509 - Hack Motivation to Begin AND Finish Well + Unlock Creative Self with These Questions

Summary

Creative Pep Talk Episode 509: Hack Motivation to Begin AND Finish Well + Unlock Creative Self with These Questions

Release Date: June 11, 2025
Host: Andy J. Pizza
Co-Host: Sophie Miller
Podcast Description: A weekly companion for your creative journey, helping you balance creativity and discipline through practical strategies and inspiring conversations.

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Introduction: Embracing the Beginner Mindset

Andy and Sophie kick off the episode by addressing both beginners and seasoned creatives who find themselves constantly starting over. They emphasize the importance of maintaining a beginner's mindset to foster continuous growth and exploration in creative endeavors.

Andy J. Pizza (00:11): "Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk."

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Developing Your Creative Sensibility

A significant portion of the episode focuses on cultivating a creative sensibility—a deep sensitivity to what resonates with you artistically. Andy highlights the importance of understanding and developing your unique taste as the foundation for creating meaningful work.

Andy J. Pizza (04:57): "We don't spend as much time on what we traditionally think of as creativity, which is the exploratory creativity... starting without knowing where it's going to go."

Key Points:

• Taste Profile: Collect elements that deeply inspire you—be it music, art, literature—and create a visual or digital collage to identify common themes and patterns.
• Influences and Sensitivity: Recognize how your influences shape your creative decisions and refine your unique voice by blending various inspirations.
• Exploratory Projects: Engage in projects that allow you to experiment within your identified taste profile to better understand what truly excites and motivates you.

Andy J. Pizza (13:50): "Developing your creative sensibility is about populating your world with elements that reflect your unique taste."

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Starting Creative Projects: Overcoming Overwhelm

Andy advises creatives, especially those with ADHD or similar neurodivergences, on how to combat the paralysis that comes from having too many ideas. The strategy revolves around:

• Collecting Inspirations: Assemble diverse sources of inspiration to help discern what truly resonates with you.
• Identifying Patterns: Look for recurring themes or elements in your collected inspirations to define your creative direction.
• Creating Constraints: Use identified patterns as constraints to guide your projects, ensuring they remain true to your sensibility.

Andy J. Pizza (04:33): "Start with taste. Develop your sensibility by collecting things that light you up in a visceral, transcendent way."

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Staying Focused and Finishing Projects

Addressing the challenge of maintaining focus, especially for those with attention deficits, Andy shares his personal strategies for starting and finishing creative projects:

1. Interest-Based Motivation: Begin projects that genuinely interest you, understanding that initial enthusiasm may wane over time.
2. Urgency Through Deadlines: Implement external deadlines or accountability mechanisms to sustain motivation beyond the initial interest phase.

Andy J. Pizza (19:28): "I've realized so many of the projects that I want to do that I haven't done or haven't finished are because I don't have a deadline."

Key Points:

• Deadlines as Tools: Deadlines can provide the necessary push to complete projects by creating a sense of urgency.
• Collaborative Accountability: Partnering with others who are strong finishers can help maintain momentum and ensure projects reach completion.
• Systematizing Motivation: Understanding your unique motivational triggers and building systems around them can enhance your ability to stay focused.

Sophie Miller (20:21): "Figure out what kind of motivation works for you and to systematize it."

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Motivation Strategies for Neurodivergent Individuals

Sophie and Andy delve into how neurodivergent individuals, such as those with ADHD, can harness their unique motivational triggers:

• Interest and Curiosity: Leveraging intrinsic interest to initiate projects.
• Sense of Urgency: Creating personal or external deadlines to sustain effort until completion.

Sophie Miller (21:11): "When I've learned about ADHD, I've learned that what motivates ADHD people is a very different thing than what motivates neurotypical."

Additional Insights:

• Personalized Approaches: Recognize that traditional systems may not cater to neurodivergent motivations, and it's essential to find what uniquely works for you.
• Resource Recommendation: Andy suggests exploring Gretchen Rubin's work on motivation to understand different motivational styles.

Andy J. Pizza (27:58): "I believe it's Gretchen Rubin's work on motivation. She's got four categories of things that keep you motivated."

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Call to Adventure: Date Yourself

The episode concludes with a practical Call to Adventure titled "Date Yourself." Andy and Sophie encourage listeners to engage in self-reflection through three thoughtfully crafted questions designed to deepen understanding of one's creative self.

Three Questions to Ask Yourself:

1. Visceral Reactions to Creativity

   • Question: In 2025, what has been the most positively visceral reaction that you've had to a creative piece of work?
   • Purpose: Identifies what deeply resonates with you, helping to refine your taste and creative direction.

   Andy J. Pizza (36:11): "What is a song or a movie or a piece of art or whatever... that just frickin hit you on a visceral level."

2. Motivation to Start and Finish

   • Question: When do you feel motivated to start something? And when have you felt motivated enough to finish something?
   • Purpose: Helps you recognize the triggers that initiate and sustain your creative projects.

   Sophie Miller (40:55): "What usually gets you to start something, but more importantly, what gets you to finish something?"

3. Personal Needs in Current Season

   • Question: What do you need most in this season of your life?
   • Purpose: Encourages prioritization of personal well-being and addressing immediate needs that can enhance creative productivity.

   Sophie Miller (41:11): "What is the thing that you, as an artist, as a human, more importantly, as a human, what do you need to be regulated to be healthier?"

Implementation Tips:

• Journal Your Responses: Documenting your answers can provide clarity and direction.
• Reflect Regularly: Revisit your responses periodically to track your creative growth and evolving needs.

Andy J. Pizza (35:30): "Take yourself on a date and ask yourself these three questions."

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Closing Remarks

Andy and Sophie wrap up the episode by reiterating the importance of self-love and self-investigation in the creative process. They remind listeners to maintain flexibility in their creative habits and to embrace both the exploration and discipline necessary for sustained creative fulfillment.

Sophie Miller (43:35): "And until we speak again, stay pepped up."

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Notable Quotes:

• Andy J. Pizza (04:57): "We don't spend as much time on what we traditionally think of as creativity... starting without knowing where it's going to go."
• Andy J. Pizza (19:28): "I've realized so many of the projects that I want to do that I haven't done or haven't finished are because I don't have a deadline."
• Sophie Miller (20:21): "Figure out what kind of motivation works for you and to systematize it."
• Andy J. Pizza (27:58): "I believe it's Gretchen Rubin's work on motivation. She's got four categories of things that keep you motivated."
• Andy J. Pizza (36:11): "What is a song or a movie or a piece of art or whatever... that just frickin hit you on a visceral level."
• Sophie Miller (43:35): "And until we speak again, stay pepped up."

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Final Thoughts:

Episode 509 of Creative Pep Talk offers invaluable insights into balancing creativity with discipline, especially for those navigating neurodivergent challenges. By focusing on developing a nuanced creative sensibility and implementing personalized motivation strategies, listeners are equipped to embark on and complete their creative projects with renewed vigor and self-awareness.

Transcript

[Andy J. Pizza]

On the creative journey, it's easy to.

[Sophie Miller]

Get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift off.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk. Okay, we're going to talk about what do you do when you're just starting out. Because we got a lot of beginners.

[Sophie Miller]

That listen to this show too.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And as well as the seasoned folks. And even if you're a seasoned folk, you gotta start over all kinds of things, all kinds of times. So we're always in that beginner mindset. So we'll talk a little bit about what I think is really important.

[Sophie Miller]

If you're in one of those stages where you're starting something new. We're also going to talk about how.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Do you stay focused not just long.

[Sophie Miller]

Enough to start something, but to finish something.

[Andy J. Pizza]

As an ADHD person who has finished a few things, I have a lot.

[Sophie Miller]

Of thoughts on that that I hope will help you.

[Andy J. Pizza]

These have been freshly helping me recently in a very important way.

[Sophie Miller]

So I'm excited to get into some.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Details around what really helps me stay.

[Sophie Miller]

Motivated and start and finish things and.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Stick around to the end of this episode. We are going to do a cta, our call to Adventure, how to do something right now that's going to help you do this stuff. Not just be inspired, but do it. And it's called Date Yourself. Okay. Excited about that. Can't wait for you to get there. And yeah, let's get into it. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. I love Squarespace.

[Sophie Miller]

I'm a long time user.

[Andy J. Pizza]

One of the things I love about Squarespace is I will use. It's so easy to use that I will use it to create pitches. If I'm pitching a book or I'm pitching something to a client, I will use a Squarespace page in my website and I'll build the whole thing there. Then you don't have these clunky like document PDFs clogging up people's inboxes and it looks super slick. If you want to see one of those that I use all the time, I did one for my series right side out andyj pizza.com RSO and you can see how I create a little pitch summary of that project. Go to squarespace.com pep talk get building for free and trying it out and testing it. And then when you're ready to launch, use promo code pep talk all one word for 10% off your first purchase. Thanks. Squarespace.

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[Snigda]

Dr. Pizza hi Andy, I'm Snicta. I love your podcast and this is me sending in a question for Dr. Pizza. I am kind of at the beginning of setting up my creative practice. I still have a full time day job and I'm just trying to see what this could mean for me on the side and creative pep talk has been a big inspiration for me to do that. So thank you very much. I was wondering if you had any tips for when you're at the beginning. You don't have a specific style yet, you don't know what exactly your medium is and you just have all these different creative ideas of stuff you could make, stuff you could do coming to you way faster than you can possibly pick one and execute it and bring it to life. So when you're in that zone, how do you get started? How do you make sure you actually start the process and don't just let the ideas overwhelm you to the point of being frozen and not making anything at all? Yeah, I was just thinking about that and I would appreciate any thoughts, advice, anything that comes to your head. Thank you so much.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Hey Snigda, I am super excited to answer this question because I think it goes right alongside side themes that we've been exploring in this show. We did an episode recently about how we talk a lot about the strategic side of creative career planning and creativity and kind of plotting and outlining and.

[Sophie Miller]

That kind of stuff.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But we don't spend as much time on what we traditionally think of as creativity, which is the exploratory creativity. Strategic creativity being starting with an end in mind and kind of working backwards and then exploratory creativity being starting without knowing where it's going and when you are getting started. I think that this is the most essential time to be creating without a purpose, without knowing where this is going to go, what market is it in, how is this going to be profitable? I think you have to have a period of time early in your creative development where you are making not from a place of strategy, but from a place of Exploration in terms of your taste. So when we think about the artist that we love, words that come to mind are creative voice or creative style or authorship. All these things are really important. But for me, I think that the first primary thing we should be focusing on is in our creative journey, is developing our creative sensibility. And I love this word, sensibility. I think it's a through line throughout this whole podcast, and it's really essential to how I think about what it means to make great creative work and kind of find your way. I think the way that you navigate the creative journey is through your ability of your sensitivity, AKA your taste. And so taste is this word that I think means a lot of different things. I think when we think of taste, we think about good taste. We think about, like, refined palate. We think like, oh, this person likes good stuff and acquired tastes and not so much guilty pleasures or things that we think are maybe less than creatively. But for me, I've tried to evolve my definition of taste to be purely your creative palette, your sensitivity to creative work, like what lights up your taste buds. If you're a cook, that might mean literally, but if you're an artist, it means more symbolically or metaphorically. Like your sensitivity on a heart level. What are the stories that make your heart soar? What are the songs that make you cry? What are the things that touch you deeply? That being touched that way is your sensitivity. And then when you create from that sensitivity, when you let that sensitivity guide you through the creative process, both inform the direction that you take as well as the decisions that you make through the process. That is the ability of that sensitivity. It is allowing you to taste the creation. As you go and say, I need to go left, I need to go right, I need to add salt, I need to add a little paprika here. I need to do this or that to get closer to it, lighting me up on the inside. And so to answer your question, that's just the preface, baby. To answer your question, I think you have to start with taste. You have to be trying to develop your sensibility, your ability of your sensitivity. And I think you do so by first collecting things that light you up in a visceral, transcendent way. We'll put it out there because we're both creative people, we don't mind getting a little romantic about it, right? Get. Collect those things that really, like, it's almost like a spiritual experience. And they should fall into the categories of, yeah, the acquired tastes, you know, the. The bands and the. And the Artists and the books that you learn to love. Yeah, that. That's a good. That's. That's useful in your journey, but maybe more useful is the guilty pleasures, the stuff that you feel like, I shouldn't even like this, but I can't help it. That tells you something really deeply true creative palette and your sensitivity. And so collect all this stuff, old stuff, new stuff, obscure stuff, all of it. Put it in a Pinterest board, create a collage of it, post it on your wall, you know, cut it out of magazines, put it on your wall like you're a teenager. But, like, get it all together in one place. Because the thing that you want to do is you don't want to separate all these. Like, oh, this is my. The music taste. These are my film tastes. These are the new artists I like. These are the old artists. Like, you don't want them all separate. You want to get them together so that you can start seeing the commonalities. And when you look at that collage, I think what you're trying to see is it's like there's these diagrams online that kind of show you. It's like a picture of a drawing of a tongue, and it shows you the different areas of taste. You know, you have the salt and the sweet and the umami and. And something else and another thing. And these are all the little categories of the tastes. And this is your taste profile, those collages. That's what I want you to think of as your taste profile. It's like a big picture of your creative tongue. And you're trying to figure out what is overrepresented. Where am I really sensitive? Because you might have a sweet tooth or you might not care for sweets, and you're all about savory, but you have this very specific thing that comes together, this chemical combustion that makes you feel something. And so that's where influences are so much more than, like, learning to make work that's inspired by them or kind of like them. They're. The reason I think influences are so essential is because it tells you something about your sensitivity. And as you try to decode that, that's going to give you an idea of the types of work to start exploring. And in fact, you might even start critiquing through. Critiquing these influences through the lens of, I love this artist, but I wish they had a little bit of that going on from this artist or that music or that film or that book or whatever. And you start to, like, pair all these ingredients together and I have a friend, Lauren Hamm, who is a chef and went to culinary school and also a great designer lettering artist. And she spoke about this through the lens of, like, when you can say that a recipe is yours, like legally in the cookbook world, is something like, you have to change three key ingredients of a recipe for it to be yours. And so, you know, real art, not that. Not that food and being culinary arts aren't a real art, but yes, they are arts, but art, fine art, illustration, whatever, that doesn't work as specifically in that way. It's not as easy as just change three ingredients, but it gives you an idea of what it means to develop your own work and doing so. Not randomly picking things, not just randomly experimenting, which is just very haphazard, but trying to get closer and closer to. To that taste profile that doesn't exist except on your metaphorical creative tongue. And so what I would do is collect all that stuff, look for patterns. Those become constraints for a creative project that really is just you creating a creative habit, showing up, working in these ingredients for a period of time. For me, that looked like a daily drawing project where I did a new character every weekday for a year. That was me looking at these heroes, looking at the patterns, trying new combinations, trying to add other things, trying to critique, trying to experiment within that world. And then after I made that project, I had a much bigger sense of my sensitivity and what worked and what didn't. And I kind of was populating the world of my creative sensibility, like, literally populating it with these characters, but also just populating it through items that the characters are holding and backgrounds and trying to get a sense of what does this creative palette as a true north, as a compass, where does it lead me on a page as I'm making.

[Sophie Miller]

These decisions, informed by these influences.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But then as I'm drawing and as I'm reflecting on the drawings, that figuring out which of these really, really light me up. And as I go to make decisions, letting that internal sensitivity guide each decision. When I had Lulu Miller from Radiolab on this show, she spoke about it, like, you know, moving the music on the podcast that she's working on and the radio show she's working on, moving the music here, moving it there, listening to it, closing her eyes, and she's talking about tasting, tasting that show with her soul and seeing which of them lights up that sensitivity and which of them maybe discuss that sensitivity and, like, letting that internal taste bud guide each decision. I think that is the intuitive way that we do something that Goes beyond rational thought, goes beyond something you can explain or teach. And it defines what will make your work unique to you. And so do that. And then, you know, when I did this Color Me show with my buddy.

[Sophie Miller]

Andrew Nair, who is a conceptual artist.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And product designer and illustrator, we did this in a way where we made this work, which was like a combination of our stuff. We did this mural.

[Sophie Miller]

It was just like a doodle mashup.

[Andy J. Pizza]

We stood back and we were like.

[Sophie Miller]

What works and what doesn't work?

[Andy J. Pizza]

And we made a bunch of rules and decisions about that based on our sensitivities. And this was our Venn diagram of our sensitivities. And then we said, okay, the next one we're going to do, it's going to be much more simple. We're just going to do objects kind of floating in space like a sticker sheet. And again, it was like us populating the world with, this is what a.

[Sophie Miller]

Shoe looks like in that world.

[Andy J. Pizza]

This is what a pencil looks like in that world. This is what a head looks like in this world. Until we developed our own creative sensibility to together almost like how a band will do. And so that's kind of what you're doing, but for just for yourself. And so collect that stuff, look for the patterns, make the work, reflect on it. And then once you have a sense of that sensibility, then you're going to have a much easier time knowing where that should go in the industry and the market and what makes your niche your niche. But don't. That's where the strategy starts coming in. I think it's. We did this episode recently. We're talking about, you got to get everything out. Like, it's really hard to price how valuable a storage unit is if you can't get in there and, like, root around and see, like, what's actually in here. And they do that on that reality.

[Sophie Miller]

TV show, Storage wars, where they try to bid on a storage unit that's up for sale because the person didn't.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Pay for it before. They can actually get in there, just kind of judge it from the outside. And we try to do that with art, but we don't need to do that. We can get it out. We can put it on a page. We can step back from it. Then we can start thinking a little bit more creatively strategic in terms of career or what kind of projects we should do. And so that's what I would do. Create a creative habit. Exploring your sensitivity, developing your sensibility, populating your world a little bit. Then you can kind of see. Like, when I did that, the logical kind of next step would have been, like, to go into character design, but I didn't really want to do that. That didn't actually fit with the types of work that I was making. That might have. That might have been what I jumped to before I did that project when.

[Sophie Miller]

I was just looking at the patterns. But once I got it all out.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I thought, oh, actually this makes more.

[Sophie Miller]

Sense to, like, write stories with these characters. So, like, picture books and chapter books and that kind of stuff. And.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But I can only know that until.

[Sophie Miller]

After I've got it all out.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So that's what I would do. You need. I think you need to do an.

[Sophie Miller]

Exploratory project that develops that creative sensibility.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Okay, our next question is how do you stay focused? Now, this is a weird question because you're asking someone with attention deficit disorder how to stay focused. So I'm assuming that you aren't the type of neurotypical person who finds focus easy, and that's why you're going to someone disordered around focus and attention to ask this question. Because although, yes, I do have ADHD and focus is a serious problem for me, I have in some way hacked myself in such a way that I have been able to focus on some things long enough to finish them. I've published over 10 different books. I think, again, I don't focus enough to count them, but I've done a lot of books, I've done a lot of client work, and I built a career doing all these things. I made over 500 episodes of this podcast, which is a hell of a lot of focus. So I have learned how to focus a little bit. And I'll tell you just one thing.

[Sophie Miller]

That I think has really helped me.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And it's the reason why right now, my iPhone wallpaper is quite bizarre. It's a headline of a substack written by a graphic memoirist named Kelsey Ervik, and she wrote a substack recently, and the title was something like, is the Answer to All Creative Problems a Deadline? And I screenshotted it, and I made it my background because it's something that I have had to keep top of mind recently because I've realized so many of the projects that I want to do that I haven't done or haven't finished are because I don't have a deadline. And here's I'll break down. I want to say kind of two different things here. One is how I've learned to start and finish things, how I'VE found the.

[Sophie Miller]

Motivation to start and finish things and.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I found that motivation from two different places and it's essential for me getting.

[Sophie Miller]

Anything done and it's come from understanding myself. I'm going to talk a little bit about that.

[Andy J. Pizza]

The second thing I want to talk about is.

[Sophie Miller]

And I've lost focus. Just as I'm saying that, I'm trying.

[Andy J. Pizza]

To remember what the second thing was. I'm giving you a little peek behind the curtain because usually I just cut this bit out while I'm trying to think of like what was that second.

[Sophie Miller]

Thing that I was going to bullet point.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But I'm going to keep it for the sake of the question.

[Sophie Miller]

Yeah, the second thing I'm going to.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Talk about is I don't know, but we'll probably get there in a second. The first thing I'll go back to that this is the live version of.

[Sophie Miller]

My focus and attention.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So when it comes.

[Sophie Miller]

Here's what I've learned about finishing projects and focusing long enough to achieve anything.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Is that motivation doesn't just mean one thing.

[Sophie Miller]

First of all, you're not either motivated or you're not motivated. Also, when I've learned about adhd, I've learned that what motivates ADHD people is a very different thing than what motivates neurotypical.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Now you might think of yourself as adhd, you might think I might have adhd, but I choose not to identify that way.

[Sophie Miller]

Or I find that as a limiting identity or fixed mindset. Or you might not, you might be autistic or dyslexic or any other. You know, there's so many different types of brains.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Is there even really a neurotypical?

[Sophie Miller]

Some researchers think no.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But back to the point, you may have similarity. So either this, you might be motivated.

[Sophie Miller]

In a similar way to me and to ADHD people, or the takeaway for you is to figure out what kind of motivation works for you and to systematize it. So my system is that I'm only.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Going to start things that are triggered.

[Sophie Miller]

By interest because there's only a few things that motivate ADHD people. The two that I utilize most often.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Are interest based motivation.

[Sophie Miller]

So the nervous system that is intro.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Interest based and motivated by interest and.

[Sophie Miller]

Curiosity, that's one of the ways that I am motivated.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And the second way that I'm very.

[Sophie Miller]

Familiar with is urgency.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So if it's not interesting or it's not urgent to do this, I'm going.

[Sophie Miller]

To have a really difficult time getting that thing done.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And so how this manifests in my creative life is I start things out of interest, knowing that at some point, especially depending on how large of a.

[Sophie Miller]

Project this is, at some point, this will.

[Andy J. Pizza]

The interest is going to dissipate the second I commit to starting it, it's going to start to.

[Sophie Miller]

It's like sand in an hourglass. It's going to start to dissipate almost instantaneously, drip by drip by drip. Sometimes in huge ways, sometimes just in tiny ways over time.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But I know this interest is not a sustainable fuel for from the start.

[Sophie Miller]

Of the project to the end of the project.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And so, because I've started so many.

[Sophie Miller]

Things I didn't finish, but the ones.

[Andy J. Pizza]

That I did finish were the ones.

[Sophie Miller]

That I was able to hack my brain with a sense of urgency.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And usually that's done by a deadline.

[Sophie Miller]

Sometimes I can get myself to commit to a deadline and the deadline to.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Myself or to the accountability of the audience.

[Sophie Miller]

Like I said, I was going to.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Do this podcast every Wednesday, or I'm going to post this picture every day. As long as I'm still pretty interested, I can be accountable to that kind of a deadline. But the urgency really only kicks in for me if there is a more.

[Sophie Miller]

A more substantial obligation that I feel obliged to fulfill. Now with work, the best case scenario is there's a lot of money attached.

[Andy J. Pizza]

To it and I got to pay my bills and take care of my kids. And all of that feels like real urgency because it is another one, though.

[Sophie Miller]

Even when I haven't been able to do that.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So sometimes, like, the reason I've.

[Sophie Miller]

The reason I've screenshotted that idea of is the answer to every creative problem, a deadline. The reason I've screenshotted that recently is because I've realized there are a few different areas in my creative life where.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I've forgotten that the way that I.

[Sophie Miller]

Finish ideas is having that urgency, having that deadline, hacking my brain that way.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And I've tried to write books without a book deal. I've tried to create a course without a collaborative partner that's setting up the.

[Sophie Miller]

Project and giving me deadlines and holding me to it. I forgot that this is such an essential part to not starting things, but finishing things. And as I move forward, when I try to do a book about the stuff we talk about on this podcast.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I realized, oh, I actually need to.

[Sophie Miller]

Go get a book deal.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I need to create the pitch, then I can get the book deal, and then that will hold me accountable to hack.

[Sophie Miller]

That second type of motivation that I need to finish something and follow through.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But there are times when you don't.

[Sophie Miller]

Have the option to get a book deal. There were lots of times in my.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Creative journey, and maybe still, who knows.

[Sophie Miller]

If I'll get this book deal, but.

[Andy J. Pizza]

There were a lot of times where.

[Sophie Miller]

That wasn't even on the table. And even then I would find ways to hack it. I'll tell you two versions of that. One was I wanted to make courses.

[Andy J. Pizza]

For podcast content for a long time.

[Sophie Miller]

Couldn't get myself to do it.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Then skillshare came along and wanted to advertise on the show, and I made it part of the deal that I would only do it if they would.

[Sophie Miller]

Help me make courses.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And so I knew that they were going to give me that deadline, that.

[Sophie Miller]

Urgency, that motivation to get this thing.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Started or mostly finished. And so even though I was going to sacrifice a portion of the profit of that to this collaborator, I knew that sacrifice was worth it, because there would be zero profit if I was trying to do it on my own, because it wouldn't exist. And so that's a way in which I have traded money for staying motivated, for accountability, for getting that urgency motivation.

[Sophie Miller]

That'S necessary for me to complete stuff.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Now, even if you don't have someone that you could just literally pay to motivate you with this kind of thing, maybe you don't. You're not even there. It's looked like before this, it's looked like doing projects with collaborators that are stronger finishers than they are starters. And so all the way back into the beginning of my career, making zines.

[Sophie Miller]

With friends in college and creating these.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Collaborative partnerships, so much of that was, yes, we are excited about the same thing, and I'm pumped to start this.

[Sophie Miller]

But they're pumped to follow through. They're the people that want to finish it.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And so there's a collaborative give and take there. When I make stuff with Sophie, that's a huge part of our deal, is that she is a strong finisher. If we start something strong, she's going.

[Sophie Miller]

To want to finish it strong. And that's part of the deal. So collaborators can be a part of getting that urgency motivation.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So those two things, if I don't.

[Sophie Miller]

Have both of those in tandem, I'm not able to both start and finish a project. And so that might not be you, you might not be adhd, but what you are is a human with preferences and your nervous system.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And your motivation has a formula, it has a way to work with it. And so if those things don't ring true to you, recommend Going and checking out. I believe it's Gretchen Rubin's work on motivation.

[Sophie Miller]

Where she goes through.

[Andy J. Pizza]

This isn't going to give you everything.

[Sophie Miller]

You need, but it's going to give.

[Andy J. Pizza]

You a piece of it.

[Sophie Miller]

Where she goes through, you're either a.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Rebel or an obliger or this or that.

[Sophie Miller]

These. There's four categories of things that keep you motivated, though.

[Andy J. Pizza]

All those things are factors. This is actually just to go on a little bit of a tangent. Since we are talking about adhd. This is a little bit about why I go so hard on talking about adhd, talking about neurodivergence.

[Sophie Miller]

I think a lot of people assume.

[Andy J. Pizza]

That'S because learning I was ADHD changed.

[Sophie Miller]

My life, which is true. That's true. That's why I talk about it all the time.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But I think they assume that it.

[Sophie Miller]

Changed my life because I got diagnosed and then I got on medicine and everything was fixed.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I'm not on medicine, baby. I don't know if you can tell, but this guy's freewheeling now. I'm not a doctor. I'm not going to give you.

[Sophie Miller]

I don't even have an opinion on whether you should be on medicine.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I have no opinion. I know some people that are, and.

[Sophie Miller]

It seems to have been really great for them.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I have experience with medication, and I have the tests that say medication like.

[Sophie Miller]

This, of this nature doesn't go well with my system, and it didn't.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And so I'm not medicated. But the reason why finding out that.

[Sophie Miller]

I was ADHD changed my life is.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Not through the lens of seeing it.

[Sophie Miller]

As a disorder, which. It's adhd, Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. But I don't look at it that way. I look at it as a type of. Even though it does come with significant challenges in the world that we find ourselves in, I look at it as a neurodivergence, meaning this is a different type of brain, not a disordered type of brain.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And the body of work surrounding what.

[Sophie Miller]

We know about these types of, types of brains that we call ADHD has.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Been incredibly important to not working against.

[Sophie Miller]

My brain, but working with it. And so what I would say is, yeah, go check out the Gretchen Rubin thing. You know, if these. The ways that I stay motivated resonate with you, use those.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But if not, go find any information you can about the type of brain.

[Sophie Miller]

That you think that you have. And I would recommend not seeing it through the lens of disorder primarily, even though some of that may help you and some of that might affirm what's challenging for you. And I get that. But I would primarily think about it through the lens of this is what's.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Different about me and how do I work with that. And so I think the real hack.

[Sophie Miller]

For finding focus isn't attention deficit. So I can't focus.

[Andy J. Pizza]

That's not true.

[Sophie Miller]

Just what helps you focus and what motivates you is different than neurotypical and.

[Andy J. Pizza]

What the system, the neurotypical idea is that even if it's just 51% of.

[Sophie Miller]

The population is wired this way. We're going to create our system because that's around that, because that's going to serve the most people that we can. And so the school system is going.

[Andy J. Pizza]

To be set up with a type.

[Sophie Miller]

Of motivator that works with the most people, hopefully, or at least the people.

[Andy J. Pizza]

That were in charge of making it, which is a whole other argument. But that's what I would say. You know, go check out the Gretchen Rubin thing. Hope some of this stuff that I do helps and figure out what does.

[Sophie Miller]

Help you focus, because you might have to do it in a different way.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And just while I'm on it, why not? We'll go here.

[Sophie Miller]

I have to apply this to how I have discipline whatsoever.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So for me, a lot of people, you know, I've talked to you about James Clear's atomic habits on this show and we talk a lot about creative discipline. Actually, you know what?

[Sophie Miller]

I'm not going to go into this.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I want to make a whole other episode about this.

[Sophie Miller]

And so stay tuned for that.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Sorry to be teasing you with it, but I want to talk a little bit more, a little bit more about.

[Sophie Miller]

The oxymoron that is creative discipline, but also why it's completely essential to any types of creative fulfillment, success or reaching.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Any realizing any creative potential. It's an oxymoron because creativity is doing different things.

[Sophie Miller]

Discipline is doing the same thing. How the heck do you do those at the same time?

[Andy J. Pizza]

Actually think I have some experience with that. So I'm going to do an episode about that. If that's something you want to hear about, let me know. Hit me up on the comments on Instagram, YouTube, what have you, and I will make that episode. But I do think I'm going to.

[Sophie Miller]

Work on that because I think I have something maybe useful to say at least to past me.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Okay. Or. And when I say past me, I mean me 30 minutes ago who already.

[Sophie Miller]

Forgot this stuff and 3 years ago. Anyway, hope that helps you find some focus.

[Andy J. Pizza]

This episode is brought to you by Amazon prime from streaming to Shopping prime helps you get more out of your passion. So whether you're a fan of true crime or prefer a nail biting novel from time to time, with services like Prime Video, Amazon Music and fast free delivery, prime makes it easy to get more out of whatever you're into or getting into. Visit Amazon.comprime to learn more.

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[Andy J. Pizza]

Alright, you know, we try to end.

[Sophie Miller]

Every episode with something you can do.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Right now instead of just feel motivation.

[Sophie Miller]

Or inspiration doing something with it.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So this week your call to adventure, your CTA is date yourself. Okay? Date yourself. Not like, oh, this really dates me because I like pogs. Not, not. That's not what we're talking about. We're saying take yourself on a date. I came up with three questions related to the stuff we talked about today that you could ask yourself on a date with yourself as an artist. You know, I think what this gets at a little bit is you've probably.

[Sophie Miller]

Heard me on this show, if you've listened very much, talk about why. I think one of the most essential things to being an artist is loving.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Yourself, caring about who you are. Why would anyone listen to your music if you won't? Why would anybody listen to you if you won't? You have to listen to you. You have to care. You have to be interested enough in your thoughts and feelings and experiences enough to inquire about them and put them.

[Sophie Miller]

Out into the world.

[Andy J. Pizza]

You have to think that there's something decent or interesting or worthwhile in order to get that out of you. And I would say if you're not interested in you, then get interested in something first. Because maybe you're a young pup who.

[Sophie Miller]

Isn'T that interesting and you just need to be in a season of time where you're interested enough to get interesting, to have interesting thoughts and feelings. But you have to love yourself enough to give yourself that space and time. Time. And so in the spirit of loving yourself and developing a relationship, a positive relationship with yourself, let's date ourselves.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And here's the three questions that I think you should go get a coffee.

[Sophie Miller]

With yourself and ask yourself these three Questions and you can journal about it. First one is about the first question we had, which was about creative sensibility and where, why? I think if you're just starting out, you need to really double down on your taste and getting to know what your taste is and being able to learn how to get in touch with that and let it inform your decisions. And so the first question I have here is in 2025, what has been.

[Andy J. Pizza]

The most positively visceral reaction that you've.

[Sophie Miller]

Had to a creative piece of work?

[Andy J. Pizza]

First of all, not a bad date question if you really are going on a date with someone else. I find this to be an interesting topic. I just went out with the boys, had a couple brewskis, had two stouts, got sick to my stomach just to give you too much information. But that was one of the things I throw out there sometimes because I.

[Sophie Miller]

Find it really interesting, you know, what is a song or a movie or.

[Andy J. Pizza]

A TV show or a video game.

[Sophie Miller]

Or a piece of art or whatever.

[Andy J. Pizza]

A comic, whatever a podcast episode that you listen to. And it just frickin hit you on a visceral level.

[Sophie Miller]

I'll tell you two of mine just to give you an example and because.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I like to talk about it because I really love these things. One and I love these things and.

[Sophie Miller]

I love this quote by Mike Mills where he's a filmmaker and used to be a graphic designer. And he said, you know, if he's stuck, he will just think about the art that he loves just to get in. I really think it helps you hack into that right hemisphere of your brain. And the last question, I know I'm jumping all over the place my ADHD is up because I just got off of a coffee date with a friend and that always puts me in this zone. And the third question I'm gonna ask about is about the summer season, what you need right now. And, and for me, what I really need is getting that right hemisphere of my brain, that creative side that remembers why I love art. And Mike Mills would say, you know, focus. Just bring, bring to mind the things that you love that are art in the truest sense of the word, where it has this visceral, visceral feeling that'll help you touch, get in touch with that side of you.

[Andy J. Pizza]

And so that's the other reason I want to bring it up, because I just.

[Sophie Miller]

Why not? I want a little time to get into that zone. One I've probably mentioned on the show a couple times.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Cameron Winter, huge fan of this musician.

[Sophie Miller]

Might not be for you.

[Andy J. Pizza]

It's probably why I like it.

[Sophie Miller]

And the second part of this question is, what hit you viscerally? And then what does it tell you about your taste? And me being so struck by this musician, Cameron Winter, he did a solo record. He's the front man of the band Geese. But that record, his solo record, hit me so hard. And a big part of it is that the singing is just hilariously bizarre. The music is, like, kind of classically fantastic, but the singing is just funny to the point of being absurd at times. And I just absolutely love it. And it reminds and what it says about my taste is what I remember the Talking Heads guy David Byrne saying. He said, the better you sing as a musician, the harder it is for me to believe what you're saying. And I so relate to that. If I hear pitch perfect, you know, note perfect music singing, I'm thinking you're thinking about singing. You're not thinking about the meaning of this song. And so that says something about my taste, which is I need the imperfections because it really tells. It really humanizes it for me. I'm a big fan of the musician Indigo d' Souza, because more than anybody I know making music right now, when she sings, she sounds like she means what she's saying, and I can't believe how important that is to me. So authenticity is huge for my sense of taste. So that's what it's telling me about my taste. I also heard an interview with Stephen west on the Tim Ferriss podcast. Stephen west is the longtime creator, maker of the podcast Philosophize. This that I was just viscerally obsessed with.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So ask yourself, in 2025, what have.

[Sophie Miller]

You been viscerally obsessed with?

[Andy J. Pizza]

If you don't have an answer, I'm telling you right now, you need to open yourself up. You need to risk trying things that you don't like because you've gotten too static. You've gotten too stagnant is a better word.

[Sophie Miller]

You need to go try some things that you don't know if you're gonna.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Like them or not. And a lot of those you probably.

[Sophie Miller]

Won'T like, but it's probably time to open up a bit.

[Andy J. Pizza]

All right, second question on this date is, when do you feel motivated to start something? And when have you felt motivated enough to finish something?

[Sophie Miller]

I've already answered mine, so I won't.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Go on a huge rant there, so you don't have to listen to that.

[Sophie Miller]

But, yes, what usually gets you to start something, but more importantly, what gets you to finish something when have you felt that motivation or been motivated enough to get past the finish line?

[Andy J. Pizza]

The third question on this date is.

[Sophie Miller]

What do you need most in this season of your life? And it could be in the season of this year. The summertime could be just the season that you find yourself in.

[Andy J. Pizza]

For me, late 30s, what do I need right now?

[Sophie Miller]

We're gonna do a whole episode about this and about seasonality that I'm record maybe right after this about the summer and what I feel like I need right now.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But this can get you thinking about it. What do you feel like you need most? Number one, not number two, not number three.

[Sophie Miller]

We all have a million priorities and things we have to do.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But what is the thing that you, as an artist, as a human, more.

[Sophie Miller]

Importantly, as a human, what do you need to be regulated to be healthier? What is the most pressing need? I think that's an interesting question and we're going to get a little bit more into that soon. All right. I hope this was super helpful for you.

[Andy J. Pizza]

I hope it was motivating, inspiring to see me get really ADHD and excited about this stuff. For people that watch on YouTube, you notice that between question one and two, I got a haircut, so that was kind of weird. I'm addressing that just so you don't think you've lost it. But also, you know, when I mentioned that we have a YouTube channel now where these are. There's absolutely no pressure to listen or watch on YouTube. We're going to make this always audio first. But I just know a lot of people, a lot of ADHD people in.

[Sophie Miller]

Particular, neurodivergent people, really love YouTube and like that as an option.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So I let you know about it.

[Sophie Miller]

Just so you know that it's an option in case you prefer that. I flip back and forth all the time now on podcasts, whether I put them on.

[Andy J. Pizza]

If I'm going to be sat at.

[Sophie Miller]

A desk, I might put it on a side screen and let it play visually in the background.

[Andy J. Pizza]

But I like the option to listen.

[Sophie Miller]

As I go and have it as a companion medium. Washing the dishes, mowing the lawn, all that kind of thing.

[Andy J. Pizza]

So we do both for your preference and thanks for listening. Thanks to Sophie Miller for being the editor and producer, co producer. Don't get ahead of yourself. I'm also there, Connor Jones of Penning Beautiful for the audio, video edits, sound design and animations. Huge thanks to Yoni Wolf of the band Y for our theme music.

[Sophie Miller]

And until we speak again, stay pepped up.

[Andy J. Pizza]

Did you know not all organic food is created equal. While we trust the organic label to mean soil grown, pasture raised, and ethical, industrial agriculture is quietly rewriting the rules. That's why the Real Organic Podcast produced by the Real Organic Project is cutting through the greenwashing to expose the corporate greed that is reshaping organic food and farming. Each episode brings you in depth conversations with farmers, scientists and advocates working to protect organic standards in the US without corporate shortcuts or industrial loopholes. Follow the Real Organic Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Sophie Miller]

Lee C Camp here. If you've been enjoying this show, I think you might enjoy my podcast, no Small Endeavor. Produced by Great Feeling Studios and prx, no Small Endeavor explores what it means to live a good life. Life we sit down with courageous, impassioned people like actor Martin Sheen or civil rights hero James Lawson to ask what it means to live a life worth living. Follow no Small Endeavor wherever you get your podcasts. Living a good life is no small endeavor and we would love to help.