The Strength to Smile, July & August 2025

Creating Amidst the Noise, July & August 2025

From a Moroccan Coffee House in Downtown Ann Arbor.

The past month went by in the blink of an eye. August is now almost done, and as I think about what to write for this newsletter, one theme keeps coming to mind: Remember to celebrate your small victories.

I believe the culture of social media has inflated our sense of success, to the point where I often find myself remaining unhappy until I reach views or numbers that are pretty extraordinary, but social media has conditioned us to believe it is standard. Imagine you are speaking to a room of people. Imagine 500 people came to hear you speak. That would feel like a huge number, and would probably make you very nervous, but also feel proud. Time goes on, and word spreads about you and more people naturally come. After some time, that number is now 1,000, then 5,000, then 10,000. There is nothing wrong with hungering for that 10,000 when you have not achieved it yet, but without the trust and relationship you develop with the initial audience, you will never grow to that point.

That is the theme for this newsletter. It is learning to appreciate the present to build a foundation for what is to come.

I write this in a quiet cafe that just opened recently. I was greeted by smiling staff before I asked some questions about Moroccan coffee and their food, unsure of what to expect, but as I spent more time there, I fell in love with it, and something dawned on me.

In more ways than one, I may be one of their initial audience members. I may be the same for them as others who land on Creative Philomath’s page for the first time, or stumble on us through their feeds. I realized I tend to see small numbers on Instagram and feel ungrateful, because that is how my mind has unfortunately been conditioned to see it.

But at Mynt House Cafe, they smiled. They helped me. They gladly prepared my meal. They were not unappreciative or inpatient, and as I write out my updates for this letter, I thought about how my mindset may need to change, and I encourage you to ponder what areas you may be able to do the same.

The World of Tian: A Step Back to Leap Forward

For any newcomers here, welcome! To get you up to speed, the World of Tian is what I call my yet to be named work-in-progress, which is a fantasy novel focused on Toren, a young, deposed king who has had his whole life ripped away from him. His status, his wealth, his safety, even tragically, his family. The story shows him navigating a land that was once ruled by him, and watching it be transformed by a rival who seeks to use the land and its people to achieve his magical and dark ambitions. 

It covers the impacts of immense loss, but also the ability for kindness, love, and courage to still break through the darkest days. He finds himself in the company of those who will grow to love him regardless of who he is, and we will see him form the strength and courage to put himself at the front in order to try and give those behind him a better tomorrow. Will he be able to do what all of his predecessors have failed to do? Which is to create a world derived from justice and compassion.

So where am I with this?

• Re-outlining the story - I learned a new word this past month from the author community, which is “pantser.” It is a term used to describe writers who do not meticulously plan their books and stories and tend to write “by the seat of their pants.” I have discovered during this journey that I am a combination of a pantser and a plotter. Having a story outline and outlining my main characters has helped me immensely with writing and keeping my story on track, but I realized that some of the best moments written so far were unplanned. The outline I spent too much time working on at the beginning of this project had several plot points and details that I felt no longer fit the story. To address this, I set aside time to re-do my story outline - and this time I left much more room for the writing experience to organically fill in the blanks. Story structure is important, but instead of having dozens of bullet points to each chapter, I focused on planning the goal of each chapter, what I wanted to achieve for both character development, and moving the characters closer to the climax of the story.

• Getting questions answered with the help of a friend - I cannot stress this enough, when you are a new writer and you feel stuck in the weeds of your story, talking with another writer or creative minded friend is so important! This is my first time writing such a large piece with so many different details, magic-systems, and story arcs. I felt stuck on a lot of key aspects of these topics, but talking about it with my friend Jacob, who just happens to be the CEO and other co-founder of Creative Philomath, helped me solve some of these questions. I love information and was tempted to fill my story with so much info and details about the world, but Jacob helped me remember that simple is a lot of times better. Keeping some sense of mystery in the world, its magic, and its history often adds more depth to the story rather than shoving more and more info into the faces of my readers. It is important to save space for the story to focus on what is most important-the key messages and themes I want readers to experience

Creative Philomath: The Load Feels Lighter When Shared By a Friend

Starting Creative Philomath alongside Jacob has been a humbling, daunting, yet exciting experience. The challenge I have been working to tackle is conveying our story, our message, and our mission to people in a way that draws people in and starts building a relationship.

During July and August:

• Creative Philomath’s Instagram has reached more than 1200 accounts and earned close to 6500 views. Part of the experience, however, is trying to refrain from focusing too much on “vanity analytics” such as overall views and instead focusing on metrics that earn meaningful interactions. More recent posts have successfully brought in an increase of people to our website, where we recently earned our first sales on apparel and an increase in newsletter subscriptions!

• New Apparel - With the launch of our apparel lines, we got to work promoting them on social media. Taking portraits of us in our designs, it was important for me to highlight the way our products fit along with their messaging. Both Jacob and I are not small dudes, and we both enjoy working out. I know personally what it is like to struggle to find clothes that both look good and fit well. I was excited when I tried on our shirts for the first time to see that they fit my upper body well, while staying close to my midsection. While we work on developing a more defined marketing campaign, I plan on keeping these at the front of my mind and at the front of our campaign: For creatives to feel seen in our clothing, to show who they are inside, and love themselves while wearing it.

• Celebrating small wins but staying focused on what’s ahead - We continue having regular conversations on future projects and products, so stay tuned for future updates!

Final Thoughts

Thank you for staying with me here.

Going into this next month, I hope you have goals. I hope you stay true to them. I hope that you also don’t neglect the present and remember to celebrate your small wins. What are some small, meaningful wins you have achieved recently? I implore you to jot those down or to think on them for a little bit. Sometimes we get too caught up in where we want to be, that we rob ourselves of the joy we can experience when we appreciate each person that is touched by our work, each person who walks away with worthwhile insight because of it, or each person who feels a little more seen.

Life and the things we peruse are often times difficult. When things are not going as planned and new challenges come your way, it is easy to become discouraged. It takes strength to choose appreciation, gratitude, and to smile when things are not easy, but when you make the conscious decision to try, it can become easier, and your future self will thank you.

Till next time,

JD Brown

Co-Founder, Creative Philomath