Creating More FLOW In Your Music & Life

Are you creating from the heart or just chasing the algorithm? In this solo episode of The Headliner Mindset Podcast, I reflect on what it means to reconnect with the soul of creativity. Inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and my experiences teaching The Art of Flow at ICON Collective, we’ll explore how to break free from overthinking and rediscover the joy of creating from a place of intuition and authenticity.

This episode is for anyone feeling stuck, uninspired, or disconnected from their art. I also introduce my new 12-week coaching program based on The Artist’s Way, designed to help you overcome creative blocks, tap into your flow, and create art that truly resonates. If you’re ready to embrace a more soulful approach to your art, this conversation will inspire and guide you.

Follow Nik Cherwink here:
https://www.instagram.com/nikcherwink

And visit my site to join the mailing list or book a free coaching call:
https://www.nikcherwink.com

Transcript

Nik: 0:00

It's the artists that are willing to actually slow the fuck down You And be like, okay, wait, I don't need to be just Posting a bunch of shit all the time on this rat race Scrambling to get the breadcrumbs of attention from people. Like let me take some time to actually really tap into My authentic lane of creativity Really tap into like what actually lights me up What's up everybody? Welcome to the Headliner Mindset Podcast. Today is going to be a special episode because this is the second time ever out of, I don't know, 80 something episodes that I am doing a solo episode. I just did my first one a few months ago. And a lot of you guys said that you really enjoyed that. So hell yeah, we're going to start doing more solo episodes. So, uh, if this is one of your first times listening to the podcast, welcome. I'm so stoked that you're here. Please subscribe. We have new episodes coming out every week, every Monday. Usually they're with really bad ass guests, a lot of artists. Uh, some agents, I'm trying to get some more booking agents on the show. Uh, and we dive into the business stuff a lot. Um, but you know, I felt really inspired recently to talk about some of the more woo woo stuff. For those of you that have been listening for a while, you know that I love to get down with that woo woo. So that's what today is going to be all about. We're going to talk about flow, you know, because this is really what Where my whole journey as an artist coach began I used to teach a class called the art of flow at icon collective And it was kind of icon secret sauce. It really was what taught people how to get out of their head and into their heart, into their soul, how to really find their own unique, authentic lane of creativity, how to take some risks, how to listen to themselves rather than listening to all the voices. Of the external world all of their peers and of the industry and paying attention to trends, you know There's so much shit out there. That sounds the same And when you look at the success of some of the artists that went to icon a lot of them will agree Uh that it really was that class and so I want to share a little bit about that with you guys today You know, to be honest, I recently found myself becoming a little bit uninspired and I really love diving into the strategy conversations on this podcast. And it obviously is such a big, important part of the game, right? You need to build a good brand and be good at marketing and build a social media, but like underneath that. If you're not really lit up, if you're not making music from a place of excitement, from a place of passion, if we're not living our lives from a place of excitement and passion, and it's just about how do I create something that's going to be successful and get numbers, it's gonna suck. And I noticed that a little bit with myself recently. I was like, man, I'm, I'm, I'm kind of missing. Some of that sauce I need some of that secret sauce back in my own life and and and In my own journey as a creator as well as an artist in my own way. Um, even right now, just sitting down to create this podcast, I'm really practicing some of these principles that, that we'll get into on this episode, which is really about getting out of the head, getting out of the head and not worrying about, What are people going to think of this? Am I going to say the right thing? But actually just trying to tune into the present moment and really see like, what is there, what wants to come out, what actually feels real and authentic and fucking juicy, you know, when we're just creating from our mind, uh, it's so easy to lack that. That extra kind of oomph, you know, where I realized this recently for me, I want to start my newsletter again. It's a great thing just on a business perspective, just to be sending out a newsletter, um, adding value, just communicating with my audience more, but also letting you guys know about, you know, new coaching programs and letting you guys know about when I have spots open up. Um, it's a great thing that anybody running a coaching business runs. And so I was like, okay, I'm going to start my newsletter. And I honestly was being fucking lazy and I like didn't want to sit down and actually really dig into my own thoughts. And I, and so I just went to chat GPT. I was like, Hey, help me write a newsletter that I can send out to everybody. And fuck chat GPT is incredible. It was like in two seconds, boom, here you go. Here's a newsletter. I gave it like a couple bullet points. This is what I want to talk about. And honestly, like, wasn't that bad. I literally. Had it all drafted and I was, I was like, Oh, cool. That was easy from a business perspective. It makes a lot of sense. I can save a lot of time. I can save a lot of energy. Let me just have chat, GPT, write my shit. I literally had the whole thing drafted. It was in my, my email distributor thing, ready to go. All I had to do was press click. And I just noticed this part of myself that was like, dude, you can't send the shit out like this isn't you. There's no. Heart or soul in this this isn't actually like my real Energy, right? Like there was no life in it and I think that happens a lot in music. It's like cool. We can put all the sounds together. You can grab the fucking, you know, Splice samples and put them together. But like is your heart and is your soul actually in your music Because if it's not, the branding doesn't fucking matter. The marketing doesn't matter. When, same thing when you show up to create content, are you just doing the same shit that everybody else is doing because that's the algorithm, that's the strategy, that's the template. Or are you actually like speaking from your heart and creating from your heart? And I noticed for myself, I'm like, damn, this isn't coming from my heart. And so I then send it out and that kind of planted the seed to a theme that I've been feeling a lot lately. Um, because the other thing that has been coming to me. And when I say coming to me, it's like there's this little voice in the back of my mind that I, I will ignore for a while, but eventually I can't ignore because it starts to get louder. I don't know if you'd call it the voice of your intuition. We'll talk about that more in a moment, but I have been having this feeling that what I planned on doing, what I was supposed to do was to launch another round. Um, Of my headliner mindset coaching program. It's my online community. I've got 50 people in it. We still have calls every single week. It's fucking awesome It's time to launch another round. I was planning on doing that in january and I was feeling resistance to it Because it was like honestly, I was like i'm not actually really feeling Excited and energized and pumped up by that But what was coming through and what is coming through is that I wanted to start and I want to start You A program around the artist's way. It's a 12 week workbook, by Julia Cameron. Incredible, incredible book. It really is about going deep into your relationship with the artist. Let's just call it a higher power. She does use the word God in the book. But it's tapping into the universe. Tapping into that spiritual creative energy and really tapping into your flow. How to actually really create from a place not of your mind where you're just sort of recreating the algorithm but actually tapping into, that deeper relationship with yourself. That deeper relationship with the universe and really cracking open a whole deeper level of creativity And i've run a couple groups around that in the past and it's fucking incredible it's so It's just super powerful for those of you that have done it, you know, it's also a lot of work It's hard to do by yourself everyone that I know That has done it or has tried to do it every single person I ever talked to were like, yeah I did I made it through the first like two or three weeks and then I fell off Because it's a commitment and what I have found is that doing that with a group is the way to do it having accountability So I've run a few groups of that in the past like a couple years ago. It's been a while But there's just this fucking thing knocking on my door right now. That's like yo, it's time to run another group So So those things have been coming up and I'll talk more about the group, at the end of the podcast, but the theme here is that there is this conversation that I haven't been having enough of lately. So Which is about flow, which is about how do you tap into that part of yourself where you are really creating from your heart and soul, getting out of your head and bringing your own unique gift to the table and having fun while you're doing it and having it be easy, right? So let's talk about flow. What is flow in the first place? I think on the one hand, there are those moments that most of you have probably experienced when you're in the studio or you're creating whatever your creative process is. And it's like you're in the moment and everything just starts coming through you, right? You get out of your head. You're not thinking about the past or the future, worried about where things are going. You just, you kind of get struck by that lightning bolt of inspiration. What I would call the muse when the muse visits you and like two hours go by and you're like, whoa, holy shit You're just so Consumed by the creative process that time kind of disappears Right. That's what we would call a flow state a lot of times this happens in sports This a lot a lot of times this happens in physical activities this what happened to me when I played rugby Rugby is, it's an 80 minute game, and there would be times where the game would start, and then next thing I know the game would end. And I wouldn't remember, it was like I blacked out, because I was just so in the moment, you have to be in the moment, right? Rock climbers experience this a lot, like, when you're up there on a mountain, you can't think about what am I going to have for dinner tonight and what happened yesterday? What are those, those bills I have to pay? It's like, no, you're on that rock and you were just thinking about what's the next move I need to make. And so similarly as artists, you know, when you can find that flow state, it's a beautiful thing. And I think it's something that we all, if you've tasted it before, if you've been there before, we're always craving, like, well, how do I get back there? How do I create that? But there's also this bigger element of having flow in your life, right? Having your whole life almost be a flow state, right? It's like when a surfer is out there waiting for a wave, right? Or when a surfer catches the wave and it's just like they, they pop up and the wave takes them. There is this undercurrent. Of the mother ocean that just brings them in. And for those, you know, few moments that they're up there, they're, they're just totally present and totally connected. Really? You're connected with nature, right? And that's honestly what this is. It's being connected with the universe that there is this undercurrent of what I would call life force energy that is permeating every living thing on our planet, every living thing in the universe. Think about it this way. Your heart has been beating since before you were born before you came out of the womb. There has been something pulsating life through your body. It's the same life force energy that is making the grass grow outside and making the trees grow. It's breathing life. There is this undercurrent of life force energy that is making its way through every living creature. It's like our nature is to grow. Our nature is to expand and also our nature is to create. But when we are trying to create everything ourselves, this is where it gets in the way is like our ego and our mind being attached to trying to do it all ourselves or thinking it needs to look a certain way when we actually start to learn how to let go of that. There's actually a natural force. That wants to come through us when you see people that have created some of the most, you know, amazing music in the world or some of the most amazing art. Like if you, if you watch people when they accept Grammy awards, a lot of times they don't even take credit for the song. They're like, This song I was just chosen to be the vessel that this song came through I didn't create it Something else created it. I just happened to be in the room and it came through me And I think that's one of the big first shifts to starting to get into flow Is getting out of your head? Right and getting out of your ego And seeing yourself As the vessel for the creative energy Rather than being like, oh i'm the one that's making everything it's honestly so fucking to think that way. It's like, oh, well, look what I created Right the danger with that also is then we attach our worth to it If the song does well, we feel really good if the song doesn't do well, we feel like shit Well, that's because we are attaching our ego to it. When you remove your ego and you're just like, see yourself as the vessel. I'm just the vessel. Even right now, this whole podcast episode, this isn't me. I'm not creating this. I'm not thinking about this. These are just ideas that have been poking at me honestly for probably two weeks now. I'm finally surrendering saying, okay, fine, I'll be the vessel and I'll let these ideas come out. I'm not making this shit up. This is not a script. This is literally stuff that's just coming out right now that I've surrendered to. And in the same way, we can go into the studio or sit down with our instrument and say, okay, what wants to come through me right now? Now, what this requires is. presence and stillness and silence, right? We have to slow down and we have to again, get out of the head and into our intuition, right? In this example that I'm talking about for myself, there's been kind of like this whisper. There's literally like this calling of this, these thoughts and these ideas like, Hey, you should go start this program. Hey, you know, there's some, there's a message that wants to come through. But similarly, it's like that can be, it's, it's, it's music and it's ideas that we have to silence our own voice. Our own inner dialogue and slow down and create some space and create some stillness to actually be able to hear what wants to come through, right? Now, this is hard because we want to, we want success and we want it now, right? It's like, Oh, I want to fucking, I got to grind every day. I got to put out content every day. I got to make tracks every day. Like, go, go, go, go, go. Right. There's that saying that like, we're not human doings, we're human beings, but we're oftentimes doing so much. This is a good moment to ask yourself, like, how well is that actually going for you? you know what I mean? Like, are you actually where you really want to be? If you are grinding, and you're, just living in that space of doing, doing, doing. My invitation is to start to play with slowing down a little bit. This is where I would talk about duality. Like, yeah, we also, we can't just sit around and fucking meditate in our room all day and expect everything to happen. You know, this is that balance of masculine and feminine energy. We still have to do the work. But underneath it like before you go and really grind like what are you actually grinding on? Before you go and really, you know hammer out a track like is the actual spark and the energy For the song itself even there All right, or are we just? making Sounds and noises that don't have any real heart and soul underneath it. I mean if you think about it this way 100, 000 songs get uploaded to Spotify every single day. How many of them actually have real, like, heart and soul in them? How many of them are ever even heard by anybody? I guess what I'm really getting at here is to start thinking about What kind of energy am I putting into my project? What kind of energy am I putting into my music? I've had to look at what kind of, what kind of energy am I putting into this podcast? What kind of energy am I putting into my coaching business? Is it just cool? Let's grind and build brands and, and, and, uh, you know, do marketing. Like a lot of people come to me for wanting help with their project. I'm like, okay, cool. I can do that, but also my heart and my soul is telling me that that's not, What I really love and that's not why I started this shit in the first place You know, I started this because I was teaching that art of flow class And we were tapping into some deep stuff. We were starting to look at you know I'm starting to peel the layers back and get into these sort of like juicier deeper levels which I haven't really gone deep into yet, right? Because I actually haven't really done any solo episodes yet. And so, I really wanted to just Peel back the curtain and start going down this kind of woo woo rabbit hole because also I mean I have also worked with literally like hundreds of artists just as a coach myself, but thousands if we include, you know, seven years at icon and capital records and being a manager and all the places I I worked before and It's the artists that are willing to actually slow the fuck down You And be like, okay, wait, I don't need to be just Posting a bunch of shit all the time on this rat race Scrambling to get the breadcrumbs of attention from people. Like let me take some time to actually really tap into My authentic lane of creativity Really tap into like what actually lights me up Right, like we got to slow down and figure that out and spend some time To catch the wave, right? Otherwise, you're just like paddling out. Imagine if you just paddled out, for those of you that have surfed before. I've only done it a handful of times. It's fucking exhausting. You are paddling out against the, against the current. You gotta get out there, and then imagine you just catch the first wave. That comes and you're like, okay, I'm going to catch that, that next wave. And maybe you catch it, maybe you don't, and you just got to turn around and you paddle right back out and then you catch the next wave. That's what a lot of us are doing in our artist journey. Right. It's like, let me just throw as much shit as possible at the board and post as much stuff as I possibly can. And hopefully something will work, but you know, good surfers. No, it's like, yo, you paddle out and then you wait, you paddle out and then you sit. And then you, you wait for that current, you wait for that wave, right? And then, and then you really catch the one. And again, this is, there's no right or wrong way to do anything. But I think for those of you that are, have been paddling and are feeling exhausted and are questioning and wondering like, man, like, why is this shit not working? Well, there's another way of doing things. Which is. Creating more space in our lives to get out of our head and learning how to develop a relationship with this deeper part of ourselves, this part of ourselves that I would call our intuition. We could also call it, you know, it's like through our intuition, we start to develop a relationship with the universe, with God, if you want to call it that. But there is this energy out there that we can tap into. That will not only bring amazing creative ideas to us, but also into our lives like, man, I practice this all the time where just synchronicities happen. It's like things, doors just open and things just work out. And I know when I'm in alignment and I know when I'm not, I'm not in alignment when I'm trying to do everything by myself and I'm living in my head. But I get into alignment by getting out of my head and trusting that there is another force out there that there is this undercurrent. There is this life force, universal energy, and I just got to be that fucking surfer and sit down and wait for it and create more stillness, create more silence and create more presence in my life. It's a really big piece of it. And I'll notice, I'll call myself out. I'm struggling with that right now. I'm so fucking addicted to my phone. I think all of us are. Even today, I just went and sat down on a bench, I have a little bench outside my house, and a little pond, I got some ducks, if you guys follow me on. Social media. You've seen me post about my little ducks out there. And, uh, I noticed myself just sitting there, but feeling like, Oh, like, yeah, this is weird to just sit here in silence. And, you know, I just noticed myself grabbing my phone all the time. And it's like, if we're always distracting ourselves or we're always just doing, we're never just being, we're not going to actually get those downloads as much, right? Cause. It's like the right download, the right idea, it can help you like skip 10 steps. You know, you don't need to go put out 10 more songs. You need to put out one song that's actually going to make a fucking impact. But if we're just like grinding and hustling all the time and just doing, doing, doing all the time, then we don't ever actually get to hear that voice and tap into that deeper level of creative energy. So, in a nutshell, it's important to create some space in your life to slow down. Create some space in your life to start getting out of your head. Um, and also to like, let go of what you think things are supposed to look like. When the universe is bringing ideas to you, they're often times going to look very different. And this is where having the courage to trust that, and to take some risks, you know, I think a lot of the best artists that we look at, they were the artists that like, they were innovators and they took some risks. And so slowing down enough to hear those ideas come through, it's like, they're not necessarily always going to be our ideas. Our ideas are probably, Very similar to what we're already hearing. The same kind of ways of thinking every day. We kind of get stuck in these patterns. But the way we break that pattern is to, yeah, like, slow down and start to download some of these other ideas and then ultimately have the courage to listen to them. now, for those of you that have made it this far, thank you for rocking with me. I know there's some people that are listening to this that are like, What the fuck are we talking about, about the universe and all this crazy shit? I'm just trying to learn about the music business. I just want to be a fucking headliner. And, I get it. Yes. But, For those of you that are down to play with me a little bit, and to be a bit open minded, and go down the woo woo rabbit hole, there's some good stuff in here. There is some good stuff in here. And, I mean, again, back to, just to bring it back to Icon, and kinda where the seed was planted for all of this for me, um, you know, when you talk to guys like Slander, Or Jaws, or Keizo, or you name it. It's like, all of them will trace their success back to that class. Because that class for a lot of them was the, was the moment where they said, Oh, you know what? I'm gonna stop trying to be like everybody else. And I'm gonna just fucking do me. But in order to do me, I have to be able to listen to myself and trust myself. And block out the noise, block out the external noise of what everybody else is doing. That's what a lot of this is about developing that deeper relationship with yourself and developing that deeper relationship with, with the muse, with your intuition, with, you know, these other ideas that want to make their way through you or to you, but we have to really learn how to start to silence those external voices. I love this shit. I get really pumped up about it. This is the kind of work. I really love doing with artists And also doing for myself and with myself. I realized like I kind of got caught up in the More in this that sort of masculine side of things, uh for a while of just like, okay We're kind of I know we're just kind of going through the motions and and and really like Making moves more from the mind and I noticed this disconnect of like, oh no I want to start I want to get Deeper into into myself and into this sort of spiritual energy into this creative energy because honestly, that's all where all the best shit in my life has come from hands down every great thing that i've ever created My entire headliner mindset, coaching group and program even this entire podcast. This podcast was not my idea This podcast was like, oh I got to download one day I was like, really? Damn. Like, logically, I'm like, damn, this kind of sounds like a lot of work. I don't know if I want to do that, but I just had to fucking listen to it, and here we are, almost, two years later, year and a half later, same thing with my whole group program, and I fucking love that group so much. Shout out to the Headliners. You guys are amazing. Um, now, like I was saying earlier, you know, I, I would and kind of should be running another round of that particular program, but, um, I feel very, very called to run a group around the Artist's Way and to go deeper into this side of things. so the Artist's Way is a 12 week workbook. It's actually kind of based on like the 12 step program. She comes from the world of the 12 steps. And so she broke it down into 12 weeks. So every week there are, you know, different concepts and exercises. It's actually a very short chapter of reading. Followed by some exercises. But her main thing, one of the big things that she has you do are daily morning pages. So whether you do the program or not, I've talked about morning pages before. Really, really recommend it's, it's where you sit down in every morning, right? When you wake up, you write three pages of stream of consciousness, writing just whatever's on your mind. You write it down and you get it out. And what it does, it just allows you to get. Just the kind of the clutter and the jumbled thoughts, you just get that out of your mind, but it also pulls up a lot of these thoughts and kind of unconscious, subconscious thoughts that are in the background, which for me, that's also where I've discovered a lot of my, the best ideas, a lot of clarity. Uh, it also just helps you be in more in a flow state too. As you're writing, you're like, you're not thinking about what's coming next. You're not judging, you're not analyzing. That is such a great transferable skill to when you're in the studio. Right. When you're in the studio and you're making music and then you start second guessing and getting in your head and you're judging yourself at, like, it trains you to just like, get out whatever wants to come out and you can edit it later. But like, even like right now I've been doing that with this podcast. I'm like, not really worrying about. Going back and I'll make a couple edits to this, but this is pretty much me just fucking freestyling today. And so when you practice every day, let me just write three pages. It actually trains you to be more in the flow. Just like open up that faucet and just let whatever wants to come out to come out really helps you get out of your head. She also has you do weekly artist dates, which are really cool, which is where you go on a date with yourself by yourself. It's a, it's a date with your inner artist, kind of like with your inner child to just go do something. Fun and creative and With no real attachment to results, no, like, you know, real reason just to kind of go play. And I think we lose that a lot, as adults, we kind of lose our sense of play. Everything has to be for a reason. And it's like, no, just go have a fun little date with yourself for shits and giggles. So that's a really fun part of it. Now when I run the group where basically we will run through the program, we'll run through her, you know, her book, but we will meet every week and have an actual coaching call. So I'll bring in stuff from the art of flow and we'll go deep into the artist's way, content. But the big part of that is getting coaching, having an opportunity to take all of it a lot deeper. The real big part is having accountability. Like I said before, Almost everyone I know that has attempted this process doesn't make it past week two or three because it's a lot of work. It is a commitment. And when you're doing it by yourself, you know, you don't have anyone holding you accountable. So, meeting with a group every week, having accountability, having like I check in, I'm like, yo, did you do your morning pages? Everybody goes around and you say how many days a week you did your morning pages? Hopefully seven out of seven, but knowing that you have accountability, you have people that you're going to be checking in with, And then most importantly, you have a community of people that you're doing with as well. So I'm going to run another one of these groups. I don't know the exact date, really. I'm just looking for the right people that are down to join, you know, people that want to take their creativity deeper, that understand that it's not just about, you know, the branding and the marketing and the social media, but like, you got to have a real deep relationship with yourself, which honestly, that affects the branding. I think doing morning pages every day, you really get to know yourself. You really get to know what you're all about. And that does then influence how you're showing up, what, what your brand is all about, how you're showing up online. I think there's a, there's actually a huge connection there. But really just looking for the right handful of people that want to join me in this process. I'm going to do it myself. I'm going to be a participant. I'm not just going to be the coach. I'm going to get in the trenches with you guys. So, I'm really pumped up and excited about it. Now, what I also want to do, for those of you that have been interested in joining, the headliner mindset program. I'm going to throw that in as a bonus. Anyone that joins me with this is going to get free access to my headliner mindset program. I charged 1, 500 for that just alone. So I'm going to throw that in for free. That's a whole eight week course with video modules this also includes a weekly coaching call that I do with that entire group. And that call lasts really indefinitely. As long as I'm running this program, you basically have free access to a group coaching call. And that's the space where we actually do really get into the, some of the marketing stuff. We get into the business stuff. Also just straight up life coaching stuff. It's a, it's a really beautiful space. Community that we've developed there where everybody is very, um, yeah, very close knit, very open, very vulnerable. So, a really, really awesome call and community to be a part of. We also have a discord that is really popping every day as well. One of my favorite parts of that. So, it's a 12 week artist way program with also the headliner mindset program as a bonus. So if that, uh, if that tickles your pickle, hit me up. If that. Send me a DM on Instagram because I'm probably going to limit this maybe to just five people. I think I want to keep it relatively intimate. Six or seven, maybe at the most. So, I know that there's a handful of people out there that this would be perfect for this would be an awesome way to work together Also an awesome way to get introduced to the headliner mindset community so if you've been listening for a while and you've just been looking and waiting for your opportunity To actually get involved and to become more than just a a passive listener And you're really ready to take a deep dive into yourself and into your creativity and your creative energy. This is it. So, yeah, send me a DM on Instagram if you're interested. And, uh, I hope that everybody has a kick ass week. And stay creative out there. Love you all.