of creativity, of being what really drives a lot of works, right? And there's certain benefits to being enthusiastic,
I'll list five of them here. As I make this initial case, but I just wanted to let you know that this is something that I am currently still thinking through. So the ideas that I talk about today about enthusiasm and how it relates to you, I'm going to morph, but I invite you [00:05:00] into that conversation.
I am enthusiastic about enthusiasm because it's the story of my career. It's how I went to business school with a huge interest in computers and without a lot of programming classes.
Became a software engineer for 14 years working at big companies like Walmart and Apple based solely on my interest in it, not my education. It's why I left. Walmart, my very first corporate job after graduate school to start a business that I was enthusiastic about and how that enthusiasm while it, that business didn't work out, ended up getting me the job at Apple because I was showing that I could learn things on the fly.
Um, and actually showing the work that I did when I was trying to start that business up is. What turned an okay interview into, you're starting on Monday, which was fantastic. It's what caused me to eventually leave Apple. [00:06:00] And when I decided and figured out for myself that I wasn't super passionate about keeping up with all the changing software, languages, paradigms, and all that stuff, I would rather learn about how to connect with people and coach with people.
And so I started my coaching business in 2019 and, and here we are. I started the podcast 'cause I was enthusiastic about having conversations with people and I thought you could do that at, with clients and they tend to let want that to be private. How could you do that in a more public way? And in a way that helps me also network.
And that's when meaningful revolution came up like two years ago, three years ago now. Geez. Um, what is time? So it's all of those choices. Were at some point me not feeling super stoked about my life. Um, I know leaving Walmart, it was partly, I'm [00:07:00] so stressed out all the time with the demands of this job and for things that I felt like busy work and not my life's work.
And so what is my life's work? Well, maybe I'll start a business helping people with student debt. I was really. Enthusiastic about that. 'cause I was also going through that myself. And then when I couldn't make that work, you know, you know what would be something I was enthusiastic about? It's like, oh, I do like still have that interest in software and programming.
And then the job with Apple came up and it feels like a dream. It feels very lucky that it will take care or take up that opportunity in the moment, but. Every point of the way. It's what am I feeling right now that I'm most enthusiastic and what do I think I'll be enthusiastic for for the rest of my life?
And I think that last question for the rest of my life is really what has helped me make [00:08:00] smart and good decisions for me over the years. It's not a, I'm really upset with this one project. I just wanna quit. And then you, you quit. Uh, it's a process of. validating that the enthusiasm saying I should be doing something different.
And so I have a bajillion different ways to analyze this and that's, this is just kind of an illustration of where we're at now, but um, from coaching people as a certified high performance coach, through studying a bunch of these, I quit videos with these big YouTube channels and with talking with creators the last couple of months.
Here are a couple of things that I'm thinking of. Uh, the benefits of cultivating, protecting and amplifying your enthusiasm for whatever you do. And this could, I'm saying this in the context of creators that crush because again, I think when you're enthusiastic, it [00:09:00] can help overcome deficits in knowledge,
and bandwidth and sticking with it so you see results, just to kind of list a couple of 'em. But I think the benefits of culting, your enthusiasm start with grounding your long-term career vision. Right? I think enthusiasm and paying attention to it, right, which I think most people don't do, is a way to make great.
Decisions, right? As it should factor into your decision making process. If you want to start a business, if you want to start a channel, if you wanna start writing you know, thinking about is this going to be something I'm going to obsess and be super focused on potentially forever, um, is a different question to have an answer to when you're like, yes, I should do this, or no, I shouldn't, than, Hey, this feels good in the moment, right?
Okay. And so when you dream of [00:10:00] building a sustainable career where enthusiasm is the main driver or the main metric that you're measuring it, you approach challenges different. you are able to be more resilient when you meet those challenges and you grow personally and professionally, So enthusiasm can help you make decisions for your long-term career.
The second benefit of cultivating your enthusiasm is just freedom and alignment, Creators often start their thing 'cause they want freedom to pursue their interests and to work on projects and collaborate with people that align with their values and have a meaningful impact, When you are working in a corporation like I did for a good chunk of my early adulthood.
You can have an idea. And then if it has to go to a committee, it is extremely frustrating where people are trying to debate the merits of doing a very small thing that doesn't really [00:11:00] warrant five people thinking about it for a two hour meeting. And so being able to, to act on those creative impulses and indulge those creative impulses and the freedom to do that, I, I think, drives a lot of.
Why people get in into this industry. and doing things that are aligned with your values.
that alignment generates that enthusiasm and excitement that's very contagious, which is the
third point is when you are enthusiastic and you are nerding out hard on the things you care about, it is infectious. People like others that have conviction, that are excited for something and. So it builds deeper connections with your audience, with collaborators and, and peers, and helps move people to sign up for your newsletter, to, to buy your course, to try a new idea on modeling trains or whatever [00:12:00] the call to action is that you're trying to explore the cool thing that you found on your hobby or the thing you care about and, and that contagious energy.
Can ripple out, if I'm enthusiastic and something you're interested in, then you get enthusiastic about it. You might talk to another person who you get enthusiastic about that same topic like music and so you're having this positive energy kind ripple out there
another. Benefit to cultivating your enthusiasm is this ability to sustain your motivation. So as a certified high performance coach, I am deeply interested in figuring out how people perform at their best and how they can maintain that sustainably. So it could be, it's one thing to, to, to do one week where you do 120 hours and you don't sleep focused on building your thing.
But you're not gonna be able to do that for a whole year [00:13:00] without hurting your health in some dramatic way, or having your family and friends forget who you are, And that's not really motivating. Like you can't do that all the time. There's a time and place for any of this, like, but um,
your enthusiasm for your topic, for your business, for your creative lifestyle. Is a reliable source of motivation that counters burnout. I actually think enthusiasm is the opposite of burnout because if you've talked to anyone that is, that says, Hey, I am completely miserable in this situation, I'm burnt out.
They are not engaged, they're not stoked to go to work or to do the thing or to, to find that, zest in life when you're, you're burnt out. And so that's what enthusiasm does. It helps you also take on new opportunities and sustain your [00:14:00] creative output over time.
Um, if you begin to lose that excitement, that's when people tend to think, oh, I need to make a shift in what I'm doing, or I need to stop altogether. And a lot of the, I quit videos. That's, you know, a tense, Long, intense periods of work that were not sustainable ended up undercutting their ability to continue.
So it's important to take breaks. and then finally like.
There's a personal satisfaction component to enthusiasm. So these aspirations, um, when you are enthusiastic about the thing that you're working on, you're able to find fulfillment in exploring a topic again, like music, and it helps you.
Feel like you're contributing to the space and collaborating with people and, and adding to the [00:15:00] work, and, and that to me is the most deeply satisfying part of this work. It's why I love the podcast and why I love coaching. It's why I love all the creative groups that I'm in now. So. And it's that personal satisfaction that keeps me wanting more.
Like the days when I have a coaching session or an interview it, and I'm introverted, so like it takes a lot of energy to get in front of a camera and talk to somebody or talk to the camera now, but those moments where I'm coaching or interviewing someone like it is like a lightning bolt. To my psyche to where I still need a break, but I feel like I'm living my life,
And chasing that feeling of, oh, I helped someone get a new insight. Or, Hey, I just interviewed someone really cool and found out and learned something new about a topic I'm interested in is amazing
so I know I kind of globbed over those, but to [00:16:00] call it out in conclusion, the benefits of Culting, your enthusiasm and, and my initial case for enthusiasm is it helps you make decisions for your long-term career. It helps you live free and in alignment and do work that is. More aligned to you. It helps you generate contagious energy that gets other people fired up and excited and has that ripple effect out in the world.
It helps you sustain motivation and avoid burnout in in the world, and it leads to deep personal satisfaction. Now if you're listening to this, do any of these resonate with you? 'cause these are. Larger buckets of ideas that I've gathered in the last month. But if you would, um, you can email me at support at Shawn Buttner dot com and answer these two [00:17:00] questions.
When is a time when your enthusiasm helped lead you to success? And when is a time when you were, your enthusiasm dropped and it caused you to quit something. So I'm just trying to collect some extra information on this. I won't highlight you personally unless I ask first, so I will hide all information so you don't have to worry about being outed.
Or if you are feeling a little hesitant to share, that's fine. But if you email me these questions, I'll have in the show notes. And to the email support at Shawn Buttner dot com. I would love to hear how enthusiasm's impacted your life and does it ring true that a lot of the big decisions that you've made in your life, in your relationships, career, you know, health and wellbeing or otherwise, kind of the enthusiasm is kind what a factor behind the scenes?
So. [00:18:00] Email me what you thought about this episode and the answer to those two questions in the show notes. we will continue to build on this topic of enthusiasm as why creators crush it and when they're crushed by it, it's because they lack enthusiasm. Um, and there's so much might change between now and.
The future when, whenever you're listening to this, but I think this is a great start. This is what I've been working on, folks, if you're been curious where I've been
and if you loved this episode of Creators that Crush, you might enjoy this episode I did with Kev Michael, which highlights the type of story I think cra the Crush is going to, to, to focus on where it's someone that lost his enthusiasm for his topic.
Tried something different, was reinvigorated and now has hit the ground running.
So definitely, um, check out that episode in the show notes or over [00:19:00] here if you're watching on YouTube. So with that, we'll see you in the next episode of Creators That Crush.
This is Shawn Buttner signing out.
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