Creative Pep Talk
044 - Level Up Career Breakthrough
(upbeat music) Hey y'all, just a quick heads up. The episode you're about to listen to is eight to 10 years old. Now, these episodes were intended to be evergreen, and I still believe there's a lot of good information in these early episodes, but I do wanna let you know that some of my ideas have evolved over time. Times have changed since we made these episodes, and ultimately, I'd like to think I've grown a lot as an artist and a human, and that these don't necessarily represent my best work or the best of the podcast. If you're new around here, I suggest starting with the most recent episode, or at least go back to around 300, and move forward from there. Enjoy the episode. (upbeat music) (vocalizing) Hey, you're listening to the Creative Pep Talk podcast with me, graphic illustrator Andy J. Miller. This show is about finding clarity and strategy so that you can maximize your creative career. You can find this show on iTunes, or on my site, Andy-J-Miller.com/podcast, or on the illustration website, illustrationh.com/creativepeptalk. Without further ado, let's get down to business. Our business. I'm a believer in the idea of dressing for the job you want, not the job you have, and I have applied this to my creative practice too, which means if you want professional results, you need to present online like a pro, and that means going beyond social media and having a professional website that reflects your style and looks legit. I rebuilt my site this year with Squarespace's fluid engine and was so happy with how easily I could build my vision without coding that when they approached me to support the show, I jumped at the chance because I love and use this product. So, go check it out, squarespace.com/peptalk to test it out for yourself, and when you're ready to launch your site, use promo code PEPTALK, all one word, all caps for 10% off your first purchase. Thanks goes out to Squarespace for supporting the show and supporting creators all over the world. Hey, in case you don't know, we have a monthly live virtual meetup every last Monday of the month with supporters of the show from Patreon and Substack. We have so much fun on these calls, and they are the warmest, most encouraging creatives that I have ever met. And we also talk real creative practice stuff. We have authors, illustrators, lettering artists, picture bookmakers, fine artists, musicians, and folks that work in video and film as well. And we have people that are just starting out, people super established in their creative careers, and everything in between. For the rest of this year, we're gonna chat through our new Journey of the True fan series, exploring questions and ways to apply these ideas to your own creative practice so that you can leave 2024 stronger than you came in with more visibility, connection with your audience, and sales. Sign up to whichever suits you best at either patreon.com/creativepeptalk or antijpizza.substack.com. And I hope to see you at this month's Meetup. Hey, what's going on? It's a new week. I've got plenty to do on my plate, but before I got started, I wanted to get a new podcast out. I've been working on this episode for a few weeks now, and I'm really excited about it, so I hope you enjoy it. Today, we're gonna talk about level-up breakthrough, and no, this isn't crazy. Preacher on Sunday giving you amazing breakthrough tips. It's not that. It's something different. It's about playing video games. I used to do that a lot more than I do that now. I've got three kids now. I've got an art career. There's not a lot of extra space for video games at this point. Hopefully I'll get to pick up that thing back up later, but I don't have tons of time for video games. But one thing I do remember is that there were plenty of times when you get in a video game, either if it's like a level-to-level game, like a Mario thing, and you're playing and playing and having a blast, and then all of a sudden there's a level that you cannot beat, and you can't get past it, and you've tried everything, you've tried it 55,000 times, and it's just not working. Or if it's something like a Zelda game, you've walked around to every person, you've talked to everything, you've looked for leads, you're trying to find what's the next part of the game, what is the thing I need to do next that pushes the ball forward, and you've tried everything you can, and you're just stuck, and you just don't know what to do next. And this is hopefully kind of like your video game walkthrough this episode. When you're stuck and you're looking for a breakthrough, you wanna go to that next level in your art career, and you can't figure out what is going on, why can't I move past this stage? That's what we're gonna talk about today. Before we get in though, I wanna talk to you about two things real quick, and then we're gonna get to the episode. Number one, the Patreon. This has been so awesome. You guys who are backing the Patreon are the creative pep talk members, the people that are making this thing happen. I'm like, that's grown so much since it started, and it means so much to me. It's starting to lift that burden of man, I'm spending like half a day to a day a week on this thing, and I don't know if I can justify it, and I'm having to worry about turning down stuff that I wanna do, and all that kind of jazz, time has been a real crunch since I started this, but I have so many people reach out and say, I love this, it means something, it's helping me, and I love doing this. It definitely feels like the right thing for me to do. Definitely feels like one of those right paths that I need to take, and so thank you so much for those who are backing the Patreon. You are making this thing happen. You know, I do this pep talk because I really do believe that so much is one in being motivated, and I think you get motivated partially from having confidence and believing that you can do something. Because if you don't believe you can make the team, you don't practice. You don't shoot, you're not out there on the court practicing your shot if you don't believe that you can make the team. You know, in order to like get to where you wanna go, to have a great art career, you gotta put in the time and the energy, and you can only do that if you're feeling inspired and motivated and excited about what you're doing and keep going back to the page. And so this podcast is really just about helping motivate you to, and have the right, and help you think about what you're doing so that you can come up with strategies that you're confident in. And when you do that, you spend more time and energy on it, and you spend more days doing that than not, which is the goal. And so that's what this is about. And you know what? I've been doing those short little smaller talks, just for the $5 and $10 backers on Patreon or $5 plus, and those feel really awesome, and that's like an extra dose of this stuff. And so if you need that extra dose, go check that out. I believe in that stuff. You know, I've been really enjoying kind of making a secretive little batch of episodes, just for those people that are like putting all the chips on the table and being more connected to this podcast and part of that community. And I hope you guys are loving that for those that are backing at that level. And you know what? One other thing I want to say about the Patreon, I super appreciate all the people, even the people that can only back a dollar. You guys are awesome. But I understand what it's like, you know, six years ago, I was in that struggling artist phase. Any amount of money would have been tough for me to back any level of support, and I get that. And if you're struggling, my goal for you is to become so much more successful that you can comfortably back the Patreon. So I get it, if you're in that place, no pressure. This thing's a gift to you, just enjoy it. And I hope that you get some breakthrough with the pep talk. So no pressure, but you know what? I listened to This American Life and Radio Lab and NPR. And I know that those amazing, great programs, even they have to get on and talk about raising support to make the podcast work and make everything possible. And so, you know, I don't feel any shame in raising support for this, because I think that it's something that's doing a really good service that people are responding to. And I feel like I should be doing it. And this just makes it all of that easier and happen in a more effective way. And so that's what that's about. Sorry for the big pitch, but all of that's true. I believe in this podcast. And I love doing this. And I wanna be able to do it for a long time and just do more of it. So thank you so much. Moving on. Next thing, last thing before we get into the proper good stuff. Baron Fig. Baron Fig is an amazing sketchbook maker. They make great sketchbooks for artists like you. They're super nice and they feel all fancy. They've collaborated with the podcast to sponsor, to reach out. And we have a little contest going. The contest is draw something while you listen to an episode of the podcast. Then Instagram it, tag me in it. My Instagram is @andiejmlr. So no i and e in the Miller. Tag me in it and you're entered to win by Friday, I'm going to, on Friday I'm gonna pick a winner. And I'm gonna send you one of their comfy don't sketchbooks. It's a hardback sketchbook. It's really nice. It comes in a little box. It's all sealed up. Really nice stuff. And I'm gonna pick someone and I'm gonna post your Instagram on my blog and my Twitter and say, hey, this is the winner. So take some visual notes to the podcast or draw something cool while you listen and then post it on Instagram. We've had a few entries so far, so get in there. All right, moving into the actual real deal podcast. Today we're talking about breakthrough, leveling up, breaking past that ceiling that you've hit. If you feel like you're in a rut, you feel like you're stuck in any way. This episode is about identifying what it is that's holding you back. You know, you might be thinking, I've got my website. I've been networking. I know there are people that like my work. You know, I've had people respond to my work. I've had, you know, I do everything. I branded my work. I've come up with a market. I know which direction I want to head. I've done the pencil and the stone. I know generally where I'm trying to go, you know, but I don't feel like I'm hitting my full potential or I feel like I'm stuck. And even though I've done everything that I've been told to do, I've done all, what all the people say you should do, it's just not working or I can't make a living or that client that I want to work for. It's not, you know, I'm not getting the work that I want to do or, you know, I'm not getting paid enough in the work that I'm doing. You know, I find that everybody in one point or another finds themselves in that stage and every different stage of your career, you're going to find yourself in that place at some point where you just can't figure out what it is that's holding you back from reaching that place of, you know, potential where you feel like, yes, people are like understanding what it is I do. You know, I feel like so often you can think, I did everything right. I'm doing it all right, but it's just not working. I think that's kind of like following a recipe. You know, if I told you if you want some poached eggs, if anybody's familiar with making poached eggs, you know, there's a real like little science to it. It's not impossible, it's not the hardest thing in the world. But if you don't kind of know the basics, you're going to make a mess of things. But if I told you like the, you know, really basics, and I just said to poached eggs, you basically got a boil, eggs and water. And you went to do that. You would be, you would not even get close. There are so much more nuance to all of that. There's so much more of an order. Every, all the pieces have to be there. And if they're not there, the eggs come out nasty, or you get a whole pan of eggs going all over the place, there's a very specific way that you have to poach them. For instance, you know, in my experience, the boiling water can't be boiling too crazy. In my experience, it's good to have some vinegar in the water. In my experience, it's good to get a little spiral going, a little whirlpool in the water as you gently dump the eggs into the stream and it circles around. There's a certain amount of time you need to cook them for. There's a time when you need to turn the heat off. You need to be careful when you get the eggs out. All of these things, if you don't do all these things, if they don't all line up in the right direction, your end product is not gonna be satisfying. And I think it's the same way when it comes to your work. You might have a website, you might have a logo, you might have a brand, you might have a specific market, you might have a style, you might have the right content, you might have ideas, you have all of these things, but unless they're all pointing the same way, you're not gonna have that breakthrough. And here's what I liken it to. Like a bike lock, where you have a combination lock, where you have several numbers in a row and there's kind of an arrow and you have to get all the right numbers together in a line and when you have them all in a line, it unlocks. But if you have just one thing out of line, if just one number isn't right, the bike doesn't unlock. And I think with our career, with art, trying to make a living out there, if you have one component of your career that doesn't line up in the right way, people will not understand what it is you do. And I think it has a lot to do with, I feel like if people don't understand your work, if people aren't getting it, I think so many times you talk to these artists that are struggling and they're like, yeah, some people just get it, but most people just don't get it. And I think when it comes to having a successful career in the arts, nothing is more important than people getting it. Doesn't matter how talented you are, doesn't matter if you've done all the right things. If people don't get it, if all the things aren't lined up and the bike lock doesn't unlock, it doesn't matter, you're not gonna break through. I feel like one of the places you see this the most, or one of the clearest is American Idol, okay? I used to watch that, we used to watch X Factor back in England and something that bugged me so bad is that the talented people, the most talented and interesting never got through. And I felt like I saw what it was that helped people get through the most often. And the only people that got in the last kind of inner ring of people had this element. And it was this, people got it. And the judges I found, they know this. And so what did they do? They're constantly helping the people on stage craft the specific impression so that people have something to latch on to so that they understand what it is. I think you can't undervalue how important it is that people, when they approach, when you get an impression on them, when they impact, when they interact with your work for the first time, that they get it. They have something where like, oh, okay, I know what this is. This is why on American Idol, they'll say, oh, this is the rocker and this is the diva and this is the blank. And if they can't assign one of those things to you, you're not going in the inner circle. You're not going into that last round of people. You're not going to the finals because the American public, the public needs to be able to say, oh, I know what, oh, there's this kind of guy and that kind of guy and this kind of guy. And yeah, I know you don't want to be, if you're an artist, you're probably one of these people that's like, don't put me in a box. But you got to have a genre. You got to have something that, some context, otherwise you're going to build an audience completely from scratch. You're always going to be having to explain why you're valuable. You're always going to have to educate people why they should pay you. That, if you want to be a fine artist, that's probably fine. But, if you want to be a commercial artist, you can't afford to explain your product over and over and over. You have to have some level of people getting it as soon as they hear it. And my biggest breakthroughs have come from the moments when I got these things in line and when people interacted with my work, they really got it. For me, it was when I realized that my work was first and foremost, best targeted towards kids and then kind of in a secondary way, taking big, scary information and making it friendly for adults. So, taking things like science, philosophy, theology, or spirituality, and then packaging it visually in a way that's inviting to adults. And so, when I figured that out and I crafted everything towards that and said, here's what it is I do. That's when things really started to change for me. And so, that's what I want to help you do, is think about what are the ways that things are not adding up because there's several different areas. There's several different numbers on the bike lock that you need to align to unlock the next level. - Oh, the holidays are here. You got to find a unique gift for Uncle Derek and your sister, Catherine, and her kids, Jetson, and Jetta, and Jurfree, and Jaggab, and another two J kids. There's so much thinking, so much searching. 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Double fuel points, exclusive offers, and free items. Sign up for a boost membership today. It's an easier way to save, including new streaming options to relax with while we deliver your groceries. King Super's, fresh for everyone. Restrictions apply, see site for details. - So the first one is work. I think your work needs to be pointing the right way and there needs to be all the components to your work need to be pointing the right way. Think of this as like genre, okay? You know, you need your style and your content to think what your work is about and then what your work looks like to add up. They need to be pointing the right direction, both pointing the same direction. Now, think of it like this. Pixar couldn't go do a rated R horror film. If they did that, nobody would get it. Nobody would understand it. If they had all these really cutesy, heavily stylized, CGI characters, but it was a intensely dark, scary movie, that might sound cool to you. I don't know, it doesn't sound cool to me, but it might do you. And even if it does, it doesn't mean it would be a hit at the box office. And if you wanna be a commercial artist and you wanna have a big career, you wanna have a good living, then you need to have a little bit of the box office action and you can't do the Pixar doing a horror film. You've gotta have something that's appropriate and memorable. I think so often when we come to style and content, when we think style, we think it's gotta be super original and we think content, you think it's gotta be brilliant. The concepts have to be amazing. And I think that's almost too lofty of a goal. You know, one of my all time favorite designers is Paul Rand. He designed the IBM logo, the Cummins logo, all kinds of great stuff. I loved his posters and his images more than his logos even. One of the things he said about logos though, that I always go back to, if I'm teaching on it or thinking about it, is that a logo doesn't have to explain the company. All it has to do is be appropriate and memorable. And I thought those two words perfectly describe what your work needs to be in so many ways. Is that it needs to be appropriate for the direction that you're going and you need to be, and it needs to be memorable. It has to stand out in a way that people remember the work. And those goals are like lofty enough. Those are big enough goals. Just to make your work appropriate for the direction that you wanna head to the place that you wanna point the work. And memorable as in when people interact with it, they remember your work opposed to other peoples. And so instead of your style being like the most original thing in the world, I think it's more important that it's appropriate for the direction you wanna head. So for me, it was like kids work or work that takes those big ideas and makes them friendly for adults. Appropriate in that way. And then memorable too. So not the most original thing on the planet, but original enough to where it stands out and it's memorable. And I think the same goes for content. Not that every concept you come up with blows everybody's minds, but that the content, the subject matter, the characters, the drawings, the colors, all of that, it's appropriate for the direction you wanna head, and it's memorable in the direction you wanna head. Those are the highest goals in my mind. You know, I think just as a side note, oftentimes when I say you need to head the one direction with your style. One, not the band, I can't say one direction anymore without thinking of the band or the boy band. I don't know really what you call them. They're not really a band. But when I say you need to head a specific direction with your style, I think a lot of people think that means your style has to be exactly cohesive and very similar and consistent. But I don't actually mean that. I mean, if you're trying to craft a voice, it has to be appropriate and memorable for that direction. Now, if your direction is, we do work for really big clients and they're really big campaigns, that's the direction you wanna go, then it might be appropriate to have a really eclectic style. There are people out there that do that. If you're trying to do editorial work though, it probably makes more sense to have a really specific style. And that's debatable, but it's not important that your style fits a certain thing. That's not important. What's important is that it heads the right direction. And that's kind of a nuanced thought, but I think it's really important to understand that. Okay. So you might say, all right, my content and my style, they all point the right way. My work says a very specific thing, but I'm still not meeting my goals. I'm still not having a breakthrough. It's the work isn't cutting it. It's not, my work's fine, but I'm still hitting a brick wall. And I think sometimes it's like, you've got a nail to put in the wall, but you're trying to use a screwdriver. And the screwdriver's like the work. The screwdriver's fine. It's a perfect, it's a top end screwdriver. It works fantastically. But if you're trying to screw drive a nail into the wall, it's not gonna work. And I think this has to do with strategy. Are you approaching it? Are you taking the work and doing the right things with it? The screwdriver might be fine, but you're not using it properly. And so when we talk about strategy, here's some of the things I'm thinking about. Goals, where are you getting your goals? Are you getting them from Twitter because you've got cool people that you follow that are doing amazing things that you're like, I wanna be doing that? Well, if you're doing that, you're probably heading the right. You're probably heading the wrong direction. You're, if you're basing your goals on fleeting feelings, then you're heading the wrong direction. Your goal needs to be pointing the same direction as your work and your style, and that might be obvious. But there's so many times where I find myself thinking, man, I just wanna, I need to do this thing. I need to work with this client, or I need that award, or I need this thing. And I think, wait a second, in the direction that I'm headed, is that an appropriate goal? Is that a goal that's reasonable? Is that a goal that is an inevitable point on my journey as I head that direction? Or is that something that's taking me on a side road that I shouldn't go down? Is it your brand, with your strategy? You know, one of the things I find with illustrators a lot, is when they go to make a logo, they'll make some thing that they think a logo looks like, and I'll be like, that doesn't look anything like your work. Yeah, good logos in the logo design world, you can stretch them for infinity, 'cause they're like made and illustrated in their vector. You know, they have all these certain things that they've gotta be. But, what you need your logo to do, is different than probably most logos, and I always say, okay, if you are a painter, then paint your logo. Make it fit, make it say the same thing that your work says. So was your brand pointing the same direction? The way that your website looks, the way that you talk about things, is your communication and your copy, is it all pointing the right direction? If you wanna do work for kids, is your Twitter kid friendly? That's a thought, I think there's something to that. Now you don't have to go crazy on this, you don't have to censor yourself to insanity, and be everything be exactly crafted and concise and contrived, it doesn't have to be like that. But I do think there needs to be a correlation. Do they fit together? Is your marketing heading the right direction? Does your work say one thing, but you're trying to promote to clients that are a totally different zone? I think you have to think about when I approach the strategy of my work, is it synced up with to the actual work? And you'd be surprised how often I found myself approaching even yearly goals, heading a direction where those goals didn't make any sense with the work that I had. So I think getting those two things into line, that's a great way to have a breakthrough. Okay, so you might say the work's fine, I'm heading, I'm doing the right, I've got the right screwdriver, and I'm screwing in screws, but I still can't screw that screw into the wall. There's still something that I can't, I'm still hitting that brick wall. I'm still feeling out of place. I still feel like I'm swimming upstream. If that's you, here's my last one. If you feel like a fish out of water, it might be because your life is out of sync. So we had work strategy and this is life. Your life might not add up. You know, I think we're in a time when people are a little bit overly obsessed with authenticity, like you walk in the walk, talking the walk, you know, talking the walk, walking the walk, talking the talk, you know, living it, breathing it, all of that kind of to a place where I'm uncomfortable with it. You know, I'm a designer, but it doesn't mean that my house is ready to be in a magazine any moment. You know, I've got three kids. It gets crazy over here, right? But I do think your life lining up with the work that you do and the strategy that you do, all of those coming together, that's when things start to get a little bit magical. And if you're feeling like you're a fish out of water, I think it can be this. You know, you might have the work, right? Like you're the fish flopping. You're moving your fins exactly in the right way. You have the instincts to go to the right place. You know, you've got the work. You've got the strategy in your mind. You know, I need to get in that stream. I know if I just got into that, you know, ocean stream that if I got in that current, I'd get to the right place. You've got all the right ideas. You've got the right physical movements, but you're on land. You're flopping around. You're not in the right environment. You're not living the right life. And I think for this, it's so true that your lifestyle needs to add up to what you do. For instance, you know, you might have like, I have three kids and a wife. That's part of my life. That's part of who I am. It's the way that I want to live. Acting like I'm some ultra cool Brooklynite who's single, who goes to all the parties, who's, you know, my works that like top end of fashion. If I was trying to like market to like being the like coolest, most fashionable illustrator out there, just wouldn't add up. It's just not true. I'm not that fashionable. That would be out of sync. And there would be something in that that people would detect and be like, no, I'm rejecting that. That's not, that's not the real picture. Another aspect of life is who are your friends? Who are your peers? You know, they say that you are the sum of the five people that you spend the most time with. They say that that's scientifically true. Like that's who you end up being. Who are you spending time with? Who are you talking to about your work? Are they headed the same direction as you? Because if they're not, one of the things that can hold you back the most is not having any leg ups from peers. None of your peers are helping you make your goals possible and you're not helping anybody else. And because of that, you're feeling like the fish out of water. I think another way that your lifestyles maybe not adding up is your mentors are the wrong people. They're, you know, and you don't have to, it doesn't have to be formal. It almost shouldn't be. Don't say, hey, will you be my mentor? That usually freaks people out. But the people that are helping you from further along in their careers, those people need to be in places that you actually wanna go. It's like taking directions from someone who lives in Florida and never has never been to California and heading to California based on what they tell you to do. That doesn't make any sense. You can read a map just as well as they can. You need to be connecting with people that are already in the places that you wanna go because they know how to get there. So your mentors, your peers, your actual life, what your actual life looks like day to day, it doesn't have to be perfect. It doesn't, everything doesn't have to be exactly right. You know, your peers can be, have different styles and have, you know, do slightly different work and all that. But at least for me, it's really important to have like, friends that are freelance, illustrators and designers that have somewhat similar goals to me, that's super important. When it comes to my mentors, I'm looking for people that are doing the things that I wanna be doing in the next couple of years. You know, for me, the lifestyle thing makes sense. I've got three kids, making kids books, I'm kind of cut out to do that. You know, making work for kids, making work for Nickelodeon. My kids love Nickelodeon. That it adds up and it feels right. And it feels right to other people that it makes sense because they're saying, yeah, that's coming from an authentic place. If your work and strategy is all adding up, but you're still feeling out of water, it might be like a fish out of water, not just out of water. I kind of feel like that. Just, you know, a person out of water. I love to be in water. I love to have baths. I love, I can stand in the ocean for like three hours at a time. But if you're feeling like a fish out of water and your work is right, you've got the right ideas about what to do at the work, but you're still not hitting it. It might be because your life is just not in sync with the place you're trying to go. So, going back to the bike lock, if you just think about all of these things coming together and syncing up, I really believe that if you look at this in a real way, in a strategic way, you sit down and you say, what is my work adding up to? The style and the content. What direction is that headed? And then compare that to, what's my strategy? Where are my goals taking me? What's my brand say? You know, even just what? Not just brand like the way things look, but also the way things feel, the way the text feels, the copy feels, the social media feels. What is all that stuff saying? What direction is that taking me? Who am I trying to market to? Are all of those things in a line? What's my life really like? Who am I really like? What do I really believe in? What are my values? How do I spend my money? How do I spend my time? What's my home life look like? What's my past look like? What do I want my future to look like? Who are my friends? Maybe you need to make some new friends. Maybe your friends are already the right friends, but you're doing the wrong thing. You have the wrong ideas. Who are my mentors? Who do I want my mentors to be? And really sit down with this and just make a list, writing it out. You know, I think if you look at the science behind writing your goals down, like you're like, I can't remember the numbers, but like infinitely more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. I think getting quiet and stopping and really taking a long hard look at things like this makes a world of difference. The times when I've been like, all right, this thing's been swirling in my head forever. I'm gonna actually stop. It can be a walk, you know, and you can just take some notes on your phone, but put some things down. I think when you make a commitment, the universe just starts to swirl around and starts to work in your favor. But when you're all, sorry about that. When you're a wishy-washy and you're a mess and everything's just swirling around your head in confusion, you're never gonna have that next breakthrough. I can't tell you what it's like to have your work understood. You know, there was a time in my work where I was passionate about what I was doing. I was, you know, doing a bunch of the right things. But, you know, I don't know, several years back, I would go to like craft show or something and sell my work. And people would like it. They would look at it and be like, oh, that's kind of cool. That's kind of cool. But, you know, I wasn't selling that much and people would look at it and they just didn't know what to think. They didn't get it. And I think as an artist, that's like maybe the worst fate is people just don't really get it. They don't understand what it is you're trying to do. It's not resonating with them. There's something lost in translation. And I can't tell you how good it is to get these things in line where you feel like everything's pointing the right way. It feels authentic. It feels like it's an extension of me, this work. And when people interact with it, they just instantly are like, yes, I know what that is. I get what you're trying to do. That feeling is not the feeling's not only really awesome, the results are even better. Because I feel like since I've done that work, things have really changed. I think things have really started to like shift and there's more work. There's more understanding. There's more excitement. There's more sharing of the work because it's easy to interact with it because people understand what it is they're looking at. I think one of the things you do, and I don't think it's because I have a value system and an idea and a worldview that says that people are awesome and they're capable of amazing things. And so I don't think that people don't get it because they're stupid. That's not my attitude at all. I think that people don't get it because they don't have a lot of time. They have to use, what do I already know? What context do I already understand so that I can interact with this thing? And if none of the context that I have means that I can't interact with this, I don't have the time and energy to really dive so deep to really get what the value of this thing is. So I think we often really overestimate how much reading in between the lines people can do with our work. You know, if there's something really special about your work, write about it, tell people about it, show it, don't just do the work, show the work, show all the aspects of it. Because I think you can't underestimate how hard it is for people to understand what it is you're trying to do. So it might be obvious to you 'cause you've been spending so much time and energy on this for so long. When people really get your work, amazing things really do happen. Like that's when, that's where the magic is. That's when things start, the balls really start to roll. When people get it. And I think this process, if you do this process, you're gonna be so much closer to that. Or you're gonna get closer to a new level. You know, I know some people that listen to this podcast are way ahead of me in their career. And I think at any stage, some of these things can be out of whack and you might be ready to break into a new season of life that's different to the one that you've been in for the past 20 years. And in order to get into that next season, you gotta realign things. Like sometimes your life changes. Now you've got kids. It doesn't mean you need to do kids books or anything, but now you've got kids. Now you're doing something different than you were doing 10 years ago when you started your career. And as those things shift, as any of these pieces in the bike lock shift, it means that now you need to shift the direction. You need to shift the work has to change a little bit. The strategy has to change a little bit 'cause my life changed. You know, or the work changed. Now I have to change the strategy and I maybe need to shift my life around a little bit. But I can't over exaggerate how awesome it is when these things are all firing together. Okay, that's it. Thank you. Thank you for sharing the podcast. Especially you guys on iTunes have been reviewing like crazy. Thank you so much. If you love the podcast and you've maybe reached out and told me and shared it to other people, one of the best things you can do as a payback or whatever is go review on iTunes 'cause that's how this show really picks up steam. So thank you so much. Those reviews, the past couple reviews have been so flattering and amazing. I just appreciate it. Thank you so much. You can check this out on illustrationage.com/creativepeptalk or on my website, Andy-j-miller.com/podcast. Or you can go check it out on iTunes and subscribe there. Thank you so much. Stay excited in your work. If you have to go back and listen to some more peppy talks or something, go make sure you're staying motivated and excited and you're doing the best work every day 'cause that's how you end up getting somewhere. So thank you so much. And until we can talk again, stay peped up. (gentle music) - Hey y'all, one more quick thing. Earlier this year, I rebuilt my website using Squarespace's new fluid engine and I was so pumped about how it turned out that I have been really thrilled to find as many ways to partner with them and tell you about what they can do and bring you discounts as possible. With social media going haywire, I think having a site that feels as unique as your creative work is essential to building trust with your target audience or your clients. I have had several clients point out how cohesive and fresh my site looks lately and if you wanna check that out and what I was able to do without any code, check out AndyJPizza.com. If you wanna test it out, go to squarespace.com/peptalk to test it out yourself. And when you're ready to launch, use promo code PEPTALK for 10% off your first purchase. Thanks Squarespace for supporting the show and for supporting creative people. (upbeat music) - I did consider Barney a friend and he's still a friend to this day. - The idea of Barney is something that I want to live up to. You know, I love who you love me. I call it the purple mantra. - Barney taught me how to be a man. - Generation Barney, a podcast about the media we loved as kids and how it shapes us. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music)