Art + Audience Ep. 31: Creative Growth Tips for Artists – Crockpot Ideas, Side Projects, and Sustainable Success with Andy J. Pizza

Host: Stacie Bloomfield
Guest: Andy J. Pizza
Date: September 2, 2025

Episode Overview

In the second part of their conversation, Stacie Bloomfield and Andy J. Pizza dive deep into essential strategies for sustainable success as a creative. They discuss balancing artistic passion with business acumen, the nuanced dance between planning and improvisation (“plotting” vs. “pantsing”), the power of side projects, and how to maintain momentum and mental well-being over a long creative career. Both share personal stories reflecting on career pivots, authenticity, and letting go of projects (the “crockpot” method) as part of healthy artistic growth.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Whole Brain Living: Creativity Meets Business

• Stacie describes herself as a “whole brainer,” equally comfortable navigating creativity and business management, though this sometimes alienates her from more traditionally creative communities:
  • “I think I make a lot of artists uncomfortable because I am really comfortable being in that administrative area now. […] For me, it’s not hard to flip back and forth.” (01:16)
• She explains her pursuit of security, not just profit:
  • “It’s not the money, it’s the safety that I’m craving.” (03:51)
• Both acknowledge how easy it is to take for granted their natural tendencies and underestimate others’ struggles accessing different modes of thinking.

2. Plotter vs. Pantser: Two Modes of Creating

• Andy introduces the “plotter vs. pantser” framework, borrowed from writing circles:
  • Plotter: Outlines, plans, works toward a clear end goal.
  • Pantser: “Flies by the seat of their pants,” creating spontaneously.
  • “If you’re gonna make a career of this, I think it’s ideal to have some familiarity and comfort with both sides and have a pulse of these things.” (05:17)
• He uses television as a metaphor:
  • “Lost—we would have loved for them to start with the end in mind! Why didn’t you know where it was going?” (07:31)
• Andy praises “Curb Your Enthusiasm” for blending both modes:
  • “They have a plot… but they don’t know how they're gonna get there, because it doesn’t have a script. So it’s an improv scene towards a goal.” (08:44)

3. Authenticity vs. Adaptability: The Professional Artist’s Dilemma

• Stacie relays how structure and strategy can make artists uncomfortable, but emphasizes that adaptability is a hallmark of a thriving creative career—especially in commercial contexts (like licensing art):
  • “Being able to adapt does not make you any less of a creative. It’s just going to help you… if the goal is financial security, that’s not betraying yourself.” (12:59)
• She rejects the idea of “authenticity” being used as an excuse to avoid necessary but uncomfortable professional growth:
  • “…I think you’re just using that word ‘authenticity’ to avoid the thing you’re scared of or that’s uncomfortable.” (13:15)

4. Learning by Doing: Pantsing the First Steps, Then Plotting the Path

• Stacie shares her experience with teaching, noting her success despite initial inexperience and discomfort:
  • “I’m okay being not really great at something in front of people…my first course…I did it and I charged for it. People bought it. And then the next time I did it, I was able to do it better.” (14:38)
• Both agree: the best growth comes from accepting not being perfect at the start and improving over time.

5. Three ‘C’s’ for Creative Career Longevity

Andy offers three guiding principles (he remembers only two during the conversation):

1. Career Creative

   • If you refuse structure or planning, it’s worth questioning if you truly want a creative career:
     • “If you just completely reject…doing a brief…nothing wrong with that. But…making this a career might not be for you.” (16:30)

2. Crockpot Ideas

   • Not every project needs full attention now; he encourages parking some ideas “in the crockpot” for later:
     • “This creative crockpot has saved me so many times… if I know something’s right, it feels like it should be right now… letting go of it feels like I'm throwing that into the trash forever.” (18:26)
   • Cites the strategy from “The One Thing”:
     • “If you take a step in 10 different directions, you might get somewhere interesting in 10 years. But if you take 10 steps in one direction, you might get somewhere interesting in one year.” (20:14)

3. [Mystery Third C]

   • Andy humorously admits he cannot remember his third point—a relatable moment:
     • “The third one, I honestly can’t read it. So it’s going to remain a mystery.” (21:29)

6. Surrendering and Serendipity: When One Door Closes

• Stacie recounts how letting go of children’s picture book ambitions led, unexpectedly, to new opportunities and even a book deal in another genre:
  • “…the day she emailed me, two of those children’s book literary agents also emailed me that I’d emailed like a year and a half prior—it was this kismet thing.” (23:09)
• Both reflect on the sometimes mystical feeling of being “on the right path” when opportunities start to flow.

7. Main Band & Side Band: The Power of Side Projects

• Andy shares a metaphor for creative fulfillment:
  • “Everybody should have a main band and a side band…your side band can become your main band, your main band can become your side band…the reason is…when I was super invested in the podcast… and then I started to experiment with picture books…there was something about that looseness that got my best work ever.” (25:50)
• He uses Ben Gibbard (Death Cab for Cutie/Postal Service) as an example of the creative value of shifting focus between primary and secondary projects.

8. First Steps & The Myth of “Going All In”

• Stacie and Andy urge listeners to take any step, big or small, rather than trying to engineer a leap to “full-time” creative life overnight:
  • “I don’t think you get to have these experiences unless you actually take a step in any direction.” (30:16)
  • “If you put all the pressure on yourself immediately to go from zero to a hundred, it won’t work.” (31:46)
  • Having a stable job or other commitments often gives creative work the breathing room it needs.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Stacie (on security):
  “I care about money. I do. I care about security. It’s not the money, it’s the safety that I’m craving.” (03:44)

• Andy (on creative process):
  “You have to be able to be good on purpose. You have to be good every time.” (06:29) [Paraphrasing Christoph Niemann]

• Andy (on planning vs. improvising):
  “Curb Your Enthusiasm is a great example…they don’t know how they’re going to get there, because it doesn’t have a script. So it’s an improv scene towards a goal.” (08:44)

• Stacie (on comfort zones):
  “There’s nothing wrong with lots of mediums—but you gotta start with the end in mind.” (11:18)

• Andy (on the creative crockpot):
  “This creative crockpot has saved me so many times…Just because you’re not doing it now doesn’t mean it’s in the trash.” (19:08)

• Stacie (on unexpected opportunities):
  “When I’m doing things in the right direction, all of a sudden I’m like a magnet for opportunity.” (23:53)

• Andy (on side projects):
  “Everybody should have a main band and a side band…there is something magical that happens when you’re able to let that kind of flow.” (25:50)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• 01:16 – Stacie explains whole-brained creativity and business
• 05:17 – Andy introduces plotter vs. pantser for creatives
• 08:44 – “Curb Your Enthusiasm” as a plotting/pantsing hybrid
• 11:18 – Stacie discusses portfolio-building and adapting art for markets
• 14:38 – Stacie’s story: pantsing her first course, then improving
• 16:30 – Andy’s “Three C’s” for creative careers (Career, Crockpot…Mystery C)
• 19:08 – The creative crockpot metaphor in detail
• 23:09 – Stacie’s unexpected book deal through surrender
• 25:50 – Andy’s “main band/side band” theory
• 30:16 – The necessity of just taking a step—any step—in your creative journey
• 31:46 – Dangers of putting all the pressure on yourself as a creative

Closing Thoughts

Both Stacie and Andy emphasize that a sustainable, fulfilling creative life requires a blend of spontaneity and strategy, flexibility, and the courage to start imperfectly. The “crockpot” approach to simmering ideas, balancing main gigs with playful side projects, and releasing attachment to outcomes all foster resilience and eventual serendipity.

Andy’s sign-off:
“If anybody wants to check out any of my stuff, probably the best place to do it is Creative Pep Talk podcast.” (32:32)

For Listeners

• Don’t be afraid to start imperfectly—progress comes with practice.
• Let ideas ‘simmer’ if it’s not the right moment; opportunities can come full circle.
• Having a “main band” and “side band” keeps creativity fresh and less pressured.
• Authenticity is valid, but don’t let it become an excuse to avoid growth or strategy.
• There is no single “right” path—permission to explore, pivot, and do it your own way.