What’s Your One Word?

✏️ Where creative innovation really comes from ✏️

Oct 19, 2025

This past week, I took off and spent a few days in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Below, you’ll see a picture of me the last time I was there, when I was seven years old, and another of me today, returning to the same mountains.

There’s something about going back to a place from your childhood that grounds you. You see how much has changed and how much hasn’t.

But on the flight back to San Francisco, gearing up again for the beautiful chaos that is running Creatorwood, I was listening to a podcast that really stuck with me.

It was Jon Youshaei interviewing Airrack about his comeback on YouTube (it’s well worth a listen).

Now, I actually know Airrack. I interned for him in college, and hearing him talk about his evolution hit me hard.

He talked about how there’s a pressure on creatives to keep growing, to chase trends, to hop from idea to idea… and we end up losing track of who we really are.

And man, that hit home.

Because it’s true, whether you’re a YouTuber, a filmmaker, or an author, it’s so easy to jump on the next shiny idea instead of building from your center.

I’ve talked before about this in the context of authors, building your author brand, the kind of clarity we explore in the Author Marketing Superpowers Deck, but what Airrack said next added a new layer.

He said he filters every idea through one word.

Just one.

It’s his brand’s anchor, his one-word filter.

That word for him is mischief.

And it completely changes how he approaches trends.

For example, if the trending topic is “planes,” here’s how three different creators would filter it (2 of which I’ve worked for lol):

MrBeast → Spectacle → $1 vs. $100 million plane.
Ryan Trahan → Quirky → Riding the weirdest, oldest plane still in service.
Airrack → Mischief → Sneaking onto a private jet.

Same trend.

Three entirely different stories.

That’s the power of a one-word filter.

Working deep in the YouTube world, I’ve seen how these kinds of creative filters shape virality. But honestly, they apply just as much to authors.

Take the trope “enemies to lovers.”

Now put it through different one-word filters:

Cozy → Two bookstore owners competing over the same block.
Adventurous → Rivals forced to survive together on an expedition.
Revenge → Two political foes caught in a cycle of betrayal, where love feels like the final act of vengeance.

It’s the same trope, but completely different energy.

Sometimes, we overcomplicate this stuff. We build elaborate decks and persona charts, try to systemize creativity, when in reality…

You might just need one word.