Our Serious Advice for Creatives

There’s no sense in talking about creativity week after week without discussing the things that get in the way… because there are a lot of them. They can ruin days, months, years, and even a lifetime of great ideas. So how does a creative navigate that mix of life and workflow in such a way that they execute their vision and maybe even make a full-time, decades-long career out of it?

Kevin’s got a water pitcher metaphor courtesy of Rosanna Pansino that turns out to be absolutely amazing at describing the situation we’re all in. You’ve got a finite amount of water, and different forces come for it. Little sips from emails and phone calls, big spills from people bumping into your table… it all matters. But Matt points out that if you’re succeeding 100% of the time, you just aren’t pushing it far enough.

Every day is a game of green light, yellow light, and red light, and it’s a useful analogy to manage yourself during difficult times. It’s also good to develop a habit of self-reflection and personal honesty, because you’re in trouble without a strong commitment to both. One thing that’s helped Kevin tremendously? Turning off notifications on his phone – and there’s a complex communications concept that supports everything he says.

Consider how you schedule. Get to know yourself. Think about how you’ve changed over the months and years (and for us, decades). This is the type of stuff that will determine whether you succeed or fail.

This is probably our most serious episode ever. It’s fun for us to talk to all sorts of people about their processes and their wild rides to success – some slow and long, others short and fast – but the real truth is that everyone with a sustainable creative career has figured out how to deal with the issues we bring up.

We’ll be at VidCon next to see as many people as we can. If you’re gonna be there, PLEASE let us know so we can HANG OUT.

Thanks to everyone who came out for this one and submitted excellent questions – and a special thanks to our Patrons who make this show happen each and every week. See you at VidCon!

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CREDITS:

Hosts: Kevin Lieber and Matt Tabor

Produced and Edited by Ben Webster → https://twitter.com/benwebsterTCU