Side Hustler's Perspective with Scotty.D.Russell

Jayworking: Reinvent Yourself & Become a Creative Free Thinker What if I told you, that you had the ability to contribute to something bigger than yourself? What if I convinced you that you could leave your mark and impact our future? Someone who is living life to their full potential and helping others reach theirs is Jamal Collins, AKA Jayworking out of Cleveland, OH. Jamal uses his ambition and curiosity to constantly reinvent himself. He's evolved to where he now pours his wealth of knowledge of design, entrepreneurship, social media and character building into the youth of Cleveland. He serves as an educator, mentor, consultant and most importantly a role model to our future generation who often lack encouraging influences around them. This is Bigger Than You In this episode, we discuss: Not waiting and using your voice to make change happen Finding ways to elevate all disciplines of life and design Being conscious of what you consume Working towards something bigger than yourself Jamal is the real deal and the things he teaches can inspire you at any stage of your life to become a creative free thinker and make something happen in your life. I’m stoked to bring you his story as his mission is something I can stand behind. Shownotes Jayworking: Website | Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Video: Why I Do This Video: East Cleveland Dreamers Design Recharge episode WMC Fest 2019 Dose of Inspiration: @TypeYeah Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Rolling With the Punches & Pushing Crayligraphy When you’re pursuing work that’s important to you, you’re going to take a few hits to the chin and get knocked down a few times. The real question is how do you respond? Sometimes in life, you have to roll with the punches, dust yourself off and fight to create another day. You don’t get wrapped up in the adversity because you realize some people have it way worse.. Someone who is a champ at this is my brother Colin Tierney of Tierney Studio. Colin and I met in 2015 for the first time at Creative South back in 2015. He’s become a close friend who always bails me out of a pinch when I need help with pricing, pitching, delivering or providing honest feedback on my work. Lets just say he's a pro at branding, calligraphy, lettering, teaching, starting interesting side projects and most importantly, puns. The dude is also the magician behind Crayligraphy which we will talk more in depth about in the show. Strike a Nerve, Provide Value & Listen In this episode, Colin shares: His process for client discovery, pitching and deliverables The three tiered pricing model Overcoming adversity when you get punched in the mouth Growing an audience with your side project His favorite Crayola secret weapon I want to leave you with some parting words from Colin that I hope will simmer in your soul: "When you leave this earth, will you regret you didn't start or stick with it?" If you find value in this episode, please give it a share via Instagram or Twitter and share the love. Shownotes Crayligraphy - Website / Instagram / Free Guide Colin Tierney - Website / Instagram / Facebook Dose of Inspiration: @ChaseKilmerArt Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Making Your Own Opportunities with Hoodzpah Design You and I live in a world where so many people expect a hand out with minimal effort required. Then there are those who believe everyone else is catching a break while they constantly get dealt the short end of the stick. Sometimes you gotta take the shit in stride and make something happen in your life...sometimes you gotta get uncomfortable and hire yourself. Today’s guest did just that and have a reputation for being badass humans who make their own opportunities through self-initiated side projects I’m talking about Amy & Jen Hood of Hoodzpah Design, a branding agency with moxie. They went from working at a Coupon Clipper to slaying work from some of the biggest names we interact with on the daily like Google, Disney, Facebook, Vox Media, and Target...I’m sure you’ve maybe heard of some of these…? I was lucky enough to meet them at Circles Conference last September and their big personalities complement their big work. An Endless Buffet of Advice Served Hot & Fresh In today’s episode, they serve up a buffet of advice ranging from: Establishing an online presence and projecting the type of work you want Saying yes and forcing yourself to get uncomfortable Creating several streams of income How to communicate the value of what you do And a shit ton of other gold… They will be a keynote speaker at Creative South in a few weeks so snag your tickets asap. They also have a new book dropping soon called Freelance, and Business, and Stuff: A Guide for Creatives that will help you elevate your freelance game. You can be the first to get updated on its release by signing up for their Newsletter (signup located at bottom of their homepage). Listeners of this episode get a whopping 30% of their shop with the Promo Code: PC30. How rad is that? If you find value in this episode, please give it a share via Instagram or Twitter and share the love. Shownotes Hoodzpah: Website | Instagram | Dribbble | Twitter Odds & Sods | Unnecessary Necessities Cage Blog Post - Meet Amy & Jennifer Hood Freelance, and Business, and Stuff: A Guide for Creatives Connecting Things - Creative Events Video - How to Turn Personal Work into Client Work Hoodzpah Newsletter Josh Ariza Typeface - Palm Canyon Drive Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Durham Brand & Co. = Bourbon & Grit When you see big time work for big time players, it's easy to jump to conclusions thinking there's a team of designers, copywriters, project managers, accountants, creative directors, etc. However, little do we know that sometimes behind the scenes pulling strings is a one man / one woman army wearing each hat kicking out mountains of highly crafted work. Usually these are just normal blue collared beings with a superhero drive to make shit happen in their lives. Their tenacity is fueled by family, bills, coffee and in this case, Bourbon. If you’re a sucker for branding, typography and want some guidance in slaying great work for great clients then buckle your seat belts as Austin Dunbar of Durham Brand & Co. joins us today on the show. Austin has a gritty and delicately crafted style and his typography, compositions and texture game is on another planet. Let’s just say he’s not human but he works for brands us humans recognize like Hershey’s, Adobe, Michelob, Pop-Tarts and a few thou shall not be named but they are heavy hitters. In this fast pace episode we peel the layers back on: Building relationships that lead to more work Pitching, pricing and delivering the goods Trimming the fat and focusing on what’s most important Setting large goals with confidence Having a good ass time doing your thing Listeners of this episode enjoy a 10% discount on Austin's top notch merch game with the code PERSPECTIVE through his shop. If you find value in this episode, please give it a share via Instagram or Twitter and share the love. Shownotes Austin Dunbar / Durham Brand and Co. - Website / Shop / Instagram Register for Crop Conference Dose of Inspiration: @mrchrista_myl Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Navigating Treacherous Waters The road to making a name for yourself is seldom smooth and sunny sailings. There are treacherous open waters and plenty of storms one will deal with along the way. While someone you look up to is crushing it by sharing their gift with the world, you have no idea what they overcame to get to this point. Sometimes you get stuck in a shitty situation and it takes kind people to lift you up and invest in you. From there, you're hopefully able to see what they saw in you. You eventually learn the importance of self-belief and having a drive that allows you to remove the limits we so often place on ourselves. We need the adversity to fuel our drive to navigate these open waters. The more you show up and invest in yourself, the more you'll find value in what you do and how you can provide it to others. This is a huge part of what allows us to thrive as creatives and use our gift to make an impact on people. The Drive & Passion of James Lewis This leads me to today's guest. James Lewis is a hand letterer, logo and type designer, social media influencer, workshop leader, public speaker and all at the age of 22 out of Cardiff, Wales. He’s amassed a large social audience while managing the popular Ligature Collective Instagram page that’s amassed over ¼ million followers. James is wise beyond his years but his successful hot start out of university didn’t happen overnight. His incredible story of losing both his parents and being legally homeless at the age of 14 molded James into a driven individual. This drive allows him to combine his passion for creating and surgically finding a need for it in the world. James has an infectious personality and in the episode, we dive deep into: Using your hardships to fuel your drive How to stand out and present your work Tips for growing an engaged audience Scheduling out time to make shit happen And that’s just a snippet of everything we cover. So put on your life jackets and hold on tight James brings a ton of energy to this fast-paced episode. Shownotes James Lewis: IG / Behance / Facebook / Website / Twitter Ligature Collective: IG / Website / Behance Creative Mornings Talk Blog Post: How to present your lettering Jason Craig passion episode 43 Dose of Inspiration: @LisaQuine Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Make Time for You & See Progress on Your Creative Side Hustle Are you the type of person who wings shit each day and wonders why you're not making consistent progress? If you are, it's okay because this used to be me too. Over the past four years, I've slowly gotten to the point where I approach each day with intention like Tony Diaz mentioned in episode 52. Each day I have a focused plan of attack and I'm always going for the jugular. Hands down, the biggest question I get asked by people on my newsletter, Facebook group, emails or social media is: "How do I find balance and make time to work on Perspective-Collective with a day job, wife and other commitments?" By no means am I even remotely close to being an expert at time management and productivity, but I've found what works and doesn't work for me. I hope what I share can help you find what works for you. The following are the five biggest tips that got me the biggest results in pursuing my side hustle: Take one bite at a time Plan your attack Eat the worm Play Uno Eliminate distractions Take One Bite at a Time When we get started, it's easy to fall victim to comparison and feel like you're not doing enough when you see someone else crushing it. Often, our ambition is larger than reality and we think we have to eat a whole pizza in one bite. While it's great you want to start a blog, a podcast and add video all at once, I think it's best to slow your (pizza) roll. I feel you're biting more than you can chew and setting yourself up for defeat if you're: attempting to do all of this outside a day job with possibly a family without having a defined process When I started over 4 years ago, it was simply posting drawings consistently on Instagram. Once I locked down that process I took on blogging. I slowly added a newsletter on top of that. Two years later I added the podcast and somewhere in between, I would take on some freelance. I suggest taking things slow and steady as you don't have to climb Mt. Everest in a day. Start with one bite at a time with realistic expectations even if it's only 30 minute to and hour a day. A little bit each day adds up. Once you lock down your process, take a bigger bite and add the next thing to your plate. Planning Your Attack I've learned the most successful people don't just roll out of bed and just shit productivity. They schedule their success. When I stopped winging it and actually planned my daily attack, it made decision making so much easier. While I still over commit myself from time to time, saying NO is slowly becoming a secret weapon. Here's how I plan my attack. Sundays I jot down in my planner all the tasks I need to get done in the week and when they need completed by. I then prioritize them with the A1 Steak Sauce Method. The top urgent tasks get a ranking of A1-A5 Medium tasks get a ranking of B1-B5 Low priority that I can push back get a C1-C5 Anything after that is insignificant and I can eliminate it. Throughout the week, I plan that A1 category task the night before which I share later in My Weekday Routine section. 3. Eating the Worm I've always been a night owl, but waking up early has been the key to my productivity the last few years. The book My Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod is definitely a worthwhile read if you need a kick in the ass to try it. I believe in doing the most important task first that will scale my business when I have the most willpower. The most important tasks for me that require the most willpower usually revolve around writing or editing for the podcast, workshops or speeches. Working a day job and opening myself up to the world's distractions takes a massive toll on my willpower. There's no way I have the focus nor desire to do my best writing when I punch out. Getting up early and eating the worm sucked in the beginning and can still be hard today. However, I started slowly getting up 10 minutes earlier each week which helped me adjust. Working before the world wakes up provides the best focus for me and I usually devour that A1 task before I get to work at 7am. That productivity high is addicting and makes getting up early easier when you see the progress. Playing Uno Playing Uno is just a fun way of saying focus on doing one thing each day that will help get you the most results. Looking at a massive to-do list can be overwhelming and can paralyze you from taking any action. By focusing on doing the one thing (generally the A1 task) you planned the night before, it makes things more objective and manageable. When you knock out that one thing, you will no doubt feel accomplished. If you have leftover margin time aside from life priorities like family and work, you can then proceed to attack your A2 task or B1 task. I can't recommend enough reading / listening to the books The One Thing by Gary Keller and Essentialism by George McKeown. These two will definitely help you sort out what's most important to focus on. Eliminate Distractions It's so easy for us to

Building an Audience with Ian Barnard In life, you often have to experiment over and over again until you find the right thing that works for you. Some may refer to this as failing while others refer to it as progress. You may find "your thing" at a young age or you may discover it randomly later in life. Whenever or whatever it may be, it's never too late to find that thing that lights you up that can be shared with others. This is how it happened with today's guest, Ian Barnard. Ian is a letterer, calligrapher, workshop leader and content creator out of the UK. Not to mention an amazing human being who pours himself into our community and would give you the shirt off his back. I’ve watched Ian grow his audience from a few thousand to over 200k. He’s a wizard at audience building and creating viral videos, but he’s 100% open about his process and sharing his tips and tricks through his Youtube and Instagram tutorials and his Honest Designers Podcast. He has an incredible story of how he went from getting by in freelance to making a self-sustaining passive income by creating products that help creatives like you and me elevate their work. Side note: I created the episode artwork with his Chalk Dust Procreate Lettering Kit. In this episode we discuss: Tips for building an audience Practice, patience and comparison How to create shock factor that makes people share your work Steps for creating your first product His favorite pizza and so much more... If you’re looking to grow your audience and make your work stand out than this episode is for you. Want to receive a $50 voucher to Ian's shop? The first person to share this episode by retweeting or sharing an Instagram story and tagging BOTH Ian and I will win. All other listeners can enjoy a hefty 30% discount on your first purchase on his shop by using coupon code PERSPECTIVE30. Hot damn! Shownotes Ian Barnard's IG / Twitter / Dribbble / Website / YouTube The Honest Designers Podcast Dose of Inspiration: @AndyCloned Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Lenny Terenzi of Hey Monkey Design When you hit rock bottom and are backed into a corner, you’re forced to make a choice. _How do you respond? _ I feel it's easier to throw in the towel then it is to raise up and face adversity. It's take a lot of guts to get back up and attack life from a new direction. Then you have Lenny Terenzi, who's went from extreme highs, to extreme lows only to climb his way back up to the top. Not only has he made a huge name for himself in the creative industry, but he shares his story and his Professor Dumbledore like wisdom alongside it. Lenny is an expert at branding, illustration, screen printing, teaching workshops, speaking, organizing events and whatever else you can think of, he probably does it. He's a pretty squirrely and lovable character who operates under the name Hey Monkey Design. Not only has he been a huge role model to me, but he has zero issues opening up and being transparent in order to help someone else avoid the mistakes he’s made. In this episode we chat about: Battling through creative block Finding yourself in community Vulnerability and getting out of your comfort zone Building your own thriving creative business If you think someone can find value in this episode please give it a share on social media. It’s because of your word of mouth that the show keeps growing and you know I love you for it. Shownotes Lenny Terenzi’s IG / Twitter / Dribbble / Facebook HeyMonkeyDesign.com AIGA Raleigh Thrive Conference Mike Jones - Creative South Conference Hoodzpah Sisters Nick Slater Tim Lee of Rabbit Run Studios Dose of Inspiration: @LexWilsonType Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Pandr Design. Co & Drunk On Lettering Sometimes there is more going on behind the scenes than you could possibly imagine. While many people see only see the surface, it's those putting in the work when no one's watching that really get ahead in life. My guests today are a shiny example of putting in the hours behind the scenes and it's paying off. Hold onto your biscuits as today I have the most bad ass female lettering duo in the game, Roxy Prima and Phoebe Cornog. You know them as Pandr Design Co. where they crush branding, murals, speaking and teaching. They are also the hosts of the popular Drunk on Lettering Podcast where they interview the biggest letterers in the game and show the personalities behind the work all while being drunk. Genius I know right? Behind their upbeat and entertaining personalities you see plastered on your social media, these two ladies grind harder than most of the creatives I know. They set massive goals, work their asses off and inject an entertaining and much needed spark into the creative community and industry. In this episode, we go deep in the weeds of: Saying yes and figuring things out on the fly Ending the starving artist stereotype Working your ass off and making opportunities happen The power of outreach and collaboration What their favorite pizza and drink of choice is You’re going to be blown away by listening to how much work these girls actually put in and how they achieve results. Shownotes Roxy’s IG / Phoebe’s IG Drunk on Lettering Podcast: Website / iTunes / IG Pandr Design Co: Website / IG Register for Crop Conference (Get the Red Ticket) Ligature Collective Dose of Inspiration: Laura Emmely of Northern Projects Review Shoutout: Nhi Nguyen Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Listen to the raw unedited audio response Losing Sight of Why You Started Sometimes we get down on ourselves and lose our way. Today's episode is in response to an Instagram friend of mine named Gosha Bondarev. To wrap some context around this, Gosha is a young illustrator and letterer from Saint Petersburg, Russia who aspires to be a full-time freelancer. I've watched him amass a following over 20k followers in the 1-2 years. While someone may have a large follower count, this doesn't always translate into confidence and happiness. With Gosha's permission, the following is a message he sent me reaching out for advice followed by my response. Note: I decided to write out a more thoughtful response for this episode based on the raw audio file I sent him which you can listen to here. While I can't respond with audio to each person who sends me an email or message, I felt particularly called to respond to this one as it felt like my old self-talking through him. I hope this wave of vulnerability and encouragement hits you when you need it most. From Gosha Hey man. Sorry if I am bothering you, but I need advice. I re-listened to episode #25 again because I wasn't able to do anything creative for the last month. After that, I felt like I should ask you. The ugly truth is that I gave up, I started learning programming because it seems that I need some valuable skills to pay the bills. I have some pictures to post on Instagram from the last year but I'll run out of them soon and not sure what to do next. I'm realizing that maybe four years of hustling is enough to understand this area isn't for me. I don't fit in here because I see what others are doing and how much more creative and interesting their stuff is. I feel I'm only progressing in using Instagram a little better but my drawing skills are on the same level as years go by. I'd rather I realize it as soon as possible and try to apply myself in a different area. I asked a couple of friends from the creative industry and they tell me that, "If I'm not sure I want to do it than it's probably not for me." I know that I should decide it by myself but I was hoping you'd have something to say. To Gosha Gosha, I'm glad you're able to be vulnerable and trust me not to judge you. What's funny is that I deal with this inner voice of doubt every day as I push the limits of my creative dream. I feel sometimes we get to a point where we suffocate our dreams because we expect so much from ourselves. It causes us to not only lose sight of what we love doing in the first place but maybe miss the signs the universe is trying to guide us towards. When I started Perspective-Collective almost 4 years ago, I had my heart set on becoming a full-time freelancer. I wanted financial freedom, time freedom and the bragging rights of working with the biggest names in the industry. I saw people older and younger than me living out this dream. While I held and still hold a day job, it was hard to see past the $50 logo commissions people were willing to pay me. This slowly killed my freelance dreams. However, I'm lucky that somehow I caught a sign from the universe and I began blogging. I've mentioned this before but blogging radically changed things in my career, even though my blog never blew up. As I've made progress, this new path created new challenges and provides new waves of negative thoughts. I'm most envious of people like Andy J. Miller who hosts an incredible podcast for creatives as he has seemed to find his voice and unique artistic style. Not to mention his client list speaks for itself, but Andy has probably dealt with these same struggles finding his way. I realize these moments of doubt and comparison are normal. Yet dwelling in them suffocates the passion making me forget why I do this in the first place. I do this because I fucking love to create and I am passionate about pushing people to find their best creative selves. It's the coach in me that has lived on after football. So I ask you, why did you pursue art in the first place? Did you put pencil to paper in the beginning to land a client? I highly doubt it. You're incredibly talented, young and full of potential. It seems from my perspective that you're putting so much pressure on yourself to have each post land you a client that you're killing the fun. Who knows, maybe you need a small break from art just to refresh and refocus. This is totally okay and it's totally normal. Maybe take a month off to pursue other interests. Whatever you do, I feel very strongly that you'd regret quitting when you're on your deathbed. You have too much talent to throw in the towel and honestly, I'd be disappointed in you for wasting your gift. You never know who you could've impacted with that next post that was never published. If you're like me, you enjoyed Instagram in the beginning because you loved creating and you posted because it meant something to you. You created and shared because you found joy in it. Somehow

Showing Your True Self in Your Work I get it, sometimes it's hard to show your true self in your work. We live in a world where we are taught that hyper-curation is the key to success. However, what if people want to know the human behind the account? What if a business wanted to hire a specific personality for their brand that created that work? I think these are strong questions you should ask yourself to see if that is the missing factor in building your brand. This can also help attract an audience that cares not only just for your work, but for you as well. Someone who I think is an absolute pro at this is my friend Adam Vicarel who operates Vicarel Studios out of Denver, CO. He's amassed a large audience from his design, direction and outdoors vibe he pours into his lettering and branding. The OG's of Instagram Lettering Adam and I go back to the early days of Instagram lettering where both of our work was dog shit. We become good friends over the years and I've watched him blossom to a point where he's full-time freelance landing clients like Lennox Air and Sharpie to name a few. He also does public speaking and teaches lettering workshops all while making sure he has ample enough time to disconnect from the daily hustle to enjoy life at a slow pace traveling. I felt spoiled and humbled to have this conversation as he vomits a heavy dose of value that I know you'll enjoy as much as I did. In this episode, we dive deep into: the sunshine and rainbows mixed with the dirt and wounds of freelancing turning on the business switch when owning your creative business writing proposals, pricing your work and pitching showing the human side of your brand working your ass off being ready when the big leagues call and so much more... Adam is doing some amazing things and if you're wanting to learn hand lettering then I highly advise checking out his online Hand Lettering Course for Beginners for $40.00 $29.99. Also, be sure to follow him on Instagram and say hello. He's quite the pleasant fellow. Shownotes Adam’s Website / Instagram / Dribbble Adam’s Online Hand Lettering Course for Beginners Colin Tierney - Basic / Pro / Professional Tiers for pricing your work Amy & Jen Hood of Hoodzpah Who's Killing it: Zachary Kiernan & Ben Kocinski Dose of Inspiration: Grizzly Wheeler Podcast editor: Aine Brennan Podcast music: Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Master of One Podcast In a world clouded in a mist of negativity, sometimes you find a bright pocket of positivity. That bright pocket (really I'm thinking hot pocket) of positivity is no other than the terrific trio of the Master of One Podcast. I met Luke, Patrick and Andrew a few years back at Creative South as they had a sign-up sheet that filled up fast for podcast spotlights. These jolly souls bring a lot of niche knowledge from their respective sources of mastery. Every week they bring you the latest in games, design and film from their world and they have some of the biggest names in the creative industry drop by to share their process and advice. Listen each Tuesday as they talk about the latest happenings around the community and what cool new items you should be spending your money on. Then listen again on Thursday when they talk with a guest celebrity artist from one of our industries. Not only will this be entertaining because these dudes love to give each other shit, but In this episode we discuss: How they created a platform to spotlight other creatives Pushing your side hustle to a full-time reality Not being afraid to ask for help Being consistent, not perfect Getting the scoop on the hottest games and films you can feast on I have no doubt you'll enjoy what they guys put into the world. Definitely, check out the Master of One Podcast and continue the conversation with them in their Slack Channel. Shownotes Master of One: Website / iTunes / Slack / Patreon / Instagram Mof1 Creative South Building A Mastery Through Podcast Workshop Someone Who's Killing it: Ape Meets Girl Dose of Inspiration: @LadiesWhoPaint Podcast theme music by Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

BenRealVsWorld Content tells stories and everyone has a story and has the ability to tell a story. The means are there to learn. Find the best way that YOU can tell a story whatever medium that may be. If you're a content creator and this doesn't set you on fire to make something that matters than what the hell is wrong with you?! My buddy Ben Hagarty, aka BenRealVsWorld knows a thing or two about creating content. He’s been creating content on Youtube before it was big and now he’s in LA as a content creator for the likes of Schoolboy Q, Kendrick Lamar, Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige, EA Sports and Madden Football. I could keep that list going but you get the point, he's the real deal. Ben is a local legend in my stomping grounds of Cedar Falls, IA. He's a role model when it comes following your dream and taking a risk when you catch a glimpse of what you’re capable of creating. From creating music in his parent's basement to crashing on air mattresses that needed bubble gum to fill holes, the road to where he is today hasn’t been easy. It's been a slow and steady climb and I guarantee he'd have it no other way. Black With No Cream He’s the host of the Black With No Cream Podcast which is also a private Facebook Group Community for Content Creators which we cover more in this episode. He’s an insanely talented individual but most importantly, a humble down to earth dude who doesn’t forget he came from a little town in bum fuck Iowa. In this episode we talk about: Saying yes and figuring it out on the fly Getting a taste in order to take a leap Bringing value and being consistent Telling stories and creating an experience with content Taking initiative and being willing to do what others won't Shownotes Ben’s IG: @Benrealvsworld Ben’s Twitter: @Benrealvsworld Black With No Cream: IG / Podcast / Facebook Group Travis Llyod Someone Who's Killing it: @D33JaySlim Dose of Inspiration: @De2s Podcast theme music by Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe via your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Melting Faces With Mark Caneso Ready for some down to earth advice and have your face melted with mind-bending letterforms? If so, you're in for a treat as I have a very special guest on the show today none other than Mark Caneso. Mark operates under the name PPRWRK Studio and runs PSTypeLab which is a Type Foundry and home for his products. Side note: I'm currently loving the shit out of his custom Apple Pencil wraps. Not only does Mark create amazing typefaces you can find on Adobe Typekit like Hatch, Quatro or Neplus, but he’s made a name for himself pushing letters to the extreme. His Instagram will make your brain hurt in the all right ways with his ambigrams, encrypted messages and wild experiments. Not only is he crazy talented, but he’s a genuine down to earth guy who shows you behind the scenes of his process which I highly respect. Overview In today’s episode, Mark gives you a permission slip to: constantly play share unpolished work break the rules push the boundaries create things you want to see and so much more... I think you're going to find a lot of value in this episode. I was a sponge the entire time and there were multiple areas I found that I can push my boundaries more instead of playing it safe. When you're done listening, ask yourself how you can take that piece of work you created and push it to the next level? Shownotes Mark’s Dribbble / Instagram / Behance PSTL Digital Type Foundry Site PPRWRK Studio (Mark’s website) LetterFarm Instagram Bob Ewing Print Mag Interview High On Type Collective Burnt Toast Creative Podcast theme music by Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Crypto Donation Support Bitcoin: 1j5vE64PWgkJHGnGSrAiJK82bnfn7fBgu Ethereum: 0xFf60588C873E34235dE371450d58129d8d7cAC16 Litecoin: LerTFZfvtW4iH7qJM8vSE9mkdQA24yKmB6 Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Spotify Google Play Radio Overcast Stitcher

Rise Up to the Challenge What did you accomplish in 2017? Did you build or work on something you can be proud of? If so, you have a chance to build on that momentum in 2018. If not, you have a clean slate to get your hands dirty and put in work. I say it all the time, but you have insane amounts of potential buried inside you. Yet the road to mining it won't be easy. You're gonna deal with plenty of shit to get to the sunshine as mentioned in last week's episode. This year is your opportunity to rise up to the challenge of taking initiative, being prepared to say yes and knowing when to say no. Create Your Own Door Opportunities are out there to be had, but they won't knock if you haven't built a door. This one is straight from Tony Diaz of Industry Print Shop on episode 56. It all boils down to being proactive instead of reactive. I wouldn't be where I am today had I not gotten uncomfortable and started sharing my art on Instagram. I'd be stuck in my last miserable day job had I not busted my ass working outside of work to build a stellar portfolio. You can't sit around expecting opportunities to be wrapped up in a Gucci bow and gracefully fall into your lap. Nothing in life worth having comes easy and to achieve something you've never had, you have to be willing to do something you've never done. Creating your own luck by building a door looks like: sharing the early stages of your work even though it looks like trash to you starting a side project and marketing yourself through social media reaching out to someone to collaborate with even though they may say no going with your gut even though others advise against it Get out of the bitching and complaining business. Be proactive, hire yourself and join the door building business. Be Prepared When Opportunity Knocks Building a Door Through Blogging Back in June 2015, I took the initiative and started blogging. To be honest, I sucked ass in the beginning, but little did I know I was launching my public speaking career. Only a year into blogging, I was offered my first speaking gig by my good friend Diane Gibbs in February 2016. Diane is a door builder for other people and she makes things happen. The opportunity she gave me was a keynote at a conference called Flourish in Mobile, AL with attendance ranging from 100-150 people. When she asked if I was interested, every bone in my body wanted to scream out "no." What If I Said No? Looking back on it now, this was a monumental moment in my creative career. If I would've declined the challenge, I wonder where I would be today? Thankfully I said yes as I practiced my ass off and gave a solid first speech. A few weeks later I got a call from Mike Jones, the creator of Creative South. He offered me a speaking slot at a conference that sells out at 800 people each year. Again, every bone in my wanted to scream no, but I rose to the challenge. Since then I have spoken in front of hundreds of people at conferences like Crop, Pop-Up Crop and WMC Fest. It's also helped me land multiple opportunities at local schools, events and conferences. Blogging and speaking have since led to teaching workshops on how to prepare and give a killer talk. Side note: I'll be teaching a workshop on this both at Creative South and Crop Conference in 2018. If you're showing up and investing time into your self and your work, you're bound to manifest some opportunities. The question is, will you be prepared to act on them? Want to help the show grow? Consider supporting the cause on Patreon Be Okay With Saying No Something valuable I learned in 2017 was the power of saying no, even though I wasn't the best at applying it. Simply put, "if it's not a Hell Yes, it's a definite Hell No." That's an easy way to measure opportunities that come your way you'd think? However, I got to a point where so many things felt like a Hell Yes. This caused me to grind myself to exhaustion and neglect relationships. November was a hard lesson learned as I: spoke at a conference in Texas completed not one but two murals taught a lettering workshop got the podcast back to a weekly format stressed myself the fuck out This was all outside a 40 hour day job too. While these all seemed like Hell Yes opportunities, I could've said no to a few of them for the sake of my sanity. Learning when to say no to a great opportunity isn't easy. It's hard to see past it and realize this isn't the last opportunity that'll come your way. Something I'm also applying is writing down a short list of focus priorities within a season. In Q1 of 2018, my focus is solely on building the podcast and delivering killer speeches in February and March. That means saying no to great freelance opportunities, teaching lettering workshops and anything else that pops up. Knowing what's most important to focus on should hopefully make saying no to Hell Yes opportunities a little easier. Stake Your Claim No matter where you are on your creative path, I hope you constantly mine

Looking Back On Shit and Sunshine Wanna know one thing that terrifies me? It's looking back a year later and realizing I made no significant growth in my life. For me, the best way I know how to measure this is by setting goals, reflection and by documenting or journaling it—whatever you want to call it. 2017 was a massive mind fuck yet it provided some of the best highlights of my young creative career. I like to call this shit and sunshine. One month I'd feel depressed and worthless. The next month I'd feel loved and fulfilled. There were plenty of times I felt lost and hopeless only to turn around the next week and feel driven and hopeful. 2018 is going to be a massive year, I can feel it but it'll have its challenging times...especially when I turn the big dirty 30. Something I want to encourage you to is to take the shit in stride so you can appreciate the sunny days when things go right. Take a moment to reflect, celebrate and even document if it helps you see the growth. Ensuing are 12 lessons I learned in 2017. I know for a fact some of these will benefit you too. Getting Out of My Comfort Zone I grew up terrified of sharing my work. However, getting uncomfortable and sharing my work through Instagram at the age of 25 changed my life. From there it challenged me in blogging, speaking, teaching and podcasting. In 2017 especially, I started intentionally seeking or taking on opportunities that not only challenged me but scared the shit out of me. If something you want to do scares you, I believe it's your intuition pulling you towards the person you're supposed to become. Building Relationships & Pouring Into Other They say it's not about what you know, but who you know. This is a hard fact. Yet many people approach this in a skeezy car salesman fashion. Don't, I repeat don't see people as connections and stepping stones. Pour your full self into a relationship. Find ways you can provide value to them without expecting anything in return. Be a good listener, encourage others, share others work or provide insight / advice whenever you can. You have no idea what that relationship or interaction can lead to. You could make a lifelong friend, a customer, a brand ambassador or even get hired by them someday down the road. The Power of Staying in Front of People Consistency. Consistency. Consistency. You can't whine and complain that people don't notice what you're doing when you're showing up only when it's convenient. You have to stay in front of people especially on platforms where the attention is at. Focus on kicking out content, building influence and finding your voice a minimum of once a week. The catch is to enjoy what you create, pour your most authentic self into it and discover how you can deliver value. Writing Down Measurable Goals With Deadlines Your goal isn't shit until you write it down. Amplify that goal by attaching a deadline to it. Writing your goal down adds a new level of accountability and adding a deadline creates urgency. Make your goal measurable by having milestones along the way so you can track your progress (i.e. 5 speaking gigs by mid-December = 1.25 per quarter). Self-Awareness - Do Less But Better Knowing your strengths and weaknesses is crucial. I'm extremely good at prioritizing and scheduling my day. Essentially I thrive on chaos—or so I think. My top weakness is having Superman Syndrome. I feel like I can do everything which results in above average results, unnecessary stress and neglecting people who matter most. I'm aware of this more than ever now, but acting on it in 2018 is the next step. I'm a constant WIP and Doing Less But Better while focusing on the essentials is my main objective. Investing in Yourself When you invest in yourself it'll either be with money or time. Money isn't always available but you can always create more time to invest in yourself and your future. When money is available, you know I'm all about seeking out conferences, workshops or events whether locally or out of city or state. Money will also help you pay for online courses, books, new equipment, etc. When money isn't abundant, you'll need to invest your time. For example, listening to free resources like podcasts, watching tutorials on YouTube or reading articles or blogs on the interwebs. Investing time into daily practice is really the key to benefiting the most out of your money or other time investments. Want to help the show grow? Consider supporting the cause on Patreon 7. Stop Complaining & Start Evolving This is a big one I'm guilty of in 2017. I've been bitching about the Instagram algorithm all year. My "following" actually decreased pretty significantly even though I was consistent, increased quality and value. Instead of nutting up, adapting and evolving with the platform, I complained publicly, especially on social media. Over the last month, I've done my research, changed my strategy and started growing again. However, it took investing time and being o

Master on None but Jill of All Trades How many times in life have you felt that internal urge to pursue something yet you're hesitant because it differs from what you currently do? Sometimes it's okay to be a jack or jill of all trades instead of a master of one. Each one of us is a passion weaver and each passion thread we weave has a similar underlying structure to it all? Maybe it's just our job to connect the dots and see how everything aligns together? This is a deep concept but it makes so much sense if you think about it. This week I want to present to you Dominique Falla, HBIC of the Typism Global Lettering Community. It has blossomed into a massive Instagram account, a conference, a book and an online summit which you’ll hear more about in the show. She’s also a Passion Weaver, Speaker, Author, Typographer and has completed tactile string typography commissions for brands like Google, Bing, Penguin, Random House and Woolworths, among others. She will have a new book called Creative Fitness coming out in 2018. Dominique is a straight up rock star and some of the things we cover in today's episode are: Standing out with quality and doing something different Weaving together multiple passions Figuring out life's puzzle and the guiding force within you Not pressuring yourself to make your side hustle your main hustle Creativity is a muscle, exercise it every day Following your fun meter This is just the tip...of the iceberg that is of what we talk about in this episode. I have no doubt you're going to want to take on the world after listening to this one. Want to help the show grow? Consider supporting the cause on Patreon The World of Typism Typism originated from the idea that Dominique went to a conference to see Seb Lester. She found the other speakers all boring and wondered what it'd be like to host a conference of 7-8 Seb Lesters? Behold the Typism conference which started in 2013. It followed an every other year fashion following in 2015 and 2017. After speaking and teaching a workshop at Creative South in 2017, she decided she wanted to go all out and make Typism an annual event. Each Typism accompanies a book that typically is based on worldwide artists submissions. They are then put through the ringer of judges which leads to a curated book full of quality lettering and calligraphy. Typism 2018 will be held in August at the Gold Coast. You can get your tickets here. Typism Summit is now available and you can get immediate access to the library of videos for $97. Shownotes Typism Instagram Typism Website Typism 2018 Register Dominique's Website / Portfolio Dominique's Twitter / Instagram / Medium Creative Fitness Talk Episode Mentions Jasmine Dowling Seb Lester Creative South Conference Terence Tang of Tinlun Studio Dose of Inspiration: Matt Vergotis Simon Sinek Start With Why Ted Talk / Book Simon Sinek Find Your Why Book Podcast Theme Music by Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

Building Doors With Industry Print Shop When you catch a big break, it usually means a little bit of luck was sprinkled in the mix. However, sometimes in order for you to have an opportunity to be lucky, you have to build your own door to be knocked on or down. That's the case today with guest Tony Diaz. Tony is the head honcho of the artist-run, award-winning screen print shop specializing in apparel and flatstock, Industry Print Shop in Austin, TX. They work with some of the biggest names in the industry like Goodtype, Morning Breathe, James Victore and Draplin to name a few. While it says printshop in their name they do far more than that as they are in the business of creating experiences for creatives like you and me. Tony and his crew are also in the business of building doors as you heard in the intro sound byte which we dive deeper into on this episode. Want to help the show grow? Consider supporting the cause on Patreon He’s a punk rocker turned screen printer turned business owner. Not only does he have an incredible story to tell but he has a ton of wisdom and bravado to motivate you to keep pushing your work to the next level. In this episode we talk about: Creating your own luck Betting on yourself when others tell you you can’t Finding things you believe in to contribute to that are bigger than yourself The power of collaborating and providing mutual value And so much more Listen to the end of the episode to hear how you can get a fat ass discount on their website which is loaded with some killer merch. Shownotes Industry Instagram Industry Website Industry Twitter Industry Editions Prints Industry Merch Tony's Instagram - @Antibydesign Tony's Website Doug & Jason of Morning Breath Inc. Bobby Dixon's Work - @Klctvefusion Brian Maclaskey's Work - @BrianMaclaskey Land Boys Instagram - @L A N D Matt Dawson of Crop Conference Dose of Inspiration: @ofatomsandlines Podcast theme music by @blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

Dustin Lee of Retro Supply Co. It’s funny how a change of events can spark a radical shift for the better in your life. Dustin Lee went from rock bottom and desperation to kicking out amazing vintage based designer products for creatives under his business Retro Supply Co. His shop specializes in brushes, textures and fonts inspired by historic vintage materials. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Dustin found a need in the world and invested the extra effort in order for his products to stand out on Creative Market. The rest is history he changed his life with a new source of passive income. Over the years, he's carved out a niche in this field by giving talks and teaching workshops on building side income with your creative projects. The response was so massive that he eventually created a side brand called Passive Income for Designers which is structured around his newsletter and Facebook Group. In a competitive world where people tend to keep knowledge to themselves, Dustin goes all out and shares it all. He is also a co-host on the growing Honest Designers Podcast where he and 3 other creative talk about business insights and how they push each other to the next level. There's Gold in This Episode In this episode we talk about: Making and creating things you wish you saw in the world. Decision making and finding ways to stand out. Taking action when your back is against the wall. How digital products should be just as attractive as physical products. The benefits of collaborating and building relationships. Practical steps for creating and launching your first product. All listeners of this episode are gifted with a coupon code for 30% OFF your first order on his Retro Supply Co. website. Use PIZZAROLLS30 and take advantage of everything he has in his shop, including bundles! Keep an eye out for his workshops or speaking gigs in 2018. In the meantime, connect with him via social media, his newsletters, podcast or Facebook Group below in the show notes section. Shownotes Retro Supply Co. Website Retro Supply Co. Instagram Design Cuts - Honest Designers Podcast Free Retro Supply Co. Product Bundle & Newsletter Dustin Lee's Twitter Get the FREE 5-Day Passive Income for Designers Course Passive Income for Designers Facebook Group The wonderful / amazing Diane Gibbs Weapons of Mass Creation (WMC Fest) Von Glitcshka's Entertaining Twitter Account Join my team and get first dibs on holiday products and discounts Podcast theme music by Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

Slow & Steady Grind After college, I went through 3 years aimlessly drifting. During that span, I almost quit on art and thought fitness would be my profession. Throughout that year and a half experiment of personal training, I saw a world that mimics the creative world you and I operate in. Many of my clients or gym attendees were looking for a quick fix. Most wanted something that could manifest immediate results with little effort. They were searching for that magic fat burning pill that'll melt away that stubborn extra flab from eating too many plates at Thanksgiving. It was hard to hear the truth that "70% of any fitness goal is what you put into your body with the other 30% being exercise and resistance training." The same principle applies to your creative career. There is no magic pill that is going to make your Youtube video or Instagram drawing go viral. There may be best practices, but there's no quick fix or guarantee. Like any fitness goal, building a successful creative career takes time. It may be tough to hear but these three things are meant to encourage you to enjoy the slow and steady grind you're about to endure as a creative. Shit Doesn't Happen Overnight Your creative empire isn't a microwaveable tv dinner you can create in about a minute. While it may seem that some people blow up overnight, I can guarantee you the majority of these cases are far from the fact. That 22-year-old Youtube star is probably the same person who was cutting up film and making shitty videos as a kid. That person with over 100K followers on Instagram is most likely the same person who was drawing on every scrap piece of paper they could find since they were five. Comparison and the culture we live in convince us we need to accomplish everything yesterday. What's the rush? If you reached the top overnight, where is the fun of the challenge along the way? Give it some time and have a little patience. If It Was Easy Everyone Would Do It I talked about how Focusing on the Next Play in episode 51 was one of the motto's our coaches in college drilled in our heads. The one they stressed even more than that was "If it was easy everyone would do it." To attain something you've never had, you have to be willing to do something you've never done. This typically involves putting in some work and getting your hands dirty. Growing an audience isn't easy. Putting out a daily or weekly drawing, blog post or podcast episode isn't easy. Showing up when it's not convenient isn't easy, but it's all necessary to get to that future version of yourself you dream of. If you've been showing up for a few months and no one is noticing, don't beat yourself up and get discouraged. Finding something you enjoy the shit out of doing and that you're good at should be one of your top priorities. As Jason Craig stated in episode 43, passion is what you're willing to suffer for. To build your creative empire, it's going to take a lot of passion and suffering. I promise you it's worth it when things start to click. Be Consistent The granddaddy of them all is consistency. It's one of the biggest reason I've had any type of success over the last 3-4 years. Consistency is key when it comes to reaching any type of goal. Getting that perfect body you have in mind is only achievable by consistently showing up in the gym and at home in the kitchen. There's no room for bitching if you show up once a week and rely on that magic pill you saw on an infomercial. Unlocking that creative status you want is possible through consistent creating, sharing your work, building relationships, sacrifice and persistency. There's a lot more that goes into too but you get the point. It's hard to get noticed when you put something out every once in awhile. It's damn near impossible to get to your best quality work without consistently kicking out a heaping pile of shitty work over the course of yearsssssss...but many don't want to hear that. To be honest, no one paid attention to my drawings on Instagram for the first year of posting consistently. No one read my weekly blog posts when I started over 2 years ago for easily 6-8 months. No one listened to my weekly podcast for the first 6-8 months. People began paying attention because I stuck with it and constantly had something in front of their face. Putting it All Together / The Whole Enchilada This episode was meant for the old me who dreamt of the magic pill. I didn't want to invest the effort and expected things to be handed to me.. I've grown to realize, everything in life worth having requires some type of effort on your end. You have something great within you that you have to mine and cultivate over time. I want it so badly for you but it boils down to how badly do you want it for yourself? Understanding that it takes time, knowing that it won't be easy and that consistency is key shouldn't discourage you. These are building blocks for the slow and steady grind ahead of you and it starts by

Attract Opportunities Through Gratitude I'm the kind of person who will tell you thank you twice for something then proceed to tell you again an hour later. Not only that, I have zero issues with dishing out a hug or two when someone makes my day. You've officially been warned so be prepared to get uncomfortable if we ever meet. This may annoy people, but I'd rather be the person who says thank you too much than the person who doesn't at all. With tomorrow being Thanksgiving, I not only want to show some public gratitude but also want to challenge your way of thinking as we close off 2017. What I talk about many people won't be open to nor agree with and that's totes okay. This show is meant to challenge the lens of how you see the world, hence the name Perspective Podcast. I'm a very open-minded person. However, growing up I was extremely narrow-minded. Believing only what people closest to me influenced me to believe. I was closed off to anything that challenged my way of thinking. Yet I was always a thankful person. While I never came from money, I realize that I had a lot of things going for me. There was always a support system of family and friends around me. Fast forward to today. While I may not accept everything, like how someone can support Trump, my goal is to understand and form my opinion from there. So today, I want you to be open-minded about a concept of gratitude and the Law of Attraction. You don't have to accept it but seek first to understand than to be understood as Steven Covey states. What Do You Have to Lose? Until I hit my early to mid-twenties, I had spent my life playing a victim. My mind was wired to expect nothing significant to come my way and that's exactly what manifested...nothing. It seemed I could never catch a break as I was lost drifting day-day-to with no purpose. I needed a change. But in order for me to change, I had to change my way of thinking. I was introduced to the Law of Attraction from my Aunt Margie when she gifted me the book The Secret. The concept seemed a bit crazy but I figured what did I have to lose? I had only everything to gain. Being skeptical, I dug a little deeper and found a ton of scientific evidence tied to this theory. What sold me was some of the biggest celebrities I respect such as Will Smith, Jim Carey, Oprah Winfrey and Denzel Washington swear about how they've applied this to their lives. There are flaws in The Secret that understandably create skeptics. Yet this book opened me to a new way of thinking that has benefited me throughout the years. Your Thoughts Create Your Reality Over a year ago, My good friend Scott Biersack (@Youbringfire) recommended two books by the author named Pam Grout. The first book was: E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality. The second book was Thank & Grow Rich: A 30-Day Experiment in Shameless Gratitude and Unabashed Joy. The principles I learned from The Secret were amplified upon reading New York Times Best Seller E-Squared. Pam gives you practical steps and tests for changing how you think in order to attract positive change in your life. Her book Thank & Grow Rich relates specifically to attracting things into your life through gratitude. I believe 100% that it works after the abundant amount of opportunities that have come my way the last 3 years. Two Steps for Using Gratitude Effectively Here's a brief excerpt from a blog post of hers relating to her theory of gratitude: "Ferocious gratitude, as I wrote about in my last book, is causative energy. It literally brings things to life. Knowing and acknowledging that you live a blessed life makes things happen. It draws in even more blessings. In other words, gratitude is the foundation for all manifestation. There are two steps for using it most effectively. First, give thanks that whatever reality appears to be true right now is one of a gazillion possibilities. Struggling to pay your bills or flying solo may seem rock solid and an absolute fact, but it’s not. Not even close. It’s literally one tiny superposition in the quantum field. And we must start by celebrating the infinite (that’s so huge we can’t even get our minds around it) number of other potentialities that exist. Already. Right now. When we get really jazzed that whatever we have now is far from the final answer, the new can come quicker. Many people forget this first step. They build an altar to the reality they have now. They actually forget that it’s no more true than any other option. I say throw a party for the countless options available to you. Get out of problem state. Dive into possibility state. The last step, you already know. Say thanks for whatever new cool thing you plan to draw into your life. Say yes that it’s barreling your way. Jump for joy. Throw streamers." Focus on What You Have Steve Harvey is another person I admire for the way he thinks. He's on record in multiple instances of supporting Pam Grout'

I'll level with you, I've been a bit of a conference whore in 2017. All for good reasons as I mentioned in episode 49, conferences help you find your people. Another reason is to scope out conferences that I'd like to speak at one day as not all conferences are the same. As I wrap up 2017, I just attended my final conference of the year in Austin, TX. The event was the first Pop-Up Crop Conference held by my good friend Matt Dawson of Studio Gray / Stay Gray Pony Boy along with his wife, Ariadne. I've talked about Crop Conference in Baton Rouge in the past and had Matt on to tell his story in episode 37. Pop-Up Crop is a different story as it was a one-day event filled with powerhouse creatives who either spoke or taught a workshop. The lineup was stacked with speakers like Jason Craig, Lauren Dickens, Steve Wolf, Brian Steely and Aaron Draplin. I had a chance to speak on the Goodtype Panel with Brooke Robinson (Goodtype creator, Bobby Dixon and Drew Lakin. Industry Print Shop not only sponsored the conference and afterparty but taught a workshop as well. Plenty of good times were had and I'm always one who wants to channel my reflections into a summary. I feel the best way to do that is to relay some takeaways you can apply to your creative practices. Here were my top 3 that I think will resonate with you too as you finish your week strong. Mind the Gaps - Jason Craig Jason Craig is another friend of the podcast and his episode 43 visit has been a listener favorite. The way he weaves his stories and analogies together is legendary. He finds a way to punch you in the gut with his humor yet still drop a ton of jaw-dropping value. The one that stood out the most when he talked about "Minding the Gaps." Throughout your life and especially in your creative career, you're going to have plenty of times when you get knocked on your ass. These are the low gaps between the moments when things couldn't be going better. Without these gaps, it's hard to appreciate when things go right. Those shitty times in between the highlights are the moments who shape who you become. So when things aren't working in your favor, mind the gaps and know that better times are ahead of you. Approach Every Day With Intention - Tony Diaz Next up was my brother Tony Diaz, who's the head honcho in charge of Industry Print Shop. Tony is legitimately one of the most generous souls I've ever met and has an incredible story. I'll be having him on the show sooner than later as you need to know what's he's doing for the creative community. Before he led a screen printing workshop, he gave a brief talk and dropped a little nugget. Tony talked about how approaches each day with intention. This has helped him scale Industry to one of the biggest print shops in the nation. Approaching each day with intention means having a plan and being focused. It also means having some enthusiasm and being ready to attack that goal or vision. I want to challenge you to think about how you're approaching your work each day. Are you winging shit or attacking it with intention? Break Borders Between Life & Work - Lauren Dickens The final takeaway comes from the insanely talented designer, Lauren Dickens. She dropped a smorgasbord of takeaways accompanied by some of the most polished designed slides I've ever seen. To be frank, I've never been more jealous of someone's slide deck. Her talking points ranged from: The Power of Putting on Pants Be in Charge of Your Own Version of Success Your Work is a Wild Animal, Set it Free. The one that caught my attention the most was "Break the Borders Between Life & Work." Basically stating that the things that make you unique make your work unique. It parallels what Andy J. Miller preaches about finding yourself in your work on his Creative Pep Talk podcast. So I ask you: What are those things that are different about you that nobody else can replicate? What are those weird quirks that make you you? Those are the things that need to be showcased in your work and it's something I'm working on revealing more of as well. Get Out of Your Bubble I've talked about this in the past, but get outside of your little bubble. Attending conferences has easily been the one thing I can safely say has brought me the most opportunities. The relationships you'll cultivate and the new skills you'll manifest will launch your creative career out of this stratosphere. Pop-Up Crop was special and they have some big plans for the second one next year. In the meantime, the full Crop is happening in Baton Rouge this April. The lineup just got released on CropBR.com and it's money. I may or may not be teaching a workshop there too... Shownotes Stay up to on the tatest news by Joining my Newsletter team Pop-Up Crop Conference Matt Dawson of Studio Gray / Stay Gray Pony Boy Ariadne Crop Conference in Baton Rouge Industry Print Shop Jason Craig Tony Diaz Lauren Dickens Podcast theme music by Blookah This Weeks Rating & Review:

Focus on the Next Play Back in the day, I played wide receiver for my high school football team. On a cold Friday night under the lights, we hosted the Cedar Rapids Kennedy Cougars. It was a big game for me as it was one of my final senior home games and I was trying to get recruited to play college ball. Everything started off great for us as I caught a few catches on the opening drive and we scored on the first possession. After that, things started to fall apart. On the next drive, I dropped an easy pass and began getting in my own head. I dropped the ball again a few plays later which was completely out of character as I had around two drops the entire season. Self-Destructing Finally, I had a complete breakdown. They punted it on 4th down and as I was back deep to receive the kick. I remember watching the ball hang in the air forever as it soared toward me. It felt like an eternity and gave me plenty of time to psych myself out that I could drop it...which is exactly what I did. I ended up muffing the punt which Kennedy recovered for a touchdown. I remember laying on the ground embarrassed, wishing that I could sink into the ground and disappear forever. My confidence was destroyed and my self-destructing behavior was contagious as we got routed like 50-7. While most people don't remember that night as vividly as I do, that was the moment I realize I could get in my own head and let my mind run rampant. Despite this game, I still got recruited to play football at Wartburg College. Throughout my four years, something our coaches drilled into our heads was "focus on the next play." If I would've had this mindset back on that Friday night under the lights, I would've been able to bounce back after that first dropped pass. When Creativity & Sports Collide "Focus on the next play" is something you'll hear the greatest athletes of all time refer to. Whether it's Micahel Jordan, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant or Peyton Manning, it holds true for all of them. You don't have to be a hall of fame athlete to adopt this mentality. It's so simple and I've slowly begun to realize how this mantra can impact my life (and yours) as a creative. I've been blessed to experience both worlds of being a hybrid jock and creative. There's a lot of overlap when it comes to showing up and becoming the best version of yourself on the field or in your work. In football, focusing on the next play meant letting go of what I possibly probably screwed up in the past and aiming my attention at the next opportunity. If I dropped a pass, missed a block or screwed up an assignment, I have the ability to respond and make up for it the next play. As an artist and designer, focusing on the next play means learning from and improving on the last piece or project I kicked out. If this drawing flopped on Instagram or the client didn't vibe to any of my first mocks, I have the ability to get back to the drawing board. Fuck Up Often If you're like me, you often get caught up in the "what ifs" in life. Like "what if" I wouldn't have dropped the first pass against Kennedy? Would I have avoided self-destructing and helped my team make it a closer game? More recently it's like, "what if" I would've posted at a different time, used a different lettering style or different idea all together? Would it have gotten more engagement or would the client have loved the first mock? I'm slowly learning that dwelling on the "what ifs" in your past will get you nowhere. To me, it seems to only depress and discourage me from focusing on the next play. If you're like me, your past is littered with failures. Getting your hands on the Neuralyzer from Men in Black would be great to erase those mistakes. However, this is the real world and unfortunately, that doesn't exist. In the meantime, do what Tara Victoria suggested in episode 50, "Fuck up and fuck up often." Bouncing Back & Sticking With It Adopting this next play mentality as a creative encourages you to fuck up and fail as much as you can. It's about constantly kicking out work with the goal of experimenting, evolving and growing throughout the process. It's not about getting caught up in the "what ifs" and chasing perfectionism. Focusing on the next play is about bouncing back and responding. Especially when something didn't go the way you had hoped or planned. I'm a believer that sticking with it even when it isn't convenient will present another opportunity. Even if you muffed the punt the first time around. I want to encourage you to adopt a 'sportsball' mentality and focus on the next play. It's hard to catch your big break when you're dwelling on the "what ifs." Shownotes Episode 50 with Tara Victoria & Brad Weaver of The Banner Years Wartburg College Podcast theme music by Blookah

Ready to Dance? As you know I want this show to encourage you to carve out time to build something for yourself whether that’s outside a day job or other life commitments. This show also exists to have the hard conversations we as creatives find it easier to neglect. Today is definitely one of those hard conversations but I think it’s extremely important to bring to light. As you know I deal with anxiety every day, but other times I go through episodes of brain fog and depression. These used to be things I never talked about, but sharing it helps me work through them and allows people like you to know you’re not alone. This is the exact reason for having today’s guest Brad Weaver and Tara Victoria on the show. These two are partners that live in Atlanta doing Content Strategy, product design and branding for lifestyle brands through their business The Banner Years. Recently we linked up at Circles Conference as they were the keynote closing talk. The Shore: Be a Lighthouse The focus of the talk was to bring awareness to their new side project, The Shore. The Shore is a metaphor in which we’ll talk more in depth about in this episode. They spoke about the hard topics of being a creative and dealing with vulnerability, comparison, anxiety and depression. Safe to say their talk had the room captivated and left the attendees leaving on a note of solidarity. I jumped at the opportunity to get them on the show so we could continue this conversation. In this episode they: Cover the scientific link between creatives with anxiety and depression Discuss creating a community of solidarity over isolated individuals Give a ton of practical tips on how to battle comparison and becoming your most authentic self I hope this episode lets you know that you’re not alone while giving you steps towards working through whatever it is you’re dealing with. Key Takeaways Help fight comparison by reducing time on Cover the scientific. Kill imposter syndrome and realize your 1st draft will always be someone’s finished piece (and vice versa). Stop comparing your bloopers to someone’s highlights. We are all broken in some way so be authentic with your story. Don't be consumed by the fact that people don't always consume what you put out. Identify your negative centers. Done is better than perfect—be okay with okay. Shownotes The Banner Years: Website | Twitter | Dribbble | Instagram Brad Weaver: Twitter | Instagram Tara Victoria: Twitter | Instagram The Shore: Website | Instagram Creative Truth Book Brené Brown Jen Sincero - You Are a Badass Book StartandBuild.com Circles Conference Podcast Music by Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

Creatives are Dangerous I'm a small city dude from Iowa and I need to get out of my bubble to find my people. I find my people by getting out of my comfort zone and heading to conferences across the United States. This past week, I flew solo to Creative Works Conference in Memphis, TN. I heard great things about the conference last year so I kept it on my radar. When they finally dropped the lineup, I literally bought my attendee ticket along with workshops within 10 minutes. In my personal opinion, this lineup was stacked. Josh Horton and Dan Price did an incredible job putting this together. I got to take workshops with lettering legends Ken Barber and Erik Marinovich for only $5o a piece! The speakers were some of the people I looked up to most including Ken, Erik, Andy J. Miller of the Creative Pep Talk Podcast, Ghostly Ferns, Rogie King & Justin Mezzell of Super Team Deluxe to name a few. Not to mention the vendor market flooded with goods from Strawcastle, Josh Emrich, Clark Orr, Mama's Sauce, French Paper, Oxford Pennant, etc. Did I mention outside of pizza that BBQ was my second favorite food because I smashed a ton of that too? As the cool kids of our country would say, this conference was lit. While I'm worn out from travel, I wanted to make sure I documented some of the biggest takeaways I got from the speakers. Here are my top 7 that I think will greatly benefit you as well. Let's get started. Get Off the Floor Leading off to bat was one of my biggest inspirations, Andy J. Miller of the Creative Pep Talk Podcast. Andy's talk was witty, funny and emotional. Basically everything great that you've come to expect from him on his podcast. His talk was powerful, but the biggest call to action that stood out to me was from his "Get Off the Floor" segment. We have to face the truth that we're always going to get knocked down and constantly doubt our creative abilities. You can either lay on the floor and take it, or you can get up, make stuff and keep going. You have to get off the floor not only yourself but for others as well. He followed this up by stating: "You can't help the world thrive if you're not thriving." Safe to say he put a creative pep in all of our steps and set the tone for the conference. Slow & Steady Grind Next up was Odin Clack from Odin Leather Goods. What stuck out to me was his self-awareness, patience, commitment and work ethic of running his own side hustle outside of his day job. Something I struggle with is feeling I have to have it all figured out now, but what am I rushing for? Odin reminds himself daily to focus on the slow and steady grind and enjoy the process along the way. Pioneers Take All the Arrows Austin Dunbar of Durham Brand & Co. filled in due to a last-minute speaker conflict and he absolutely murdered his talk. One of the things that stuck with me was when he said: "Pioneers take all the arrows." As creatives, we are called to take risks and we have to be willing to make sacrifices. When you share your work or take a stand for something you believe in, people will be waiting in line to scrutinize and critique if they don't understand or accept what you're doing. As a pioneer or someone who is trying to build something bigger than themselves, it's important to keep pressing on and pathing the way for others. Relationship > Reward Jesse Bryan of the Belief Agency had one of those talks that spoke to my core. I admit it, his storytelling and well-timed statistics he peppered in choked me up at times. His talk was all about service and that we need to put our focus on the relationship instead of the reward. For example being motivated for the quick sale instead of over-serving and creating a loyal customer relationship. He instilled in us that we all have the ability to be great through the words of Martin Luther King Jr.: "Anyone can be great because anyone can serve." You're Not Done Making Bad Work Not only are Rogie King & Justin Mezzell extremely talented and know how to party, but they are insanely generous and empathetic individuals. Their talk centered around building friendships and not "networks." Cultivating meaningful friendships is a by-product of getting uncomfortable and reaching out to people. They also drove the point home that putting yourself out their takes guts and that you're never done making bad work. I definitely left their talk ready to hug everyone and take a shot of Bourbon. Never Settle & Change Your Style Erik Marinovich is one of the coolest cats and down to earth people I think I've ever encountered. Everyone loves this dude not only because of his work but due to his infectious personality and how he lifts everyone up around him. I'd have to say his talk was my favorite as he combined lettering with the evolution of hip-hop culture. He gave a lot of great takeaways but what hit home the most was his point of, "Never settle and constantly change your style

Split Focus & Superman Syndrome I feel I’m pretty in touch with my audience at times. I know the majority of my listeners and readers are trying to figure out where to start or how to continue pursuing their creative work. I basically just said it in my intro. The reoccurring pattern from my newsletter shows people like you want to know how to make time to focus on something outside of your daily commitments. Today, I was going to write about the power of focusing on a project that you both enjoy and are relatively good at. I wanted to write about how to get started with experimenting and catching a pulse to see if it was the right direction to pursue. However, this ended up turning into me possibly oversharing how my split focus has guided me to the current roadblock I’ve found myself at. Yes, I’m going to share the benefits of what focus can do for your creative pursuits, but I'm no expert. I fell I can best share how split focus and doing too much can negatively impact your life as well. Poop on a Plate I’ll admit it, I’m a wizard at piling shit high on my plate (I can't help but imagine a poop emoji on a plate). It’s been a blessing and more recently a curse in my life. I’ve had this Superman Syndrome mentality that I could do it all dating way back to high school. It started with a car accident my sophomore year resulting in me having to get a job at the age of 15. From there, I held down that job of pushing in carts at Hy-Vee while attending after-school programs and playing multiple sports. I was excelling in school, standing out in sports, getting awards all while making some side cheddar. What couldn’t I accomplish in a day? This mentality carried throughout college. My crazy ass was holding down my job at Hy-Vee, working an internship, playing / coaching football while having an overloaded course schedule with night classes. With how much this private school was charging per semester, graduating in 4 years was my only option. Bring on the challenge and premature grey hairs—I can handle it. Doing all the things and succeeding in them was my definition of success. I caught hits of dopamine chasing that ‘productivity high’ and I wanted people to know how busy I was. I was the king of focus, split focus that is and it was a blessing in the beginning. The Value of Focus Here is where I want to tell you the value of finding one thing to focus on that you not only enjoy, but you’re good at too. (I can't recommend the book Essentialism enough if you want to learn more.) Yet, somewhere in there, I’d be full of shit as I’m horrible at focusing on only one thing as I’ve wired myself to think I could do it all. When it boils down to it, yes, it’s extremely important to have something to work towards each day. Giving your attention to something you both enjoy and are good at can radically impact your life and others in a positive way. The thing I pour my soul into every day is Perspective-Collective. It started as a small side project back in April 2014 for me to create art under as I talk about in Episode 28: Make Your Name Mean Something. Over the years it began to take on a mind of its own. It's since opened up new paths of opportunity such as blogging, speaking, teaching, freelancing and now podcasting. Having something to focus on used to be an issue in the past. It had me feeling lost in my lackluster day-to-day routine. That lack of focus has since blossomed into an issue of split focus and spreading myself too thin. Imagine the smallest slice of butter that you're trying to cover a massive piece of bread with and that's me. There are so many things I like to do and want to accomplish, but there’s never enough time to pursue them all equally outside the day job...I'm sure you've said this a million times to yourself. Queue the dreaded elimination game or as Stephen King says,_ "Kill Your Darlings."_ Killing Your Darlings Here’s a breakdown of everything I do under Perspective-Collective. I’m trying to be as transparent as possible so you can see how I struggle to find the essential thing(s) to focus on while eliminating the non-essential. Podcast - 50% Freelance - 20% Personal Work - 12.5% Speaking - 12.5% Teaching - 5% You have no idea how badly I want to get back to doing the podcast weekly. I feel if I was 90% all-in on the podcast, I could significantly grow it at a faster pace. Yet going all in on the podcast has its consequences that I’m not sure I'm ready for. While my day job covers the basic costs of my day-to-day living, taking on freelance with the right projects is too hard to pass on. I have an absurd amount of student loans and other debt looming over me. Making time for freelance slowly works me toward some type of future financial freedom. Personal work is what keeps me sane and allows me to find myself in my work and experiment. Sadly, there isn’t a whole lot of time for it. Speaking gives me the largest platform to share my ideas and connect with people like you. However,

A Global Conglomerate Design Studio With a motto like “Show up until there is nothing left to do,” it's evident that the Forefathers Group aren't afraid to get their hands dirty. They have a distinguished style that peppers both vintage snake oil and Americana with a hefty dose of creative steroids. It's helped them quickly begin to carve out their corner of the design industry while working thousands of miles apart. The Forefather's trio is made up of: Matthew Portland Hay who is the developer / tax wizard casting coded spells out of New Jersey. Jonden Jackson who is the web & print designer / product engineering juggernaut reigning out of Oklahoma. Emir Ayouni who is the illustrator sorcerer dishing magic and mischief out of Sweden. Working remote can have it's challenges, yet somehow they offer a buffet of design services such as: Design Strategy 101 Responsive Branding Illustrations Web Design Web Development Print Design Package Design Animation Developing Your Own Style Today on the show, we go deep on a wide range of topics such as: Using a day job as a springboard to get to where you want The pros and challenges that come with working remote Where they source their inspiration and their designing processes Creating passive income by repurposing things you create from personal need Taking a stand against bullies in the design community Buying bunk ouija boards Using cocaine as pizza toppings I could keep going... Key Takeaways It's beneficial to work at a crappy job to understand how you can improve yourself and the systems. Keep an open mind on how you can repurpose work that you create for yourself for passive income. Find yourself in your work and leave your personal thumbprint in it. Be inspired but develop your own personal style and live in it. Be who you are in person and online. Don’t be different as you will have problems. Shownotes: Forefathers Website Forefathers Dribbble Forefathers Instagram Forefathers Behance Forefathers Products Emir’s (Growcase’s) : Twitter / Website / Dribbble / Instagram Jonden’s: Instagram Matt’s: Twitter / Instagram Dan Gretta Peter Voth Erick Rodriguez Tobias van Schneider Ryan Golden of the Golden Goose - Animation Beast of England - Simon Walker Typeface Site Music by Blookah Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

Find Comfort in Discomfort The other day I was listening to the Joe Rogan podcast and he had Jamie Foxx on as a guest. I’ve always been a fan of Jamie because well…it’s Jamie Foxx. What can’t that dude do? However, what really blew me away was when he shared how he got into music. He used to throw these huge parties for people like P Diddy which led him to linking up with rising artists like Jay-Z and The Neptunes. This then led to him building a studio in the back of his house and artists had to perform any time they were new and visiting. One day some kid with a backpack on came in and killed his session. He then proceeded to tell Jamie he had the perfect song for him to sing on. This surprised Jamie because he never saw himself in that light before. This kid was Kanye West and the song was Slow Jamz in 2004. Jamie thought the song was a bust, but 6–8 weeks later it was the #1 song in the country. Following this song, Jamie blew up in the rap and R&B scene. He goes on record stating, “When your opportunity comes, if you prepare for it, now you can jump into it and grab it.” Jamie was unknowingly preparing himself for that opportunity with Kanye by: throwing parties for rappers immersing himself in music building his own studio doing comedy and acting It’s so simple, prepare for your opportunities, but I feel many opportunities_ don’t_ come without getting out of your comfort zone. Do Shit That Scares You I used to be the type of person who played it safe and refused to get uncomfortable. I’ve found over the past 3–4 year, doing things that scared the shit out of me usually led to life changing opportunities. When I got those opportunities, I prepared my ass off so I could deliver. How Jamie Foxx got into music reminds me how I got into public speaking. A few years ago I wanted to share ideas and encouragement but I never saw myself as a writer. Yet, I got uncomfortable and started blogging not knowing what would come of it. About a year into weekly blogging, my good friend Diane Gibbs offered me my first speaking gig because I mentioned on a phone call months earlier that I wanted to try it someday. To be 100% honest, when she asked me, every bone in my body wanted to tell her no because I was terrified. This wasn’t your typical group of 15–20 people like back in school speech class. This was a Keynote at a conference of about 100–150 people in a state where I’ve never been before. However, I wanted to be a speaker and that’s exactly what I became. I prepared my ass off and crushed that opportunity which changed my life. It has since led me to speak at conferences like Creative South, Crop and WMC Fest. Little did I know that writing and sharing ideas through blogging was leading me to the next stage of my life in speaking. Wild enough this brought me to podcasting. All of these things that made me uncomfortable radically changed who I was as a person and the creative path I’ve been chasing. Feeling Alive & Crushing It Looking back on life, playing it safe never made me worthwhile. I felt invisible instead of feeling alive. I think this is how a thrill seeker functions, they need to constantly be doing something insane like sky diving to feel alive. Well finding comfort in discomfort lets me feel alive and evolve to the version of Scotty I'm supposed to become.. Getting uncomfortable has opened the flood gates of opportunity for Perspective-Collective, but it’s up to me to be prepared for those moments so I can crush them. When I get those “Hell Yes” opportunities I mentioned back in Episode 38, I pretend like they will never come again and that this is my one shot. It's taught me to_ never_ half ass anything and to pour all my soul and energy into nailing that shot. Even if things don’t turn out the way you expect it, you can be proud that you: put yourself in a position to get this opportunity invested your best effort I’m Going To vs. I Want To As you finish out this week, I want to challenge you to try something I learned from writer / influencer Jon Acuff: when you find yourself saying “I want to,” swap it for “I’m going to” instead. You want to start drawing, blogging, photography or writing but it makes you feel uncomfortable? Change your thinking to I’m going to start drawing, blogging, photography or writing because it makes me feel uncomfortable. Your mindset slowly begins to change with a simple swap of words. Following the discomfort nudges you toward the creative you're supposed to become. Challenging your fears present and prepare you for the opportunities that can change your life. Find comfort in discomfort and prepare for your opportunities. Key Takeaways Many opportunities don’t come without getting out of your comfort zone. When you get those opportunities, prepare your ass off so you can deliver. Following the discomfort nudges you toward the creative you're supposed to become. Never half ass anything Challenging your fears present and prepare you for the opportunities that can

"Your identity is not in what you do, therefore fail often, fail freely, learn and experiment. And take your successes in each of those failures because there is one." This is the kind of encouragement Alicja Colon (yes, like the fragrance) brings to the table. Not only is she an epic photographer / paper crafter extraordinaire, but I think her strongest traits come in prioritizing what’s most important to her in life like family, friends and guiding other creatives. Alicja works her magic in Savannah, GA and is also the Commerical Photographer at Focus Labs who build thoughtful identities and experiences to elevate and empower organizations. She brings timeless advice to this episode and this is the deepest conversation this podcast has delivered to date. We go in depth about: Staying on your creative path Discovering new passions and niches along the way The long road of losing your identity The danger of having success be defined by the work you create Practical steps for: Reclaiming your who (identity) Refocusing your do (what you create) Reframing what success looks like for yourself Key Takeaways She tried 50 thousand things and continued to find “her thing” as she got older by staying curious. There is still a path available out there for you, so stick with it and you can uncover a gold mine of hidden talents. The path and jobs you’re currently working will teach you necessary skills and put you on the trajectory to where you’re supposed to be. Reclaiming your who starts with defining your priorities in life. Once you know your "who" you can use that through a lens to focus your "do". Kill Your Darlings (Stephen King) - Eliminate the things you love that don't align with the trajectory of where you want to go. Side projects are always a source of personal growth from a craft and endurance perspective. Shownotes Alicja's Website Alicjas: Instagram / Dribbble / Behance Hire Alicja as a Speaker Alicja's popular blog posts: Write it Out Post Love is a Choice Unearthing Your Niche Focus Lab Super Team Deluxe Rogie King Justin Mezzell Legendary paper crafter Tommy Perez Chadmichael studio Jason Craig’s Interview - PP 043 Benrealvsworld Podcast Theme Music: Blookah 515 Alive Music Festival in Des Moines Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

How many times in life have you talked yourself out of something? How many times has that inner critic convinced you, “there’s no way you can do that, it’s impossible.” I spent the majority of my life letting my inner critic drag me down. It’s taken a long time for me to get to the point where I can object and stand up for myself. Why not me? Why can’t I be a successful artist / designer in my tiny corner of Iowa? Why can’t I become a professional podcaster or a traveling keynote speaker? Why not me? On those days where I’m convinced, it just feels like I’m going in the right direction. There are some days you’re just feeling it like the universe is this divine source of creative intuition and it’s nudging you along the path you’re supposed to follow. I’m pretty sure this is how Kobe was feeling the day he dropped 81 points on the Raptors (I’m a huge Laker fan if you didn’t know). On most days, however, it doesn’t come so easy. My mind automatically defaults to doubt so it takes A LOT of effort and A LOT of repetitive self-talk to convince myself it’s possible. I shit you not I will stare intensely at the inner critic in the mirror and repeat to myself, “Why not me?” until I'm convinced…or until I creep myself the fuck out. Why Not You? Self-talk is important, good self-talk I should say because we are already pros at the negative self-talk. Try it sometime even if it feels weird. Why not you? Why can’t you make these things happen in your life? Why can’t you be happy building something you love? If it’s something you’re good at and it’s something you’re passionate about, it’s not impossible…but it’s also not easy. Winning Your Mind Requires Effort My coach, Rick Willis. during football at Wartburg College used to drill it into our heads that, "If it was easy, everyone would do it." This sounds so cliche but it's completely relevant to practically every aspect of life. Because it requires effort, many people are hesitant to pursue whatever "it" is for them. It’s much easier to let that inner critic run every minute of your life and passively exist or complain about the circumstances that supposedly hold you back. From my experiences of letting the inner critic be in the driver seat, I personally feel you pay the cost of living with regret. So I want to challenge you to challenge yourself. When you want to do something and that inner critic injects doubt into your mind, talk to yourself…preferably in your own head if you’re around other people. Repeat to yourself, “why not me?” and mean it. Say it to yourself as many times as necessary until you start believing it. Once you start believing it, act on it. Ally or Enemy? The mind is a powerful machine and it can either be your ally or your enemy. After letting my inner critic kick my ass for well over 23 years, not mention the past 4 years of dealing with anxiety, I’ve learned one valuable thing:Having the proper mindset and some type of belief in yourself or your abilities can get you to practically anywhere you want to be in life. Having the proper mindset and some type of belief in yourself or your abilities can get you to practically anywhere you want to be in life. When I started convincing myself that I could become a great artist in the middle of bum fuck Iowa, everything changed. When I decided I’m going to try and make a name for myself through blogging, teaching, speaking and podcasting, everything changed. None of this would’ve happened if I wasn’t challenging that inner critic with reaffirming self-talk. I had to change my way of thinking. I had to change my perspective. For things to change, you have to change. It’s all in your mind. You are more capable then you will ever realize and you have a lot more going for you than you think. Why not you? Why not now? Key Takeaways It can take A LOT of effort and A LOT of repetitive self-talk to convince yourself it’s possible. If it were easy, everyone would do it. Passively existing comes with the cost of living with regret. The mind is a powerful machine and it can either be your ally or your enemy. For things to change, you have to change. It’s all in your mind. Shownotes Weapons of Mass Creation Conference Blookah Music Want to Support the Show? Become a backer on Patreon Leave an iTunes Rating and Review Share the show on social media or follow the Perspective Podcast Instagram Subscribe on your favorite podcast player: iTunes Stitcher Google Play Radio Overcast

This week on the show we have the talented designer, illustrator, speaker and just a kickass friend, Jason Craig. Jason operates out of Augusta, GA and currently is the Senior Designer for the Westobou Festival in Augusta. He and I go back 3 years as we originally linked up through Instagram and then met each other at Creative South 2015. That year he was a speaker and I was blown away by his story telling and presence on the stage, let alone his artwork. Fast forward to today and he's become a mentor and someone I can rely on to give it to me straight and cut through the bullshit. In this episode, we dive deep into: his backstory and all the design jobs he's been involved in how he gets inspired and executes those ideas instead of sitting on them how creating from conflict can fuel your artwork and give you a voice the reason people confuse passion with struggle being paralyzed by perfection and how repetition is the answer leaving yourself open to opportunity the fact that there is no limited finite amount of success to be had Jason has a gift for drilling home his points through metaphors and analogies and I really think you'll enjoy his setup and delivery. He's always making appearances at your favorite design conferences but you can catch him speaking next at the Crop Pop Up Conference in November in Austin, Texas. Shownotes Jason's Dribbble Jason's Instagram Additional podcast interviews of Jason Creative South Podcast ep. 031 Design Recharge - Being My Own Boss Register for Crop Pop Up Conference Pizza Drawings Only Instagram Justin of Loose Fools Instagram Matt Porter - Poster Designer The Half and Half Instagram Copper Horse Distilling Packaging by The Half and Half Music by Blookah

Finding Time to Build For Yourself I don’t want to be the guy who stands on a soapbox giving advice. Rather, I want to be the person who shares what works and what doesn’t work for me as I figure things out on my own creative path. Maybe you’ll find something that you should or shouldn’t apply to your own method of madness. If you’re listening to the show then I’m taking a stab at the fact that you’re like me. You want to build something, something that’s your own. Something you can be proud of and enjoy doing along the way. Something you can leave behind for other people to enjoy. Finding time to build for yourself can be difficult. Especially when you are building something for someone else full time with a day job or have kids and other commitments. That’s what today’s topic is about as it comes directly from Shane Donaldson aka @Rustic_Overtones who signed up for my newsletter at Perspective-CollectiveTeam.com. When you sign up you get an onboarding email question asking “What is your biggest struggle when pursuing your creativity?” I love getting responses to this because it: lets me know I’m not alone with my certain demons like comparison and doubt. It lets me see reoccurring patterns and topics that I know will hit home. allows me to connect and engage directly with people like you. Shane’s response was, “My biggest struggle is balancing the little time I have with a focus.” This has been a repeating theme and deserves addressing as I know someone listening deals with the same thing. To Shane’s credit, he works in IT for the day job but comes home and creates amazing custom wooden cutout lettering. I highly recommend you check out his Instagram at @Rustic_Overtones. Thanks for this week’s topic Shane. Before I get into the show, if you want to influence the direction of an episode or get my newsletter designed to give you a mid-week creative boost, then join the team atPerspective-CollectiveTeam.com. Let’s get into the show. Balancing Your Free Time If you’re listening to this show, you obviously want to build something for yourself, something on your own terms where you call the shots of what you create. You want this so badly but maybe the day job or tending to your family makes it hard to find the time, motivation and energy to focus. Maybe you’re unsure where to start or had little results in the past so you’re hesitant on where or how to invest your time. I’ll admit, watching cat videos on YouTube or playing video games to escape in is quite tempting. Currently, I’ve been low key binging on Game of Thrones while I draw. So here’s the question, how do you balance the little time you have with a focus? By focus, I mean working on your own side project or even your own business. While I can’t relate to having kids, I would say I’ve become pretty efficient in managing my time outside of the day job and husband duties to focus on Perspective-Collective. Regardless of your commitments, here are 3 practical things I focus on each day that allows me to build something for myself: Focus on one thing to execute each day Plan my day the night before Kill distractions during work One Thing Each Day How often do you give yourself a massive, daunting to-do list of a million things and find yourself unsure where to start? It’s like giving yourself the assignment to climb Mt. Everest. It’s easy to feel defeated before you start. For me, I get stressed out and discouraged too easily if I feel I have to take on the world all at once. Instead, I need to break things up into manageable chunks as it helps to be objective and realistic. This makes the game of building Perspective-Collective winnable and most importantly, enjoyable. So what is it you’re working towards or trying to build in your rare spare time? If you have that massive to-do list, what’s one thing on it that you can knock out today to get you started? Knocking out one thing a day is progress. Progress is addicting and when you string together a couple days you begin to build momentum. A few days turn into a week, a week turns into a month, months turn into years. The more progress you see, the more you find ways to create more time to invest. Plan the Night Before Are you a routine person or do you prefer to take life as it comes and react? I used to be the one who would wing it and see what happens each day. Without a plan, I made minimal progress in a million directions. While I can be a cluttered person, I thrive on the structure and knowing what my next move is going to be. Getting shit done and being productive is a high like no other and I’m always itching to get that fix. If shit doesn’t get scheduled, it doesn’t get done in my world and it’ll sit on my to-do list. That’s why at 9 pm each day, Siri reminds me to plan my next day which literally takes under 5 minutes. I schedule open pockets of time in my Passion Planner to get that one thing finished whether it’s: before I go to work my lunch break my two 10 minute breaks when I get home from

Lincoln Design Co. This week on the show I'm stoked to bring you Lincoln Design Co. I’ve been following these dudes work religiously since I discovered them on Instagram about a year and a half ago. I was lucky enough to meet up with them at Crop Conference and get them on the show with their crazy schedule. Lincoln Design Co is a Brand Design & Creative Agency who works with the likes of Nike, Element Skateboards, Harley, Ninja Turtles, Transformers, Disney, Nerf, Hot Wheels, Tony Hawk, Nickelodeon, yadda yadda I could keep on going but you get the point. These dudes are the shit and I feel very honored to get to share a bit of their story and background with you today. In this episode, Dan Janssen and company talk about: building Lincoln Design Co. from the previous Soup Graphics. organizing a killer on-site / remote team of illustrators and designers. how they got started whether they had the traditional design education or not. managing large client with tight turnaround times. making time for brand awareness by having fun with creating merch. what the typical day-to-day operations look like. a look into their designing process. upcoming projects and work they are excited about. Their team is made up of 6 people: Dan Janssen - The fearless leader and founder who specializes in graphic design Dustin Noden - Dan's second in command, art director and designer a.k.a. "@dontrealllycare" Brandon Hunsaker - Senior Illustrator (works remote in San Diego) Damasso Sanchez - Senior Illustrator and animation wizard (works remote in San Diego) Davy LeChevance - Designer / Illustrator / Script & Pizza enthusiast a.k.a. “@Mighty Short” from France Jordan Mahaffey - Designer a.k.a. "@StakeYourClaim" Shownotes Lincoln Design Co's Website Lincoln Design Co. IG Dan Janssen's Work Dustin's IG - @Don'tRealllyCare Brandon Hunsaker's Work Damasso IG - @SazonCollective Davy IG - @The Mighty Short Jordan’s IG - @StakeYourClaim Morning Breath Inc Matt Dawson Crop Conference Creative South Mike Jones Music by - Blookah

A Memo From Scotty: 3 Years of Weekly Content Can Lead to Fatigue In 2017 I started the year off the with the motto, "Do Less But Better." Unfortunately, I am human and have been horrible at sticking to this mantra. Over the past 3 years, I've been putting out weekly content like a drawing, blog post or audio. Weekly content is all I know but trying to manage this with: the day job doing freelance maintaining relationships with my wife, family and friends has begun to take a toll on me, not to mention all the other things I seem to fit within my schedule. Sometimes it can feel like an endless cycle, like when do I get a break? This past April was absolutely ridiculous with all the traveling and teaching a workshop at Creative South and speaking at Crop Conference. The months and preparation leading up to it were intense as well. I told myself that May would be different and I would slow down and enjoy myself. Next thing you know, I book up any free time I have with freelance and side projects. Safe to say, May went by in a flash and I can barely remember anything that happened. It's making me realize that I keep my plate full unintentionally and it makes it difficult to "live in the moment" even though I've improved at celebrating all wins...or at least acknowledge them. There’s just so much going on that I can’t stress myself out trying to hustle to make all these things happen in the week. I’m infamous for being too hard on myself and that’s why I’m giving myself a break and ditching unnecessary stress. Reevaluating My Priorities The podcast is my #1 priority as it’s the most fulfilling but it’s also the most demanding. Sometimes I don’t feel like I have enough time to pump out the best quality in the episode or the show artwork as I'm rushed. This pains me but for the short future I’m going to take the show to an every other week for my sanity and to free me up to: experiment with video on the podcast for Youtube spend more time with Emily, family and friends during the summer update my website prepare for my Weapons of Mass Creation speech in August go above and beyond in my client work to help pay off debt I'm making this choice to ditch unnecessary stress I get when trying to rush out an episode each week. There's too much going on and especially in the summer time to effectively manage it all to the quality I expect from myself. The show will eventually return to a weekly format as I know this is what has the biggest potential in my short creative career. However, I need to pace myself and play long-game mindset so I don't burn out in the short term. Give Yourself a Break While it'll be hard to adapt to this new format, my life and productivity revolve around routine. I know this will allow me to reflect and understand how I can improve and evolve the show to a higher level. I hope you know how much your respect, understanding, encouragement and support mean to me as I slowly figure things out in my personal and business life. Thanks for listening. Much love, Scotty Shownotes Creative South Crop Conference Weekly Content Checklist Podcast Music: Blookah

A Defeated Mindset Makes It Hard to Start Or Stick With It Do you deal with projecting defeat and tell yourself: I want to make money from my talents but don’t know where to start? I don’t know what I’m doing, why start when I won't get anywhere? We all want to be successful but this foreshadowed failure can stop you from even starting or sticking with it. How can you silence that inner critic and pick a road to start down? Honestly, I think the majority of us creative have no idea where we are headed—me especially. Each year, the road seems to drastically change but the hardest thing I ever did was to start. The second hardest thing I’ve done is stick with it. With a defeated mindset, it makes it hard for things to ever change and evolve if you don’t take the first step and begin in a blind direction. I think when you’ve made up your mind that you have to be successful and make money off your creative pursuits that you’re setting yourself up for defeat. I want to give you 3 ways to take the pressure off yourself as you pursue work that lights you up. The success, money and recognition are by-products when you continue to show up and improve your skills. Experimentation I think it’s safe to say that the majority of professionals didn’t start off immediately successful in their line of work. I’d wager to say that your heroes probably started off with their work as a hobby and it blossomed from there. In my case, drawing was a hobby my entire life that I didn’t think I was very good at. However, once I started sharing my work and experimenting with different mediums and styles, I began to find my grove and my voice...and slowly getting paid to do it. Even today I’m constantly experimenting— I’m afraid to get stagnant and content with my skills as I believe that caps your potential. Avoid the pressure of needing to be a Bob Ross or Doyald Young right out of the gates. Treat your early stages of your work as a hobby that’s just for you and nobody else. Dip your toes in the water and experiment in work that you’re not only good at but that you enjoy as well. Find Work You Enjoy This is basically the underlying message to my show. If you’re creating work that you don’t enjoy, you could be slowly suffocating the excitement of your talents. For the longest time, I was doing client work that involved me trying to recreate other people's styles. Other times I was creating to please others and jumping on trends hoping people would like my work. Sadly, when I shared this work that wasn’t true to myself, I slowly found myself becoming less satisfied, more frustrated and more apt to quit. With the exception of client work, I encourage you to create from a place that is for you and nobody else. Pursue the road of chasing work that lights you up and that you enjoy. Consistency & Staying the Course Transforming that hobby into a successful creative career generally lands into two buckets: Being consistent Creating quality work over time By creating and sharing work you enjoy and are good at over time, you’re bound to slowly attract an audience around it. It will seem like nobody's paying attention in the beginning and this may be true. Remind yourself that you’re not doing it for other people and that you have to give it time to grow as Matt Dawson says. Think about it, more people are getting access to the internet each day. As of April 2017, Instagram has over 700 million users and you know what that could mean for you? You never know when you’re one scroll or swipe away from having your work discovered by that one person who can open the flood gates of opportunity. You’re boosting your odds when you continue to show up and put out your best work. Kill the Pressure of Projecting Defeat To be honest, I don’t think you and I will ever completely silence that inner critic. Yet we can be mindful on how we approach our work. Putting pressure on yourself to be successful and make money from your talents is unnecessary, especially in the early stages. That is the quickest way to suffocate the joy from even starting or sticking with something. When picking a road to follow: Experiment and treat your work like a hobby in the beginning. Enjoy the work you do and create for yourself. Stay the course and be consistent with sharing and improving your skills. I have a gut feeling that if you follow these steps, you’ll set yourself up for some pretty spectacular opportunities to come your way. Key Takeaways Things can’t change and evolve if you don’t take the first step and begin in a blind direction. Your heroes probably started off with their work as a hobby Treat your early stages of your work as a hobby that’s just for you and nobody else. Dip your toes in the water and experiment in work that you’re not only good at but that you enjoy as well. Pursue the road of chasing work that lights you up and that you enjoy. You never know when you’re one scroll or swipe away from having your work discovered. You’re boosting your odds when

The Power of No & the Value of Your Time This past April at Creative South, I got to listen to a panel discussion by Marc Hemeon and Joel Beukelman of Design Inc. which links companies and freelancers together. Scratch that, according to Marc, design panels suck so they turned it into a quirky session about 70ish Life and Business Lessons for Designers. What made it even more enjoyable was the Always Sunny in Philadelphia theme music in the background along with the energy and humor they injected into the presentation. One of the biggest takeaways that punched me in the gut was when they said: “If it’s not a Hell Yes, then it’s a Hell No.” This spoke volumes to how I used to take on work simply out of financial scarcity or due to feeling obligated. I want this episode to drive home the fact that saying no creates more time for the work that excites you. Listening to this episode better be a hell yes to you. The Power of No Why is it so hard to say no to people? For me, it always landed into two buckets: There was an element of people pleasing or obligation Money was tight and projects felt scarce Letting these guide my decisions of saying yes got me into some shitty commitments that held my time and excitement hostage. Only in the last two years have I discovered the power of saying no. To be honest, saying no has allowed me to stumble across exciting new work that let me evolve as an artist. For example, in September of 2016, I randomly got the chance to do my first mural. The only reason I was free to take on this new challenge was because I turned down a not so exciting job the week before. Murals have easily blossomed into the work that excites me the most. Who knows when or if I would’ve stumbled across this new medium had I committed to the other project. There just wouldn't have been time to take it on. That brings me to one of my main points: your most valuable asset isn’t money, it’s your time. We all have the same 24 hours in a day and each hour is sacred. When you say yes to mediocre things you don’t really want to do, you’re saying no to the things you really want to say yes to. By filling up those open gaps in your life with low budget t-shirt designs for unaccountable clients who take forever to pay, your killing those spontaneous opportunities that could be an instant “Hell Yes.” That’s where saying no comes in. When something isn’t a Hell Yes, it should be a Hell No. Operating Out of Scarcity If you’re taking on work solely based on scarcity or guilt, I really think you should reframe your thinking To be clear, right now in life I choose to take on freelance but I don’t necessarily have to and I realize this doesn't apply to everyone. I make enough at the day job to cover bills, groceries, gas and the occasional pizza to treat myself. However, I’m not bringing in enough to save for a kid, take Perspective-Collective full-time and attack student loans. This is why I choose freelance but more intentionally than before. I’ve grown to be selective now and target one “Hell Yes” project per month. Only one as I still have the day job, podcast and husband duties that take priority. If no “Hell Yes” opportunities present themselves, my wife and I will be fine and I can focus on other things to push Perspective-Collective forward. The old me would have settled for the first project that popped up due to scarcity mindset. I was willing to trade my sanity and satisfaction as I felt this opportunity would never come again and neither would the small chunk of change that accompanied it. Always remind yourself that there are plenty of more projects coming your way if you happen to pass on one. Operating Out of Guilt On the other end of the spectrum is feeling guilted or obligated to do work for friends and family. I have zero problems doing pro-bono work for family or friends when it’s: for a good cause and is convenient for my schedule However, the people closest to you seem to always want a hookup or some type of freebie. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had some family or friends guilt me into doing work for them. Other times they get outraged when I tell them my pricing or simply reply with a professional / polite no. Especially in a small town of Iowa where $50 for a logo is the going rate, people act like you’re crazy and proceed to talk shit about you behind your back. As you continue to invest your life, effort, sweat, blood, tears and money into your craft, you'll realize the value of what you produce and how sacred your time is. Over time you'll see that true friends and family will understand and respect you, even if they don’t like your response. The rest don’t matter and it’s cool to trim the fat and reduce your circle. I get the feeling of wanting to please people but you’re better off saying no to free you up for bigger “Hell Yes” opportunities coming your way. Decision-Making - Hell Yes Only It feels like a ton of pressure has been lifted off my shoulders after adopting this motto.

Give it Time to Grow & Tilt the Scales in Your Favor This week on the show we have a very special guest who just got done hosting an amazing conference called Crop in Baton Rouge. Matt Dawson is a talented designer and connector who creates under the name Stay Gray Ponyboy in Atlanta. He is a shining example of someone who put in the work and used the power of side projects to build a name for himself. He’s not only an insanely talented individual but he’s grown into becoming a really good friend of mine and I can’t wait to share his story with you. Stumbling into Graphic Design Growing up, Matt was always involved with sports, music and drawing. As he approached college, he thought landscape architecture sounded appealing and was involved in that for 3.5 years out of the 5-year program. Outside of class, he found himself constantly using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to make band collateral like posters and merch. Little did he know he was getting started in a career of graphic design. It finally dawned on him that he wanted to switch directions and pursue graphic design. He was in a new relationship with the wonderful Ariadne at the time and he approached her saying they needed to have a talk. The funny thing is she thought he was going to break up with her when really he was just switching majors. Of course, she was 100% on board as he states she always is whatever he chooses to pursue. Over the last 4.5 years, he's been working under the moniker of Stay Gray Ponyboy and the business name of Studio Gray. His situation was like mine when I talk about Making a Name For Yourself in Episode 28, using his first name like Matt Dawson Design didn't fit so he went a more abstract route. There are a few reasons he chose this name because of the word gray: It is a family name and shortly after his daughter was born, everything he did was for her. It also happens to be his favorite color—he's all about overcast days and gray clothing. It pertains to having perspective in a situation. Finally, it was also inspired by the book The Outsiders with the phrase "Stay Gold Ponyboy." While he stumbled into graphic design and built a name for himself, Matt clearly is a workhouse and has put in the work behind the scenes. Give it Time to Grow Something that really stood out to me from Matt's interview is when he said, "Am I going to build something for myself or am I going to build something for someone else?" He's put in the grind at the day job of exchanging hours of his life for pay. He's been in positions where they worked him to the bone for 40-50 hours a week and he'd still find time to pour another 30 hours or so into building his side projects and freelance. When you start having ownership of something, the scale begins to tip in your favor and that was the case with his story. It's all about perception as the amount of work he was kicking out under Stay Gray Ponyboy appeared like he was doing his thing full-time and eventually, that grind paid off. Matt has now been working for himself full-time now for close to two months, and honestly it's all because of the time he invested into letting his side projects grow. Typography Nerd Let's face it, Matt is a typography nerd and I say this with the utmost respect. His love for type led him to have type talks as he worked for Lamar Advertising. His passion for type sparked an archive of typography combinations that he would help other designers use when they were in a pinch. Around the same time, he began using Instagram and sharing these combinations he built up under the catchy name of #TypeComboTuesday. He understood the power of consistency and kicked out Type Combos every Tuesday for 2 years! In 2017 he scaled it back and focuses on it once a month as his freelance career began to blossom. What's funny about speaking and seeing the behind scenes of these events held by Lamar is that it sparked one of his biggest ideas yet... Crop Conference Matt was inspired to take these talks from Lamar and grow them to a larger scale for people in and outside of Louisiana. A patio sessions with a few beers ended up spawning the name Crop. Think about it, cropping a photo is meant to bring out the best part of the composition into the frame and I feel this conference brings out the best part of us creatives. There were a few hurdles he's dealt with and still deals with today in building Crop: Not only was it tough to name but it was tough to design for as your designing for designers. Organizing and working on bringing in some of the biggest conference names like Draplin, Tad Carpenter, Morning Breath, Hoodzpah, Brian Steely, Jason Craig, etc. Getting sponsorships throughout the year. Having a diverse lineup especially within the talks. Getting people to believe in the conference and to convince them it's legit. If you ask me, I feel like he is crushing it in every category. The conference has been so successful that he is planning something special with it

See Your Small Wins As Milestones & Give Yourself Some Credit In 2016 I had one of the biggest career shifting experiences…in which I vaguely remember. It was my second time ever public speaking and this time was in front of a packed house at Creative South. I’m talking about 600–800 people. Safe to say I blacked out for the majority of the 45-minute talk as my nerves were at an all-time high. I brought a lot of energy, was really vulnerable and shared a part of me that many didn't know. I can humbly say that when it was done, I got an unexpected standing ovation as the 9 am opening slot could be considered the hangover spot. Sadly, to this day I can barely remember that moment. When I got home, I immediately went to work on the next project I had lined up. It was a huge win in my life yet I was so focused on what was next that I failed to enjoy and reflect on the moment and it passed. Honestly, it kind of haunts but it made me realize I’ve been horrible at celebrating wins in life—big or small. Its been hard because I see people doing things at a much larger scale. In my mind, what I’m doing is just small potatoes compared to them so I rob myself of any credit. To this day, I make it a point to celebrate even the smallest win as it: Captures the moment Builds momentum Helps offset the low points I encourage you to see your small wins as milestones while grinding toward the trophy. Keep your eyes on the prize but give yourself some credit along the way. Captures the Moment I can’t remember the wave of emotions that I felt as that should easily be one of the most recallable, happiest days of my life. The only way I can slightly relive that moment at Creative South is due to my brother Terence Tang (Tinlun Studio) patching up some video and audio together. When you take the time to celebrate even a small win, you create another moment to pair with that feeling. It allows you to remember that time stamp in life where you had a victory. Small victories like selling a print online to something big like landing a huge freelance gig. Find ways to celebrate like ordering pizza, buying that pair of shoes you’ve been eyeing or just giving yourself permission to binge on Netflix for the day. Give yourself some credit and find a way to remember that moment. Builds Momentum When you string together a few small wins, it begins to build momentum and confidence. Think about those teams that catch fire leading up to the playoffs. They rattle some wins off, find a groove and end up getting the trophy. Even the smallest wins on your end deserve some type of celebration or pat on the back. Don’t take the good moments and small victories in your life for granted—they are pointing you in the right direction and you can't rely on other people to notice it for you. Helps Offset the Lows During those creative funks in your life when you feel invisible, it’s easy to forget how many great things you’ve accomplished large or small. When you don’t allow yourself to celebrate and remember small wins, it’s easy to get caught up in the low moments. Doing this creates a breeding ground for that inner critic to thrive. This critic makes you feel like you haven’t accomplished shit in your life. However, the lows don’t seem so low when you can string some small wins together. Having some attainable small wins like updating your portfolio or Behance can help you snap out of that funk much quicker. Give Yourself Some Credit Being a creative isn’t easy as you’re quick to compare yourself to others who are making bigger waves than you. However, you’ve done some pretty amazing things on your creative path—things you should be proud of. I would hate for you to forget those moments because you didn’t think they mattered. Celebrate all wins, especially if they are small. Keep your eyes on the prize and give yourself some damn credit already. Key Takeaways When you take time to celebrate even a small win, you create another moment to pair with that feeling. Give yourself some credit and remember that moment by celebrating. When you string together a few small wins, it begins to build momentum and confidence. Not celebrating small wins creates a breeding ground for that inner critic to thrive. Having some attainable small wins can help you snap out of that funk much quicker. Shownotes Creative South 2016 speech Terence Tang (Tinlun Studio) Send feedback to [email protected] Music by Blookah

The Fastest Path Isn't Always the Best Path Imagine you’re on the highway taking things at your own pace. On your left, you notice one lane seems to be moving faster. Obviously, this intrigues you because who doesn’t want to get to their final destination quicker? As you merge into that left lane, other cars seem to notice the quickened pace as well. Soon many cars swerve into that lane to get around the slow pokes who are just cruisin’. It’s chaotic following so many cars at this high speed and next thing you know you miss your exit. Now you’re on a new path competing with everyone else to get to someone else’s “desired destination” quicker. Sometimes on your creative path, it’s easy to swerve into someone else’s lane. You see them blowing up quickly so why can’t you jump on the trend too? I admit I’m guilty of this as I saw someone else’s success as an opportunity to get in the fast lane for similar success. It got me to the point where I wasn’t creating for me like I had my entire life before social media—back when I would draw ufos, dragons and pizza in my private sketchbook for my eyes only. When I stopped creating for me, I merged into someone else’s lane and began creating for the masses because people seemed to like that style they produced. Sadly, it wasn’t just me as a lot of other people with the same idea swerved into that lane too and it just created noise. Looking back on it now, it was a necessary learning curve. The experimentation of imitating and regurgitating other people’s work was helping me find my own style, process and voice. While I still get inspired by others work and experiment with my own twist at times, I’m not following the tire marks they created. I’m also not trying to create to please the masses. I’m staying within my own lane and creating for me at my own pace. Staying In Your Own Lane What do I mean by staying in your own lane? Staying in your own lane means creating work that you think is dope and that you’re enthusiastic about. It means injecting your own DNA, heart and soul into your work that no one else can replicate. Anyone can bite your style, but no one can duplicate these. It means not merging into someone else’s lane because it seems like the faster path to your desired end goal. Everyone’s path is different and trailing someone else’s tire marks won’t get you the same results. By staying in your own lane over the years, you’ll begin to develop your own voice and range of style. Don’t Be Tempted By the Fast Lane When I think of creatives who stay in their own lane, I think of those who: have a diverse range of skills yet have an overall unique aesthetic Some talented artists who come to mind first are: Gemma O’Brien Brian Steely Tobias Saul DKNG While they never create in one distinct repetitive style, I can still pick their work out of a sea of noise on social media. That’s what we should all strive for. While the faster lane may tempt us, it doesn’t always lead to the destination we want. Stay in your own lane and create for you. You’ll find over time that you’ll attract the right people around your work, voice and style. These are the people that will happily enjoy the ride with you. Key Takeaways Staying in your own lane means creating work that you think is dope and that you’re enthusiastic about. No one can duplicate your DNA, heart and soul in your work. Everyone’s path is different and trailing someone else’s tire marks won’t get you the same results. While the faster lane may tempt us, it doesn’t always lead to the destination we want. Stay in your own lane and create for you. Shownotes Gemma O’Brien Brian Steely Tobias Saul DKNG Blookah Music

The Beauty of Being a Human Being 4 years ago, my girlfriend (which is my wife now :) ) and I got into a mini argument late one night. It was nothing really, but when I was alone getting my mind off it, I started feeling weird. First, my throat felt like it was swelling shut. Next, I had the overwhelming feeling of having a pallet of bricks on my chest. My heart felt like it was about to explode and the room began to go black all around me. Safe to say I was freaking out and Emily had to run me to the emergency room. Turns out I was having a massive panic attack. Looking back on it now it seems a bit silly but I thought I was dying. The stress and pressure I had put myself under for years finally caught up with me. For months I kept this to myself as I thought I was going crazy. I felt I would be considered weak and any reputation I had built for myself would crumble. Sadly, many of us bottle up these demons as we pursue a creative career. At the end of the day, you’re a human being. It’s okay to feel not okay. It’s perfectly normal to feel inadequate at times as everyone deals with demons whether they are visible or not. This episode is a friendly reminder that you’re not alone with your struggles and it’s important to not suppress them. You’re Not a Bad Ass Recently I’ve been reading Mark Manson’s “The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck.” Honestly, its really clarified this topic of vulnerability that I dealt with in the past and in the present. The early years of life getting bullied led to me thinking I needed to be a badass in order to be cool. When I started getting prescribed medication to treat my anxiety, I felt like I would get torn to pieces if this side of me was exposed. The months I spent trying to hide it were the worst as it tore me down from the inside out. The more I held it in and felt I needed to struggle in silence, the more I was losing the game of controlling my mind. How I felt at the time reminds of this quote from Mark in his book: [perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="1c1c1c" class="" size="32"]“The avoidance of suffering is a form of suffering. The avoidance of struggle is a form of struggle.”[/perfectpullquote] This is what I believe many of us creatives do, we bottle up our emotions and avoid the elephant in the room. In my unhappiness, I realized I had to ditch the armor, swallow my pride and accept that I was not a badass. I took action and responded by starting one of the hardest conversations of my life. Get it Off Your Chest I’m paraphrasing a bit from the book but Mark states something along the lines of: [perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="" color="1c1c1c" class="" size="32"]“When you feel shitty, it’s your brain telling you there is a problem that’s unresolved. Negative emotions are a call to action. When you feel them, you’re supposed to do something.”[/perfectpullquote] The more I held in these emotions, the worse my issues got. However, I finally consulted a few close individuals around me who dealt with anxiety. What they had to say drastically changed my perspective on the matter. Having the hard talk and getting if off my chest let me know I wasn’t alone and that I wasn’t crazy. The more I talked about it the better I began to feel. About a month or so of talking it out to people I brought it publicly to Facebook and asked how other people, especially creatives, dealt with their anxiety. The empathic and helpful responses I received blew my mind. I had around 100 comments of people stating how they fought it. This ended up becoming a community of encouragement on that little status. This manifested into a blog post which I hope others find when they need a boost. I feel by sparking that hard conversation, it let more people than just myself find a little more peace in battling their demons. You’re Human As a creative, I still deal with anxiety every day. My biggest fear isn’t to put a podcast into the world to be judged or to be on stage in front of hundreds of people. My biggest fear is getting caught up in my own head and losing control. Keeping this to myself used to put me in some dark places. The new me is working on accepting these funks as part of being a human. This is my body signaling something needs to be attended to. Maybe this approach will help you too? You’re human and you’re not a badass and this is okay. Give yourself permission to feel shitty for a bit but don’t avoid the situation—you just may be making things worse. I encourage you to ditch the armor and get it off your chest with someone you feel comfortable with. The low moments in our life make us appreciate when things are going right...and believe me, things will go wrong. Use it all to your advantage and channel it into your work and your story. You never know who you’ll make an impact on when you embrace that you’re human. Key Takeaways It’s okay t

How a Side Project Transformed into a Global Platform for Creatives Brooke Robinson is an Austin, TX native who fell in love with letterforms. Over the years she has taken that love for letters and type and transformed it into a global type powerhouse Instagram account called Goodtype. Her love of letterforms started after taking a class in college. From there, she began collecting resources around her, not to mention the art around Austin played a role in her interests as well. This love led to her wanting to surround herself with the amazing work she would find online and throughout social media. She began screenshotting all these beautiful works to come back to later. Her phone began to fill up so quickly that it sparked the idea to unload all of these images onto an Instagram account. She would share those images and credit the artists. It started as a thing just for her but it quickly grew into something much more than that as the #Goodtype hashtag began to take off. There was an evident interest in the world in hand lettering and her Instagram page quickly became the hotspot as creatives would make a piece and begin tagging Brooke to catch a feature. Next thing you know, she has a following of over ten thousand people and that's when I became aware of the account and got one of my first features. From that feature, it sparked the validation I needed to know I could do something with my art and I'm certain it was the same spark that many other creatives received as well. Doing What Makes You Happy It's safe to say that starting and curating Goodtype has changed her life. It's allowed her to: interact with thousands of creatives all over the world produce a book uniting the best lettering artists internationally create the Goodtype Scholarship Fund make a transition from her day job at Tyler's to pursuing Goodtype full-time now It's been pretty awesome to watch her build this successful platform that was once just for her. Now she is in a position to give back to so many creatives who are looking to take their work to the next level. Things haven't always been easy as there is plenty of stress that comes with working a day job and trying to pursue your side project. She's dealt with plenty of issues that usually revolved around time but when you love something, you find a way to make time to pursue it. One of the most recent struggles was figuring out how to create, curate and ship the first Goodtype Book Vol. 1. She had to figure out how to internationally ship these as sometimes it would cost $60 for global shipping which is insane. However, she made it happen and is already in the works of creating Vol. 2! Strength in Letters At the heart of Goodtype is its motto: "Strength in Letters." The tagline was inspired by someone who created a quick drawing that used the hashtag and it caught her attention. She marinated on it and knew that it needed to be the motto. Brooke states, "We truly are strength in letters in our work and communication within the lettering community. The positivity and encouragement that takes place within this lettering world are amazing." With the growth of this community, it's recently given her the opportunity to bring Goodtype to SXSW in 2017. Here she got to be on a panel discussing "Good Type and its Influence on Style" and how the history of typography and lettering played a monumental role in our modern design. Along with the panel, she organized two hand lettering workshops which were taught by the homie Adam Vicarel. The panel and workshops were a hit and there will no doubt be a bigger Goodtype influence in future SXSW. The Future Vision When asking Brooke what she had planned for Goodtype in the next 5 years, it was clear she had a vision. Due to the awkward void of accessibility in the education side of things, she wants to transform Goodtype into a physical space where creatives can: attend or teach workshops display artwork learn lettering, type and calligraphy find resources on artists or other types of design With know Brooke and her drive, I have no doubt this will all take shape. Words of Advice to Struggling Creatives In closing, I asked Brooke: "What’s one piece of advice you would give to creatives just starting off or in a creative funk?" Her answer is one that can resonate with any creative from amateur to pro. She states, "Stop comparing yourself and focus on yourself and what you’re doing. If it’s making you happy then keep doing it because if you don’t stop, you’re going to improve. Stick with it, and if you have to compare yourself_, do it from a way that you’re learning and improving. If it makes you happy then why would you ever give up?_ Key Takeaways: "You can always find a way to pursue your passion in whatever capacity." - Brooke You’re on the exact time schedule you’re supposed to be on when pursuing your work. Don’t get caught up in the lows, in the end, the challenges help you learn and get

The Powerful Combination of Imagination & Resourcefulness It’s easy to get caught up in thinking you don’t have the best tools, resources and skills at your disposal. It’s even easier to let these “obstacles” hold you back from pursuing or sticking with something that’s important to you. When in reality, it’s rare that someone has the skills or resources right out of the gate. I know I didn’t. At the end of the day, it’s about doing something instead of nothing and realizing you’re doing the best you can. That’s all you can and should expect from yourself. When you stick with it and look back on the progress you made, you'll realize that imagination and resourcefulness are a powerful combination. This episode is a daily reminder not only to you but to myself when I get caught up in letting that inner critic convince me that I’m not doing enough. Figuring Things Out One of the most challenging thing in pursuing something important like your creative career is that you don’t always know the exact direction to go. What medium should you create? What style should you share? What should the name you create under should be? On the flipside, one of the most exciting things is that you don’t know the right answer. As a creative, you’re a problem solver and this is what you do best. You have to experiment and figure out what works and what doesn’t. Most importantly, you’re figuring out yourself along the way too. Blending it All Together Something I struggle with is showing the true foolish side I have in my writing and speaking. I feel this is due to my extensive background in sports, coaching and training because I’m a coach and an artist at heart. Sadly, I’ve had “anonymous” emails telling me that I’m trying too hard and it cuts deep because I am trying. I’ve been blogging for over 2 years now, speaking for 1 year and podcasting for about 8 months. There’s still a ton of room for improvement and I’m far from being an expert. I’m still figuring out how to inject my humor into my monologs while getting my point across. It’s easy in my art because I don’t have to speak or write and I've been doing it my whole life. I want you to know the goofy side of me: I love puns I’m addicted to everything pizza My wife and I hold conversations with our cats in weird high pitched voices I like to shred the dance floor at weddings or in my kitchen Weirdly enough I love to freestyle (give me a beat and let me do my thing) When someone bends over, I like to make fart noises out loud or in my head You know, I’m a downright fucking fool sometimes but you don’t always see or hear this side of me. I’m still learning how to blend all of this together...but I’m doing the best I can. The Tools Don’t Make the Artist I’m guilty of thinking that I needed the best pencils, pens, paper or equipment to get me on the level of the people I look up to. No longer do I think my drawing utensils are the key to unlocking artistic greatness—I could create a masterpiece with a crayon because the tools don’t make the artist. However, I’m still hard on myself for not having the money nor resources to have the video / photo equipment and skills I feel I need to stand out. I have to constantly remind myself I’m doing the best I can right now with what I have. I saw a post recently that convinced me there are plenty of ways to shine without the fanciest equipment. Pin Koro posted a video of her writing the word pizza in a simple san serif with a sharpie. She then turned the word into a pizza illustration. Extremely simple yet extremely creative. However, the video was not high quality and there was a lot of flickering which can be distracting. You think that stopped this video from going viral? I’m literally seeing this all over Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. This is a prime example that you can use your phone and your creativity (resourcefulness and imagination) to stand out amongst the sea of noise on social media. Right now, I’m a content creator and artist on a budget. I would give anything to have a high-end camera and an amazing rig setup to record my work but it’s not in my budget. Doing Your Best With What You Have My ghetto video recording setup consists of my phone tripod / socialite tripod and my cracked screen iPhone 6 Plus. For my podcast, I have a very basic setup too. I don’t have all the fancy equipment I thought I needed and my office is far from soundproof. However, I put a lot of attention into getting the best audio quality out of my mic and learning how to edit properly so this doesn’t sound like turds on your end. :) What I do is far from perfect, but I can’t let not having the fancy tools and resources hold me back from starting or sticking with it. At the end of the day, I’m showing up and doing something rather than nothing. Give yourself permission and accept that you’re doing the best you can with what you have at your disposal. Imagination and resourcefulness are your secret weapons during these stages. You’re Human and You Got

The Do’s & Don’ts of Attending Creative South (From My Perspective) Are you feeling a bit stagnant in your work and desperate to get around like minded creatives? If so, then it’s time you attended a conference like Creative South. Here in a few weeks, April 6-9 to be exact, hundreds of people will invade the tiny downtown Columbus, GA area. When you arrive, there is a buzz in the atmosphere as you know you’re around the right people. Shit, the tagline is even “Come as Friends, Leave as Family,” and this couldn’t be truer. In 2015, I attended Creative South for the first time it sparked a massive swing of momentum in my life. There were several reasons I purchased the ticket because I: felt compelled to try something different. needed to surround myself with like-minded individuals who are doing what I strive to do. needed to get out of my comfort zone and get out of my little bubble in Cedar Falls, IA. All three of these were accomplished and Creative South has become an annual affair for me. I’ve built so many amazing relationships that I’m actually bringing my wife, Emily Russell, this year so she can see what the hype is about. If you’re attending for the first time, this post is for you. Here is a list of Do’s and Dont’s to ensure you experience Creative South like a champ in 2017. Do’s Attend All the Speakers The speakers Mike Jones and company bring in are the real deal. They’ve built or are building a name for themselves in their respected industries. Their focus is to provide you with something to act on when you leave the conference. Each year I’ve made an effort to reach out to several speakers who inspired me. It led to great conversations over lunch, dinner, etc. and resulted in some great relationships. Some speakers I’m particularly hyped to see this year are Jamal Collins, Dominque Falla, Bob Ewing, Alicja Colon and Ced Funches. Take Notes Listening is great, but these speakers are dropping gold and you’re going to want to refer back to some of the bombs they dropped. You can even take sketchnotes like Emily Carlton who I’ll plug in the workshop section. You can then share your notes on social media with the Creative South #CS17 and let people know what they are missing! In 2015, I shared my sketchnotes with Jason Craig after his talk. This led to a screen printed coffee poster collab and he also became a great friend and a mentor to me. He even hung out with me back stage last year to help me prep before my talk. Attend the Bridge Party Thursday’s opening mixer party is absolutely ridiculous and sets the tone for the conference. They shut down an entire bridge and deck it out for one epic party. There are food vendors, drinks, fireworks, great conversations and Ink Wars… Watch Ink Wars Ink Wars is held Thursday on the bridge. It’s a setup of about 5 artists who are equipped with only a small sketchbook, a large white canvas and a massive black sharpie to go to war with. The artists have 1 hour to create something based off a random topic. These constraints unleash some pretty wild concepts that’ll blow your mind. Participate / Watch Adobe Creative Jam Alright, this one is new to me and its’s replacing the beloved Type Fight...RIP. Adobe Creative Jam is an event series where creatives share a behind-the-scene peek into their processes and projects. Meanwhile, teams compete in a tournament that puts their creative skills to the test using Adobe Creative Cloud. Be sure to check it out wherever it’s hosted. The vendor hall is my best guess. Attend Workshops Some of the best value comes from attending workshops which range from hand lettering, passive income, sketchnotes, etc. Here’s a little shameless plug. This year I’m actually co-teaching a workshop with the homie Brian Manley called "Crafting Your Killer Talk." If you’re looking to get into public speaking, podcasting, vlogging or videos in general, then this workshop is for you. Sharing your brilliant and strange ideas publicly can be difficult but our workshop will: help you overcome your fear of speaking publicly give you the tools and structure to outline your ideas boost your confidence in writing and communicating those ideas I remember watching people on stage my first year wishing I could grow a pair and do the same. The following year Mike Jones asked to speak and it was the most terrifying yet life changing experience. It’s since led to me speaking at upcoming conferences like Crop and Weapons of Mass Creation. Hell, it even sparked the inspiration to start the Perspective Podcast. This workshop is about getting you on this level too as you have something valuable to share and you can make an impact outside of your art as well. Spend Your Life’s Savings in the Vendor Hall Last year I spent all my money at the Inch x Inch, DKNG and Draplin booths. You’ll find a ton of other booths sporting posters, t-shirts, pins, stickers, etc. You even will have the chance to screen print your own tee with Real Thread. I have no dou

Start With a Commitment to Consistency This week I have one of my good friends and role models on the show, Bob Ewing. Bob and I go back a couple years and he’s been someone in the creative community that really shines as an example of one who shows consistency, craftsmanship and is all about building relationships. Currently, he is an Art Director for Element Three, Co-Founder of Inch x Inch, a talented letterer and illustrator, kick-ass dad and husband and you can catch him speaking at Creative South here in a few weeks. Bob is the man and I think you’re going to soak up a lot of gold that he has to offer in pushing your creativity to that next level. You can find Bob online at: Bob-Ewing.com and on Instagram: BobEwing_ Learning to Draw Again The premise of Bob's rise starts with his yearning to get back to drawing again after seeing a raw product turned into a final polished piece from people like Ken Barber and Ryan Hamrick. He committed himself to letter something every day whether it was 5 minutes or 5 hours—it didn’t matter except that he was drawing and lettering again. Instagram became his tool of choice to hold himself accountable and to build an archive. His account started off private but eventually, he shared his work every day with the #hashtaglettering tag. I first discovered Bob as he kept popping up in my feed and the consistency is what I noticed. When I talk consistent, I mean he extended this lettering daily commitment to a whopping 534 days in a row! Incredible right? He fell in love became obsessed with the process and now everything he does starts with pencil / pen and paper. Simple, Attainable Goal Bob's goal was simple and attainable, draw and post to Instagram—that's it. He made it winnable and not complex which so many of us seem to do the opposite when starting off. The continuation of the goal clearly made him better, but there were challenges along the way. Mainly these issues revolved around: lack of motivation sickness lack of inspiration time Many times he reluctantly posted because he wasn't happy with the piece, but the goal was simple: get it posted. This wasn't about perfection. Finding time was a factor as Bob is a family man with 2 kids and a wife while still trying to squeeze in freelance in there too. However, Bob is a great example of scratching that creative itch while still having a family and day job. Sometimes he would be searching for words and inspiration which would waste time he could be working. He solved that problem by building an ongoing word list he could pull from each day without thinking. Similar to the Collecting Your Ideas & Building a Gold Reserve Episode 29. No matter the challenge, Bob stuck with his commitment and it paid off in his craftsmanship and career. His consistency I feel has skyrocketed him into a household name in the creative community. He now speaks and teaches workshops at conferences and events. He collaborates with some of the biggest names in the industries through Inch x Inch as mentioned in Episode 27. It all stemmed from a consistent commitment to drawing again. Quantity Leads to Quality A theory from the book Art & Fear exclaims that your best work is found by doing your work and doing a lot of it. This was the case for Bob. He states, "Whatever you’re starting isn’t going to be great, it’s rare you’re going to be great from the start." You can see this in his day 1 #hashtaglettering to day 534. [perfectpullquote align="full" cite="" link="1c1c1c" color="" class="" size="32"]It takes a lot of bad work to get to your best work and by making an effort to improve ever day, you'll get to your best work much quicker.[/perfectpullquote] Community It seems like Bob is chopping it up with pretty much every I idolize in the creative industry. He's an extrovert and a people person and it shows in his commitment to building relationships with people in the creative community. He's in this for the people as he states, "It's amazing the relationships you make in the design world. We are lucky to do this for a living. A lot of good comes from feedback and connecting on a deeper level and building relationships." However, building relationships outside of the design community are just as important as well. You need those escapes and outlets from the creating world so he puts a lot of time building relationships locally too. Comparison & Answers I asked Bob to leave you with a parting word of advice to a fellow creative who get's wrapped up in comparison. He states, "You can’t compare yourself to otter’s as no one will create or look at work the way you look at it. You have your own experiences that no one else has." Instead of dealing with jealousy and the envy of comparison, he flips it on its head by celebrating others and their work. He does this by sharing people's work through Dribbble which counterattacks the comparison trap. A conc

Battle Creative Block and Spend More Creating Creative block is the worst, especially when you forget that great idea you had when driving on the highway. How awesome would it be if you never had a shortage of ideas to draw from so you can spend more time creating? (that’s a drawing pun) I can safely say that I rarely deal with creative block because I collect practically every idea that comes my way. Someone on my newsletter recently asked me how I went about this and I felt my reply could make a helpful episode in case you struggle with a lack of ideas. Having a gold reserve of ideas has helped me battle creative block with: episode artwork client work personal work I’m going to give you 4 ways to collect and build up your idea gold reserve so you can spend more time creating. This will help you easily come back to that idea you had when waiting in line at Chik-Fil-A. A Pocket Sized Sketchbook Glued to Your Hip I keep a handy little sketchbook with me wherever I go so I can jot down a thumbnail sketch or write an idea on the fly. Usually, I'll roll with Field Notes brand or with something my friends produced like my friends Tinlun Studio or Cuttink Studio. Keeping it beside my bed at night is crucial as my head is constantly swimming with ideas when I try to sleep. I’m not taking any chances of forgetting it in the morning. This has been the most productive way of collecting ideas and I can’t recommend it enough if you struggle generating ideas on the spot. The gold reserve I’ve built up to battle creative block is buried in all these sketchbooks--perfect for referencing when I need inspiration to punch me in the face. Use a Task Manager / Note App Sometimes you need to be a bit more thorough with your idea through writing and lists--especially if you have shitty handwriting. In this case, I love using Wunderlist which is a task manager app for desktop and mobile. There are plenty of other things out there like iOS Notes app, Evernote, Omnifocus, etc. Right now, the free version of Wunderlist is suitable for what I need. For example, I have a Perspective Podcast category. Here I’ll store an ongoing list with subtasks that contain episode ideas which I can also add notes and dates to. I love that I can add to it on the go when I’m not on my laptop. Other ways I use Wunderlist are to track a list of maintenance tasks I need to do on my website. I even have a shared list with my wife for things to get at the store because I’m always forgetting shit and lose everything I put on Post-Its. It’s too easy to forget these things but a Task Manager App never forgets. Use Siri (or alternative mobile assistant) If I’m on the go and I can’t draw or write my idea, I turn to my homegirl Siri on my iPhone. I tell her to “set reminder in X hours for me to write down or draw this specific idea.” Sometimes she will butcher my idea but gets it close enough to spark the memory for me to collect it. An example I recently had was, “Remind me in an hour to draw pizza on a skull.” She came back with, “Remind me in an hour to drop pizza in schools.” Why the hell would I intentionally drop my pizza? She obviously doesn’t know me that well. Regardless, she is pretty helpful most of the time so I’ll give her a break. Aqua Notes Finally, I get some of my best ideas in the shower…. I’m usually listening to a podcast or audiobook through my Bluetooth Speaker when inspiration strikes. It just so happens that I have Aqua Notes in my shower to “never let another idea go down the drain.” Cheesy tagline but damn it’s the truth. I’m able to make a quick sketch or write a note and then transfer it to my sketchbook or Wunderlist. Collect & Build Your Gold Reserve To be honest, there’s really no excuse to why you can’t battle creative block by collecting your ideas and building a gold reserve. In episode 26, Efdot gave some great ways to stay inspired, and now you have practical ways to collect and store those ideas for a rainy day. If you’re taking your work seriously, I would recommend utilizing these 4 tactics in your game asap. Especially carrying a sketchbook with you at all times, that’s mandatory. Collecting your ideas and building a reserve will help you spend less time thinking and more time creating when it’s time to throw down. Key Takeaways A pocket-sized sketchbook lets you jot down a thumbnail sketch or write an idea on the fly. A task manager app can help you track more thorough lists of ideas through desktop or mobile. Use Siri or other mobile assistance for when you’re on the go and can’t use a sketchbook or task manager app. Use aqua notes for when inspiration strikes in the shower. Collecting your ideas and building a reserve will help you spend less time thinking and more time creating. Shownotes Field Notes Tinlun Studio Cuttink Studio Wunderlist Bluetooth Speaker Aqua Notes

You Can Make Whatever Name You Choose Mean Something Over Time Have you heard of Gary Vaynerchuk, aka Gary Vee before? Chances are you probably have if you’ve been paying attention to the social media / entrepreneur scene. I feel like he is a dude you either love or hate due to his bravado or profanity. One thing is for certain, people know of him because he made his name mean something. As an immigrant from the Soviet Union, Gary helped his dad transform his notable Wine Library business to a powerhouse though YouTube vlogging. From there, he’s gone on to build the multi-million dollar social media business, Vayner Media. Vaynerchuk or Gary Vee wouldn’t mean anything to anyone if he didn’t bust his ass and pour his soul into what he was passionate about. Picking a name for your brand or business can be hard and really frustrating, I can totally relate. I’m here to convince you that you can make whatever name you choose to operate under mean something over time. You have what it takes. The Need for a Name It was early March 2014 when I thought my co-partner DMac (DSTN) and I were going to take our clothing brand, Daydreamin’ Clothing to the next level. We were steadily building for 4 years and had: a warehouse lined up to make our prototypes an investor willing to give us a shot a shit ton of ideas and passion to “make it” However, I was creating so much work on the side and not all of it fit the style of the brand. I needed a way to share this work separately. During this time, I was getting heavy into hand lettering. I thought maybe I could become a big time freelancer and I needed a business name to house all my work. The first thing I went to was the typical Scotty Russell Design, Russell Studio, Russell Graphics, Russell Design Co. but they all sounded super douchey. I despised having my name a part of it as it didn’t have a nice ring to it. All my colleagues I knew at the time had their names a part of their brand but to me, it never clicked. I decided to explore a more abstract route instead. Massive Brain Dumps I had a massive brain dump session (I love using that phrase) and began throwing words I liked on paper. Anything that came to mind I put it down and started to make connections. The words Collective, Collection and Perspective kept coming up. First, I was sold on the word Perspective first for 2 reasons: Drawing and seeing perspective always came naturally to me. After attending my first festival in the past year, Electric Forest, my perspective on life had dramatically changed. Next, the word Collective and Collection sounded cool as it could mean all my drawings fell in this collection. Otherwise, down the road, it could mean I have a team under me. After a month of throwing ideas around, Perspective-Collective was born in April 2014. However, it wasn’t until a month later in May when I gathered up the courage to announce it publicly with the branding I had created. There Will Always Be Doubt When you’re just starting off, it’s easy to feel stupid and doubt yourself. If you’re like me, more specifically the old me, you want everyone to love your work and you’d be crushed if someone thought it was stupid. I feel that’s what holds so many of us creatives back is we are afraid to have someone not approve of what we are doing. We see it as failure and that we don’t deserve a slot within the creative community. I hesitantly began sharing through this moniker on Facebook and Instagram. This was the same time that my partner and I had some issues coming to agreements with shares and the future of Daydreamin’ Clothing. Reluctantly, I stepped away from the brand and began putting all my spare time into Perspective-Collective. In the early days, I heard crickets when I posted my work. It sucked but I was having a lot of fun pursuing my work with no limits. Over time, things began to pick up. Make Your Name Mean Something After posting consistently and studying how to utilize the former platform of Instagram (pre-algorithm days), I started catching some features on Goodtype, Calligritype and The Daily Type. The obsession took over from there. I started noticing that my increased quality of work and consistent dedication to the creative process is what was making my name actually mean something. My point in sharing my story is that you can make whatever name you choose to operate under mean something through the enthusiasm and dedication of your craft. You never know what it could evolve into. When Your Name Becomes More Than You Think Looking back on it now, it blows my mind what’s happened in the course of 3 years. Hell, a lot can happen in one year when you decide that you’re going to commit to something no matter what others may think. I vividly remember my girlfriend (now my wife @theoilshelf) and my parents questioning my pursuits of self-employment as an artist. Why couldn’t I work a safe job like everyone else and relax in the evenings? In my head, I knew that I’m not like everyone else. One n

The preface of this episode stems from some recent free work I was selected to create. I feel this could yield some value to you if you ever get stuck in the same situation. Recently, a local pizza joint, Urban Pie, opened up close to me and they put out a call to local creatives through Facebook. They asked for help in designing their massive chalkboard menu as well as their cornerstone quick bake pizza oven. By now you need to know that I’m weirdly passionate about pizza art so I figured why not inquire for more details. It came back as exposure work… If you’re like me then you’re not a fan of crowd sourcing artists and paying them in exposure. A lot of companies do this to try and position it as they are benefiting the artist when in reality; they are the ones who are winning. Before you go rolling your eyes I want you to hear me out. After consulting my mastermind group and asking the question, “When do you think it’s okay to do free work?” I got a ton of great responses. I thought packaging up their answers would make a great episode incase you ever got in this position yourself. Safe to say I took the job. I couldn’t be more excited about it because of several factors that I share in this episode that benefited me in doing free work. Free Work Can Lead to Bigger Breaks or Help Someone in Need I get it, you want to build a career of doing the work you love. Why would you ever want to do work for free? I’m at a point in my creative career where I’m making a big transition in taking my freelance game to the next level. There are plenty of bills and loans laying around that need paid and my time is sacred outside the day job. A part of me tells myself that I shouldn’t be donating any of my work for free as it’s not paying the bills. Then again, there is another part of me who sees the value you in it…depending on the situation of course. I’m not telling you to do free work all the time and get taken advantage of—I respect the creative hustle. Not everyone is going to agree with me on these and that’s alright. This is about the 7 ways free work may be in your best interest. I’m looking for the win-win scenarios here. When You’re Just Starting Off A great time where free work helps you out is when you’re just beginning to pursue your work seriously. During this time, you’re still developing a style and name for yourself. It’s rare that people are going to throw a lot of money at someone who doesn’t have a body of work showing what you’re capable of. You have no leverage. Doing projects for friends, family or other acquaintances can help you: decide quickly which type of work you do and don’t want to do more of. get familiar with the client process…even if they aren’t the best clients. learn how to handle situations like feedback, revisions and handing off work. develop your skills and get word of mouth for future jobs. You have to start somewhere, and that means doing free work in the beginning. When it’s Work You Create in Your Free Time If there is a specific style of work you’re already doing in your spare time, this could be a great opportunity to show what you’re made of in a more professional setting. For me, I already create pizza art on the regular and the project I took on gave me a chance to do this with more intention. When it Aligns With Your Goals This was a driving factor for why I chose to take on the project. I have a list of goals written down and it just so happens this projects hit 3 birds with one stone: to get my first pizza related client to do 1 of 5 murals to build a strong creative presence in my community When something aligns with your goals, I’d take the opportunity as you don’t know what it could lead to next. When it Could Lead to More of the Same Work But Paid This plays off #2 & #3. If you aspire to do something and you’re already doing it for yourself in your spare time, doing it for free could open the window to do more of this same work, but paid. Getting an opportunity to show off my pizza / mural skills in a highly trafficked public setting could lead to bigger pizza or mural projects (as of this writing, I’ve already received 4 local requests for murals and it has only been a week since I completed this project). For even larger reach, I highly recommend: documenting the process pushing it through social media adding it to your portfolio making a case study on your website This will dramatically improve your odds for attracting similar clients that will pay for this style. When You Have Complete Creative Freedom Sometimes having complete creative freedom can be a mind fuck. Restrictions have a way of breeding creativity, but sometimes having the freedom to do whatever you want within reason is amazing. It circles around to showcasing your skills that you’ve been crafting behind closed doors in your sketchbook. Now you can let your creativity explode on whatever canvas you’re asked to create on. In my case, this was a chalkboard and oven. When it’s for a Charity That

Stay Inspired & Pursue Why You Got Into Art in the First Place This week is a very special episode as I’m doing my first interview on the show with my good friend Eric Friedensohn also know as Efdot. He knows how to stay inspired to create for his personal side projects. Eric is a talented hand lettering artist and designer based out of Brooklyn, New York. He’s worked with the likes of Pat Flynn and taught lettering workshops for Vayner Media. He’s work at We Work and is the creator of the Optimist Project. He’s big into skateboarding and traveling and it’s an honor to have him as the first guest on this show. Why Do You Feel Uninspired to Create in the First Place? The Resistance Steven Pressfield - War of Art The resistance: is a universal force that has one sole mission: to keep things as they are. is the force that will stop an individual's creative activity through any means necessary, whether it be rationalizing, inspiring fear and anxiety, presenting distractions, raising the voice of an inner critic, and much more. will use any tool to stop creation flowing from an individual, no matter what field the creation is in. Steven Pressfield states, "The best way to fight the resistance is to do you work." He encourages the artist to "Go Pro." This mean going from being an amateur hobbyist to becoming a professional because pros don’t make excuses—they do the work. Many search for motivation when Motivation comes from the act of doing, but one may need inspiration in the first place. Eric’s POV On Resistance and Feeling Uninspired to Create Refusing to give into the resistance and doing the work isn't always so simple and straight forward. Everywhere you look there are endless things to pursue and they are designed to be addicting distractions. I find myself uninspired to create when I: give myself too much “free time” am not well-rested don’t have ANY structure / routines overcommit and say yes to too many things (like social obligations) have drama or chaos in my life focus too much on what others are doing and begin losing sight of why I got into making art in the first place. It's important to always remind yourself why you got into creating art in the first place. How to Stay Inspired 1. Vary Your Intake making things recycled from what you’ve been seeing and admiring not following enough diff types of artists inspired to make your work more unique follow people in more diverse areas researching artists beyond their works, like their books, blogs, podcasts If you're always in taking in the same stuff, you're going to end up outputting the same stuff too. If you’re feeling really uninspired to create art, find something to create totally different like a wild recipe. Being Around Other Creatives Community Getting within a community and establishing relationships online or through conferences. When you’re around people who are creating it’s contagious. Engage with people outside of liking their photo. The more people you can be around who are doing what you’re doing the better. Collaboration gives accountability but you end up learning and think in new ways. 2014 agency with chalkboard wall mural example Accountability Get something on the calendar to meet consistently Find others who share similar goals and values Reach out and take initiative to build creative relationships Recharging Change of Environment Change of environment can get you in new head space get outside your normal routine rearrange furniture work in a different setting (diff room of your house or coffee shop) Being Active Partake in things that recharge you mentally, physically or spiritually that fill you up with ideas Being active in sports or exercising Being outdoors Practicing mindfulness through yoga / meditation Key Takeaways: It's important to always remind yourself why you got into creating art in the first place. If your intake is always in the same stuff, you're going to end up outputting the same stuff too. Follow different types of work and art outside of your normal preferences to influence new inspiration. It's contagious when you’re around people who are creating. Take initiative and engage with people outside of liking their photo. Shownotes: efdotstudio.com Instagram: @efdot Eric's Optimist Project Eric's SummerOfSketching.com Steven Pressfield - War of Art Shigeo Fakuda - Masterworks YouTube: Everything's A Remix Austin Kleon - Steal Like an Artist Creative South Conference Andy J. Miller - Creative Peptalk Podcast

You Are Not Alone & You Are Not Invisible Do you ever get in creative funks where you lack the drive to create while feeling invisible to the world? There are those sinister inner voices that try to convince you that your work doesn’t matter and that you can’t make a difference. I’m pretty sure everyone goes through these phases whether they admit it or not. This episode is me admitting this to you in hopes you don’t feel alone in the times you feel invisible as a creative or life in general. There is light at the end of the tunnel as I’m learning that this is part of the struggle of pursuing something that’s important to you. In due time, it will be important to others as well. It’s okay to feel this way at times, it’s natural. However, you are capable of pulling yourself out of this creative funk and pushing forward to the next phase on your creative path. I say this because I’m pushing through one of these phases myself. Creative Funks & Winter Blues From mid-December through practically the month of January, I’ve been in a depressed state of mind and it’s been physically and mentally draining. There are a lot of variables in play here: I hurt my back leading up to Christmas and could barely move for a week (I deal with herniated discs from football) Anxiety was taking over my life leading up to nose and throat surgery (doesn’t help when you hear 10 times that you could die) Post surgery had me isolated and laying in a recliner for 24 hours a day This isolation gave me ample time to get trapped in my own head My diet was extremely off and I wasn’t able to go to the gym Finally, the weather has just been crazy shitty and gloomy While I still kicked out some uplifting art during this phase, every drawing carried a dark undertone which I feel was me crying out in creative pain. Scroll through the episode artwork at PerspectivePodcast.com to see what I’m talking about. During this stretch I felt invisible, like what I created and said through my podcast landed on blind eyes and deaf ears—the new Instagram algorithm doesn’t boost self-esteem either. I doubted everything I was trying to build with Perspective-Collective and was even attacking my physical appearance. Growing up I got picked on often for being chubby and those hateful voices still haunt me today. Looking in the mirror during this stretch disgusted me after no gym sessions and polluting my body with holiday shit. This self-pity mode I was in was really self-sabotaging. I’m not saying this for your pity, I’m saying this because I realize this was a phase and I am able to climb out of this hole. Here is what helped me. Talking About It Usually, an inspiring podcast, audiobook or YouTube video can snap me out of this “woe is me attitude.” Honestly, during this stretch, I could give a fuck less about these forced remedies. The emotions were too strong and overpowering. If you’re like me, you’d rather bottle up all your emotions as showing any type of weakness will ruin your “perceived reputation” as a badass. I’ve come to realize I’m no badass and openly talking about the things I struggle with helps me push through these creative funks—hence the reason I started this podcast. About 3 weeks into this state of mind, I sought out my best friend which is my wife of course. I told her I just didn’t feel like Scotty and that I’m not sure what’s going on with me. It was relieving to share what I was going through to someone who cared, even if it didn’t change how I felt. Next, I consulted a few close members of my mastermind group. Again I was met with encouraging words as they shared their creative funks with me. The more I talked about it and heard other people admit they deal with this too, the better I began to feel. Once my nose and throat were almost fully healed, I turned to my Instagram stories to show my face and share what I’d been dealing with. This wasn’t a cry for help tactic, it was meant to let whoever the hell was watching know that they aren’t alone in these dips of depression. I didn’t expect any responses as it was more it was therapy to get it off my chest. Surprisingly, there were waves of replies I got from strangers that deal with the same feelings of invisibility. Your replies are what inspired this show to compile my thoughts and struggles into something more personable and transparent with you. Sometimes Encouragers Need Encouragement Sometimes people need to know that they matter and are making a difference. This brings me to Diane Gibbs. She is an amazing individual who does so much for creatives whether it’s through the Design Recharge show or by teaching her design students. She showed me the importance of how encouragers need encouragement too. Outside of creating art, I know I exist to serve and encourage people like you. After sharing my work and receiving support from others, it showed me my potential and it’s my duty to pass that opportunity on to someone else. It’s a powerful feeling when you know someone took a

Give it Some Time and Enjoy the Creative Process Along the Way It may feel impossible getting exposure when you’re just starting to pursue your creative path. Believe me, I’ve been there. I spent over 25 years of my life believing that having a successful art career was impossible. As I’ve become more intentional with my side projects and have seen the potential, my mindset has drastically shifted. Think about it, technology is in your favor if you start today. It’s so easy to connect with someone on the opposite side of the globe within seconds. Not to mention that more and more people in the world are getting access to the internet every day. I really do believe that you are one scroll or swipe away from having your life changed. Creating the right side project(s) and following these 3 ingredients will aid you in getting more exposure for your work. These ingredients are: Research Consistency Shareability Obviously, you could say there are more ingredients, but I believe these 3 are great to keep top of mind. Research You might get lucky and stumble across an audience waiting to devour your style. However, I’d recommend doing a bit of research to have a plan. I feel the best, yet the most saturated market out there is Instagram for getting your work noticed. It’s the top platform for engagement right now and I’ve seen many friends blow up and create a thriving creative career from it. No matter the social platform you choose, research the best ways to utilize the strengths of the platform as you share your work. I started using Instagram seriously close to 3 years ago when I first became addicted to hand lettering. It started off with me throwing work out randomly until I noticed there were specific accounts and hashtags that surrounded this type of style of work I was producing. For example, there is the monstrous account of Goodtype that has well over 725K followers curated by my friend Brooke Bucherie. I remember when she had under 10K! Just to note, Goodtype started off as a side project and has evolved dramatically to become more than just an Instagram account. I noticed that she featured people’s lettering work who used the profile hashtags of #Goodtype and #strengthinletters on their lettering posts. I began using those hashtags and pushing my skills every day and ended up catching my first feature. Safe to say I was hooked. There were other accounts that were similar to Goodtype such as The Daily Type, Typespire, Type Gang and Calligritype that helped me build my account and get exposure through features as well. Tools for Social Analytics Another way I approach my research is with analytic tools such as Business Page Insights through Instagram and Iconosquare. These tools show you metrics such as your: Most liked photos / videos Most commented on photos / videos Least liked photos / videos Least commented on photos / videos New vs lost followers per given time Best times for posting Age range of follower Top states or countries following you Understanding these metrics lets you know what type of work people are engaging with and when you should be posting. With some research and experimentation, you can begin formulating a strategy while creating your own style that speaks to you and your future audience. Consistency We live in a microwave era where people expect instant gratification and get discouraged when they don’t see immediate results. The reason many creatives get exposure is because they are consistent and people know what to expect. I follow people or accounts on social media strictly because they post work I’m inspired by and are posting daily or at a consistent time weekly. 2 friends, I follow due to their consistent quality work are Bob Ewing and Charli Prangley. Being consistent has boosted their creative careers outside of their social presence. #Hashtaglettering With Bob Ewing Starting with Bob, he began hand lettering around the same time that I did as he took on the 365 daily challenge. Meaning he hand lettered a word for every day of the year. Not only did he reach his goal but he ended up extending it to a whopping 534 consecutive days! Not only did he improve his lettering skills, but he is now considered one of the revered names in a thriving lettering community. This has led to him getting great lettering projects, public speaking and workshop opportunities while building amazing relationships within the creative community. Video Content With Charli The other great example of consistency is Charli. She built her career on Youtube by pumping out insightful content targeted to designers on her Youtube Channel: CharliMarieTV. Over this period of time, she’s amassed a following of over 40K subscribers. She’s been posting 2 videos a week for over 3 years! Oh ya, did I forget to mention that she also co-hosts the Design Life Podcast with the talented Femke for over a year now too? On top of her drive, she is just a genuine and funny human being. Her hard work has landed her major