⚡️The Art of the Start: What If You Have Already Started?
March Madness, Day 2
(Welcome to Day 2 of our March Madness series, with love from Genevieve & Ali & the Ally Show)
Let’s talk to someone who started something
Today we are sitting down with a dear friend and fellow music lover from our Course Hero days, Alex Witkowski (Instagram, LinkedIn).
Alex tackled an audacious goal for 2025 - starting his own music connection newsletter on Substack, Spin This. He graciously agreed to talk to us about the inception of this project. I see the ways he might inspire us to start something of our own just littered all over the place - see what you think.
This interview has been edited for clarity, but not for length 😈
Scroll to the end for immediate advice about how to start something of your own if you just can’t wait for that.
Q. Please tell us the backstory of how you came to start Spin This.
A. I've been very, very in love with music for a very long time, obviously, my entire life. I'm super close with my sister, and we listen to music together, and so much of what we bond around is music.
She and I came across this article that was like, at age 30, you basically stop finding new music.
That was a lot - it hit us really hard, and we spent a lot of time talking about it. We were discussing, Why do we think that is? Are we afraid that that's going to happen to us?
For me, it was very much a “wake up” moment. And I was like, okay, I need to be very intentional and invested in my love for music. I don't want to look back in the future and be like, I can't believe I used to love this, and I gave up on it. So I started doing this song-a-day playlist… that was back in 2019.
[Alex then explained the many forms that his inspiration to share music and discuss our relationship to music has taken over the years, including sharing his Spotify playlists and posting favorite songs on Instagram with prompts for others to share their favorite songs. I’ll share all these details in a future post about the importance of iteration. For now, we’ll cut to the moment when Alex started Spin This - he published his first issue on January 5, 2025, and has posted five songs weekly ever since, for a total of nine posts including today’s.]
Q. What were you thinking right as you started Spin This?
A. I was reading Meditations for Mortals, which I highly recommend. It’s a very easy read. So much of it was saying - just take the first step.
So I made a commitment to myself. I'm like, I'm not going to announce that this is a weekly thing, because then I'm putting myself in danger [of failing if I can’t post one week]. I was mostly like, let me just get the first thing out and see what happens.
Q. Why did you decide to start it right at the beginning of January?
Genevieve: You didn't say to the public, this is my annual project. But did you inside? Is the trigger the fact that it was January - how relevant was that?
A. I love neat things. I love consistency. I love even numbers, round things like that.
I would say in part, I just so happened to start reading Meditations for Mortals in December. That was like, just start small. So it was like things were just kind of bubbling up.
Also for the first time in my entire life I took two weeks off [over the winter holidays]. [Did a lot of adulting and then] I was like, Oh, wow! I actually have some space to do something. So it wasn't necessarily like an intention like, I'm starting this in January.
However, that's where my love for consistency comes into play. I do actually really like starting at the beginning of the year.
In the very back of my mind, I was asking [can I do this for 52 weeks]? Whenever I'm out on a run, I'm like, “Okay, can I make it to that telephone pole?” So I was like, can I do this for a year? It felt achievable: I think I can do this for 52 weeks.
Q. How have you been able to keep it going week after week?
A. I like the communal ritual around it - I write weekly [on Sundays], and then I have friends who read weekly and we are in conversation about it throughout the week.
I'm really surprised that I've been able to keep up with it, because I'm usually not good at things like that without an external forcing function. It's been very organic, which is kind of shocking for me. Every week I'm holding my breath - is this gonna be the week that I break the cycle?
So I've been feeling proud, and I’m feeling grateful that I have people who are engaging with me for it - that's been really helpful as well.
Q. Explain why you decided to frame this plan as a mantra rather that a traditional “New Year’s Resolution.”
A. I've tried the resolution thing in the past and it never works for me. [Resolutions] were always these personal goals to fulfill this image of being “productive,” or worthy or whatever it might be.
It was more of a challenge to think about, What are my values? What do I want to see in the world? It was easier for me to execute consistently on the idea when it's tied to what I want to see in the world. Can I do something with my hands? Can I do something that's not just passive consumption, that's not actually bringing me any joy?
And that's the whole mantra of, “You have to live in the house that you build for yourself.” Editor’s Note: this is a hugely important concept that we will return to in future posts, stay tuned.
Q. What’s behind the title, “Spin This”?
A. So many things:
I wanted to capture the idea that I don’t write negatively or critically about music. Every song I write about is because I think it’s great and want to encourage people to spin it :-)
I loved the double meaning of “Spin This”—the literal spinning of a record but also the spinning of a story around the song. What’s my “spin” on a song that I love? How do I “spin” it to talk about the meaning to me?
I love love love physical media (actually this Sunday’s piece is about that!). Though I appreciate the ways that streaming has made music so accessible, I love the ritual of handling music. So “Spin this” grounds me in my love for physical records, which has a beauty to it that a digital file could never have.
Because, in my perfect world, this becomes a little community of music lovers constantly recommending songs to each other, I liked the vernacular that anyone could use when they have a song they want to share. “Spin this!”
Q. Tell us about your brand design for Spin This.
A. I was on a call with someone once. I have a big poster wall in my apartment and in every apartment I've had for the last four apartments. I always get a lot of comments on it like wow! Or something like, Oh, that's really cool. And someone once joked, “Oh, so you're a maximalist.” And I never heard anyone say that before - I had heard “minimalist,” but never “maximalist.”
And I realized I am a maximalist. I like big design, big and bright.
Everything now is very subdued. I really want my love and excitement for this [project] to come out, and I'm worried if it's black and white and all lowercase and sans serif [people won’t get that]. I really wanted an outlet that could be as out there as I want to be. And I get very excited about stuff like this. So I wanted the colors to represent that.
Genevieve: That's all your creative work, your little brand?
A.Yeah, just quick. Banged it out in Canva. So it's not perfect. But yeah.
Now it’s your turn: How to start something
When I got off Zoom with Alex, my mind was boiling over with ideas for things I want to do, such as an annual program for this newsletter of talking to people about their own personal Projects 2025 and a poster wall for my studio at home.
I wonder if you feel the same after reading our interview?
Maybe? Any itty-bitty tiny little idea that wants to start growing?
Whether you do or not, let’s spend just five minutes today thinking about ways you can sneak up on starting something.
1. You have already started
What if I told you that you have already started?
Me: What is that tiny little project idea you have in the back of your mind but that you don’t know how to start?
You: I don’t know, Genevieve, I don’t think I have any ideas back there, I feel awful. Plus it’s Sunday, a day of rest, leave me alone
Me (wheedling): Come on, just one little idea, can you remember one little thing you wanted to do when you were a kid?
You: Oh please, get outta here with that California inner child bs, plus it’s Sunday, a day of rest, oh my God
Me (encouraging): I mean something so small and tiny, you don’t even have to be able to see it clearly, just one teeny-tiny redwood seed perhaps
You (deep sigh): Okay okay okay okay, when I was little I really wanted to make a pop-up book about dinosaurs
Me (triumphant): A-ha! The game’s afoot!
That’s right: once you have even the vaguest sense of what your idea or project might ever could ever be, you have already started.
You may be scared of starting, but just by seeing that teeny-tiny idea, you have already started working towards it. Your brain can work on things when you are not even aware of it - more on this in a minute.
2. Where’s the nearest telephone pole?
Like Alex said, sometimes when you go for a run, you look ahead and find a particular telephone pole, and you challenge yourself to run as far as that pole.
You will seldom catch me out for a run - I don’t mean I’m fast, I mean I am not gonna be out for a run pretty much ever. But I do identify my “next telephone pole” all the time - especially when I’m scared to start something.
And you are allowed to pick a telephone pole that is, like, half a block away from where you are now.
For example, for a pop-up book about dinosaurs, your next telephone pole could be:
Brainstorm 3-5 titles. Actually, one potential title is enough for today.
Write a potential opening sentence. Or even one word.
Go to the library and page through some pop-up books. If you can’t do it today, put a little block for this on your calendar for this week.
Talk to your friend who wrote a graphic novel for kids. Or set up a plan to talk to them sometime this week.
Sketch one little cute dinosaur or dinosaur face. You can bang it out in Canva. Or do a Google search for cute little dinosaur faces and see what comes up. Are any of those guys a character in your book?
Remember when Alex said it’s been helpful to have friends engage with him about each Spin This post? You’re allowed to do that too. We have the image of the solo artist but:
You can find a friend and tell them your itty-bitty idea. Just don’t talk it to death - instead, entrust it to them, and ask them if they have similar ideas of their own, and ask them to ask you how it’s going once in a while.
And/or find a community of folks making pop-up books. Start lurking around that place. See what you can learn.
3. Now mark your place
I highly highly highly recommend creating some kind of simple record or location for your project to grow.
This can take many forms:
Write in a paper notebook.
Draw in a paper sketchbook.
Get a nice old-fashioned binder and start putting stuff in it. For example, when you go to the library, make a copy of the cover of your favorite pop-up book and put it in your binder. Bonus of this one is you get to buy school supplies.
Create a Google doc.
Bang something out in Canva, and add the date in the filename so you can keep track of how your ideas develop from here.
Buy a file box and start putting stuff in it. (More school supplies!)
Bookmark a key Google search in your browser.
Why am I so insistent about finding a way to mark your place?
As I mentioned earlier, I believe that your brain (and body and mindbody and energy body &c.) can work on things without your even knowing about it. Creating a location for your ideas to grow lets the conscious part of your mind engage with the uncanny creative processes that are at work.
Ask me how I know this. (Much more on “creating a set-up” in a future post - spoiler alert, David Lynch is involved.)
Alright, team, go enjoy your Sunday, day of rest I hope, maybe walk over to one very nearby telephone pole. Maybe you have already walked over to it!
And don’t go it alone,
Genevieve
P.S. Bang it out in Canva
My 10-year-old made this photo collage of me “interviewing” Alex in about 15 minutes using Canva. Go ahead, make something.
