Habits that Hold Graphic Designers Back in An AI World with Unmesh Dinda

Summary

The Angry Designer Podcast
Episode: Habits that Hold Graphic Designers Back in An AI World with Unmesh Dinda
Release Date: September 23, 2025

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Episode Overview

In this insightful and candid episode, The Angry Designer podcast hosts sit down with Unmesh Dinda—creator of the massively popular Piximperfect YouTube channel—to dissect the habits that hold graphic designers back, especially amidst the sweeping changes brought on by AI. Unmesh shares his unique journey from a creative child in an artist family to a global Photoshop educator, and he dives deep into perfectionism, consistency, content creation, imposter syndrome, and the ever-evolving role of AI in creative work.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Creative Origin Story & YouTube’s Rise

• Unmesh’s early creative start: Introduced to Photoshop at age eight by his artist father, Unmesh began teaching and simplifying complex concepts as a student.
• YouTube beginnings (07:25): Unmesh started sharing Photoshop tutorials during college, motivated by a love for teaching, not just the craft.
• Communication as a creative superpower: "One thing that I know that I'm good at is taking anything complex and breaking it down in ways that anybody can understand. And I can do that better than ChatGPT. Possible." —Unmesh [08:20]

2. The Trap of Perfectionism and the Value of Consistency

• Overcoming the myth of ‘perfect first work’:
  • "A lot of people get stuck with perfection. They think like, I need to have the perfect camera or I need to have the perfect computer...when the reality is you just have to do it anyway and just move on." —Unmesh [11:05]
• Getting over creative paralysis:
  • Consistency trumps perfection—just finish things and move on. After 100 pieces of work, you should look back and laugh at your beginnings.
  • Develop a schedule you can stick to—Unmesh once posted three videos a week, now aims for one.
• Perfectionism manifests as overthinking: “Sometimes you keep on wondering about the stroke. Oh, whether the stroke should be 3.5 pixels or 4.2 pixels. I mean, nobody, doesn't make sense.” —Unmesh [14:42]
• How to break the cycle: Get excited about the next project, not the endless editing of the current one.

3. Embracing Teaching, Not Flexing—Sharing the Process

• The teacher vs. the showman on social media:
  • "They focus more on the money than the design. I believe that once your skills are good enough, money will follow you." —Unmesh [21:49]
• Designers can (and should) teach, regardless of platform:
  • Show your process, discuss struggles and solutions, not just wins.
  • “Make the audience feel included, make them feel good about themselves...As a teacher, it's your responsibility to inspire.” —Unmesh [23:36]

4. The Learning Benefits of Teaching

• Why teaching deepens learning:
  • “When you're learning, you're just learning for yourself. But when you're teaching, you're actually solving the problem of a variety of people. And through that, you learn.” —Unmesh [26:21]
• Imposter syndrome and teaching:
  • Approach teaching as if you’re explaining something to a friend or loved one to help overcome nerves and self-doubt [27:53].

5. Building a Brand and Audience in the Social Era

• Long form vs. short form content:
  • Short form brings big numbers but low value, while long form content creates a real, engaged audience (and much more value per viewer).
  • “Those 10,000 views [on long form] are going to be more valuable… than the 500,000 [on shorts].” —Unmesh [34:28]
• Short attention spans: Platforms favor quick hits, but meaningful learning and connection come from longer, process-driven content.
• Strategy tip: Repurpose long videos into bespoke shorts but don’t just chop them up—reframe specifically for short-form [35:51].

6. AI in Design: Disruption versus Toolset

• AI as a productivity enhancer:
  • “AI can help you in great massive ways... it helps you just not doing the manual work.” —Unmesh [40:07]
  • For repetitive or boring tasks, AI is a blessing; but it hasn’t matched craftsperson-level precision (yet).
• Why AI can’t truly replace human creativity:
  • “What makes a creation special is the person behind it…that is something you will never get with AI, no matter what you do.” —Unmesh [44:38]
• The value of ‘Made by Human’ will rise: People will crave non-AI, truly original art and design in the future [45:09].
• Danger of “good enough”:
  • “People are getting comfortable with good enough. And that's the fallacy of AI...you're losing your ability to think.” —Unmesh [61:25]

7. The Business and Burnout of Content Creation

• Hardest part of being a solo creator: “Doing everything.”
  • Unmesh still manages, edits, and strategizes all content himself, finding it difficult to delegate and let go [48:02].
• On scaling and the entrepreneur’s dilemma: As Piximperfect grew, more time went into business logistics, and less into pure creation, which Unmesh candidly admits is less fulfilling [55:38].
• Key business lesson: “Do not forget your roots. Do not forget the core of what made you you.” —Unmesh [57:26]

8. Practical Tips for Designers

• How to keep evolving and ideating:
  • Keep a running list of content or project ideas; source ideas from user questions and community feedback.
  • “Have a list of places and sources where you can look for ideas, and that will definitely keep any of your content fresh.” —Unmesh [50:49]
• Financial wisdom for creatives: Always set aside and invest your variable income; don’t overspend in the good months [60:07].

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On overcoming perfectionism:
  “After creating 100 pieces of work, when you look back at your first one, if you don't laugh, you can change my name.” —Unmesh [11:00]

• Why process will matter even more in the AI era:
  “In the age of social media, showing the process has become way more important now that you can just press a button and get the result. Because process is what separates the humans from all the other technologies that's coming in.” —Unmesh [09:37]

• On teaching and audience-building:
  “Make the audience feel included, make them feel good about themselves...At the end of your content, it should make the audience feel comfortable.” —Unmesh [23:36]

• On the side effects of AI:
  “It used to give us superpowers...Now you can do it with a prompt, right? ...What makes a creation special is the person behind it.” —Unmesh [44:38]

• On losing depth to short-form consumption:
  “Everything is going towards short attention span and mobile...People are not invested anymore as they used to.” —Unmesh [51:56]

• On what makes him ‘angry’:
  “As much as I like talking about the tools and the new things that's coming up, I hate to see what [AI] is doing to people. People are getting comfortable with good enough.” —Unmesh [61:25]

• The classic beginner mistake:
  “Somebody clicked a photo of me taking a photo and the lens cap was on...We all start somewhere and it's just that we have to keep on creating and move on to the next one.” —Unmesh [11:54]

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Important Segments & Timestamps

• Intro & Unmesh's origin story – [04:08–07:25]
• Perfectionism and getting started on YouTube – [10:46–14:50]
• On teaching and its value – [20:26–23:36], [26:21–27:53]
• Short form vs. long form content, and social media strategy – [31:21–36:26]
• Effect of AI on design and creativity – [40:07–45:09]
• The business of content creation and scaling – [55:38–58:52]
• Unmesh’s advice if he had to start over – [59:23–61:01]
• Biggest frustration: ‘good enough’ with AI – [61:22–64:00]

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Takeaways for Designers & Creatives

• Don’t let perfectionism prevent progress; embrace consistency and let each project be a stepping stone.
• Teaching others—even informally—can exponentially deepen your expertise and impact.
• Focus on substance and process; resist the ‘flex’ culture of social media for true, lasting value.
• AI is a tool—not a replacement—for creativity. The process, storytelling, and the human touch will only become more valuable.
• Protect your core passion amidst growth; don’t lose sight of what made you unique at the start.

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Find Unmesh Dinda:

• YouTube: Piximperfect
• For structured Photoshop learning: Piximperfect.com

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Stay Angry, Stay Creative!

Transcript

[A]

You're listening to the Angry Designer podcast, where we help frustrated graphic designers crush the industry chaos, ditch the social BS and build badass, rewarding careers that actually pay now. Powered by WIX Studio. What's up, Angry Designers? All right, so YouTube. YouTube is probably one of the most, you know, popular places online to learn virtually any, anything that you want. And you can be an expert just by searching the right people on YouTube and searching for the right topics. But on the flip side, is it worthwhile to give all this free content out? And is there, you know, what is the benefit you get back? Well, our next guest has enough subscribers that he can populate the country of Ireland and still have a whole bunch left over. All right, so I'm so pleased to pronounce our guest. Unmesh. Dinda. How are you?

[B]

Thank you so much for having me and getting my name across. 98%. Right. Unmesh.

[A]

Forgive me. And it's Dinda. Yeah, okay. See? Oh, I think we're 99%. 99%. So now that all the technical, you know, has gone over, how are you doing, our friend?

[B]

Fantastic. Fantastic to be with you and surprised that you're not so angry anyway.

[A]

Well, you know, again, you know, we like to think of our anger as more like passion, but if we call it the Passionate Designers, it sounds a little cringy.

[B]

Yeah, it wouldn't stand out as much as angry.

[A]

Same. Right.

[B]

You need to be a little bit clickbaity, probably.

[A]

Yeah, right. And. And a different kind of podcast to say we get to talk to talented guys like you. How could we be angry? I mean, this is, you know, this is a great gig. Yeah. This has really turned into a podcast of passion for us. It certainly has. It certainly has. So welcome. So, okay, right now, it is 12 o' clock Eastern here. What time is it where you are?

[B]

9:51Pm 9:51.

[A]

And wait, 9:51. August. What's the date? It's not tomorrow, it's today. It is.

[B]

No, it's still. I'm in the future, but not so much into the future.

[A]

I always get a kick out of that.

[B]

I know.

[A]

Everybody is. So you say this is common. Is this, like, common for you or is this culturally common, like, for the country?

[B]

You are the designers. You tell me. Because we are as designers and even as video creators, content creators, there is no time limit. There is no 9 to 5. You usually end up working 24. 7. Sometimes you wake up, you have an idea, you continue working, and you forget that you have to sleep and eat too. So These things happen also at the time usually when we are working with Adobe or other companies, most of them are based in the US So meetings are always happening around this time.

[A]

It is a crazy. So we have, I mean we have worked with some contractors in the Philippines and, and on, you know, like over in Vietnam. And they actually are used to work like their night shifts is. Is their daytime for exist exactly this reason. Right. They log in at about 10 o', clock, they work all night till 6 in the morning and they claim it's just a cultural thing. And then everybody gets up in the morning and they, they go and they visit and they do the thing and they sleep in the afternoons. And so is that a big part of where you are as well? Because you're right.

[B]

Maybe for people who works night shift or maybe for people who work with US clients, but it's not really a cultural thing. People go to work in the morning. It's just me, I'm crazy.

[A]

Okay. And he's doing it for us. So I appreciate it. Thank you.

[B]

You know, when you are publishing something on YouTube or social media, for me a good time is 8pm IST and it's a good time for the entire world. So at this time, at around 9, 9:30, I'm done with all the work usually. And it's the best time to have a meeting or just catching up with someone and catching up.

[A]

That's cool. That's really good. All right, well, before we get too into it, so let's, let's start. I know, I know where you started, where your journey started. But you can let everybody know about what happened when you were, I think it was eight years old.

[B]

Yes, yes, yes. So my father brought in our family's first computer. He was getting into desktop publishing. And I'm so sure looking at. You're fascist. You know what it is.

[A]

Yes. You mean our gray beard?

[B]

Well, my hair is going gray anyway as well. So you're all getting older. So he was about to lose his job in as a chemist and he was into physics and all that. It was a different job. But he was also an artist as well.

[A]

Very cool.

[B]

He is still an artist. Both my parents are artists and that's how they met, by the way. So he brought our family's first computer. He was getting into DTP and he introduced me to Photoshop and that's how the journey started. I started playing with Photoshop like it was a game. I would turn people green, red, pink and change scenes, make my uncle wear pink shorts and all the funny Stuff.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And that's how the passion grew. And in my second year of college, Photoshop was one of the little subjects as a mass communication graduate. And my classmates were not able to understand what the teacher was trying to explain. So I was helping them. And even I tried making videos to help them. And that's how the video.

[A]

Right. Wow. So really. Right. It's just like a natural progression for you in this case was, were you, were you a creative kid prior to Photoshop, or did Photoshop help turn you into a creative person?

[B]

As I shared with you? I was born in an artist's family. Both my parents were artists. So beginning childhood right up, I was always drawing on all the walls and all the floors with chalk. And the drawings were actually good. Not something my parents would complain.

[A]

Well, from what you remember, they were good.

[B]

Yes. Well, I have photos to prove it.

[A]

Okay, okay, okay. All right.

[B]

The drawings were good. And I didn't use to dirty the walls, mostly the floors and the drawing notebooks and copies I used to. I picked up watercolor very soon at the age of two. And that's how it basically started. And my father actually gave me those Kodak cameras, you remember, with fixed lens and cheap thing film.

[A]

And it cost like a million dollars to develop. And you had to wait for two weeks.

[B]

Absolutely. Just. And that's how the entire journey started. Basically. I was always creative, always also into music. You can see a keyboard right behind me.

[A]

Very cool.

[B]

And painting, music, digital remix, everything.

[A]

That must be an incredible way to be raised. You know, I, I had hands on parents. They generally would hands on me and strangle me and hit me. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. They were, they were both creative in different ways. My mother was a talent cook. My father used to build anything by hands. But as artists, that would be. That, that truly would be almost like a blessing. Yeah, that's very cool.

[B]

Right?

[A]

That'd be very cool.

[B]

As a kid, you had to be bored a lot when your parents do exhibitions. So I have fear faced that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[B]

Sitting in exhibitions from morning till night just looking at paintings. So maybe subconsciously that helped a lot.

[A]

Absolutely. Very cool. So, okay, so then it was in college, you were, you were then taking. You were helping people who are supposed to be teaching you improve their presentations.

[B]

Teacher even offered me a job. And so. But then I had other invitations. I had started my YouTube channel. So yeah, I went on with my thing.

[A]

So you did start the YouTube chat channel prior to this or did that lead to your YouTube channel?

[B]

I started YouTube in my second year of college already.

[A]

Okay, okay, cool. So it was very close. So one almost led to the other and you saw the potential here.

[B]

I always loved teaching. It doesn't have to be Photoshop. My teacher used to always call me on the board trying to. Trying me to explain topics to the children, to the other students. I was also a child. So even if there was something in, even if there was a topic like biology, and I would maybe raise my hand up to answer all the questions and the teacher was like, why don't you explain it? I would happily go to the board and explain it to everyone. And that was super fun for me and one of the gifts that I have. And I'm not trying to brag, I'm not good at Photoshop. I'm not the best person in Photoshop, but one thing that I know that I'm good at is taking anything complex and breaking it down in ways that anybody can understand. And I can do that better than ChatGPT. Possible.

[A]

Nice. So then how has this, this helped you out then? Because this very much is what your YouTube channel has become, hasn't it?

[B]

Right. So it may take me a lot of time to understand myself, but once I have, it gets very easy to understand to other people. So I think Einstein said it. I don't know who said it. I'm not sure. I don't want to quote people, but it says that if you cannot explain it well to a six year old, you probably have not understood it so well yourself.

[A]

Yes, exactly. Yeah. And I think communication is what people struggle with most and I think to, you know, to the detriment. That's why a lot of people end up just focusing on the creative and not the thought behind it, not not the actual depth, the strategy. Probably because they don't know it themselves and so they're not asking enough questions or they're not asking the right questions. So, you know, I think even though you say you're slow to learn, I don't think it's slow to learn. I think you just want to make sure you understand all the angles or the bigger picture.

[B]

Absolutely. Great. So obviously, and as you talked about communication. I'm so sorry to interrupt.

[A]

No, it's okay. It's okay.

[B]

As not just designers as creators, whatever kind of content you create, whether it's a piece of art, whether it's design, in today's day and age, it has also become very, very essential that you develop your communication skills. Because you need to be your own marketer, you need to showcase Your work to the people. And in the age of social media, showing the process has become way more important now that you can just press a button and get the result. Because process is what separates the humans from all the other technologies that's coming in.

[A]

Absolutely it does. And we have the capability to create those processes and replicate them time and time and time again, which we're going to talk about later because there's some interesting things about you that I love to cover. But right now we're going on this YouTube journey. So what were your early YouTube videos like compared to now? Because I know you've done a ton of YouTube videos.

[B]

More than a thousand.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. It's insane. Holy. So what, what were your early YouTube videos like and what did you learn from those before they started rolling into what you have now?

[B]

First of all, I don't recommend anyone to go back and watch those videos because those were few embarrassing ones. And also before that, there are even more embarrassing ones that I have thankfully hidden that nobody else can see. There were cringe music videos that I had made.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Yes. So through YouTube, I would say that my communication has gotten a lot better. A lot of people get stuck with the first piece of work that they do and they get stuck with perfection. They think like, I need to have the perfect camera or I need to have the perfect computer or I need to have the perfect education to finish this piece of work when the reality is you just have to do it anyway and just move on to the next one and to the next one and to the next one. And after creating 100 pieces of work, when you look back at your first one, if you don't laugh, you can change my name. You always do. You always do. And that is what YouTube has taught me. It has taught me to be consistent and how consistency absolutely changes you as a person. Just yesterday, I think, was world photography day, right?

[A]

Yep.

[B]

I posted a picture of myself when I was picking up my first pro, quote unquote pro camera. It was a Nikon camera with a fixed lens which has like 36x zoom. Back in those days, you had all of those point and shoot cameras. I was taking a photo with them. Somebody clicked a photo of me taking a photo and the lens cap was on. So I was just sharing. We all start somewhere and it's just that we have to keep on creating and move on to the next one instead of trying to perfect or have the perfect gear or have the perfect environment or the education.

[A]

Yeah, fair, Fair. What? So just moving on. So what do you think are some of the trepidations, the worries that people hold back from posting, you know, the video as a just good enough state versus perfection, because it is the curse of the design.

[B]

A lot of my friends who got into YouTube and many of them who didn't continue with YouTube always come to me and they have given me several excuses. I've heard this time and again from different people. And they're always people who are buying courses and there's nothing wrong. Please go ahead, buy my course. I teach you better Photoshop.

[A]

That's not what I'm saying.

[B]

They're buying courses, they're investing in gear, they're trying to learn photography, they're trying to learn video creation, but not ending up making the first video. I don't know what fear there is. Maybe they want their first stuff to be perfect. But what I really want people to get through is that it's not the gear or the education or the other stuff that's going to make you hundred percent perfect. They help a lot. They make you better, they polish you. But it is actually you creating and finishing your first piece of content and the ability to move to the next one and being consistent with what you're comfortable with. I'm not saying you have to create content every day, but whatever you're comfortable with maybe once a week, maybe twice a week, if you're someone who makes short videos maybe daily, it's up to you. So consistency number one, and secondly, the ability to just let go and move on to the next one, that's going to make them better. And it's just the perfectionism that that stops people from posting that piece of content.

[A]

So how do you personally know when is the right time or when something's done? How do you gauge that?

[B]

It just feels like it. There is no trick to it. And you have to catch yourself. Honestly, you have to catch yourself if you're overthinking. Sometimes when you're editing the video or making the artwork, you have to catch yourself whether that layer with opacity too doesn't even make sense or not.

[A]

You're right.

[B]

Sometimes you keep on wondering about the stroke. Oh, whether the stroke should be 3.5 pixels or 4.2 pixels. I mean, nobody doesn't make sense.

[A]

Fair enough, Fair enough.

[B]

I have a friend who designed the COVID photo of the Photoshop splash screen and he usually sends me these suggestions and questions. Unmesh, which of these two designs do you think is better? And I'm looking at them. Design A, design B. Dude, they're Both identical, right?

[A]

It's true.

[B]

Tell the difference. I mean, he's like. But this is a little more red. Er, and that is blue. I cannot tell. I really cannot. And what has really helped me was because I was overthinking. I'm not. Not a perfect. I have flaws, too. So YouTube has this thumbnail tester, AB. Thumbnail tester, right.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So whenever you post a video, you can try different thumbnails. I'm not sure if you've tried that, but I was too concerned about my thumbnails not performing well or performing well that I designed two thumbnails first. And I've done this many, many times before the video realize for the video. So whenever you upload a video to YouTube, you have an option to develop two to three thumbnails, and YouTube will show different thumbnails to different people. And the thumbnail that performs the best, YouTube will pick and put that doing that test over and over again. What a lot of people don't tell you because they want to sell you their courses is that many a times, most of my thumbnails have received 49, 51% result. So 49% people. 51% people. Or it's 31, 34, 33 if there are three thumbnails. So more than the thumb. Thumbnails matter. It has to be good. And I did design good thumbnails. It just means that I was overthinking.

[A]

Interesting overthinking. And so you're saying it's definitely. Stop with the overthinking and just start putting it out there faster and more consistently.

[B]

One of the things that can definitely help you is get excited about the next piece of content. Don't get held up with the current one.

[A]

And that would be perfect for designers, too. Like, you know, get over this one and work on the next. Like, that's. That's perfect, actually. That's brilliant, to be honest. So then how. How can we stop designers from falling into this paralysis of perfection? I mean, that's. I think you nailed it, actually. Right. Like, almost look ahead at the next project and learn how to, you know, stop. That's brilliant. That's really good, man. Yeah. Okay, so then what. What would it take for designers to start then building this momentum of progress instead of perfection? Like, so, you know, do. Do you recommend that they stack themselves, you know, two weeks worth of work or just maybe the way they align projects or whatever?

[B]

I can share what I had done. Now, these days, I have been slow because there are other things I'm managing, but When I was starting out in the first three to four years of YouTube, I had a schedule. And the schedule didn't have to be like, you have to post on Monday, then Thursday, then Friday. No, it was simple, something that you can follow through. And it was like, I have to post at least 3 pieces of content a week. That's all. You have to choose what is comfortable to you. For me, I have streamlined my content in such a way that first of all, I don't write scripts. I just turn on the camera, I plan what I'm going to teach, and I have pointers so that I don't get distracted from what I'm teaching. And it's much harder to make a shorter video than a longer video.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Yes. It's easier to ramble, it's easier to write.

[A]

I think I turned that into a profession. That's a good point. Yes.

[B]

So I think Benjamin Franklin said that if I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.

[A]

Oh, that's amazing.

[B]

Similarly, coming back to the schedule, I had a schedule back then to post three pieces of content a week. Right now with all the responsibilities, I try to post one piece of content a week. But just having a schedule that I have to create this many projects or this many personal projects can really help you move on to the next one.

[A]

That's amazing. So then, okay, your journey on YouTube has been. Has a thousand plus videos. Okay.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Did you know from day one that it was just gonna be about teaching and nothing else besides the music, of course. The awesome music videos you took down?

[B]

Yes. I don't want anyone to watch them unless I come up with something new. So teaching is something I loved, I've always loved, and I continue to do so. Maybe this also feels like teaching. I don't know why, but. And it's easier for me. So it's important what I have realized. It's important to focus on your gift. For me, the gift is not Photoshop, it's teaching. It's taking complex concepts and breaking it down for people. You have to figure out what you are better at than rest of the people in the industry and actually figure out what you're best at. It can be a simple thing, but you can make the most of it in your way. In my case, trying to break difficult concepts into simple ones. I attached that with my talent to Photoshop and made content about it, and that's how it works.

[A]

Amazing, Amazing. So, you know, most of social media is people flexing. You know, they're flexing on Instagram. They're flexing. Look at how great I am. Look at this awesome logo I am. Look at. Everything is just me, me, me. How has. What's the advantage then of. Of being a teacher in the social space versus being a showman in social.

[B]

I want you to take a look at the people who flex. Go to their profile and just go to the comment section or just go to the people who like them. You'll figure out they attract a different kind of audience than you do, than the actual teachers do, than the people who are humble. It's a crazy, crazy difference. That's not the kind of audience that I'm trying to get to, that I'm trying to contact. My audience is different. Even as a person myself, I don't like people overtly just showcasing what they have, their possessions, what they have made, how much money they have made. The moment somebody starts the video with how I made $21,000 in just 10 minutes, I just skip. I don't like those videos. So they focus more on the money than the design. I believe that once your skills are good enough, money will follow you. Just focus on making your skills better, and the market always rewards you with that. Opportunities just come automatically if you make yourself exceptional.

[A]

Yeah, right, right, right. That's great. That's really good stuff. I'm getting a lot out of this already. And we just started. Geez, I should be writing this stuff. It's recorded. We're good. Yeah. Oh, that's right. And he's got a backup.

[B]

Now you're just pumping me up.

[A]

Okay, so then, with this being said, how can designers apply this mindset even if they don't have a YouTube channel? How can. How can they, instead of flex, teach? Because unfortunately, I think. I think a lot of the schools, when they teach portfolios and portfolio presentations, it very much feels like flex, not teaching.

[B]

There are many ideas that people can consider as designers. First of all, they can show the process of how they have achieved certain things. That's number one. They could also showcase certain tutorials or the problems they face in their design journey and how they solved it. Not trying to flex how much money they made. There are you. And I know that there are ways to do it. How I lost a very important client, or just phrasing it differently in a way that people can relate. When you talk about money, the moment you mention an amount comparison starts, and it makes your audience feel bad, it makes them feel bad, as if I'm not doing enough in my life. He's making so much money. Just Talking about it, he's making so much money in one video where the reality, you and I know that it's not true. They're just increasing the numbers and just for the sake of it, they may have worked for six months for that client and they might have talked to them for 10 minutes and twist the words and say how I made $50,000 in 10 minutes so you and I know that it's not true.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So my thing is make the audience feel included, make them feel good about themselves. And at the end of, the end of your content, it should make the audience feel comfortable. Whenever you watch these videos that show off, it makes you uneasy. Yes, it gets a lot of likes, gets a lot of views, but it makes you feel agitated, always makes you feel, I'm not enough, I'm not doing enough. That's not what, as a teacher is your responsibility. As a teacher, it's your responsibility to inspire.

[A]

And now a word from our sponsor. All right, designers, let's cut the bull. How many times have you had a killer website design only to watch it fall apart because of code or developer telling you no, no, no. Or maybe you've held back from web design altogether, thinking it's just too complicated and too technical or totally out of your wheelhouse. Either way, it's time for a change. Wix Studio is designed for designers removing the barriers that limit your designs. Whether you're tired of developers watering down your ideas or too intimidated by the technical side of web, Wix Studio puts the creative power back in your hands. No code required. With a drag and drop interface that feels designer intuitive. Plus no code, animations and even AI powered tools, you can create fully custom websites that match your vision. Every pixel, every detail. And if you're worried about the learning curve, don't be. Wix Studio is designed to feel as intuitive as your favorite design tools. Some designers here even say more. So that means you can jump right in and focus on what you do best. Designing badass brand aligned websites that'll take your business to the next level. So whether you've had enough, enough of developers holding you back, or you're ready to finally step into web design, check out wix studio.com and take control. That's wix studio.com go and take back web design for graphic designers. Now, as a teacher, I think if I'm not mistaken, you've said you learn best by teaching.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

Which is a neat concept. And our friend James Bernard also used to go which who also speaks very highly of you. Thank you know he he used to say the same thing, that he gets so much more. He learns from teaching other people how to do things. What does, in your opinion, does. Does teaching provide that pure practice or consistency as something provide?

[B]

When you're learning, you're just learning for yourself. But when you're teaching, you're actually solving the problem of a variety of people. And through that, you learn. For instance, let's say I'm just doing retouching. That's my job. That's what I'm open to. But the other day, some students come up and they say, hey, I'm just touching up on some jewelry photos. Or I'm creating this 3D design on Illustrator. How do I use that? Or I'm just editing a video and I'm having issues with voiceovers. Then you're solving their problems, and to solve theirs, you study on how to solve their problems. And that is how you learn way more from teaching than actually learning. Also, when you're creating content, in my case, I have to always look for new ideas, and for that I have to experiment, try different photos, read up different things, look at other people's work for inspiration, and that's how you even learn even more than just learning for yourself.

[A]

Nice. Nice. Absolutely. That totally makes sense. That's very cool. So now for designers out there who maybe don't feel imposter syndrome is a killer in our space. And I'm sure you know, if they're struggling with imposter syndrome for creating the material, they must be struggling with imposter syndrome to teach. So to share knowledge, when do you think someone is actually qualified to or that they should feel that they're qualified to teach?

[B]

Think of teaching like you're teaching it to a friend of yours or a loved one. Just makes it so much more easier. Imagine that your friend is coming to you asking for a question or a problem that facing. Just the way you talk to a friend, you talk to the camera. One of the other things that helped me is that when there's camera in front of you, a lot of people get camera conscious. The way I like to look at it is that imagine your camera as your most loved person. It can be your best friend, it can be your mom, it can be your dad, whoever you're really comfortable talking to. Imagine that instead of the camera, I'm looking at my camera right now, so my eyes look a little weird. Imagine in front of that camera, there is that person, or instead of that camera, that person is standing and you're actually talking to that person. And when you do those smiles, those changes in voice, those voice modulation techniques, you don't have to learn much of those. All of that comes naturally. Many a times when you look at people on camera, it seems like they're trying too hard to act, but you don't really have to just imagine that there's a friend in front of the camera or instead of the camera that you're speaking to instead of the lens. Makes it so much more easier.

[A]

That would. Right, well and I mean proof is in the pudding in all fairness because you know you're teaching, plus your charisma, plus everything that you're talking about has like turns you not into just a YouTube, but I mean you are mind blowing youtuber. Like I wasn't exaggerating when I said you have more subscribers than there are people in many countries like Ireland and Finland and Denmark. It's insane.

[B]

Thank you.

[A]

So just so that you let everybody know, what is your current subscriber count?

[B]

As you know it, 5.3 million on YouTube. And then there's Instagram as well.

[A]

Like that's my point. So have you ever. Okay, so first off, let's, let's back this up a bit. So, okay, so you are a legitimate huge youtuber. What is that like? I'm curious culturally in India because I mean here it's like as a YouTuber could have a thousand followers and people flock all over them like they're celebrities. Is it the same, you know, where you are?

[B]

So being a creator has become a huge deal in the last few years, especially after Covid. There are so, so many creators and I feel like I'm a really small creator. And the reason for that being is that when TikTok launched YouTube, Instagram, both of them started copying that, creating short form content. And through short form content and mobile access through Covid, a lot of new creators were born. And that's fantastic. But what happened was that earlier where it was so hard to start a YouTube channel. You had to learn how to operate a camera, you had to get a microphone, you had to get the lighting set up. These days it's not that hard. That led to a lot of creators just getting into this space and there's just so darn much competition. It's very common for people these days to have 10, 20 million followers. There are people even who grew to 50 million followers in one year just by doing shorts. So I don't feel like I have achieved a lot. It's just the normal thing.

[A]

Okay, but I mean there is something different between Shorts and what you do, because what you do is, is, you know, shorts are kind of like a fast fix. It's like that, you know, adrenaline kick that you get where what you have is legitimate content, you know, that, that you provide value. And so, you know, one could argue that your 5 million would be more valuable than, you know, someone else's 50 million. No disrespect to anybody who's got 50 million, but, you know, do you. Long form content, you know, provides more. Well, I mean, I think it does provide more value.

[B]

No, it's much harder to create long form content. Yes, it does provide more value and it does attract a kind of audience that I appreciate, let's put it just that way.

[A]

Nice. Yeah, no, that's very cool. That's very.

[B]

The kind of audience that is professional, that is invested, who actually want to learn design. Now, I'm very grateful for one or two of my shorts getting a lot of views, like 10, 20 million views. But if you look at the comments of that shots, you would realize that many of those are not really into Photoshop and those videos got viral just because of weird things. I had made a long form video many years ago about sweat patches. Let's say you're wearing a shirt, there's a sweat patch, and how to fix that in Photoshop through a lot of different techniques of targeting and hue saturation and all that. Different things. Now, I made a short video for that very recently which got a lot of views, maybe 6, 10 million, something like, I don't remember.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Now, majority of the views, I would say 95% of the people who watched that video were only watching that video because the sweat spot kind of made sense for them. It made the video funny or something. They were not really into Photoshop and if you read the comments, many of them would be like, hey, what app is that? What are you using? Can I use it in my phone?

[A]

So proof in points.

[B]

Absolutely. Different audience from the one from long form videos. And they're not the audience that are interested in your course or learning or.

[A]

So if, if, if designers want to create content, then in that sense, do you think so? In that sense, right. A little different. So because you're definitely, you know, teaching for a designer, should they focus on something long form or is there advantage for them doing short form if they want to attract clients?

[B]

I think both forms are very, very important. Long form videos, let's say you posted a long form video. And my case, it's different Photoshop tutorials. I think designers would be very Similar to that, we are not talking about entertainment here. Entertainment is an entirely different thing.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I can tell you what I can relate with. When you post a long form content and say you got 10,000 views and then you post shorts and you got 500,000 views, those 10,000 views or 20,000 views are going to be more valuable to you than the 500,000 views.

[A]

Absolutely. Right, Right.

[B]

And I don't usually like to talk about money. People think that I may. I'm a big billionaire and I make boatloads of money. But let me just share with you. When you look at shorts, when you look at the back end of shorts, let's say you got 500,000 views, it may even just make $2.

[A]

Right.

[B]

You know that, right?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So, yes. And the people there who are commenting on shorts are not really interested in what you're teaching or the kind of offerings you do, or as designers, the kind of services you can provide.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But with long form content, you have a more engaged audience. Now, at the same time, let us not disregard shorts or Instagram reels because there are a lot of people who are scrolling and who might see incredible design that they want to hire you for.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So a great strategy could be make the long form video and also turn it into a short form video so that you're not doing the extra work at the same time. I also recommend not just chopping pieces from the long form video and having the short form video created from it. For a podcast setting. For podcast setting, that works.

[A]

We're guilty of that. I'm trying, I'm trying.

[B]

Podcast setting works fantastic. But if you're teaching something. Showing a process.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Imagine you're showing a process over 10 minutes and you're just chopping up in a short form. One minute video doesn't make sense. So record the entire thing again. Made for a one minute video that grabs attention in two seconds and shows the process in a nice way. Maybe add some music or maybe no music. Maybe your voice is good enough so that you don't have to add the music. Be very creative. It's just a very condensed form of content. Chopping is not something I like to do, especially in this field. Entertainment is different. Let's not look there.

[A]

Fair enough, Fair enough. So, you know, you've been at this for years. You have, you know, incredible following. There probably was a point where you started seeing your numbers going up, up, up, up, up, and you're just like, holy cow. Did you ever feel like you were sacrificing, you know, quality of tutorial for views. Like, did you. I'm sure you're very analytical. You're probably studying, seeing what gets more than 50, what gets less, what hooks, what doesn't. Have you ever tried, been guilty, felt guilty?

[B]

That's a very good question. And especially when I was starting out, in my first five years or six years, I never looked at analytics. Never did.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And I always was focused on creating one piece of content once it's done, excited about the next, doing it, moving on to the next. Because once you start focusing on the analytics, it just takes away from the fun of creating what you actually want to do and what you actually want to share. Yes. Sometimes it helps looking here and there, but I think it just helps if you don't focus too much on the analytics, especially when you're starting out.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Okay, so YouTube celebrity. We talked about this in India. What about, you know, what is it like being a graphic designer in India or as a designer? I mean, obviously, you know, again, we talked about cultural differences. I'm curious what the job market's like, if it's, if it's, I don't know, just curious, as opposed to what we're like over here in the West.

[B]

Okay, first of all, I'm not a professional graphic designer.

[A]

Fair.

[B]

The most designing that I do is for my thumbnails.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

However, I have some friends and I can share some insights with you. It's definitely a booming market. A lot of people are getting into it, and mostly this is a good market because you can collaborate worldwide. You can have clients from the US you can have clients from London. You can have clients from anywhere in the world. Right. So just putting yourself out there, building a brand. Many of my friends started out as working for an agency, and then they moved to becoming freelancers, where they post their stuff on Instagram, grew their audience, and from one thing to another, grew their network. And now they're working with big players like UNESCO and other major brands. Adobe.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So this thing allows you to, first of all, collaborate, work worldwide. And it's, it's a great thing. But yes, recently people have been concerned due to the technology advancements.

[A]

Yeah, that's a huge conversation. We're, we're definitely going to touch. Yeah, well, I mean, let's, let's just, let's just. What is it the elephant in the room address that. Right, yeah. AI is scaring everybody. Right. And you, as, as a YouTube expert, you're seeing, you know, you're seeing tools, AI tools being embedded into Photoshop that Now used to give us superpowers, right? They used to give us, you know, we, we used to be able to create, you know, documents, images that were 20, 30, 50 layers big. I've heard people in the hundreds, you know, and it would take you days and people would be like, wow, you're, you're incredible. Now you can do it with a prompt, right? And YouTube is, you know, almost generating that. Just generative fill alone is fantastic. You know, that's incredible. And that's also scary. What is your feelings. Because this is very much a big part of what you work on every day on AI and its effect on. Well, on Photoshop, first and foremost, inside.

[B]

Of Photoshop, AI can help you in great massive ways. Now, it does have its limitation. And I'll tell you this, I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But as it stands now, there are many ways that it helps you in just not doing the manual work. For instance, you have photo where there's a lot of wires and cables. It doesn't take an artist's passion to just remove each and every wire and cable. But now you can do it with a button and skip with all that stuff, and that's a good thing. Another thing was if you wanted to remove distractions, it took a lot of precision, it took a lot of time. You can do it with generative fill and take away the manual work.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

There'S harmonize that's recently come where you can just merge two photos and that is not perfect. I compared it with manually doing it. Manually doing is still miles ahead.

[A]

Oh, really?

[B]

With all that said, with all the ways that AI can help you in reducing the manual work, that didn't require creativity. Part of the reason that we love creativity is the process. And when AI actually takes away the process and gives you a result in one click, it doesn't sound as good. Now here's the AI's limitation. You will find a lot of videos on YouTube which talk about how you can create an entire branding in ChatGPT with the mockup and the logo and the design and everything. And we know how quote, unquote good that is. And here's the problem. Even if it gets it mostly right, once you start to pixel peep, you will start to see the flaws. The colors won't be consistent. They won't exactly have the hex code that you want. They will have some minor variation. You won't be able to change the font or Change the text, you won't be able to make any adjustments. If a gap is 5 pixels and a gap someplace else is 6 pixels, you would have to just type the prompt again like you're just playing roulette. It's just a slot machine, and the next time it generates something, it will get that. Right. But other things. And by the time you're doing all that, you could have just created it yourself and have the flexibility to adjust it however you want.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So that's the flaw of that.

[A]

So that's the flaw now.

[B]

Now. Right, Right.

[A]

Because you are so into Photoshop, you know, clearly an expert. What do you think the future of Photoshop affinity, you know, Canva, or even more so, the future of design software once AI continues the way it is? Because I don't think it's going anywhere.

[B]

I don't know. And I have no fear in saying that, because every day you wake up, there's a new AI tool and I'm tired. When Mid Journey came around, we were like, wow, this is incredible. It blew everyone's minds. But these days, don't you think the threshold of getting wowed has become so high that, yeah, another AI tool, another day. It's fine, let's move on.

[A]

You're absolutely right there. I mean, on a good note, this means that you have years of tutorials ahead of you, because somebody is going to have to explain all of Photoshop's new harmonized features. Generative fill this. You're still good. What would you say then to designers who. Who fear that AI is, is going to wipe out their career or. Or even to people who are looking into design as a career for the future?

[B]

Again, this is my view, of course, and I might be entirely wrong. Okay, so we all love the song My Heart Will Go on, right? By Celine Dion, right?

[A]

Canadian.

[B]

Imagine that. Imagine that we're aware of it.

[A]

We don't necessarily like it, but we know.

[B]

Okay? Right. So imagine you get to know that that song is not sung by her and it's AI generated. How would that make you feel? Not so good, Right.

[A]

Ripped off.

[B]

Wouldn't make you feel like listening to the song again. Wouldn't make the song sound so special. What? In my eyes, what makes a creation special is the person behind it is thought behind it, the human behind it. And that is something you will never get with AI, no matter what you do, no matter how good it gets. And at some point, I think that as we go further in the future, there will always be a market for content that is tagged as non AI, I think we are looking into that future.

[A]

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. It's a. It's an interesting one and boy, is it. Like you said, it's. It's hard to get shocked at this point with what's new. This is true. Yeah. All right, well, let's, let's. Instead of doom and gloom here, let's go back to, you know, your awesome, you know, career and how you've been. What is some of the hardest parts about we know what designers can be like? I mean, there's a logo change and designers are all in there. Love, hate this. That. You know, what's the hardest part about creating content for designers?

[B]

We all get stuck up a lot of times when creating any form of content or any piece of art about whether the audience is going to like it or not. And we always look at it from that way. And when we do, we get confused. We make a little change and we're like, is this going to work? We make another change and we're like, is that going to work? And then many of us these days also post all the options in ChatGPT and ask it to choose and how stupid that works. And I'm guilty of doing that. But at the end of the day, I think what's going to help you is to go with your gut feeling and because at the end of the day, it's your voice, it's an extension of you. You are. Is an extension of you. So it has to stand out, it has to be unique. It doesn't have to be created according to what you're thinking about, what your audience is going to like. Now, there is a big difference. I'm not asking people to be a rebel here. There is another thing. When it comes to content, you also have to consider what your audience will get the most value from. If you're just being a rebel and your audience is not getting any value off of that, then what is the point? Part of being an artist is having an audience, in my opinion. So that is a major concern too. For me, that's actually really cool.

[A]

On an ongoing. What's the hardest part of doing what you do? Being a YouTuber. Being in the limelight, appeasing all these people that nobody ever really talks about. So what's the hardest part about being a YouTuber?

[B]

Doing everything. I've personally had a hard time hiring people, especially for this kind of content. If you're doing something like as a designer as well, you'll find this challenging because you're the one who's Constructing the content. You're the one who knows your content because you are the designer there. Nobody else knows it better than you. So having a video editor, having a social media strategist, or having somebody to manage your social media, nobody can do it better than you. So it gets so much harder to hire. And in all these years, I have been doing it all by myself.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

I still edit my own videos, record my own videos, plan my own scripts, design my own thumbnails, write the description. It's a routine and it's not easy to do. What has helped me, though, is just making myself better. A lot of people use teleprompters and you would plan the videos, write the videos. So I thought, why not just make myself better at teaching and speaking so that I don't have to worry about that and I don't have to have a lot of cuts and I can speak directly into the camera. So that just streams lines, streamlines it. So think of ways that you can make yourself better or make your workflow better that can help you as a designer, content creator, or any type of artist to just get on with that schedule that we talked about before.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. All right. Well, with that being said, you know, you're, you're teaching Photoshop and Photoshop seems to update every five minutes. So how do you keep your content fresh, you know, and not. And keep up with Photoshop?

[B]

So again, this is a simple thing. Whatever content, that type of content you're creating, you have to keep a list of things and list of places where you can look for ideas. And I have that list. So whenever I want new ideas, yes, some days it can be pulling your hair or hitting it on the wall, but most days you have that list of ideas that you can look for. And also have a note on Evernote where you just put down your video ideas and whenever you are just maybe about to sleep, you're waking up, you had a dream, whatever, write that down. And when you're about to create the content or plan the next lesson, you can look at it. But to look for new ideas, to stay fresh, I have that sources mentioned. Maybe one of the sources could be look at Photoshop Beta community. Look at what Adobe is posting. That's one of the sources. You also have Illustrator Beta community or any of those communities that you can search and look for. Adobe always pins a post, makes an announcement of a new feature change or, or what they're rolling out. Second, for ideas, ask your audience. Instagram has a lot of ways to post posts. YouTube also has a lot of ways to post posts if you have five ideas. It's better to ask your audience on YouTube than asking ChatGPT and have them vote what videos they want to watch. A lot of us are scared that what if other creators steal it? So let them steal it. Their views will suggest your videos itself. So it's better. Win, win.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[B]

So yeah, just have a list of places and sources where you can look for ideas and that will definitely keep any of your content fresh and so that you don't have to go back and hitting your head in the wall again.

[A]

Yes. So with, with that being said then, you know, a lot of people, us or me. Guilty. Use YouTube for education, for creative education. Oftentimes I'll look to YouTube on how to do anything. Anything from, you know, fixing the battery problem in my car to design problem, right?

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

How. How do you feel the Future is for YouTube education versus and this is, this is interesting because you also have a private part to your business as well, right? You have YouTube information and then you have, you know, your business which is Pix. Perfect. Right.

[B]

Picks and. Perfect picks and perfect courses. Yes. Piximperfect Pro, that's just a structured course to help people learn Photoshop professionally. That's right.

[A]

So where do you feel the future lies in. In something like public content, you know, PBS style, like on YouTube or you know, something a little bit more enriched in private because you know, we're seeing both and I'm curious because you have an invested interest in both.

[B]

So. Okay, I'll give you an absolutely different answer from what I'm seeing. Everything, everything is going towards short attention span and mobile and this is kind of making me a bit sad about certain things because people are not invested anymore as they used to. And again, maybe this is a generational thing, maybe this will come to an end. Maybe this is how where we are going. But from what I'm seeing is this, and this is a fact. You open your phone, you go to YouTube on your phone, you search how to tie a tie or anything. You'll Notice that earlier YouTube used to suggest long form videos which would guide you from beginning to end.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

But these days when you open YouTube, they're like three pages of shorts and then the video.

[A]

I'm seeing that. Yeah, yeah, it's.

[B]

It, it just sucks. And you see it all the time that all of these platforms are suggesting you short form content. Instagram, whether it's YouTube. And the worst part about it is that there's top people, their CEOs they talk about how important it is to spend time with family, where they're designing a platform which is super, extremely addictive. Earlier we used to search for certain things, like you talked about fixing the battery in your car and watch that video and get done with it. But these days you're searching that, you watch that short and you scroll, you're like, ooh, what is that? Oh, let's watch the next one, let's watch the next one. And two hours go by. And the problem with shorts is that you don't have control over what you're watching. At least previously you would search and click on that video with your free will, but you don't anymore. And that is where the content is going and that is where everybody is going is towards short form content.

[A]

Yeah, it does feel a little, a little sad, doesn't it? Because they're feeding into the short attention, shorter and shorter and shorter attention span problem that exists right now. Instead of trying to address the problem, they're just, it feels very underhanded. But I mean, that's a whole other podcast altogether.

[B]

Another thing you must have seen if you look at long form videos these days is to get more views. You will notice that in many long form videos which have 10, 20 million views, I wouldn't name channels, but there is this trend of over editing in content these days. It's not just people turning on the camera, speaking to the camera, but within 10 seconds you'll probably see 20 cuts and 20 scenes. If you watch any kids show, a super addictive kid show that people have talked about in public and condemned, you would notice in 10, 20 seconds they're like 50 cuts. I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get the point and it really hurts your brain.

[A]

Yeah, it drives me nuts because I will see my child and I'm guilty of it too. They now will take a short cut it in half. The top half is a person talking.

[B]

And the bottom half, oh, gosh.

[A]

Is just a video game.

[B]

Right.

[A]

It has nothing to do with it.

[B]

In case you lose that three second of attention, you can just watch on the video game, get back up your attention.

[A]

That's so true. It's horrible. It's horrible. It's horrible. Okay, so running pics, imperfect. Okay. Which is, you know, it's more than just tutorials now. It's an official business that you're running. Okay, what's the hardest part about being both an artist and an entrepreneur?

[B]

That you have to do the parts of it that you don't like earlier When I was starting out, it was just creating videos and it was all fun. You're only involved in creating. You wake up and it. You felt so grateful. I felt so grateful to wake up. Oh, today I get to create another video. I get to plan another video, I get to be in front of camera and I get to just make the audience a bit more educated by the time they have spent 10 minutes, 12 minutes watching the video. Yeah, but with time, as you begin to grow your business, grow your channel and take care of other things because you also have to pay the bills, you end up doing things and parts of the business that you don't really like. For instance, I absolutely don't like taking care of emails. It just piles up and someday I have to answer it all. I absolutely don't like the little things of it, like customer care. I love helping people. But technical help for the account. So many other peripheral things that come along with creating a business. And it's no more just creating. Creating becomes maybe 20, 30% of it. But the rest of that creeps in and it's hard. I have to say I'm struggling with it. I used to have a lot more fun in the earlier days than I do now.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's, that's a reality that it's feel bad. However, you do have a country's worth of followers, so I, I guess there should be something expected there too, so. But I get what you're saying. It's hard to keep up at times. What is one then through all this, what is one really hard business lesson you've learned as a creative then business lesson?

[B]

All right, I'd say this. Do not forget your roots. Do not forget the core of what made you you. In my case, I would say that YouTube is what started giving me a lot of opportunities. It is through YouTube that I got my first invitation to a conference called Shutterfest in the US and that made me travel outside of the country for the very first time in my life. And performing there, I got another call to. To do to teach at Photoshop World. And there Adobe saw me. They called me at Adobe Max. So one opportunity led to the other.

[A]

Good.

[B]

So what's important to remember here is that what gave you the opportunity for in your case, it could be a simple content creation in your or by blog or a podcast. And getting all these opportunities, all I would request you to do is to not get caught up in the opportunities and forget the thing that gave you the opportunity. So usually what happens is that, oh, that Opportunity is making me a lot of money or that opportunity is giving me a lot of exposure. And in that, we forget the core and then the core starts to get hurt and you get less and less opportunities and it starts to die down. So do not forget the route that makes you you.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cool. That's brilliant. That's awesome. Yeah, that's very true. All right, I got one hard one here. If YouTube came and said, unmesh, you're too handsome, you need to leave some traffic for the rest of YouTube and they. They took away your channel, what would be the first thing that you would do or the path that you would do to start rebuilding? Would you continue to do as you were? Would you try a different direction? Is there anything you'd change versus what you've done now?

[B]

I would have a lot of advantage now because I already have a history of a thousand videos. I already have the experience and I already have the content. So maybe eight years ago I made a video about how to change background. But right now a lot of things have changed. Techniques have changed, technologies have come up. It will be an insanely good opportunity to start a brand new YouTube channel with all the updated techniques, with the skills that I have today and the setup that I have today to make the content more engaging and to just start rebuilding. Also, in all of these years, I have learned that a career like YouTube or, and even being a designer or any kind of freelancer, and this is a different advice that I like to share with everyone. And that is this is not a corporate job and income is not fixed. Some months you're going to have income and some months it's going to be zero. And there can be months of losses too. So it's important always that whenever you do make an income, don't have an attitude and buy expensive things. Instead, take majority of that and save it in an emergency fund and invest in something that you understand. That's all. And in all of these years, what I have attempted to do is to create a surrounding or an investment where I can just continue making videos and handling my business without having to worry about a lot of things, without having to worry about whether I have food to eat or not. At least that I wanted to cover.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, absolutely brilliant. All right, well, here, let me. Let's. Let's finish this off with what is one thing right now that's making you angry about YouTube or the industry or about Photoshop or AI? Just one thing right now that is just. It constantly gets your gripe.

[B]

AI, AI.

[A]

Really interesting.

[B]

Yes. As much as I like talking about the tools and the new things that's coming up, I hate to see what it's doing to people. People are getting comfortable with good enough.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And that's the fallacy of AI and not just getting comfortable with good enough, but losing the joy of the process. AI can do lots of wonderful things. I'm sure in future it can get even better and maybe turn into human, whatever. At the same time, you're losing your ability to think. You're losing your ability to create something out of this world. I'm not sure how AI thinks. I'm not an AI expert, but from what I have had my experiences with AI, it doesn't give you anything out of the box, like, ever. It just gives you a mix of ideas that it has been trained on. If you have time, I can share a little example. Just yesterday I was sending out an email for the World Photography Day and I did ask ChatGPT what can I talk about? And I also tried to be smart. I told it, hey, think like the top 1% of experts in the industry when it comes to branding, marketing, communication, storytelling, people like Seth Godin and all the other experts, think like them and give me an email that will touch the hearts of people. And every time it gave me an email, you could just tell it was chatgpt. The style, the EM dashes. Oh my gosh.

[A]

Oh my God. M dashes. If nobody realizes by now they're being laughed at.

[B]

And it was horrible. And the way it phrases those words, like, photography is important. You have to learn this. No fluff, no skipping. It just has a way of saying things. And then I was like, let's put this aside. Let's think about my life. And it reminded me of a time when I was scrolling through photos of a person who has taken a picture of me that I was talking to you about, of holding my first camera with the lens cap on. And I used that and I told my story to people and that really. That had one of the highest open rates ever and people actually responded to it. Unmesh. That's such a wonderful story and I'm so proud of how far you have come. It actually started a conversation, so.

[A]

Wow. Yeah.

[B]

Then you think with your heart. It just works all the time.

[A]

So true. It's so true. Wow, dude. You know, we can keep talking like this for hours.

[B]

This is.

[A]

This has gone even better than. I mean, I was always looking forward to this, but I can't believe how much I've gotten from this conversation. So this has been such a pleasure, my friend, to chat with you. How can people find you and what can they find? YouTube versus your Piximperfect.

[B]

Okay, so if you want to learn Photoshop or have any problems with Photoshop, just search B I X I M P E R F e C D Pix Imperfect on YouTube. And if you want to professionally learn Photoshop from scratch the right way, with hands on lessons and practice and everything, go to Piximperfect.com and that's all there is.

[A]

It's amazing. Wow. Yeah. Well, this has been such a huge pleasure. Thank you for joining us, you know, from. From way on the other side of the world. Yeah. Appreciate that, man. Yeah. And again, if. If there's ever anything that, that we could do for you, don't be scared to. To reach out because this was. This was enlightening.

[B]

I'll definitely take you up on it.

[A]

Yeah, for sure. Angry Designers. I hope you guys got even a fraction of what I got out of this. I am literally mind blown after this, and I think it's just going to make me re evaluate everything that we've done for the Angry Designers. And next week we're going to start teaching Illustrator tutorials. So come join us. No, but for real, you have to check out Unmesh. His videos are fantastic. And just the lessons learned in this will take us so far. All right. Yeah. You guys know where to find us and you know where to find Unmesh. My name is Massimo. My name is Sean.

[B]

And you are Unmesh from Piximperfect. Remember to keep creating. Thank you so much.

[A]

Absolutely. Stay creative and stay angry. Peace.

[B]

Sa.

[A]

It.