Transcript
Andy J. Pizza (0:03)
On the creative journey, it's easy to get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift off. Sometimes you just need a Creative Pep talk. Hey, you're listening to Creative Pep Talk, a weekly podcast companion for your creative journey. I'm your host, Andy J. Pizza. I'm a New York Times Best selling author and illustrator and this show is just everything I'm learning about building and maintaining a thriving creative practice. Let's get into it 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 Pep talk to test it out for yourself. And when you're ready to launch your site, use promo code PEP talk all one word, all caps for 10% off your first purchase. Thanks goes out to Squarespace for supporting the show and supporting creators all over the world. Hey, in case you don't know, we have a monthly live virtual meetup every last Monday of the month with supporters of the show from Patreon and Substack. We have so much fun on these calls and they are the warmest, most encouraging creatives that I have ever met. And we also talk real creative practice stuff. We have authors, illustrators, lettering artists, picture book makers, fine artists, musicians, and folks that work in video and film as well. And we have people that are just starting out, people super established in their creative careers and everything in between. For the rest of this year, we're going to chat through our new Journey of the True Fan series, exploring questions and ways to apply these ideas to your own creative practice so that you can leave 2024 stronger than you came in with more visibility, connection with your audience and sales. Sign up to whichever suits you best@ either patreon.com creativepeptalk or andyjpizza.substack.com and I hope to see you at this month's meetup. We all know that doing something substantial with your creativity requires some level of consistency, and it's why on this show we talk a lot about the idea of creativity as a practice or a habit. The Problem is that if you're a creative person, it's likely that you're the type of brain that finds it difficult to form habits to do things consistently. This is this deep tension that happens for lots of creators where they know that they're super creative and they know that they have to have a habit of creativity to do the things that they want to do. And yet those two things, you know, doing new things constantly, which is creativity versus doing things routinely, which is the habit, are almost at odds with each other. So there's almost a contradiction within this idea of creative practice. And I know firsthand because for me, it's really, really difficult to make something into what seems like a habit. In fact, a lot of folks in the ADHD community would say that people like me aren't able to truly have what neurotypicals have when they have a habit, because nothing is done automatically. Everything costs a type of willpower, energy that is limited. And so for me, this conundrum, this problem of knowing I'm creative and I want to do something with it, and I find it really difficult to be consistent or form habits. This has been a huge challenge in my creative practice and in my creative journey. And the way that I have shifted my thinking is away from habits like forming these behaviors that become automatic and into thinking of creativity as a discipline and figuring out what are the disciplines that I am committed to and passionate about and are flexible enough to contain my creativity. And the reason I'm talking about this today is because in this episode, I am going to turn the tables or they're going to be turned on me and I'm going to be interviewed for a special episode for the 10 year anniversary of this podcast. So we've been doing creative pep talk for 10 years, and so we're going to do a couple episodes, a few here and there sprinkled in, that celebrate this and maybe even glean some of the things that I have learned from doing a project of this size for this many years. The first and foremost being how to have that level of consistency. We've almost had a new episode every week for 10 years. And as a creative person, as an ADHD person, that is a challenge all on its own. And this episode gets into some of the stuff around podcasting, some of the reasons why this was the right creative discipline for me to be able to consistently show up. And I was lucky enough to have Catherine May, writer Catherine May, that we had on just a few episodes ago, volunteer to do the interview for this episode. And as a major fan of her work. I was just blown away and I couldn't even believe my luck. And then the episode and the questions that she brought were just phenomenal. I got moved and I was feeling the right level of vulnerability. Hangover after this episode where I feel like I shared enough to feel like, man, I'm kind of really putting myself out there. But not too much to where I felt like, oh, I don't know if I want to share this. It just feels like a behind the scenes on making this show, on my personal life and my approach to this creative discipline. So we talk about podcasting, we also talk about neurodivergence and how I've built my creative practice around the type of person that I am, which is what has been at the heart of this show since the very beginning. Since the very beginning, this show has been about what do you do when the paths that are in front of you are not built for you? How do you carve out your own unique path and take it up? A creative approach to building your existence? And so I'm going to talk about how I've done this, why things like podcasting suit me, what I've learned about podcasting and having a discipline that you can show up for for 10 years. And I'm going to get personal into some of my journey. So if you're new to the show, this is a great place to start because it will really give you an introduction to what this is all about, where it comes from, what it aims to do. And if you're a longtime listener, I think there's stuff on this episode that you've never heard and stuff you might have been curious about. So I'll let you get into it. Massive thanks to Catherine May for taking the time to do this. I can't even believe. I don't even know why I'm so lucky to have her do this. She's so thoughtful and intentional and her questions were just perfect for a 10 year kind of summary and deep dive. And everything kind of comes full circle at the end. I'll be back at the very end of this episode to share with you a creative call to adventure, a CTA on how to know what kind of creative discipline you should pursue. And I'm calling that channel your overflow. And I'll talk a little bit about what that means and how to do it at the end so that you can maybe have a marker like a decade plus of doing a similar creative discipline yourself. Because it is such a a great experience, it feels very satisfying and it really, it was the type of creative work that really worked on me and it changed who I was. So I'll let you get into the conversation. I hope you love this episode and I'll be back at the end. Thanks. Thanks so much for doing this again.