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Own Your Impact equips experts and leaders to transform their expertise into meaningful influence. Host Macy Robison reveals how successful thought leaders use deliberate systems—not luck or volume—to amplify their authentic voice and create lasting impact. Through practical frameworks and strategic guidance, you'll discover how to build a self-reinforcing ecosystem of Core Resonance, structured Content, a Central Platform, strategic Connections, and intentional Commercialization. Whether you're just starting to share your expertise or scaling an existing platform, this podcast delivers the roadmap to turn your ideas into purpose-driven influence that resonates far beyond what you might imagine possible.
# \#82 - David Peck
[00:00:00] Welcome to the podcast. Today, I'm talking with another one of my clients. I love these conversations, , and this conversation is about what it takes to finally name something you've been doing your whole life without really knowing it
My guest today is David Peck. David is a designer. He's worked in fashion for 20 years. He owns a boutique in Houston, and before any of that, there was a degree in classical cello, a job at Ralph Lauren, five years in Paris. He hosts an amazing podcast, and his first book comes out this fall on November 11th.
David and I started working together in the fall of 2025, and he has been in my strategic advisory group ever since. His primary archetype, like Mark's a couple weeks ago, is Resonant Orator, uh, 58%, and he's got Category Creator right behind at 39%. Now, like I've said before, 30%, when I'm looking at your expanded results, is where I start to pay attention to an archetype and how that forms the specific signal you're sending, 'cause the [00:01:00] strength of it is something we've really gotta talk about.
So both of those are carrying real signal, and it's a combination that doesn't come up very often. It's the speaker who also is creative enough and wants to solve a problem by creating a new category. And I wanna say this before we start because I say this to him on the call, and I mean it. David is a builder.
He has built so many things and created so many things over the course of his life, and he comes from a world in fashion right now that most people wouldn't traditionally connect to thought leadership necessarily, but he's the face of his business, and he has ideas, and he wants to help others, and that's what qualifies us.
For thought leadership is the desire to make an impact, thoughts to share, and mess that we've walked through that becomes the medicine we wanna give people. So here's what I want you to be listening for. First, listen to his timeline. He held the title of his first book for 11 years, and he had it ready to go, but then, in his words, things started moving and solidifying for him in a different way around [00:02:00] November and December.
By February of 2026, he was writing this book that is coming out in November, the second book. The speed is the thing I keep coming back to in this interview, and i'll come back to what I actually think it is at the end. Second, about 15 minutes in or so, he tells me a story about his last year in Parsons Paris that I had never heard before, and you can hear me reacting to this in real time.
It's all about the moment he gave himself permission to stop making his work the way he'd been taught to make it, the right... quote unquote right way. And everything he's doing now is that same move in a different medium. And then finally, I want you to listen for how he actually got the book out of his head.
As a resonant orator, he talked it out, all of it. He has a really useful method for using AI that I think is really helpful if you're wondering how to do that and grapple with that and figure out where these tools fit in harmony with your ideas and your thought leadership. the short version is he [00:03:00] uses it to interview himself, and so here's my interview with him
**Macy Robison:** All right. As always, I'm very excited, uh, to welcome guests to this podcast because they are people that I've worked with and who I think are wonderful, and you're going to think they're wonderful too, just because you will. So really excited to welcome David Peck to the podcast and would love to start just by having you introduce yourself.
Tell people who you are and a little bit about the work you do.
**David Peck:** Sure. Thank you so much for having me, first of all. I'm so excited to be here. Um, big fan of yours, as I hope you know. Um, my name's David Peck, and I am a designer, and for the last 20 years, I have worked in the fashion industry. I currently own a boutique in Houston, Texas, and as a result of that, I've seen especially women in every state of their life and the gap between who they think they are and the way that they're living, and I've also experienced that myself in growing a business and having it almost completely fall apart and having to rebuild it, and now being [00:04:00] in this whole new phase of becoming an author, or I am an author now.
And so really my, my work is centered around that.
**Macy Robison:** I love it. I, the thing that I think is so fascinating to me about what you're building is, first of all, you are a builder. I mean, you've built so many things over the course of your life, but you come from this world that maybe most people wouldn't traditionally connect to thought leadership. So I would love to, I mean, talk about how you even got to this space of, "Man, I've learned all these lessons, and now I want to put them in some format that people can also learn from what I've learned."
**David Peck:** The, there's the long version and the short version, but depends on how long you have. The long-ish version is that I've always wanted to be an author, and I've always h- felt like I had something to say. And it wasn't that I abandoned it necessarily, but I had so many disparate interests and [00:05:00] paths that I took to kind of create this career that I have that for lack of a better word, is very multi-hyphenate.
And it seemed in the past year or so, actually, uh, probably the last 18 months, where I really felt like it was time to come back to who I always knew I was meant to be. And it was always a part of a long-term vision, but there was never the right time, and I kind of got to the point where I was like, "If, if not now, when?"
And it was just like, I'm gonna do this thing even though I'm not ready, and I have no idea exactly what the form is gonna take. And so I started working, you know, on a book that I'd been thinking about. Honestly, I, I had the title for the last now 11 years, and, um, that's where it all began, and that's how I met you, was w- uh, working on that, uh, sort of memoir and short stories.
And then through the course of that have come [00:06:00] to, like, think more about what it is that I have to say and the framework around that, and that's what we've worked on so much and h- what has really developed in, I would say, the last nine, six to eight months, has really kind of solidified 'cause I guess we started working really on a lot of this thought leadership kind of work in the fall.
And it wasn't until I think November, December, where it kind of solidified for me, and then by February I was writing a book
**Macy Robison:** I mean, that's, that's a, that's a very succinct, I think, version of it. And I think the thing that's been so fun to, like, watch you build this is, I work with so many amazing people, and there's sometimes a, a different sense of urgency in terms of how swiftly they need to build some sort of monetization strategy or commercialization strategy that can support the work.
And the thing that I think has been [00:07:00] so interesting about what you're building is you have this shop, you have a day job. Like, you're a really well-known designer in the Houston area, and you've built this life as a designer, and you're not, like, completely throwing that all away to shift gears, but you're building alongside what you already have.
And so it's given you this opportunity to, if you wanted to, take this slowly. And like you said, you've had the, you've had the original book, the memoir that you've written and is really probably ready to go if you decided to move with that first. And I think the thing that's compelling to me is the decision to, to put that to the side for just a second and lead with this new book, the framework book.
Um, I'd love to hear a little bit more about some of the choices that led to that decision, because I think some of it is in the seeds of the assessment that you took and the way that came back in terms of how you're wired, which we can talk about that in context of this.
**David Peck:** Yeah, I mean, I [00:08:00] think a lot of this, and we talk about this a lot in, um, our s- sessions and our group calls, is like probably goes back to my human design. I'm a generator and I like making things. I'm very much that there always has to be a project going, um, even if it makes sense or not. And I think where I was feeling in my day job is not, uh, there was a sense of frustration of it not being A picture of who I fully am.
And it, I think it's just so easy for the world at large to pigeonhole us, and they want to put us in a box. Um, and I don't always appreciate that. Never have, probably never will. Uh, and I think people start to see you as a certain thing, and I think also being midlife, whatever, I was like, "I don't want to be defined by this one thing anymore," like being a designer and like, "Oh, you, you make dresses and you have a store," and those are all great [00:09:00] things.
I wasn't ashamed of any of it, but it was just one facet of who I am. And so a part of the process of getting to writing the book was wanting to have a voice that talked about pop culture, social issues, things that were really important to me. And I started with a podcast, and it was really just an exercise, and I feel like I have something to say even though I don't know what I have yet to say, but I know I'm interested in these topics.
And so I started the podcast even though I wasn't ready, 'cause being a designer, I could imagine all the ways that it, I wanted it to look and, like, I've always had this vision of being a combination of Oprah, Ralph Lauren, and Martha Stewart. And so, you know, that's like a, a television studio and, like, all of this stuff and, you know, that was just not gonna happen.
And so I just started kind of n- nitty-gritty with an audio-only podcast and was like, you know, I knew I, I was gonna have a hard time doing, 'cause I was doing it all myself. But in doing the podcast, it really got me back to that original idea of [00:10:00] writing the memoir book. Um, I, I mean, I've had the, the, the, the seeds of that for so long.
Uh, but I had never... And I had tried writing it at different times, and it just never felt right. Like, I would, I would stop and start and... But then going through the Book Academy and working with you and Lovie and, like, really getting that book kind of fully formed and, like, seeing how the process could come together, um, w- was like, "Okay, this is...
I have something to say," and, like, starting to put those ideas and, like, a part of myself started to emerge that, um, I hadn't really activated i- in a long time. And it made it really clear that in order for me to actually be successful in my day job, um, I needed to actually have this outlet, this creative outlet that, uh, even if I didn't have a monetization strategy, I knew eventually that it, it would.
Um, but it wasn't a direct line. Um, and so in working on that, I think one of the reasons [00:11:00] you had mentioned, like, setting that book aside even though for all intents and purposes it's, like, really kind of, not done, but, like, it's written. Like, it's the completely outlined, like, most of the chapters are written, like, it's just, it's there and, and it's, it's sort of waiting.
But I realized that there was a gap between the person who was the author of that book, who is fully formed and is me, but also a gap between how people see me now and that person. And I felt like there needed to be a bridge between who I am now and that author. And I thought it was just gonna be me working more on the podcast and working on getting out there and speaking and all of that stuff, and that's why w- we started working together, was because I didn't have a framework or a thought leadership idea.
It was just like, I like talking about these things. I think I have funny stories, and let's... How do I make it cohesive? Like, and how do we b- we build this IP? Um, and I even, like, in the [00:12:00] intro of the book, the memoir book that I wrote, I actually said, like, "This isn't a framework. This isn't whatever. This isn't a prescriptive...
But if I happen to come up with that between now and the time I publish this book, don't, like, blame me." And that's kind of, I guess, I, um, I, I kind of did. Uh, so I kind of, like, spoke it into existence. But that's really working together. I started to analyze how I develop ideas, and a big part of that, I think, is understanding my archetype and being a resonant order and understanding that a lot of the struggle that I had had in writing or in doing this work was that I kind of had imagined it being like I need to sit down at the desk, I need to write the thing, I need to dedicate all this time.
Like, and that just felt like such a big lift when, you know, I have a f- more than full-time day job and a family and all of that. Um, but finding that peace within the resonant order of being able to speak [00:13:00] everything into existence and, and figuring out a mechanism to do that, that made writing really enjoyable, not just...
Like, it's easy in some ways. It's hard in others because then you have to go back and edit it. But, like, having... Figuring out a mechanism and a methodology to be able to write quickly, I think has made all of it come together, and I realize, like, a lot of the ideas that I've had Did have a structure and a framework that I had never really understood until I started working on it, and now it feels like almost like a habit where every day I'm sort of putting new ideas out there and developing them.
So even though this n- book that's coming out in November is, for all intents and purposes, done, there's no shortage of ideas. Whereas before it felt like, oh, like what, what humorous short stories do I wanna tell? Um, and now it feels like, no, I have something to respond to and I have a, a way of looking at the world that feels very unique to me and does have a point of view.
Um, [00:14:00] and I have a way to capture that. It's not necessarily going out into the ether and, and being lost, or it's just not from my brain. And that is the thing that kind of feels like I've evolved the most in the past, you know, nine months, is that I now have a system because I, I was able to name, or y- I mean, well, you named it, like the resonant order.
I, I can, I... Because I saw myself so clearly in, in that, and being able to lean into that made it so much easier to create
**Macy Robison:** That is so, there's so much in my brain though, like I wanna unpack with that. I think the thing too that is kind of coming to mind is like you saying you didn't wanna be put in a box with any of this, and you've also got category creator that's like kinda up there at the top speaking into that. Um, and that you've chosen to embrace kind of the, the blend of all of them, but especially resonant orator 'cause it's the...
If you look, if we look at the raw score on your report, it's, it's pretty high. [00:15:00] It's a definite, like this is a strong signal. This is the way you show up in the world, You articulated it perfectly. Like it felt like a bridge between who people know you to be as a designer and this life that you've built. Um, but you've had so many experiences that have even led to that.
I love that you described it as a bridge to, you know, the, the future Martha Stewart, Ralph Lauren, Oprah you that's coming. Um, but would love to talk about the framework and how it emerged and how leaning into this resonant orator signal that you have as part of your way of expressing yourself and your archetype helped make that come to life.
**David Peck:** Sure. I think one of the things that popped into my mind as we were talking is the clearest analogy I can make to this sort of transformation that the resonant, like recognizing the resonant order in me, um, was in my senior year at Parsons in Paris, was, um, working on my thesis collection. [00:16:00] And I could draw.
Like, I, I wasn't... I mean, obviously I, I went to Parsons, I learned how to draw. But there were people in my class who were amazing illustrators. They just had, like, they could just whip something out. It was just beautiful what they did. And I, I think it wasn't that my drawings were bad, but they never had the same emotional weight as, um, those drawings.
And, you know, there's always a kind of a comparison thing. And when people saw my physical work, like my actual made things, they were like, "Oh, wow, like, this is really strong, but your... I didn't see that in your sketches." Um, and so I would always have to make something in order for people to see my ideas.
And one of the things I experimented with in that senior year is instead of do... I gave myself the permission to not draw my senior thesis. I actually collaged it, and I was using technology and, um, Photoshop, like very rudimentary Photoshop of, like, playing with, like taking images and playing with proportions and collaging them and, like, [00:17:00] creating my illustrations, but on the computer and not necessarily just with something I drew.
And I think when pe- W- um, I mean, I won the Designer of the Year Award, so I think it, it, it worked. But but it, it, um, it was interesting 'cause when people saw those illustrations, they're like, "This feels like your work. This feel- I can see your vision in it. Like, you found a way of communicating finally that reflected your design sensibility."
And I think it, the same thing has happened with the writing. Like, I think I was a good writer. I, I've always enjoyed writing, but it almost felt like a lot of work to get there. And wisdom writer is on one of my, is one of my scores, so it's not that it's not that I'm not a writer, but it, uh, the process of writing, I needed to find something different.
And I think when I started to understand how quickly, and not only how quickly my ideas came [00:18:00] when speaking them, but that actually a lot of the times I don't know what I'm going to say until I say it And that is a, that is a really big thing. Like, I think sometimes when you go to write, I'm not the type of writer who does very well in the stream of conscious type thing, where I can just write.
Like, there's some kind of mental block where if I'm sitting down with a blank sheet of paper, I feel like it has to be perfectly written and grammar and spell... And then it, it's like too many obstacles in the path because I think I am a visual person. And so when I see it on the page, it's almost like when it doesn't look right and then it's not formatted right, it's, it's too many distractions.
So almost having the ability to speak everything into existence without having to think so much about what I'm saying, 'cause I know that later I c- I'm going to go back and edit it and refine it and make it beautiful. Um, but it almost is just trusting the voice and trusting that I have it and I have the things to say, [00:19:00] and I don't need to format the paragraph or the sentence or the whatever, or find the perfect word yet.
It's getting those ideas out there and then working on editing and refining them and, like, shifting things around and figuring out where they go that has made the process not only easy, but really, really enjoyable
**Macy Robison:** I love... I've never heard that story about your senior thesis. That's so fascinating, 'cause that literally is what you've done. Like, I just remember being on a call and you saying, like, "Oh, I've..." Well, I mean, I, I would love to hear you talk about the, the framework specifically, but you were coming up with a way to get people to engage with your work and some of your ideas, and you created this really great, um, lead generator based on something that you had spoken on a podcast, and that felt like, from my seat, unlocked all of this possibility where, oh, I already think this way.
Let me talk about this. Let me, like, start to actually verbalize what's going on. And I feel [00:20:00] like it was literally two weeks later and you're like, "Well, the book is done, and here's the cover." And that may be faster than my, than it actually occurred, but in my memory. And I remember talking to someone, uh, in your group about it and just being like, "Did you see David's book cover?
Like, oh my goodness." Like, it's, it's a thing. Like, it exists and it's here. And sometimes I think that, um, that so many people feel that way. They know they have an impact that they want to make, and there's just something blocking them that they can't even articulate what it is, and it's been so exciting to watch you figure out your way through it and, and just start running.
And, um, so anyway, that's just my reflection, but would love to hear a little bit about the framework because even the way that you have designed your way to this point is like a living example and embodiment of the thing that you teach and the thing that you've done in so many areas of your life.
**David Peck:** Yeah, I, I mean, I think so much of it came through just having a space to have those conversations, so being on [00:21:00] those group calls and being able... I mean, yes, our individual calls too were really great, but I think there was something about being in a room with other people who are working through their ideas that crystallized what I was working on.
And I don't even remember what my first sort of, um W- three-step process, whether I was calling it, but I was like, "This is... There's, there's this thing and it's like edit and I- I don't..." Uh, like I w- w- but as I talked about it through the call, it was like it crystallized, and I was like, "Oh, it's, it's so simple.
It's assemble, refine, and you try. It's art." Like, it, it all kind of... I don't know. B- it, it wasn't a premeditat- tated thing. It just really came out of speaking it into existence and having a space to be able to do that. And then once I recognized like, oh, it really is as symbol- this simple, what I have been doing my entire life is assembling lots of information and kind of gathering it and kind of like a magpie in that way.
Like, I don't always know what I'm gonna do with it, but I know I like it, and so I'm gonna, like, [00:22:00] gather it and put it somewhere. And then at some point it's gonna, like, feel overwhelming enough where I need to start editing it and trying to make sense of it. So, like, you know, the Capricorn organized person in me needs to, like, find where it all goes and, like, lay it out and everything, so you're refining.
And then at a certain point you can only organize so much and before you just start driving yourself crazy and you have to start trying these things. And I think that's exactly what happened with the book. I was assembling all these ideas, whether it was the memoir or, like, these... There was a whole, you know, like, TikTok experiment thing that I was working on for a long time, just trying to, like, put things out there without, out a lot of pressure on what they were, just to kind of see what landed, not just with other people, but with myself.
Like, what is the stuff that I wanted to talk about and that resonated with me? And if there's a through line and... I think there was also, like, I love data and, like, looking at, oh, th- there's a th- [00:23:00] this goes with this, this goes with... There's a something that makes sense even though it feels all disconnected, 'cause I think that's the, the hard thing, especially when you're a creative person or, like, if you're like me, where, you know, you do have a day job that is sort of in many ways focused on, you know, a very specific thing.
If you have interests outside of that, how do you make those interests not feel like you're just all over the place? Because it can feel very chaotic, and when people look at you, they're like, "Well, uh, they're just... You know, they're, they're not focused and they can't keep it together." And I, I didn't wanna do that.
I didn't have the luxury of being that person of who, who could just be, you know, artistic for the sake of, sake of being artistic. I needed to keep everything going. And so for me it was that process of, uh, like gathering all of that information and then refining it and trying to put together and then trying it.
And I think by the time I got to try, I had done so much thought work and, like, speaking all of these things into existence that- What started as a lead magnet for my word of the [00:24:00] year, it was like it very quickly went from, "Oh, I have a lead magnet for the word of the year," but then we were getting ready for a trip, um, to Paris, and it was like, oh, but this stuff also applies to, like, packing for a trip and your wardrobe.
And then it actually... I mean, if I look at my entire life, it is a process of deconstructing everything that I was raised to believe and kind of assembling all of these, like, different ideas and then kind of editing them down, and now I'm, like, trying it in real time. So it's not just about creativity.
It's about who I am as a person. And that be- I was like, but that's a book. That's not just a lead magnet anymore. That's not just something that, you know, I want people to download because I want them to listen to the podcast. This is actually a, a methodology that goes beyond just one simple thing and, and kind of encapsulate who I, who I am as a person, and that's...
The book is structured that way. It's [00:25:00] very much... There- It starts very simple with the idea of finding one simple word that can help design your year or your life, at least for a period of time, um, which I do every year, and it's always been one of my most popular podcast episodes. But then expanding it and, like, getting people to understand that, that very simple act, this art framework, you can apply to every aspect of your life, and you don't have to blow up your life.
Like, I didn't have the luxury of blowing up my life to create what I wanted to be. Like, I can't just abandon the store, and not, not that I would even want to, but, like, I can't do that. Like, I'm not in a position to do that. And so how do I then become who is the next version of myself without blowing all of this up?
And so the... I think the book came so quickly because, you know, it's a lifetime of work, ob- obviously, that's been going on in my head. But having the ability to say the [00:26:00] process out loud and then having a way of capturing it, and again, like, it's with technology. Like if, uh, you know, 10 years ago, we didn't have the transcription technology that we have now, and so I wouldn't have been able to do it in the same way.
And so I've, you know, I... It, it's, again, goes back to the whole idea of my, my senior thesis of, you know, relatively new technology at the time of, like, Photoshop. It wasn't, like, brand new, but it wasn't, you know, you- being used really in that way. Um,
**Macy Robison:** Like for sure fashion designers weren't using it in the way that you did. Like, that's the thing that's so interesting about it. Yeah
**David Peck:** Yeah, they were using it for, like, advertising or, you know, retouching and all of that kind of stuff, but it wasn't necessarily being used for idea creation or collaging in that way. Um, and so that, I think it's really interesting to... Like, when I look back at the trajectory of how I've learned, there's always been this, like, assembling of a lot of information and then whi- whittling it [00:27:00] down and then trying something, and sometimes it works and, you know, sometimes it doesn't.
And sometimes life blows itself up for you, and then you have to try to figure out what to do with all the pieces. But again, that's the same process of, like, what's left? Let me assemble it. Let me try to put it... You know, gather all, all of the things that's left and, like, make sense of it, and then I'm gonna try something based on what's left.
And, um, that's really w- this, the genesis of the book. It just really kind of came from that repetitive process that I didn't realize I was doing until I was able to name it.
**Macy Robison:** I love that. I, I even think of, like, the TikTok experiments you did. Like, that's still, like, a mini cycle through art of, like, you were assembling ideas to talk about, and you were editing and looking at the data and seeing what you got in terms of response, and you were just getting out there and trying it.
**David Peck:** The TikTok part of it all was really interesting because I didn't do it... [00:28:00] I mean, yes, it's public, it's on TikTok. Um, it's not like people couldn't see it, but i- I needed a place where I felt like I could just be whoever I was meant to be without having all the eyes on it.
Like, I, I had a store Instagram account, and then I had started even my own personal Instagram account, which, you know, it's still very small, but, like, it still felt like not a p- a safe place to experiment. I kind of wanted to be anonymous without being anonymous. And so TikTok, I was like, "Well, I'm not gonna tell anybody I'm on TikTok.
I'm just gonna see what happens if, if I do this thing." Um, and so it was really interesting to see what are the things that worked and what are the things that didn't, and, like, without feeling the pressure of I'm having to do this really well or in a certain way because people expect a certain level of quality.
Like, being able to be messy and giving myself a space to be messy and just talk and figuring out, oh, th- [00:29:00] you know, it's, it's, it's learning. It's, it's, it's, it's assembling all these ideas and, you know, it... Every, every little episode was a, kind of a, an exercise in art, but so was the whole process of like, I'm assembling all these things.
And then by the time I, for various reasons, took TikTok off my phone, the account still exists and I still post to it, but, like, I'm not actively doing it. It actually was the perfect timing because it was when I worked on the lead magnet for The Word piece, and then it became the book. And so the practice that I had been, and the work that I had been putting into TikTok actually then just translated directly into writing the book
**Macy Robison:** Yeah. Well, and you were already using technology to capture your voice and your ideas and just, I feel like it just moved from TikTok to, you know, shout out to Wisprflow. Like, that idea of just capturing these voice notes, having a reliable way to transcribe them, refining them. You didn't do any marathon sessions at a keyboard, and yet [00:30:00] all of this came together so quickly another thing I wanted to talk to you about is, , you did use Whisperflow. You did figure out a way to use this new, relatively new technology of AI, um, without losing your voice, and you did that, , in your senior thesis as well , with the collage.
You were able to let your voice come through while using this technological tool. I would love to hear how you've been able to harness, um, AI to let your voice be the thing that is the main expression mode, um, and get this work done more easily
**David Peck:** yeah. I think it's, I think it's a really tricky thing to do, especially now, because I think AI has made getting a lot of content out there very easy, but it hasn't made good content easy because it's so easy to rely on what AI generates and be like, "Oh, that's good enough." And I think, you know, I, I went through sort of a cycle [00:31:00] with it where, you know, f- at first you're very impressed by the technology and you're like, "Oh, wow, this is so good," and like whatever, and then the more you sit with it, the more you realize, well, it's, it's good, but it's not great, and it's not a, a true reflection of my voice or that it
What I said got paraphrased in a way that is not actually what I was trying to say. My ... What I was trying to say was way more nuanced and complicated than that, and I think funnier at times. Um, to me, that's really funny. Like, having humor is really, really important, um, and I don't think a- AI is very funny at ti- It, it
You know, maybe it could do a dad joke here and there, but like, it's, it's just not ... It's not the deep level of sarcastic humor that I truly appreciate. Um, it ... So that was, I think, a, a learning lesson for me of, like, how to use it in a way that helped amplify what I was trying to say [00:32:00] and not make it generic.
Um, and so at first I would ... I used it actually to interview myself, um, like, to ask me questions, but I ... A lot of it was me getting my own voice out there, as many words as I possibly can so that my voice was front and center. And then what I really ended up using it for is organizing ideas. I was like, I, I really
And I would get frustrated. I mean, I still get frustrated with it, 'cause a lot of times what it'll want to do is rewrite what you've said to be more AI, and I'm like, "No, that's not what I want. I want my exact words, but I want, like, group all these ideas and then these ideas and then these," so I used it a lot for organization.
Um, and then without changing my words, then I would go back and edit what I had said to make it feel more polished, but still like me. Or, you know, I would, uh, I would use it in some ways as a [00:33:00] thought partner and be like, "Okay, I, I've said this. Is there something I'm missing?" And rather than write it for me, ask me questions that would help me unlock that so I can go deeper.
And then I would respond with not more writing, but with another voice note. And so w- that's the way I started using it, and that worked really, really well for me because I realized I really hated how it wrote, um, especially for a book. Like, I was like, this, this is not, th- th- that's not the w- the way I wanna write a book.
I don't wanna write it fast just because I can, because AI is enabling it. I w- because AI's writing it, I want to be able to write it fast and use this tool in such a way that makes it feel like It's capturing the best parts of me without losing my voice. Uh, and so th- that's, that's really... It was a process of trial and error, and it was like a, a- I helped...
I used it to help me dive deeper into what I was trying to say. So I would, like, take, you know, a section or a paragraph [00:34:00] and be like, "Okay, based on this, what are... If you were like, you know, Barbara Walters or some jour- like, who... What would you ask to help me go deeper?" And so, like, even having that prompt based on my own writing made me go deeper into that idea.
Or sometimes I would have, like, really disparate things and I'm like, "I know, uh, there's some way that they're connected, but I'm not really sure," and I would just, like, put it out there almost like, um, a Post-It. Like, "Okay, I have this idea and I have this idea and I have this idea, and somehow they're connected and I need to find a connective thread.
Can you help ask me questions that would help me figure out how these things are interrelated or connected?" And then the... my response to that would be another voice note and transcribe that, and that's really how all of it came so quickly, was because I was, in essence, having a, a dialogue with myself guided by these prompts.
Uh, and, and so you get a lot of your [00:35:00] voice out there really quickly when you're just talking. And I would... Uh, the, the other thing, too, is because there was so much going on in my day job and my life and everything, I didn't have the ability to just sit and do this in isolation. I would have five minutes here, five minutes there.
Like, after carpool drop-off, like, I would have, you know, 10 minutes on my way to work. So being able to do all of that while mobile I think was good in terms of efficiency and time-saving, but also because I was distracted, I didn't overthink. And so I just sa- like, I said what I needed to say because I wasn't thinking too hard about it, and so I think a lot of it came out my- way more naturally and authentically because I wasn't trying to over-engineer what I was trying to say, because I knew that there was a method of capturing it that I could then go back and edit if I needed to.
**Macy Robison:** Right. Yeah, it was just collecting sound, sound bites, I mean, throughout your day, [00:36:00] which... And I think I, I just so love the way you just articulated the framing of using AI to interview your about- interview you about your ideas instead of finding the connections for you. I think that's an extra step that not everyone thinks about, even if they're using AI to capture their ideas and pull things together.
Just the very act of having the AI tool find the thread and, and give it to you, that would've flattened the writing, and it would've made it not feel like you. And that extra step to say, "I know that it's here. Ask me questions so that I can articulate it instead of find it for me," is such a good takeaway, um, I think for people who are listening that are trying to grapple with how to use some of these tools to bring more of themselves to the surface more quickly.
**David Peck:** I think it's so easy for it to become a crutch, and I knew that, like, I think it's the more we s- you [00:37:00] see of something, like now it becomes really... I love Threads now. Like, I'm not on, uh, TikTok. Um, so my current obsession is Thread. But it's very easy to see when people have used AI to, like, do...
to, to kind of formulate their thesis or whatever on these, like, little Thread rants. Um, and it's not that they don't have something good to say. Like, a lot of times the idea is really great, but because it's been formatted in such a formulaic way or with very predictable words, even if they're words that maybe 10 years ago we would have never flagged as being bad, uh, or a tell, th- they now are.
And so it's like almost like we have to find a new way of speaking or writing that feels more human, which I think in some ways is a really good thing. Um, and that's... I th- I th- what I really started to see is that I [00:38:00] didn't want it to become predictable, and I... Like, a part of, I think, my voice is I'm gonna tell you a thought, and I'm gonna give you a random aside about pop culture and then come back to what I was saying, and then somehow it all makes sense.
But I can't... Like, that's not something that AI can generate for me. Like, it's not gonna do the s- the, you know, the snarky asides or, like, the random pop culture fact or, like, you know, bring in a Taylor Swift reference. It's gonna, like... Always, there's always room for Taylor. Um, that to me was something that was very, very important to me, um, because I think it always did start with wanting to be a writer and, uh, wasn't looking for somebody to write for me.
Um, and I think when you... The whole... Bring it, uh, back to your whole assessment and l- unlocking the resonant orders, and I think no matter what someb- archetype somebody is, you, you, you say this a lot, is that it doesn't matter what output you [00:39:00] eventually put that into, whether it's a book or a podcast or speaking or whatever, it's really how do you develop those ideas that you need to f- where you need to find the ease and the flow, and you need to lean into your archetype.
And so for me, that was really, really important to unlock that idea of talking is so easy. I could, you know, talk about these ideas or... And, and even, like, there's things that were rattling around in my brain, but I never had an outlet for them because it felt too laborious to write them.
**Macy Robison:** Right
**David Peck:** like, and even the act of sitting down to write it, even whether it's by hand or by, um, typing it, just felt like I lost the idea.
Like, 'cause there wasn't enough energy there, and, like, it was almost draining. Like, it, like, this is taking too long. Whereas if I can talk it, even if it's in fragments, I can then- piece it together, and then I've captured it, um, which I think is really something that I didn't have before. And so that's why [00:40:00] before it felt so hard, not because I didn't enjoy the editing and the writing and the crafting part of it, but it was like getting all of the information out of my brain.
That felt like a really heavy lift. Um, and now that I have a method of doing that, the editing part, like I love sitting down now with the words and like going through and editing it and making it all make sense and like moving things around and be like, "What if we tried this here and that there?" Like the, that part of writing I really, really enjoy.
But for me, the, the biggest roadblock was that like all of the stuff rattling around in my head, getting it somewhere where I could do that
**Macy Robison:** I used to think of myself as a journaler, and it was interesting 'cause resonant orator isn't my top archetype, but it's right behind my first one, which is transformational guide, which if you've listened to me talk about this, you know that's what, how I'm wired. But just for anybody who might be new. Um, and for me, writing things down, it almost felt like my brain and my mouth go faster than my hand.
And even if something really important happened and I needed to know what I thought [00:41:00] about it, it used to be I would write it down or I would go journal about it, and sometimes, like, it would be a week later and I'd be like, "Uh, it doesn't matter anymore." Like, it's gonna take too long for me to even think about it enough to bring it back to actually go through the process of writing it down.
It's gone. Whatever.
**David Peck:** I feel the same way. Like, I would have all of the stuff, and then it would just feel exhausting to get it out because it was just like, "Uh, s-," I don't know. There... And I think that's so much of, like, good design is design that feels i- the process wasn't easy, but the design itself feels easy.
It feels like there's a flow to it, and I, I kind of feel like the same way with h- how I've been working with the writing process now. Like, the work is hard. Like, it's still a lot of work to, you know, refine and edit and all of the... It takes a lot of emotional capacity, I guess, but there's now an ease in terms of getting the ideas out there [00:42:00] that, that ma- that is, like, one less roadblock, um, that I didn't have before.
**Macy Robison:** I love it. Well, I would love to know like what, like Artful is the book. It's coming out this fall. It's in editing right now, which is super exciting. What is kind of opening up for you now in terms of possibility, um, now that it is in editing? What's coming next?
**David Peck:** That I think what's really fun now is I get, uh, 'cause I do love using all the different parts of my brain. Um, I used to call them all my multiple personalities. Uh, so now that, and may- maybe they, they are personalities, who knows? Uh-
**Macy Robison:** hyphenates, personalities, whatever they wanna be. That's it
**David Peck:** All kinds of things. I've pr- yeah, exactly. So I, now that I've gotten the book f- like birthed and it's in editing, I feel like I have space in my brain now to think about marketing, and I have space to think about... 'Cause I have so many ideas, and again, this is a space where, like, there were so many ideas and not a way to capture them, and now I have a way to capture them, so I'm kind of using the same...
Not [00:43:00] kind of, I am using the same methodology that I used to write the book to come up with all these ideas and try to organize them, and then e- prioritize them, uh, so that I can hopefully choose the things that are gonna have the biggest impact, and the things that also feel the most natural to me. So working on, like, podcast guesting and, um, even organizing my podcast content around the ideas in the book leading up to the November 11th launch, m- all of that is what's occupying my brain.
Like, how do I take all of this information that I've done and distill it in such a way that it gets people excited about the book? And, you know, I have, uh, an entire, you know, plan and idea of, you know, taking this on stages and speaking about it live, um, because I really do enjoy, like, the conversation aspect, like having conversations like these.
I think it makes me go deeper into my own methodology and think about things in a way that [00:44:00] maybe I hadn't before. Um, and so I, uh, to me, there's so much more there there that has possibility. Um, and so I'm excited about that because even now, like, I have ideas for tangential topics that I don't need to go and add to the book, but I'm capturing them and be like, "Okay, well, what is this gonna become?
Is it, is it another book? Is it a long form podcast episode? Is it a keynote speech? Is it something?" But now that I have the methodology and the framework to do it, then I know it's not gonna get lost, like those no words wasted thing. Um, a- and that feels really, really exciting, you know, coming forward.
And I'm also really excited now that the book is in editing. I'm actually having, like, our- my first big editing meeting tomorrow, um, looking at the structure of the book and having somebody who's read it and looking at how all the ideas hang together and how are the ways that I can look at making it better.
[00:45:00] Because I think n- it not only informs this book, but it also informs how I'm creating ideas moving forward and how do I be- make a voice that's authentically mine, that feels like me, and it's not just something that any AI generator could put out there. Um, I think that's really, really important as, as anybody who's building any sort of thought leadership or speaking platform, is there has to be a reason it's you and not just anybody.
'Cause, I mean, I don't think there are really any new ideas under the sun. Like, I mean, they're, they're all out there, but what makes it really have an impact on people's lives is if your voice resonates with them and if the, the, the analogies, the, the visualizations that you can give them, like you use music a lot, and to me that really resonates 'cause I was...
I have, in a former life, a degree in classical cello. [00:46:00] So, like, a lot of those things make sense to me. I'm like, oh yeah, that, that completely... When things are all vibrating at the right level, everything kind of works. And I think that's what I'm excited to see is like in this new chapter of my life in developing these ideas and this new career path, like what are the things that actually resonate and that work and how do I amplify those i- in a way that feels, I don't think it's ever easy, but that feels effortless?
**Macy Robison:** And feels like you. And I, there's just so much crossover in my mind between, like even the editing process you're going through right now, I would imagine that's what it's like to put together a show. Like what goes first, what comes second, like what flows, what makes sense, and, and I think the order matters, and you already knew that.
And then having a method to put it all together matters, and I think you just articulated so much of this so perfectly. So, , appreciate you just letting us hear you think through and [00:47:00] talk through all of these things.
I'd love to just let you or invite you to share a little bit more about how people can support you, learn more about you, so that they're ready when the book comes out, and they can get a little bit more of a dose of, of how you think and how you see the world.
**David Peck:** Cool. Well, everything can be found right now at davidpeck.co.co. Um, and if you are interested in designing your life with a word, a single word, you can download my free, um, workbook that I created that launched all of this, this whole book, and you can find that at davidpeck.co/yourword. Um, and I have a podcast that has very short episodes sometimes that come out every week that are reflections on pop culture and how it relates to designing a life you love
**Macy Robison:** Thank you so much for being here today. Grateful
**David Peck:** Thank you for having me. I appreciate it
I loved this conversation with David. He is always a joy to talk to, and I loved what he said near the end. He [00:48:00] said this new book, Artful, came from a repetitive process that he didn't realize he was doing until he was able to step back and name it. I want you to hear how many times he'd actually run this process.
His senior thesis at Parsons, building the store, watching it come apart, rebuilding it, the TikTok account he didn't tell anybody about, the word of the year workbook. Not one of those was named the framework assemble, refine, try that he talks about in the book. It's just what he does, and he'd been choosing that way and doing that and showing up that way since he was 22 years old. So when you hear how fast the book came together, and it was fast, I don't know if speed is quite the right word for what happened.
He didn't get faster. He stopped starting over, and he just leaned in. And I think that's what naming your process and tapping into your resonance and looking at everything through the lens of who you already are can actually buy you. [00:49:00] It's not just motivation, and it's not just discipline. It's that the next thing you build, the next thing you make, doesn't cost you all of those years you already figured out and invested in how to make things.
You just decide to lean in and go. If you've been trying to build a framework or build thought leadership by th- doing it the way you think you should or staring at a blank page and trying to invent a, another acronym that makes sense, David's the argument for the other direction. You already have a process.
You just have to excavate it. You've probably run it several times in different mediums with different stakes. You just can't see the shape of it because you're standing inside of it and because nobody ever named it back to you. Now, his own line for what changed, "Now I have a system because I was able to name it, and it's the naming that's made all of this possible."
So if you're a resonant orator and you're listening, I want you to notice where that naming actually happened. It didn't happen in a document. He said that a lot of times he doesn't know what he's gonna say until he says it.[00:50:00]
I have that experience sometimes too, and the framework just showed up out loud on a group call in a room with other people in it. He was sending out a signal to see if it would resonate, and it did. He was talking about a three-step thing he couldn't quite describe, and partway through describing it, he heard it.
Assemble, refine, try. It's ART. And I think that's what it looks like when you develop your ideas through the actual instrument that you're wired to use, the, the signal you're wired to send, what the archetype assessment measures, instead of the one you were told to use. David wrote a book by speaking it out loud.
The final deliverable doesn't matter as much as the process
And David's a fellow musician, has a degree in classical cello. Near the end of the conversation, he said that when things are all vibrating at the right level, everything just kind of works. Couldn't say it better myself. That's the whole thing. Artful comes out on November 11th, and you can find David and the book at davidpeck.co.
His Word of the Year workbook, [00:51:00] like you heard him talk about, is at davidpeck.co/yourword, and I would go start there because it's the lead magnet that turned into the book, and it's a really powerful version of everything you heard him describe. And if you don't know your own archetype yet, the link to the assessment is in the show notes.
You can go to macyrobison.com/quiz, and I hope you choose to take the next step to come learn a little bit more by coming to the workshop. Macyrobison.com/workshop. Here's to choosing to send a clearer, more resonant signal based on you. And I hope you join me next week