A field guide for people who have something to share and freeze before they hit post. Written by someone still figuring it out, in real time. Failures included.
No book yet. Front-row seat.
Leave your email. I'll tell you the moment it launches. No spam, no funnel.
Not a how-to from someone who made it. A lab journal from someone mid-experiment. Here's what I keep noticing, written for anyone who has something to say and stalls before they say it out loud.
The ordinary moments are the material. The hard part isn't having something to share. It's noticing what's worth saying.
I published forty-some rough posts in under a year. Run-on sentences, mid-thought breaks. The practice is the whole philosophy.
And that's the point. This isn't about a personal brand. It's about showing up as yourself without cringing the next morning.
The fear of judgment never fully leaves. You just get better at posting anyway. I noticed that, I didn't fix it.
"I don't freakin know what you should put in your bio. It's your bio. Put whatever the hell you want."Rich Marks the Spot, 2019
"I might be wrong, and I hope I am. Then I can pivot and improve."On starting before you're ready
"I'm not an adult. I just play one in real life."Setting up a content strategy
"I guess we just need to get over the fear of looking stupid."On trying to talk to a camera, 2019
Here's what changes when you start sharing your story instead of just scrolling past everyone else's. The book is the how. Without the faking.
You don't need a following. You need a way to show up that still feels like you the morning after.
Your life is already content. The work is noticing which ordinary moments are worth saying out loud.
The fear doesn't vanish. You get better at moving with it. I'm still practicing this part too.
The Creativity Scientist
"A creativity scientist is someone who creates without boundaries or fear of judgement."
Wrote that in 2019. Still on the fence about it.
I'm Rich. Senior marketing manager at a manufacturing company, dad of three, and a man with more hobbies than free time. I help small and mid-size businesses and manufacturers figure out their marketing. The rest of the time I'm hosting my podcast (20 Year Timeout), swinging kettlebells and still losing to my own belly, or playing classic Nintendo and Xbox in a basement man cave I'm unreasonably proud of.
I've been making things since I was a kid drawing my own comics. I danced, too, which is probably why I see marketing like a theater performance with me as the choreographer. I'm a morning person who does his best thinking over coffee before the house wakes up. I make things with AI for work and for fun (I built this whole site with it), keep external drives of family photos going back to 2008, and mess around in a bare-bones basement music studio I'm not remotely good at. I love all of it anyway.
Here's the part I actually practice: I post it and move on. Not much overthinking, not much fear of judgment. The one place that still gets me is on camera. I'm still getting comfortable being myself there, still not totally sure people even like me. I'm not writing this book because I figured it out. I'm writing it because I'm still working on that last hard part, out loud, and I think more of us should.
Here's the part I can't shake. Someday my three kids are going to ask for social media. When they do, I want to be ready. Not with a lecture about being careful out there. With something better.
I want them using it for good. Not doom scrolling through someone else's highlight reel, but actually participating. Making things. Putting them out into the world. And when judgment shows up, and it will, I want them to have the confidence to handle it instead of the fear that keeps them quiet.
I can't hand them that if I never figured it out myself. So I'm figuring it out first, out loud, where they can watch.
Rich
The book isn't done. The list is how you find out the moment it is.
Email me when it's out
