The Unmistakable Creative Podcast

The Difference Between Living in Your Head and Living in Your Heart with Nick Onken

Nick Onken’s journey began at crossroads of art and technology, with his work in desktop publishing and design. Upon discovering his passion for more hands-on means of expression, he eventually chose to take the entrepreneurial leap into digital photography.

How an early trip to Africa opened Nick’s eyes to photography
Why you should be constantly creating in order to improve your art
Nick’s signature point of view, found in his art of capturing moments
Reconnecting or reawakening your childhood dreams
The power of going back to analog methods of creation
The dangers of the digital trance and its impact on creativity
How design influences everything that we do in the world
The balance between living in the moment and capturing the moment
Learning to recognizing the moments when doors open in your life
The problem with looking at the world through formulas and rules
Why you should look at good work and curate what you’re attracted to
The challenges of marrying art and commerce
Brick walls, obstacles and plateaus of every creative journey
Developing a unique point of view by finding your personal joy and passion in the world
Listening to your intuition in order to find your creative resonance
Expanding your default to increase the field of your subconscious
Why your point of view and brand make you unmistakable

Nick Onken’s practice is based around unadulterated passion and creative resonance. Based out of New York City, and fueled by curiosity and inspiration, he travels the world to capture souls, stories and moments.

Resources and People Mentioned

The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna

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Duration:: 1h 1m
Broadcast on:: 21 May 2014
Audio Format:: other

As you probably noticed this month, we're bringing you our "Life of Purpose" series and revisiting some of our most transformative episodes, tune in to explore expert insights and practical strategies on help, performance, and community well-being, all aimed at helping you achieve personal and professional fulfillment. If you sign up for the newsletter, you'll not only get recaps of the key ideas in each interview, but at the end of the series, you'll receive our free "Life of Purpose" ebook. What you have to do is go to unmistakablecreative.com/lifepurpose. I'm Srinney Rao, and this is the Unmistakable Creative Podcast, where I speak with creative entrepreneurs, artists, and other insanely interesting people to hear their stories, learn about their molding moments, tipping points, and spectacular takeoffs. Expand the way you work and think with Claude by Enthropic. Whether brainstorming solo or working with a team, Claude is AI built for you. 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Recently, I asked Mint Mobile's legal team if big wireless companies are allowed to raise prices due to inflation. They said yes. And then when I asked if raising prices technically violates those onerous to your contracts, they said, "What the f*ck are you talking about, you insane Hollywood s*ck?" So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. At Sprouts Farmers Market, we're all about fresh, healthy, and delicious. That's why you'll find the season's best local and organic produce, handpicked, and waiting for you in the center of our store. Visit your neighborhood Sprouts Farmers Market today, where fresh produce is always in season. In this episode of The Unmistakable Creative, I speak with Nick Onken. Nick's journey began at the crossroads of art and technology with his work in desktop publishing and design. Upon discovering his passion for a more hands-on means of expression, he eventually chose to take the entrepreneurial leap into the world of digital photography. Listen in on our conversation about the difference between living in your head and living in your heart. Hey, Nick, welcome to The Unmistakable Creative. Thanks for taking the time to join us. Yeah, thanks for having me on. Yeah, my pleasure. So, I came across you by way of our mutual friend, Amber Rae, and I figured if she referred you, that spoke volumes to me because I trusted her judgment when I came to that, and she always seems to have good judgment. She was spectacular as a guest. So tell us a bit about yourself, your background, your story, and how that has led you to what you're up to today. Yeah. So I've always kind of been a creative at heart, and I found myself drawing and painting and different things from a younger age, but I always kind of pursued the arts. And then in high school, I started to, that was when desktop publishing, if that's what you want to call it, the previous stages of graphic design in the digital age came about and started getting interested in that, and I still did some art classes, I did the advanced placement stuff, but really getting into graphic design and typography and how art and technology kind of integrated together, and that was kind of the path that I started taking. And then I ended up going to school for graphic design in college and did that for a couple years and ended up getting a job doing design. It was kind of an internship right out of, actually kind of through college, which let me jump into that and start kind of exploring that on a, I guess, a higher level than just school was. And once I got into that, I started putting school to the wayside a little bit because I was learning more at my job. I was learning more just like through the self exploration and playing around in Photoshop and Illustrator, well, freehand back in those days. But that's where it really started, my artistic journey. And then I was doing design for like three or four years, I got a design job doing book covers for a small publishing company out of Seattle where I was front where I'm from. And really just was working that for a couple of years, decided to go freelance and take that jump into working for myself, which is we all know, like especially creative entrepreneurs, that's the biggest jump to take. And luckily I was, I mean, I was living in Seattle and my expenses were really low. And one of those things that it's the sacrifice of living a, I guess, luxurious life that you sacrifice for being a creative and working through that journey. So I would say that's my, those are my beginnings. And then there was a point where digital started becoming, digital photography started coming on the forefront and I picked up a digital camera to like shoot stuff for my design work, just to integrate into the design and create content and do those types of things. And then from there, I started enjoying it a little bit more through some stuff up on my design website and then ended up convincing a design client of mine, their nonprofit to split the expenses on a trip to Africa. And that was kind of where my eyes really opened up to the world of photography. But I never really, never really thought about it. My friend had just gotten back from a trip where he was an IT guy and he was like, I just went to Africa and I like, I set up this network for them and I got to travel and I got to give my, you know, give back. And I was like, wow, I really want to do that. But design doesn't really lend towards that. And then I came up with the idea to shoot a photography library for this client. And then I pitched it to them, they're like, oh, yeah, that sounds great. And I was like, really? Oh, yeah, I mean, totally, let's do this. And so we jumped off and I set up this two month trip and a month in Africa, four countries, which is Zimbabwe, Uganda, Kenya, and Burundi. And a lot of it was just like going out there and going for it, you know, I had no idea what I was doing. I looked back on that trip now and I was like, oh man, what was I thinking? And I got back and I got a lot of great images. The client was happy. And I was like, man, I can travel and take photos and eventually somebody will actually pay for it. That's, that's amazing. I want to, I could, I could be open to doing this as a career, but I didn't know the possibility of what I could do as a photographer. I never even heard about it. I never even like, I didn't know anybody in the industry. I didn't know how it worked, I didn't know that you could make money. I didn't know that you could make a living doing it. It was just like this ambiguous career that was out there and eventually I connected with another photographer just to do some website updates for him a couple of months down the road and just started asking him questions about photography and cameras and what should I do and like all this stuff. And then eventually he just kind of invited me out to one of his photo shoots and let me come and come and check it out. And then I kind of started helping him out here and there and just exploring my, just kind of taking that creative journey and at a certain point he was just like, you need to do this. You're a great graphic designer, but you're way more talented as a photographer. And so I just started, I just kept shooting, kept just, I was saying is like always be shooting because that's and always be creating because that's how you're going to grow in your, your artistic journey. So for me it was all about just shooting my own stuff and building my portfolio until it got out there enough to be, you know, start getting hired for jobs and hustling every, every other way that you can, you know, like whether it's small jobs. I was taking design jobs to pay the bills as I was making this transition. So that would, that would be the main story. And then it's just been a slow growth and evolution from there and honing my vision and really developing my style and my point of view with my photography and I guess what I'm known for and the style that's evolved is just capturing moments and whether that's shooting travel, whether that's shooting celebrities or fashion or portraits or anything across the board. I have a pretty specific point of view and a specific style at this point that's developed. Awesome. Okay. So a ton of stuff here, you know, I want to go back to something that you said at the very beginning and this is something that I've asked a lot of people and I've never quite gotten to the bottom of this and I'm not sure I ever will but it's always led for an interesting conversation. You talked about drawing at a very, very young age and it seems like you kind of connected with this creative calling at an early age and recognize that, hey, you know what, there's something here and I feel like as adults, we lose touch with that. As we get through our lives, we become more practical and I feel like everybody has that thing that they wonder about and somehow because they've lost touch with it, it kind of starts to die or wither or it becomes dormant. It's not dead, but it's dormant. And you know, based on the experiences you've had, I mean, how do you think you reconnect with that? Yeah. I mean, I think that it's really a proactive effort in and going back to the analog system and going back to the original state of creating. I mean, for me going back to it now, I think doing this 100-day project and like the hand drawing of typography kind of blends my original love for drawing and painting, but also my fascination and passion for typography and design and bringing that back and like just, you know, now it's been doing it every day and it's bringing out that pen and paper. It's like one little step every time. And I think the catalyst was doing this 100-day project and kind of actually pushing myself out of that comfort zone into picking up the pen and paper and doing it. And I think to get back to that, it really takes a conscious effort and you know, same with the photography, it's like going back and shooting film and everything is so digital now. You know, for my personal projects, I actually go back and I'll shoot, I'll do a full shoot on film here and there just to kind of, it's a different method of shooting. It's more analog. It makes you think it in a different way. And I think that's the beauty of going back to that original art form. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's interesting you bring up analog because I think Amber, who is the one who connected both of us, is the one who kind of convinced me of the virtues of pen and paper in a digital world. And I found that that dramatically changed my entire creative process for how I write, how I think about ideas and everything else, but the other sort of theme I'm hearing as you describe that is curiosity. Mm-hmm. It's a combination of curiosity and habit that I feel leads to sort of discovering the things that we've been searching for. Yeah. I think it's the first thing is to spark that curiosity because we get, I mean, I know for myself I get so in the digital trance, so to speak, and like the ease and the kind of, it's just so much easier to like jump in and do, like write an email, you know, type it out or write something, you know, I use like text edit or whatever, but just type something out versus grabbing a pen and writing it, you know. And I think doing this hand-drawn typography has really kind of pushed me into a different side of flow. Mm-hmm. And it's kind of helped me to just tap into thinking about things differently within the creative process. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, let's do this. Talk to me about sort of in more depth the design training that you've gotten, I mean, and that part of your life and how that has sort of influenced your entire creative journey and, you know, the challenges that you faced and lessons that you've brought from that time and kind of how it's taught you to see the world, like what perspectives has it brought? Yeah. I mean, I would say design is probably the biggest influence that I've had in my life and I definitely appreciate that I, that was my first career because now it's had a tremendous difference, made a tremendous difference in my career, my photography career and the way I think about things and like, I feel like design is such an approach to everything now and design and life and business and I mean, there's courses on design thinking for business now and, you know, we have to stand out in such a busy world in a digitally clogged world. So for me going back, I would say probably the struggles was like learning, you know, that was the first entry into my creative entrepreneurship and being able to pay the bills and make a living. I mean, I would say that was my, those are my biggest struggles. I mean, there's, I heard this, this quote where it's like, you never, you'll never become a successful creative entrepreneur unless you've cooked breakfast some bed. And I love that because, you know, it's true, like a starving artist, you know, when you're starting out, you're really, everything goes back into your business, everything goes back into your art. And if you're not willing to make that sacrifice, it's really hard to get to the space of success. And, you know, I have done that. I lived in Paris for six months and I lived in an apartment where I could literally sit on my bed and cook breakfast and, you know, I lived there to experience and to take it all in and to enjoy and live in another country and because I feel like part of the process, part of the creative process is what you take in and what you experience in life. And, you know, for me, it's, travel is a big part of that, travel has been a big passion of mine which pushes me out of my comfort zone, you know, experiencing new things, experiencing new cultures has put me out of my comfort zone. And I think that's why I thrive on it is because it inspires my creative process by experience it. Yeah. You know, I love that you brought up, you know, a big part of the creative process is what you take in that to me is one of those things. I think that it's really easy to sort of, you know, we're talking about sort of the digital world we live in is to consume endlessly the same kind of thing. But I think, you know, the world around us is constantly giving us opportunities to take in things like there's this entire sensory input. And I think as an artist, I mean, really what you're doing is translating sensory input into multiple forms. And that's something that I think, I think that you have to slow down in order to really take in what's around you. Yeah. I mean, it really is. And sometimes, sometimes we get stuck in the A to B and not it, what's that quote where it's like, just stop and smell the roses and take time for that. And I've been, I would say in my last couple of years, I've been slowly learning how to do that and actually to make an effort, a conscious effort, there's so many conscious shifts that have to happen in making these efforts. It's almost the same shift as wanting to experiment back with analog is to, you have to think about it, you have to become aware of it mentally and be present, you know, you have to make love with the present moment. And that takes a conscious effort, you know, to experience the things that are going on around you and really take it in. And it's funny as a photographer, sometimes I find myself in those moments stepping back from being present and being behind the camera and capturing what's happening. So there is this balance of living in the moment and then capturing the moment, which is fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. We'll talk about that in quite a bit more detail because, you know, I want to spend probably the majority of our time talking about your photography, but, you know, I want to ask you a few other questions around sort of your choices and, you know, molding moments in your life. You, you know, you mentioned that at a certain point, you, you know, we're learning more at your job than you were at school and school started to sort of be put on the back burner. And you know, you're speaking of being conscious of things, I think there's a very conscious choice to make. And I guess for me, the question becomes, how do you recognize those kinds of moments in your life that, hey, you know what, a door about is about to open here or a window into possibility has just opened up. Yeah, I think it's kind of following your intuition and I feel like this day and age, you know, when I made my transition into photography from design, I never really, I was just like, I can do this. I don't need to go to school. I can, you know, there was some sort of thing. I think it was because I was already doing graphic design, which is already, it was already a creative entrepreneurial career, that I think making the jump from full time to freelance in that respect was a lot harder than making the transition from graphic design to photography. And I've just seen so many of the mentors and different people that I was working with never went to school for photography. And I was meeting all these people that were successful that the school wasn't even, they teach you all the same things. I mean, you look at places like Brooks Institute and I look at a lot of the portfolios of students that come out of there and it's all the same. You know, they're put within a certain structure and a set of rules. And I feel like jumping out into the world on your own, you're not playing within a set of rules. You're not paving your own path. And I feel like if you're following your intuition and your authenticity, then you're going to, if you follow that road and you work hard and you hustle and you develop and you cultivate that talent and you refine what you have, then you're going to create your own unique voice. Yeah, you know, I really appreciate that. It's interesting you brought up that, you know, sort of looking at, you know, what comes out of an institute like Brooks, where people are put into sort of a box with a set of rules. And I mean, it's funny because I think that we do that when we see other people who are successful too, right? You see somebody who has what you want and you think that you can get it by replicating what they've done. And yet you forget that, hey, by the way, it worked for them because they're them. Like if I tried to replicate what you do, Nick, I don't think I would have the same results. I think it would be, you know, if I tried to follow your sort of formula to the letter, things wouldn't turn out very well for me. Exactly. And I feel like there's this whole, it's really about closing the, closing the gap between your taste and what you're actually producing as an artist. And, you know, I do believe that imitation is part of the creative process, but in the infancy stages when you're admiring and you're trying to kind of actually discover who you are because there's an exercise that I do all the time and that I give to other people is that, you know, look at good work, whatever creative path you were on, whether it's an illustrator, photographer or anything, look at good work that's out there and then start curating what you're attracted to, you know, go through magazines, pull out tears of what inspires you and then start looking through it, start breaking down the work and really writing down what you like about that image or that illustration or that style. And then start integrating into your own work, but, you know, then you're going to start a framework of being able to put your own twist onto what you're doing. And that's really where your unique voice comes from. Yeah. I love this idea of closing the gap between your taste and what you're producing. I've never heard it put that way before, but I really like it. I mean, you may end up titling the interview that, but, you know, it's interesting because I always say, you know, advice is ingredients, but the recipe is yours. And I think that we forget that that second part far too often. Yeah, totally. And I mean, and that all comes from the stuff that we're taking in, the stuff that we're experiencing. And I feel like the more as an artist that you can experience, the more you're going to have to bring into your own work and your own style and your own point of view. But that takes, you know, it's a journey and it takes years. I mean, I've been on this journey for quite a while, like five days doing photography since Africa was like eight years. Oh, wow. Yeah. I mean, I probably went full time photography five years ago. I wasn't taking any other design jobs and small assisting jobs. 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I actually do want to spend quite a bit of time talking about point of view, but I want to ask you one of the things, "You're about up eight years." This is a question that came up for me when I was having dinner with one of our listeners the other night. He said, "I'm seven months into this," and he says, "I just can't help but think is this all just bullshit." He listens, or it was one of those moments you could tell that he was wondering whether he was wasting his time or not. The question he asked me is a question I'm going to ask you is, "How do you keep going?" That's a good one, and I would say the answer is just vision, and I'm not satisfied yet. There's so many things out there that I have yet to shoot and close the gap between what I'm seeing and what I want and what I'm producing. I feel like that gap and closing the desire to close that gap is what keeps me going. I think in the end, you have to love the craft for what it is and why it has to be your why. Otherwise, if you want to do art because of the lifestyle, because it could be glamorous to be a photographer or glamorous to - I mean, it is glamorous to make a living as an artist, but it's one of the hardest things to do. Marrying art and commerce is the magic question. How do you make money doing your art? How do you carve that point of view and get people to come to you? You have to be able to - it's juggling a bunch of balls in the air where you're really building your portfolio to where your taste - you're going for that, but you also got to take the jobs that are just money and pay your bills while you're focusing on those jobs. So I think that the idea is to - it's more money less time so that you can spend that time on pursuing your creative vision. So in the end, it really is. You have to be driven by actually doing the craft and doing the art and that's what has to drive you. Yeah. It's interesting you bring up bridging the gap and one of the things I said is that you never stop bridging the gap, right? Because when you do bridge the gap, what you realize is that what you were looking at was a false horizon because my guess is where you were five years ago and where you're at today, you've bridged that gap but now there's another gap to be bridged. Exactly. It's just going to keep going and going, which I think is the beauty of it and that's what keeps you going or keeps me going in that sense. As you get older, as you go through the journey, your taste actually refines and the more your taste refines, that's where it's growing. Let me ask you one other thing. This came to my mind because I saw somebody with a project that hit a major brick wall and just felt demolished and defeated and I'm curious about the brick walls that you've hit on your journey. Yeah. I mean, I feel like whether there are brick walls or plateaus, you know, I think it's, you kind of got to weigh it out and see if it's going anywhere and there was, there was a book, was it, is it the dip, I think, by Seth Godin where it's like, when you hit the certain point, you got to realize whether it's, you know, a failure or whether it's something to keep pursuing and it's kind of like, maybe it's kind of like the, like, American idol. You know, if enough people just say, like, this is not for you, then maybe you should listen, but, you know, also you got to figure out what resonates for you as well. And I feel like results and feedback, you know, if you seek feedback, that's what's going to help you help guide your path. So before we start talking about photography in a bit more depth, I want to ask you one other thing, you seem to continually be always at a crossroads, you know, and I'm sure you probably read this article on Medium by El Luna called The Crossroads of Should and Must, which I'll link up in the show notes for those of you guys listening, but in case you haven't, it was about the idea that, you know, you'll keep reaching this crossroad where there's the thing you should do and the thing you just must do, like you can't not do it. And it seems like you continually chose must, and what I'm curious about is what do you think it is to distinguish as people who choose what they should do from the ones who choose what they must do? Yeah, you know, it's funny because my must is creative resonance and something that it's funny talking to Amber about and we kind of really just discovered that that's my why. And it's kind of that high feeling of a, two things being inspired by something, but also creating something that you're proud of and that's inspiring to the world. And I feel like the difference between should and must is the difference between living in your head and living in your heart. And yeah, it's the synchronicity because when you're when you're operating from your, your must and your heart, you're really, you're really going down that path of not thinking in a certain sense and just and operating in that state of flow. When you're when you're in that must state, you're just doing it because you love it. You're doing the art because you love it, not because it's a glamorous lifestyle, not because you're a rock star on stage. You're doing it because you actually love to play music. You actually love to paint. You actually love to take photographs, you know, versus, oh, I should do that. I should do this because I'll be able to make money someday or I'll be able to be in front of people. I feel like when you're doing your work from the heart, it's it's that's your must. I love that. I think you just have come up with a title for your interview, the different second title. Yeah, I mean, you've, you know, I love this, you keep dropping these poetic bombs. Let's do this. Let's shift gears a little bit and let's start talking about photography. I mean, the thing that you have brought up over and over is developing a point of view, which I really, really appreciate and I want to talk about sort of, you know, how you view the world through the lens of a, you know, through the, through the lens. I mean, as, as a photographer, like when you said, you know, your thing is about capturing moments, it talked to us about that whole process and, and you know, how does that apply regardless of what art for? I mean, because the reason I brought you here is I felt that regardless of what our art is, there would be something to learn from how you approach photography. Yeah, so I mean, I would say that that's something that's kind of evolved after over just shooting and shooting and shooting and it's a practice that it's been a something that's been consistent, that that's been carried out through my work and something that I'm drawn to. I mean, whether I'm in Nepal, hiking the Everest Base Camp Trail and running into little kids running around and there's moments that are happening. There's a, there's a feeling that's happening that, that I'm drawn to, that inspires me that I, that I find within that and that translates across the board into when I'm doing, when I'm doing say like a lifestyle shoot where I always have to actually create those moments and create that authenticity by setting it up and directing it. So it's, there is this line and, but it's, it's the end image of that, it's that authenticity when you look at the image and you feel like you're there, you feel like you're feeling that moment that that person is experiencing or you're feeling that breathtaking moment of a beautiful landscape or somebody doing something in that landscape. There's a moment, there's a thing of resonance that you, that you feel when you look at those photographs and that's what I'm drawn to. So when I'm looking and I'm finding things, that's my, that's my point of view. You know, a lot of it tends to be finding the joy in the world, you know? And everywhere I go, there's something that I'm drawn to just smiles and energy and movement. And that's where it comes from. It comes from the things that I'm attracted to, the things that I, I'm drawn to when I'm roaming around. So let's talk about two things here. One is, is how, how we find our own creative resonance and the other thing I want to talk about is kind of how your eye has evolved from when you first started shooting in Africa and the kinds of things you would see there to, to today. Yeah, the, how do you find your creative resonance? I think is really listening to your intuition and going after the things that you're attracted to and that, you know, it's really about finding your inspiration and finding and, and diving deeper into that if you find something that is inspiring to you, dive further. What is it about that that inspires you? And I feel like you'll, you'll at a certain point, find patterns within that and you'll find patterns. And kind of the same thing is, is looking through art and work and photos that inspire you as well, is you're going to find something that resonates within each of those photographs, whether it's the, the lighting, the clothing, the moments. And I feel like finding that stuff for yourself is, is really about diving into it and taking it further and asking what about that moment or experience or culture or location or what is it that you're drawn to. And I think that's the first step. And then the second step is just finding out, you know, creating, you know, as a creative, what do you love to create? I mean, some people, their creativity is business. I have a, I have a good friend, Lewis Howes, who's, you know, his creativity is figuring out is creating new business endeavors. You know, so creativity can, and residents, the residents can come from any, anything, you know, but I do feel like it comes from that space of creation, you know, making something from nothing. And what was the second part of the question again? The second part is kind of how your, you know, I has evolved as, you know, from when you started shooting in Africa to, to now, I mean, sort of the evolution and growth that you've experienced as a photographer. And you know, how things have changed when you look through a lens now versus then. Yeah. I mean, the things that I was seeing back then, it was more like explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos, hard tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing shop game day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three grocery orders offer valid for a limited time other fees in terms apply. Hey, I'm Ryan Reynolds at mid mobile. 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For a 30 day risk free trial, go to hydro.com and use code ROW 450 to save $450 on a hydro pro rower. That's H-Y-D-R-O-W dot com code ROW 450. This podcast is brought to you by Wise, the app for doing things in other currencies. With Wise, you can manage your money across borders, pay bills for your properties abroad, send funds to your overseas wedding vendors. You can even use Wise to spend in the local currency while on vacation without the hassle of a currency exchange kiosk. Send and spend money worldwide at the exchange rate you will usually see on Google and with no hidden fees, you'll know exactly what you're paying every time. Join over 12 million customers, see how Wise can work for you by downloading the app or visiting Wise.com, that's Wise W-I-S-E Wise.com. Trying to just capture what I was seeing and there wasn't any sort of frame or context and now it evolved to seeing more moments and composing moments within a frame. I feel like I did another trip like three years after that in Asia and I saw a huge growth in my travel work in that sense where I was getting a lot of stronger images from the amount of stuff that I was shooting and I was just seeing more moments happening. I was anticipating moments that were happening. My eye and my mind were being trained from that in-between time of just shooting and shooting and shooting, the more you shoot, the more you're going to see. As a photographer, you're making a thousand decisions within a split second of a shutter click and so it's refining all those little decisions that go into that. I have this thing, I wrote a blog post about it a while ago called Expanding Your Default and it's almost like creating your pushing your conscious habits into your subconscious so that your arsenal becomes a bigger bag of tricks, so to speak, but those only happen through conscious intention of repetition, so when you're shooting, when I'm shooting, if there's something that I'm pushing myself to do and to learn at a different angle or whatever it is, it's remembering that in the moment so that I can, and the more times that I consciously remember that, the more, maybe it's 21 days or 21 times that it becomes a subconscious habit, and the more you push into your subconscious bag of tricks, your default, the more you're going to grow and the more you'll be able to expand upon that. I feel like that's a lot of where I've refined, is the stuff that I was pushing myself to grow and to learn in that first Africa trip, that's all, just now knowing how to use a camera, now I was like learning how to use a camera and what shutter speed was, and all that stuff is now subconscious, all that stuff is now, I don't even think about it, it's just second nature. It's really interesting how you've been up this idea of expanding your default, and it's interesting that after looking through a lens for a certain amount of time, you see things that you didn't see before, and I always say that it's like any journey with each step forward, the view starts to change. Yeah, it's true, and your default becomes subconscious so that when you're pushing yourself to grow, you're pushing yourself to see more things, for me now it's pushing myself to see more narrative within one frame, and how do you create that narrative, how do you add more things within that frame to tell more of a deeper story? That's my next, I would say that's my next level of growth and plateau on the journey is to bring more of those elements into it, and I'll go ahead. Oh, sorry, I don't know if you had more. No. Okay. I actually do want to dig a little deeper into this idea of expanding your default, because I think that this is about much more than just creativity, I think this is about life, and I'm thinking, as I'm thinking about it and listening to you talk about it, I'm wondering how do you apply this to your life, even if I'm not a photographer or I'm not an artist, I feel there's something that can be done in terms of expanding our default. Yeah, completely, I mean, it's funny because I've been doing this emotional intelligence and leadership training over the last year out in LA, and it's really actually made me more aware of consciousness and awareness of a emotions, and that translates directly into creativity, because as artists, our vision and our product is who we are. So as a creative entrepreneur, when things go up and down or feast or famine, our self-worth and value a lot of times gets placed into an emotional state, and we have to like learn how to separate ourselves from that. So becoming aware of things and creating those conscious habits of whatever it is, I mean, for me, a lot of that outside of art has been emotionally and learning how to create conscious shifts in my life as a habit, like building those habits so that they become subconscious. And I think going with that and it translates into this 100-day project, thing too, and the habits that, you know, doing, being repetitious about things after a while becomes second nature, and I think it can translate into anything we want to accomplish in life, life hacking and creating different habits, you know, to progress our lives and for personal development, for exercise, you know, it was the last podcast we were just talking about that I was listening to of yours, whereas like even just stepping into the gym, not even working out, if you do that every day, pretty soon you're going to be like, "Well, I have to work out," and then working out has become, when you don't do it, that's how working out was for me is like, "I hate working out," and then I started, I created a program that fits my lifestyle to where it takes me 25 minutes a day, I can do it four to five days a week at my house, and I can listen to a podcast while I'm doing it, and now it's second nature, now it feels weird not to work out. So creating habits is just like doing it little by little every day, and then it gets pushed to the subconscious, it gets pushed to your default. Yeah, I love that. It's so true, especially the workout example, it's so funny you're saying that as you were saying that I was thinking, you know, I got myself a gym membership because I can't surf every day just because the waves aren't good every single day, and I was amazed because I hated it the first day, I hated it the second day, I hated it on the third day, and then I think by day six or seven, I would get to around four o'clock in the afternoon, and I would say, "You know, I don't want to go," and somehow it would still end up there. Yeah, totally, I mean, that's kind of how it is, and there's still certain days where you're like, "I just don't want to do this," but then you're just like, "No, I can't, I have to do it, I cannot do it," because I've been doing it and I've created a habit well, let's shift gears a little bit and let's talk about point of view, you know, that's something you brought up earlier, and it's interesting because, you know, I've never thought about photography in that way until talking to you, but I realized now everybody seems to have a very distinctive point of view, they see things in a certain way, and I guess for me the question really is on how you develop a point of view and how you cultivate a point of view. I mean, you know, I do it as an interviewer, there are people who are listening, who probably do it as artists, there are others who do it as writers, and I'm really curious how you train and cultivate a point of view. It's a great question, I would say it's just by practicing the craft and exploring yourself as an artist without the editor, and constantly practicing and constantly developing. For me it's just kind of something that's evolved, and then eventually you see like kind of that DNA that you carry your attributes, you know, like your attributes start to develop your, your consistencies and your patterns start to develop across your work, and then eventually it starts to evolve in a point of view, and then eventually I feel like you can start to depict what that point of view is and start to articulate it. But I think it takes, it takes years, you know, when you're first starting out you're just like exploring, you're exploring all these different directions and trying different things, and you know, I still do that, but my process is, you know, or my, the range of what I love and what I'm attracted to is, is much more refined and much more becoming a point of view, whereas when I was first starting I was like, oh, I'll try this, or I'll try this light, I'll try this shooting this, yeah, I didn't really like that. That wasn't, that didn't really resonate with me, but I tried it, you know, I feel like it's, that's part of closing the gap is, is trying different things, and now it's kind of taking the DNA and the style and the point of view that I've created it and really pushing that to the next level and, and more refining it, you know, for me it's captured moments, for me it's, you know, joy and, and fun and, and positivity, you know, but there's still other elements that I'm, I'm trying to discover that I can integrate into that point of view that I am attracted to, and I feel like it's going to evolve, you know, as I go on and I'm inspired by different things in my life, the point of view is going to, going to evolve, but it's getting stronger and it's getting stronger visually, I would say, especially as a photographer, things are, it's definitely taking on more of a refined sense. You know, I, I really appreciate that you brought up mastery of a craft, I think that we live in such a hyper connected and fast paced world that we're not patient when it comes to mastery of the craft in any art form, we want everything to be perfect right after we start, we want all the rewards that come with success right after we start. Yeah, and I, you know, I'm probably one of the most impatient people and, for me that's probably been the hardest thing throughout the journey and, you know, even one of my mentors through the first couple of years was just like, be patient, you know, you're on the right track, you just got to keep going and keep doing it and keep doing it and, you know, the only thing that gets you through that is the actual love of the craft, because if you don't love it, then you're just not going to go through the sacrifices and go through the patience, you know, that it takes to get through those years because you have to put in the hard work, you have to put in those 10,000 hours of practice and getting through it. And there's no, I don't think there's any hacks to that, you know, like nowadays in the digital world, we're lucky enough to that our learning curve and speed is a lot faster because we have such fast feedback rates, you know, you can take a photo on a digital camera and look at it and figure out what you did wrong with it and like adjust and adjust where it was back in the film days, it was like, okay, I can even imagine doing that. Like I started in the digital era. So learning how to do it by film would have taken so much longer because, you know, you shoot a photo, you shoot a roll of film and you take it to get developed. And then you have to actually remember what you did and according to that one shot on that one roll of film and then assess like, okay, what did I, how do I close the gap on this photo or this exposure or whatever it is, now we're lucky enough to be able to do it in an instant. So I feel like taking it so that that's, that's what's helping us now, but it's also creating a whole world of noise that you have to stand out against. So there's two sides of the spectrum, you know, there's more photographers, there's more, which creates more competition, higher learning curve, but we also have the benefits of, of learning faster ourselves. Well, I think that makes a perfect sort of wrap to our conversation on what I want to close with, which is something that I've asked lots of people and it'll be interesting to hear your perspective as somebody who has, you know, sort of viewed your world through the lens of a camera, you know, our show is called the unmistakable creative. And as you said, we live in probably one of the noisiest times in history and in my mind, if you want to be creative, I think being unmistakable is not an option, but a necessity. And I am really curious what it is that you think makes somebody or something unmistakable. Yeah, I would say, A, it's a point of view and B, your brand, but it's kind of goes hand in hand. I mean, your brand is a, an example of what your point of view is to the world, but, you know, that's kind of where my background and design really comes out as the branding. I mean, you have to be well branded in this world to stand out and you have to have a strong point of view to stand out as well. And that's what people are going to come to you for. Well, I love it. Nick, this has been, you know, absolutely fabulous as I expected it would be. I've learned a ton talking to you and I really, really appreciate you coming in and taking the time to join us and share some of your insights with our listeners at the unmistakable creative. Yeah. Thanks for having me on. Yeah. And for those of you guys listening, we'll wrap the show with that. You've been listening to the unmistakable creative podcast. Start our website at unmistakablecreative.com and get access to over 400 interviews in our archives. Expand the way you work and think with Claude by anthropic. Whether brainstorming solo or working with a team, Claude is AI built for you. It's perfect for analyzing images and graphs, generating code, processing multiple languages and solving complex problems. Plus, Claude is incredibly secure, trustworthy and reliable so you can focus on what matters. Curious? Visit claud.ai and see how Claude can elevate your work. Discover Hydro, the best kept secret in fitness. Hydro is the state of the art at home rower that engages 86% of your muscles delivering the ultimate full body workout in just 20 minutes. From advanced to beginner, Hydro has over 500 classes shot worldwide and taught by Olympians and world class athletes. For a 30 day risk free trial, go to hydro.com and use code ROW450 to save $450 on a Hydro Pro Rower. That's H-Y-D-R-O-W dot com code ROW450. 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How an early trip to Africa opened Nick’s eyes to photography
Why you should be constantly creating in order to improve your art
Nick’s signature point of view, found in his art of capturing moments
Reconnecting or reawakening your childhood dreams
The power of going back to analog methods of creation
The dangers of the digital trance and its impact on creativity
How design influences everything that we do in the world
The balance between living in the moment and capturing the moment
Learning to recognizing the moments when doors open in your life
The problem with looking at the world through formulas and rules
Why you should look at good work and curate what you’re attracted to
The challenges of marrying art and commerce
Brick walls, obstacles and plateaus of every creative journey
Developing a unique point of view by finding your personal joy and passion in the world
Listening to your intuition in order to find your creative resonance
Expanding your default to increase the field of your subconscious
Why your point of view and brand make you unmistakable

Resources and People Mentioned

The Crossroads of Should and Must by Elle Luna

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