Zero Fluff, why on earth is this podcast named zero Fluff, well, first of all because as you may have noticed it’s about eighteen and a half minutes shorter than most short podcasts. The reason for that is to cut out everything you don’t want to listen to. Like, for instance a lengthy intro where we say “aaalllrrriiighttt so welcome to the podcast.” And other stuff that’s obvious because you’re already listen to a podcast (Joe Rogan I love you). Or sponsorship or random banter or whatever. Many times when I send a podcast I think is interesting to someone I find myself saying, “yeah just skip the first 10 minutes where they talk about nothing actually relevant to the thing the podcast is about.” Now of course there are people who just want some background talk in their daily commute but for all the other creatives there’s Zero Fluff, a podcast about hard work & creativity and nothing more.
The term Zero Fluff also refers to a storytelling thing. It’s the thought that everything in your story should be directly moving your plot along. There shouldn’t be anything that’s irrelevant. None. Zero. Thus, Zero Fluff.
And that’s a good reminder for all of us creatives. The story you're telling your audience, is it really as dense as it can be? At times I’ve referred to the art of storytelling as precision manipulation, because every little thing in your story is a tool to get your audience to feel what you want them to feel. Taking filmmaking as an example you don’t just have plot choices, you have choices of color, every little wardrobe choice, infinite camera choices from position to movement to the way it’s lit to the way your actors deliver lines or subtle looks, I could continue to list a billion tiny factors but the point is your audience's emotions are like an animal you’re trying to coax out of hiding, and every little bit of irrelevant information threatens to scare them away. Make every single thing count. No distractions, no unnecessary creative choices, Zero Fluff.