Are you a creative spirit always looking for a new project? In today’s world, there are more possibilities than ever. With nothing more than your MacBook and your creative mind, you can have any number of fulfilling side projects.
Recently, I’ve been working on building a website on which to share my creative endeavors. Aside from my Macbook, all I have needed is Wix. They provide a handy landing page builder, with customizable themes and tools to add any kind of functionality.
Personally, their option to add a blog as an additional feature, rather than a page like any other, has been ideal. I can share my designs on the primary sections of the website, while writing about the experience in an easy-to-follow blog format.
While being creative has always been a solitary thing for me, I have found that podcasts help me generate ideas, with inspiration from the experience of others. There are many podcasts made by creatives in all fields, and you can take advantage of them to boost your side projects.
Since most MacBook owners use their laptop as their means of creativity, I’ve found 3 podcasts which will give actionable inspiration to any creative Mac user.
1. Shop Talk Show
Shop Talk Show has been the podcast that has helped me most while creating my website. When I started, my vision was to create something as simple as possible. I thought that my limited skills would get in the way of doing anything at all inspired.
However, listening to the hosts and guests on Shop Talk Show has given me many “Aha!†moments. This is because it gets into the nitty gritty of web design without ever feeling overly technical or dry. There are many ideas shared which I will never be able to implement fully. But I draw insight from these ideas and do what I can.
Don’t have a website yet? You can still listen to Shop Talk. Just about anyone in the world can benefit from having their own website, whether for creative expression or career advancement and Shop Talk Show will give you the impetus to get started
There are plenty of episodes already out, although with technology changing rapidly, some of the oldest episodes are already getting outdated!
2. Song Exploder
I’m a bedroom producer although there are few people I’ll play my music for. In fact, I am so reluctant to call myself a musician that I’ve never moved past GarageBand. Don’t get me wrong, GarageBand is incredible – better than many paid alternatives – but it is meant to lead users to Logic Pro X eventually.
Song Exploder is the perfect podcast for me. It is not hours of people speaking about different production tricks, which would get boring quickly (and for which how-to articles are more effective). Rather, it focuses on successful artists who explain how they built one of their biggest songs. There is nothing that inspires me more than hearing about the process taken by musicians I admire.
There are tons of back episodes to listen to, as the podcast has been so successful that it led to a Netflix series of the same name, which for the most part uses the same format. The hosts also don’t limit their guests to one style of music. Whether you love rock, hip hop, metal, country, or pop, there are episodes you’ll enjoy.
3. The Cutting Room
A long-running podcast about video editing, created by The Art of the Guillotine, The Cutting Room speaks to experts in film editing and post-production. While iMovie provides a good starting point on MacBook, this is something you will need to upgrade if you are to put the ideas spoken about on The Cutting Room into practice.
Video editing is not something I have ever gotten into, but I know it is something you can learn, if only to build videos for yourself or your friends. With a bit of a learning curve, you can take footage you’ve captured on your iPhone (or a digital camera) and create a coherent video narrative that does not look amateurish.
There are also websites which help you with simple animations which you can incorporate into your videos if you need to. Either way, The Cutting Room will give you inspiration.
Of course, this is a podcast that requires a little bit more active listening than the others. After all, visuals are the biggest component in video creation, and you’ll need to look up some of the examples and ideas that are discussed.
With a MacBook, your potential for creativity is limitless. Use the free software provided and listen to the above podcasts for inspiration. You may not care to create a masterpiece, but you will at least get to express yourself in a way that you never thought you could.