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Hey—It's Tim. 

Anyone else ready for sweata weatha?

This week, heads down on the new Penfriend update, I got re-taught a lesson I’ve learned over and over.

It’s best told from the POV of a creative professional.
Which - if you’re reading this - you are.
Your job is to make things that didn’t exist yesterday.

The Wall

We all know “the wall.”
That point where everything gets harder than you budgeted for.

The longer you’ve been at this, the more you know it’s coming.
Sometimes you even welcome it.

There’s a difference between the amateur and the professional in how they relate to the wall.

When you meet it, you get two choices:

• Stare at the height of it, how long it’s going to take, how much work, get overwhelmed, and fold.

• Or go brick by brick—over, through, or around—until you’re on the other side.

What Resentment Steals

If you see the wall and go home, you start to resent it.

That resentment is toxic. And not just to this project.

You feel beat by it.
That resentment leaks backward into every step before the wall:

The hours that got you there.
The decision to try.
The delusion that you could.
The spark that kept you up at night.

Resentment dampens your creative spirit.
Over time the fire goes out - candle in the dark, thin trail of smoke.
The creativity you had? Gone.

Thankful For The Wall

On the other hand - the professional. You.

You know what the wall means.
You know it’s work. And you welcome it (or you learn to).

Bit by bit.
Brick by brick.
Rung by rung.

You get over.
You get through.
You ship.

With it comes the fruit of your labour:
the end product, the final piece - the thing your work deserved.

You’re thankful for the idea.
Thankful for the late nights.
Thankful for the result.

You are thankful for the wall.

Because it’s your competitive advantage.
It’s where you win while others quit and give up.

I’ve been both people.
You’ve been both too.
We all have many walls to summit.

Do this today: pick one wall and schedule a 45-minute Brick Session.

Define a single brick you can climb (ship a stub, fix a blocker, email one source, publish an ugly draft). Put it on the calendar. Climb the wall.

Every wall is a problem until it’s a product

Here’s the bit most people miss:
the wall isn’t just where the work happens.
It’s a problem others have too.

And as your climb your wall, take note of three hidden assets every wall hides:

• A problem worth naming.

• A fix worth proving.

• An struggle worth sharing.

Publish those and you earn trust, links, and customers.
Thank the wall - then make it pay rent.

Happy climbing.

See you tomorrow.

✌️ Tim "posting through it" Hanson
CMO @Penfriend.ai

Same brain, different platforms: X, Threads, LinkedIn.

P.S. seven words that always hook:
“We hit a wall shipping X — here’s why.”

Penfriend.ai
Made by content marketers. Used by better ones.