Creative Pep Talk
010 - Why People Don't Get Your Work
(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) (upbeat music) All right, it's the Creative Pep Talk Podcast, and this is your host Andy J. Miller. Commercial artist, illustrator, design, sort of guy. And this is my podcast. I don't know if I already said it, the Creative Pep Talk Podcast. And this is where I pep you up. It's for commercial artists, people that wanna make money doing their art. And my version of success and what these opinions kind of pertain to are helping you have breakthroughs, finding that creative thing that you can do that you love to do that fulfills you, that meets a high demand in the commercial marketplace. That's what this show's about. If that doesn't sound like your thing, then get out of here. I don't need you. Today, what I was thinking about was this idea of the fear of missing out. You know, it's one of the strongest threads, I think, throughout our culture right now. You know, I think with a constant barrage of information flowing at you from everywhere you go, everywhere you look and coming through your phone and your computer, you're constantly seeing what other people are doing. And it can cause this feeling of feeling like you're missing out on something. And I think it might be the number one thing that detracts from, or it distracts you from doing your path and your thing when it comes to art. And anything that does that is gonna put you on a side road away from the thing that you should be doing. So I started thinking about this. Actually this came from, I almost did a different kind of podcast. And it came from watching, I was watching the Lego movie with my kids and I love that movie. I think it's freaking fantastic. And don't mind my coffee. You know, I was watching it and this funny thing happened where, you know, (beatboxing) 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 see in this movie, the Lego Batman is played by Will Arnett and the funny thing was that a few years ago, my younger brother Jordan and I were watching one of the new Batman's and thinking with that voice that Christian Bale puts on, it's kind of like Will Arnett. And we were saying how funny it would be if Will Arnett had played "The Dark Knight" instead of Christian Bale and how terrible it would have been, but hilarious. And a few years later, they stole our idea. And I think that it's such a, I feel like, so okay, Will Arnett had me thinking about this idea of specialization, this idea of really knowing what it is you do, this idea of people really getting it, getting what you do and how important that is and thinking about here's a guy who never seems to run out of jobs. It seems like every show, every sitcom, every comedy you put on, every kid's movie has Will Arnett in it. And I'm always looking through different industries of kind of creative fields to try to gain insight in a kind of detached perspective on what it is I do. So I'm just thinking about why? Why is Will Arnett such an attractive guy for casting? And he also reminds me, kind of reminded me of I think her name's Jane Lynch. She's the, I think she's the cheerleading coach on Glee. I don't really watch that show, but I think that's who she plays. And she, she's in so many things. She's got a blonde, spiky, short hair. She's kind of tall, kind of brash in her films. And she gets cast in every movie as the kind of aggressive, brash, woman. And she gets cast all the time. And I'm thinking about both of these people because my thoughts are how do you position your work? How do you do your best work that gets you tons of opportunities and it caused you to have options. And you get, just that, I've always kind of thought like when you have more demand on your work then you can actually fulfill and then you can actually choose which opportunities you do. And they seem like people that kind of have that figured out. That's the kind of artist I kind of want to be. And so I'm thinking through what it is that is so good about that. And I started thinking about how I think it's this concept of like really understanding what it is you do, having a clear purpose. So when someone hits your website or listens to your album, they get it, you know? They have context for it. It makes sense to them, they can register it. You know, I always suggest people go into a niche and dig really deep but then do something unique within it that sets you apart. I think one of the things that you can do that is really not helpful is you find a subculture you dig really deep and then you just keep going until you're only marketing to a small subset of an already small subculture. You know, I think that that's not what you want to do. I think what you want to do is you find your niche, you find your thing that has context that people understand that people already like. You go into there and then you make decisions that are unique to you. I think that's a good approach. And so I'm thinking about this and I'm thinking about why don't people do this? You know, why is it that when you go to most artists websites, it's hard to, you don't get it. It's kind of all over the place. It's, you know, it's not straightforward. It's not, you wouldn't know what role to cast them in the film. And I thought, well, I think the biggest reason why is the fear of missing out. You know, when I'm critiquing my students' websites, one thing that I always see is where they're putting too many different kinds of work on their site. And when you ask them about it, you know, their answer is always about, well, what if this type of person's on my website, I want to get that type of job, so I want to keep it on there. So if they're, you know, a kid's book illustrator, but they also put some logos in there, like one logo or two logos, just in case someone who needs a logo happens to be on their website. But the truth is that instead of widening your nets and catching more fish, you're actually negating the specialization that you could, you're actually making your watering down the rest. So I started thinking about kind of what is that like? I thought about how, say you had to feed, you know, 5,000 people with one dish, you just had to choose one thing. And I thought, okay, well, that would be, and that's kind of that approach, I would think, what about buttered spaghetti? Just spaghetti with a little butter. Like, there's almost no one in America that could say that they really don't like buttered spaghetti. Like, you might not want it ever, 'cause it's super bland and boring, but most people couldn't say they actually, that it goes against their palate, their taste like it's nasty to them, like it's disgusting. I think almost anybody could eat it, but nobody would be excited about eating it. And when you make your portfolio and it's all over the place and nobody can get it, nobody can understand what the cast you has. Like, that's like making a plate of buttered spaghetti for dinner. You know, there's this, I lived in England for five years and there's this, I don't even know what to call it. It's a little jar, kind of like a jelly jar and it's called Marmite. And their whole thing is, you either love it or you hate it. And it's totally true. But the thing about it is, is the people that love it are obsessed with it, but wear t-shirts with the logo on it. You know, they're proud of loving it. It's a very polarizing thing, but that's why it sells, that's why it's still around. You know, and it made me think of a Chuck Vanderchuk, I think his name is, which is weird 'cause it's two chucks, but he's a marketing guy. He's kind of a wild dude and he said something that's always stuck with me. I saw, I heard him say it in a lecture, that if you don't do something that people hate, that some people hate, you'll never do anything that people love. You'll make your buttered spaghetti like nobody will hate it, but nobody's gonna love it. And if nobody loves it, no one's gonna hire you. You're not, if nobody loves what you do, they're not gonna pay money for it. You know, they might not be offended by it, but they're not gonna pay money for it. And I think that this is such a big deal. This is such a big deal. I think a portfolio that has that fear of missing out on that logo job or that little thing, you're gonna end up getting no jobs or less jobs than you could. You know, it's the jack-of-all-trades master of none. And I just think in the global competition that is online, if that's where you're selling your work, you can't afford to put buttered spaghetti out there. And I think too often, that's our approach because we're afraid of missing out. But the truth is, you know, I've done this in the past, you know, in my own work, you know. What's happened is, you know, I love to work with bands, like I love to work with bands, 'cause I love music. And working with my favorite bands is some of the best experiences I've ever had. And that actually caused me for a long time to not go where my work naturally wanted to go, which was kind of more geared towards children. I feel like my work hits this interesting space where it's not cute, really, and it's not edgy. It's somewhere in between that stuff in a space that maybe there aren't a lot of words for. And, you know, that stuff works really well for kids media that also appeals to parents. I think, and for a long time, I kind of knew that. I got a lot of feedback about what people could perceive as my work. And I think a lot of people said it's stuff that's really geared towards parents. And they kind of curate it and give it to their kids and their kids really love it. And that's kind of what I feel like my work is. And I think for a long time, because I love to do band, posters, and I love to do stuff that isn't in that realm, that fear of missing those things actually caused me to not specialize and to not pursue kids' books and all of that. But the truth is that the more that I pursued this specialization, not only did I get more jobs, and they were more fulfilling jobs, you know, when you have a high demand on what you do, you're not so worried about what you're missing out on. When you're doing work that fulfills you, you're not so worried about, you know, when you're hitting that stride of success where you're doing work you love, and there's a high demand for it, you're not too worried about the other places that you could be, you know? But the truth is, the cool thing is that the further I've specialized, and the more it's clear what it is I do, there's actually been more bands that wanna work with me anyway, because there were bands who had a really strong sense of what it is they wanted, and when they saw my work and they totally got it, it actually worked for what they were doing. Now, when I had work that could have been for all kinds of different bands and for kids, like nobody knew what it was about, nobody knew what it was for. 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 a fort. 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 in 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. - 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 yeah, that's pretty much it. You know, I'd encourage you. Don't let the fear of missing out. I'd cause you to water down your work and make a portfolio that's buttered spaghetti. Try to get a portfolio that's more like Marmite. All right, that pretty much wraps up this episode. Keep, you know, I've got my reviews on iTunes have started to grow. That feedback keeps flowing. If you have friends, peers, family, that you think would benefit from this type of podcast, I'd encourage you to please share it. You know, I really do kind of get my, you know, my fancy truly is tickled when I know that something I've done has even impacted somebody else in even a small way. So that feedback, I don't always know exactly how to respond to it other than saying that I really appreciate it. But, you know, I just want to take this moment out to say that I really do appreciate when people tell me that because it helps me to keep doing it, keep making this podcast and keep encouraging other creative people. Okay, I'll try to get another one out pretty soon. Thanks for your time, guys. I hope you're, I hope this helps you have a breakthrough. Speak soon. (camera shutter clicking) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat 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. 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.