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! You love anime. You love tea. Get 10% off your order with code CREATE at The Dragon's Treasure: https://www.thedragonstreasure.com/ Buy our T-shirts: https://www.thecreateunknown.com/store/ Join our Discord to talk with artists, creators, and fans of the finer things in online life: http://discord.gg/tcu Apple: http://bit.ly/TheCreateUnknownApple Spotify: http://bit.ly/TheCreateUnknownSpotify Google Podcasts: http://bit.ly/TheCreateUnknownGooglePodcasts CREDITS:  Hosts: Kevin Lieber and Matt Tabor  Produced and Edited by Ben Webster → https://twitter.com/benwebsterTCU  "Created in the Unknown" theme by Basswaite: https://linktr.ee/Basswaite   Theme by Mega Drive → http://megadrivemusic.com   Opening Animation: Kidmograph  City Animation: Eric Langlay  "The Create Unknown" is produced by Unknown Media.  CONNECT WITH US:  » Chat with us on DISCORD: https://discord.gg/qAQV3Jw   » Follow us on TWITTER: http://twitter.com/createunknown   » Follow us on INSTAGRAM: http://instagram.com/thecreateunknown   » Follow us on FACEBOOK: http://facebook.com/thecreateunknown   » View our website: https://thecreateunknown.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices