Peptober by Andy J. Pizza

One of my favourite podcasts out there (besides Seth Godins Akimbo) is Andy J. Pizza's Creative Pep talk. Each Wednesday, he puts out an episode that is pure inspiration and fuel for creative ideas. If you're someone that is looking for some inspiration, or a little push to get out of a creative rut, go and listen to this show, and you won't look back.



Andy has devised a list of prompts for the month of October, and called them 'Peptober.' I know prompt lists aren't everyone's cup of tea, however, I Personally enjoy doing them; event though I may not always complete them. But they always push me ain a new way and I have fund attempting to do them. 

The other reason people may not like them is how much effort it takes to create new work each day. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to create masterpieces every day and feel crappy if we don't. The great thing about this prompt list is that is designed to get you away from feeling like a content generating robot! The vast majority of the prompts can be done with existing work. 

To get the full understanding of the project, it's essential to go and listen to the full podcats here, episode number 333

I've created this handy cheat sheet list for each day, with little reminders of each prompt. I've used a condensed version of Andy's words , (as you need to listen to the podcast for the full story.) Edit: Andy has since posted prompts on Instagram.

1. Re-introduction. Reintroduce yourself to your followers. Add three of your nouns to describe yourself.

2. Search your feelings. Use your emotions, your feelings as a metal detector take a piece of work that reminds you of something you're feeling right now and use that. 

3. ATA, ask them anything. You're the guide. You're not the hero. Create a post that asks your audience  a question, and actually listen to and engage with their answers.

4. Part Two. Create a part to go back to a post that was ultra successful and then do a part two. or. Do you have two pieces of work that you feel like are somehow spiritual sisters, like they're interrelated, even though your audience probably never saw the connective tissue could make a post with both of those things and say.

5. Process. Show some of your process. What's the most interesting part of your process to you? What do you think is the coolest part? 

6. Bring them on stage. Bring the fans into the creative process. Bringing your fans into the process is huge. It's fun. It's social. Let them into the process.

7. SPC, sneak peek crop. What's something you're working on right now. Crop it in a way that obscures the big reveal and share that? 

8. Giveaway: Thank you give away. Quit worrying about future followers and serve the ones you have. Could be giving away a product. It could be giving away an original piece. 

9. Crossover. Take a thing and reinvent it. It could look like taking a tweet and turning it into a visual comic, but it could also look like taking a tweet and screenshotting it and putting it on a nice background for Instagram.

10. P.U.F, Previously Underperforming Favourite. So did you ever put anything onto social media, and it was a puff when you actually wanted it to be.  Post that previously underperforming favourite.

11. Lowlight. Okay. Not a highlight. We're going to get to that, but a low light. Can you share one of your worst pieces of work? We bond through our shared experience of pain. And it's so easy to show up on social media with all your highlights and craft this perfect image of the perfect artist. And guess what? That's not going to be that relatable. 

12. Highlight. It's time to toot your own horn. Guess what? You got to get comfortable with telling on yourself for the good things that you're capable of doing. A highlight in your creative career. One of your favourite pieces, one of the things that maybe highlights, something that you think is particularly good about your practice. 

13. Collaboration. A collaboration with another artist.

14. TBT, Throw Back Thursday. We aren't able at the start of our career to consistently speak within our creative voice. But every once in a while we stumble upon it, do a throwback Thursday. Go back through the stuff, find something that feels like you could have made it now because you were onto something. Even if you didn't realise it at the time. 

15. W.I.P, work in progress. This is showing an incomplete piece.  Show something in complete.

16. COP (Carousel of Progress) Talk about how things changed over time through technology. Do multiple images. If you're doing on Twitter, you can do four. An Instagram carousel and take 10 or five of posts from the past 10 years of making stuff and show people how you have progressed over time.

17. Fan out. Make a playlist. And if you want to create some new art, you can create an album cover for that playlist and share that and give that away. You can just share a bunch of other people's work on a post. You can shout the praises of other people. That's an easy way to show up online that shows your humanity. Don't be afraid to fan person out. 

18. B.T.S: Behind the Scenes. similar to process, similar to work in progress, but a little bit different. Get a glimpse into a creator's decision-making process. You can post it. You can create a little list underneath and the caption you could do a video, there are all kinds of ways, but share. BTS the special features on a project of yours or a song, it's kind of like song Exploder.

19. Share a quote. Share a quote or a letter, a quote. Maybe someone will run across a quote, that's exactly what they needed, At the exact time that they needed it.

20. A key to your work. A map has a little key that explains all the symbols and all that stuff. Do that for your work. I feel like we've lost the tradition of explaining the meaning. We have all the sugar and none of the medicine. Show some of your pieces. Write a little bit about it. 

21. S.Y.T, (share your talent). What do you think is the talented aspect of what you do?  So point it out, make a post highlight. Maybe it's just little weird characters in the background. I like to highlight little characters or little taste decisions that you might not notice.  

22. Follow Friday. On Twitter, on stories on Instagram, whatever. Yeah. Just share the love. Where did we, when did we quit sharing a love? We used to do follow Fridays. Let's do it again. It's a good way of showing up. It's a good way of sharing the wealth. 

23. PTP, Personal Tipping Point. That was a breakthrough piece for you. And explain that. What were the landmark pieces? What were your PTPs your personal tipping points?

24. Solidarity post. Solidarity post is a piggybacking on something that someone else is doing. You're like, yeah, this is me too. I want to chime in on this. I want to back you up. Can you go find people saying stuff that you're like, yeah. I just want to have solidarity with that and share it, or even make something inspired by it. 

25. SAT:sharing a tip. Sharing something that helped you a lot. You don't have to be an expert. You don't have to know everything. You don't have to have all the answers, but you know, things that have helped you.  Here's something that's helped me bust through. 

26. R.G.H: Repost a Greatest Hit. Say new things about them in the caption, when there's something relevant, when there's something new, I want to say about them. Social media, isn't about always doing new stuff. Re-use and repurpose different materials, even if they're saying something fresh with it. So even the people that are familiar with it will love it. The people that aren't, we'll see it as. When, when, when, alright. 

27. MVP, Most Valuable Player. A multi-verse piece. That's what it's supposed to be for. Sometimes like a piece just needs a different cast of the main star of that piece for it to shine. So what would it look like for your multi-verse piece, how it could have existed in a different timeline. 

28. Hobby Post. Share your life, share your nouns. A hobby post, bring your social life, bring your life into social media. Share your nerdy hobbies, share your life, share your nouns. How can you share something that helps you stand out from the crowd, helps humanise you a little. Yeah, weird artist share hobbies, hobby post. 

29. Make a game. Make a find it post, find the different characters in this massive carousel. Maybe a search and find carousel for my book. Little Easter eggs throughout a book. How many colours can you see in this post? Post something and say, what's your favourite thing about this piece? You know, make it a participatory game can be fun. 

30. M.P.Y (message to past you). Post an old piece of work. You have this amazing thing on your hands, but you're so in the essence of it, that you're, you're, you're neglecting to package it. You're not giving, you're not spending enough time naming it, framing it for people because yes, you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but you should realise that other people always do. Get back to past you, someone that desperately needed some encouragement and some helpful perspective and critique, post that piece, post that thing, and then send past you a message. 

31. A new piece. We finally got to a place where I'm not going to let you off the chain, make an actual new piece. Come on, do something for Halloween, for bonus points, right. Just make something new and post it.


I've recently just returned to regular blog posting and I think this list will be a great way to continue posting through October.


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