Foundations of Creation

Ethan Smith

Ethan & Ryan share the roadblocks, answers and breakthroughs that you might run into through their journey discovering how to create content themselves.

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20 episodes
Updated Apr 30, 2025
Explicit

Episodes20

Newest first

Apr 30, 2025 · 1 hr 24 min
#34 | Teaching, Tequila & Lucas Rockwood 👨🏻‍🏫🧘‍♂️
April 29, 2025 Today, we share lessons we recently learned about teaching skills to others. Ryan leveled up his teaching skills by teaching a tequila class last week, and I just returned from a week-long teaching workshop in Barcelona with my hero, Lucas Rockwood, the best teacher I’ve ever known. We discuss our lessons learned about preparing lessons, presenting them on camera to be more engaging, and additional skills for performing live coaching. Coaching is the best first step to turn any educational channel into a business, and these tips will help you become comfortable enough to take that leap. Finally, I discuss how our teaching experiences showed us the unexpected places where teaching skills boost our lives and our creative careers. Things referenced in today’s episode: Lucas Rockwood’s Podcast - https://www.yogabody.com/podcast/ Science of Stretching - https://www.yogabody.com/stretching/ Karolis Gadliauskas, Videographer - https://karolisg.com/
Mar 14, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min
#33 | ☘️ St Patrick’s Day Episode: Shane Carberry & Tullamore Dew!!
March 11, 2025 🇮🇪🇮🇪This special St. Patrick’s Day episode, we have Shane Carberry who literally makes Irish whiskey in the heart of Ireland. Shane is the head of operations at Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey Distillery, a life coach, and of course, a brilliant content creator. First we discuss Shane’s work at Tullamore, rising up from his start at the bottling room and the role soft skills played in his success. And of course get his authentic Irish take on me & Ryan’s ludicrous American plans for St. Patrick’s Day. Next Shane tells us how his path to getting started in Tullamore is intertwined with his path to content creation, and a frosty move to Canada. We learn about his process, why he creates and what he’s achieving with it. We learned a lot and had a great time, so I hope you take time to reach out to new creators in your space too. I met Shane through my first stab at networking to meet creators in my field. Like how Ryan meeting Cory Cranfill accelerated both our growth & increased our creating fun, this has been a great experience and deeply educational. So if you’ve been too nervous to try it yet, I heartily recommend you get out of your comfort zone and give it a shot! Sláinte! ☘️🇮🇪 Things referenced in today’s episode: Shane Carberry - https://www.youtube.com/@ShaneCarberry Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey - http://www.tullamoredew.com/ The Spirit of: Captain Morgan - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3E7oN_3G6Y&list=PLjTR2ZZRadLeswgavC9_XGcllltWgUqOJ&index=3&pp=iAQB https://www.sandrarajic.com/ Eric Partaker - https://ericpartaker.com/peak-performance-program Subtle Art Of Not Giving a Fuck https://amzn.to/4bPie0C So Good They Can't Ignore You https://amzn.to/4kR9Stt
Feb 7, 2025 · 1 hr 14 min
#32 | Acceptable Lies & SuperBowl Ads 🏈
Feb 5th, 2025 We start discussing the bridge between truth and lies in your writing. This has been a fundamental disagreement between Ethan & Ryan for years, but Paul Smith’s Sell With a Story reconciled them together. We discuss his chapter on how much you can stretch the truth in your professional stories. Guidelines when it’s acceptable, when it’s not, and how to know how much to stretch. This has freed me to trim down my writing significantly, making it far more engaging to listen to. And helped me understand my good friend Ryan. This was one of my favorite discussions we’ve had so far. Then next we throw words out the window and enjoy analyzing 4 SuperBowl ads. Heavily visual, light on words, and condensing a TON of ideas in just a few seconds, these were great lessons in short, powerful art. They say if you can write ads, you can write anything. Things mentioned in this episode Sell With a Story - https://amzn.to/4aSAeXK
Dec 21, 2024 · 1 hr 26 min
#31 | Steve Jobs the Storyteller Fraud? 2024 Year Review
December 18th, 2024 Steve Jobs is often cited as the greatest storyteller the business world has ever seen. But was he? Or was he a mediocre fraud? This episode we analyze his greatest storytelling feat during his 2007 keynote releasing the very first iPhone. Cory Cranfill joins us again, serving as the perspective of a real life business owner. We breakdown what he did that was so effective. Things that you could use tomorrow. What things he glaringly missed and should have added. And as usual Ryan breaks my brain with another great idea that I had completely missed. We wrap up with a look back at 2024, sharing our best lessons of the year, biggest surprises, and what goals we’ve set for 2025. Do they spark any new ideas for you? What were your biggest lessons of the year? Items Referenced In This Episode Cory Cranfill - Shed Logic - https://www.youtube.com/@shedlogic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQKMoT-6XSg&t=92s
Nov 22, 2024 · 1 hr 46 min
#30 | ‘Stories Sell’ & Nelson-Greenbrier Halloween Menus
11.08.24 Stories Sell by Matthew Dicks explains how to apply all the great storytelling & dramatic techniques commonly taught, to functional writing. Things like education and business. Things like Ethan works on. Things that Ethan has ranted & raved to Ryan about. Not being able to use all this ‘trash clutter of entertainment advice’. This episode we discuss the techniques in this book that unlock how to apply all that entertainment advice to other domains, and have them magnify the power of value based writing. Not simply shoehorn them in as a meaningless amusement. Then we use this knowledge to analyze the primary product of the Nelson-Greebrier’s Halloween Event: a halloween drink menu with a story written for each cocktail, each tempting the reader to purchase that brew. This has been one of my favorite episodes, both in fun and in amount of valuable knowledge shared. I hope you enjoy it, and all the fusions of dramatic & functional writing we can now discuss together. Items Mentioned In This Episode: Stories Sell by Matthew Dicks - https://amzn.to/3CqiYvO Storyworthy by Matthew Dicks - https://amzn.to/4fCu4Mi Nelson’s Greenbrier Distillery - https://greenbrierdistillery.com/
Oct 25, 2024 · 1 hr 12 min
#29 | Vinh Giang - Stage Academy Masterclass
October 22, 2024 After a year of waiting, Ethan attended a weeklong Masterclass on speaking stills with Vinh Giang. This episode we discuss the most valuable takeaways in Speaking & Storytelling. It also was a hard & frightening reminder of how you can forget how much you love something, no matter how strong that love is. You need to periodically take action to be able to feel how much you enjoy it, and not lose track of that. Finally we breakdown an example video from Vinh that brings together several of the techniques he taught. Key Takeaways This Episode: How to build ‘Dynamic Vocabulary’ The true way to use vulnerability to connect, that we’ve all be misunderstanding The critical key to making stories as short as even one sentence, to fit in any situation, even serious ones. Things Referenced This Episode: https://www.instagram.com/p/DAYSyAOMDJV/
Oct 4, 2024 · 1 hr 14 min
#28 | Ripoff Diggnation Episode and Things Got Weird
September 26 2024 We’re back, with something new! We took a short break while Ryan got set at his new job. While we were on break, one of the first podcasts that influenced me made nearly 2 decade return: Diggnation. Kevin Rose. Alex Albrecht. Great memories, bad beers. Looking at it again, that format practices all 3 critical forms of speaking skills: Reading from script Presenting from bullet points Full improv speaking So we gave it a shot. We had a great time doing it, and learned more about content creation techniques. Hope you will too. Things Referenced In This Episode Diggnation Rebooted 01 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJWIrYEm2mo Anthony Gallo post car accident - https://www.instagram.com/reel/C_-w2inpBQ4/ Faroe Island sheep - https://www.instagram.com/p/C9gAq6QvdFQ/ Tom Brady AI - https://www.instagram.com/p/C_67YeyvEEd/ For feedback - https://x.com/808ethan
Aug 17, 2024 · 1 hr 35 min
#27 - Writing Lessons From Anthony Bourdain
August 9, 2024 This episode we discuss the different value of each of the components of content creation and how best to split your efforts, and when to shoot horizontal vs vertical. Then we get into a new writing exercise with Ryan using examples of Anthony Bourdain’s writing. We look at his first ever published article, and the evolution of his TV show intros. Analyzing revealed: Powerful use of the negative: Pointing out what’s not there How he added emotion to everything, big or small to make the writing engaging and tangible Weaving a world of excitement then only after, introducing himself as a player in that world. Interesting not for himself, but for his membership in a world you’ve already been entranced with. Together we discuss how these techniques could be applied to the script for Ryan’s podcast intro, for his Season 3 revision. Good concrete examples of theory put into practice. I learned a lot from this episode and had a lot of fun as well. I hope you do too. Thanks to Ryan for the great plan. Let us know what emotion you’re building into your next content.
Aug 2, 2024 · 1 hr 10 min
#26 Finland Vlogging & PTYA London
July 20, 2024 Ethan shares his first experiences meeting other video creators at the Part Time YouTube Academy meetup in London. It was shocking how much more could be learned by people only a year ahead instead of so advanced all their techniques had become invisible. And a surprise that should have been obvious: they were all incredibly fun to talk with! Highly recommend seeking out other creators in person as soon as possible. Next we share more vlogging lessons learned from Ryan’s first attempts recording at a cocktail conference, and Ethan recording his trip to Finland. Clarify what you want to get out of making the video Budget how much time on your trip you’ll dedicate to it Do pre-production planning, and start practicing that skill How to manage the overwhelm of all the clips you’ll make Dealing with smartphone HDR footage in editors & platforms usually designed for SDR Finally we discuss some vlogs we like and why. Question for the week: Ryan’s next story he wants to tell is a historical account from a black woman and would love recommendations of some black creators, authors, producers or directors he could learn from, and what you liked about their work. Items Referenced This Episode: Part Time YouTuber Academy - https://aliabdaal.com/courses/ Life of Tom - https://www.youtube.com/@LifeOfTom/videos Cowboy Kent Rollins - https://www.youtube.com/@CowboyKentRollins
Jul 17, 2024 · 1 hr 32 min
#25 | Writing Through Conversation & Ethan’s First Vlog
July 9th, 2024Working further on developing writing skills, this episode we try out Matthew Dicks strategy of creating the first version of his outlines by having conversations with his friends about his ideas. We attempt this live in this episode, also explaining how this technique helps, how to do it yourself. In Ethan’s live run explaining his video idea about ‘Creating Despite Friction’ to Ryan, a number of surprise realizations came out, and a major increase in clarity on the topic. Also in preparation for Ethan’s trip to Finland, he discusses his first vlog: the techniques to make one and the surprising amount of benefits discovered from doing one. It’s turning out to be the learning tool he was searching for.Ryan asks Ethan - “What historical art style would his next work most closely fit in?”Ethan asks Ryan - “What has he learned from making this podcast together?”We’d love to hear who your favorite vlogger? And what do you like about their channel? Matthew Dicks Author of StoryWorthy - https://amzn.to/3Y8dkXQ https://www.youtube.com/@matthewjohndicks
Jul 5, 2024 · 1 hr 48 min
#24 | Good Vlogging, Analyzing A Distillery Tour Vlog
June 26, 2024 This week we discuss the unexpected value of learning to vlog and do a deep dive breakdown of an example travel vlog of the Ardbeg Scotch distillery. We get into the different subgeneres of vlogging, the lesser known ones that have turned out to be useful, despite us being uninterested in the standard popular ones. Also how every type a video is little bit a mix of nearly all types and what benefits you can bring into your more serious content if you gain some experience in the vlogging genre. Then we break down a vlog visiting a whiskey distillery, a great example of a different type of vlog where the speaker is not the focus, gaining information is a major component and the vibe is chill. We break down its: Video shots, the choices and ordering of them that made it work Composition of shots that worked exceptionally well and how to see those opportunties when visiting a site Use of different styles of transitions to break the video into chapters while keeping other clips feeling part of the same thought The good qualities of the sound design we want to imitate How the speaker used motion and a specific arm angle to make his spoken segments hold attention & add to the feeling of progress through the story When to use text overlays vs post recording voice overs The overall structure that we liked and would use ourselves Check out the video & let us know what you thought about it too: Whiskey Geek’s Ardbeg Tour: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQTBzwRaeoA
Jun 21, 2024 · 1 hr 32 min
#23 | Learning Writing: Behind The Scenes Of Spirit Of - Buchanan
June 11, 2024 Writing is the most important skill in all your content creation. This episode we dive deep in learning to improve our writing skills by breaking down the techniques & skills Ryan used in writing his episode of Spirit Of on James Buchanan. This has been one of my favorite episodes to record and I feel I learned a lot that will make easier to write in the future. Would love to hear if any of these techniques help you out, or if it made you think of another tip you use. Covered in this episode: The 4 paragraph structure Ryan surrounds the body of his script with every episode Why to start a story in the middle of the action, how to create that tangible picture, and set the feel of a historical era How to decide what should be cut from your story and what should stay. Ryan explains his technique for doing this by setting the character’s story within Ryan’s personal story of hearing the tale. How surprisingly often non-sequiturs can work, and how they are the key to solving forks in a story and several other problems when writing can only follow one idea at a time.
Jun 7, 2024 · 1 hr 20 min
#22 | Ryan’s Creator Education & Ethan First Clients
June 3rd, 2024 In a rare episode Ryan makes an in person appearance in Nashville. Following up on things I learned about Ryan from our interview with Cory Cranfill, I ask Ryan about his previous education in content creation. First Ryan tells us about the Modern Rogue weekend content creator bootcamp he attended. What it was like studying under Brian Brushwood, what he learned there, and connecting with Cory there. Then a layer before that, I ask Ryan about his whiskey training at Wizard Academy. It was originally founded as a marketing school and Ryan also got storytelling and writing training during his classes there. Ryan tells us of the hard process of learning to write, the benefits of being exposed to good quality writing, and how he learned by recognizing good when he saw it. Next Ethan & Ryan discuss the removing friction from your creative process so you can create in ease and inspiration, vs. powering through friction and overcoming it through brute force. As usual we came at this question from total opposite sides. It appears in the end you really need a mix of both. Finally Ethan shares how his hobby of making videos of dim stylish bars may have brought him his first client: another beginner creator launching a music career. Items Referenced In This Episode: - Modern Rogue - https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRogue - Wizard Academy - https://www.youtube.com/@TheWizardAcademy - Cory Cranfill - https://www.youtube.com/@cranfill
May 24, 2024 · 1 hr 44 min
#21 | Lea Brainerd - Ketamine Therapy for Wellness & Creative Skill Building
May 14, 2024 This episode we interview special guest Lea Brainerd, a clinician at Mindbloom providing ketamine therapy. Ethan credits his Mindbloom for improving several of his creative skills & taking action on his content creation dreams. Lea first guides us through how ketamine therapy works. She explains the powerful mental preparations that can be done before a session to multiply the effects, also the Trust, Let Go, and Be Open framework, the experience during the actual session, and how to multiply the lasting effects through active integration after a session. Lea also explains the current safety & legal state of ketamine therapy, and how unlike most mental health treatments, which are prescribed and repeated for life, ketamine therapy is designed to give you experiences you learn from and eventually never need again. Lea shares with us the remarkable results she’s seen in it’s primary purpose of treating depression and anxiety. Next we discuss how ketamine therapy can grow the fundamental skills needed in content creation. In particular, strengthening your ability to be intentional, which is essential for actively pursing your true dreams & succeeding in entrepreneurship. Listening skills, which are core to planning content that connects with an audience, performing market research, and creating believable characters with perspectives different than your own. And writing skills, through the increased awareness of the connections between ideas & which are significant and which can be left on the cutting room floor. Finally, Lea shares her personal experiences with her family & mental healthcare that gave her a lifelong passion for improved treatments, and her own experiences with ketamine therapy, both as clinician and a patient. She explains why she believes it’s essential to have expert assistance for patients’ integration step, and special customizations to ketamine therapy for various patients such as those with ADHD. Lea runs Transcendental Health, a private Ketamine therapy & life coaching clinic covering Tennessee, Florida & Wyoming.. Referenced Items: Lea’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transcendenthealthllc/ Transcendental Health Website - https://www.transcendenthealth.net/ Upcoming retreat in September: https://emandscott222.com/ketamine-assisted-retreat
May 11, 2024 · 1 hr 25 min
#20 | Dominican Republic Trip & Listening Skills
April 30, 2024 Ethan & Ryan share the things they learned from hosting Cory, their first ever guest. They learned about different styles of questions and when to use them, what different level of listening vs controlling the flow is ideal for different types of content, and the advice Cory shared after the episode. Next Ethan explains how many ways improving his listening skills is paying off in his content creation, and how most of developing those skills has come from alternative lessons far outside the scope of content creation. He covers why the one that has the rare supply of patience to be quiet & listen actually has more power than the person who is speaking the most, and ensures you grow and develop as fast as possible. Ethan also retells how his trip to the Dominican Republic, doing nothing for 4 days with an old friend taught, him even more about both listening and burnout, and how ‘losing’ those 4 days paid off in his work too. Finally catching up on our new creations, Ryan tells about his first attempt at vlogging in public, dealing with the microphone, the weather, and his growing strength at doing the scary thing and learning from the experience. Ethan walks through creating his Dominican Republic video, from rapid planning shots, & editing, in the most on target ‘small pot’ he has created. An ideal target to try to aim for in future creations.
Apr 26, 2024 · 1 hr 27 min
#19 | Cory Cranfill - From Office Job, To Content Marketing Business Owner
April 19, 2024 In this episode we interview our first ever guest: Cory Cranfill. A friend of Ryan, Cory is a professional content creator, who pivoted from a 9-5 management job at Microsoft to creating content for Brian Brushwood’s Modern Rogue, then kept going to form his own content marketing & consulting business: Right Tool Media. Cory walks us through his journey from an untraditional background, to building a successful traditional career in operations at Microsoft. Then how the lessons he learned taught him how to make the big leap to leave it all, show up on the set of Modern Rogue with a bottle of whiskey to get an unpaid start content creation. Next rise to success there as well, and then take another leap, starting his own media business from scratch and building it to a success he owns. He shares with us how he learned to overcome the ‘soul sucking feeling’ of looking into a camera, his success with unscripted dialog & live editing, how he set up a full multi-cam recording solution for Whiskey Provisioner, and the most important equipment recommendations for getting started. Cory also works behind the camera at Whiskey Provisioner and behind the camera on his channel Shed Logic. Referenced Items: Right Tool Media - https://www.righttoolmedia.com/ Shed Logic - https://www.youtube.com/@shedlogic Whiskey Provisioner - www.YouTube.com/@whiskeyprovisioner So-Han at Tea House Ghost - https://www.youtube.com/@TeaHouseGhost Brian Brushwood & The Modern Rogue - https://www.youtube.com/@ModernRogue RODE Wireless PRO - https://amzn.to/3QiQEiI Rode Wireless GO II - https://amzn.to/3JBT7RL Rode VideoMic GO II - https://amzn.to/4aSOsqH
Apr 12, 2024 · 1 hr 25 min
#18 | Voice Acting & “How Much Of Your Art Are You Willing To Sacrifice For More Views”
April 3, 2024 Ethan tells us about starting in voice acting. How it’s rapid learning for important skills, and an excellent way to make lots of ‘small pots’. Ryan discusses the short trailers he’s making for his newly released episodes of season 2 of ‘Spirit Of’, with good insights on rapid creation with your phone, minimal resources and your ideas. Next we discuss the balancing act between enjoying and succeeding at content creation, starting with how to decide the right balance for you, and some examples of good tradeoff and bad ones.
Apr 2, 2024 · 1 hr 22 min
#16.5 | Bonus: Ryan Releases ‘Spirit Of’ Season 2!
March 29, 2024 We celebrate Ryan releasing the long awaited 2nd season of his whiskey audio drama ‘Spirit Of’, telling the legendary stories behind famous whiskeys. We discuss the fear of releasing your work to the public turning into anticipation and excitement, and how everything got started for Ryan over a year ago. Then a spoiler free discussion of the behind the scenes process and learning from making the first episode of the new season: Taketsuru - Father of Japanese Whiskey.
Mar 29, 2024 · 1 hr 12 min
#16 | St. Patrick’s Day Videos & Learning To Make Shorts
March 20, 2024 Ethan & Ryan celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and discuss the videos they created for it. They both dipped their toes into Short Form content and have a good discussion about important lessons needed to make them well, and how that actually taught them more about making Long Form content. Ryan walked us through a discussion on maintaining motivation through hardship. If you can do it then, you’ll make it through everything and last until you achieve your dreams. Finally Ethan shares the lessons he learned on writing scripts in batches helping the speed and fun of writing, the critical need to target Browse & Search traffic one at a time, and more about connecting Thumbnail, Title & Hook together.
Mar 23, 2024 · 1 hr 19 min
#15 | Gems Encountered Too Soon & Ethan’s First Full YouTube Video
March 5, 2024 Ethan celebrates making his first full video using the techniques learned from Part Time YouTube Academy, and shares with Ryan the surprise lessons he learned from the first completed process. Then Ethan & Ryan discuss the gems they were simply taught too soon before they could use them, that became distractions and hurdles. For example, presenting from word for word scripts instead of rough bullet points, outsourcing editing & using 3 point lighting to record a talking head video. By discussing the Parable of the Sculpture, they build a guide for when it’s helpful to start hiring assistance, even when quite new. Finally they discuss the reasons and opportunities in having guests on the podcast & how important it is to clarify your motivations in order to maximize the benefits you get out of your creation.

Foundations of Creation

#34 | Teaching, Tequila & Lucas Rockwood 👨🏻‍🏫🧘‍♂️

#33 | ☘️ St Patrick’s Day Episode: Shane Carberry & Tullamore Dew!!

#32 | Acceptable Lies & SuperBowl Ads 🏈

#31 | Steve Jobs the Storyteller Fraud? 2024 Year Review

#30 | ‘Stories Sell’ & Nelson-Greenbrier Halloween Menus

#29 | Vinh Giang - Stage Academy Masterclass

#28 | Ripoff Diggnation Episode and Things Got Weird

#27 - Writing Lessons From Anthony Bourdain

#26 Finland Vlogging & PTYA London

#25 | Writing Through Conversation & Ethan’s First Vlog

#24 | Good Vlogging, Analyzing A Distillery Tour Vlog

#23 | Learning Writing: Behind The Scenes Of Spirit Of - Buchanan

#22 | Ryan’s Creator Education & Ethan First Clients

#21 | Lea Brainerd - Ketamine Therapy for Wellness & Creative Skill Building

#20 | Dominican Republic Trip & Listening Skills

#19 | Cory Cranfill - From Office Job, To Content Marketing Business Owner

#18 | Voice Acting & “How Much Of Your Art Are You Willing To Sacrifice For More Views”

#16.5 | Bonus: Ryan Releases ‘Spirit Of’ Season 2!

#16 | St. Patrick’s Day Videos & Learning To Make Shorts

#15 | Gems Encountered Too Soon & Ethan’s First Full YouTube Video