Hi everyone. Welcome to Next Creator Up. My name is Ehren Prudhel, and I’m the primary host of this show.
Each week I speak with an established or emerging creator to uncover their most interesting and inspiring stories, their most helpful tips and insights, and the magic behind their creative process.
I started this podcast because I’ve been an on-again-off-again creative for years, and I understand what it’s like to want to create, but to get in your own way. (You can read more about that here.)
When I’m “on,” there’s nothing like it. I feel happy and alive, and when I’m “off,” well, the opposite. And oh, how hard it is to get “on” when I’ve been “off” for a while.
I know I’m not alone in facing doubts, fears, and insecurities. But I also know it’s possible to get past them. In fact, that’s really the core mission of this show—to figure out what helps people get out of their own way and create what they want to create.
Though I focus heavily on each creator’s work and what inspires it, I also spend a lot time exploring the external obstacles that trip my guests up, as well as the more pernicious internal ones.
This is why I’ve partnered with tinybuddha.com—one of the leading personal development sites on the web, with over five million readers and followers. And it’s why I’ve enlisted the help of Tiny Buddha’s founder, Lori Deschene, who serves as both a co-producer for the show and a writer/editor here on the site.
Lori’s spent the last decade exploring our messy emotions and how we can find ways to thrive not only in spite of them but because of them.
Whereas Tiny Buddha helps people heal from their pains and find the gifts and beauty in them, we strive here to help people use their gifts so they can channel those pains into something beautiful.
We know this isn’t always easy to do. The act of creating is brave, and it takes courage. It can feel vulnerable to say, I made this, what do you think?
But that vulnerability is the path to feeling alive. It’s the gateway to growth and joy and meaning and possibility—if only we can push past our fears and keep going.
So, in the words of Kurt Vonnegut, “To practice any art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow. So do it.”
Happy creating, friends.
Ehren (and Lori)
P.S. What stops you from creating? Drop me a line at email@nextcreatorup.com so I can get the insight and advice you need in an upcoming interview.
