Ever worried about what others think of your creative work? Ever felt the social media tumbleweed, when it feels like no one is paying attention to what you’re putting out there? Ever compared yourself to others in your field? Welcome to the world of self doubt as a designer! The good news is, you’re not alone, and there are some actionable steps you can take to improve your level of self doubt in your creative projects.
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Show Notes for This Episode:
[1.00] How all creatives experience self doubt
[1.50] Why there is no A to B straight line for designers
[2.30] Why creating is like making cookies!
[3.00] Why you feel like you ARE what you create
[4.00] Lisa’s potential for a children’s book
[4.55] Why creatives are insecure, but not psychos!
[5.30] Creatives are intense and passionate people (the perfect storm for self doubt!)
[6.20] Confirming your lack of success
[7.05] Social media leading to self doubt
[8.00] Why comments matter most
[8.45] The dreaded tumbleweed!
[9.30] Why to expect tumbleweeds early on (and why this is ok)
[10.10] Audit yourself in terms of what you engage with
[11.20] Why you should engage with other’s work
[12.40] Why social media is ego driven
[13.00] Client feedback leading to self doubt
[14.15] You won’t please everyone
[15.00] Why the client is usually right
[16.20] Staying motivated if your work is mediocre
[17.45] Why we are aware that our work isn’t great yet
[18.45] The important of a higher purpose
[19.40] Getting out of your head, and being less ‘me, me, me!’
[21.00] What is the work we do that doesn’t feel like work?
[22.45] Ian loving the idea stage
[24.45] Ideas can take a while to come to fruition
[25.20] Why challenging yourself results in self doubt
[26.00] How passion can reduce self doubt
[27.00] When people struggle with hitting their stride
[28.00] Why collaborations can fall into the same trap
[29.10] Lisa’s experience of self-doubt making a Design Cuts product
[29.50] Self doubt can make or break a project
[30.30] Why you shouldn’t compare yourself to others
[31.20] Dustin’s shedding of self doubt
[32.05] Forget what everyone else thinks!
[32.20] Look at the long-term trends to feel better about your journey
[34.00] Why social media can drive you to distraction
[34.40] Feeling really stressed looking at others in your space
[35.30] Why comparing to others wastes your time
[36.35] Why it’s wise to be a tortoise
[37.50] Focusing, without as many distractions
[39.00] The importance of switching off
“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
Hi! I’m so glad I found this podcast. I’m a Graphic Design student going into my senior year, and I feel like I hit a point about two years into my degree where I just started questioning whether I still wanted to do this. I started to feel that all of my work wasn’t good enough, and I constantly compare myself to my fellow students. I think they’re all great people, but I’m always finding myself thinking “I wish I was as good as this person.” I’m even at the point now where if I want to do something just for fun, for me, like creating a poster for a fabricated event or something, I just end up thinking “It’s not going to be good enough.” and kind of give up on it. This podcast has been great because it’s addressed some of the insecurities I’ve struggled with for a couple of years that I don’t really feel like I can talk about with the people around me. It’s so great to get to hear a group of professionals talk about how some self doubt is normal, and how some of the things I’ve been feeling may be more normal than I thought, and how they even still struggle with it. I think as a student, looking at professionals in the field, I tend to think that they’ve got it all together and have massive amounts of confidence in what they do and got all their self doubt out of the way already. It’s also a plus to hear their experiences with Graphic Design in the industry. I just want to say, thank you guys so much for this podcast.
Hey T,
Wow, thank you so much for your awesome comment and we are so happy that you found the Honest Designers Podcast!
We think that most, if not all, creatives have experienced similar feelings at one point or other, so it really means the world to us to hear that you find our podcast really motivational and helpful for gaining confidence. We feel like one big family chatting with our community, and hearing about what they are working on so we all just want to say a big welcome T, and we hope that you enjoy checking out our community further and joining us for lots more podcast episodes to come :).