It took me 16 years to get here.

To date, I have written and published 100 articles on Substack. Still, I have 221 unfinished articles in folders on my hard drive.

In 2008, after years of yoga and a few years of meditation, mindfulness and studying Buddhism, I thought, "Everyone should know about this stuff."

I considered blogging but didn't know how to build a website and was terrified to share what I had learned. I had no confidence in my writing or spiritual and emotional growth.

I don't know how to write and never paid attention in English class. Besides, why would anyone read my writing when they could learn from my teachers, who have been on the path for decades?

It would be another six years, until 2014, before I began writing articles for myself. I wrote about random topics because I wasn’t ready to write about my true passion: well-being.

At the time, I hardly ever finished an article—I must have started thirty for each one I finished. I learned that jotting down ideas on a page is easy, but articulating them into coherent ideas is another matter.

A year later, in 2015, I published several articles on a one-page blog a friend built for me for $200. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I knew nothing about SEO, so nobody found or read them.

In 2018, I built an entire website with a no-code tool under my domain, which was satisfying for a non-techie.

Two years later, I finally dared to publish my first post on well-being. It took over 50 hours because I wanted it to be perfect and beyond reproach. After two years of writing, I had published eighteen articles and 69 nonfiction book summaries and began seeing a trickle of traffic.

In December 2022, I stopped publishing to my website and started publishing to Substack, thinking it would be better to be a store in a mall than a standalone one in the sticks.

So, why do I tell you all of this?

Because I don't want you to wait twelve years after the initial itch to share your creations, I want you to share them today.

One way to ease the pressure is to stop taking ourselves and our work so seriously. Don’t make the mistake I made of trying to publish the “world’s best article” on your first attempt. That kind of pressure is not only unnecessary but also counterproductive.

Adopting a more experimental mindset can make the process lighter, easier, and more enjoyable. Allow yourself to make every possible mistake—until you don’t. Nobody hits a home run their first time at bat. Becoming a successful Creator, technically and spiritually, takes effort and time. The sooner you begin, the better.

Take a page from The Ramones’ playbook. Here’s an excerpt from Wikipedia describing how they got started:

"The Ramones' first British concert, at London's Roundhouse music venue, was held on July 4, 1976, the United States Bicentennial. The Sex Pistols were playing in Sheffield that evening, supported by the Clash, making their public debut.

The next night, members of both bands attended the Ramones' gig at the Dingwall's club. Ramones manager Danny Fields recalls a conversation between Johnny Ramone and Clash bassist Paul Simonon:

"Johnny asked him, 'What do you do? Are you in a band?' Paul said, 'Well, we just rehearse. We call ourselves the Clash but we're not good enough.'

Johnny said, 'Wait till you see us—we stink, we're lousy, we can't play. Just get out there and do it.'"

Sixteen years later, in 2002, Spin magazine ranked The Ramones the second-greatest band of all time, behind only the Beatles.

Whatever you’ve been afraid to create, just get out there and do it.

The journey from fear to creative freedom is rarely a straight line. As sensitive souls, many of us overthink, people-please, and second-guess every word before hitting "publish." The Creator Retreat was designed for those who know this struggle intimately—those who write a hundred drafts, feeling like they’ll never be good enough, but who also dream of sharing their work authentically.

Here, the focus isn’t on perfection. It’s about showing up, embracing the messy process, and finding joy in experimentation. It’s a space where we laugh at the pressure to create the “world’s best article” and support each other in simply starting.

This isn’t just a program; it’s a community—a place to shed the fear and start creating with honesty, weirdness, and heart.

Start before you’re ready. Come as you are. And join a group that gets it.

Learn More About The Creator Retreat