← Creative Pep Talk
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- [00:03]
Andy J. Pizza
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. Are you overwhelmed in your creative practice? Because if you're not, can you tell us your secret? Why are you doing this in this day and age? If you're not a bit overwhelmed? Honestly, I would be very surprised because we are just going through rapid changes both in the online space and how things are organized and what just the world is going through a lot of chaos. Technology is just disrupting things dramatically for lots of people and most creative people I know. If you're not feeling some level of overwhelm, what is your secret? I am feeling overwhelmed, of course. But I want to share a tool that really helps me find some clarity and a little bit of relief from that deep overwhelm. And at the end of this episode, if you stay all the way to the end, I'm going to give you this thing. It's a grid that will help you have this really clear overview of your creative practice, and it will help you know what part of it desperately needs attention today. And so stay to the end, I'll give you that. But the first thing we have to do is organize the parts of this mess. 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.
- [02:52]
Bumble
We're so done with New Year, new you this year it's More youe on Bumble. More of you shamelessly sending playlists, especially that one filled with show tunes. More of you finding Geminis because you know you always like them. More of you dating with intention because you know what you want and you know what, we love that for you. So someone else will too be more you this year and find them on Bumble.
- [03:21]
Andy J. Pizza
You know, when we think about our creative practice and things get really, really messy, that's when we feel the overwhelm. That's when we feel like we need to change something, we need to do something. Ah, that is because of that mess. Now, at home, I am adhd, we have a pretty neurodivergent household. We don't do, like, type A sort of people. And so sometimes, often our house will get a bit chaotic. It'll get a bit of a mess. And on the weekend, we're gonna have to take some extra time to get it back to square one. And so when that happens, it used to be when I was a younger father of three, I would just be like, guys, come on, we gotta. What are we doing? Good God, look at this room. Like, just panic. Just panic. Move through the room, think through the house, thinking that that's going to help something. And it didn't. And what I eventually realized was If I took 10 minutes just to organize the chaos, just to take go, I just go through the main levels of our house, main level of our house, and find this is this kid's stuff. This is this kid stuff. That's that kid stuff. And just put them on in little piles on the kitchen table. And I call it table Ch. And you're free. Free to steal it. You know me, I'm not a master organizer. I'm an ADHD chaos gremlin. So I don't really think I need to be giving anybody advice on this. But in case you're also one of those types of goblin gremlin people, parents, maybe this will help you too. But here's what I do. I just take 15 minutes. Takes me almost no time. And I just go through the level and I just separate into three piles, one for each kid. And then I say, all right, it's table chore. Go down to the table, get your pile, and put everything where it needs to go. And the difference in overwhelm, when I have organized these things out, when you can see it really clearly, like this is what all the parts are, means that each kid can go in and knows exactly where they need to apply that focus. And the same can be true for your creative practice. If you will organize it in parts, you will be able to see, like, what. What part is lacking, what part needs fine tuning, what part needs to be let go of. That's super important now, even though it took me forever to figure out how to organize this chaos in my house, your creative practice is even harder because it doesn't Fit into nice little boxes in an obvious way. And over the past 15 years of having a creative, creative practice. I'm just going to keep saying 15 years. I think it's more than that. But I don't want to do any more math. Look, I've been doing this over 15 years. I'll just say that. But the more I did it, the more I realized like, oh, these are the categories and it's really this spectrum or this kind of two part tightrope act that is being a creative person. For me. It's passion and mastery. Okay, There are the. I know what I'm like deeply passionate about, excited about, on fire, about right in this moment. And I'm aware of like what, where my skills and mastery lie, like what I actually know. I'm already good at everything in my creative practice in terms of where I'm going to in vest my creative energy fits somewhere on this spectrum. Some of it is a really good sweet spot of both. Some of them are I'm just passionate about, but I haven't actually developed any mastery in some of it. I'm really masterful at, you know, if I do say so myself. But I'm maybe I've lost a little of the passion in some things that I do don't really have either. But I still have them in my practice for some reason. Okay, so imagine these four. There are four categories of these different ways that these two things can be at play. And imagine those are your four kids. And we're going to put the pieces of your creative practice into these four piles on the table. Okay. And then at the end, I'm going to give you a little grid that kind of really clearly breaks down how these two, the two, the four options with these two pieces of passion and mastery. Okay. But I'm going to go through them first. So the first one is we're going to call it flow. All right? Flow is where you have tons of passion and tons of mastery. This is the holy grail. This is the very difficult thing to attain. And only, only certain moments in my creative practice have I really had something that I was doing that was perfectly in flow. I feel like right now my creative practice children's books are probably. They're close to being in that flow zone where I am perf. I'm passionate and I'm masterful in it. Feel like it's. There's a few tweaks here and there that have to kind of change for that to be totally true. But it's pretty close to that Zone. Now, for each of these four categories, I'm going to give you what the opportunity for something in this category is and what the risk is. And then I'm going to give you an example and a bottom line. But each one of these categories has an opportunity and a risk. So for Flow, the opportunity is, I don't know, pure bliss, the highest experience of happiness that you can possibly encounter here in this little life. And I say that as kind of a joke, but also completely true. You're probably familiar with the book Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, who was this modern day psychologist. He's passed Rest in peace, but he was a psychologist moving within, flowing within the positive psychology movement, which if you don't know, you should get to know it because it's, it's a huge part of the, it's probably the main energy behind this podcast. And it's not. It isn't. It needs a rebrand really, because it's not positive psychology. That's not what it is or it's not. It is positive. It's not positive thinking is what I meant to say. It's not. It's not like just think positive. No, Positive psychology, which I've mentioned here on the show a bunch of times, is a really respected thing, as far as I can tell, very respected thing within the field of psychology. And it was a paradigm shift that happened in the 90s with a guy named Martin Seligman, a psychologist who really questioned the current. What was current at the time, which was this idea that the bible of psychology was the dsm. It was this book of disorders is our bible. And essentially he was saying, look, that's an incredibly negative way to think about what it means to be a human with a psyche, with a mind, is that we're going to define you by your flaws rather than we actually have the opportunity to say, let's define you by your strengths, let's define you by what's working. Let's even, you know, acknowledge these are the downsides of the kind of psyche that you have. But, and this doesn't maybe always apply. There's. There are times where there's mental illness and there are times where there's real challenges that need diagnose. But, but for the most part, it seems even that a lot of the psychologies that use positive psychology, that use this lens have an incredibly high efficacy rate. Like they work things like ifs. I have to imagine. Cbt. Yeah, cbt. Cbt. I'm trying to think is that is that one of the things that's in weed. What is that? Is it. No. Cognitive behavioral therapy. It's cbd. What is the. Anyway, you know, the. Whatever the other one is. Is it the same thing? I don't know. Anyway, I got to move on. So. No, that's cbd, all right? That's what I was. My brain would let me move on. Cbt. Positive psychology. So flow. The flow state and the research around that, that Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi did was based in this positive psychology movement. It was. It's based in leaning into our strengths, leaning into what makes it amazing to be a human. And one of the what. What he would argue was the highest form of being alive would be the flow state. And he would say that the flow state is this balance of being challenged and being ma. So challenge and mastery. But I'm going to just edit that slightly because I hate challenge, first of all. And actually, when I first heard this idea that you're going to get into the flow state when you balance challenge and mastery really well, I started embracing challenge too much because I missed the part where he says it's actually about 30% challenge, 70% mastery. That's where you're going to find that sweet spot. And I just heard 50. 50, okay. But I'm going to change it from challenge, because the only way I know I'm going to embrace a challenge is if it's coming through the lens of passion, even if it's something I don't want to do, it means I'm embracing this challenge. Because on the other side of it, learning this skill, you know, cold emailing, whatever it is that I really don't want to do on the other side of it is something I'm so passionate about that I'm going to engage in this challenge. So instead of thinking about it through challenge, I'm going to just say passion. Because without the passion, what are we even doing here now? Like, no, that's not. I'm not going to get into a flow state purely just seeking challenge. And so passion and mastery are these two pieces. They're influenced by this book on flow. And when I say that when you find things that you're both super passionate about and really masterful in that Venn diagram means you are in one of the highest states. So the opportunity is bliss if you can find. If you can move through your creative practice in such a way where you give the. Give the odds a chance to be in your favor, to find these sorts of seasons in your creative journey, that's opportunity. The risk is, in my opinion is that we want this one to be our job. But there's a problem with this because by the time you have become so masterful in something that people are willing to trust you to pay for it, by the time you get there, your passion is mo almost certainly going to diminish somewhat. Your passion is not going to be at its highest when you have explored this skill or this direction so thoroughly that other people can see that it's obvious that they should pay you for it. And so this is a just, you know, you don't have to adopt this, but this is how I move through the world. I have to realize that the thing I am most passionate about, most masterful in, may not be the thing that I get paid the most to do. Right. So in my creative practice over the past 15 years, I have a bunch of different arms of my business. Client work was a really big one for a while. There was a time before that was kind of my job where I was in that flow where I was like I really want to do this kind of work. I'm really passionate about it and I'm getting masterful at it. That sweet spot wasn't the most I ever made money on doing that. And so I feel like kids books are kind of in flow right now and they can eventually turn into an even bigger part of my job, but now they're just one part of it. And so the risk here is to feel entitled to the idea that the thing that puts you in flow state the thing where you are happiest in your creativity should be your job. And it's good for me to just realize that that's unrealistic because by the time people know they can pay me and trust me in this area, usually my passion isn't at its highest because it means I've really thoroughly explored it. That doesn't mean I don't have any passion with it. We'll get to that later. But that, that is, that's something to keep in mind. I can say to my new Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra. Hey, find a keto friendly restaurant nearby and text it to Beth and Steve. And it does without me lifting a.
- [17:12]
Samsung
Finger so I can get in more.
- [17:13]
Andy J. Pizza
Squats anywhere I can. 1, 2, 3.
- [17:18]
Samsung
Will that be cash or credit?
- [17:20]
Rick Rubeck
Credit.
- [17:21]
Andy J. Pizza
4 Galaxy S25 Ultra the AI companion that, that does the heavy lifting. So you can do you get yours@samsung.com compatible with select apps. Requires Google Gemini account results may vary based on input Check responses for accuracy.
- [17:33]
Lilly
Eczema isn't always obvious, but it's real, and so is the relief from EBGLIS. After an initial dosing phase of 16 weeks, about 4 in 10 people taking EBGLIS achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin, and most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.
- [17:51]
Samsung
EBGLIS Lebricizumab LBKZ, a 250mg 2ml injection, is a prescription medicine used to treat adults and children 12 years of age and older who weigh at least 88 pounds or 40 kilograms with moderate to severe eczema, also called atopic dermatitis, that is not well controlled with prescription therapies used on the skin or topicals, or who cannot use topical therapies. EBGLIS can be used with or without topical corticosteroids. Don't use if you're allergic to Ebglis. Allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. Eye problems can occur. Tell your doctor if you have new or worsening eye problems. You should not receive a live vaccine when treated with Epglis. Before starting Epglis, tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection searching for real relief.
- [18:26]
Lilly
Ask your doctor about epgliss and visit epglis.lilly.com or call 1-800-lilyrx or 1-800-545-5979.
- [18:36]
Andy J. Pizza
Okay, now we're going to move over to. I just want to say one more thing about the flow. The flow place is where you're going to have the most opportunity to build income streams. When you're really masterful, really passionate, that is the perfect place to capitalize and invest. If you have something really squarely in that spot, I think you definitely should make it part of your job. If, if you are interested in doing creative stuff for money or for your living, I think that's where you need to invest. If you know something's right there, you need to invest in that thing. I just, I just think it's good for me to remember that at the height of my passion is rarely when something is the most profitable, that's okay. I think that just makes sense. The second one is curiosity. Okay? A curiosity is one that you have high passion in, low mastery in. And if you have something where you're like, okay, I am so obsessed with this, but I'm not really. I don't know if I'm great at it or I haven't spent enough time or I haven't been able to prove to myself or others that I have any mastery. That is a curiosity. Now, the opportunity for a curiosity, the perfect opportunity, the perfect way to invest in curiosity is doing a side project. It is creating the constraints and the deadlines and the specifics on this is how I'm going to invest in this thing that is that I'm deeply curious about, that I am super passionate about, but I don't have a lot of experience in that. The side project is the best way to deal with one of those. With the curiosity, the second piece of this, the risk is that you don't translate or interpret this curiosity into something that makes any sense to anybody else. If you want to move this curiosity, the goal of a curiosity is to move it into the flow box. It's to become masterful in it. And if you don't figure out how do I translate this red hot passion into something I can actually do and then even better, something that I can connect with others. If you're trying to think of this through the lens of making it a job or income, you have to interpret that daydream. And for me, what this looked like was 10, over 10 years ago when I first did my first live storytelling. I thought, I want to do this. Like, I am so curious about this, I'm obsessed with it. And I had the temptation to just be like, I'm going to do live storytelling now. But guess what? I was a guy living in the Midwest who also was refusing to move. Like I knew for my kids and where I'm establishing them and what my values are as a person. I'm not moving to la. I'm not moving to New York City. I'm not going to try to do off Broadway, one man show. I'm not doing that. So it doesn't matter. I'm not. I'm not. It doesn't matter. If I could do it, I'm not saying I could have, but I wasn't going to. And so I had to interpret that passion into something I could actively do realistically that I could see myself doing. And so if you want to turn it into a side project, the risk that's facing you is you're not willing to compromise. You're not willing to translate it from a dream to reality. You have to interpret daydreams just like you do night dreams. So what I did was I knew I want to do live storytelling. I knew I wanted to do talks. And I realized, like, I already have a career going in illustration. What if I combine these two things? And that's what became this podcast. That's what became that side project. And so the risk of having this curiosity is that you're not willing to compromise it, to go from the perfect state that it is in your head onto paper, into reality by getting real with what's happening. Craft is the third one. Okay? The third one is craft. Craft is where your passion isn't super high, but your mastery is off the charts. Now, the opportunity for something like this is a job. It is. By the time your passion has started to dwindle a little bit, it's probably ready to be work. Now, here's the thing. If I, when I was 20, if I would have heard this, I would have rejected it, because a job without, you know, white hot, red hot, white hot passion sounded like torture. But the truth is, here's what I've learned. That if I have a skill that contributes to people in any meaningful way, even in. Even in a way where the client is happy, even if I just made something that I felt like, oh, I put in a good day's work there, that gives me a lot of joy. I can be some level of passionate about this contribution as long as I feel like I'm doing something that not everybody could do. It's a unique contribution. There's a joy in that that is really, really energizing. It's comparable. It's even similar to passion. And so the risk that I would. That I see in my own life with this is I can feel like, oh, there's no magic. The magic's gone, the energy's gone, the life force is gone. I can get real. The risk here is I can get overly kind of metaphysical when I'm thinking about, like, oh, my passion's not there. I gotta just kill this thing. But the truth is we live in both a space where you're a human that probably, if you're creative, runs on passion, runs on excitement, runs on curiosity. That's you, that's who you are. But you're in a world that trades in mass mastery. And there's a reality to finding that how. How to navigate that. And one of the ways to navigate that is to realize by the time your passion has been converted into mastery, some of that passion isn't going to be as white hot. And I think it's, you know, not to be weird, but talking about white hot passion. But it's similar kind of in a relationship where, you know, we have these. We have all these examples in, in research around how people fall in love in this infatuation stage and all the brain chemicals that are going on and everything is happening and we know that is not sustainable. It's. And it's not even, it's not even something that we want. Because you're stupid when you're in love. You're risky when you're in love. Like, if you stayed in that infatuation stage for your whole life, your life would be a total and utter mess. There's actually beautiful trade offs when you move through, when you convert the passion to mastery, when you go from lovers to friends. It doesn't mean they have to sacrifice the love and the romance either. But. Okay, it's getting too weird. But, but it's true. Like, don't discredit your skill. That's the risk. Your skill, even if it no longer has the magic of the other world, of the ethereal realms, it's still valuable in our world and it can feel good to use it. And there are times when a skill that I had became kind of just, you know, less magical for me. And I would be quick to discredit it when I was just at the. Right now I'm kind of in a really serious rekindled passion for illustration. But when I first started this podcast, I'd been doing illustration for years up to that point. And this public speaking thing was just so new and I. It just felt so exciting that for a couple years at the beginning of this show, I think I felt like, well, illustration, that whatever, like I'm not, you know, I'm just doing that for my job or whatever. But eventually I realized like, oh, illustration is a skill. It's not just a passion. And if I combine, if I do my talks and I really take my slides seriously and I actually tell stories and do metaphors and do interesting things on the screen, that actually really gives me a competitive edge in live storytelling. And it would be dumb to not use that skill. And so the risk is discrediting your own superpowers that you fought for, that you developed, that you put the, you know, thousands of hours into to become masterful at it, to just throw it in the trash because it doesn't have this particular type of fire. And I see this all the time, you know, artists that just are incredible in this one area. But discredit it because the passion has translated into more mastery. And so the craft is the opportunity, is the job. The risk is discrediting it because it's not as magic as it used to be. And the bottom line is this is where you make money this is. This is typically your most valuable asset. And I think it's important to realize, like, what you're doing for your job is rarely going to be that thing that you're most passionate about. But what you're most passionate about might be a big part of your job in a few years, but by the time it is, you might be less passionate about it. And that's just part of the cycle. For me, there's a level of acceptance that really does my body good, does my mental state good. It helps me translate some of that bad stress into good stress when I can accept that this is all part of the process and this is. This is a good thing. All right, the fourth one is shoulds. Things that go in your should category. This is not passionate, not masterful, right? And you might think to yourself, who would do something that they're not passionate about and not masterful in? Why would you even consider that? And for that, I would say, why do you make Instagram reels, Buster? Like, are you passionate about it? Are you masterful in it? Now, I will say that actually, I like making reels. I don't like how much time it takes and how risky of a behavior it is in terms of just how much. How unlikely that that time is going to get is going to pay off in any way that's relevant. But I actually like making video, so I don't put myself in that category. But I know a lot of illustrators that didn't get into illustration to be on camera. Right? And so if you're wondering, like, why would anybody even be confused around shoulds? It's very obvious when you put it through that lens. And so shoulds are the things that you're not passionate about, you're not masterful in. And it's really important to let go of shoulds. You know, I'm fine with you experimenting if you feel like, oh, the industry's moving here and the market's moving there, whatever I gotta do, learn some skills, learn some things. It's fine if you have to spend some time experimenting, but if you've experimented with something that you felt compelled to explore and you find no passion, the likelihood that that's going to translate to any mastery that that's going to become a craft is so low. Not just for everyone, but especially creative people, especially neurodivergent people, people that run on passion. Your likelihood that you're going to go do a job, that you're going to get masterful at something that you hate is so low that these Shoulds are the things that you should take off the list. You should take the shoulds off, I'm telling you as quickly as possible. Now, I, like I said, I gave you a little disclaimer. There are times where you got to be a little open minded. You got to test things out. Before, when short form video moved in, initially I was like, actually looking back, I'm like, initially I was interested because I know I like that kind of thing. I like being on camera. And sometimes you should push yourself out of your comfort zone just to try something. But once you have a little experience, you have a feeling of whether there's passion or potential for mastery there. Right? And so if the things are in this category, the opportunity here is to free up your mental space and your creativity to, to pour them into these other categories. All the other categories deserve some level of investment and attention. This category only deserves the attention that it requires to take these things off your list to identify them and get rid of them. And the risk here is that you're going to feel like dutiful that you're like, well, I just have to do this. I just have to make short form video. No, you don't. You don't have to do that. Like, some of the people that are having the most thriving creative practices right now have an incredible substack and they are writing and they never show their face. There are lots of ways of doing things and there's a risk of feeling, well, I have to do this, I just have to do it. But I would say if there's no passion, no mastery, there's very few things in that category that I would recommend investing in. One of them is like taxes. Okay, yes, that's a should that can't be deleted. But a lot of these shoulds we give ourselves, they're self imposed and we feel like it's just a dutiful thing that I have to do to play the game. The bottom line of this is you're never, you're almost, you're never going to master what you're not passionate about. I'll never master taxes. That's why I have tax professionals help me do that stuff. And I will do the bare minimum of that sort of thing. Okay, so that's the big overview of the four categories of our Passion Mastery Grid. Let's talk about the Passion Mastery grid. Andy, we already did that. Okay. I don't mean just talk about it. Let's do the call to adventure. It is the moment in the show where we give you a tool so that you can not just hear these ideas and be like, that makes sense. But to actually do something with it that has an impact on your creative practice today. And the Passion Mastery Grid. Speaking of substack, you can get the Passion and Mastery Grid on my sub stack if you go sign up to my email newsletter@andyjpizza.substack.com the you'll get a few little goodies in there. There's a little PDF Creative Career Path PDF in there and you'll get reminders that the shows come out. But you'll also get this Passion Mastery Grid download and it's a little PDF. You can print it out and you can organize all the different parts of your creative practice into these little categories so that you can see them on the table and know where to put your energy once you start putting these things into flow. And this is a curiosity, this is a craft, this as a should, once you put them in there, the next piece is ask yourself, which of these things need attention? Now when I'm looking at mine, if I'm looking at my grid and I realize like, oh, I'm slacking off on the I want to give you just one little other piece of insight that might help if your brain is anything like mine. Because if I look at my grid and I see like, oh, I actually have been not really focused on what part of this is my job. Like, I need to take my job and money and career a little bit more seriously. The impulse, the obvious impulse is I need to focus on that. But I want you to look at this grid once you've organized things out. And I want you to be a little bit more mindful about your own psychology and how you move through the world. Because the truth is, if I'm not focusing on my job, it's rarely because I'm just being negligent on that thing. For me, I run on passion. And so if I don't have something in the flow square or the curiosity square, if I don't have things that are really high passion, and I don't mean for my job, I mean, I just don't know what they are, I'm not investing in them. I don't know where I'm trying to go next. If I'm not doing that, I have an almost impossible time doing the craft and the should stuff. And so if I, for me, when I look at this grid, the first thing I need to look at is, do I have anything in the flow or curiosity? If I don't, if I have Something in the flow. I know that that's going to get my best attention my first hour of the day, something like that. Because if you have something where you are curious or you're passionate and you're masterful in it, that thing can just blow up. That. That's an. That's an amazing combination. And you should figure out how to channel that. You know, one of the things that gives me passion is knowing, like, there's something here. And so there. There's opportunity, there's like, ooh, this is like the juicy bit. If I can trust that passion, I can trust there's something smart in it. There's something wise in it, there's something intuitive about it. It's not just, I like doing it, there's something meaningful in it. Passion has all of those things in it. That's why I like putting it, you know, as this second top component with mastery, because I think it's that valuable. And so if I. If something's in that flow category, I know, okay, I need to put. I need to put extra energy there. I need to make sure that I'm given some time for that because that's going to give me happiness, that's going to give me a future. It's really important. But something being in that flow place is rare. And it doesn't. It's not always in my control, but what is almost always in my control is to make sure that something's in that curiosity, that there's something I'm excited about, even if it never turns into mastery. That passion actually carries me through my day. So if I don't have something in the flow, I know I got to have something in the curiosity. If I don't have either of those, the rest of my life is just total crap. Like, what am I getting out of bed in the morning for? If you don't have passion, like, you gotta find some of that, especially if you're a creative person, because we run on it. And so I know those are my top two priorities. I gotta have one. I gotta have something happening in one of those boxes. Then as long as I got something there and it can be in the flow where it's like, really, like, this is promising. This is like on the cusp of being money, or it's starting to make money and it's working, that's great. I don't need a side project. I don't need a curiosity. But if there's not, I need a curiosity. I need a thing that I'm going to pour some time and energy into this thing. And I'm going to give myself a little space to obsess over this thing because it is going. Even if it doesn't turn into any work, even if it never turns into flow, never turns into craft, I know that it's going to give me what I need to do the rest. And so that's where I look first. And then as long as I have one in one of those categories, then I'm going to look down to craft and make sure I'm giving it the attention it needs to be profitable, to be worth doing, to be value to others. There's a contribution thing that's good for my mental health there. There's a making money thing that's good for my children and their table and table chore. There's not going to be anything on this table for table chore if I don't do the craft thing. And so then I'll go to craft. So I go flow, curiosity, make sure something's there. Then as long as there's something I'm passionate about, then I can go into craft and then I can go into should and I can go and like. And sometimes if, you know, you look at this overview, what you might see is my shoulds are off the charts. That needs your attention before you do anything else. And you just start crossing out things and giving up things. You know, when I quit posting the podcast on Facebook or Pinterest, it was like this. I don't know why, but I was like, should I do this? No, I shouldn't. Because the only reason I'm doing it is because I quote, unquote, should, because I could. But guess what? It was doing nothing for my creativity, nothing for my creative practice. So get rid of those things. Don't be afraid to cross some of those shoulds off. That's the grid. If you want to go get it, you can make it. It's a. It's a matrix grid. Four quadrants of this little grid and you can make it. But it's probably just easier to go download it. You go to anniejpiza substack.com and sign up to the newsletter. It'll come in the email, a little link to download it. The confirmation email, I believe, is how that works. And also the last thing I want to add is take the passion seriously. For me, I've realized I am moving through life as a zombie. If I am purely trying to exist just on my responsibilities, this is the life force that moves me and keeps me going and keeps me excited. And keeps me engaged and alive. And so don't discredit passion if you don't know what you're passionate about. Make it your job to figure out what you're passionate about. And, and there's all kinds of work to be done there because sometimes you don't know what you're passionate about because you really don't know. Other times because your ego's in the way because, you know, the kids at school said it's cringe to like that thing, right? There's, there's inner work to be done to find that, find that passion. But I hope that you do because it is absolutely essential to being a creative person. Massive thanks to Sophie Miller for being the editor on this show. Huge thanks to Connor Jones of Pending Beautiful for audio, video edits and sound design. Massive thing. Also animation. If you don't know, this show's on YouTube now so you can go subscribe over there if you like listening to podcasts that way. I mostly prefer to listen to audio only, but for certain shows I like watching on YouTube or having it in the background. You can go check that out. We're putting that out these days. Creative pep talk on YouTube. Massive thanks to Yoni Wolf and the band why? For our theme music and and soundtrack. Thanks to all of you for tuning in. And until we speak again, stay passioned up. Take the this Call to Passion series seriously and get pep to the max. Stay pepped up y'all.
- [43:14]
Mike Toffel
How are business leaders working to confront climate change? For that answer, listen to the award winning Climate Rising podcast produced by Harvard Business School and hosted by me, Mike Toffel, a professor at hbs. Each episode we share a behind the scenes view into how startups and the biggest businesses like Microsoft, Google and seventh Generation are tackling the central issue of our era. Check out Climate Rising wherever you get your podcasts.
- [43:42]
Andy J. Pizza
Hi, I'm Rick Rubeck.
- [43:43]
Rick Rubeck
And I'm Royce Yudkoff.
- [43:44]
Andy J. Pizza
Are you interested in becoming an entrepreneur, owning your own business and being your own boss?
- [43:49]
Rick Rubeck
Our new podcast from Harvard Business School, Think Big, Buy Small, explores becoming an entrepreneur through the acquisition of an enduringly profitable small business. In this series, we guide listeners how to buy their own small business, including determining if this path is right for them, evaluating prospects, raising the capital they'll need to purchase a small business, closing the deal and more.
- [44:12]
Andy J. Pizza
Follow Think Big Buy Small wherever you get your podcasts.