Alignment Over Algorithms with Brent
[00:00:00] Welcome to this episode of Business as Unusual. Today, we're diving into the world of creative flow, inner alignment, and the power of embracing vulnerability with our guest, Brent, also known as Realm Seeker, a multidisciplinary creator with a background in psychology, music, education, and solo RPG World Building.
We'll explore why creativity is about the journey, not just the outcome. How giving up trying can lead to your best ideas and why authentic connection matters more than chasing algorithm. Stick around for practical tips on preventing burnout, building creative confidence and finding community as you bring your unique projects to life.
Aicila: Welcome to Business as Unusual. Today I am with Brent, also known as Realm Seeker, and, uh, they are a postgraduate psychology student.
Turned multidisciplinary creator with over 30 years in music. 10 years in education and over seven years in solo RPG World building [00:01:00] roleplaying games. He now blends audio writing and visual art to build immersive creative experiences rooted in visionary fiction and spiritual creativity. work explores flow, inner alignment, and the quiet magic of showing up. And thank you. Welcome to the show, Brent.
Brent: Hey, thank you for having me. I'm excited to share some of my thoughts with you.
Aicila: Yeah, I'm excited to have, have you bring some of these different perspectives out for folks. So I'll dive right in and ask, is there something you wish more people knew about being creative?
Brent: This is something I've explored throughout my life. Um, I, I recently, in the last few years discovered that I have other aspects of creativity like visual art and actually writing. And most of my life I had this narrative telling myself I can't draw because I'm not a you know, trained artist or my drawings are really squiggly and nothing to take serious. And just a, a quick story of how it happened is, one day I just decided [00:02:00] to trace one of my son's abstract splatter paintings. I saw some patterns. Sometimes when you look at clouds you can see kind of some patterns, and I just started tracing and I just found myself doing it all day, all night.
Seven days a week. And, uh, it's a, I found out too, my uncle is an abstract artist painter. So he suggested I try that and I just felt completely in love with just the act of creating and just experimenting. And, um, like my goal was to get into what I would call the flow state into where, um, you know, where I'm.
Creating and I completely forget about my regular life or paying bills and things I have to do, and I'm just really, really focused into this moment. Um, and that's taken some work for me to, to work [00:03:00] on and to, um. Also the challenge for me has been like how to share my art with people. 'cause it's one thing to make it and enjoy it for myself, but sharing it with other people online and stuff is, is something I've, I've struggled with over the years.
Yeah. I.
Aicila: Yeah, I can feel vulnerable. And something that you said, uh, in our pre-chat that some of your best ideas came when you gave up trying, and I thought that was an interesting perspective. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Brent: Yeah. I think a good quote to go through in life is to expect the unexpected and, I. Uh, some of the best examples I can think of is going back to my, my music days it transfers to other forms of creativity, but, um, we used to do, uh, jam sessions where I would be playing with a couple other musicians and we'd be practicing and we'd record ourselves on a little cassette tape.
And then after the jam session, we'd be listening to [00:04:00] it. And a few times, one of us made a mistake. But then as we listened to it over and over again, it kind of, kind of grew on us and ended up becoming the hook to the actual song and getting developed. And this has happened, throughout where I found myself starting a project like with my solo RPG for example, which I, I got into around 2020 and I'll, I'll talk about that in a little bit but it's a very interesting art form because you are doing this by yourself, but there's so much potential. But as I got into it and started learning the rules and the mechanics, I quickly got pulled away into world building where I just got fascinated in terms of building different factions and cultures.
And, so one thing can lead to, uh, another, and that's a challenge for me because I'm a, I just love learning new things and, um. So I have to kind of prioritize what [00:05:00] I'm gonna share and whatnot.
Aicila: Yeah. W you talk a little bit about alignment over algorithm and the, the energy behind the work. So spiritual practices for creative, sustain sustainability and burnout's a real thing. So can you share a couple of, uh, tips or tricks or things that you kind of, uh, people can get a sense of what you mean by that?
Brent: Sure. A book that I recommend would be The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. , It's not a traditional book that you read, cover to cover has 12 chapters in it.
And the premise of the book is that creativity is very interchangeable with spirituality. Yeah. And, so a lot of creators are, you could say, like recovering or trying to, unlock their creativity. And a lot of people go through live thinking that maybe one day they'll do this dream project [00:06:00] or, you know, when I have extra time I will do X, Y, and Z.
And, as I read the book and reread it, I just realized how. Passionate I am about, creativity. And I guess one of the, this is, this is a challenge, I would say, but when I was first creating, I just put no pressure on myself. It was just experimentation. And for me it was more about the actual process than the end product. Because I just got so much, so much value out of creating that I would be working on multiple paintings at a time, and soon as I finished one, I would jump into another one. I didn't really wanna post it or talk about it. I just wanted to keep creating and, and making more things. And I think another challenge is just to be like authentic and not worry about I need to do a certain technique that's popular, [00:07:00] or this is gonna get me more attention if I go this route.
It's, it's, very challenging because part of the creative process is failing over and over again and learning from those failures. And, a lot of people. I don't want to publicly fail or admit that, yes, this was a mistake, and then I went from here and moved on to another thing. , And
Aicila: don't like that.
Brent: Right.
Aicila: That's very vulnerable and uncomfortable.
Brent: Yeah.
Right, right. , And I, I guess the other thing too is just through the experimentation, kind of finding what, I like and don't like, and I would share that I have found myself. Doing things that I would not visualize myself doing. I mean, I've surprised myself. Just a quick example, when I started getting into world building and I came across this challenge of how do I name places or how do I name characters or different species, and there's [00:08:00] lots of different ways he can go about it, but I got so.
Passionate about this. I would be like in bed with a notebook next to me. An idea would come and I'd be jotting it down. I would find myself going through these random name generators for hours and hours and just picking off the few that I really enjoyed. And so I, I guess I could share that as well, is that, um, if you find yourself.
Looking forward, which, oh my gosh, that's such an amazing thing. Like I would wake up in the morning, or I still do wake up in the morning, and one of the first thoughts I have is, how much time do I have today to work on my creative stuff? Like I've really, you know, on the other hand, the other challenge can be where there's the other aspect of, being a creative artist is the, you know, communication, marketing, and a lot of areas that, , are not comfort zones for me.
But, you know,, it, it's a process. But, um, that's something [00:09:00] I've kind of been trying to get some help with. And I'm actually. Gone. I've, I've done quite a bit just to share, like I, I, I had a podcast back in 2019 that it did for a while. I've done a art website. I have now a solo RPG world building website.
And I used to play in bands and I used to record music and, I. Honestly, too, I, I was not super interested in trying to put my work out there for people to purchase. I, I was just really interested in meeting other creative people initially and kind of finding out what kind of things they do. I, I'm on a really interesting path and, um, when we get, when we get a little deeper, I can explain some of the recent things that have come up that have been pretty interesting for me.
Aicila: Mm-hmm. So if, what is it? Do you have, uh, any Uh, because I'm not, I feel like [00:10:00] I'm trying to take what you were sharing. And see if I can distill it down to something like the guidance, and I think what I was hearing is one way to prevent burnout is to be doing things that you wake up excited to do. The other is to not be so afraid to put things out before they're done.
Are those, that kind of part of what you were saying, or did
Brent: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, here, I'll, I'll, um, let me answer this with a quick story that is, um, I really like to share.
Aicila: sounds
Brent: Yeah. So there's Icelandic singer that many people have heard. Her name is Bjork. And, um, when I discovered her. I listened to her albums like over and over and over again. I was very fascinated by her songwriting and her, um, her voice and whatnot.
So I have a DVD where she's, getting interviewed and she's talking about she makes this, this question so simple. You know what? How did you find out that you wanted to play music? And she said, it's [00:11:00] just so simple because when I listen to music, I get goosebumps. And so it's like, and her son is interested in, , script writing.
And so when he watches a movie or an interesting scene, it gives him goosebumps. And that I've as a. Psychology background. I've looked into this and not everyone necessarily gets goosebumps from listening to music. For whatever reason, I really can get affected by music, um, daily. Every morning I can throw on a song and you'll either be, both my arms are goosebumps, or all four of my limbs, the back of my neck.
And so that's. Yeah, that's something I can remember. This is hard to like quantize, but when I was a, when I was a kid going to concerts and I would, you know, hear a band and it would just completely move me. Like it would motivate me so much that I would want to be able to give back at some point. But it's a [00:12:00] difficult thing to measure.
Um, yeah.
Aicila: Mm-hmm. What does success look like for you?
Brent: I think success for me would be, especially networking and meeting other creative people. And then finding a way to get my work out. , So for example, I'm looking at, um, writing a. A class for solo RPGs for how to solo RPG as a beginner. , And I found someone who's looking for that and so I might be able to get on their platform.
Um, but I do wanna share something that I'll just be really honest because I, you know, I'm an only child and I spend a lot of time, by myself, and so I've not really been a performer per se. I was always the quiet bass player in the back. The singer of my band or the guitarist, they would always be getting the gigs or talking to people and networking, but I just kind of [00:13:00] showed up, did my thing.
And so I have really dealt with quite a bit of, just f fear or just being really afraid of putting my work or my thoughts out there. And I really recognize it's, it, it's an irrational fear. It's, it's literally being afraid of what strangers might think about me. Like people I ne might never meet.
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Brent: and I think it comes from, you know, imposter syndrome is pretty common for all creative people. I can, but I've, I've really lost quite a bit of time. I guess if you look at it, when I started doing art, it took me at least a year, a year and a half before I was able to post anything online.
Aicila: Mm-hmm.
Brent: And I've also had a couple setbacks where and I share this because it might have some value for other people who are out there.
I was getting all this momentum and. Uh, you know, starting to make some [00:14:00] YouTube episodes, but then things in real life changed where my schedule just completely changed and I took it really hard. I, I basically deleted everything offline and had to start from scratch, you know, after recovering for a while and stuff.
And so I, that's, I mean, when you get into, like tapping into your creative side, there's. Yeah, there's a lot I do in terms of like, I hand write three pages in the morning every day to try to get my thoughts out and I have this relationship with what I call my inner artist. And these concepts are in the artist's way.
But it's, it's like this inner artist that's inside of you that is kind of like a child. He always wants to come out and play. He wants to play with, you know, art or with music and. I have to like have a relationship and tell it. Sometimes I'm busy today, we'll get back to that later. But what can happen is that inner artists can start.[00:15:00]
Really taking over. And I have found myself, you know, getting very emotional or even having like a, some sort of a shutdown or a tantrum when I, when things didn't work out and I couldn't go to an art gallery, or I had to stop working because I had to go pick someone up. And I really have to learn that life happens.
I can't, you know, it's kind of a perfectionist thing, but I have to be flexible and go with the flow of life. And so, uh, I recently have started kind of coming out and trying to really meet other people, and I've, I've been pretty lucky. I've had some success and it's just made the world of a difference to me.
Just this, this also my, my, . Kind of resonate with some of some listeners, but you know, being an only child, and creating can be a very solo thing. Like I spent a lot of time by myself doing things and so I found myself. Pretty [00:16:00] isolated because the people around me not just are not interested in some of the, the things I'm doing, and that's fine.
Um, but not having anyone to talk to. Just the, like, does, does my work make any sense here or is this have any value? Uh, as more time passed, it became more and more difficult for me to reach out or to try to contact someone. Um, and so that's something I really. Struggled with, um, because on one hand the internet offers us just this unlimited, you know, you can go to message boards, you can just put your ideas out there and stuff.
But I found myself very hesitant and reluctant. And I just wanted to meet a couple people too. So I'm not, I'm not wanting to necessarily be, you know, like famous or, but I wanted to be able to just have a kind of a quality. Relationship with some other creators and, it's, it's taken time, [00:17:00] but I've, I feel like I've gotten really lucky recently where I've met, some authors and some, I, uh, reconnected with a musician recently and, um, so yeah, I guess I'm trying to find.
Success where, I can be getting my ideas out and collaborating with people. And then,
Aicila: Hmm.
Brent: yeah, see where things go from there.
Aicila: Yeah, that's, I, it's always lovely to have people to, to relate to In, in your work and your creativity. what advice would you give your 18-year-old self?
Brent: Oh, my 18-year-old self. Well, I have to say too that I grew up in the analog era, and we are now, we are now in the digital era, so it is a lot different. But I actually, I think the, the best advice I would give would to be with the say. Be open-minded, be open to all genres of music [00:18:00] and ideas and philosophy.
I'll just share because when I was younger, I was really into heavy metal as a musician, and I, I, I was a music snob. I will totally admit it. You know, I went around thinking, well, if that music isn't like hardcore, it's just wimpy and I don't like it, you know? And I had a friend like sit me down one time and said, Brent.
You know, you should just listen to rap. Just check it out first. Don't even, you know, maybe you'll like it, but you should not close your mind to entire areas of music, just 'cause you, you know, have this preset notion. And, funny enough, I actually started liking some rap, but I ended up getting into like a jazz improv band where I was playing the bass and there was a drummer, a saxophone, and a
there was a rotation of mc, so I was playing with rappers and I loved it. But before that, just a few years before that, I could not have seen that because I was just into, you know, metal and fast [00:19:00] music and that's all there was. So I mean, I'm very eclectic now and I can appreciate all kinds of, different types of music and whatnot.
So opening your mind to just. Different styles of art. It's really important. I think there's that saying where as a musician, what you listen to is almost as important as practicing your instrument. You need to listen to like the high quality, the masters or be exploring for some hidden gem out there.
It's, um, part of the gig. Yeah,
Aicila: Yeah. That's a good advice, I think, regardless of your industry. Thank you for sharing.
Brent: sure.
Aicila: What's something you are excited about in your business?
Brent: I am, I am very excited because I am working on this class, this online course, and I don't think there are too many. Courses out that walk someone through how to play a solo RPG. [00:20:00] And to be fair, there's no one answer to that. There's, you know, very, there's, you can customize and there's different types of solo RPGs now online on message boards almost every day I will see people asking.
How do you do this? Like, I have all the books, I have my character sheet, what do I do? Like how do I start? And, one of the challenges is that you're the player. You're also the dungeon master, and you're also also the story writer. So you're playing three roles at the same time. And it's, it's very different because you have to be able to still surprise yourself.
You can't know where everything is in, in the world and stuff. So, I. I stuck with it. It took me quite a while to, to get it to work out, but it was so rewarding and I just didn't realize that people are very interested in, in this like art form. It's, it's fairly new. It, I think people are interested because [00:21:00] they can play anytime they want.
They can customize their world and explore moral dilemmas or different situations. And some people do it just for the game, like to play the game, enjoy it. Other people wanna use it, to write a story or to even, um, yeah, to, to actually go, go that route and stuff. And then there's also lit RPG, which is, , when you have, uh, like a.
A combat, and then it would be showing all the statistics going on, how many hit points, armor class and stuff. And so, uh, I was exploring all of these. And so that's one of my challenges too, is to, pick one spot and focus on it. But I, I feel like. There's really is like a need for some sort of beginner class, and as I'm writing it, it's not as easy as I would've thought because it gets very technical where you have [00:22:00] to really explain all these different aspects.
I, I, I've taught tennis and I've taught computers and math and so. Like with tennis, for example, I've been playing tennis all my life, but if I teach someone, I have to really remember that they're starting from scratch. I can't assume that they know how to hold the racket or where to stand. And so with the solo RPG, it's very technical 'cause I'm going over a lot of information. But I think it's very helpful because myself, when I was researching it, I was reluctant to ask questions, because. There are some people out there that are really experts and, uh, you know, they'll point you to articles and stuff, but, uh, I, I really felt overwhelmed. I still kind of do, but I felt overwhelmed when I just discovered solo RPGs because there are really different areas that you can go into.
Um, and so I've kind of found my own comfort zone [00:23:00] and, yeah, I'm, I feel like there's, there's a lot of potential there to teach other people how to use it, use it as a tool for some self self-exploration or exploring their characters and plots. And I think, just to wrap this up again, I want to really work with other people.
I love working by myself and doing my creative thing. Getting into the zone is kind of like being able to dance or sing when no one's around, which is,
Aicila: Mm.
Brent: you know, singing in the car when you're driving or dancing. But you have to really get into this free, kind of a, um, conscious state. And then ideas will come to me that I would not expect.
That's, yeah, that's, that's another thing that I just am so. Excited to just learn, how different authors put ideas together. Yeah.
Aicila: For folks that are listening to this and they wanna get [00:24:00] involved or talk to you about RPGs or, you know, learn more, what's the best way for them to do that?
Brent: Um, yeah, the best place to find me would be on, um, Substack, and that would just be realm zone, all one word. Do substack.com. Yeah.
Aicila: Well, thank you so much for sharing your journey and your creativity with us, and, uh, I appreciate you taking the time today.
Brent: Sure. Thank you very much.
Really appreciate Brent and his tips on creative flow, experimenting without fear, and prioritizing inner alignment over algorithms and how that can lead to authentic work and even help prevent burnout.
If you wanna dive deeper into solo RPGs or creative practices, check out Brent's work@realmzone.substack.com. Next week, join me in discovering how cultural physicist Avanti Daniels is reshaping the way we think about culture, technology, and power. One unconventional strategy at a time.
Thank you for tuning [00:25:00] into business as unusual. Remember, in this ever evolving world of modern business, it's not about fitting in. It's about standing out. See you next time. Stay curious, stay innovative, and and always keep it unusual.
