Bloggy Love Day: Meet Ken of Mildly Creative

Introduce yourself

Hi.  My name is Ken Robert (sounds like row-bert).  I’m never sure what to call myself, but I’ve grown comfortable with the labels writer, poet, curious explorer, and creative companion.  I’m kind of a creative enthusiast, a fan of creative people in general, and I’m continually fascinated by the seemingly endless ways human beings come up with to express what it is to be human.  I currently live in Cape Girardeau, Missouri with my wife, my son, and, when she’s home from school, my daughter.  And I’m a very lucky man.

So tell me a bit about how you share your creative gifts with the world.

A couple of years ago I read “Is Your Genius at Work?” by Dick Richards and realized that my genius was sharing discoveries.  I love to share with others the good things I stumble upon.  I love to tell people about the cool things I’ve come across like great books, good music, and especially great ideas.  I love to introduce them to people who I find interesting and inspiring.  I love to share the lessons I’ve learned.   Becoming a blogger has allowed me to do this on a wider scale.

Your Mildly Creative website is such a fantastic place to be gently & quietly inspired.  (it’s one of my faves!)
Share your 3 most favorite posts.

I guess my first favorite is 5 Reasons You Might as Well Be Authentic because I really opened up in a big way in that post and put my core beliefs out there for everyone to see. Before that, I had been a little worried what readers might think if they found out I was someone other than they’d expected.  I didn’t want to force my views and values on other people, but I didn’t want to hide them either.  I just wanted to be me.

My second favorite is actually the one I wrote about my daughter and I reading Goodnight Moon when she was little.  I liked the way it unfolded and for me it contains a lot of good memories and personal meaning.

My third favorite is one I wrote recently called Take a Break from Being Perfect and Become Something More.  I like the images that came to me while writing it, especially those of taking a break from skating perfect figure eights and laying down your wizard’s wand in order to pick up a hammer and build something.  And I also love how the idea for the post came to me.  I sat down to write in my journal, wrote a paragraph about something I thought I had mastered, and then jotted down the line, “OK, you can take a break from being excellent and learn something new.”  I went right to the computer and wrote the article.

Who are some bloggy peeps that inspire you (3 max)?

I have to confess that there’s no blog I read every day because I read pieces of so many, but right now I’m really enjoying Carl Nelson’s Slacker Reform (slackerreform.com) and Hugh McLeod’s Gaping Void (gapingvoid.com).  I may be mildly creative, but both of these blogs speak to the quiet rebel in me.  If you ask people who know me, they’ll tell you I’m a nice guy and I do try to be, but I’m also fiercely stubborn and independent and Nelson and McLeod support that kind of freedom in their writing.

The blog I read the most, however, is Barbara Winter’s Buon Viaggio at JoyfullyJobless.com.  Barbara is a friend of mine who has been unbelievably supportive.  She was almost a one woman PR machine for me when I began and I honestly don’t know how she finds the time to be so generous.  But if you don’t know her, I suggest you get to know her.  She’s an expert on self employment and self development and the author of the book Making a Living without a Job, which just came out in a new revised edition.  She’s an excellent writer and inspiring thinker.  I also subscribe to awesome snail mail newsletter, Winning Ways.  It’s inspiration in your actual mailbox, not your digital one.

What does your typical day look like?

I really don’t have a typical day.  In order to focus on building a life I want, I took a job waiting tables.  I enjoy it and I don’t have to think about it once I clock out,  but that also means working a combination of days and evenings and double shifts.  I squeeze everything else in the available slots.  My dream is to one day be self employed and actually have enough control over my schedule to develop more of a routine.  But I wouldn’t want things to be too routine.

For now, I have routine activities.  I run and take walks. I listen to music.  I read.  I write.  I draw.  I dabble with the guitar.  I spend time with people I love.  It’s a good life.

How do you motivate yourself when you just don’t ‘feel’ like doing a task.

I do something less.  For instance, if I feel I need to write a post for the blog but just don’t have the juice, I doodle or write whatever phrases come to mind in a notebook.  This usually breaks the resistance down.  Another example is simply putting on my running shoes and shorts when I’m resisting going for a run.

By doing something less than what I’m resisting, I sneak up on the thing.

What advice would you give to people who are taking a “leap”, creatively or personally?

My advice would be to figure out what’s the least you can do to get moving and then do that thing daily.  Doing the least you can do on a regular basis has a way of turning into doing the most you can do.

What kind of music do you listen to in order to focus your energy?

Music is huge and my iPod is the greatest Christmas gift I ever received.  I go through phases where I’ll listen to a particular song or a specific artist over and over for days on end.  My tastes are really eclectic though.  Lately I’ve been stuck on a tune by Kings of Leon called Closer because I love the spooky, groovy riff that runs throughout it and the phrase, “and it’s coming closer.”   However, when it comes to letting my mind wander, I like instrumentals best and the one artist who’s stayed on my iPod for almost a year now is Zoe Keating and her computer looped cello.  If art is war, her music is my battle hymn.

What is your favorite snacky food.

I’ve got this weird thing for apple sauce and cottage cheese mixed together.  I know it sounds awful, but to me it’s better than ice cream.

What destinations are on your dream places to visit?

I love cities and theatre, so I’d love to go to New York City and see a show on Broadway.  I’d also like to visit my friend Barbara Winter in Las Vegas and see Cirque du Soleil.  And I’d like to get back to the ocean.  We lived by the ocean for a year and plan to do so again once my son gets out of school.

What are your top 3 goals for the rest of this year?

I’m glad you asked about 3.  I have lots of ideas, but I try to stay focused on three or otherwise I seem to come unraveled.

I’ve lost quite a bit of weight over the past couple of years but I’m about ten to fifteen pounds from what I consider ideal.  I’d like to know what it feels like to reach that ideal.  I wouldn’t say I’ve been stuck, but I’ve been hovering over my heart’s goal.  I’d like to go in for the landing, so I’m using my personal blog to focus on a daily exercise habit for the next 90 days.  We’ll see what happens.

For MildlyCreative.com, I want to keep my focus on building my readership and the number of people who subscribe to my newsletter, Quiet Inspiration.  I’m reaching about two hundred people a day right now, but I’ve only been doing it for a couple months.  I’d like to reach a thousand or more people a day by the end of a year.  I’m slowly mastering various pieces of the art of building traffic.  I intend to keep that focus.

The last thing I want to do is to create income streams that will enventually enable me to do what I love on a full time basis.  I have so many things I want to do with Mildly Creative but some of them require me being in greater control of my schedule.  So I have a dollar amount in mind and when I reach it I’ll be handing in my waiter’s apron.

To wrap up, let us know just what you are adventuring into:

Well, I’m altering the way I create content for my blog for a period in order to invest more time and energy into creating products.  I first intend to turn my Mildly Creative principles into a brief e-course that I’ll then turn into a series of seminars and possibly a full length book.  I also have a big project in mind about something I call 90 Day Blogs.  I’ll be writing more about it on the website in the upcoming weeks and months.   I have a few skills to acquire before I can go big with it, but I’m pretty excited about the idea and think it will be helpful to a lot of people.  If people are interested they can keep up to date by visiting the website and signing up for my free newsletter, Quiet Inspiration.

Thanks to Ken for stopping in and giving us a glimpse of the Mildly Creative Life.  One of the best things about him is that he leads quietly & gently.  I like that it isn’t always about doing things bigger and better but taking these small steps forward.  Going in the direction of your dreams with purpose & passion.

When I first found his site, I thought to myself…”Now this is a place you can get comfy in.  Kick off your shoes and learn about being  more YOU”. Stop on by MildlyCreative.com and get *quietly* inspired.