This week we take our first listener question from Connor, who is struggling with some issues involving feeling a lack of confidence and general anxiety in his work. We discuss some ways for him to find more enjoyment in what he’s doing, and relieve some of the pressure that he’s currently feeling about his creative work.
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Show Notes for This Episode:
[1.00] We’re taking our first listener question from Connor
[1.30] Connor’s question
[5.00] Connor seems to have found his true passion
[5.25] The issue seems to lie in a lack of confidence in Connor’s work, and anxiety surrounding this
[6.00] Simply improving your skills won’t suddenly make your anxiety go away. The issue is deeper than that.
[7.00] Self doubt will likely always happen, but will be relative to your situation. It happens even when you’ve ‘made it’
[8.00] Theses stages are always formative, they’re part of your journey
[9.30] When you’ve ‘made it’ this definitely doesn’t bring happiness
[10.45] The process should be what makes you happy, not the unattainable end goal
[11.30] This focus should be on trying to enjoy your day-to-day and creating art
[12.00] Don’t focus on creating ‘the best’ piece you’ve ever done, or comparing yourself to others
[13.30] Lisa finds true enjoyment in producing her art, and the accolades are a sign effect of this
[15.00] Tom’s example of musicians truly enjoying their artistry (or those who are hung up on the negatives)
[17.30] A girl who captured her mental health issues in an art series that went viral on Facebook
[19.30] Embrace your anxiety, this is part of you. Express it in your art.
[21.05] Dustin’s asks – why do some people excel so much better than others. Lisa says it’s the intention behind it.
[23.00] Active learning leads to genuine improvement in your skills, vs just ‘ticking along’
[24.00] Ian advocates constant momentum and trying lots of things to see what you’re good at
[27.30] Are Connor’s anxiety and lack of confidence normal for designers?
[29.30] These podcast chats have helped all of the hosts with their own anxiety about their work
[31.00] Is anxiety the real issue, or are there are barriers being thrown up?
[34.45] Just doing what you like to work on.
[35.40] Be like a salmon – jump between various channels until you find yourself in the right one
[38.15] Ian used to just spend days playing and experimenting
[39.00] Ian visited a model railway with his son – and this was a great example of people just loving what they do, without any anxiety or fear of others being better than them
[40.15] True happiness and confidence in your work (and life) comes from being secure in yourself
[42.00] Lisa talks about how anxiety reduces as you find your style
[43.20] People under-estimate how many other things in life have to get turned off in order to be the best in your craft.
[45.10] Don’t feel guilty about the areas of design or art that you don’t enjoy.
[46.30] Connor is in a great phase of being able to try new things, pivot, and not be tied down with responsibility
[48.00] It’s totally ok to admit you’re not interested in some things, it will focus you on what you love
[50.00] Quick fire closing tips
“A must for every creative freelancer (or those aspiring to freelance). Thank you for being so… honest! Such a wealth of information from people I admire who have ‘been there and done that’. Listening to the podcast every week feels like I’m among friends. Can’t wait for more episodes!” – AG_GD
You mentioned it’s good to have one point of focus in which you do work. For example, choose graphic design, lettering or photography instead of marketing yourself as being able to do all three. However, I’m not freelancing full time and I do all three of those things. I am worried if I market myself as just a lettering artist I won’t be able to get enough work to make ends meet. Until I have a steady income in my (dream) freelance business and I’m more established, should I market myself as being able to do graphic design, lettering and photography? Thanks!
Hey Erin, thanks so much for getting in touch and for your question. You can add all your skills to your portfolio and see which ones help bring most work and income your way. If you later notice that you enjoy doing lettering work mostly and it brings you a steady income you can decide to focus solely on lettering. I would also suggest to please have a listen to episode 49 – Pursuing you Passion, as we help Meg with her move from graphic design to illustrations and we touch on the subject of layering additional skills on top of your existing ones and how you can promote these in your portfolio. Hope you find this useful ?
I really feel for Connor. It took years of thinking I wasn’t good enough to call myself an illustrator or designer. I am not a good drawer, I make lots of mistakes. But I now proudly call myself an illustrator because I take those crude sketches into my computer and turn them into designs for my client. My point is, Drawing is just the ingredients, it’s what you do with it that counts, and how you transform it into something your client wants to eat. I beat myself up for not being a good illustrator in the classic sense. But with such tools from Design Cuts, Creative Market and Retro Supply I can now make my crude drawings into say a painting or screen print or a matchbook style. Basically, your client doesn’t care how you did it, if you spent 3 months painting it with a paintbrush on canvas or that you stuck a photo through a filter on a canvas texture. It’s all about the end product and what it is going to be used for. Don’t get hung up on the small stuff, find what you are good at and do it. Even bad drawers like me can be illustrators . Good luck
Hey Chris,
Thanks for commenting on this one and I know that the honest designers will agree that it is what you do that counts and hopefully you can enjoy the process along the way!
Another great podcast. So, so encouraging that you’re listening to listeners.
If you’re looking for ideas, I’d love to hear how you get across to people that what you do is seriously time consuming.
How do I get across that when you ask me to fix this one tiny detail, I’m going to have to go to Lightroom, totally change the vibe there and play with some adjustment brushes, wait for sloggy-loading Photoshop that’s being ornery, rearrange several layers and make new masks, when they’re picturing Snapseed and thinking this should take maybe five minutes? And then if I’m designing for a friend, how do I charge for tiny little changes, knowing that if I don’t make the changes they’re not going to be totally happy? All the while my other work is put on hold?
Not whining, just wondering. It’s so fun I don’t mind just doing it gratis, but my husband will be wondering why I’ve been playing rather than being fiscally productive. :) And if he doesn’t wonder, I will.
Anyway, thanks for this awesome help in this episode, and thanks to Connor for asking what we all wanted to know. God bless! :)
Hey Rebekah,
Thank you so much for your comment and we are so glad that you liked it!
This is a great question and we will definitely let the team know that you’d love to hear more on this subject are you are certainly not alone. Hopefully they can touch upon this for you in a future episode :)