kening zhu

botanical studies of internet magic

Business EN ↓ 34 episodes

on creative alchemy, world-building + the internet

Author

kening zhu

Category

Business

Podcast website

keningzhu.com

Latest episode

Mar 11, 2026

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Episodes

34. architecting your digital abundance 11.03.2026

I'd like to share 5 distilled principles that transformed how I inhabit my business -- as a living ecosystem that centers my creative energy, above all else. learning, evolving, and embodying these principles took me so many years. I'll share the journey and the hard lessons I learned in the process, and map these principles onto a 12 week itinerary for my new course, Digital Abundance --...

33. creative wealth is wealth 07.03.2026

today, I'm explicitly naming the paradigm shift that changed everything for me -- the belief that my creative energy is the source of my material abundance. my creativity is not a liability, a luxury, or a burden; it is my greatest resource. I'll be naming the wound -- I'll share the story of working through shame, exile, and the long, lonely journey of risking everything for a vision. I'll tell y...

32. business words I never use 27.02.2026

when thinking (or talking) about my business, there's at least twenty words I don't use -- many of them super basic, like "marketing," "sales," "landing page," "launch," or "productivity" ... even "goals." I've rewritten my own creative business dictionary -- because language shapes our relationship to our worlds. I'll lis...

31. community as creative practice 14.02.2026

I love making art in the void, and I've felt called to build a community. this calling is probably precisely because I have such a complicated relationship with community. I've run away from them. I've chosen self-exile. I've swung from hyper-independence to over-responsibility. in this episode, I'll share how I'm thinking of shaping my community as creative companionship,...

30. spring itinerary for the unknown 11.02.2026

today is an atmospheric map for our slow transition from winter into spring — through the archetypes of Pisces, Aries, and Taurus. we'll explore how to work with these energies in deepening into the creative life. I'll share why thinking in seasons has become such an important practice for me, and my intentions for this coming season, along with personal life context. we'll dive into t...

29. the work is the medicine you need. 10.02.2026

this is about trusting in the work you need, and how creating from necessity is a form of creative power, because it keeps you close to what's vital, alive, and electric -- more than any "should" energy ever could. I'll explore how generative discomfort can be used as fuel for excavating creative potential, and how to sense into what's ready to be metabolized -- into medicine...

28. money as creative practice 24.01.2026

changing your relationship to money is not a 10 step checklist, it's tending to an ongoing practice -- with curiosity and tenderness -- as you do with your creative work. I'll share my own personal stories and significant reframes -- money as a circle , as feminine force, as a child of your creative energy . I'll walk you through my 7 practices for working with money -- and invite you...

27. make art the center of your world 19.01.2026

part 3 of a mini-series remember that your art is not an afterthought -- it is the center that holds everything. it's the life source that feeds your creative world. in this episode, I'll examine the ways we're taught to think about the binary of art vs. business -- and propose my third way of deep integration. this means allowing your artist child to grow up -- and claim their voice,...

26. make an offering, weave your web 16.01.2026

part 2 of a mini-series when tending to my business, I bring it back to two practices -- making offerings, and weaving my web. I share how I think about offerings as sacred containers, organic shapes, and potent distillations of your creative energy -- into usable form. I'll talk about weaving your web as an energetically efficient, long-term strategy that builds your body of work, and invites...

25. make the work, share the work 08.01.2026

to begin the new year, I’m creating a 3 part mini-series with grounding anchors; minimalist instructions for navigating the uncertainties of the creative life. when in doubt, or overwhelmed, or stuck in overthinking, all you need to focus on is this — make the work, share the work. this is the equivalent of (in meditation), returning to the body, and the breath. I’ll explore my 4 guiding principle...

24. underworld business practices 02.12.2025

the vast majority of business advice has never worked for me, not because it was wrong, but because it didn't align with my energy, and the way I wanted to exist in the world. it took me years to build my own operating system -- a model for business that didn't make me want to burn it all down, ghost everything, and just get a day job. I realized that I run my business like a super scorpio...

23. i am an artist in the wild 11.11.2025

who gives us the right to call ourselves "artists"? where do you source your sense of legitimacy and validity from? how do you face the voices of imposter syndrome and not-enoughness? in this episode, we'll unpack the gap between self-perception, other-perception, and the daily process/practice of being an artist. I'll share why claiming yourself as an artist in the wild -- beyon...

22. spiraling into your changing center 28.10.2025

one of the most significant shifts I've ever had is letting go of linear (ladder-like) models of external success -- in order to put my own journey, process, and energy at the center. but, how do you do that, if you don't know what's at your center, or if your center is always changing? I'll explore facets of this question through the metaphor of a labyrinth as journey -- how to da...

21. doubt is my companion monster 21.10.2025

I've had a very long, tumultuous relationship with self-doubt -- as my number one enemy, a villianous monster, a generous teacher, a loyal friend, and a companion for the twisty, dark paths of the creative life. today, I'll share my own relationship with doubt, and offer a reframe for what doubt is -- not as contamination, or poison, not as something to fight or run away from, but as a ess...

20. clarity is a bird I follow home 14.10.2025

there is a difference between wanting clarity, and wanting permission. or certainty. or safety. clarity isn't something external that I wait to happen to me (like good weather conditions), but a moving, fluid energy that I'm in conversation with -- like a bird. sometimes I see it. sometimes it's gone. I'll explore why clarity feels so crucial for the pathless path, how people see me as having a lo...

19. autumn itinerary for the unknown 12.09.2025

hello there, after a summer. this episode is on why being with the unknown is at the heart and core of all imaginative, wilderness work -- through your inner life, creative life, digital life, and business. today, I'll share my syllabus-itinerary for navigating uncertainty through the autumnal astrological archetypes of Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius -- aka, how to hold complex truths, walk t...

18. digital silence as practice 29.03.2025

this is about escaping the noise of platforms and constant connectivity. I reflect on why acclimating to digital silence can feel stark, lonely, and hard, at first. it's like how the body feels on "airplane mode," or when when waking up in a forest after a decade in a cramped city apartment. in this episode, I explore how and why platforms (by design) turn us into static noise. I sha...

17. transcendence of a productivity addict 14.03.2025

I spent many years needing to feel “productive” everyday — a word that was programmed into me, and which I clung to — but which felt wholly insufficient in trying to measure creative work, especially when self-employed. in this episode, I’ll tell you my journey — from being a productivity addict, to rejecting all imposed structures, to slowly, over time, reimagining what a sustainable, regenerativ...

16. digital presence is a place 04.02.2025

hello again, after a few months break. during my retreat, I thought a lot about what being "present" online means. I'll propose that digital presence isn't dependent on your labor or content production, but about cultivating a digital container that holds your energy. I'll explore: choosing inner rhythms over consistency pressure freedom from treating yourself as a means of p...

15. no fear of being seen 15.10.2024

on untangling the fear of being seen -- and understanding where the desire to hide (in your creative work, life, or your digital expressions) comes from, and exploring how to release it. we'll dive into: the practice of un-hiding yourself the tension of being different being present is more important than being public deliberately curating your safe zones facing your imaginary shadow gaze why...

14. making a home on the internet 11.09.2024

inhabiting a home on the internet is really about making space to be yourself, in public. you resist the digital flattening of the self and, instead, grow a wild ecosystem. how? first, through committing to your creative practice. in this episode, we’ll explore: what it means to inhabit a space my three step, cyclical processes for growing a digital home -- create, curate, carve paths. why focus o...

13. the anatomy of a digital world 03.09.2024

this week, I’ll deconstruct and translate the concept of website as digital world into concrete design elements, and give you a poetic reframing of how to think about each piece of your website under the philosophy of world-building — we’ll explore: the website as a body to inhabit the atmosphere of a world — vision / brand / world logic places & destinations — homepage & subpages the gard...

12. your website is not a brochure 22.08.2024

why your website doesn’t have to be a brochure that compartmentalizes your infinite self — into three glossy pages. I’ll put these two frameworks side by side: “website as brochure” vs. “website as a digital garden-home-world”, and explore: why we feel pressured to turn ourselves into brochures the ethos and intention to sell / show / prove / substantiate — versus the intention to exist, inhabit,...

11. the joy of missing out on platforms 15.08.2024

this episode is about my approach to cultivating a creative and business life outside of all social/content platforms (including Substack and Youtube) -- and feeling excited about it. this is not a critique of platforms so much as a portrait of alternative possibilities: we’ll explore: why platforms are like cruise boats - seemingly “easy” and “effortless” by promising all the amenities you’d ever...

10. sharing your work as creative release 08.08.2024

on a radically different way to relate to sharing your work on the internet — how to see sharing as a part of the creative process, not separate from it. I’ll explore the shifts in perspective that unlocked the act of showing up as myself, in public. we’ll explore: emotional resistance to sharing your work — swimming through feelings of overwhelm, creative stuckness, and guilt. sharing as being in...

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