Shakka And Pals

This time we discuss raising the amount you charge for creative work! Figuring out how much to charge for your art, or how to raise your prices over time, is a really intimidating thing and is worth a good deep dive! Let's discuss!

This time we talk about getting clear about where to focus your attention in a world of choices. There's so many social media platforms, so many places you can invest tons of time and each could meaningfully help your work, so where do you spend your limited time? Let's discuss!

This time we discuss how music influences the experience of gaming and storytelling. The power of music to set mood, communicate and story tell is incredible. Ben shares his insights on this fascinating subject and some thought about the production of game music too! Show Notes: Making The Color Jumper Soundtrack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34L_AiidvmM Composing Journey: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUaPHTC2TjI Chopping up classical music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DpPs-quzxYM Music Workshop - Fez: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PH04VJ8jxvo  

This week we talk how we organize our thoughts & support our health while creating. Dealing with some of the challenges in the daily life of a creative we find our mind is often the battleground, let's talk about how we organize our mind and think about frustration, fear and love! Show Notes: Ben's New Album: https://abstractionmusic.bandcamp.com/album/felt-cute-might-delete-later Minefield on YT: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zD68reVP0Ek

This week we talk about Mental Hygiene and how we can protect our minds from the stress of creative business! What are your daily practices that support your mental well-being? Let's discuss!

This week we discuss the difference between being "real/authentic" and indulging in "Complaining/negativity". Indulging in complaining and negativity sure feels like we're being "honest/real" but mostly we're just being unskillful and unprofessional. Let's discuss. Show Notes: Simon Sinek TED Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: https://www.amazon.com/How-Think-Like-Leonardo-Vinci/dp/0440508274

This week Ben and Shakka talk about being a good boss to yourself and always experimenting! Easy to get sucked into habit or conventional thinking, but you're free to experiment my friends! Put your lab coats on and always be in the lab!

This week Ben and Shakka enjoy a nice meandering creative conversation about connecting with your audience! We discuss how important it is to communicate to your audience that they authentically matter to you. Let's discuss!

This week Ben and Shakka discuss momentum in creative work! Momentum is a powerful force to tap into in our work, let's talk about how to use it, nurture it and recover your momentum after life inevitably gets in the way lol! Show notes: Untitled Goose Game article: https://www.ign.com/articles/2019/09/20/untitled-goose-game-began-as-a-workplace-slack-joke Creative Exploration - 5 Min Rule: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPd3TNl5IAQ&list=PLW08UHPY2AEqOBAksZwyXbiMgv1rTijU2&index=34&t=0s Daylio app: https://daylio.webflow.io/

This week we share some strategies to make it easier for you to do your work! There's so many challenges and barriers to overcome in the very real labor of giving your art to the world. Let's talk about how we can remove some of the things that get our way so we can spend our energy where it belongs; climbing the obstacles that cannot be scared away by preparation, organization and ingenuity. Let's discuss! Show Notes: Agile Methodology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development "Discipline equals freedom" - Jocko Willink

This week we discuss diversifying your lines of communication! It's easy to get lost trying to connect even to your most engaged community members sometimes, let's talk about how to make sure you can hear each other!

This week Shakka & Ben discuss the marketing side of content creation and how powerful it is to maintain a posture of always looking for opportunities. We also discuss how to navigate the "No Self-Promotion" culture on the internet and even how to set up a production pipeline that gives you the content you need to always be marketing! Show Notes: How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook by Gary Vaynerchuk Show Your Work! Paperback by Austin Kleon

This week Shakka & Ben talk about how the myth that there's not enough can sabotage you & how to defeat it! There's a lot of fear & scarcity thinking in the content creation world, this can lead to believing the myth that the world of a content creator is run by a "Zero Sum Game", where for you to win, someone else must loose, this is just not true. Let's discuss! Show Notes: Book - Finite & Infinite Games by James Carse: https://www.amazon.com/Finite-Infinite-Games-James-Carse/dp/1476731713 Teenage Engineering Pocket Operators: https://teenage.engineering/products/po

This week we discuss the dangers of feeding the trolls & talk Mixer news! First we briefly touch on the exciting news about Ninja coming to Mixer! Our main topic this week was sparked by the recent drama around Ooblets which brings up the interesting topic of PR and responding to the your audience and the market wisely and skillfully. Let's discuss!

This week Ben and Shakka talk about the recent changes on Mixer regarding the spark payouts, embers etc. then dive DEEP into content monetization for creators of all kinds. This is a big subject that is commonly very misunderstood, we're excited to get into this topic with you! Let's discuss! :)   Links: Ben's Patreon Income Breakdown he mentioned as an example: https://www.patreon.com/posts/23680097

This week we discuss a creator's responsibility to model behavior for their communities as they grow. Whether we like it or not, our actions do lay the cultural foundation for our community. As strange as it is we must accept that we do influence, in some way or another, our community & really anybody that consumes our content. How we act is essentially approval & encouragement of those same actions & it may be worth stopping & thinking about how we'd like to encourage others to be in the world through our content. Let's discuss!

This week Ben and Shakka catch up a bit after Ben's vacation and discuss a variety of creative topics like Ben's new game, crafting difficulty as a game dev, iteration, the power of sketches, Shakka's Brute Force Google technique and more! Lots of good stuff in this one, enjoy my friends!

This week Machen Joins Shakka to talk about dealing with getting MAD on stream! What do you do? How do we manage our frustration, what are some strategies and best practices? Let's discuss!

  This week Ben & I discuss the power of just starting, even if it's messy, even if it "fails", just starting is powerful! We sometimes get paralyzed in preparation, trying to make it perfect, but miss out on all we learn from taking the risk, being vulnerable and putting yourself out there. This is an important and core topic for creatives of all disciplines and we're excited to hopefully shed some light on this fascinating subject! Show Notes: Ben's Space Cat/Death Stranding pic: Andrew Huang's YT channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdcemy56JtVTrsFIOoqvV8g Song Ben made by rolling dice for time signature: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miocJrx7i6Y Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon: https://www.amazon.com/Show-Your-Work-Austin-Kleon/dp/076117897X “Dude, suckin’ at something is the first step to being sorta good at something.” - Jake the Dog (Adventure Time)

Let's talk about the most exciting stuff from this year's E3! Ben Burnes joins me this week to let me gush about all the E3 stuff lol ;) Lots of exciting games and announcements this year, 2019 and 2020 are gonna be real good years to be a gamer! Let's discuss!   Find Ben online: http://www.abstractionmusic.com/ https://twitter.com/ben_burnes https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1LInPwXosJGnXQQuwC4Xw