This post was written in a 15-minute freewriting session. Sorry for errors or incomplete thoughts. See the livestream replay here. For more from me, please take my Skillshare course on Startup Content: Writing You Need When Starting A Small Business.

Entrepreneurs are busy. One thing few of us have extra of is time. But does that have to be the case?

In the technology-driven world we live in, there’s no shortage of tools aimed at increasing our productivity and designed to help us to work smarter instead of harder. So if we clear some tasks and responsibilities off of our plates, or if we have a couple of extra hours available in our week, what should we fill that time with? For those four or five entrepreneurs in the world who have this problem, this blog post, created during a 15-minute freewriting session, goes out to you!

• Create Additional Revenue Streams

There are an unlimited number of things to worry about as a business owner. One of my top fears is what happens if the core offering I provide is no longer valued as much as it once ways (what if I’m fired)? For years, I’ve thought about creating additional revenue streams, but haven’t made the time to create them. That stopped earlier this year as I made an intentional effort to create several small streams.

Look for ways to earn revenue for years to come based on the skills, expertise, and brand you have today. I’ve started selling stock images I’ve taken, recorded videos and started a YouTube channel, created a course on Skillshare, and am looking into publishing an eBook later this year. I started by searching on Google for “recurring revenue streams” to get ideas, and then went with a few of the ideas I thought would best fit my skills and what I like doing (writing, sharing what I know, etc.).

• Freewrite

This will seem odd and biased since I’m a writer and you’re probably not, but freewriting has opened up a lot of doors inside my mind that were previously closed. By taking 15 minutes to write each morning, I’ve been able to clear my head and get ready to work hard each day. Paired with a cup of coffee, it’s made me downright dangerous (not really, but I like thinking so).

Try clearing some time to just right whatever is on your mind. This is a great way to tap into your creativity and get out some thoughts and ideas that have been hiding for years.

• Livestream

Believe it or not, people are interested in what you do every day. Have you considered streaming what you do? Right now, I’m writing this post in front of a very small number of people, but this post and the recording of this stream will be available for years to come. Will it be popular? No, but creative and productivity streaming is on the rise, and getting in on this trend now could be valuable, just like being one of the early YouTubers a decade or so ago.

• Take Intentional Breaks

Use your free time to take walks, explore your surroundings, and to see the world. New opportunities, ideas, friends and more are all out there waiting for you.

I’ve started taking daily walks on a local nature trail, and have come up with new ideas and remembered things I wouldn’t have otherwise by giving myself and my brain a chance to breathe.

• Meet Strangers

Unless you’re the life of the party, networking isn’t always that easy. While I love talking to entrepreneurs I know, putting myself around groups of people I don’t know can be stressful. Go out to coffee shops, co-working spaces, incubators, and just local businesses around you to introduce yourself and to get to know how and why they do what they do.

• Build Your Social Media Channels

As an entrepreneur and writer who works with other entrepreneurs, the one thing I’ve heard more entrepreneurs reference when saying “I’ll get around to it one of these days” is social media. Start putting time into your social media channels. Building an audience is important, and even if it doesn’t lead to sales, if you build these channels right, they can lead to new contacts, leads, and raise the overall value of your brand.

• Blog!

Another biased idea for you, but you should be writing! What you know is valuable, and the best and easiest way to get that out (video could be great too!) is by writing about it. Share your knowledge on your blog or start an account on Medium (or publish on LinkedIn).

Have a great day and congratulations on having a little bit of extra time on your schedule. Enjoy it! 

This is a 15-minute creative writing ramble by Michael Luchies. I enter each session with a blank slate and free of distractions. For this session, I asked my network for a one-word topic. The first word submitted was “ambition.” Watch the replay of the livestream here.

​Ambition is a tricky topic. It’s not like it’s hard to understand the concept, but it can be extremely difficult to comprehend what drives us to give our best and what we’re trying to achieve at the end of our yellow brick road.

I used to think that I was motivated by money. While attending Bradley University and in groups and courses designed to teach me how to be a successful entrepreneur (which can’t really be taught, it can only be experienced) I tried coming up with the next billion-dollar business idea. I quite possibly came up with good ideas – but these ideas would only have been “good ideas” for someone else.

Without the ability to build a complicated consumer app that would improve the lives of millions (and without the desire to learn how to code/engineer an app) the bulk of my ideas were completely wasted. I had a false sense of ambition. Not only was I incapable of creating the bulk of these ideas, I lacked the actual interest and passion to see these through.

The world’s best business ideas are wasted without ambition that is driven by passion and supported with knowledge and hard work.

I learned that I was not driven by money through an exercise where I was forced to write my own eulogy. When thinking of myself passing away and what I would want to be known for and the impact I would want to leave on the world, not one thing I wrote had anything to do with acquiring or passing down millions of dollars to my children. A lot of good can come from creating wealth, but if I lack the interest of making a lot of money, there’s no point in setting goals tied to earnings.

Ambition, as I see it, can only come from internal desires and one’s ability to use their abilities to see them through.
What are you ambitious about? What do you want to accomplish? How can you use your skills and your network to accomplish this?

My top ambition is to take care of my family and build them up in a way that helps them positively change the world. On a more selfish level and as a secondary ambition, I want to improve the lives of as many entrepreneurs and business owners as possible.

As mentioned, money is not the motivating factor, but in order to take care of my family and help many small businesses, it does play a part. In other words, money is an ingredient in the ambition equation, but not what lies at the end of my yellow brick road.

If there’s anything worth taking away from today’s creative ramble, I hope that it’s to avoid false ambitions and focus on what’s truly important to you in order to get the most out of yourself, and to make the biggest positive impact you can on those around you and the world. 

This is a 15-minute creative writing ramble by Michael Luchies. I enter each session with a blank slate and free of distractions. The first thought that comes to mind is what I run with for 15 minutes with few edits. Watch the replay of the livestream here.

“Hey, there he is!”
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“Look what the cat dragged in.”

“How’s it going chief?”

Greeting people this morning reminded me how awkward saying hi to someone is when you don’t know their name. We come up with some way to skirt around guessing or embarrassingly asking them what their name is months after we should already know what it is.

Is calling someone “chief,” “guy,” or “dude,” really better than asking them what their name is and exposing our inability to remember their name? In some cases, yes. But I would rather avoid the two when possible.

What happened to doing a little work to learn someone’s name? You could break into their office and go through their desk, open their car door to read their vehicle registration card, or steal their wallet and take a peek at their drivers’ license. Now those are all illegal and would probably get you fired, but isn’t that better than being embarrassed by asking them directly “who are you again?”

Asking another co-worker or mutual acquaintance is another possible direction you could go in, but there’s always the chance that this person will then go to the person you didn’t think was important enough to remember and explain what you asked. You could slip them a twenty, but once again, bribery, along with breaking and entering = probably not the way to go.

How about changing our approach in how we remember people’s names? This is something I’ve tried (not “tried” like in an in-depth sort of way, just in a half-assed manner). I look at them in their eyes upon meeting, repeat their name, and then spend the next two or three minutes repeating that name in my head in hopes that I’ll remember it the next time I meet them.

On the other side of these awkward scenarios, I really don’t care if someone doesn’t remember my name. You would think that would make me more likely to go ahead and ask someone their name instead of avoiding it, but I don’t want to make someone feel bad or like I don’t think their name is worth remembering.

I consider myself reasonably memorable. I have a much louder than normal speaking voice. My balding head, beard, and squinty eyes usually remind people of someone or something enough to then associate that with me. And my bad and over the top jokes are also hard to forget (ask my wife).

If someone doesn’t remember my name, I don’t think that means that I’m not memorable. It just means that they weren’t paying attention when I said my name.

Solutions:

• Yell your name at them when you first meet them
• Wear a name tag
• Talk in third-person
• Do things that make people constantly call out your name (“Stop doing that Michael!”)
• Send them an email
• Follow them on social media channels (I’m starting to realize there are some very practical ways to make sure you know someone’s name…but how do you find them on social media if you don’t know it at the start?)

Thanks for reading this article, and I hope this random ramble was in some minuscule way beneficial to you today, chief. 

This is a 15-minute creative writing ramble by Michael Luchies. I enter each session with a blank slate and free of distractions. The first thought that comes to mind is what I run with for 15 minutes with few edits. Watch the replay of the livestream here.

What’s the difference between a dream and a nightmare? Does it really just come down to whether it scares you or not? If so, what happens if you are to embrace the scary dreams? Instead of nightmares, you now have sweet dreams of horror, right?

I’ve been thinking a lot about dreams recently. Last week, one of my freewrite’s was about nightmares and how I would try to take advantage of them instead of hiding from them. Last night, I made my first contribution to my dream journal. Since it was made in the dark and I couldn’t remember the full dream, I only have a few scribbles to draw from as I try to remember the story contained within my dream.

What I do remember is something that I’ve never experienced in a dream before.

In a house surrounded by large glass windows, I was being attacked by random items. A bird would fly into the window, smash into it, and slide down the glass. Next, a big red ball slammed into the glass, creating a hairline crack in the middle of the back window. The next time the ball came, my reaction was to try and punch through it.

I had no idea whether the ball was soft or hard. As I remember it, I considered the ball to be more of an illusion — like something my mind simply conjured up. I don’t have a fear of red rubber balls or toys, but I think this dream represented my recent decision to no longer allow dreams to scare me.

The dream reminds of an episode of Black Mirror I watched a little over a month ago. I have no idea if that episode influenced this dream, but it’s quite possible.

In the episode, a video game developer creates a virtual reality horror game. The mind of the player is used to create scary situations and creatures that come at them during the game. So while the player is terrified, to some extent, they know that everything within the game is fake. Despite how scared they are, they try to fight back and shrug off each situation.

The difference between my dream and this episode is that I won. Well, I woke up without being killed or crippled by fear. For a nightmare, or a sweet dream of horror, I consider that a success.

I’m continually more interested in my dreams and I don’t see this interest stopping anytime soon. Over the past few decades of my life, I think I’ve been too scared to focus on the dreams, fearing that thinking about them will give them power. I’m now taking a leap of faith that I’ll have enough control and approach my dreams with the right mindset to embrace the good that can come from the creativity and ideas that are brought to my attention through my dreams.
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Stay tuned.

This is a 15-minute creative writing ramble by Michael Luchies. I enter each session with a blank slate and free of distractions. This was a natural freewrite, which I define as a session that keeps developing without a central focus or topic for 15 minutes. Watch the replay of the livestream here.
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I stopped watching The Walking Dead. I’d been told time and time again that I need to watch it, but after four and a half seasons, I wanted it to end. It’s really no match for Breaking Bad. I feel bad about not liking it.
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There are some shows and movies I want to like, but just can’t no matter how hard I try.

Why do we feel pressured to like things that we don’t just because someone else tells us it’s great? I guess that’s a stupid question. For thousands of years (probably much, much longer) people have done exactly what others have told them to do whether it’s something they want to or think is a good idea or not. That’s what we still do in our work, whether in a job, working for ourselves, or in charge of employees.

I’m not a great employee because I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut when I know something is being done the wrong way. Lucky for me, there are plenty of people who value that ability (speaking up and giving an opinion even when it’s the unpopular one or contradicts what someone in a leadership position is thinking) and willingness.

Some of the greatest minds in the history of the world couldn’t be employees at a local convenience store or fast food chain. There’s something odd about feeling incapable of holding a minimum wage job. I think it stems from the thought that anyone can work at a grocery store, McDonald’s, or local Shell gas station. But that’s not the case.

We’re all built a little differently. Regardless of our backgrounds or education level, we all have something to provide of value. The issue with this value is:
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1. We often don’t recognize what this value is
2. The majority of employers have no use for it
3. Even if we do recognize what this value is, we don’t know how to turn it into a valuable skill – something that can help us earn a living.

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For example, I overanalyze things. In some situations, this is a terrible “ability.” However, when it comes to writing for businesses and helping with the public relation efforts of a company, it’s a fantastic and valuable skill.

I would love to find better ways to help people recognize their skills and abilities and help them transition those into things that could help improve their lives (careers, businesses, etc.). This goes beyond finding your passion or your true calling, which far too much importance is placed on.

Not everyone has a passion that translates into a business or something you can monetize. I do still believe that anyone can turn their passion into a business in some form or fashion, but it also (their passion) has to be paired with their skill and the want/need of an audience (customers).

This ramble is by far my longest to date because I’m not stuck to a single topic. I feel like I’m a rebel without a cause. I once drew comparisons to James Dean. That was a lot of years, pounds, and hair ago. I absolutely love movies and television, but I’m nearly positive I’ve never watched a movie featuring James Dean (including Rebel Without a Cause).
Somehow we’ve cycled back to movies and television. Until a year ago, I had never seen Titanic and I had no interest in seeing it. I’ve seen hundreds of movies that no one else ever should, but I like to stay away from the most popular films that don’t interest me in some way other than the buzz they’re getting from critics and the public.

And maybe that’s why I don’t really care for The Walking Dead. It’s been hyped up so much, it couldn’t live up to that hype in my own head. The irony here is that I’ve long been accused of someone who overhypes movies and television shows. I think my friends have stopped taking recommendations from me long ago. I’ve shifted the way I review movies to friends in hopes of gaining their trust back, but who knows if they will now watch House of Cards or any number of amazing Netflix Originals I recommend.

Have a fantastic day! 

This is a 15-minute creative writing ramble by Michael Luchies. I enter each session with a blank slate and free of distractions. The first thought that comes to mind is what I run with for 15 minutes with few edits. Watch the replay of the livestream here.
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Have you ever shot a gun?

The moment before I pulled the trigger at a gun range a few years ago, I felt an anxious sense of wonder. What happens when I pull this trigger? What if when my finger pulls back the bullet doesn’t come out of the barrel, but it explodes?

These types of questions are nothing uncommon for me. It’s a small part of being a human, a human who’s been diagnosed with having obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Whether I ask these questions and think these things because I’m just a person or because I’m a person who struggles with mental health issues is just one more thing to wonder.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about pressure.  

Scratch that. Lately, I’ve been feeling pressure. Pressure for me is a feeling I get in my chest that oozes into the rest of my body. I can feel it in my toes and going through my arms to the tips of my fingers. Even as I write this – a piece of creative freewriting that is supposed to be without pressure of delivering anything that anyone would ever want to read, I feel pressure.

“Take a deep breath Michael,” I say to myself as I close my eyes, lean my head back and take a deep three-second breath.

Pressure, like having OCD or any other type of real or perceived ailment, can be a blessing or a curse depending on how we look at it. Some days it’s a blessing, others it’s a curse. If I use this pressure built up in my chest to have an incredibly productive day, it’s as if the pressure shooting through my fingers has transferred through my computer and into my work. As a result, the sense of accomplishment and taking several tasks off of my to-do list reduces that pressure.

But what happens when the pressure is off?

Sometimes, it can cause us to be lazy until something happens to, once again, create pressure. Do I crave this pressure? I’d like to think that I don’t, and I’d love to rid this feeling from my chest forever, but what if it’s what sets me apart from others? What if this pressure is what’s keeping the money flowing in and my family eating each day?

As I deal with this pressure today, I’m going to take a few deep breaths, meditate for a minute, and be thankful. Pressure is a blessing that keeps me going and drives me to accomplish things I otherwise wouldn’t dream of. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.