Creating Is The Question That Money Answers

Dear reader,

Today I met a new friend off of Substack

Jacquie Verbal

who is doing amazing work of her own and we got to discussing our journey on Substack.

When I started this newsletter at the suggestion of

Michelle Jackson

I had no idea where it would take me. I knew that I was trying to make sense of this new “creator economy” and that I had the ability and skill to capture readers’ attention with my writing.

It was writing that started this all for me.

In 2018 I published “Mentorship” on Amazon. It was a crude project at the time.

I wrote and edited it myself.

It had no formatting and a friend of mine saw the intended cover image and volunteered to help me by giving it a much-needed upgrade ( hey, I’m a writer, not a graphic designer).

The following year, I wrote and published “Financially Irresponsible” and then delivered a TEDx talk that led to me being featured in my first large publication, Black Enterprise Magazine.

From there, my personal brand grew rapidly. I employed the lessons from Gary Vaynerchuk’s “Crushin it” and Cynthia Johnson’s “Platform”

These guys seemed to have the blueprint for making it with an online brand (whatever that means).

In the whirlwind of changing social media algorithms, a global pandemic, the subsequent recession, and a steep learning curve, SOMEHOW I managed to stay afloat in many instances via that very same skillset, writing.

While Substack isn’t responsible for the brunt of my income, I have made over $1000 on Substack.

…and have won several awards for my Substack.

I can tie several other accomplishments to my writing in general and my time on Substack specifically but one thing that really stands out to me is a word of advice from

Linda @ Substack

back in 2022 when she told me “You deserve to get paid for your writing.”

I’m sharing this with you because I’m a creator - I like to create.

Through the process of creating, one of the things I’ve come to realize is that creating is an energy exchange.

It’s the question that money answers.

Could our personal and generational financial traumas be tied into the fact that we are not encouraged to create but to consume?

That in an act of defiance when we do create, we are penalized on the basis of how our creations don’t fit conventional standards of beauty or worthiness?

Is that why when we buy fruit and vegetables those deemed as imperfect are discarded while we pay extra for those that appear to be the juiciest, most shiney, and blemish free despite the lengths manufacturers go to achieve that look very often harming us?

Is it why all the dances on TikTok have become choreographed movements to similar songs ?

Does that choreography show up in the way creators approach entrepreneurship?

The way writers approach writing?

The way readers approach reading?

Does that choreography inform the way we define what’s professional and whether or not we are worthy?

I’m learning that as a creative entrepreneur sometimes I just want to dance to the way my body moves me, to a rhythm that is innate.

I want to write to you in the way I’d want to talk to you - in my living room and not in a board room.

While my writing has done a great deal to help me stand out as one of those polished apples you might pay extra for, I want you to realize- like I am realizing- that you aren’t paying for the shine, but the nutritional value the apples posses.

That choreography can be learned but rhythm must be FELT.

and that the process of creating, is the question that money answers.