Fear Fades With Action
How Showing Up Silences Self-Doubt
Every time I think about coming back to the internet, my stomach twists. Putting yourself out there means opening yourself up—for criticism, rejection, and indifference. When I was in my “internet prime” as a content creator in the mid-2010s, I started to build up a callus from negativity. At first, every mean comment weighed me down, but the more I showed up, the less they stung.
Quieting the noise and focusing on what matters—creating—takes practice.
I’ve always been obsessed with reading the comments. These days, every creator will tell you not to. But at BuzzFeed, it was part of the job. The comments were essential—they told us what worked and what didn’t. Audience approval drove what we made next. But that cycle—making for validation—was exhausting.
The first time one of my videos went viral, 99% of the comments were positive. But that didn’t stop me from fixating on the one mean comment that stuck:
“Zack looks like the kind of guy who pees on the side of the toilet to not make so much noise.”
Mayday! I’ve been hit.
Why did it irritate me so much? Maybe because it was shockingly accurate (sorry, I just prefer my pee sessions low-key). Or maybe it was because some faceless stranger felt entitled to define me with a single joke. Thousands of positive comments, and yet—this one stayed in my brain rent-free.
Lately, I’ve had a lot of anxiety about Create.Repeat—the Substack, the YouTube channel, the podcast, all of it. What if people hate it? What if no one cares? What if it sucks?
Every creative knows this moment—that spiral of doubt, that fear of failure. But the only way out is through. The best way to fight fear is to do the damn thing—heart, soul, and all.
Fear fades with action. The more you put yourself out there, the easier it becomes. Eventually, your radar for negativity shrinks. You begin to see that 99.9% of the time, the criticism isn’t personal—it’s just people getting their tweets off. And even if it is personal… who cares? The internet isn’t real life. Their words mean nothing unless you give them power.
At BuzzFeed, we studied this phenomenon: virality driven by emotion. The strongest drivers weren’t always positive—anger and frustration were 5x more likely to skyrocket content. Sometimes, we’d misspell a word on purpose or create a list article with an obvious omission, just to spark engagement.
Identity + Emotion = Virality.
It’s the same strategy politicians use during election season. Ever notice how few campaign ads are positive? They’re usually attack ads—because tapping into negative emotions works.
So when you encounter a negative comment, don’t let it derail you. Most of the time, it’s meaningless noise. When you move past it, you’ll realize you’re doing this for you, not for anyone else’s validation.
And that’s when it gets easier.
Fear fades with action. Keep moving forward. You’ve got this.
Keep creating and repeating,
- Zack
P.S. Thank you so much for the kind comments on the first episode of the Create.Repeat Podcast! We’re excited to keep it going.
This week, we’re joined by Daniel Allan—an electronic music artist, producer, content creator, and all-around great hang. His song “I Just Need” has over 24 million streams on Spotify—even though it only took him 15 minutes to make.
We dive into what it takes to craft a hit song today, the grind of daily creativity, and Daniel’s inspiring journey—from growing up in Kentucky as the child of immigrants to betting on himself and moving to LA with nothing but a dream and a stash of peanut butter sandwiches.
Catch the full video on YouTube: YouTube.com/@create.repeat
Links keeping us creative:
✍️ Writing Examples: A site that offers practical writing tips by analyzing great works from famous authors and speakers.
🎞️ Frame Set: A tool for filmmakers to find visual inspiration through a searchable database of still frames.
🌳 Creative Aliveness: An essay that discusses how embracing curiosity, courage, and unstructured creative acts can make everyday life more adventurous and fulfilling.
💭 Don’t think big: “A small topic works like a catalyst for your ideas and leaves you enough room to come up with great results.”
Create.Repeat is a community for creatives.
The Create.Repeat Substack is a project designed to be a weekly diary on creativity. Sharing inspiration for artists to keep creating and repeating.
Written and curated by Zack Evans & James Warren Taylor
Each week we will be sharing recent thoughts on creativity, some links helping us stay creative, and soon will be including a talent show featuring an artist from the community. Thank you for engaging with us.
History repeats. Create the future.
Some Final Links:
Check Out The Podcast - Second Episode Out Now! 🔄
