In today’s episode I speak with Puno, the founder of ilovecreatives.com.
Puno is absolutely brilliant, and today we get to see even more into who she is as a person. We discuss Puno’s life and how she has embraced creativity and overcome adversity, the change in dynamics in her life after her parents’ divorce, witnessing the power of choice and proactive happiness, vulnerability, and what the influence of boredom and lack of stimulation can do.
We also speak about being resourceful and patient in the face of adversity, the deliberate choice to be confident, troubleshooting, the skill of inspiration, and overcoming panic and self-doubt.
Connect with Flynn:
Connect with Puno:
Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe!
Want me to come on your podcast? Fill out this form.
In today’s episode I speak with Puno, the founder of ilovecreatives.com.
Puno is absolutely brilliant, and today we get to see even more into who she is as a person. We discuss Puno’s life and how she has embraced creativity and overcome adversity, the change in dynamics in her life after her parents’ divorce, witnessing the power of choice and proactive happiness, vulnerability, and what the influence of boredom and lack of stimulation can do.
We also speak about being resourceful and patient in the face of adversity, the deliberate choice to be confident, troubleshooting, the skill of inspiration, and overcoming panic and self-doubt.
Connect with Flynn:
Connect with Puno:
Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe!
Want me to come on your podcast? Fill out this form.
[00:00:00] Flynn Skidmore: Hello and welcome to the Flynn Skidmore podcast. My goal is to help you become exactly who you want to be. We're here to help you take your biggest, boldest, most beautiful vision for life and turn that vision into reality. Hello and welcome back as today's guest. We have Puno designer and founder of ilovecreatives.
[00:00:30] Flynn Skidmore: com, which I think is one of the best resources on the planet for creative entrepreneurs. We discuss Puno's childhood. We discuss dissolving resistance. We discuss the skills that creative entrepreneurs need in order to thrive. And we speak about how the space of creativity is the safest space in the entire universe.
[00:00:52] Flynn Skidmore: Puno is incredible. You are going to love this conversation.
[00:00:59] Flynn Skidmore: Okay. [00:01:00] So we just navigated 15 minutes of. Adversity with our, with our software, mostly software, no hardware issues. And I was, I was really impressed by your capacity to navigate 15 minutes of adversity with so much patience and calmness. Really remarkable.
[00:01:27] Puno: Um, troubleshooting in this day and age is like the ultimate skill to have.
[00:01:35] Puno: I feel like, I feel like that's what I teach too at Island Creatives is you have to be resourceful also means. Like you have to like troubleshoot all the time and you have to like be really, really patient with it and not get so upset and so angry that you can't move forward. You
[00:01:56] Flynn Skidmore: know, did you used to be upset and angry [00:02:00] about it?
[00:02:00] Flynn Skidmore: Did you used to try and rush those things? I
[00:02:03] Puno: think, I definitely have more capacity now, um, and I realize that it's about, like, brainstorming as many ideas as possible, as opposed to sitting in the, I haven't figured it out, but. Area, you know like but yeah, I think for sure. I think i'm definitely more patient now
[00:02:30] Flynn Skidmore: Yeah, you're you're so right about that as you were saying that like being open to the options available to you Thinking about that experience of 15 minutes that I had.
[00:02:40] Flynn Skidmore: I think that that's what we both did really well It was like a practice of remaining calm and grounded and the more calm and grounded and even playful and kind we are to each other, the more likely we're going to be able to collaborate, to come up with options and solutions. Whereas if I were panicking or [00:03:00] if I were like, Oh my God, this is a reflection of me, like what's she going to think about me, my capacity to come up with creative solutions would have been so limited.
[00:03:08] Flynn Skidmore: I, uh, I had a really funny experience recently where. I met this new person. He, uh, offered me Hoppe, which is this, do you know what that is? No. Okay. It's like a, it's like a huffing tobacco, like indigenous medicine, tobacco that you essentially snort. And it's supposed to activate your pineal gland. So your, your imagination explodes.
[00:03:38] Flynn Skidmore: Um, I am super sensitive to tobacco, super sensitive. And the only other time I've done hop a, I threw up violently and I'm over at this dude's Airbnb and he offers it to me and I'm like, yeah, I'm probably going to throw up, but I'm going to, I'll try this. Thanks. I got so sick. I had to go into his toilet.
[00:03:58] Flynn Skidmore: I'm like laying on his. [00:04:00] Cold tile floor throwing up in his bathroom. And as I'm throwing up in the toilet, I'm thinking, you know, I, I noticed this conditioning in me to be throwing up in this toilet, like to be ashamed of this. And I could certainly invest in that conditioning and programming to be ashamed, but I could also choose to be confident about this.
[00:04:21] Flynn Skidmore: I could choose to be relaxed about throwing up in this dude's toilet. I've met, this is the first time I've ever met him and actually see that this is material. For heat, for, for me and him to bond and to connect. And I could feel myself like delirious, delusional, throwing up, like actually making that choice, like I'm going to use this adversity as material for he and I to connect.
[00:04:44] Flynn Skidmore: And though I didn't throw up when we were navigating the technology adversity, I, I felt like that's what you and I were doing was using this adversity as an opportunity to bond. Yeah. I
[00:04:58] Puno: just imagine you're like throwing up. You're like. [00:05:00] Having all of these, like, inspirations and just realizations. Yes, yes,
[00:05:06] Flynn Skidmore: yes, yes.
[00:05:07] Flynn Skidmore: I was like, as I was throwing up, I couldn't stop thinking about content. I was like, redefining vulnerability for myself and like needing to journal things and record.
[00:05:21] Puno: I a pen. You're just like writing on his toilet
[00:05:23] Flynn Skidmore: seat. Oh my god. Yes. Yes. I like yes, like I request paper and a pen I got
[00:05:29] Puno: toilet paper. It's fine.
[00:05:31] Puno: I just need a
[00:05:32] Flynn Skidmore: pen. Just need a pen, please He like he came and he was so sweet. He came in. He was like, all right, dude. Well I'm going to run to Erewhon to grab some dinner. You want me to like grab you a kombucha or anything? It's like, no dude, I'm good.
[00:05:49] Puno: So sweet of him. Oh my gosh. I, yes. I, and I think, I don't know how to describe with that. Mentality is that mentality [00:06:00] of like, not just being optimistic about the situation or being like confident about it, but it's really just like, Oh, this is a, this is a moment. This is a story. Like, this is a joke. That's gonna, we're going to talk about later.
[00:06:17] Puno: I don't know what that is. What is that?
[00:06:19] Flynn Skidmore: I don't know. I have another story where it was like the first time. I, I realized it was an, a choice that we could make to do that sort of thing. So I'll just share that real quick, but I don't know what it's called. I was in Paris, uh, in Paris, walking around all day, ended up near the Eiffel Tower.
[00:06:46] Flynn Skidmore: There were, there's like dudes. Doing like the dance performance on the street, right? And maybe a crowd of 100 or 200 people sitting on these steps watching them So I go over with at the time was my [00:07:00] girlfriend go over with her We watch this and then it comes time where they're about to pick An audience member to bring up and like participate and I look at my girlfriend.
[00:07:10] Flynn Skidmore: I'm like I know they are about to pick me low and behold, they point right at me and I have to go up in front of this massive crowd and they were doing like, I grew up in New York City, so I'm very familiar with these kinds of performances. Um, and they're doing like a stick where it's like, Oh, white guy, he can't dance.
[00:07:30] Flynn Skidmore: Like kind of making fun of me, that kind of thing. Little do they know I'm an incredible dancer. And I remember being, I was like, I remember I was watching my Thoughts. And I was watching my body and I was like, wow, I can see how this programming or this conditioning of anxiousness or nervousness or shyness wants to take over, but I don't have to let it take over.
[00:07:52] Flynn Skidmore: I can choose to be confident here. What would confidence do in this situation? [00:08:00] And almost like confidence is this entity that I allowed to, or I let in and teach me how it would want to show up in that moment, I just sort of saw a flash of what confidence would do the way that confidence would dance and ended up.
[00:08:12] Flynn Skidmore: Dan, giving it a hundred percent and dancing as hard as I possibly could. And it like switched the narrative of like, Oh shit, he can dance like that kind of thing. And that stuck, that lesson stuck with me forever in any given moment in the things that we think where we're supposed to be shy or embarrassed, we can choose to lean in, to accept it, like experiment with the confident version of it, knowing that it's going to be the best story ever.
[00:08:39] Flynn Skidmore: Going to be material for laughter and jokes and connection.
[00:08:43] Puno: Yeah. And experience, yeah. Experience. I think that's the thing is like, I, it's like, choose your own adventure. You can either choose the same adventure and experience it, you know, with laughter and like you're [00:09:00] all, or you could just experience it in a, you know, kind of like an embarrassed way.
[00:09:06] Puno: And like, you don't really get to fully experience it. In that capacity or maybe I don't know sometimes the embarrassment could actually really work out too. I have a lot of good embarrassing stories
[00:09:17] Flynn Skidmore: But that's really interesting So like letting the embarrassing thing happen, but also that is a really good story and a really funny thing yeah,
[00:09:28] Puno: yeah, I I I always wonder Because I feel like, just going back to I Love Creatives, I do feel like there's imposter syndrome and like this, um, just feeling of, I care so much about how I'm perceived.
[00:09:49] Puno: That I will not be able to do this next thing or move forward or participate in what everybody else's experience or add on to everybody else's experience like [00:10:00] improv, you know, like, I cannot Yes. And because I'm like, too in my head right now. And it's so frustrating for me because, you know, most of the time I'm just like, Well, it's not even about that right now, like you just kind of have to experience these things so that you can learn more about your creativity and you can experiment with your creativity and you can just, you know, like learn more about yourself.
[00:10:24] Puno: It's not really about like showing me how good you are. Um, you know, so I, I feel like so many people are struggling with that more than anything. And they're just kind of like, It just, it just kind of stops, the momentum just stops. Kind of stops. Um, but it's like if you were chosen in the dance thing, and then you're like, Nah, nah, and you did nah like 20 times.
[00:10:54] Flynn Skidmore: 20 times,
[00:10:58] Puno: nah. like, move on, this guy [00:11:00] said nah.
[00:11:01] Flynn Skidmore: Yes, you'd said not 20 times
[00:11:06] Puno: unless you, unless you rolled that into like a funny, like, nah,
[00:11:13] Flynn Skidmore: like they're still, yes, there's still an opportunity there.
[00:11:19] Puno: And I think that's the creativity that I really love about interaction with people and like experiencing new things is that whatever your next choices and how you participate is adding to like this story and is adding to everyone else's experience about this.
[00:11:39] Puno: And you can always just like, you know, like, Add your twist to it. I, I was on the Ellen show with my friend and I knew he was going to like, you know, point at me to get chosen to dance. I knew it. Like, cause I too, Flynn, I too dance my ass [00:12:00] off. And so, but then, but I didn't want to like. I know that I do it, but I'm also, I just like, I don't really want to, you know?
[00:12:09] Puno: Um, but then when, when they picked me, I was just like, yeah, okay. It's, this is decided already, you know? Like I'm already being like, you know, beckoned to do this, so let's just move this on and I'm going to dance my face off and I'm going to win that extra large Ellen t shirt. And I did. You won the shirt.
[00:12:34] Puno: Oh yeah, it was very large,
[00:12:36] Flynn Skidmore: very large, you're swimming in it.
[00:12:42] Flynn Skidmore: Yeah. What, okay. So what I'm hearing you say. Is that many people get caught up in this experience of life where they're hoping that being perceived a particular way is going to be the thing that makes them safe or get to [00:13:00] access, get to access safety is really what it is, but that version of life. Where you're doing all these calculations of what people expect you to be.
[00:13:08] Flynn Skidmore: And how can you match that thing that they expect you to be? It creates all of this rigidity and it inhibits creativity. So what you're saying is even if you mess up 20 times, even if you are nom, good guy, 20 times in a row, there you're. Still an opportunity for creativity saying not 20 times doesn't mean that you've lost the opportunity for creativity, no matter how many times you've stumbled.
[00:13:33] Flynn Skidmore: It doesn't mean that you've locked yourself into a certain perception of yourself, and now you can't be creative. You can. Always choose to do the creative thing.
[00:13:43] Puno: You're just playing the long game.
[00:13:47] Flynn Skidmore: When did, like, when you look back at yourself in high school, is that how you were living life? Were you boldly creative like that?
[00:13:58] Puno: Okay. So this is a [00:14:00] pivotal moment in my life. It wasn't high school. It was actually junior high because in junior high I I, I got into, I got into trouble and so I had to like move to my grandparents house and they lived in Dallas. Can I ask what you did? Oh my gosh, I did everything. Like I stole from Foley's.
[00:14:21] Puno: I snuck out from my house. I like had a boyfriend. I was a little old. Yes. Um, yeah, I did it all. I did everything. So. Can
[00:14:32] Flynn Skidmore: we, can we be there for a couple moments? Can I ask you questions about that? Oh, yeah, love that. Okay. So stealing you said from Foley's.
[00:14:43] Puno: Yeah Okay, well Foley's is like a department store it's like macy's or dillard's or yeah, so and where
[00:14:50] Flynn Skidmore: was this where were you
[00:14:51] Puno: growing up I was growing up in Houston in the suburbs.
[00:14:55] Flynn Skidmore: Oh, H
[00:14:56] Puno: Town. H Town, 713. Yes.
[00:14:59] Flynn Skidmore: [00:15:00] Yes. So bored. Slim Thug is from H Town? So bored. Is that right?
[00:15:04] Puno: Uh, and Mandy Moore? No, not Mandy Moore. That's right. No, it's not Mandy Moore. It's Renee Zellweger. Ah. And Beyonce and Solange.
[00:15:17] Flynn Skidmore: Yeah, right. Right. So you're growing up. Suburbs of Houston and it's boring and what you want to do is steal stuff from Foley's, date an older guy, sneak out of your house.
[00:15:33] Flynn Skidmore: Do you remember like, like what, cause when I hear that kind of stuff, I hear courage, but maybe, maybe that's not right. Like, did you, did it feel like you were being courageous at the time? Of course.
[00:15:45] Puno: Yeah, I, I definitely equate that together and my mom always thought that like there was a bad kid that I was being influenced by, but then later she always jokes and tells me, she's like, you were the one, you were the leader, you were the one that was [00:16:00] like, like getting everybody to do all this stuff.
[00:16:02] Puno: And I was like, uh, yeah, but I think it was, um, like the thing I did at Foley's is I would steal like makeup and then I would resell it at school. I feel like that was a little entrepreneurial, if you will.
[00:16:19] Flynn Skidmore: I love that.
[00:16:19] Puno: Um, I think it also, the stealing also came from, like, me not, uh, feeling comfortable, not being courageous enough to ask my parents for things, like wanting things.
[00:16:34] Puno: And I think that's maybe because, I don't actually know, I haven't really unpacked that. My theory right now is that I. Was given a lot of things because I was an only child and the only grandchild forever And so maybe I just never had the opportunity to ask for things because or like earn things Because I was always given things and so when I wanted something I didn't really know what to do [00:17:00] I think that's what it was feeling like Did it feel good to be bad?
[00:17:06] Puno: Um, did I get a thrill from it? Not really. I thought it was honestly annoying. Like it was, it was like this thing that I needed to do in order to like, get the thing I wanted. Um, because after my dad was just like. Because my parents got divorced and my dad was just like, just stop lying to me and just tell me what you want to do.
[00:17:33] Puno: If you want to go out at night, like, really late, like, just tell me. I'm like, we'll figure that out. You know, like, it, he was just tired of me sneaking around and lying. He'd just rather know. Um, and that's when everything changed. So. It was a lot easier.
[00:17:50] Flynn Skidmore: Whoa. So he, he, that's a, that's a really cool move on his part.
[00:17:55] Flynn Skidmore: He was like, just communicate with me. Like you're operating [00:18:00] as if you can't communicate these things and maybe you think you can't, but you can just tell me the thing that you want and we'll work it out.
[00:18:07] Puno: Yeah, and he was very specific. He was like, if you want to stay up late, like really late, or you want to go out here, you want to drive here, like, just do it, and, or just let me know, and then we'll figure out how you can do it.
[00:18:20] Flynn Skidmore: Yeah. What's so beautiful about that is that he, he didn't give you anything to fight against. And I think that's, that's generally the thing that's motivating kids when they're doing that kind of stuff is it's like an act of, it's an act of agency, like having to fight to individualize themselves or to be their own person.
[00:18:40] Flynn Skidmore: But he was like, no, like we're in this, we're in this together. You have nothing to fight against.
[00:18:44] Puno: Yes. And I think he realized too that I was bored and that I... Needed stimulation and like, both of my parents worked, so I was at home a lot by [00:19:00] myself. Um, and this is when I started just getting into trouble because I'm just like bored at home.
[00:19:05] Puno: And then, um, so my dad like really made an effort to like hang out with me a lot. We would, he started going out to restaurants more and taking me along and then we would go see like, we actually that's when he started working out too and he'd be like do you want to he bought me a bike and he was like let's do the ms 150 together and we ran a marathon together but like he completely Switched to like activity dad and like was very much more Invested in like being with me, which is like huge.
[00:19:39] Puno: That changed everything.
[00:19:42] Flynn Skidmore: So like he, he had the awareness to understand that you doing this stuff was not just you being bad. There was something underneath it. And he realized. That he could influence that thing underneath it. Not only did he realize that [00:20:00] he was motivated enough to be different, he changed himself in order to support you.
[00:20:06] Puno: Yeah. And this was also. Around the time when my mom had left him so I like I had come home one day and like my mom was just gone I'm she came back, but she just needed to like do that break. And so It caught my dad like my dad did not realize he would she would divorce him He was so surprised by the whole thing.
[00:20:29] Puno: And so I think that was like a big, um, call for him to change. So he was changing at the same time, but then he also made an effort to include me. Even if I said no, even if I was not 20 times, he would always ask.
[00:20:49] Flynn Skidmore: Very few kids get to see their parents changing. Oh
[00:20:54] Puno: my god, I wish somebody would write a screenplay about my dad like changing because it [00:21:00] was so cool to see.
[00:21:02] Flynn Skidmore: Yeah. What did you learn about that? What, what, what, what did you get to see? And what did you get to learn that? I mean, I've never really spoken to another person who saw their parent radically change. Like, like someone, your dad, your, his wife left him and he decided to take a look at himself and look at the things that might have caused that to happen.
[00:21:25] Flynn Skidmore: And he chose to change that. And then not only did he, um, Choose to change it. He actually did it. That's a really extraordinary thing. And as a little kid, you getting to see that, like, that's a very special, unique experience.
[00:21:38] Puno: Well, I, wow. Okay. So I don't, this is like 360. He based, I basically witnessed my dad, like choosing to be happy, happy, like proactively choosing, how do I become happier?
[00:21:55] Puno: That was it. Like, I literally saw my dad like go from [00:22:00] I don't even remember who he was before this time. Like, I honestly cannot, like, I don't remember him at all. Like, I don't even, I think I just, he was sleeping, he was watching TV, he was, that's what I knew of him. But after, he's like, jet skiing, he's dancing, he's working out.
[00:22:18] Puno: I see him at Abercrombie trying on like, shorts and stuff. Like, we've had Cargo shorts? So many Yes. We literally Like
frayed,
[00:22:26] Flynn Skidmore: frayed bottom?
[00:22:28] Puno: No, he didn't go frayed. But he went pockets, lots of pockets. He did go
[00:22:32] Flynn Skidmore: pockets. Yeah, he went lots of pockets. Utility. Utility. It's all about functionality. He's a functional guy.
[00:22:39] Puno: Yeah, and I like remember dressing him like we'd go to Banana Republic and I would like try things on with him and yeah, I feel like he, I just literally saw this guy start glowing and just Being really like goofy and happy. [00:23:00]
[00:23:01] Flynn Skidmore: I I wish that our video was working right now so that you can see me Absolutely beaming smiling from ear to ear like that.
[00:23:09] Flynn Skidmore: That is such a beautiful thing So many elements in that one Yeah, that's a man which men around his age are the most vulnerable to suicide and depression so that's a man who chose to rather than go towards the norm of Depression And self loathing, he chose to be happy. You got to see a middle aged man, your father do that.
[00:23:38] Puno: Yeah. Yeah. And he had me. So my mom, like at the time I was 11, when my parents got divorced. And so I kind of got to choose who I wanted to live with and I chose my dad. So he also had me. To like [00:24:00] his primary responsibility, you know, and before he had to split that so I'm also a girl, you know, and I'm like becoming a teenager.
[00:24:11] Puno: So it's just like yeah I never realized that like you really did have to Either fix this or it's It's the same shit over and over again
[00:24:25] Flynn Skidmore: Would you say that you've spent your life since then giving yourself permission to be happy and choosing to be happy? Oh,
[00:24:34] Puno: a thousand, I think that's my M. O. That's like my life's purpose for sure.
[00:24:40] Puno: And like, and like also just seeing how he, he, he's like, I don't know, how do I describe this? He's like passion hobbyist. Like he will get into little things and just like go deep. Like if you liked... Anime or Ranma, he'd [00:25:00] just go so hard and like be so passionate about it. And then like it's kind of over a little later, but he goes so deep and I learned that from him.
[00:25:08] Puno: Like I learned how to be really passionate about something that you're excited about, but let it like Go nuts, you know, and that's so fun to do.
[00:25:19] Flynn Skidmore: It is so fun to do that, to live a passionate and inspired life and let the passion and the inspiration guide you where it guides you and then exhausting the thing, but keeping that fire lit throughout, throughout your life.
[00:25:36] Flynn Skidmore: Yeah. Let's fast forward to, I love creatives. Okay. I, I would love for you to. Just explain to our listeners what I love creatives is just so that people have context and understand as we're diving deep into what I think is one of the greatest things that exists in our [00:26:00] society and culture, I want them to understand what it is.
[00:26:04] Puno: So, I Love Creatives in its current state is a digital trade school for creatives. Um, we do online education, like learning how to do graphic design, or build a Squarespace website, or edit videos, or copywriting. Also, any kind of digital trade, we're finding. Experts that we think we would want to learn from and then building out an online course from it.
[00:26:37] Puno: So yeah, it's primarily an online course Hub, but we also have other things like we have creative profiles. We have creative directory of all sorts of different types of people. Um, we do these like ads where anyone can put an ad out. It's kind of like a Craigslist for creative people. Um, and we sell stuff like, [00:27:00] I don't know, like, like, well, we're like, let's make a notebook and we'll just sell a notebook or, um, there's a, there's like a lot of little things that.
[00:27:08] Puno: Just happen in this mini universe. And, but the main thing we do is online education.
[00:27:15] Flynn Skidmore: My read on, I love creatives is you are an essential, okay, let me actually back up if a person wants to be an artist or a creative person, one of the things that seems to be especially difficult about that is that. If you're an artist or a creative person, you, you can't opt into the pre designed systems of society and culture.
[00:27:42] Flynn Skidmore: You have to design your own systems. You have to be an entrepreneur. So you have to create, create your own systems and frameworks for life. And you have to learn how to run a business while also keeping your creative inspiration [00:28:00] lit. And what I see is like, what I think is so cool about what you're doing is you're not, you're, you're giving people the tools that they need to create their own version of life, get not people giving creative.
[00:28:17] Flynn Skidmore: Entrepreneurs the tools that they need in order to create their own version of life.
[00:28:23] Puno: That's the hope. Yeah, I think that I live the life that I have because I have skills and I'm not afraid to like pick up skills in order to See a project in my head come to life and I think that that's the big difference like before it was all about You know go I mean before way way way before it was I was all about, you know Spit like niche down pick pick a specific thing and then do that for the rest of your life Now it's more about less about [00:29:00] like a specific trade and now about projects or, um, you know, like a bigger mission or something.
[00:29:05] Puno: And then it's like, okay, what skills do I need in order to move that forward? So, and then, and like, to your point, if the thing you want to move forward is your life and you want a happy, fulfilling life, then what are all the skills that you need in order to make that happen? Um, so that's kind of like why for me, I feel like.
[00:29:28] Puno: Even if, even if someone takes one of our courses and at the end of the day, they're like, you know what? I took it because I wanted to be a Squarespace website designer, but now I don't want to be one. I'm so I'm like, yeah, that's great. That's fine. But I hope like when they take the course that they learn how to.
[00:29:50] Puno: Investigate that and how to feel like, oh yeah, I didn't really like that that much, but it was a fun journey to figure that out. Like. [00:30:00] You're always going to find things that you don't like, because that's the whole point, right? Like you can't always hit it. And if you're not having fun along the way, then the whole journey is just very miserable.
[00:30:11] Puno: So I, like, that's like why we have jokes and like why we are, our courses are a little bit more edutainy. Um, because we just want people to, even if it ends up as a no, like they end up having like a positive, no, you know, like it's just, it was a good experience. I learned a lot and I didn't have to like cry about it at the end.
[00:30:35] Flynn Skidmore: And, and do you get that feedback? Like, do you, do you, do you hear from a lot of the people who take your courses? Like, Hey, I took this course. I loved the experience. I was inspired by the energy that you made the course with. I love the jokes. I love the edutainment. I ended up finding out that I actually might not want to apply this skill in the way that I thought I would, but still this course was valuable in a way that surprised me.
[00:30:59] Flynn Skidmore: It [00:31:00] was valuable for me in a way that I didn't even expect.
[00:31:03] Puno: Yes. And I think. There was one particular student, like it was probably, probably the, one of the first that, um, like cohorts that we had and they said that and they were like, but you did teach me that, like, I'm confident now that I can learn anything I want to, and I was like, what, I taught you that, like, that is.
[00:31:27] Puno: You take that go. That is incredible. It was so fulfilling for me to give that to someone
[00:31:36] Flynn Skidmore: else. Okay. So this is a person who pre your course, this might've been one of those things that they didn't even know they didn't need, that they didn't know, or maybe they did, maybe they did know that they didn't think that they could learn anything, or maybe they didn't know that.
[00:31:52] Flynn Skidmore: They didn't know that, but they took your course and they came out saying, wow, I could learn anything. What do you think are the [00:32:00] things that happened in between those two places? Like, what did your course do that allowed that person to transform from not thinking that they could learn any skill to thinking that they could learn any skill?
[00:32:13] Puno: I think it's our, most of our courses, particularly like the more technical ones. Um, Force you to learn, like, not just the technical skill, not just like how to actually, you know, move things on an interface and where the buttons are, what buttons mean what, but also after that, how do you apply that to whatever you have in your head?
[00:32:40] Puno: How do you take the stuff that's in your head and then turn it into something using this software? And I think going through that part is the part that most people don't do, you know, everyone can copy or like go on YouTube and follow a tutorial, but to create something from the skills that you're [00:33:00] building is, is where you hit your insecurities is where you hit that momentum stopper, like the feeling like I can't do this because I think the thing in my head is dumb, or I feel like I'm copying someone or all blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:33:16] Puno: And I think like. When people finally just get through all of that crap and they like, finally just finish it. That's that process of like, going through that is like, some people like, realize, Oh, I had a lot of shit that I needed to just kind of like, loosen up in order for me to just do what I gotta do.
[00:33:42] Puno: And that to me is really the confidence. It's the confidence that, It's gonna be fine, I just need to like, make some stuff, you know?
[00:33:53] Flynn Skidmore: That's really, really beautiful. So yes, you're teaching the technical skills, how to actually do this thing. [00:34:00] But the, but the thing that, and I like, that's that what you're describing is fucking amazing.
[00:34:05] Flynn Skidmore: What you're teaching people to do is how to take that thing that they have in somewhere in their mind, in their, they have a vision of this particular thing, and you're teaching them the artistic process of bringing that vision to life, like. Like dropping the resistance, dropping the judgment of the thing.
[00:34:22] Flynn Skidmore: Am I copying? Is it good enough? And just letting it flow, getting it out, putting it on paper, putting it on the screen. You're, you're teaching people how to dissolve the resistance and to be confident in taking their vision and bringing it into three dimensional reality.
[00:34:36] Puno: You said it so much better than I did.
[00:34:38] Puno: That is, that is it. Yeah, that's it. That's like, and, and like, I always talk about, um, Oh my gosh, Ira Glass. He does that YouTube video about. The, the skill gap,
[00:34:51] Flynn Skidmore: do you know? Oh, I have not
[00:34:53] Puno: seen that. Oh, so it just, it's so good. Basically he says like everybody has [00:35:00] really great taste. Everyone does. And more so now because we have Pinterest, we have Instagram.
[00:35:05] Puno: So we're always looking at inspiration, but we're never really activating it. And then when you do have to activate it, there's this skill gap. Because the thing in your head is beautiful and you have great taste, but the skill in your hands cannot actually move the tools in order to get there. And so you're incredibly frustrated, so frustrated.
[00:35:25] Puno: Everyone is frustrated and you get overwhelmed by it, but if you can get past that gap and start making That a little bit smaller, then you can finally get the thing that's in your head, the taste that you have and start seeing it actually be executed. And I, I just like want people, I have like an email that I send out when people start the course and I tell them about the skill gap because I don't think, I think a lot of people feel like.
[00:35:53] Puno: It's such a strong visceral feeling of this overwhelm and this like, Ugh, like I'm not good enough, I have [00:36:00] this taste, but like I literally cannot push the buttons on here. And they think that it's just them, but I'm like, no, it's everybody. Like, ev even Ira Glass made a YouTube video that like says that it's, everybody goes through this.
[00:36:14] Puno: And I, and that's the, the other part about I Love Creatives is that we do have a, this community of students. Um, we even have like a chat, a channel, uh, called Pep Talk where people can just talk about that particular emotion, emotional challenge that Every student has to go through and we like say that in orientation, like we are not afraid of our emotions.
[00:36:41] Puno: We understand that that is 100 percent a part of this process is that you have to, what did you say? You said dissolve the, dissolve stuff. You got to dissolve stuff.
[00:36:51] Flynn Skidmore: You got to dissolve stuff. I think that's what I said. I don't remember. Maybe something about resistance. Yes. Dissolve the
[00:36:57] Puno: resistance.[00:37:00]
[00:37:03] Flynn Skidmore: What you're saying is like, it is hitting me so deep in the soul. It's, uh, that thing, having a vision, needing to bring that vision to life. Everyone has the vision. And that's something that I find all the time. Everyone has a vision. Not very many people are ever given the space where they get to interact with someone where that other person is like, Hey, tell me about your vision.
[00:37:30] Flynn Skidmore: Tell me what your taste is. Let's get clear on what your hourglass.
[00:37:43] Flynn Skidmore: By the way, if people don't know, Ira Glass is a NPR guy, is that right?
[00:37:47] Puno: Yeah. This American life,
[00:37:48] Flynn Skidmore: this American life. That's right. So I love that Ira Glass says that everyone has taste. I find that to be so true. And I, [00:38:00] I want that to really land for our listeners here that like, even if you've lived your life.
[00:38:07] Flynn Skidmore: Developing a self conception where you don't think you have taste. You do like, you do have a vision. Most people struggle to see their vision because they're clouding the space in between themselves, their awareness and their vision with all of this judgment, with all of this, like, I don't have this, I don't have good taste.
[00:38:26] Flynn Skidmore: I can't do this.
[00:38:28] Puno: Yeah. creatives.
[00:38:37] Puno: It literally is this. It comes down to this thing and it doesn't matter if you are, uh, in high school or you're 40 and you're, you just quit your job, but you're like experience, you have 20 years of experience. It doesn't matter because everybody's taste level is different and everyone has ambition [00:39:00] to be better, which is great.
[00:39:01] Puno: That's a good thing. But therefore, you will all have a skill gap.
[00:39:06] Flynn Skidmore: Yes. Right. And that's, so when I think about myself and my own journey, like when I. When I, before I started creating content, I was a horrible communicator. Like I was the kid in college who had a two, three GPA and thought I was writing like the smartest papers of all time, but they were absolutely illegible.
[00:39:28] Flynn Skidmore: And I thought that like, Oh, well, if you can't understand it, you're just not smart enough. But I was the worst communicator and I was actually using all of that arrogance. To help me avoid the development of the skill to be able to actually capture the thing that I wanted to say and bring it into life in a way that was going to actually be meaningful and significant to other people.
[00:39:53] Flynn Skidmore: I was afraid of, of putting in all of that work and developing that skill. And what I've. Found [00:40:00] is it's like the way that I've seen it now. Like I had just have such a passion, such so much drive to capture this, like love and joy and exuberance. And, um, and what I'm finding is that all of this drive to capture these feelings internally in this vision of life, like my particular expression is writing and communication.
[00:40:23] Flynn Skidmore: And it's almost like the devotion to this internal experience of so much love, um, like the devotion to that has translated as, Oh, I've just had to develop the skill of communication. The skill of communication with like my closeness to this experience of love have developed side by side. Yeah.
[00:40:45] Puno: I'm so curious.
[00:40:46] Puno: Like, what are the, some of the things that you had that, that made you a better communicator?
[00:40:52] Flynn Skidmore: One thing was true. I remember I was like, I was living in Philly. It was right before I moved to [00:41:00] California. And I remember sitting in my living room and I had a moment where I told myself that I was going to fall in love with.
[00:41:08] Flynn Skidmore: communicating and digestible and fun ways. So I made that choice. Um, and then I, I started writing every single day. Um, I did the, um, what's her, is her name? Julia Cameron, the artist way person. Yeah, the, the morning pages. So I've been doing that consistently for probably four years. Um, creating content has been super helpful.
[00:41:39] Flynn Skidmore: Like if I look back on my content that I was making even two years ago, like it pains my soul, but I love that. Uh, you know, you know, RZA from the Wu Tang. So he's talking about, I mean, I think this is a, is a really common thing that, that artists say, like, you want to hate the stuff that you made a year ago or [00:42:00] two years ago or six years ago.
[00:42:01] Flynn Skidmore: Like you want to be embarrassed by it because it lets you know that you are growing at, you're growing at a satisfactory rate. Like you're, you're changing. Um, so for me, I, it was really just the commitment to communicating every single day. And what's so, what I really love about business and social media and creating content is my livelihood depends on my capacity to communicate well.
[00:42:33] Flynn Skidmore: So if I'm not communicating well, then that means that I'm not able to live. I'm not able to make money. My livelihood depends. On the development of this skill, which means that the stakes are way higher for me and I don't have a backup, you know, like, like it's, it's this or, or nothing, the stakes are higher for me, but I actually love the stakes being high because it makes me be like, Nope, I got to go to bed at this time.
[00:42:58] Flynn Skidmore: I got away. I have to write [00:43:00] tomorrow. I have to do this. I have to see if, if people in the comments are actually understanding what I'm saying. And I'm like, I'm engaging with people in DMS in the comments. All the time to see if people are, are actually understanding the thing that I'm trying to say. And what's most important to me is not that people are like, whoa, that's so fucking smart.
[00:43:22] Flynn Skidmore: Like cool idea. What matters to me is that I'm using language that is so simple that people can actually digest it like eating an apple or a peach that they love and it. enters their body and it moves into their cells and it becomes them and they can make it their own so that they change as a result of consuming whatever it is that I'm saying, but then it's their own.
[00:43:45] Flynn Skidmore: It becomes who they are and then they can communicate it in ways that align with their, like they can have their own creative expression of it. So I'm always checking in to see if that is what I'm actually pulling
[00:43:57] Puno: off. I love that because [00:44:00] I feel like A lot of people, um, feel stuck with content creation.
[00:44:07] Puno: And I think it's, and maybe you can tell me if I'm wrong about this, but what I'm hearing is when you approach creating content, it's more about how can I. Get this perspective and talk about it in a way that will get through to someone or this one person or this other use case, if you will, as opposed to what other content creators feel like they have to do, which is I need to come up with something unique and, um, viral, you know, it's, it's like a totally different perspective.
[00:44:45] Puno: Like you could probably talk about the same thing. In like a hundred different ways and
[00:44:52] Flynn Skidmore: honestly, that's what I do. I probably speak about Five different things and I've and I and [00:45:00] I've learned to say it a thousand different ways. You're so right about that. I Struggle with virality. I there's a part of me that thinks that wants to make every single piece of content go viral um What I, what I, that, that is not enjoyable for me.
[00:45:19] Flynn Skidmore: And I'm also finding that virality doesn't necessarily translate to business success. What does seem to translate to, but yeah, you get the right, it's, it's knowing who you're like. Core people are and falling in love with those core people. And I wake up every day thinking about how I can help improve their lives.
[00:45:40] Flynn Skidmore: And so, yeah, the content that I create is for, is for a very specific subgroup of people.
[00:45:49] Puno: Yeah. I, I mean, that is what a business is like at the end of the day, there are certain businesses that. [00:46:00] will benefit from virality, like for sure, uh, particularly beauty brands or like any kind of product, but when it has to do with service, it's just, it's not necessarily one to one, like it doesn't mean that someone will be.
[00:46:21] Puno: Activated enough to, to just like, you know, take a bigger step because I think for service service kind of, um, businesses, it's just, it's just so much more of a ask, you know, like you can't, it's just not this, Oh, I'll just spend 10 bucks, your 20 bucks here, you know, um, at least for, for I love creatives.
[00:46:45] Flynn Skidmore: The person who buys a course from I Love Creatives, what's that person's journey normally like? Like what are, what are the main problems they're experiencing in their life? Like what, [00:47:00] and how did, and how would they describe their problems? And why are they seeing your course as the solution?
[00:47:07] Puno: I find, it, it, sometimes it depends, but for the most part, people are looking for ways to be a little bit more creative in their everyday, and they don't necessarily know, like, for example, we have a Squarespace course, and They're like, I, I, I've made a website before for like an uncle or whatever.
[00:47:33] Puno: And I really enjoyed that process. I don't know if I want to do, but I, I like enjoyed the creativity process of that. And so they're just trying to explore that a little bit more without having to, you know, go to college again and really like dive in. It's kind of a dip your toe into this learning world.
[00:47:55] Puno: And then you've got like the other folks that, um, [00:48:00] just have some, they just want to like get, get this thing that they've like wanted. Like we have a video creator course and they just really want to just make something, um, that is authentic to themselves, which by the way, you should totally have Rachel here.
[00:48:20] Puno: I think you guys would love talking, chatting with each other. Um, but Rachel helps people. With trying to find their authenticity and like trying to figure out how to make that into a video and then you've got like just a little bit more of the practical folks that Really just like, I just want to make sure that I'm up to speed on this, on graphic design or copywriting or Shopify development.
[00:48:53] Puno: Like I just, I just need to, you know, skill up basically. Um, and I think like [00:49:00] all of the folks that. Pick us do it because they genuinely like our style like they, they see how we've designed things. They see how we write things, um, what our trailers are all about. And they're like, that's who I want to learn from.
[00:49:18] Puno: Um, a lot of times, like if we have a very specific person like Rachel or, um, or even myself, you like, you're like, I want to learn graphic design from this person because I, I, yeah. I like their style and it's just the quickest route to get there versus like going on YouTube or versus going on Skillshare and like cobbling together this.
[00:49:44] Puno: You could just learn from, um, from us. Um, and then I, I think like the thing that really like gets people excited about the course is this one on one feedback is this like feeling of, [00:50:00] um, I can bounce. My ideas off of someone, I can like, I'm not alone in this journey, um, and yeah, I mean that, that's, yeah, that's kind of the reason.
So at the time of recording, our wifi in Italy was down and the last 30 minutes of our conversation got cut off. And I got to tell you, that was a magical 30 minutes and I'm so bummed you missed it. However, Puno, you are incredible. I love creatives is absolutely remarkable. I was not playing games when I said that it is truly one of the greatest things on the internet.
So please go check it out. Thank you so much, Puno. Thank you all for listening.