Creative Pep Talk
025 - Nothing Can Stop You
Hey y'all, just a quick heads up. The episode you're about to listen to is 8 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 want to 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. The holidays are upon us and finding the right gift for your kids, nieces and nephews and partner and family members can be super difficult, but it doesn't have to be. Go check out Uncommon Goods. Sophie and I were checking it out the other day looking for gifts for our kids. They have a make your own storybook kit, which we love. There's this cardboard tool kit with a cardboard saw that's safe and connectors. You can build cool stuff and forts and whatnot. They also got these building connectors where you can connect sticks and make them for it. Mainly, I just like forts, but there's tons of cool creative gifts that will inspire your kids to go make stuff, but we could also easily have just bought stuff for each other or even ourselves. This curated selection of goods means you don't have to scour the internet for something unique and exciting and you're supporting artists and small businesses at the same time which you know I love. If you get 15% off your next gift, go to uncommongoods.com/peptalk. That's uncommongoods.com/peptalk for 15% off. Don't miss out on this limited time offer, uncommon goods, we're all out of the ordinary. Well, well, well, you know what time it is. You hear that song and you know it's time for the creative pep talk that you've been looking for all week, right? I love that song, I don't know why, I just love it. You know, grab yourself a coffee, I've got mine right here. Now, I'd like to take a little moment of silence for the death of the slurp. You know, I was really conflicted about this. On past episodes, you can hear me taking a giant slurp of coffee and you know what? I haven't been doing that as much and I'll tell you why because I had several people reach out and say that it grossed them out and you know what? I'm all for being authentic and I like the slurp, you know, I got the idea for leaving the slurp in after listening to an interview with Jerry Seinfeld where he said that he would call his good friend and they would drink coffee over the phone and they could hear each other slurping the coffee and he really liked that and I liked that and I thought you know what? I'm a coffee guy, I let the slurp just be on tape but I'm not so authentic that I'm willing to let that ruin this for other people so I'll still be drinking the coffee, I'm just going to step away from the mic as I do it like this. 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 book makers, 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 going to 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. Okay, so it's still happening, just not going to be right up in your ear. So I'm sorry for those who are really going to miss out. I'm sure there's like five of you out there but that's just the way it is and you know what? I'm moldable. I don't have to be so authentic that it hurts people. Well, you know what, this show you know it's brought to you by illustration age. You can hear this show at illustrationage.com/creativepeptalk. That partnership has been fantastic. I'm reaching all whole different audience and I really appreciate that and I you know it's a great website for illustration and pushing the illustration industry forward. Okay, today I don't know if I've been this excited about an episode yet but I am so pumped out of my mind to bring this episode to you. It's the episode that I need to hear this week and usually those are the ones that I'm most passionate about. I'm giving my own self-creativepeptalk today and I need it. I need it. You know yesterday, man I was feeling a little bit depressed you know and I started to think about why that was and I realized that I was focusing on all of all these things that I have no control over and I was letting those things get me down. And so today on the creativepeptalk we're going to have our own little IA illustrators anonymous we're going to have you know I'm not an alcoholic but I have had friends who are and they've taught me a lot about alcoholics anonymous and one of the things that you hear them talk about is the serenity prayer and you've heard it before and you know just like any cliche anything you hear over and over eventually it loses its meaning it's not as nice and it's you know whatever but it goes something like this grant me serenity to accept what I can't change courage to change what I can and then wisdom to know what the difference between those two are and today's episode is called nothing can stop you. This is something that's been on my mind a lot lately and I believe in this idea of doing what you can do in your power and not focusing on the things that are completely out of your control and I think that you know depression even is about focusing on the things that you have no control over and I think in your career it's so easy to put all of the weight on things that are out of your control and we're going to talk about that today and I've got eight things that no one can stop you from doing that will advance your illustration career it will it's I think they're make or break things I really do and they're things that nobody else has to say yes to and so today that's the episode nothing can stop you and no one can stop you from doing these things you know I teach us one of the reasons I think about this a lot is I teach a self-promotion class at the Columbus College of Art and Design for senior year illustrators and I know I've said it a bunch of times that I kind of define self-promotion in a weird way but I define it as anything that you can do that no one can stop you doing by saying no. So anything that you have the power to do all on your own is what is viewed in my opinion as self-promotion those that and that's the thing all of the things that you can do to drive your career that nobody can say no to that's your self-promotion and I think it looks different than it ever has and it's actually a great time to exist as an artist in my opinion. I think it's so easy to sit around and make excuses for why things aren't going the way that you want them to go if I only had X amount of followers if I only had that illustration agent if I only had this client if I only had that famous uncle who could get me that sweet job with Nike or whatever it is you know we it's so easy to sit around and look at all the things out of your control and say those are the things that are keeping you from a fulfilling career in design illustration or art it's so easy to do that and I think that that's that right there is the key to an unsuccessful career. I think that you need vision not to manipulate other people you need vision about how you want things to look I believe that I believe you need to have that but I don't think but what I think you need to do is create and make and do things in your own power with intention not manipulation not to go manipulate other people's free will and make them do what you want them to do to follow you or to give you a job or to whatever no you need to create with an intention but you don't need to have a vision to manipulate people all right so here we go we're going to get into the list. Number one finish your plate okay finish your plate this is this is such a big lesson for me and let me just put a disclaimer I do all of these eight things but they're all things that I forget to do all the time I always find myself focusing on the things that I have no control over and I'm and when I remember these things it's almost always like a eureka moment like oh yeah I'm supposed to be doing these things instead of being depressed I should be focusing that energy on doing being proactive on these things so one of the things one probably the top thing that I forget the most is finish your plate finish your plate if you're if the universe was your dad and he made you dinner and he gave it to you and you've got some you know all kinds of stuff on the plate and you finish the stuff that's the tastiest you eat the french fries and you leave the peas when if you do that and then you say I want more fries the universe is going to slap you in the face and say finish your plate I get this analogy for my own daughter she's a six year old girl she will I'll give her her food we'll serve her dinner she'll eat her favorite thing on the plate and then ask for more of it and then I say every night eat the rest of your food and then maybe you can have seconds of that but you're not going to get two helpings of the least healthy thing on your on your plate before you've eaten your vegetables right and I feel like you know you're feeling depressed you want more I want more I want more but you've got a list of things to do right now on your plate that still need to be done and actually I hate to get biblical on you but there's that there's a there's a phrase that comes from the Bible that says if you're faithful with a little bit more will come your way and I just think that that's so true it's just a practical truth whether you're spiritual or not doesn't matter it's a it's a practical truth is that when when you've got all this stuff on your plate and you're sitting around thinking about all the stuff you you need more it's it doesn't make any sense so often I find myself like an employee drowning in the work that he's been given while going to the boss and saying can I have some more work and I just think what you have to do is instead of worrying about I wish I had more editorial jobs I wish I had that big job come in I wish I you know someone would let me do this book or do that thing whatever instead of focusing all the energy on that write out your list and make it disappear cross everything off the list then then think about what you would like more I think that there's nothing more liberating than finishing what's already on your plate and honestly you can get weird about it if you want to get weird how many times have I been dreading doing that last thing on the list only to cross it off and then instantly get another job in my inbox that's that I'm excited about right you gotta eat your vegetables you got finish your plate that's one thing nobody can stop you from finishing your plate you can't force someone to give you more you can't force someone to give you your an extra helping of your favorites but you can finish what's on your plate and I think when you do that your it often works out but if you spend your time sitting around being depressed because you still because you just don't don't have more of that stuff that you want you're not going to get anywhere all right that's number one number two self-generated projects I'm going to do a whole episode on that actually my friend Andrew Nier and I are hoping to bring our color me blank show it's it's a it's a show where we draw a giant mural with with black paint markers and we let the public come in and paint it with color giant five and a half foot giant markers and we're gonna we're gonna take this lecture to a few different art schools about self-generated projects that was a self-generated project and we both have kind of made our our way by by self-generated projects and so I'm very passionate about it I want to I want to do a whole episode about it I've done a lot of self-generated projects myself but I really believe that this is maybe the key to not letting anyone stop you from doing the thing that you want to do to having the career that you want to have if you want to make kids books make it amazing kids book and if nobody will buy it self-publish it and sell it and don't self-publish it and and you know halfway do the job doing amazing job you know look at a Joel B I got I had the pleasure of meeting Josh and Colby from Joel B when I was in Portland last summer they were really nice guys they they you know we talked and you know I just really appreciate they they give me a bunch of encouragement about my stuff and vice versa and you know they had a book a kids book that they wanted published I think nobody would buy it and so they did a Kickstarter and self-published it and you know they went on to to illustrate other kids books for publishers but they did such a good job they proved themselves and I think that today's age we're in the age of proving yourself and I think we love to talk about how the art world isn't a meritocracy how it isn't about how good your work it is you know how good your work is it's about who you know or getting lucky or all the stuff and yeah okay it's not purely based on how good your work is maybe that's true but we've never lived in a time where if you made an amazing song an amazing hands down amazing song and you put it online and it was truly amazing you're gonna have your even your friends and family on Facebook sharing it with other people right and I think we live in a time where if you are amazing at what you do something's gonna come from that like it's we don't live in that time where there was this genius that nobody's ever heard of it doesn't happen like that as much as it used to I don't think and I think that think about it like this self-generated projects I like to think of it like this if you had two options to buy a house from someone who had some sketches who had done a few other building projects that were really unrelated to buy to building a house or would you buy a house from someone who has already built their own house and their own house looks amazing like who would you buy a house from would you buy a house from the guy if you only have these two options if you buy a house from the guy who has a few sketches has really these ideas about this kind of house that they want to build for you or are you gonna build it from someone who's already built their own house and it's functioning and it's doing great and it's selling that's you know what you can blame the art directors and the publishers and the editors and all these people but that's a situation they're in do you want to buy from this person that's proven their stuff by people responding to their work to you know people on social media loving what they do buying their self-generated stuff or you're gonna risk it on someone who seems like maybe they have a good idea and when money is involved people are risk averse and they're gonna take the sure thing and whether you like it or not you know that's the way it is and I think the best way to ensure that you're gonna fill your career and the most successful you I think is to do your own projects if you want I might already said this if you want to make skateboards do a project you don't even have to you don't even have to get imprinted just do a project where you take the skateboard shape and do a new skateboard design every week and make a blog yeah that's simple and maybe that's too overdone at this point but that's an example of how you could do that now all of a sudden you're the skateboard deck guy you're so much more likely to have a skateboard deck company come to you and say hey we want to buy one of those or we want you to make a custom one for us then if you just have an illustration portfolio and you think well they can read between the lines they can see that it'd be cool to put this on a deck just eliminate that part of the process I think I'm so blown away by you know when I started I thought if you look at my portfolio and I do all of these bears you assume I can draw a dog pretty well but it just doesn't work like that it's so much easier for them to hire someone who's drawn a thousand dogs right if you want to do work drawing people draw people if you want to do work making skateboards make skateboards you want to do book covers make a bunch of book covers prove yourself don't make them make that extra step it takes a risky really talented certain type of art director to hire someone to do something they've never touched before and it might be and it might be a bad idea you know so self-generated projects and you know what the other cool thing about a self-generated project is it really helps you understand what you really want to do why because if you want to make kids books really bad but you're not willing to just make one on your own you might not really want it for the right reasons you might want to make kids books for the accolades you might want to make make it for the awards or the prestige right because if you really wanted to do it because you just loved it because it was part of you and you're just going to die if you don't make it you just make it you'd feel great about just making it and it's those self-generated projects where I realized I don't care enough about this to finish this project that I realized I don't even want to go in that direction at all because I'm going there for the wrong reasons okay that and you know what just as a disclaimer these eight things I might get passionate about telling you like I'm telling you all for something I'm telling myself honestly all of these things are things that I do but they're also things that I struggle with or forget to do and this could this this creative pep talk is as much a pep talk for myself as it is for you all right number three quit selling start sharing right okay so all right everybody knows you remember how pretty much everybody got into their favorite band in the same way right you know I remember when I got into my my all-time favorite band it was this amazing moment where I'm open in my emails in the morning and in my inbox is an email from modest mouse and they said they sent me this email and it was this mass marketing email and it said Andy because they used the type of email where it self generates the name so it it personalized it kind of to me and said Andy you're going to love our new album click here to buy it on bandcamp it's going to blow your mind and I clicked I listened to the whole thing and I've been buying every album since then no that is not how things work anymore and maybe it never worked that way with the band but things aren't like that anymore they don't people don't want to be sold you didn't get into your favorite band because they sent you a free CD in the mail you didn't get into your favorite band because they direct marketed you into your email you got into your favorite band and it you discovered your favorite band there is the psychological element that happens from discovering something even though maybe that there's no like I didn't discover modest mouse I didn't discover you know whatever my my favorite bands are I didn't discover them really but I had the artificial sensation of discovering them but I walked into my Spanish class and the song was playing my friend was playing it hey Will Johnston he was playing the song on through through the boombox and I heard I walked into a room and I heard it and it hit me and no one was telling me you should listen to this because if they did I probably wouldn't want to listen to it I just walked in and I just heard it and it was this magic story for me it's something I go back to and think about that element of discovery like don't take that away from the people discovering your work when as soon as you tell somebody to like your work they won't like it like you've got to you've got to quit thinking about selling your work and more about making it possible for people to discover your work and how do you do that right you go out there and you become a part of the community that you want to be a part of online or in person go to the parties go to the events meet people go to art school go go to the places where they these people are and just be there just be there don't sell just be in those spaces make your work available to be found that is so much more powerful than forcing trying to manipulate people don't want to be manipulated nobody wants to get no one wants to be force fed art like that is not how we want to interact with it if you think about it like this in a practical terms it's like if you post a piece of work up and you say you should pen this to your pen board everyone's like that I will never pen that to my pen board ever I'm not going to do that I will do everything in my power in fact I'm going to tell other people don't pin that because I can't I don't you know it's that reaction nobody wants to be force fed art by an art dictator however I think it's appropriate to go be on Pinterest go be pinning the stuff you like and then have a board for your work so that when people go check out your page they can see your work and they can make a decision on whether they want to pin it now that's making yourself discoverable and that's sharing what you do and not selling it not saying everything you put up you should pin this that I just think that that is not how people want to engage in art and I think about you know your dreams my nightmares podcast the times he talked to an art director on there he says how do you find artists and they almost never have an answer you know why because when you find an artist that you love it wasn't something you felt like either they sold you on or that you intentionally found it was a moment right it wasn't it wasn't that and then and then they'll say well what can they people do to be to for you to find them and then they'll say oh the traditional methods you can send him an email you can send him a postcard and blah blah blah and I'm not saying that stuff's wrong to do but they never make the connection between the people they hire and the people that force feed them their work and I just think we're we've never been in it and I think the reason is because it's easier to discover things than it's ever been you want to discover music it's really easy now go on Spotify go find your favorite band then go look at the 15 related artists and that is a more enjoyable experience and it's and it's and it's the experience I think that you should be catering to in your work number four be so good that they can't ignore you this comes from a quote from Steve Martin who constantly the comedian who kept getting questions about how do you break into the into Hollywood and his advice was be so good that they can't ignore you now yeah okay you could still be ignored even if you're the best in the world but I think nowadays if you're making amazing work and you're making sure that it's available in the channels for people to discover it you're making yourself just easy to discover you're good it's gonna work it's gonna it's gonna work and I think the biggest thing that we do I've talked about this before there's a preacher down south called Andy Stanley and he he one of this quote that I heard him say one time and I can't get it out of my head is you you can't plan on being the exception because that's not a plan a plan is you make making steps based on facts based on things that are the most likely to happen based on the 98% rule or guideline not the exception to the rule you can't you can't have a financial plan to win the lottery that's not a plan when you need meal time inspiration it's worth shopping king supers for thousands of appetizing ingredients that inspire countless mouthwatering meals and no matter what tasty choice you make you'll enjoy our everyday low prices plus extra ways to save like digital coupons worth over $600 each week and up to $1 off per gallon at the pump with points so you can get big flavors and big savings king supers fresh for everyone fuel restrictions apply so practically this is what I think that looks like you know I feel like we look out into whatever industry we think you know who I'd like to be that exception I'd like to be that Cinderella where the fairy godmother came and instantly changed everything for out of no effort from that person just out of the goodness just someone recognizing how good I am right like we so often look at that person we rarely look at the best of the best and think I'm gonna be that person as an example let's get ridiculous and talk about hip-hop I'm not a hip-hop genius I don't even listen to that much hip-hop but I don't know I like it as an analogy I think of like it's so rare that people point out Kendrick Lamar and say I'd like to be the Kendrick Lamar of illustration if you know Kendrick you know he's the guy who is the person that's supposed to be bringing hip-hop hip-hop back to it's to the great days a purestiff he's a he's a rapper that you know he's known as the best rapper out there he wraps circles around the other competition he's you know he's blowing people's minds by how good of a lyricist he is and he's so good nobody can ignore him no I can't imagine living in a world where he was putting out rap out out into the universe and people weren't going insane over it because he's just that good but rather I feel like we point to people like and no offense to chains if you listen to this to chains I'm sorry but I'm really assuming you're not going to and you know what you got your thing and you go man but I'm just gonna use you as an example to chains we're like I want to be two chains I want to be this guy who okay he's maybe not the best lyricist he's not you know his music is not the catchiest he's just got a weird quality that people like you know what and Kanye signed him and now and put him on a bunch of tracks and he kind of got famous over that two chains and I'm not okay no offense to change you're not doing anything wrong you're you know you're obviously making a killing out there but I feel like for myself and and I think other people they look at two chains like I could do that I'll be that guy I'll be the guy who gets the lucky break rather than I'll be the guy that works so hard that I'm the best and nobody can ignore my work that's the stuff that you have the power to control how good your work is is mostly based on the on how much effort and time and energy pour into it and if you plan on being the best that's a plan maybe you can't be the best but you could be the best at something some part so good that people are impressed by it that they're excited about it that they want to share that they can't deny that it's good like that you can focus your energy on you can't focus your energy on hoping that randomly Kanye hears something you did and kind of likes it for some random reason and puts you on a track you know what I mean good hip-hop references I don't know anything about hip-hop it's like you're it's like these people you know they're focusing on they when they want to make records and they're focusing on the recording quality focus on the songwriting look at iron and wine if you heard his his first album the recording quality is ridiculously poor and yeah okay maybe it adds to the ambiance or whatever but it's the songs are so good he wasn't ignored by the quality and I heard some actors talking on a podcast and they said you know it's not your headshots that's holding you back it's you're acting and we get so obsessed with the website being perfect and our social media presence being good and this and that and all this stuff all this auxiliary stuff we've quit focusing on making awesome work make that your first priority rather than all this other stuff all that the headshots and the recording quality and the all that stuff quit worrying about that write a good song doesn't matter how you record it if it's that good and eventually it'll come if you write an amazing kids book like an amazing kids book and you put that and you print it and you make it yourself maybe it'll take time to catch on but if it's really really good people are going to share it and that publisher is eventually going to see it one day they'll put it on that nice paper no they'll distribute it to millions of people five retweet others as you would like to be retweeted that's another that's another phrase that many gurus and spiritual teachers have passed down retweet as you would like to be retweeted it's really do as do others as you want to be done to you you can't make someone retweet them and if you try they will hate you don't don't try to make someone retweet your work don't do that people don't like that people don't want to be manipulated or told what to do right but if you you know there was a time where I sat back and I was aggravated because I felt like illustration had become a little bit less you know as things as it was apparent that the internet was filling up with illustrators I felt like people were being less gracious with sharing people's work and getting excited about other people's work and you know I think I went on twitter and complained about it like a fool and I realized you know if I feel like that if I feel like that's the way things are and I don't like it Matt why don't I do something about it instead of complaining Tina Roth Eisenberg she's known as Swiss mess online she does the tatly creative morning studio mates she has this value that she says if she finds herself complaining over and over about the same thing she makes a choice to either do something about it or stop complaining and I think that this is the best attitude you know if you want people to go out there and be sharing each other's work and being gracious with their compliments and liking stuff go out and do all that stuff go out and affect the culture make that part of the culture and when it comes to doing on to others as you want done to you you don't want someone to inauthentically retweet or like your status or your work or share your work or whatever you don't want someone to do it because you because you know you don't want someone retweeting you because you because they want you to retweet them right that's that's not what you want done unto you you want people to authentically do that when they really like what you've got going on you want them to say so and when you really like what someone else has going on say so encourage them tell them you love what's going on instead of being bummed because nobody's checking out your stuff check out someone else's stuff share someone else that's how I think you can affect positive change and influence the culture in a way that you that you want it to you know I think of that stupid ridiculous cultural phenomenon of the the Starbucks chain of people paying for each other you know it's like you have that impact when someone pays for your coffee it's it's this idea that and the drive-through where someone pays for the person behind them and then that person pays for the person behind them you know they've had that happen for like a whole day like a chain unbroken chain of people paying for the person behind them which whatever whatever you want to think of that ridiculous but you have that you can you can do that for others what you want done for you you can you can affect the culture positively in that way so when I find it when I come come across an illustrator that I think is amazing and I've never seen him for I try to talk about them I try to share it on Twitter I try to go out of my way to make their day because I know when someone does that to me it feels awesome and I and I don't and I don't do it unauthentically I do it when I really have a strong connection with something but I try to go out of my way if I still an illustration on Instagram that I think is amazing I try to say so you know and I think you have so much power so much more power than you think by just doing the things that you believe in you know I recently heard I think on the invisibility of podcast this idea that you know if you go in an elevator and everybody's facing the back of the elevator you're gonna face the back of the elevator even though that makes no sense like if someone pranked you like that you're gonna do that because we influence each other in such strong ways and I think if you just go out there and you be the type of artist that you want other people to be or you be the type of you know person on social media that you want other people to be you are affecting more people than you think you are all right number six seed change is opportunity instead of threat so recently I found myself you know I told you I was kind of in a funk yesterday and I had you know I've been kind of in and out of a funk kind of for a week or so one of the things that's just been really getting to me is this cynicism and negativity as I get older you know I'm surrounded by people more often surrounded by people as you leave school and get older and you get into people that have experienced some life and have a reason to be cynical about stuff you know you get surrounded by that cynicism and I just see it all the time online and in person the cynicism about the illustration world what's happening we can't get enough money for an editorial anymore you can't make a living doing that you can't do this oh this thing's gone that thing changed and here's I think you can either be Metallica or Radiohead when it comes to change right you can be Metallica you know why Metallica is in Washington trying to punish their fans for downloading their music free Radiohead is making more money on their album than they've ever made by allowing people to pay what they want and download their record on their on their on their site you can either be Metallica who's sitting around pontificating about the way things used to be and how things are changing and the illustration industry and the design industry is going to hell and you know we we gotta fix things we gotta make all these guidelines look I'm I'm really grateful for those who are out there fighting for the in my industry and fighting for the best payments out there and getting getting the the right system in place you know I'm I'm so grateful that we that we have those people fighting for us but I think if you spend too much time clinging on to the way that the illustration was 10 years ago or it was five years ago or if it was 20 years ago or or design if you sit around worrying about that stuff you're gonna be missing the opportunity to do what's awesome now it's like yeah things were crazy back then but and maybe there's not enough money in editorial print okay maybe it used to be you could make a living doing that but look what's happening now like look at what you know I'm always saying yeah it used to be if the gatekeeper let you let you in you know there was a few illustrators they made it and it was awesome for them and they were making great money and you know what that was awesome and I'm happy that that existed but I think now is the age of the the blue collar artist I think there's never been a time in in history where you could make a humble living as an artist as if you worked hard and you put in effort you know and and so I think more people are making a full-time wage on art than they ever have in in the existence and I I celebrate that if it means I make a little bit less than than than than I would have 15 years ago I'm okay with that if that means a guy down the street can also make a living on art you know I'm not suffering and I think you can say yeah well the print media thing you know it's not working as well as it used to or we're not getting the fees that we used to get yeah okay that's not great and and you know what there's some change that needs to be had there I'm not denying that and you know I don't this isn't a something that says quit whining about fees I think that you know there are some there are some structures that aren't working but the internet has made it so our culture has never been more interested in visual art you know the internet every day becomes more and more about pictures and less about words that's an amazing time to be an illustrator and it's the people the people that figure out how to monetize that how to make a living on that new hunger for images those are the people that are going to be the radiohead those are the people that are going to be the Uncle Rico's right you know while you are out there playing patty cake with your friend Pedro uncle Rico's making 120 bucks right you know and I that's my thing I think you've got to stay in that positive zone seeing that opportunity seeing that change is opportunity not a threat and I think the day you sit back and you say well things are going bad I'm done cashing in my chips because it's just not good anymore is that's the day it's over it is over cashing your chips but there's going to be someone coming right behind you is going to figure out how to make it work number seven know the difference between your to-do list and your wish list your to-do list is anything that you have the power to do before without anybody saying yes to like I want to publish a book this year you can do that on your own now I want to get some t-shirts printed I want to do t-shirt design we'll do some nobody's stopping you you don't have to wait for somebody to ask you that's the difference between I want to get a published book by a major publisher this year that can be a wish I actually believe in this idea of I don't believe in it and some well maybe I do I don't know I don't believe in I don't necessarily believe in a weird way I think it can be a very practical thing but this visualization idea you know I love this story even though okay you know it's a bit ridiculous Jim Carrey you know at some point wrote himself a check for ten million dollars and said you know I want I want to get paid this amount of money to do a role in a movie and a few years later that's what he got paid to do dumb and dumber and he could cash that check that he wrote for himself visualization or not whatever if you want to get weird about it get weird I try to stay in the middle I don't get too weird I like to be both practical and impractical but I believe it's important to have a vision for the kinds of things that you would like to happen I think even if it just prepares you to be on the lookout for the right opportunities it gives you clarity about the direction in which your intention is going even if it's just that but maybe it's more I don't know but I think it's important to have a wish list but I don't think it's I think it's important to make a wish list and then stuff it in the back of your pocket and then forget about it you know I might have said this before when I was in college I had a magazine a German magazine actually do an interview with me and they asked me what I wanted to do in the future and I forgot I forgot about that in the near future the next things I wanted to do and I went and found that magazine later and I years later and I had forgotten that I'd even answer those questions and I realized that everything that I wanted to achieve on that list it was a wish list I'd done and that's not an arrogant thing they were really small silly things like do a t-shirt design you know stuff like that get a get t-shirt you know do a design for a t-shirt that actually gets printed on t-shirts it was those kinds of things it was small things but I realized I'd done all of the things that I said that I wanted to do and then when I'd said them I'd said these wishes I didn't know if they would ever come true I didn't know if they would ever happen and so I think the wish list make it stuff in the back of your pocket forget about it come back to it years later and it'll be really satisfying for the amount of things that you've done but focus on the things that you can do on your own and I think a good differentiator is make the peasant list to do list not a dictator to do list a dictator can make a to-do list which involves all other people acting with their free will in accordance with what you tell them to do because you can make them a peasant is limited they can only do you know a few things that they have the power to do and I think if you approach your focus on that kind of list that you're gonna be it's first of all just you're gonna be happier because you're gonna focus on all the things that you can do and you're gonna go do them and you're gonna feel like you've achieved something rather than focusing on that wish list all the time and thinking I wanted to work for that client five years ago and it still hasn't worked out I've tried to manipulate them I've sent their art director 50 things they don't even reply to my emails everything sucks focus on your to-do list not your wish list last one number eight be resilient I'm not resilient by nature I'm not what you call a tough-minded by nature I've become tougher over the years but I sound my nature my nature is kind of be whiny complain all that kind of stupid stuff that's kind of what I'm naturally like but I've learned resilience by my passion so I'm so passionate about being an artist that I've learned to be resilient so early on in my career you get when you start something you're gonna have haters you're gonna have people that come along and they're gonna tell you why you shouldn't do it you know what they're keeping their their castle this thing that they're a part of they're keeping it they're fighting you this is their castle if you want to be a designer you want to be an awesome designer there are people who have it in their mind that see you as competition and they're gonna try to keep you out of the gate and early on when I started out I felt like I had some pretty big attacks people trying to say you need to stop your you know your works like this it's not good enough it's you know oh you're just like this thing I had people even personally say I had a guy tell me you know you know when I you know I'd hire you when I when I when I want some he was a backhanded comment I don't I'm not even gonna say what he said but say he said something like you know if I want something stupid and meaningless made I'll go to you and it's that kind of stuff where at first it was tripping me up and I was like man I gotta get out of this I I can't take it I can't take all of those attacks on on my even on my personal moral character and I tried very hard to stay true to my values but I got attacked in that way and it really hurt me and a few years in I just realized this phrase came to my head and it gave me a lot of power and courage and it was I'm not going anywhere you know in the design illustration world online especially people come and go think back five years ago to the artist that you were into where are they there's there's so many of them they come and go where do they go I don't know but they do they come and go and you know what I saw that happening and early on after I've been you know kind of defeated here and there I realized there was something in me that said I'm not going anywhere and in ten years you're still going to see my name not not out of an ego thing but as I'm not giving up I want this thing and I'm going to be around and you can you can try to bully me to leave but I'm not going to leave and I think that's one thing you can set your mind to and you can say look this thing that I want I'm going to keep coming I'm going to keep bringing it until it works and when it works I'm going to keep working hard and be around and I think that for whatever reason that that phrase just kind of inflamed me to work hard and to be to be resilient and just I realized I'm not going anywhere you might not like my work you might think that I suck right now but one day I'm not going to suck and I'm going to and I'm going to keep coming I'm going to keep getting better I think if you looked at my work when I graduated to what I'm doing now I hope you're I hope people are surprised by how far I've come is my work the best thing ever absolutely not there's all kinds of ways that it's it's you know it needs tons of you know whatever but I'm not going anywhere and I think having that attitude that's something that's in your power they can't make you leave the game and they'll try you know I feel like being as good as you can be doing the things that you can do on your own you know I feel like sometimes you know my work can be it's kind of deceptively simple you know I work so hard on figuring out the ways to draw in simple ways that look really good and I think sometimes that can cause my students or other people to think Andy's just lucky and you know what there's sometimes I have been lucky I'm not going to I'm not going to say that that's not true you know there've been lucky breaks that I've had that I can't explain but at the same time every day I'm trying to draw you know how do you draw a circle with legs that looks amazing if you'd be surprised without the nuance of like doing the legs a certain way doing this angle the right way making the eyes in this position instead of that position all of those things I'm thinking about those things and when the first time I drew a circle with legs is terrible compared to the way that I draw it now and I love simple and I think it's a little bit deceptively simple and it could be easy to look at the things that I've accomplished and think I want to have that Cinderella thing where's Andy's fairy godmother you know when did that show up and just magically make things happen for him but the truth is I work really hard to make better work and I see progress in my own work and I think it's so important it's so important to put the focus on what can you do in your power and if you focus on that I really think nothing can stop you so I hope that this has pumped you up and you are stoked to go out there and kick creative butts all over town and if you want to hear this online you can listen to it on my website if you would if you'd like to do it that way Andy-J- Miller dot com slash podcast or you can look at the amazing illustration website illustration age dot com slash creative pet talk go check that out there's great comments being made on there and and and good thoughts and discussions about the podcasts to you people who have been reviewing my podcast I am so thrilled to buy it I love it every time I see a new one it it really like warms my heart to see that it means so much to me you know I haven't seen a lot of creative podcasts that have more reviews than they do episodes on a podcast so I that is amazing thank you so much that you feel so pumped about this that you're going to go out there and and review it to help other people find it that I'm so grateful to all the people that keep sending me encouragement keep telling me about how this is affecting them and you know what it's this podcast has been good for me a place to just put my thoughts and most of these podcasts their their pet talk for myself the best ones are the things that what when I go on there and I think what podcast do I wish was on iTunes right now that's the podcast I make and when I do that I think I make the best ones my favorite ones and so I just really appreciate all the feedback I really appreciate all the enthusiasm and the sharing of the show I've a few of you out there I want to thank Invisible Creature the guys over there they've been so enthusiastic about the show and every time they tweet about it my followers jump up by a big exponential thing so I love you guys you guys make amazing work and I hope that you guys keep enjoying the podcast thanks for all the people that have been sending me emails and messages and tweets and Instagrams and all that stuff I really appreciate it I definitely feel like by bearing my heart and passion for helping creative people make a living I feel like us sharing that pursuit has just meant so much to me this this experience and I hope that I get to do it for a long time and I actually hope that it can turn into a lot of other things you know I'm spending about a half a day a week on this podcast right now and I'd love to spend a little bit more time doing this sort of thing but I don't know how to do that without cutting back other projects and so if you guys have ideas you know I have a book in mind that I want to write that I'm actually secretly working on something to do with this for a published book but I can't really talk about that but I also wanted to do something a little bit more instant maybe something like some kind of digital book of digital publication of some kind about about finding your master sword which I can't use master sword because it's copyrighted or whatever but something like that if that's something that you think would be good just send me an email and if there's any other kind of products or ways that I can expand the show that you have an idea for that you would want that would help you that would feel like a good extension of this send me an email and tell me your ideas or something that you'd like I really appreciate it and guys until next week when we talk again figure out ways to keep going and stay peped up thanks. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] Hey y'all one more quick thing earlier this year I rebuilt my website using square spaces 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 want to check that out and what I was able to do without any code check out Andy J pizza calm if you want to 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. I'm Whit Missaldine the creator of this is actually happening a podcast from wondering that brings you extraordinary true stories of life-changing events told by the people who lived them from a young man that dooms his entire future family with one choice to a woman that barely survived her roommate we dive into what happened and hear their intimate first-person account of how they overcame remarkable circumstances followed this is actually happening on Amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad-free by by joining Wondree Plus in the Wondree app.