0:04

Hey, you're listening to

0:06

Creative Pep Talk, a

0:09

weekly podcast companion

0:12

for your creative

0:24

journey. My name is Andy

0:26

J. Pizza. I'm a New York Times bestselling

0:28

author and illustrator. This show

0:30

is where we explore what it

0:32

takes to build a thriving,

0:34

well-balanced creative practice. Let's go. So

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them too. Thank you for that. Are

3:01

you doing a million things but

3:03

not really getting anywhere? Like are

3:05

you exhausted from scrambling in 10

3:07

different directions and yet not really

3:09

feeling like you've achieved anything? Let's

3:12

get into exactly what's going on

3:14

here but stay until the end

3:16

of this episode for my diagnostic

3:18

tool called the three nouns that

3:20

will help you start to fix

3:22

this tricky overwhelming issue. Now

3:25

long time listeners of the show know that

3:27

the theme song of this podcast is by

3:29

Yoni Wolf and all the music on

3:31

this show is from his band Why. I'm a

3:34

major fan have been since college. It's

3:36

like this confessional indie

3:38

rock rap and Yoni has

3:41

hilarious and extremely poignant lyrics

3:43

that I deeply relate

3:45

to and so anyways

3:48

he has this one line that

3:50

I think perfectly captures this feeling

3:53

I'm describing. It's something about how

3:56

He's moving slow like an exercise

3:58

bike on an airplane. Poor

4:00

walkway and I'm felt that feeling

4:02

so many times like you're peddling

4:04

like mad, but you're just not

4:07

getting anywhere. A creative practice can

4:09

feel like that often times. Ah,

4:11

creativity is and always fast paced

4:13

and I think that's totally fine.

4:16

but the world is fast paced

4:18

and I think. For. Me:

4:21

You've. Gotta try to strike a

4:23

balance somehow. And sometimes it's not

4:25

the natural creative process that slowing

4:28

you down and has you on

4:30

that hamster wheel is that you're

4:32

trying to do everything at once

4:35

and not really doing any of

4:37

it well. Probably

4:41

wouldn't mind. I've been feeling

4:43

like that a lot lately and it's

4:45

helped me to recent or myself on

4:47

some core values I have around focus.

4:50

You. Might be thinking andy your

4:52

like the most a D H

4:54

D guy I've ever heard, known

4:56

or heard from. How are you

4:58

going to teach me anything about

5:01

focus? Well taken, a lot of

5:03

hard lessons learned the hard way

5:05

to focus enough to publish books

5:07

and stay on course on this

5:09

podcast for ten years and big

5:11

about as way. Who do you

5:13

think know some more about how

5:15

flight works? A bird that just

5:17

does it intuitively Or a brick

5:20

in Wildcat. It's got a jetpack, man

5:22

that. Is a belt himself?

5:24

That's me. I am that wildcats

5:26

and my flight as focusing am.

5:28

I had to read so many

5:30

books on the topic to do

5:32

pretty much anything in my life

5:34

or this creative journey, and I

5:37

picked up a thing or two

5:39

along the way about how even

5:41

the most unfocused humans like myself.

5:43

Can. Find enough focus to get something

5:46

done. but if you don't know

5:48

a D H d people have

5:50

memory ushers till. And. Issues

5:52

with object permanence. So if I don't

5:54

have those lessons right front and center

5:56

in front of me, they don't even

5:58

exist. And maybe you can relate to

6:00

that as well. So think of it

6:02

like best. Maybe it's like you own

6:04

a pizza restaurant and you're struggling to

6:07

get people through the door. See the

6:09

hey, maybe we need salads that make

6:11

sense. Pizza salads. It works to cover

6:13

in a few different bases. And.

6:15

That helps and you're like wow, how

6:17

bout chicken wings? I mean come on

6:19

chicken wings that's gonna get a few

6:22

extra people, few extra bucks that will

6:24

help out more Bl to pay the

6:26

bills. So you add some burger options

6:28

to cause you're like this is just

6:31

work and well then some chicken dippers

6:33

and certain crunchers and check and fries

6:35

and some chinese food waffles and crab

6:38

rangoon and how pineal poppers and sides?

6:40

Okay now it pretty. Much. Of anything

6:42

that anyone could ever. Want right?

6:44

wrong Because now you have every

6:46

dish imaginable on the menu. The

6:49

only problem is none of them

6:51

are good. You can't focus enough

6:53

on any of these things to

6:55

get fresh ingredients, prep them well,

6:57

you're starting to cut from browser

6:59

and you just gotta nasty buffet

7:02

of stuff that represents options that

7:04

may be every person on the

7:06

planet could be interested in, but

7:08

if it's not quality of it's

7:10

not done right. If it's not

7:12

better than the places. Next door.

7:15

Why are they gonna come to you.

7:17

You. Might have everyone's favorite foods, but

7:19

you're not able to do any

7:21

of them justice to the point of

7:24

being someone's favorite restaurant. And

7:26

if your creative offerings are more

7:28

like a book then a menu

7:31

you're not a creative practice your

7:33

Cheesecake Factory As in the age

7:35

of the internet you gonna have

7:38

to have some level of competitive

7:40

edge. Going to have does have

7:43

some level of excellence, some level

7:45

of focus and pass sense and

7:47

some unique selling point that helps

7:50

you stand out from the other

7:52

people. And even if you are

7:55

a generalist, Which I think is okay

7:57

depending on the type of work you do

7:59

or. What kind

8:01

of shop you run? Your creative.

8:04

Job. You have, I think it's

8:06

fine, but you're gonna have to

8:08

have a. Focused.

8:10

Menu. That. Has some

8:12

thought behind it. The has some

8:15

consideration for how much time these

8:17

things take, how much money people

8:19

are willing to pay for these

8:22

things. Like all of these things

8:24

have to be. In

8:27

sync with each other, And.

8:30

You. Can't just solve your creative

8:32

problems by adding new products,

8:34

more side dishes, more options,

8:37

more and more and options

8:39

and tell you are so

8:41

bogged down and so exhausted

8:43

and so split in a

8:45

million different directions that you

8:47

can't achieve anything worthwhile. Now

8:54

it's true. running a creator practice

8:56

is always going to contain many

8:59

moving parts. I'm not saying otherwise.

9:01

I know we live in a

9:03

super busy world, I know that

9:05

the demands on us are beyond

9:07

what's fair, and it's a fancy

9:09

to think we could focus all

9:11

our energy at just being gray

9:13

at one or two sang spots.

9:15

Where I am saying is that

9:17

prioritizing and focus is essential to

9:19

getting anything to work, including even

9:21

something as wild and unpredictable as

9:23

a creative. Life is. but if

9:26

you're on board for finding some

9:28

level of focus to bring some

9:30

clarity and some sanity to your

9:33

practice in such a way that

9:35

you put one foot in front

9:38

of the other long enough to

9:40

get somewhere interesting, let's talk about

9:42

how to actually do it. You.

9:50

Know it makes sense that

9:52

we get to this place

9:54

because when things are desperate.

9:57

i run around and ten different turn

10:00

throwing everything in the kitchen sink at my

10:02

problems. Like I am not

10:04

level-headed, I'm not focused, I'm just

10:06

throwing a million things at the

10:08

problem, just hoping in a

10:11

mad dash kind of panic mode

10:13

that one of these things will

10:15

fix it. But what

10:18

I've found to be helpful

10:20

in real life is when

10:23

it hits the fan, that's

10:25

when you need to be

10:27

at your most level-headed. And

10:31

usually when things hit the fan,

10:34

it's going to always take longer

10:36

than you hope it will to

10:38

fix the problem. And

10:41

you need a solution that

10:43

you can show up consistently

10:45

with in that direction

10:48

to really, not just

10:50

put a band-aid on the thing, but to

10:52

heal it. And so

10:54

if that's you today, give yourself a

10:56

small window, give yourself a couple of

10:58

hours just to go through the exercise

11:01

that we do in this episode.

11:03

Even if your creative house is

11:05

on fire, which I'm sure a

11:07

lot of peoples are right now,

11:09

the economy's weird, the internet's weird,

11:11

tech is weird, the

11:13

world, the global state of affairs are weird,

11:15

your creative house probably has a few fires

11:18

that need to be fought. But

11:20

just gather a little space and

11:24

put your head down and identify

11:26

a path that can help

11:28

you solve the most pressing need and

11:31

double down in that direction. If you're

11:33

the restaurant who went from pizza to

11:35

an everything buffet, you realize you need

11:37

to pair things back, what are you

11:40

gonna do? You're gonna

11:42

start by diagnosing the problem as precisely as

11:44

you can. It's not

11:46

just you're not making

11:48

enough money. That's a very broad

11:51

problem. It's not just money. It

11:53

might be that cash flow is

11:55

the problem, but What

11:58

is behind that problem? Is.

12:00

It The profit margins are just too

12:02

thin. Is it that you don't have

12:04

enough customers getting in the door? Is

12:07

it for you? Is it? If you

12:09

have not enough customers? Why is it

12:11

the location? Have things changed in the

12:13

place for you? Put your staff and

12:15

you know we're not talking pizza here.

12:17

We're talking Instagram. We're talking you Tube

12:20

Dog and Tech Top Return or whatever.

12:22

Where do you put this stuff but

12:24

haven't? Newspapers were dark and magazines? Or

12:26

is it the location or is it

12:28

the menu? Is it that the product.

12:30

That you're creating really isn't

12:32

in demand anymore. As. It

12:35

the quality. Is it The bad

12:37

Google reviews? Like you have a

12:40

bad reputation because you haven't been

12:42

meeting your obligations. Are you been

12:44

talking crap? Are you bend? You

12:47

know, starring stuff? Ah, birth. not

12:49

replying to clients or whatever. Like

12:52

don't jump to solve the solution.

12:55

So. Often. The.

12:58

Solutions that I run towards

13:00

say more about my insecurities

13:02

than the actual problems that

13:05

I have. There. Are

13:07

so many times where things go

13:09

south and I jump to the

13:11

saying that I'm most concerned about

13:14

that I'm most insecure about probably

13:16

wrongfully so and I put all

13:18

of my energy and to over.

13:21

Hyper. Vigilant lead addressing

13:23

that saying when in reality

13:25

it's not the problem that

13:28

needs to be solved. it's

13:30

just some things that I

13:33

am insecure about. Often.

13:35

I get so overwhelmed I want to

13:38

jump to a solution. and too often.

13:41

Like. i said i let those

13:43

insecurities decide what the problem is rather

13:45

than taking the necessary time to do

13:47

the research and really figure out what

13:49

is the root of this if i'm

13:52

not getting traction on that platform anymore

13:54

if the numbers are downs if the

13:56

roof if the inquiry through email or

13:59

a down are the things that

14:01

I was doing before not working and

14:03

what are those things. And

14:06

I suggest before

14:08

you rush

14:11

to a solution and just start throwing

14:13

stuff at it, that

14:15

you pause and you don't even come

14:18

up with any solution and you spend

14:20

this hour or two hours

14:22

that you're working through this just

14:24

trying to get to the bottom of what's

14:27

the real problem here. And

14:29

you might need to send some emails out. You

14:32

might need to inquire from

14:34

some friends. You might need to

14:36

do some Google searches about the

14:38

industry you're in and get signed

14:40

up to the email newsletters that

14:42

give you a heads up of,

14:45

is this a me problem or

14:47

is this an everybody problem? And

14:50

what is the problem? And

14:52

then go have conversations. You know, so

14:55

many of my career breakthroughs

14:58

have come from casual conversations

15:01

with people that do similar things to

15:03

me and them saying, Hey, you

15:05

know, I struck

15:07

gold over in that riverbed

15:09

and that creek bed over there. Over

15:12

there, I found a couple of

15:14

shows on the yellow page. I can get into this

15:16

mode of, Oh no, my reach is down. My work must

15:18

suck. I need to update. I need to refresh things. I

15:20

need a new website. I need to learn new software. I

15:22

need new palette. I need to adopt a new trend. I

15:24

need to go viral, man. I gotta go viral. When

15:28

in reality, if I dug a little bit,

15:30

I just asked around, if I even touch

15:33

base with some clients and say, Hey, what,

15:35

what are you excited about? Like maybe get

15:38

them on your podcast, maybe have a conversation

15:40

with them, do an interview with them, ask

15:42

them what's exciting, what's happening

15:44

in your next of the woods. Do

15:46

what it takes to find out what

15:48

is the real problem. If

15:50

you dig a little like the restaurant,

15:53

maybe they realize it's not the food. Maybe

15:56

they realize it's location. Maybe I need to

15:58

start a catering company that leaves. this

16:00

location and goes out to where the

16:02

audiences already are. More

16:05

often than anything, I get on

16:07

that treadmill on the airport walkway,

16:09

hamster wheel thing where

16:12

I'm overworked and I'm overstretched because

16:14

I've started throwing solutions at a

16:16

bunch of problems I don't even

16:18

have. And so

16:20

before you get to thinking

16:23

about what solutions might work,

16:25

you need to have an

16:27

idea of what the problem

16:29

is. If

16:31

you're a doctor, you don't just

16:34

prescribe medicine if you're any good

16:36

without being certain that you

16:38

understand what the problem is because you're going to

16:40

make things worse, you're going to create other symptoms

16:42

and you're going to muddy the waters. And when

16:45

you get to that place, it's going to

16:47

be even harder to figure out what

16:49

the underlying problem really is.

16:52

And so let's talk about how can

16:54

we diagnose what

16:57

the real problem is and

16:59

focus our energy there. Okay,

17:08

it's time for the creative

17:10

call to adventure every

17:13

single week on this show rather than just

17:15

try to give you an idea and be

17:17

like, isn't that cool? We

17:19

try to give you something that

17:21

you can put to action from

17:24

this idea instantly, quickly,

17:27

right after listening. So here

17:30

is your CTA for this week.

17:33

Determine which of these three

17:36

problems your creative practice

17:38

currently has with our

17:41

three noun diagnostic. Okay,

17:44

your CTA is put down the kitchen sink

17:47

and step back from the

17:49

problem from one second, step

17:51

back from jumping to solutions.

17:53

In fact, I got to

17:55

say I'm so prone to jumping to

17:57

solutions that when I started this episode

18:00

I was gonna give you a bunch

18:03

of solutions to problems that

18:05

we haven't even identified in

18:07

this episode but in

18:09

fact I'm convinced that that is the

18:11

wrong move. Diagnosing

18:13

the problem is maybe the most important

18:15

part of the process and we need

18:17

to give it the time and space

18:19

it deserves. So in the next couple

18:21

weeks I'll bring you the next pieces

18:24

to this process but for now here's

18:26

my suggestion if you're overwhelmed running around

18:28

like a cat with their head stuck

18:30

in a small bucket that's

18:32

an update on running

18:35

around like a chicken with his head cut off because

18:37

it's just less violent. I don't know if it's

18:40

if it really has the same punch but here's

18:43

your creative call to adventure

18:45

the three noun diagnostic. Okay

18:50

so if you think

18:52

back to grammar back in probably

18:55

grade school you'll know that a noun

18:58

is a person place or thing

19:01

that's what a noun is and

19:03

so we're gonna go through people places

19:06

and things and see

19:08

which of these areas is something

19:10

not working. Now

19:15

this is a simplification

19:18

of the customer journey

19:21

that you might find in

19:23

marketing world you know

19:25

funnels stuff like that they break

19:27

it down into how people discover

19:29

you how they gain

19:32

trust in in what you do how

19:34

they test your product how they subscribe

19:36

and then ultimately how you make the

19:38

sale there's a bunch of pieces even

19:40

to that but I think for creators

19:43

that's just a bit overkill sometimes and

19:45

so for me I've broke down the

19:47

relationship between me and the people that

19:49

buy what I do or subscribe to

19:52

my thing in this

19:54

noun idea because it's just easier

19:56

for me to hold and

19:58

I don't need my practice to

20:00

be overly focused on marketing and

20:02

business. I just need to integrate

20:04

the bare minimum of that really.

20:06

So here are the three basic

20:09

pieces. You need people to know

20:11

about your existence, the existence of your

20:13

creative work. You need a place where

20:15

they can find you and connect with

20:18

you. And then you need a thing.

20:20

You need a product that you can

20:22

sell. And if

20:24

your creative practice is broken,

20:27

it's one of these three pieces that

20:30

isn't quite working. And

20:32

I want to dive into them with

20:34

a fine tooth comb a little bit

20:36

just to explain because

20:38

even if it's people, place, or thing

20:40

that isn't working, there

20:42

may not be working for different reasons. And so

20:45

I just want to give some examples. So let's

20:47

go to number one, people. People

20:51

is about discovery. It's about

20:54

our people, our new people finding

20:56

you, the

20:58

people that have already found you, still

21:01

getting updates from you, still getting

21:03

reminders that you exist and why

21:05

they are glad that they know

21:07

you. Do you

21:09

have that kind of relationship

21:12

with people? Now, I

21:14

never went to business school. I've had a

21:16

business for something like 15 years, but

21:20

most of my business education

21:22

probably came from the office,

21:24

specifically the episode where Michael

21:27

is teaching Ryan about

21:30

the street smarts of business, not

21:33

stuff you're gonna find at fancy

21:35

business school programs. And

21:38

he has a big list of these.

21:40

One of my favorites is act, react,

21:43

apt, I think it

21:45

is. Well,

21:48

I guess they don't teach how to operate

21:50

a toaster oven in business school. That's exactly

21:52

what I said. And in

21:55

that episode, they talk about how

21:57

getting a new customer is like. 13

22:01

times more expensive than keeping

22:03

an existing customer. And

22:06

that is known as when

22:09

you don't keep regular customers where

22:11

they discover you, they purchase from

22:13

you, and they don't come back,

22:15

that's known as churn, and it's

22:18

one of the biggest problems a business can

22:20

have. And it's actually not

22:22

13 times I did a little Google

22:24

search, it's five to 10 times more

22:27

expensive to get new customers. So if

22:29

you're focused all of your energy on

22:32

getting more people, new people,

22:35

to discover what you do, you're

22:37

probably experiencing a ton of

22:40

churn. I think about

22:42

it like when I sign up

22:44

to software, a subscription, and I

22:46

go to the webpage to log

22:48

in, and it takes me five

22:50

clicks to even find where the

22:53

login is, I can tell that

22:55

company does not value existing customers

22:58

as much as they do new customers.

23:00

And it tells me they're not thinking

23:03

enough about the product and

23:05

serving the people they're already

23:07

working with. And that's

23:09

a really hard thing to do because

23:11

there's so much pressure to get those

23:14

vanity metrics, to get more people, to

23:16

get more followers, more subscribers, instead of

23:18

actually delivering anything of value to the

23:20

people that are already signed up and

23:22

spending time with you. And

23:25

so it might be a people issue,

23:27

it might be a thing of just

23:29

you're not on enough people's radar. And

23:32

that can be new people discovering,

23:34

it can be nurturing the

23:36

relationships you already have, but is

23:39

it just a people

23:41

problem? Now you

23:43

can move to step two or the

23:46

next piece, which is place, where you

23:48

connect. Is

23:50

the location of your pizza restaurant just

23:52

in a part of town that is

23:54

unreliable or out of the way? We

23:57

all know those restaurants that.

24:00

are cursed to be in this

24:02

block of the city that's

24:04

very difficult to reach. Maybe there's just

24:06

a few weird stop lights and you

24:08

have to go through a parking lot

24:10

and it's just a strange place to

24:12

put a restaurant and

24:14

you just can't get people through the door

24:16

whether they like you or they don't. Or

24:19

maybe you're just renting a place

24:21

in a part of town that has

24:23

got pricey or isn't cool anymore or

24:25

there's just too much competition over there,

24:27

whatever it is, it might be the

24:30

location and that doesn't just apply to

24:32

restaurants, it applies to where you're showing

24:34

up in real life and showing up

24:36

on the internet. So that could be

24:38

the app. I kind of feel

24:41

personally that when it comes to creating

24:43

anything for the internet, the thing you're

24:46

creating for the internet should be the

24:48

same medium that you want

24:50

to get hired for. It should

24:53

be the exact same thing we're

24:55

gonna talk about in number three, the thing.

24:57

It should be the same medium. I

25:00

don't think you should be making videos

25:03

and videos and videos if you're trying

25:05

to sell illustration to clients. Like

25:08

it should be illustration. And

25:10

if people aren't consuming pizza

25:13

in that neck of the woods,

25:16

if they're not consuming illustration on

25:18

that platform anymore, you need to

25:20

have a think about where are

25:22

people starting to look for that

25:24

thing. And

25:26

it doesn't need to be millions of people.

25:29

It doesn't need to be just a

25:31

crazy amount of new people discovering. It

25:33

just has to be a place where

25:35

you can connect with the people that

25:37

are looking for that particular thing. And

25:41

so sometimes you get in a place

25:43

like Instagram and the rent is just

25:45

too high. You've been priced out. The

25:47

profit margins for the type of pizza

25:50

that you sell isn't a high end

25:52

enough thing to get by in that

25:54

place anymore. Instagram

25:56

has become a very high stakes place

25:59

for people. that make viral videos. If you're

26:01

not in the business, if you don't have

26:03

a product that is related to viral videos

26:07

or at least viral storytelling or joke

26:10

telling, I would get the heck out

26:12

of there, man. Okay? I'm

26:14

not saying close your account, I'm just

26:16

saying don't spend your energy trying to

26:19

solve your problems there. You can still

26:21

show up in a more passive

26:23

way, but I recommend

26:25

finding a place that

26:27

is suited for the type of thing that you're going

26:29

to sell. And number three is

26:31

thing, the thing that you're going to sell. There

26:34

are so many creators, myself included, that

26:36

can get so caught up on

26:39

the people getting new people or where's

26:41

the place where everybody's at and

26:43

not even realize I don't even have

26:46

a product. If I got

26:48

the people into the place, I wouldn't

26:50

have any pizza to sell them. Like

26:53

we didn't even think about that part

26:55

because we didn't get that far. When

26:57

in fact I would recommend, and this is

26:59

the thing that is the clincher, if you

27:01

don't get anything else in this episode, this

27:03

is the point. I recommend

27:06

starting at number three and

27:08

working backwards. I don't

27:10

think you should even consider a place. I don't

27:12

even think you should consider new

27:15

people discovering your existence if

27:17

you don't have a product

27:19

that is viable. If

27:21

you don't have a thing that

27:23

you're selling and you don't

27:25

have an idea of how expensive does

27:27

this need to be, how many would

27:29

I have to sell in order to

27:32

get to the goals

27:34

that I'm trying to reach?

27:36

If you have no

27:39

idea what that product is,

27:42

that might be the problem. You need

27:44

to go in and say, okay, what is the

27:46

product? What's the problem with it? Maybe you don't

27:48

have one. Maybe you have one but it's too

27:50

cheap. The profit margin

27:52

for time and

27:54

resources and expenses and

27:58

marketing is too expensive. to

28:01

make this a viable product. It

28:04

might be that people just aren't

28:06

paying for that product anymore. And

28:08

you need to do market research about with the

28:11

kind of work that you do, that

28:14

you think is the most valuable creative offering that

28:16

you have or the one that you want to

28:18

spend the most amount of time doing, where

28:21

are people buying things

28:23

like that? You might have

28:25

to interpret it a little, you might have to

28:27

reinvent it a little, you might have to shift

28:29

it a little to make that product fit. But

28:32

before you go into the market,

28:35

before you go into getting new

28:37

people, you need to have a

28:39

clear idea that this product, if

28:41

in the right place, if with

28:43

the right people, would actually create

28:45

a viable practice before you

28:47

even get to those other pieces. And

28:50

then once you have an idea of the thing, that's

28:53

when you're gonna go to number two,

28:55

and you're gonna say, where is the

28:57

best place for this kind of

28:59

thing? Where are people actually looking for this thing?

29:02

When people open Instagram now, for

29:04

what it's offering now, they're not

29:07

looking for art. They're

29:10

looking for videos, they're looking for some

29:12

dopamine, they're looking to just turn off

29:14

their brain for a minute. And

29:17

so it's dramatically shifted. Why

29:20

are people going to that part of town?

29:22

Why are people going to the internet? What

29:26

is the thing you're trying to sell? And where are people looking for that thing? That's

29:28

when you go to place. And when you get

29:31

the place kind of locked in, then you can start

29:33

thinking about, what are the things I need to do

29:35

to get on other people's radar? What

29:38

are the collaborations that I need to

29:40

do with the other restaurants in town

29:43

so that they know we exist? How

29:45

do I get them through the door?

29:48

Because it's so much easier once they've

29:50

bought one time, once they've tasted that

29:52

pizza one time, they're so much more

29:54

likely to do it again. And

29:57

so then you can start thinking about, how do we

29:59

get people... through this door. Alright,

30:08

that's it for this week's episode.

30:11

I hope that it helped you

30:13

if you are feeling like

30:15

you're on a treadmill on the

30:17

airport walkway within a hamster wheel

30:20

on a ball. I'm

30:23

trying to balance and

30:26

I don't know. But if

30:29

that's where you are juggling and trying to

30:31

figure it out, I hope that this has

30:33

helped you find some clarity in

30:35

the problem that you're facing.

30:38

And then after you feel like you have

30:42

a guess of what that problem

30:44

might be, don't stop just there. Dive

30:47

a little bit deeper. Have some conversations.

30:49

Spend the next week not

30:52

rushing to implement answers to

30:54

this. I know that

30:56

it is tempting, especially when those

30:58

problems are really, you

31:01

know, barreling at you and

31:03

taunting you. It can

31:05

feel like there's so much pressure

31:07

to solve it as quickly as

31:09

humanly possible. But the quickest route

31:12

I can guarantee you is making

31:14

sure you're solving the right problem first.

31:17

And so once you have some

31:19

ideas, have some conversations, do some

31:21

searches, reach out to some people

31:24

in your industry and try to get

31:27

a sense of is this

31:29

problem really the problem? And

31:31

once you have some of that, come

31:33

back. Come on back to the bonfire

31:36

that is Creative Pep Talk and we'll

31:38

start talking about what to do to

31:41

solve some of those problems. Creative

31:47

Pep Talk is your weekly podcast

31:49

companion for your creative journey. I'm

31:51

your host Andy J. Pizza. I'm

31:53

a New York Times bestselling picture

31:55

bookmaker and illustrator for clients like

31:57

Xbox and Apple. I Pep Talk

31:59

team. at creative hubs like Warby Parker

32:01

and Sesame Street, and I make this

32:03

podcast because for me, it takes a

32:06

whole lot of creativity just to get

32:08

out of bed in the morning sometimes,

32:10

let alone attempt to create a thriving

32:12

creative practice. This show is just

32:14

me sharing the things that seem to be

32:16

helping in case they help anybody else. Shout

32:19

out to Yoni Wolf and the band Y

32:21

for our theme music and soundtrack. Huge thanks

32:24

to Connor Jones of Pinning Beautiful for the

32:26

sound design and editing the show. Massive

32:29

thanks to Katie Chandler and Sophie

32:31

Miller for podcast assistance of all

32:33

kinds, and thanks to you for

32:35

listening, and until we speak again,

32:37

stay peped up. Thank

32:58

you.