We recently connected with Riley Smith and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Riley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

MakeGood Creative Network is, essentially, a coaching business. Our goal is to help indie and amateur creators live a more fulfilling and creative life. There are a lot of people who do something similar, but I’ve noticed they’re missing something crucial.

In their attempts to be supportive, they often leave out an entire half of life: how much things suck sometimes. What it’s like to deal with mental illness, rejection, etc., and how much of the time these bad things can’t just be ignored or fixed with the power of positive thinking.

I’m very open about my own depression and ADHD, and that helps me make empathetic content that speaks to other people who are neurodivergent. The “stay positive” and wake up early hustle grindset doesn’t work for a lot of us. But there are other strategies that *do* work.

I try to never make things sound like they’re going to be easy. I try to be honest. But I know there are strategies that other people aren’t discussing for dealing with the hardest things, because they’re trying to just Stay Positive at all costs, and you lose a lot that way.

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

I’m an author and marketing consultant. I have a lot of creative friends, but just before the pandemic, I noticed a really disheartening trend: people were giving up. I knew musicians who weren’t playing anymore, writers who never touched a pencil, and artists who hadn’t drawn in years.

And that was BEFORE corona! So in 2020 I decided I couldn’t just watch that happen anymore. I wanted to help the people who had given up get back to their passion, and the people who were struggling feel more inspired and productive.

MakeGood Creative Network basically serves as a guide to a more fulfilling creative life. We have a YouTube channel and blog that answer challenging questions in practical ways, like “How do I get ready to write a novel?” and “How to make creative friends.” These things that took me years and years to learn, but our videos and blogs can set you off on the right track in just ten minutes.

We have written guides that go more in-depth, like our MakeSpace guide that helps you set up your perfect productive space at home for making stuff. We also have products, these are our most detailed offerings, such as our “How to Nail Your First Audition” for aspiring actors, and our Creative Activity Pack, which helps you make a habit of creating every day.

I’m most proud of our growth on YouTube. We’re over 20,000 views as of right now and growing steadily. YouTube is great because it lets me speak directly to people, and I’ve had a lot of positive feedback about the way I present problems and solutions. I love reading the comments, which I know is not normal for YouTube, so I feel very grateful!

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think I’ve built up a lot of trust with our audience because I AM the audience. I’m a mostly self-published indie author and comedian. While I have written comedy professionally, I’m definitely working my way into the industry.

I know what the issues are because I’m in them or I’ve just overcome them. I try not to make videos about things I don’t know personally, or if I do, I get a guest to speak to it.

For instance, I offer a lot of information on becoming a freelance writer, because I am a full-time self-employed writer. I also offer a lot of information about writing novels, because I’ve written several and self-published four at this point.

Because I am actually doing the thing, and I can point to my own experience about it, I think that helps build trust with my audience. We’re alike. I have similar goals to them, and I don’t pretend like it was easy or like it is easy now.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I got absolutely hammered with late fees for my business license. I was using one of those office share places for my official address and mailbox, and even though I checked my mailbox, there was never anything for me.

I was dumb and didn’t figure I needed to write down the due date. The city would send me a notice, right?

If they did send one, I never got it. Life zoomed by, and I didn’t pay any attention to the renewal date as it zoomed by, too.

Eventually the city sent me an email letting me know I was behind on the payments. I asked them to send the notice to my home address instead of my business address this time, and it was hundreds of dollars in late payments. I can tell you, I had a good cry about that!

I felt like an idiot, but I was also incredibly angry at my office provider. They were supposed to be collecting this mail and giving it to me, and it turned out they were instead just sending it right back to the city. I don’t know what went wrong with their process, but I was livid.

I canceled that contract and found a new mailbox option, but it taught me an important lesson I already knew but forgot: don’t trust anyone else to do their job! Your business is not as important to them as it is to you. You have to keep track of the important things.

Now I have a big reminder on my task list that says PAY YOUR FREAKING BUSINESS LICENSE RENEWAL so even if the city fails to contact me, I can reach out and make sure I pay it in time.

That’s usually my process with big setbacks. I rage and complain for a day or two, spend time feeling sorry for myself, and then figure out how to keep it from happening again.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.makegoodcreativetips.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/makegoodnetwork/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makegoodcreativenetwork/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/MakegoodNetwork
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJmaQoUDPgviJSRojFngs3w