I help creatives find fulfilling work

(FYI, this is a bit longer read than normal. Thanks for sticking with me!)

Early on in my journey, I heard these three principles from founder of Kit, Nathan Barry:

• Work in public
• Teach everything you know
• Create every day

And “work in public” is exactly what I want to do in this essay.

I personally love seeing behind-the-scenes of creative projects. So that’s what I’m aiming to share today: A BTS look on my thought processes and discoveries as a beginner creative entrepreneur.

This will be a somewhat uncommon newsletter where I strictly share about my own journey. But my hope is that you can see yourself in my shoes, and act accordingly.

If I can save you a missed step or encourage you in your creative career – that’s what it’s all about.

Let’s dive in.

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The Leap of Faith That Started It All

In late 2022, my creative journey was “revived.”

I had recently left my 9-5 job as lead photographer/video producer at a creative branding agency.

But instead of choosing the traditional route of finding another job before resigning from that position, I chose to take a leap of faith.

I had no “job” lined up.

I had 1-2 clients that I was doing fairly consistent photo projects for and that was about it.

No backup plan, no set-in-stone plans.

Just a desire to learn, a dream to build my own business, and a stoke for all things creative.

I say my creative journey was “revived” because these things had been my goal all along.

But sometimes in life, we get sidetracked.

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A Flashback to Infinite Opportunity

Since middle school, I was creating videos of my friends skateboarding and snowboarding. It was something I loved to do and I wanted to do it forever.

But then life happens.

You graduate high school. You get asked which college you’re going to. You pretend like you know what you’re going to do for the remainder of your life. You pretend you know what you’re going to study. You go through the motions to satisfy societal and social standards.

I went to college for two semesters, dropped out, and my dream was temporarily revived.

I remember spending nights in the school library, nestled in the quietest corners of the 3rd floor, zoning in to my dreams and zoning out from the world around me.

I would spend hours there.

Building out my (newly launched) website, dreaming of what I was going to do after I dropped out, and watching videos online of other creative people building incredible things.

There was no feeling like it. The world was my oyster. There seemed to be opportunity everywhere I looked – it was just a matter of what direction to choose.

I knew anything was possible.

All I had to do was escape the over-priced prison called college education.

It was during this stage of life that my writing journey began.

During that year, I began a project on my website called “everyday Eric.”

What started as a photography challenge to shoot and post a new photo each day for 30 days… turned into a daily writing project where I documented every single day of my life for 440+ days in a row.

A quick summary (and typically a few photos) from that day were posted on my website each evening.

Only a few people even knew the project existed, and there was really no way for others to discover what I was doing. And my young, naive self didn’t think to share it anywhere for others to see.

It was simply a way for me to document my life and express myself creatively.

My one avid reader was my grandma who would read my daily updates just about every day. I’m so grateful to know that at least one person was consistently keeping up with my project. (Thanks Ma!)

During this same time, I began writing my first “long-form” posts.

On top of documenting my life each day through “everyday Eric,” I wrote a few essays and posted them up on Medium.

Here’s an excerpt from one of my essays from 2017:

Fast forward to February 10th, 2017. I had finally finished my website and came up with this incredible idea of posting a photo every single day on my blog cleverly named ”everydayeric.” Here I am 67 days later writing even in my free time. In just 67 days I’ve discovered and developed a passion for writing because of the unique ways it forces me to think about things and the incredible impact it can have. What started as a place to post a photo each day has slowly turned into a way for me to unleash my creative mind through writing down my thoughts, happenings, or lessons learned from each day. And looking at the bigger picture, what started as some thoughts in a notebook for my pitiful rap lyrics has evolved into a passion for documenting, inspiring, and sharing ideas with others through text. It’s safe to say this post alone is the first step in the next stage of my journey, and who knows where I may end up. But what is important is that the start of something doesn’t need to be perfect, it’s the fact that I started somewhere that brought me to where I am today.

Needless to say – I’ve been doing this for a while and the vision has remained the same.

To encourage the creativity inside each person and inspire others to seek their stoke.

But again, sometimes life takes detours.

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Landing (and Leaving) My “Dream Job”

Shortly after dropping out, I landed an internship at a creative branding agency.

It was this same agency that I spent 5 years, working my way up from a young video editing intern to head of the photo/video team.

I learned a lot. I had a stable salary. I was progressing in my career.

Yet, I felt starved creatively. It had felt like all the progress I had made in the quiet corners of the college library came to a screeching halt.

I stopped creating for myself. I stopped writing. I stopped making stupid videos with my friends.

Creating videos just became a “job” to me.

And 5 years later I finally realized I needed to make a change.

So that’s exactly what I did.

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Stoking The Creative Fire

In 2022 (almost 2 years ago exactly), I listened to a podcast episode that would change the trajectory of my life.

In this episode, I learned about the power of a daily writing habit in two entrepreneur’s lives.

Everything they were saying resonated with me on a deep level.

I was shook.

I began to see what was possible through writing. I began to recognize the abandoned creativity within me. I finally noticed how long it had been since I created something for myself.

That podcast left me with so many notes that I was eager to act on.

Starting between 5:00-6:00am the next couple months, I’d wake up and begin writing.

Day after day.

My thoughts would vomit onto the page without skipping a beat.

I began to find that flow that I had been missing for years.

I could express myself, my thoughts, and my insecurities.

I was finally creating again.

And it felt fantastic.

This streak lasted for 111 days and became the foundation for everything I’m doing today.

A daily writing habit remains a major part of my workflow and feeds the fire for everything I create.

And that leads into some exciting news:

I will be teaching my entire writing workflow that helped me overcome my creative barriers in my new course, The Genius Journal.

If you want to:

• find more clarity
• amplify your creativity
• and begin creating content with confidence

This course is designed for you.

You can join the waitlist here.

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The Start of Something New

Almost exactly a year after starting this daily writing habit, I had a major “aha” moment to start a YouTube channel to share everything I was learning.

So, in November of 2023, I began sharing weekly videos on my YouTube channel.

I posted my first video to a whopping 2 subscribers, and was determined to keep it going regardless if anyone watched or not.

It wasn’t about the numbers – it was about doing the things I was stoked about.

This began an entirely new chapter in my creative career.

It felt so good to be creating video content again, and I quickly began to gain a small following on the channel.

54 days after posting my first video, I hit 1,000 subscribers.

I was shocked.

This was not expected.

And I knew I had to keep this project alive for as long as possible. Really – this was just the beginning.

Week after week I’d share a new video on various topics I was interested in.

Did I have a specific “niche?” No.

But that was the beauty of it. I shared about my interests as a creative, and took notes on what resonated with others.

Make noise, find signal. And that’s exactly what I was doing – making noise.

Fast forward 11 months and here we are today.

My channel has steadily grown throughout the year, building a following of awesome people (like you) that care about similar things – and want to make a positive impact on the world.

But still the question remains…

Who is it that I help, and what do I help them do?

And for a majority of this year, I felt completely lost on this subject.

It was a constant struggle for me – sometimes leaving me feeling extremely defeated.

I wanted to make an impact, but it was difficult for me to feel that I was doing so without having a clear mission.

So, I continued to be patient.

I continued to “make noise.” I continued to “find signal.”

Until one day, I stumbled upon a book at the local library that provided a tremendous sense of clarity.

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The Lightbulb Moment of Clarity

The book that I stumbled upon was titled “Do What You Are.”

And regardless of its childish and outdated-looking cover, it piqued my interest.

I flipped through some pages, read a few paragraphs here and there, and began to realize this was exactly what I was looking for.

“Discover the Perfect Career for You Through the Secrets of Personality Type”

After devouring the information in this book, I began to understand my own personality better. I began to understand what kind of work resonates with me specifically.

And another “lightbulb moment” followed.

I’m finally beginning to recognize who I’m equipped to help, and what I’m able to help them with.

My mission statement went from being nonexistent…

To now being:

On a mission to help creatives find fulfilling work (and build a life they love).

It all began to click. It all made sense.

Who is it that I help? Creatives.

• Photographers
• Filmmakers
• Designers
• Writers

I’ve spent a majority of my life “wondering” if I could really make a living doing what I love.

And what I love to do is create:

I love storytelling. I love encouraging others. I love equipping others to use their gifts.

• I’ve spent years as a professional photographer & videographer
• I worked at a design agency and developed my skills as a designer
• I’ve been writing in a journal for 11 years
• I’ve been writing and sharing my ideas online for 7 years

Because of all this experience, I’m fluent in these languages.

Creative people are my type. I’ve spent years learning to understand my own self, and that experience directly translates to helping others creatives who are interested in the same topics and motivated by the same freedoms.

I don’t just help “any and everyone.”

I help creatives find fulfilling work.

And it feels dang good knowing it.

–Eric Pfohl