Why I Create Every Day
45sThe core philosophy of 'create every day' resonates with creators and entrepreneurs, sparking motivation and self-reflection.
▶ Play ClipAI Summary
The video follows Nathan Barry, founder of ConvertKit, as he discusses the importance of maintaining a 'create every day' philosophy even while running a company. He shares his personal commitment to daily creation, from coding to woodworking, and explains how this principle applies to everyone in his organization. The vlog-style footage shows him working on conference planning and visiting his favorite coffee shop to code.
Chapters
[00:00]
Core Principles for Building an Audience
Nathan Barry introduces his core principles: create every day, teach every week, and work in public. These principles helped him build an audience before ConvertKit and are central to his book 'Authority'.
[00:26]
The Challenge of Running a Company
Running a company can consume all your time, leaving little room for actual creation. Nathan acknowledges this tension and expresses his desire to continue creating daily.
[01:02]
Best Days Are Making Days
Reflecting on his past, Nathan notes that his best days are those when he actually made something. He shows his X-Carve CNC machine, a computerized router used for woodworking projects.
[01:32]
Creating Applies to Everyone
The creative mentality isn't just for founders. Nathan ensures that everyone hired at ConvertKit, including managers and directors, does hands-on work—building dashboards, planning metrics, or writing code—every day.
[02:11]
The Value of Making Something
Creating something tangible—whether a plan, a schedule, or a physical object—leaves the world better than it was in the morning. This is what drives Nathan to prioritize creation over getting caught up in minutiae.
[02:40]
Conference Planning and Hotel Shortage
Nathan is organizing a conference in Boise (June 23–25) and has secured 185 hotel rooms so far. Boise has a hotel shortage, so he's waiting for a new Hyatt to open to reserve another 100 rooms.
[03:18]
Favorite Coffee Shop and Coding Session
Nathan visits The District, his favorite coffee shop, for its seating and chai latte (though the wifi is poor). He spends the day coding and considers it a good day.
[03:46]
Reviewing Speakers for the Conference
He reviewed vloggers to invite as speakers for the conference and will send invitations over the next few days.
[04:00]
Practical Advice: Make Time to Create
Nathan advises viewers to look at their schedules and see if making things is part of their normal day. If not, work it in—whether it's a little design, a new hobby, or a new skill. He personally enjoys woodworking.
[04:30]
Personal Anecdotes and End of Day
Nathan shares a lighthearted moment about his iPhone predicting his drive to a coffee shop. He then mentions his fantasy baseball team is ranked number one with one game left in the season.
[05:18]
Packing for a Flight
At 10:58 PM, Nathan heads home to shower, pack, and sleep for four and a half hours before catching a flight to San Diego for Traffic Conversion.
The video reinforces that consistent creation—not just management—is key to personal fulfillment and company culture. Nathan encourages everyone to build making into their daily routine, even in small ways.
Mentioned in this Video
Study Flashcards (6)
What are Nathan Barry's three core principles?
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What are Nathan Barry's three core principles?
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Create every day, teach every week, and work in public.
What book did Nathan Barry write about building an audience?
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What book did Nathan Barry write about building an audience?
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Authority
00:12
What tool does Nathan use for woodworking?
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What tool does Nathan use for woodworking?
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An X-Carve CNC machine, a computerized router.
01:02
How many hotel rooms has Nathan secured for the conference so far?
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How many hotel rooms has Nathan secured for the conference so far?
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185 rooms.
02:53
What is Nathan's favorite coffee shop?
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What is Nathan's favorite coffee shop?
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The District.
03:18
What dates is the conference in Boise?
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What dates is the conference in Boise?
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June 23rd to 25th.
03:46
💡 Key Takeaways
⚖️
Core Principles
Provides a clear framework for building an audience and staying creative.
💡
Best Days Are Making Days
A personal insight that ties fulfillment to tangible creation.
01:02
💡
Everyone Creates
Shows a company culture where even managers do hands-on work.
01:32
⚖️
Leave It Better Than You Found It
A simple but powerful metric for evaluating daily work.
02:11
🔧
Practical Advice to Create
Actionable tip to schedule creation into your day.
04:00Full Transcript
[00:00] Today I want to talk about creating, because running a company you can get to a point where you're not actually creating very much anymore. And we have kind of these core principles, so you can see them behind me.
[00:12] Create every day, teach every week, and work in public. And for a long time, even before starting ConvertKit, these were principles that I lived by in order to build an audience. And there's something that I've taught in my book Authority and everything else.
[00:26] But it's gotten to a point where I can spend all my time creating a company that I don't actually create every single day. You know, and I still want to do that. And so, actually, I have a plan to do a bunch of coding today.
[00:49] But no, I can't find my wallet. And this is probably the only thing I can find before all the time. Before we go, I'll show you one thing. I put it out into the garage.
[01:02] When I look back, all of my best days are the days that I actually spent making something. So I'll feature it in some other videos, but this is an X-Carve CNC machine. So it's a computerized router.
[01:14] I can hook it up, design something on a computer, and cut it out on the router. I making a Convergant sign kind of raised letters and see if that moves down This creative mentality applies to everyone in the company So I want to make sure that everyone we hire in the company is doing work and actually creating stuff every day
[01:32] You know, even the directors or the managers, you know, whether they're leading the customer success team, they're actually putting work into, like, building dashboards and planning out our metrics and writing some code. Pretty much everyone in the company actually creates things.
[01:46] Create-everyday is a core philosophy for us. I'm going to live that out by going to the coffee shop and doing some coding.
[01:59] What's special about creating boxes? You know at the end of the day when you leave that you've made something that you need to practice, right? It's better for everyone else, you know, whoever you're making that for.
[02:11] It's better at the end of the day than it was when you started getting them in the morning. And that's what makes a difference for me. So I want to make sure that every day there's some project that I've moved forward in an equal way. Even if it's just making a plan, saying schedule, getting the right people in place.
[02:27] But I want to make sure that I've created rather than just being caught up in the ninja and all these little details.
[02:40] One of the projects that I working on is we hosting a conference here in Boise and right behind me is a brand new Hyatt that I hoping will be done really soon because Boise actually has a hotel shortage which
[02:53] is kind of strange. So I've been working the last few weeks on getting enough hotels in order to host everyone here in Boise. We have like 185 rooms we've built so far and I'm
[03:06] and I'm waiting for this hotel to finish, to just finish and pass their conference, so I can see if I can get another 100 rooms reserved there. Now I'm on my way to The District,
[03:18] which is my favorite coffee shop to go hang out at. The reasons why it's my favorite coffee shop, lots of seating, what else? Yeah, lots of seating and it has a really good
[03:30] checky latte, so the wifi there sucks. Just finished coding for the day, back in the car, about to head home, and it was a good day.
[03:46] The other thing that I worked on a bunch is our conference. So I mentioned that conference is coming up at the end of June, the 23rd to the 25th, and it's a fun project to work on. So I reviewed a bunch of vloggers that we want to have speak,
[04:00] and we're going to be sending those invites out over the next couple of days. So good deal with making stuff. I just say look at your schedule See if making things isn part of your normal day See if you can work that in Whether it a little design here or there
[04:15] picking up a new hobby, a new skill. Personally, I like woodworking. And my best days are the ones where I make something. Get to the music on now. Hi, baby.
[04:30] Strange that when I get in the car, the iPhone pops up and says, Hey, it's going to take 13 minutes to get to White's Buzzing Drive because my iPhone knows where I'm going to go. You know that's not on my calendar.
[04:46] It is 9.47 p.m. and it's time for my talk show. I'm on four different games.
[05:04] 172. I'm defeated with one more game of the season, but we're currently ranked number one. So, it's now 10.58pm. Time to go home, shower, finish packing.
[05:18] sleep for what four and a half hours and then go catch a flight to san diego for the traffic conversion
