One of my favorite channels on YouTube is Colin and Samir. They are two YouTubers on a mission to break down principles of content creation for content creators.

They follow incredibly sensational trends (the D’Amelios, MrBeast, Squid Game, Khaby Lame, etc.) but they are not sensational people. Instead, they use explanatory journalism (think: Vox) to unpack exactly what it is that creators are doing a good job of, why they are going viral, and how that work sits on a whole spectrum of media creation from the pre-internet era to today. They are even-keeled individuals who are using quality information, not sensation, to gather a following. And though their following is moderate, their work is exceptional.

One of my favorite aspects of watching the chanel is observing the way they tailor their own content to follow the advice they put out.

For example, while watching them analyze MrBeast’s approach to retention on his chanel your attention is retained by the strategies Colin and Samir have adapted for that exact video. Beautiful.

They demonstrate that the creator economy is booming.

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MIQ stands for Most Important Question. It is a concept I picked up from Joshua Waitzkin in this interview with Tim Ferriss.

It is a question to guide questions.

Pose it to yourself right now. What is the most important question to ask yourself? Not answer, not idea, not project. The most important question.

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So many of my ambitions in 3D modeling, film making, Virtual Reality, matrix building, and world building start with writing.

I put pen to paper every day, literally.

I have been recording my thoughts on this blog since 2014.

As I put more of myself on Instagram, YouTube, and online courses, as well as building out my studio policies and mothodology, please remember that they all started with writing.

For that reason we constantly need to be getting down our ideas in written form, and then (through writing) decide the best vehicle for that idea to be delivered in. Coming up with an idea and communicating that idea well are two different skills. But both are developed by writing practices.

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I developed 116 blog post ideas in two days.

How?

Well, I haven’t blogged since July 2021. I’ve been journaling every morning with Morning Pages and processing MIQ’s, but I haven’t packaged or posted any of those ideas for online consumption.

Since July I’ve had countless insights and serious breakthroughs. There was a lot to share. So much to mentally clear.

I can only imagine how many ideas a teacher who hasn’t ever blogged could generate in one sitting.

I use a couple of strategies for generating post ideas that I want to pass on to you…

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My whole aim is to deepen the lives of my violin students. To help them sense the universe in a whole new way.

I am not a performer. I don’t play in an orchestra, in a chamber ensemble, or gigs on the weekend. My only aim is to be an excellent teacher.

After I graduated from my masters program violin practice went onto a far back burner. I would practice in preparation for a Teacher Training course and of course demonstrate as needed in a lesson, but on the whole I practiced very little.

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