Creativity professor Juan Munoz published his newsletter for 162 weeks in a row. Here's how his experiments paid off. |

What if school got learning wrong? Here's how university creativity professor Juan Munoz is making more impression as a creative by first becoming a better student.

The first day of class, creativity and innovation instructor Juan Munoz said to his students that they were free to submit their assignments in any manner they chose.

"It can be written in pencil, in your own handwriting and it could be written using a computer, it may be a video or you can make it a podcast, are free to do what you wish to accomplish. If you want to send a messenger to do your work it's okay. It's not necessary to be constrained by a sheet of paper, and Google Doc," he advised.

But even with this freedom, his university students still turned in identical PDFs with identical formatting each and every time.

"I was so angry," Juan remembers. "I thought this was the simplest task on earth. How can they learn creativity if they can't complete this task?"

The pattern continued to develop, Juan wondered if there was a bigger issue in play.

"Students have been programmed through ten or 15 years at schools for ten, fifteen years. We've taught them that regardless of whether or not you're excellent, you'll receive an unfavorable grade if you deviate from whatever template that teacher gave them to follow. It's a fear that's inherent in breaking away from the norm."

Juan realized that the internalized program was hurting creativity, and he wanted to improve things.

Juan was a teacher who loved his job, however he felt constricted by University rules. When he had free time and reading TechCrunch and other entrepreneurial publications and was given the idea to start a business.

In the beginning, there was no thriving entrepreneurial ecosystem in his home country, Costa Rica, so Juan determined to get things moving.

"I am a civil engineer with a degree and knew that people would think, 'What is this person's knowledge of business?' So the first thing I did was I put all my thoughts on a blog, and then disseminated them. My creator journey began through sharing my thoughts online and sharing what I can achieve."

Today, Juan teaches creativity, setting goals, entrepreneurship, and business via his online education platform called Epico Academia . He offers online courses, a library of free classes, as well as a weekly email newsletter to help users live more artistic and life-changing lives.

Here's how experimenting, taking new paths and constantly studying has helped Juan to build a successful online business and unlock a holistic approach to entrepreneurship that's fulfilling and fun.

What can you do to present content with a style that doesn't feel as if you're in a classroom

Through his years of experience as a course creator as a university professor, creating content was not a problem for Juan. It was just a matter of figuring out the most effective approach to delivering that material.

"The greatest obstacle is getting people to watch the content we make," Juan shares.

"People purchase a course however only a small percentage of them will take the course. It's almost like being in school. Although nobody's forcing me to take part and I'm interested, my brain goes back to school mode. There's a teacher, there are classes, and classes are offered."

And Juan started experimenting with other ways to present his messages to his followers.

"What if I try the email-based course where you get a great weekly email for the duration of a year ? or TikTok-style content, only 30-second videos. Can I create an online course that has a lot of 30 second videos? Maybe. Let me try it out and see if it works."

"I enjoy the fact that it allows me to do basically whatever content I'd like in any order I want. I can make an entire course consisting of 100, 30-second videos and have people go through them."

One test that was successful was a pro-Monday email newsletter

When it comes to experimenting, Juan experimented with something that went against the norm and found himself creating one of his top asset: The Monday newsletter .

In the early days of the online company, Juan noticed a trend.

"Every Sunday night and early on Monday, everyone would post memes about how much they hate Mondays," Juan says. "I realized that there is every day going to be a Monday. You can't escape it. So why are you still stuck on this?"

"I realized that they are exactly the people who contact me and tell me"I'm unhappy with my life, I don't love my job and want to improve, There was a pattern. I am a huge fan of branding and marketing and thought that it would be a great brand idea because it's easy to be a grumpy Monday. There's already a group to help you with that and it's a big club. However, how can you achieve something different?"

Juan started a newsletter all about how much he loved Mondays. He would offer a tip, concept, or thought that can aid his readers to get the most of their day.

"It attracted lots of people because people were dissatisfied with a situation in their life and I talked about methods to make their lives more enjoyable. It made people question, 'Why do I hate Monday?'"

Today, this experiment-turned-newsletter continues to grow through word-of-mouth referrals, and Juan still loves writing it every week.

In order to become a better writer be sure to get as much knowledge as you can about the topics you're interested in

It's not every thought that comes together in the same way as the Monday newsletter And Juan found that the best way to get clarity on concepts for content and product ideas was to study again.

"I'm constantly amazed by the fact that we get to be a part of a community that we are able to learn from everyone and that anyone is able to benefit from our lessons. It's amazing. If I'm a marble enthusiast I'll be able to discover someone interested in marbles and teach me new things. It could be that they're in Singapore and I may not know their name, but I can benefit from their writings."

To become a successful creator in the near future, take as many classes as you can on your subjects of interest.

"I encourage people to read everything they're interested about," Juan recommends. "Often you can even find no-cost content on social networks. And when you consume material, you realise that it's not all that complicated. This guy is speaking about marbles. You don't have to have the Ph.D. in a subject."

"There were specialists," Juan explains. "There were experts who could know every aspect of a particular subject, but there was a small quantity of data available. The information available was not as vast as the information we get today. the information was kept in a place. It was clear that there was one person who had all the information and was the expert. This isn't the case anymore."

"There are plenty of people who are knowledgeable as well as a lot of people that know a little however there's always somebody who knows less than you. You can create content for them and still be able to make an impact."

Simply put, the more you go out and gain knowledge, the more information you'll be able to share with people in your life. If you're stuck on what to do or how, try switching roles and being a student once more to rekindle your passion.

How would you feel if you made things to enjoy doing it?

One of the biggest learnings Juan has learned from his business journey is that there are many different ways people can be passionate about their work.

Creating also shouldn't be all about reaching a particular outcome or financial goal, nor a followers count. Instead, you should find a compromise between Telic and Atelic objectives.

"Telic goals" are those which have a fixed result that can be measured. Atelic goals are good to achieve for the sole purpose of accomplishing these. It is my opinion that people should create with both kinds of objectives in mind." Juan shares.

"If you're actually helping people, then it doesn't matter whether it's one person or one million."

Additionally, there's value to your work simply existing in the world.

"If you post tweets, an Instagram post , or video and nobody is able to see the message, it's not gone. Someone can find it eventually. Also, getting likes on a post and helping people with your blog post are two different aspects. I like a variety of things that I don't double-tap. Just because nobody double-tapped your post or retweeted your tweet can't be a reason to dismiss it as not beneficial."

"Creating is a very visceral experience. It's a feeling, it's vulnerable, it's very sincere," Juan relates. "It's a picture of you and how you feel about yourself, and then putting it on the internet and not having person take notice is horrible."

"But even if no one buys it, it's still valuable. It still taught you a lot. It can be used in consulting or your next job, or in any other. No one can ever take it from you. That's soul bound."

To keep in touch with what really matters, Juan explains how important it is to remember where you came from and be proud of what you've accomplished to date.

"I recommend that creators keep a journal and consider your current work by looking at yourself five years ago. Or 10 years ago and twenty years in the past. Ask yourself what you would think about your work now. Since in the past you'd likely consider it to be great."

And lastly, Juan reminds creators that most important is to get your work there. It isn't about getting records-breaking sales, fans, or clients.

"I consider it arrogant think that people will not like the product you offer. This is because you're making a the decision on behalf of someone else. Let them make the decision. If they're interested and want it, they'll get it. If they don't want it, they'll never. It's just a matter of making accessible to them. Take a deeper look at the world, learn all you can and then make choices that other people make. own choices."

"Create your own thing, and then put it on the market, Juan advises. "You don't know what's going to take place next."