The Creator Path: Discover Your Deeper Self and Translate It in Your Career šļø
NEW rubric for anyone on career search and self-discovery.
Itās been more than 1 year since I started this newsletter. This is the 80th edition that I have published here since then.
Iāve been sharing mostly educational content here to help you grow meaningful products that delight your users. Recently, I uncovered a new meaning that I would like to live through and deliver to the community.
I discovered that I have hundreds of notes and thoughts Iād like to share here, but they are stored and have never seen the light of day.
The thoughts are connected to many themesāself-discovery,Ā career search,Ā life transformations,Ā creativeĀ inspiration,Ā and so on ā that many people give me. Sharing them requires some vulnerability, and Iām never ready to start.
So, I start. Now.
This is the first welcoming edition of the āThe Creator Pathā rubric in Growthmates newsletter ā the place to get guidance and inspiration not only for the business youāre working on, but also for yourself as a human being.
1. It started with getting to the bottom.
Life transformations never happen in a comfort zone. Deep discomfort, inner conflict, and personal dilemmas should crack old beliefs. It feels like an earthquake, a split of the earth's crust ā that painting of Salvador DalĆ illustrates the concept of transformation quite literally.
āPersonal transformation is like a rebirth ā something has to crush to let new growth happens.ā ā the feeling I had in front of this painting in Salvador DalĆ Theatre in Figueres.
The intellectual concepts and rational choices must start collapsing to open a door in your soul. This is a guiding source for new growth, an inner compass that guides us through life.
Iāve always been guided by rational, intellectual, logical choices.
Education in Tech & IT ā itās more logical than my passions in art, interior design, and beauty;
Working for 6 years at Miro ā itās more logical than job-hopping;
Transition from IC to Manager ā itās a logical career ladder;
and the list goes on.
It goes until the last sacrifice you make, and you hear the inner whisper (very silent), whoās trying to tell you something.
That was my bottom. I realised that the only way to hear these inner whispers is to get fully silent.
It was 2023. I had just been promoted at Miro to my dream role: āHead of Growth Design.ā But instead of happiness, I felt burned out. I lost connection to the meaning of my work. My calendar ruled my time, and my life. The only way forward I saw: get silent to hear these inner whispers.
I went to the mountains in Italy and spent 3 days in silence. I wrote 40+ pages in my notebook. But one thing stood out loud and clear:
I donāt belong in my full-time job anymore.
And I didnāt want to fit it either.
A few months later, I left Miro and started building Growthmates.
I had a strong feeling: This moment of silence will come again. 1.5 years into my entrepreneurial journey, a new existential dilemma knocked:
What am I doing?
Who am I serving?
Whatās my mission?
What I donāt want to get involved in?
And only one thing feels clear:
The world will stay uncertain. And Iāll keep redefining my visions. Because that movement is what makes me feel alive.
Next, my prediction came true ā I reached another bottom line. And I went to silence 1.5 years later, again.
2. Looking for a new meaning of things š
In March, I started with a solo exercise in an attempt to define aĀ meaning. A meaning of things that happen in the world around, and how I contribute to it.
Here are 3 realisations that eventually came to me:
We started losing connections to ourselves. We canāt show up for the world to create a meaning. AI should help us create, not replace, the creative act.
All humans are creators by nature. But some just forgot about it, or create not though the connection to a meaning, but through the external expectations and norms.
The world needs more meaning that has been lost and overwhelmed by noise. And that meaning can be delivered by the things each of us is creating, if we CARE. So, what do YOU care about the most? What is meaningful for you?
I asked myself, where do I personally want to create that meaning?
User experience can be more meaningful: if it solves the problem, drives a positive behaviour change, and creates a positive and pleasant visual feeling.
A career can be moreĀ meaningful,Ā non-linear, and diverse, and it should be aligned with your inner beliefs and intentions, which can change over time.
Connections should be more meaningful: if we're in the workplace, or with friends, or with a loved one, we need to have shared values and deep, thoughtful conversations about them
Self-exploration can be moreĀ meaningful:Ā if we have time to look deep inside on a regular basis, not just simply swim with the flow of external waves that are pushing us somewhere.
That list could go on, but I've been chased away by the noise of daily life. I realised this is the time to take another intentional pause and keep searching.
In April, I went to the mountains in Spain. I spent 5 days there, mostly staying silent, practicing yoga, walking on the hills barefoot, and self-reflecting.
But I didnāt expect that MY reflections would hit me, but the story of a Dani Benito Po ā the owner of the Yoga Retreat I visited this spring.
3. The Creator Spotlight āļø Dani Benito, a Co-director of Casa Cuadrau: Yoga, Art, and Nature Centre.
This story started more than 20 years ago, when Dani first came to this place near AƱisclo Canyon in Sapin. That time, Dani was an architect in Barcelona with a stable job and a lifetime hobby of hiking.
In 2004, he saw that place, and it just HIT him. This was one of the most uninhabited places in Pyrenees, and he envisioned his dream ā to rebuild one of those houses with the aim of bringing it back to life. It took him almost 10 years, but he did that.
"That day, in front of that ruin, this adventure began, the most important journey of my life. From that moment on, I didn't stop for a moment; I got to work.
ā Dani shared in his interview with āTravelerā magazine.
A couple of years later, Dani saw the sign āFor Saleā. He couldnāt resist his passion to leap into this dream, so he leaped. It wasnāt logical, rational ā it was a purely intuitive choice that he made.
He didnāt have enough savings to renovate this place, which was just a pile of stones. But he had something more important than money ā a commitment to realise his dream.
Dani quit his job as an architect and decided to move to India to live a more ordinary life. He rented out his property in Barcelona and reinvested any resources he gained to rebuild this place from the ground up. During this period of his life, he met Katya, who later became his wife and Co-director of Casa Cuadrau.
In 2008, they moved back to this place and organized their first volunteer retreat.Ā There was no money involvedāpeople came to spend a week with yoga and mountains in exchange for helping with cleaning the space, moving bricks, and preparing for the construction work. Six people came to help them, and it was the most meaningful contribution.
We were sitting in the dining area of this beautiful house, and Dani was sharing his story. Every element of this made my heart beat faster. Letās see what was next.
Four years later, they finished the first step of construction and opened the place for the first official retreat. Only 1 person signed up for it.
It felt like a joke ā after almost 10 years of following the dream, it didnāt pay off. But Dani and Katya didnāt give up ā they kept moving on. Next year, their place was finished and hosted 100+ people in a year.
I asked Dani: āHow did that growth happen from 1 to 100 visitors?ā
Dani answered: āCommunity. People who came just loved what they experienced. They told their friends, came a second time, and we were always glad to see them backā.
This is what Iām doing right now ā telling YOU his story.
On one hand, it sounds like he did it by himself, but it was a perfect tandem. A couple who became both life and business partners.
Katya studied Business Administration and Marketing and could make the project visible, but she was also a passionate Yoga teacher.
Dani was a hands-on force of that initiative, rebuilding the place from scratch, learning new things, completing yoga training, and listening to his deeper interests.
When I see tandems like this, it feels like a miracle. Like the universe connected these people to realise a meaningful mission for the world. On the Growthmates podcast, I had an interview with Marie Martens (Co-founder at Tally.so) that they could build as a couple and partners in life, and in 4 years, they got to $2M ARR. It makes me believe that there are more creative tandems like this that the world has to see.
I want to serve the mission of bringing light to stories like this and make them visible to this emerging community.
If youāre looking for a place to reconnect with nature and yourself through yoga and other mindful practices,Ā Casa CuadrauĀ is the perfect place that will stay forever in my heart, and I hope Iāll come back. š¤
4. The Creators who inspired last month š
I hope Iām not alone in this world who gets inspiration from other creative people. One observation that I recently made is that for my whole life, and most importantly for the periods of self-search and transformation, I surrounded myself with creative people and their work.
If it helped me, maybe it can help you on your path. To make it a lovely ritual for self-reflection, Iāll be sharing inspiring people and some references to their work here. This is my list from the past month
1. āCreative Act: A Way of Beingā by Rich Rubin.
This book is my constant source of inspiration. In my recent post, I summarised 10 lessons and how these principles have shifted my work and life.
š« Unblock Your Creativity: 10 Lessons from Rick Rubin (and How I Use Them)
I used to have clear answers to most questions I asked myself:
2. Salvador DalĆ ā Museum and Theatre in Figueres.
DalĆ turned his entire life into art. He designed his own museum in Spain as a surrealist dream, and is buried under its stage.
He redefined surrealism on his own terms. While others painted dream-like scenes, he lived inside the dream, blending memory, fear, time, and myth.
DalĆ lived for 84 years, leaving behind over 1,500. Most importantly, he made the subconscious visible and tangible.
If youāre in Spain or traveling to Barcelona, it is my highest recommendation to spend a day in this magical place.
shared that he also loved it š
3. GaudĆ Architecture in Barcelona.
āOriginality consists in returning to the originā.
A. Gaudi.
This simple quote illuminates a deep meaning. GaudĆ treated nature as the deepest source of inspiration for his work, so he avoided sharp corners in his architecture and interiors. Sharp corners donāt exist in nature.
Whatās your source of origin? Where could you return to? I started asking this question myself. Letās see where it leads me.
5. What to expect here šļø
This is my creative experiment. I want to keep sharing stories in this rubric once a month in a similar format:
Self-discovery reflections ā the insights that can help to move along the Creative Path.
Creator Spotlight ā a selected story of other creators, business owners, and brave people who pivoted their lives and built a meaningful job and career.
Who inspired me ā a list of creative resources and works to support your self-discovery.
For now, Iām sharing these stories just with everyone here. But as an independent solo worker, Iād have to find a way to sustain building and sharing things here.
If you enjoy theĀ Growthmates newsletter,Ā please consider becoming a paid subscriber to receive more stories (both professional and personal growth) for the cost of two cups of coffee āļø. This contribution is a meaningful gesture of support that can help me keep creating and sharing stories like this.
How else can I be useful š
While I keep exploring my Creative Path, I still do many other things that contribute to my mission to help youĀ grow meaningful products, careers, and experiences that delight your users.
There are 5 ways in which I serve businesses and individual growth:
Tell the world about your product and co-create meaningful content for a vibrant product & design community.
Letās fix your Onboarding and uplift the first user experience in 2 weeks.
User-centric Growth Course (100$ off š) ā
Build your Growth roadmap from Quick Wins to Big Bets by combining behavioural science and proven growth strategies.
Product-led Growth: Advising Program ā
Letās enable the Product-led Growth for your B2B or B2C product and uplift the user experience in 3 months.
DM me on LinkedIn if youād like to chat about your career challenges, motivations, and transitions.
This is all for today, dear readers. Thank you for reading š
If you found this helpful, please share your reaction and leave some comments. It would give me huge support to continue creating this.
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With best regards,
Kate Syuma