We were lucky to catch up with Pete Wiley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Pete, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

I have always been interested in how to lead a meaningful, fulfilling life, and have tried to express lessons, insights, and experiences in ways that would be helpful to people. These include written word (books and poetry), music, and videos. Each has it’s own dynamic in terms of how it is experienced by my audience, depending on what they need and how it resonates. In these times of social divisiveness, I find many of my messages and creative expressions are finding the people who need them most. These include my book, Civil Living, which explores how we can find civility with others, but we must first have it within ourselves. Self-knoweldge and self-love are the necessary starting points for overcoming divisiveness in society. I have also released a poetry compilation, and several songs recently, that cover similar themes through different mediums and so can meet the particular needs of people who recieve these ideas more meaningfully through those mediums. This has been incredibly impactful for me, as I’ve struggled with many of the challenges I cover in my creative output, and rather than giving easy answers, I try to develop an exploration of these ideas to give people the opportunity to find their answers, based on their own paths.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Anyone who lives a full, rich life becomes a product of their experiences. My creative output is an expression of my experiences, including the challenges I have faced and the lessons I have learned. I work through the umbrella of Blocks of Life, which is an ongoing creative journey—an exploration across books, music, video, and poetry—centered on the question of what it means to live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Each piece, whether written, filmed, or performed, is a thread in a wider tapestry: a search for purpose, depth, connection, and joy in the midst of modern complexity.

I began Blocks of Life when I accumulated experiences and life lessons I wanted to pass down to my son, but he was too young at the time to understand (he is now in his 20s and is part of my creative process!). I began to write about my experience and life lessons, and they expanded to more than just ideas I was compiling. I found I was drawn to exploring what goes into a meaningful life, what it takes to find fulfillment, and how the pieces of life fit together. Blocks of Life started as a blog and that was a great way to begin to reach people and build a following. After some time, I added books to my output, followed by poetry, music, and videos. All containing the same messages and ideas, but approached from a different angle and reaching different audiences in different ways.

I don’t aspire for my work to provide quick and easy answers. Rather I explore elements of life—the good and the bad—with the goal of figuring out how to engage in life in a meaningful, mindful, and intentional way. The works are meant not only to be consumed, but engaged with, questioned, and lived alongside. I’m excited that each branch of the work is resonating with people, and that I’m able to engage with my audiences on their terms and with their creative language.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

During my creative journey, I was also striving to grow in terms of building and engaging with my audience. I had several false starts with my social media presence, but then I came across a friend who was working in the field of digital marketing. She was familiar with my work and advised me to start creating social media videos to broaden my reach and increase book sales and music streams. At first, I only thought about my videos in those terms, but I eventually realized that these videos were not only a means to an end, but were creative content in and of themselves. They were a way for audiences to get to know me better as a person and hear my ideas straight from my own mouth. It took me a while to get comfortable in front of a camera (without a guitar in my hands), but eventually I really started to enjoy it. The videos have flourished and have helped me achieve my initial goals, as well as become vibrant, creative outputs in their own right.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

In my work, diversity is one of the elements I enjoy the most. On any given day, I write, which helps me to dive deep cerebrally and emotionally; compose and record music, which taps into the rhythmic and lyrical side of my brain and heart; and play a live show, which fulfils my desire to perform and express myself in front of a live audience. I also do the “work” of being a creative, and continue my journey of learning about marketing, publishing, and engaging with my audiences. No two days are the same, and, depending on how I’m feeling, I can focus on whatever side of my creative process is thriving on that day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/blocksoflife
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blocksoflife/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peteblocksoflife/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blocks-of-life
• Other: Spotify Artist Page: https://open.spotify.com/artist/25Vq7Mio5IHMzV7o6w2Tjh?si=ELk-XCm0QAqbMBYFfQKOpQ

  Amazon Author Page: amazon.com/author/petewiley