Creatives Have All The Power

In a world abuzz of social media discussion, we seem to forget that creatives have the power. I forget this all the time. While there's a lot of extremely relevant marketing discussion going on, it's mostly coming from the marketing people that don't specialize in content creation. That's the job of the creator, and it's a power that we should be tapping into much more.

We complain about social media, but it's our weapon moreso than thei

Say you're a writer. It's your place to create 60,000 words for a novel. You've got a lot of work to do in order to create a coherent piece of work. On the other side, it's the marketer's/advertiser's job to make 20-100 words of fantabulous copy and spin that into a multitude of views for your 60,000 words.

While this might not seem fair to you, please realize that you just wrote 60,000 words. You can *probably* figure out a way to write 20-100 and spread it out. And even if you aren't very good at creating those 20-100 words, the really hard part is getting over mental blocks, putting those words out, and convincing people to listen.

But honestly, that part is much easier.

Dive in.
Learn from others.
Get good at talking about your work.
Don't be so hard on yourself.

Content is still king.

- Mr Benja -

P.S. I'm not talking as if I'm some outgoing, social maven. I'm still working at this myself. :) 

Little Time With Big Impact On Social Media

I was asked how I can handle being on social media so much. Good to know that my digital sweat is paying off somewhere.

In short, the answer is that I practice at being an efficient user. I've worked to figure out places were I'm spending time making decisions or dwelling for too long. Then I remove/adjust those places.

Here are two of the major areas where I save time online.

Posting:
As far as my regular content goes, I jot down, photograph, and document my thoughts/experiences. Then, at certain times during the day, like after breakfast or dinner, I go to that archive and blast out the content quickly. Since it's been sitting in the back of my mind or has been noted for a while, I usually don't need to think much about what I'm creating.

Reading/Consuming/Checking:
Reading social media can be a huge time drain, so I only check/reply to social media in certain lag moments that have a capped time limit. Like when I'm boiling water, toasting bread, sitting on the toilet, waiting in the grocery line, etc. There are a ton of these little moments throughout the day that require us to just wait around for minutes at a time, so I put that time to use.

For example, I have a Star Wars discussion group that I engage in. Without being disciplined, it can take up all of my day. So for less than five minutes in the afternoon, I scan the updates and make *quick* comments. I then close down the browser. Later in the evening (after dinner), I do a deeper read, make longer comments, and post new content. This happens with multiple online destinations, and takes at most thirty minutes.

None of this interrupts the "me" time though. That's priority, and part of what I think allows me to just get online, do my thing, and then get off at designated points during the day.

Let me know your thoughts.
- Mr Benja -

I Stripped Down My Web Site To This

I never made much of a point to mention that I stripped my website down to a simplified blog format. It's faster to produce, update, and edit this way. If you'll notice, MrBenja.com now sends you to this blog.

I'll continue to post here, and get everything sorted out on this platform with the old content that is scattered around the Internet.

Between this and social media, I think I'm good.

- Mr Benja -

I'm In An Upcoming Game Development Book

When I was a kid, I worked hard to make gaming my career. I thought about it since elementary school. BUT I never thought I'd end up making a sports game, especially not one from Rockstar Games.

So if you look at the first game on the second row, you'll see the box cover for Table Tennis. It's making its mark as a standout cover in a sea of sameness. When the book gets closer to release, you'll hear me mention it a bit more.

Check out the author and the Minds Behind the Games Series at PatrickHickeyJr.com. Also, if there are any questions about the game or the development, I'd like to hear them.

Thanks.
- Mr Benja -

How Monday Became My Favorite Day Of The Week

All my life, I've heard people talk about how bad Mondays were:
"Bad case of the Monnnndays?"
"Must be Monday!"
"I hate Mondays"
"Welp...it's Monday. Back to work."
And expressed as an emoji, "😒".

So...I think we've habitually developed a national day of negativity.
That's kinda lame.

So in the past few years, I've switched my thinking on the day.
I did it by celebrating New Years more and more.
After I started taking New Years seriously*, things began getting better for the year.
I was having so much fun with New Years optimism, that I started working towards monthly goals.
It was like I had twelve mini-New Years celebrations every month.
After that...you guessed it, weekly.
And the final switch was when I got a calendar that started the week with Monday.
That cinched it for me.
With a mindset that was all about embracing about new beginnings, I just didn't see Monday as a bad day anymore.

Now, every seven days, starting with Monday, I look at my calendar and expect better things to happen in the week.

The only bad part about it is...eh...nevermind. It's Monday right now. I have a good week ahead of me.

Read More:
When I proclaimed New Years as my favorite holiday.

- Mr Benja -

Our Thinking Is Changing

All this technology that we are using to broadcast our ideas has done something to our thinking:

If we have a verbal thought, we Tweet it.
If we have a thought to show and tell, we YouTube it.
If we have visual thoughts, we Instagram it.
If we have thoughts that need to be share with Friends, we Facebook it.
If we have thoughts that we need to share with randoms, we Reddit it.
If we want to dance like everyone is watching, we TikTok it.
If we want to throw some art to the world, we ArtStation it.
And if we have slightly deeper thoughts, we blog about it somewhere.

In other words, these social media outlets have become extensions of our brains. (And there are many of them.)

If you step back and think about it, it's kinda weird...and amazing.

Can't Stop, Won't Stop...Keeping Things Going In 2020

I usually don't talk about my resolutions, but in a general sense, I'll put this generalized version out there for the Internet.

I don't plan on stopping.

I might change direction.
I might go off-screen for a little while.
I might do something you don't approve of for a bit.
I might take planned rests.
...
But I'm not stopping.

This is my doctrine.

The energy flow will keep going strong. What that means as far as particular output is yet to be seen. But I'm thankful to have the opportunity to share with you.

Have a good 2020 everyone.