Creative Pep Talk
016 - 6 Ways to be a Happier Creative
(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. 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, so 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. To 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. (upbeat music) - Hello everybody. It's the creative pep talk podcast and it's back after a little break over the holiday weekend. This is Andy J. Miller. I'm in a graphic illustrator. And I do this podcast to put some pep in your creative step, if you will. (upbeat music) 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. - You know, I wanted to start off today. Just was saying, I feel like I wanted to communicate to you. But you know what? I don't really feel like I'm an expert. An expert on illustration, per se, or necessarily, you know, I'm not a seasoned veteran when it comes to creative professionalism. You know, I've only been graduated for our since 2008. And I see this less like me passing down my wisdom from a top of the creative, professional Hall of Fame. And I'll see it less like that and see it more like a journal where I'm trying to capture the things that I've learned to date, the things that feel like they're helping me, and maybe a dialogue or a conversation with my peers and friends and the creative, professional industries. And mainly, more than anything, rather than really this being about advice, it's really about encouragement, you know? Trying to pass on the things that are encouraging me and helping me to continue doing what it is I'm doing and make breakthroughs of my own work. And hopefully be able to pass some of that energy on to you, pass some of my passion over to you for helping other people make a living doing creative things. You know, that's really come from a place where, you know, I feel like I'd have a hard time making a decent living if it wasn't for creative things. You know, and I'd definitely be miserable. And there are a lot of people that help me do what I do and I'd love to be one piece of the pie for you to help you keep doing what you're doing and get further in your pursuit. And so today, you know, I did a post a few years back on my blog called Five Things, Five Ways to Be Happier Creative. And that was on Tumblr. And I happened to, I don't know exactly what happened, but I ended up getting, I don't know, re-blogged and stuff and that thing keeps chugging away. People seem to be really responding to it. People are still re-blogging it and such. So there's a whole mess of Tumblr notes on there. And I don't know if that actually means anything, but just in case it does, I thought, you know what, I'm gonna do a new version of that. I don't think any of these are on that list, the list that I'm gonna give you today, but there are things that are helping me be a happier, creative, professional today. So there's six ways to be a happier, creative, professional. So here we go. Number one, make something every day. Now, all right, this might not be possible. Maybe you can't make something every single day, but I kind of liken it to if you think, I don't know why I always think in sports metaphors. I think it's just, I grew up around sports. I don't even watch sports. But if you think of like a basketball player, you know, I feel like sometimes in the creative world, we get so wrapped up in doing the social media junk and doing the invoicing and, you know, we're working on the bigger projects and we're working on that, the client work and we're getting all up in that, you know, and all the business and the busyness of doing the work that we rarely take a moment to stop and make something for ourselves. Something that, you know, because we love to do it and I liken it to, you know, a basketball player. It's like, you know, how many days do you, how many days go by without you actually taking up the ball and shooting the ball just for fun because you love to do it, you know, and I even think about it like this, like just shooting a few baskets or just doodling in your sketchbook. That's great and that can be fun and that's something that, you know, you should enjoy. But I tell you what, playing a scrimmage, you know, playing a fake game is a lot more fun than just shooting around. And so my thing is don't just doodle a little thing, you know, try to make something finished as many days as possible. You know, something small, something really small because I feel like there's something about making something finished, making something just on its own just because you want to. That is such a key to happiness. And when I, the days I accomplish something small that I make something small, make a little picture that I'm proud of, that I'm happy with, I'm happier those days than I am the days that I, you know, I'm just catching up on email and I'm just, you know, working on the current project that I've got open for my clients or, you know, the days that I stop and I take an hour or two at the beginning of the day to make something for myself are the days that I'm much happier. And, you know, I feel like so often, you know, I'm a full-time illustrator and so often I forget, like, I wanted to get into this business so that I could be making stuff all the time and taking time to make stuff just for myself just because I love to make stuff. And it can be so easy to forget that, but I think trying to make time for that even though that's hard sometimes, even if it means getting up early, before, you know, the world is awake and before the commitments can kind of tug at you, I do that sometimes. So number two, create for yourself. Okay, here's what I mean by that. I feel like so often what we do, we create for other reasons, and these other reasons aren't evil, but for other reasons other than because we want to make something. Does that make sense? Like, we make it for validation or affirmation from other people, and that's fine. And there's always gonna be a hint of that, but I think your best work comes out and you're happier when you make something because you want to make it, because you want to see that thing in the world. And I think the more you focus on, you know, your personal work being those things, like I wanted to make something because I wanted to challenge myself and I wanted to create something that I was proud of. And I wanted to see this type of image out in the world. The more you focus on doing that and the goal being making something for yourself and less of making something to get Instagram likes or making something to get this or that job, or, you know, I think there's time and place for those things maybe, but the problem is, is that you're putting your creative happiness in the hands of other people instead of looking at yourself and saying, "What thing would just be fun to make today? "Like, what would just be, what am I genuinely, "just be excited if I made the other certain things I make "when I make something for myself, I tell you?" The kind of test for me is like, "If I make it and I want to put it on my phone really quick "to put it on Instagram, or if I put it make it "and I put it on my phone really quick, to put it so I can, "so I have it in my photos so I can look back over it "over the day and just be like, "Man, I'm really, really happy I made that." Like, those are two different feelings and it's so satisfying to make something that you're just proud that you made it and you're not necessarily, there's no nothing wrong with Instagram, but I think if you're shooting for making stuff just for yourself, at least a part of the time, I think that it's easier to find enjoyment 'cause enjoyment isn't in the response, it's in the making of it and it's in the finishing of it and it's in what it is that you've made. So, number three, this one I just titled "Give." The days when I try to do some alone time in the morning reading and getting alone with my thoughts and I don't always get to do it, but I try to and when I've done that successfully, I often come out of that time, ready to, inspired to lift other people up and do and push other people and encourage other people and I think the times that I don't do that, I wake up and I'm in this self-obsessed mode where when I go to social media, it's like I hate talking so much about social media, but it's just a good way to like, everybody kind of knows when they're on social media for the good reasons and for the bad reasons and you know, it's when I go in to social media as an artist to serve myself, to try to play the game of how many likes can I get, how many, you know, how much affirmation I get or even if I go into a social situation, and my goal is how can I lift myself up, how can I validate myself? I usually leave empty, 'cause when I go into that, I usually go into it and I'm, you know, I don't know, I mention, you know, when I'm trying to get that, I'm trying to take from people, you know, I'll go into that social situation and I'll casually drop, you know, name drop, some client thing that I'm working on or whatever and you know, there's ways that that's appropriate sometimes in the right setting, but doing that, 'cause I'm desperate for that validation, when I'm in that mode, I leave miserable, even if I do that, you know, if I name drop that thing and that people across from me say, whoa, that is amazing and they're being genuine, it's hollow because it doesn't even do what I wanted it to do, it's not even validating and it's not affirming me, it's not, I leave feeling hollow, but when I wake up and I get in that place where I wanna give and encourage and affirm and validate other people, I often leave that situation feeling fulfilled and feeling full and feeling validated and affirmed. It's often in those with that attitude that I come away feeling happier and I think when you have that abundant view of life instead of the scarcity like, there's only so many jobs, there's only so much, there's not a limited amount of affirmation out there, if you're out there giving affirmation to people and supporting their work and encouraging them and retweeting their website updates that you like and you're genuine and you're happy about what other people are making and you're generous with your praise on other people's work, like that doesn't mean that there's less praise out there for you. Like it's not, there's not a scarcity of that, but when you have an abundant attitude, I think when you go into the social situations regarding your creative professionalism with that giving mentality, you're gonna actually leave happier, I think. So, number four, identify what's meaningful about what you do. Now, meaningful doesn't necessarily have to mean that it's meaningful to other people or that it's charitable or that it affects other people. You know, meaningful can mean, what is it about the work that you do that fulfills you? What is it about the work that you do that's therapeutic to you? What is it about the work that you do that makes you a better person? What is it about the work that does have an impact on others? It can mean that too. The podcast and the writing I do, I get a sense of meaning from that and that's one of the things that drives me, but it also gives me fulfillment and it makes me a happier creative person by sharing the things that have helped me and then hearing people say that it's impacted them or help them in a tough spot. I've had dozens and dozens of times where something I've done like that, someone's come back and said, "Oh, I got that right at the right moment." And that bit of serendipity is so meaningful to me. Now, beyond that, I try to think of the work that has inspired me and has touched me in the past and remember that that's the type of work that I'm trying to do for others. So, a band like (laughs) Modest Mouse in the past when I was in high school, that band really took me to high surprise. And I might have told that story on the podcast before, but I think everybody has those situations where you discover a band or you discover an artist and it just totally rocks your world, changes the direction of your life. And that was so meaningful, you know, in high school. And basically my whole life up to high school, up to when I was about 16 or 17, I was just leading a pretty meaningless life. And one of the things that really stopped me in my tracks and made me take life more seriously was, first of all, getting into music, but then also into the merch and the design and the illustration that went along with music and that stuff really made me want to be a deeper person. It made me want to think harder about what I was doing and what I was saying and then what I was making. That made an impact on me. And if you're out there creating work, you are likely to do that for someone else. And that should be something that gives you a sense of fulfillment and should make you happier. You know, I don't think, I do think that there's an element of creativity and creative work that may be selfish. I'm not 100% sure, you know, I don't look at selfishness as something that is 100% evil. I'm not sure that's a true narrative and I'm not exactly sure where that comes from. You know, I consider myself to be a spiritual person. And I don't even see that in the major religions necessarily. I see things like love your, love other people like you love yourself. And so loving yourself, I don't know if that's necessarily evil. And so I think that there are even ways that making work is meaningful to you that helps you as a person that, you know, can be cathartic or can be, you know, meaningful, even in the ways that it just relates to yourself, let alone the ways that it could impact other people. So I think that that helps me feel happier when I focus on those things and I think about those types of things. Number five, focus on the things that you from five years ago would be blown away by and focus less on the things that you haven't attained yet. You know, I think I told this story before. Before I graduated college, I had done an interview with this German magazine and one of the questions was what do you hope to do in the next year? And they were really minor things that I answered with. Like I'd hoped I'd made some T-shirts and a book and that might have even been it. And, you know, two years later, I found that magazine in my studio room and I opened it up and I was looking through them. I'd realized that pretty soon after that, I'd accomplished those things, but I remember answering that question very genuinely and thinking, man, if I could just get a few T-shirt jobs under my belt and make a book, then that would be so awesome and so fulfilling. And you know, I think it's so easy to go about your time completing your goals without ever realizing that you've done so or without ever enjoying and celebrating the fact that you've done so. And I think that it's really important to think about those things. You know, me from five years ago, if I'd known, you know, just full disclosure, my life isn't some like amazing situation. You know, I'm still hustling and doing work and working hard and all that. But if me, from five years ago, knew the type of jobs that I was doing right now and what I was up to and what my schedule looked like right now, I would have been blown away. I would have been so excited about that. But I find myself more often than not, focusing on the ways that it's still imperfect, the things that I didn't get, the awards I didn't get, the jobs I didn't get, the clients that other people got that I didn't get, I found myself going to those things so often. I try to remember, look, five years ago, if you knew that you were doing jobs for that client, you wouldn't even have believed it. You wouldn't even have believed it. And I try to, and focusing on those things really gives me a sense of contentment. And I think that that's a big key to being a happy, a happier creative person. Number six, it's kind of like an oxymoron, which is enjoy the pain. You know, I'm a big fan of the great discontent. It's an interview website where they interview the creative people, and the great discontent is a reference to this idea, to one of their questions that they ask, which is about whether people feel creatively satisfied or not. And it's kind of a leading question. I think they're saying, you know, if you're a creative person, you're never satisfied. And you know, I've thought a lot about that since I started reading that website. And I started to think about, you know, if good creativity comes from discontent, is it mean that creative people are doomed to be miserable, you know, if they're doing good work? And you know, I didn't like that answer, and I didn't think it didn't feel true to me, but there did seem to be truth within that. And so I started, you know, for the past couple of years, I've been kind of unpacking that in my own mind and my own kind of understanding of what that may mean. And yeah, I feel like that I don't, I think it's maybe half of the story. So what I think is that you do need a level of discontent with your work. I don't think that means that you need to be discontent with your life, and what I mean by that is, is that when it comes to your work, you should always be hungry for better work, better jobs, a bigger breakthrough in all of the things that you make and create. But I think that you should, you know, end of past, right? You know, again, five years ago, I was doing that struggling and striving of like, oh man, my work isn't where I want it to be, and my jobs aren't where I want them to be, and my income's not where I want it to be, and I was just like, you know, struggling through that, and actually through all that struggle, that's what actually made my work so much better was that struggling and that discontent. And so I agree with that. But now, when I'm finding myself in that struggle, in that discontent, and I'm working through it, I try to remember this is what makes your work good, and that makes me happy, that makes me filled, even in that struggling, you know, I found myself, I got a job doing a band poster a few weeks ago, and I got to talk on the phone with the guy, and it's one of my favorite, all time favorite bands, and I kind of was chatting with them, brainstorming with this guy, and you know, part of that was stressful because I just, I love this guy's music, and I love working with this guy, and I was so thrilled to be doing that, so it's stressful because it just feels like that the pressure's on, and I really wanted to make something awesome, I wanted to knock it out of the park, and so I've got this pressure, and I've got this kind of drive, and I start sketchbooking, and I'm doing page after page after page, and I'm just working so hard on this thing, and my wife is just like, you know, cringing at kind of the pain and the turmoil, as I'm like trying to churn this thing out, and do something really awesome, and I'm struggling, and at first I was kind of stressed about it, but then it hit me like, wow, this gut churn, this like, this struggling, this means I'm doing the right thing, it means I'm gonna come out the other side with something great, it means, and then I also thought, that it means that I'm challenged, and you know, when I was in college, I lived in England, and it was right before the recession, and the job market was terrible for part-time jobs in the town I was living at, and the economy just wasn't good, that good in that town, and I couldn't find a job, and eventually I just took a job, my brother got me a job at his work, which was subway making sandwiches, and I'll tell you what, nobody hates part-time jobs in the corporate retail, food industry stuff, more than I do, I hate it every second of it, I just, it made me physically ill to work there, and luckily I met my wife there, she worked there too, and so I have that, I owe that to subway, but I hated it, and I hated it because I hated the monotony, and the boredom, and the doing the same thing over and over, and it was so meaningless, and I think it's that in contrast to the struggling and the challenge of creativity and the discontent there that actually find fulfillment in, because it's meaningful, it's the opposite of monotony, and so it's actually in the discontent that I find my contentedness within myself, it's the discontent and the work that gives me a sense of contentment in my life, and that's a little bit convoluted, but I actually think that there's some actual truth within that, so I've gotten pretty worked up, and that means I've done, I think it means I've done a good podcast, those are the ones I like the most, doing the most at least, and so yeah, I hope that this list can just encourage you and remind you of some of these things you probably already know, a lot of them, but hopefully they can give you a good reminder to, I just don't wanna perpetuate this idea that artists have to be miserable and depressed, and I actually think that maybe part of that false narrative actually causes some actually really seriously negative things, if you're an artist and you're struggling with depression, I think that false narrative can encourage you to say, yeah, that's fine, that's totally good, whereas if you really are struggling with depression, you should go get seek help in whatever format that you need to and whatever level you need to seek help, and I don't think that being a miserable person in misery means that you're in the right spot as an artist, and I do think that there's lots of artists, myself included that have a little bit of an obsession with melancholy, and I think that that can be actually really healthy and fine to explore that side of the spectrum of human emotion and be interested in that, but I don't think that it means living a miserable life, and I don't think that that's the best, and actually one of my inspirations with this was I recently heard Lisa Congdon say, she wrote a book for Chronicle Books, my publisher called Art Inc, and one of the things I heard her say from that book was that there's this notion that the struggling artist or the starving artist, that they make the best work through that misery, but she actually thinks that it's the thriving artist that your best work comes from, and I totally agree, I think the times when I have the most peace and hope and positivity is the place where that pressures off, and I can flow with my most authentic voice and work. And so yeah, that's, I really do think that. So I hope this has been helpful for you, and check in, I think I'm gonna cut these down to about once a week because I want that passion to build up and that excitement about talking to you guys to kind of just give it a little breather and let it build up over time. So I hope this has been helpful. Tune in for more and share it with your friends if you think it's gonna benefit them. Thanks. (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic music) (dramatic 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) - Do you love hair raising allegedly true stories about the paranormal? Then some in the podcast scared to death. It's the popular horror series with more than 60 million downloads and is co-hosted by me, Dan Cummins. - And me, Lindsey, co-host, and also Dan's wife. Each week on "Scared to Death," we share bone-chilling tales from old books and creepy corners of the web and some submitted by our listeners, all designed to make you sleep with the lights on. - Think you can handle the horror? Tune in to scared to death every Tuesday at the stroke of midnight to find out.