Do you ever have days where you have time in your schedule to record, maybe write an email, maybe record a podcast, maybe shoot some videos for social media, maybe just make something just to create and there's no real deadline. You just need to make stuff. You find it really difficult to get output out of yourself. You're like, you know what? I got the time, but I ain't got the mind. I don't have the creative energy to create. I just am not feeling that spark. So maybe you push it off and you're like, well, there goes that. I had one of those last week, and I wanted to share about it because I noticed something kind of intriguing the more I examined it. And I'm noticing a pattern myself, and maybe this might help you in your own creative patterns. So So I sat down to record and I just felt nothing. I didn't feel a spark. I didn't feel just no energy behind showing up on camera, recording a podcast, writing. It just I don't know. Everything would have felt so forced. And me, even just a year ago, I would have forced it. I would have figured out what I wanted to talk about. I would have hit record. I would slog through takes. I'd probably spend hours on a sixty second clip. But this time, I did something different. And we all think about consistency, you know, in different ways. I think the most common way we think of consistency across the board or I notice with creators is that it's showing up the same way, and it's showing up consistently the same way. But I think real creative consistency is about range. It's about knowing when you should perform and when you should just prepare. Now, some days you're just gonna have to have output when there's deadlines, when you have to get something out, But there's other days where there's no real deadline. You don't have to record the thing. You don't have to get it out to people. And for a lot of people, that's often in the very beginning of when they first start creating is because they don't have maybe a publishing schedule. So they're like, well, no no one's gonna know any different if I don't record it. Right? And we kind of put these self imposed deadlines sometimes on us. And there's gonna be days where you don't have those deadlines to do something, but you wanna do something. It can create a sense of guilt around not doing something, even though you know you want to. And I think there is a way around this if I haven't lost you already by now. But as a creator, you're supposed to be like the researcher, the strategist, the set builder, the talent, all that stuff. On the days where you don't need to be the talent, you can really just focus on your other roles. You could be the researcher. You could be the strategist. You could think about your backdrops in the videos. This isn't about forcing energy to show up on a camera or the microphone or anything like that. You know when you're just kind of, like, hiding. And there's just other days where you just you're just not feeling it. And that's totally normal and that's totally fine. It doesn't mean you're not supposed to be doing the thing, but there's other ways you can still show up that will set you up for the times where you do feel like showing up on camera. You don't quite feel in that slog mode. You know? So the fix to break it down real simple, you could build a two mode system for yourself. That's what I'm doing for myself. On days where I feel on or I have a deadline, I hit record. I publish. I perform. There's no ifs, and, or buts about it. On off days, meaning I just don't feel like recording. I don't feel like talking. Maybe I'm more introspective, and there's no deadline. I really have maybe one or two of these a month, sometimes less. But on these off days, research, prep, organize, archive. The goal is to not measure your progress by output, measure it by readiness on these off days. Because setting yourself up for those on days is still building momentum to just disguise a little differently. At the end of the day, it's not about doing less. It's about doing right for where you're at. I've been thinking about doing more podcast guest spots lately. Not to build authority, not for reach, but because I noticed something surprising. I actually show up better when I'm not the one in control. Something shifts when I'm a guest. I prep differently. I listen harder. I focus more. Not because I'm trying to impress anybody, but because I feel responsible for contributing something real. That's what a great guest does. But most creators miss that part. They treat podcast appearances like press releases. They wing it. They talk about themselves, and they wonder why nothing comes of it. Here's the truth. Being a podcast guest, isn't just a great growth hack. It's a creative responsibility. It's a rare opportunity to step into someone else's world, serve their audience and share something that matters to them. Not just to you. The best guests don't promote. They collaborate, they show up to contribute and that's the kind of guest I wanna be. So if you're looking for guests for your podcast and you think I'd be a great fit, shoot me an email hi@dylanschmidt.com, and let's chat more.