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May 29, 2024 22 mins
Track 2: Embracing Your "Cool"

In the latest episode of the Creative In Process Podcast, we dive deep into the essence of embracing your own brand of cool. Discover the journey of finding and celebrating what makes you unique, and learn how to live authentically with happiness and contentment. Inspired by a powerful quote from an iconic rapper (you'll have to listen to find out who!), this episode is all about owning your individuality.

We also have an exciting special release that's part of our premiere experience—tune in to get all the details! And as always, we want to hear from you. Share your thoughts, feedback, or questions by sending a voice note at creativeinprocess.com. Your input might just be featured in a future episode. Check out this inspiring conversation—and share your thoughts! 

Check out the official Creative In Process Theme song on all music platforms AND watch the official music video on Youtube
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
[Music]

(00:12):
I'm in process, a working progress
You've been serving, you've been serving
Like one step to the step, until that step
Give me your purpose, you're all we've worked in
You've done me process, you're working progress
You've been serving, you've been serving
Like one step to the step, until that step

(00:34):
Give me your purpose, you're all we've worked in
You've done me!
[Music]
Hey, hey, what's up?
Welcome to episode two of the creative and process podcast
This is a amazing, I can't believe we already at episode two

(00:59):
It makes things like, "Girl, there's episode two, that's not a lot, but trust me, you have no idea
It has been literally a process
I hope y'all enjoy the theme song, just in case you didn't know
You can hear the entire song on all string of platforms
wherever you listen to music and check out the music visual for it
And all the things, so we got an official theme song
And I hope you connect with the lyrics, I'll be jamming out to it

(01:22):
And hopefully you'll have these lyrics and better be ahead
You'll be singing all the time then
It'll be great, so all of that being said
Thank you so much again for tuning in
I hope you enjoyed episode one and are sending it your feedback so that I can definitely absorb that
And take it into consideration and all of that
And get some questions on air soon too, so remember, I'll put that tag right here

(01:45):
That's gonna always be in the show, no dinner description
Go to createtheprocess.com and there you can submit your voice note where you can get feedback
You can ask the question, bring up a topic, all that stuff, then we can dig into it and bring it forth
And use your episodes anonymous or not, whatever you prefer
Like I said, in episode one, there are a few different segments and themes and themes

(02:07):
And I want to incorporate into the podcast episodes
So I'm gonna keep off this episode, it was one of them
And I wanted to share some quotes from some artists that I admire, some creative individuals that I look up to
And who have just, you know, said some profound things because a lot of times, like whether they're singers, rappers or whatever
Yeah, they got bars and, you know, they put out some intentional stuff in their content and whatever they make

(02:36):
But a lot of times, just having conversations with them or just hearing what they have to say in general
It's just as profound, so sometimes I quote some lyrics, sometimes I'll quote just, you know, from an interview or something like that
But I think today's quote is going to take us into a few different places with this episode in general
And what I want to talk about today
So this quote is from the amazing, the legendary, the iconic Andre Benjamin/ Andre Bichon

(03:02):
One of two members of the legendary group, our cast, which is one of my favorite and one of my greatest inspirations in my musical journey
This is actually a direct quote from him
"Cool is not just one type of cool, cool is confidence in knowing, like what you are and being fine with it
Some people can be what people call nerds and they're cool because they know their nerds

(03:25):
They know what they are and they're so confident in knowing what they are that that makes them cool
And somebody aspires to be like them because they're fine with it, it's confidence, you know?
So that quote is really powerful to me or that statement that he was saying, like basically like the world may consider something wack or lame or society can define something as the "nots" the thing

(03:50):
But if you walk in it and you're confident in it and you stand in it, it doesn't matter what people think
Because it is who you are and you're kind of journeying through that party identity, so today we're going to talk a little bit about the identity point
When it comes down to being who you are and like going through this journey, I know from me

(04:12):
And like I said in the previous episode, if you watch my project Inside Out, like I talked about that
Like how I was trying really hard to be in several different places trying to become all these things that were popular and that were working
And then put a little bit of myself in there but not really fully diving into who I'm supposed to be because I didn't know if it was going to be good enough

(04:37):
I didn't know if it was going to work and because I felt like a little bit of an anomaly meaning that I didn't see a lot of me
A lot of my stuff or examples of who I thought I was and it made me very insecure
It made me very insecure because I'm like well ain't nobody else doing this so what do I look like trying to do it?
People are going to think it's weird, whatever and that's just anything just me showing up the way that I am or how I am and that sort of thing

(05:04):
So it was hard for me to really be unapologetic about the way that I was and all of that
Even though I didn't know to be anything else I tried to like even all the way down to like from singing
I would sing to try to sound like people not realizing that my voice was unique and it didn't work

(05:25):
Like I would try to sing you know popular songs and all of that kind of stuff
And it really would it land because I was trying to sound like the original artist instead of putting my own bin on it
Or I just kind of felt like I always stuck out like the sort of them everywhere I went
And I realized that that was not a bad thing I was just making it a bad thing
And you know people in their own insecurity will make you feel like you are different is a problem

(05:51):
So I've had plenty of situations and this is not just me showing up to sing and perform
This can be or this has been even with relationship sprintships
Like me walking into a room being who I am is off-putting because everybody else is doing this
And you come in doing that and so it looks like you're against what other people are doing
When that's not the case you're literally just being confident and sure of who you are

(06:16):
So I struggled with that a lot in a lot of different ways and it wasn't just musical
It was just like me being you know my own person
Finally get hard to rest in who I was
As creative people that's something we got to be really careful of
Especially nowadays we got child AI which the only AI I'm interested in is Alan Ardison

(06:39):
If you know you know but like this digital world where everything can be perfected and made into this amazing thing
But it's all super artificial at the same time
And just letting culture dictate what should be acceptable and what shouldn't
And robbing people of the opportunity or the duty really there was responsibility to show up as their selves

(07:01):
And walk out as themselves
But it's a really dangerous place to be in especially when you're creative and you're independent creative
And you try to paint bills fam
So it's like I could go do this and do it my own way in my own unique structure
But this over here is popular way
The everybody's doing is working people making money they doing this so let me try to go over here and you know try this out

(07:24):
It takes a lot of discipline and a lot of focus and like you have to just be really centered in on your purpose
Because it's very easy to go the easy way
If I wanted to today like there are obviously many things that I want to do in my career
Where I want to go heights that I haven't reached and all of that
And there are ways just from my experience and being in the industry and working in certain areas

(07:48):
I know how to get what I want you know I know how to get there the difference or the issue with that is
There's a way to get there that is not in alignment with the way I'm supposed to get there
It's not purposeful to me and I wouldn't you know it's not any specific thing but there are there's some ways I can flimest some opportunities

(08:13):
I can tweak this song and say it a certain way or mention or talk about certain things to kind of get me a lick in where I want to go
But you do that and you find yourself in this place of success
Whatever you kind of came up with in your head
Only to find yourself less fulfilled because you know you got there kind of illegally
And I don't mean illegally as far as like the actual law on paper

(08:36):
But like it's illegal because you're robbing yourself of your true purpose, your true journey of life that you're supposed to be on to get to that place
So I think that a lot of us as creatives need to be mindful of that
Yes it's harder to do it your own way because you have to navigate you have to discover so much

(09:00):
It's easier to just you know look up the best and easiest way to do this thing and then go do it that way
But if your journey is supposed to be one way that you can't you know you can't do that like even with the theme song
Which y'all are gonna learn at some point I promise
But theme song to this podcast there's a line in one of the verses that says
I wish I had the manual to flick to the part where it feels the best

(09:25):
But if I did how would I get the method that I need for next time in less time
So when we allow ourselves to go to a process go through a process and we do it the way that we need to so that we can get those lessons in between
When we finally reach that place there's so much more beauty there there's so much more purpose than there's so much more that you can even do

(09:47):
Because you didn't compromise and settle or sell yourself short for an opportunity
So not to say that every single thing that you ever do is gonna be hard is to take forever and it's gonna be a struggle
And it's gonna be stressful not the case but there are certain things that you have to just be mindful yet to check yourself at every point to say
Okay, I'm gonna do this I'm a first student thing I'm gonna work on this project I'm gonna do this but is this the right way is this the right time

(10:13):
Am I connected to the right people or am I just taking advantage of an opportunity just to get it done
You know so I think all of that needs to be considered and on top of that no one is going to really maybe for a moment you can have some successes
But when you think about people that you truly work up to who you feel whatever your level of success is

(10:37):
If you feel like they've reached that success those people very likely didn't do it because or by way of not being authentic to who they were in their own
Putting their own plan of action together and being their unique self
They're not necessarily copying now we get inspiration from everything so you know there's that but the people that you feel like are doing the thing are doing it

(11:02):
Because they're just like mimicking every single thing and if you do feel like they are successful because there is a caveat to that where you see artists of whatever discipline thriving in certain fields
But it's like hey only you know how no passion they just doing it because you know it's a you know a quick way to get money or whatever
One of the things that really really really really frustrates me where I see like interviews of artists like newer artists that maybe just kind of blew up seemingly overnight

(11:32):
And they'll say things like yeah I didn't even want to be a singer or a rapper whatever
I was just in the studio one day and you know I had a drink or a couple water on the table I knocked it over and I said ah! And then they had recorded the track while I was saying that so then it was like hey run that back and I said ah!
And then we started the song and now it's got a billion streams on YouTube you know like that kind of stuff drives me nuts because it's like you don't even want to be here but you just took advantage of an opportunity

(12:01):
It's like no knocks you get your money get your bag but you have no purpose like there's no purpose in what you're doing you're just doing it and eventually it's gonna fade away it's gonna fall off and there are so many artists that seem to be like well we call them like one hit wonders or whatever
Not to say that every one hit wonder that was what they were doing because there's some really quality people that just didn't get the push and the acknowledgement that they deserved

(12:27):
But you know sometimes especially today's world everyone just fighting to like do that thing that's gonna like blow them up and they don't care whether or not they want to do it
They're just doing it because it's like a way a way out for them and so that's hard to see when you see people say something like the thing that someone else is doing that they eat sweet and breathe that they love that they're passionate about

(12:50):
I don't even want to do it but I found a way to come up on some Monday so I'm just gonna act like it I'm just gonna play the role to get the check like that's I like that but anyway
Features on but in that I just want to encourage if I can every creative person that feels like they are the only one like them because we are all specific and unique in general

(13:13):
Nobody is a light even if you copy you're still you're still not you can never be exactly the same as something else even if you try it's gonna always land you in a space where your the truth is gonna show up
The identity is gonna pull you it's gonna prick at you and you have to respond to that and if you don't then it's just living a life of you know the stress of just feeling like you can't figure out where you supposed to be

(13:39):
What you supposed to do how you supposed to move and all that kind of stuff so to my creatives like be okay with your version of cool
I go back to that that statement from Andre 3000 like find your cool fire was cool to you find what makes you cool and walk that out
I'm grateful that early on I kind of found my footing to be able to say like okay I'm doing this but there's more to me

(14:07):
There's more than I want to do and I used to get to some degree almost shame for like being a singer that writes that produces that designs that can engineer my session that knows equipment that knows
Living that knows stage that knows production that knows you know all the mad at men and all that kind of stuff like I used to feel bad like oh my god

(14:31):
I do all of this stuff. I know how to do all of this stuff. It's something that has helped me tremendously along my career and it put me in a position to be able to have conversations with any type of in any type of industry or within any scope of what I do
Because I know what I'm talking about to some degree you don't always teach you but I used to feel ashamed about that I used to just tell people like all I do just saying I just saying I just sing like I don't want to tell them that I write I really don't want to tell them that I know how to do this or that I know how to do that

(15:00):
Or you know I don't want to tell anybody how to do their job I find the thing but I really have the insight and the experience and when I begin to let that out you
Work with people if I'm working on a set and I'm doing a fit of video shoot or something like I've learned that like the videographer is appreciate like she knows but she's
Not going to be like okay, that's actually a good idea. She knows that she makes our job easier because she's knowledgeable of what she wants and all that stuff.

(15:24):
She can articulate what she wants so I begin to get less and less apologetic about that it is a beautiful place now because I can just show up as myself and it's like hey yeah I do that I do that I do that you know all that kind of stuff and not some bolster to show
Offer them rag but just to say like I'm clear like I am clear so I would encourage every creative person you know whatever you do be okay with being clear on who you are and take the time to get there because we don't walk into who we are.

(15:53):
Just like that like we discover it along the way we're always going to be discovering more and more to it but there's a level and a point in a place where we get more confident and we get to a point where we can articulate who we are clearly and all of that so that's the process of it also.
I encourage us all to continue to be open to processing through that and to find those elements of you that make you unique and and

(16:19):
And roll them because no one else can do it like you can tell people all day what your identity or your idea or your plan is but there's something about you implementing what you're supposed to do that's going to hit different like you can never like I can hang my ideas over
just don't want else they can execute it beautifully but there's something about when I do it because we are created with a specific purpose and what we have in us is very specific and unique and it's actually people in the world that we're going to encounter that they're going to miss out if we don't do our part there's a connection point that's supposed to happen like we're supposed to release this project or do this thing so that this person over here can randomly click on this button and

(17:05):
come in contact with your music or your visual or whatever and it's going to help them get to this point that's going to encourage them or it's going to open a door for you so there's something very specific and special about being who you are specifically how you're supposed to be in authentically and being okay with that and being confident in that and walking that out because something that are connecting us up there's an example that I could give and maybe for those watching the video I'll put it on the screen when I'm recording a song there's something that I do with my reporter process where I see that I'm going to be able to see what I'm doing.

(17:34):
I'm going to be able to see what I'm doing with my reporter process where I stack vocals so if you record you may know about this but if you don't let me just kind of pay the picture so I can sing ABCDEFG and I would like to stack that several times singing it the same way we're not talking about harmony where I sing it higher or lower but like singing it the same way at least two to three times when I'm recorded so that it sounds fuller.

(17:59):
Because we have more automated systems and technology I could easily take that little line ABCDEFG and just copy and then paste and then paste and then paste.
But what happens is when you do that it starts to get a little robotic sounding because you're copying something that has already been done and when you do that it gets less and less, it sounds less and less real.

(18:23):
So what I do is I sing that line ABCDEFG over and over and over again one by one I sing a lot because when you record these little wave lines come and even though I can make the sound sound very very very similar and close to the sound it will literally never be the same again like you can never duplicate a vocal sound.

(18:48):
The same exact way more than once and that doesn't mean that it won't sound right or it'll be off key a little bit.
I'm not saying that like the literal ways that form can never be just like a fingerprint it can never be duplicated.
So that says that each time I'm uniquely placing a sound and when I place those sounds uniquely it creates this warm or whatever.

(19:16):
You depend on what the song is it creates this bigger fuller version and the song has more completion to it because of the way of that that it was approached.
So with that everything that we do that comes from us that we put out is unique it's only for us to do.
If someone else copies it it's gonna start to sound robotic and inauthentic and not real the more it happens that you do it and that's why the whole AI thing where like people are like recreating songs with you know,

(19:46):
or maybe later voices it sounds robotic because you're copying someone else's identity someone else's uniqueness and what makes someone else who they are.
All of that to say and we wrap up episode two of the creative and process podcast. I want to say to my creators dear creative it is okay to be specifically you authentically you uniquely you.

(20:10):
Just take the time to discover what that is because maybe you don't know and that is okay but don't because you don't know don't go find something else that you know has worked somebody else because it's not you.
Take the time to uncover what is specifically in you and what you're supposed to give out to the world because if you don't show up as yourself you're gonna live your entire life and never see what you were supposed to be and never be able to hear what you were supposed to give

(20:39):
and the people that are supposed to receive and benefit from what you gave out will never see it so there may be some healing that happens for someone there may be some encouragement there may be something that helps bring somebody forward or they may be a door that's supposed to open for you that will never open if you don't open your mouth and be who you are.
So dear creative I say again be yourself make it cool find out what makes you cool and be that again.

(21:08):
Thank you so much for tuning in. Catch me on episode three and as always you can go to the website creativeprocess.com follow all the pages and all that and this stuff and drop your voice though I would love to hear from you.
I would love to hear your feedback on this topic and all of that drop your questions your comments all of that and this stuff and I hope you're enjoying the journey and we continue on with this project and I will see you next time. All the best. Bye.

(21:36):
Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. If you want to learn more about the podcast you can go to creative in process.com where you can sign up for email alerts connect on social media and submit your feedback thoughts and questions to have them included in the future episode.
If you want to connect with me directly you can find me at me L.N. Music on all social media platforms and please like comment share subscribe tell somebody about this podcast because it only goes as far as you help it grow.

(22:06):
I'll see you next time thanks for tuning in peace out.
(upbeat music)
[BLANK_AUDIO]
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