042: Diane Gibbs - Recharging you (and your creative battery)
Designer, educator, and entrepreneur helps me on my journey
Diane Gibbs has been a designer for over 20 years and entrepreneur, running her own design firm, little bird communications, since 2002. She’s won over 24 national and international design awards. She coaches professional design entrepreneurs from all over the US, guiding them in growing their creative businesses. She’s appeared on the popular YouTube channel, the futur with Chris Do, and has been a guest on numerous other podcasts, has spoken at three national conferences, emceed regional AIGA events, and facilitated workshops.
Diane’s been teaching graphic design at the University of South Alabama since 2003. In 2012, she started a live, weekly, video podcast called Design Recharge where she interviews creatives and industry leaders from around the globe. She’s passionate about helping creatives grow their businesses and serves as a matchmaker for budding, creative entrepreneurs by connecting them with emerging designers who have recently joined the industry through her side project, Recruiting Creatives.
NOTES
Diane shares her newest adventure in art — the new children’s book she’s created with Lydia Rueger, called Victor & the Vroom (*affiliate link), about a car that looks similar to other cars in his class, but under his hood is an engine that sounds like no one else’s.
Continuing on that path, we discuss the benefits of ADHD and dyslexia and how they are “superpowers” for us as artists
As Diane and I spark our new friendship during the conversation, she turns the tables on me and asks me a bunch of questions — to share how she works with artists and to help you learn more about me (as a friend did for her recently)
We talk about the benefits of knowing your strengths and weaknesses so that you can better work with others, whether it’s with your partner in life, business, or other artists
She shares how designers are akin to beavers, how they are extraordinary yet so misunderstood, and how they are an underdog we need to learn from
She tells a fun story about a colleague from Thailand who must walk his mom to the bathroom when he’s at home because of the “Krasue”, a nocturnal female spirit of Southeast Asian folklore
She compares us as creatives to the story of “David & Goliath” and how it all comes down to practice, patience, and faith
LINKS
Victor & the Vroom by Lydia Rueger (Author), diane gibbs (Illustrator)
(*affiliate link)
Leave It To Beavers (full documentary)
David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants by Malcolm Gladwell (*affiliate link)
The unheard story of David and Goliath (TED Talk)
The Revisionist History podcast with Malcolm Gladwell
Makers of Sport podcast with Adam Martin
CREATIVES IGNITE, a virtual summer camp for creative entrepreneurs —> theartful.co/ignite
If you are a creative entrepreneur ready to:
Learn How to REACH Your Ideal Customer?
RETAIN those Customers?
REFRAME Hindering Mindsets?
SUMMER CAMP REGISTRATION opens May 29 —> Register here
TRANSCRIPT
[0:00] It's never There's never the time to give up. You just got to keep going. If somebody trashes your beaver dam, you hear the call? The call is he, the beaver hears the call of the water.
I hear running water. I know what we gotta do. We gotta pack of it, Pack it up. We got to stop the running water.
But for us, we hear the call of whatever that the thing is that we're supposed to do, and you just can't lose track even when somebody crushes it.
Just know that maybe this is part of your David and the sheep's time.
It's just something you're learning that's going to help you do this even better great thing in the future.
[0:41] Music.
[0:48] Welcome to ärtful, a community committed to championing artists and creative misfits from all walks of life.
This show gives you an insiders look into the real scrappy lives of artists creating with purpose, including interviews with beatboxers, graffiti writers, DJs, chefs, photographers, designers, illustrators, filmmakers, and music artists from around the globe.
As well as insights and inspiration from yours truly, I'm Gabe Ratliff, an award-winning artist, coach, entrepreneur, and fellow misfit all right. Let's do this!
[1:20] Music.
[1:31] Hey, guys, Thanks so much for being here. I'm so excited to have you. Oh, my gosh.
Looking so forward to sharing Diane Gibbs with you. We had such a blast chatting. She is such a treat.
We both have so much energy. It was just crazy.
I mean, this was Mach five with your hair on fire. I mean, you can just hear it.
In our conversation, we were just both lit. So looking forward to sharing this with you, let me tell you a little bit about Diane.
She's an entrepreneur, a designer illustrator, host of design recharge podcast. She's a cheerleader for creatives, crafter and a believer who is happiest when she's helping others.
She is just amazing. And in this episode, she shares her newest adventure in art, the new Children's book she's created with Lydia Ruger called Victor and the room about a car that looks similar to other cars in his class.
But under his hood is an engine that sounds like no one else's continue on that path. We discuss the benefits of a D, h. D and dyslexia and how they are superpowers for us as artists.
As Diane and I spark our new friendship. During the conversation, she turns the tables on me and asked me a bunch of questions to share how she works with artists and help you learn more about me as a friend did for her recently.
[2:46] We talk about the benefits of knowing your strengths and weaknesses so that you can better work with others, whether it's with your partner in life, business or other artists.
She shares how designers are akin to beavers, how their extraordinary yet so misunderstood and how they're an underdog we need to learn from.
She does a fun story about a colleague from Thailand. You must walk his mom to the bathroom when he's at home because of the cross. Ooh, a nocturnal female spirit of SouthEast Asian folklore.
And she compares us as creatives to the story of David and Goliath and how it all comes down to practice, patience and faith.
This is a really fun episode. I'm looking forward to checking it out and learning more about Diane Gibbs.
And one more thing. She has a virtual summer camp for creative entrepreneurs.
The registration is opening today, May 29th. It's called creatives Ignite.
Like I said, it's a virtual summer camp for creative entrepreneurs. You can go to thea artful dot co slash ignite to get linked directly to the landing page for the summer camp.
And she says, If you're a creative entrepreneur, ready to learn how to reach your ideal customer, retain those customers and reframe your hindering mindsets, then you want to check this one out.
Like I said, this opens up today. May 29th go to the artful dot co slash ignite.
[4:09] Hey. Hello. How are you? I'm doing well. How are you?
I'm good. I'm excited to meet you. You too. Oh, my gosh. We like you're finally able to do it because you had your book, right? I mean, you were I had a kids book.
Yeah. I mean, yeah, I mean, it was just I just like I was, but did you? So I love kids books. So look, so I am.
I believe that, um, everybody has a gold, right. And I believe that we overlook some of the most amazing gold every day.
And one of my favorite things is inside of envelope because somebody had to design those. And sometimes there is amazing beauty. You new look at the inside. You probably get all your mail.
Are all your bills e bills? But see, there's a There's a beauty home. But look, this is the inside of a T and T envelope.
This is the Discover Bill. Right? So to me, I love collage.
And I think if I could be better, it's something I'd really like to do that you know?
And so I My friend Lydia, who I worked with in Colorado, she was like, I have a book.
It's about a car with a PhD on. I was like, Hey, I was just diagnosed this summer with a PhD.
I pretty much knew And it, you know, like whatever. Now I'm on medicine. That helps me.
But, um but So look, are you ready?
[5:37] Here's the A T and T Bill. But look, there's Victor.
No. You see him? Yes. Well, that one kids in that bun c.
[5:48] So my mom and this is nice because it's a big envelope, right? So it's a figure of the normal envelope.
So I had my mom saving these. I like because I needed to be able to make all these Victor's right.
So I made him by hand, and then I colored them with some water color.
I mean, I'm not anybody like there's some amazing people, right? But this is fun to me, and it uses It s So you could be recycling right.
Everything is useful. Yes. Who's looking at the inside right? It's not for its normal purpose.
I love those extra purposes. I've been doing the same thing.
[6:28] Yes, like coat hangers. I started keeping because I was like I could do metal art because I was noticing when we were in Thailand.
I'm like, OK, we're on a small island.
[6:39] Trash is a problem, right?
[6:42] It's the same here in Mexico. It's the same in Sri Lanka. It's the same in India. I was noticing all of these.
You know, developing countries have an issue with trash. And I was thinking, How cool would it be.
[6:53] As an artist to go around the island and find these pieces like I saw chairs that just needed to be renovated or up cycled as they say now.
But, you know, I saw these things and I was like, How cool would it be so similar? Like, why not take.
[7:10] These things that are up. You know what they say is 11 person's trash, right?
And then you turn it into something beautiful. That's why I love street art because street art, they're saying, Here's this ugly ass cinder block wall.
[7:26] I'm going to make it beautiful and peace People used to say that was You know, they'd be like It's graffiti.
It's vandalism and you're like, No, bro, it's not their beautifying.
This wall that's been this used to be mountains and hills, and it's now concrete jungle, and they're making it pretty now.
People are getting commissioned to do murals all over buildings, but it's now. People wanted to have their picture taken in front of that.
Right now it becomes I was here and I have experienced this, right?
So my husband's a metal artist. I can You seem a little bird. Ah, yeah. Just sits on my desk there. You can see it.
[8:05] He does all these cool little things, and it's really you know, that would be not a big enough to make something out of right.
It would be something he would throw other people throw away anyway, So I did everything every It's all tiny little I mean, looking out big my finger is and then, like these air tiny cuts. Right.
But I had a blast. This was the most fun. And I did this when I was and I did part of it when I was in Oregon.
I mean, on the plane, you know, I mean, but then I did the all the line work in procreate, so it was just fun. This is a more, you know, again, it's still the 18 t envelope. This is a world vision, and below this is a like a book.
Anyway, it was just fun, you know? It's like and this is something kids could do. You know what? Like, hey, just like a kid with 80 HD often overlooked too. You know, they're like, Oh, that's the problem, kid.
Here comes Jimmy. You know, we're here comes Diane, right?
And it's like, Oh, wow, you know what they really are superpower like you are under estimating.
[9:08] The power of something because you think it's on Lee. Good. One way, one direction.
But we're not. We're made for greater things for sure. Absolutely. It's so nice to see you, like, get like, lit up by something like that. That's like, out of the blue.
Yeah, like, uh, I remember I did ah, project through the future with Christo out if you're familiar with them.
[9:28] So I am in the pro group and he did this thing. He's like, let's do skate decks.
And I would love to work for, like, Burton or, you know, work for snowboard. You may and I loved and I went back 20 years later. I had not snowboarded and I didn't even fall.
I mean, I was super stoked that I was like, I mean, I'm sure I wouldn't going super fast, but hey, it was fast for me, you know, like I went. I did. Ah, black.
I mean, it was like I still had this word low. That's no warning. You know, it's kind of like an old friend who once you get back with them, you're just right in.
And it was just loved the freedom of snow and it's just Ah, I just miss.
That's one thing I miss about Colorado so bad anyway, So he had. He said, Let's do skate decks. And so it was 30 days You had to do 30 days of different skate decks and it had to have some sort of consistency.
And so the consistency I chose was to do the inside envelopes. And so I had this.
That was kind of like a framework around it. And then, ah, a couple years ago, I did one with the design recharge family.
We did drinks like, you know, like a can drink or it it didn't have to be a drink.
Drink. It couldn't have been a bottle boxed water. It could have been whatever, but it had to be some sort of drink packaging. And I want to do collage. Oh, and to do limited color.
And I was like, uh, I'll just have legs.
[10:57] That'll be my one. Weird. I mean, like, who does that? But I they're over there off to show you Austin, Jupiter or something.
But I just So all of them have leg somewhere in there, like somewhere kind of hidden, but and a lot of it hat, and they were really physical collages. And then I just plopped him in, you know, in the mock up. I did put him on the can and said it was, Ah.
[11:19] A life water, which I'm a Coke drinker. Right.
I grew up in Atlanta, so that was if we drink.
If there was only Pepsi, sorry if your podcast is sponsored by Pepsi, but no way would not, um, I would be like, all the stuff.
Water, You know, it's like like they have Dr Pepper, which was the in between. You know, I'll just go with that. Do you have tap water? But anyway, I did collage with that.
And I just think if I hadn't done that, I would never have been ready for Victor. And that was That's Victor in the room.
It's the car. Enters the car. Kids pictures.
Yeah. Anyway, I just I think that that's it's fun.
It's just like you with music, though, right? Like, um, man, I So I wrote this down when you were talking, so I would love to dig into some of this with you.
[12:08] You want a further support artists because you want to get to the meat.
And I loved that man. Talk about core like forget the bun.
Forget the fluff. Forget that. Forget the condiments, right? You just want I want to know what's at the heart of this.
So what's at the heart of the artists or what's at the heart of, you know?
People are making a sacrifice a lot of times to do their art, whatever it is, whether it's,
entrepreneurship or they're doing art through music or art through physical art, they're they're doing things to their body as they you know, if they're painting murals there.
There's all these sacrifices I think we make and somebody has Teoh.
Somebody has toe advocate for them, I think. Right?
Eso You said I want to get to the meat of either the air stories or getting so it wasn't about so much about them. Is that them?
Yeah, making money or the It was about Marvel, Yeah.
[13:13] Yeah. So why Why is that so? Because I realized I was getting away from that.
Right? So I have a new entrepreneur and I realized, No, you're not you. And that's what I really paperboy by fire. You are. You have been a collector. A deejay.
Holy moly. That's all you do is you put out you combine right of what?
There and then you're sending it out in your own way. What do you call that?
Uh, curating. You've been curating even in paper boi days. Probably the paperboy expect Didn't last that long. So there wasn't a lot of creative creativity with it.
No, just freedom. That was part of what came up to me. It was the freedom. I got to ride my bike.
E got to watch Sunrise deliver the paper. I had the freedom and I realized, you know, later jobs. I didn't have that freedom.
[14:05] And I didn't realise that was what I was missing was the freedom on the interview with Reggie and I'm all he had brought up the Celestine Prophecy.
And that was part of what sent me on this path. In the midst of all this.
I had so I got the book when I was actually when I was, I was at McKay's used CDs but was also this massive bookstore.
And so we got. I was getting music books, graphic novels, movies, media for really great deals. And so I was just devouring all that stuff, and I had gotten the Celestine Prophecy.
I'm big, and I was. My minor was psychology, but I was studying CEO.
Part of my downfall of college was going into philosophy and sociology and psychology and getting into, like, behavior and like how we think and what Why are we here?
[14:55] And that would I would sit and pontificate and philosophizes and like, miss class.
And that was, of course, until I got into deejaying.
[15:07] Because I just was like, love and light.
It was all about player. And, you know, So, um of peace, love, unity, respect was just acronym.
But that was like that was like the motto that was like, the creed of my generation in the dance culture was peace, love, unity, respect Because it was around, It was you could be a weirdo.
It was the same thing. I was in the Gulf crowd, right? I was like the guy who I was like in the hippie crowd.
I was in the Gulf crowd. I was in the dance crowd, but the dance crowd really called to me because as a drummer, I just I could connected with loving music and then being able to share it.
I did a radio show for four years, and I was like I and I was in the record store. I mean, I was like I was lit.
I was constantly lit. It was awesome. And that was what I didn't realize at the time was like I was in that space of like, drawing my life.
I was like, just you know, looking back, I regretted not finishing school, but I realized school was just not where I was meant to be.
[16:12] It was just the catalyst that got me into the things that I wanted to do.
And I think that comes at echoes back to what you were saying earlier about the inside of envelopes and working on these projects and like us, is artists touching things and doing things.
That was the thing for me when I got into deejaying was vinyl.
It wasn't in a computer. It wasn't like it's It's still it's like less tactile than it used to be.
People can literally have a laptop, put some software on, get some MP threes and start deejaying.
It's way, way easier, but it's also weigh less tactical a tak tactile.
Sorry, not tactical tactile then it was when I started.
But maybe tactical is the right word because it was tactile. But you also you had toe think about how you're gonna have to get this one out. You're gonna have to have this going while I get this next one ready to go.
You know what I mean? It's true. It's very true. Well, and you only had.
So that's and that's actually wonderful observation because Now you can actually loop music and have it keep playing.
[17:18] And extend your mix, which I'm a big fan of, because the way I like to mix and so that's actually true.
You only had. How long the song Waas and if and if you are like a turntable ist like say, like in hip hop, you're only using certain sections anyway, So you're literally having to figure out how you want to compile your music, almost like a composer.
That's what I've always loved about music, is it?
If you're like when you're deejaying, you're essentially like the composer.
[17:47] The orchestra's the meat, the song, right?
You're orchestrating this song with this song to take people on this journey, and so you're actually putting the two together, and the whole point is to transition in a way that people don't know that you transitioned, at least in the style that I learned.
And so it's all about like how you get from one to the next and then to the next.
But meanwhile, you're taking him on this beautiful journey of emotion and sound, and it's all about trying to do it in a way that they don't notice.
But I loved how this whole thing about music is like a universal language, right is how tribes used to speak to each other.
One of the early ways and early civilization that they would communicate was through music and before we actually came up with speech and communication.
And so I I've always thought that was an interesting thing about music, especially with electronic and classical and jazz is that there's not generally vocals, right, so you can.
[18:45] You can all understand it, whether you're from Berlin or from Boston, you know you can get what that is, but The thing that I've also found for me is I also have trouble focusing, and I have attention issues.
When I was in art school, dance, music and an ambient music helped me focus gave me the thread for my brain to shut up.
I have the inner monologue, and I just found out my wife doesn't I don't know if you heard about this going around people talking about, like, do they have an inner monologue? A monologue or not? Have you heard about this?
No, I have one. She's very loud and very mean.
Said I was reading about that. Your inner mean voice. I was gonna ask you about that.
She's main. We got your damn. I need a cheerleader, Diane.
So I actually think attention. Things is not It is a superpower.
Somebody told me it took them two years to do a kids book. You know how long it took me?
Three months gives, You know, I really holy moly. Yeah, You can do lots of things. Like you just got it.
And I still worked a job and I had client work, and I you know, it was a.
[19:52] You can do things like this is It's like dyslexics air, usually amazing problem summers, those air like the CEO's that entrepreneurs that are like solving things because they always had to solve things differently.
They really should be, like, scooped up. Oh, you have dyslexia.
I want to hire you like that because they saw things. And the they're great, usually with people, because I have had to figure things out.
Okay, so I want to know we're in your life. Music started playing a huge role.
I know exactly the moment I think I talk about on the website.
I'm pretty sure I was five and I was playing. I was in the living room.
We had this big red velvet couch This awesome I live is like, if just felt great.
We had the old stereo with, like, the big We call them pots in radio potential commoners, but we call them pots of just big knobs, right to adjust and just the old school style in the eighties.
And I remember I was listening to the police.
[20:54] Mm. Every breath you take and I was playing air drums fast forward.
A few years later, I started playing drums, and I realized that I was actually motioning correctly cause I remembered at that point and I was like, Wow, this is crazy. I actually I got it. You know, I understood.
I first started learning music in elementary school.
Bye, Mrs Haines. I learned classical, and then I learned jazz. So I started with classical.
So it really makes sense to me now when I look back that I love scores Ambien.
[21:30] Elektronik all these things that I also was my favorite drummers, John Bottom. So, like I love rock Ah, and I was in marching band orchestra, concert grand.
I did all that stuff before I got into actual drum kit and like rock bands.
But I started with classical, so I got a really great initiation into music and just the dynamics that is is music.
And that's something I really, I feel for the new generation now.
Um, Tiff was telling me that they did a study a little while ago and that the 20 that, like to thousands, I guess.
[22:10] Was like the worst general like decade for music ever because it's so repetitive, like they ran all these algorithms on music.
You know, I'm like the sixties and the seventies and even into the eighties and not even the nineties.
It was kind of like hip hop the best Everyone will say the best air of hip hop was the nineties, and it's like it kind of hit this threshold.
So I think sometimes with music, I am not a huge music person.
I don't probably listen to enough music. I listen to more books than I do music now, but hope you'll still be my friend. Kindred spirit.
I know for sure. For your sure so.
But to me, I have never done any drugs. But I can.
That's what it feels like for me when the artist when ah, a band.
I think they get scared to keep exploring and keep experimenting because they don't want somebody.
Big brother. You know, whatever the dealers like, you need this right you need you need to keep.
[23:15] Selling this. This is what your people want. But if you're really listening, if you go out and you talk to these people, you realize things change. They grow and they refine right.
But I think people get scared. They get scared to try new things. They get scared to fail.
It's hard, but it's, you know, there's that whole. It's out for everybody.
It's like out in the public like I'm gonna It's the one hit wonder worry or the um, you're never going to be able to repeat that Great.
It's like You just need to keep making you know that everything you make is not refrigerator worthy, right?
It's probably not. You're not gonna keep all the songs that you made to go on the album. There has to be some some cooling down. There has to be refinement, but there's lots of things you can make with wheat.
You can make bread you could make. I don't know I'm not a good cooker person, but you know, there's lots of things you could make right.
I mean, there's less things you could make with green beans, right?
But it's like then you just need people need to explore this. Why, like people like Gordon Ramsay, who go and use his gift?
Yes, he's a chef, but he's a business owner, and he has the ability Tim to tell people what they need to hear instead of what they want to hear.
I'm sure there's lots of bands who who are just following their own voice, but I think that.
[24:43] When you have, if you're trying to get that big deal or you're trying to get, it's like you're chasing the wrong dragon, you know, and.
[24:54] You know, there's a you you just need to reach the right people like there s so many people in podcasts dinner in designer, in anything YouTube there.
They're trying to get numbers Are you know, I'm the worst person.
I never look at those things. I'm like, I don't even know like I should have been like, Holy moly. I've been doing this for a long time.
[25:17] I should have put I you know, I have, like, 107 episodes.
That's just on a jump. Oh, not a jump drive. It's on the hard disk somewhere it's there and I just need to put them up, right, because But I don't have time to do it.
So I was I thought about today. I was like, Oh, it says I only have 208 episodes on Soundcloud, but I know I have 343 like it's just old episodes because of the platform.
I was making stuff on the beginning, but it's like I don't stop to put those up.
I just keep going and just like you're doing right now with yours you're exploring.
It wasn't the same when you were traveling, but you are still able to do.
But you had you had to pivot. You had to, um you had to re figure out a new way of doing it.
And I think that that's what's great, you know? And I think what you're talking about with culture. And, you know, maybe when you said about playing the drums and it was something you understood, right?
Rhythm was something that was just natural. And I don't know if you didn't felt maybe you had like me with there was always somehow we felt a little odd.
I know that my mom would look at me a certain way. Or, you know, I would be like, Oh, I've embarrassed them again, you know, or whatever it was.
[26:39] It's like that was something that you could do. You knew? Was it felt right?
[26:46] Like, yeah, yeah. The drums is a really important part of ah, band.
Yeah, it's the backbone. Yeah, that in the best. Yeah, they're the backbone. You can't hide.
There's no hiding. So if you miss something and I remember there was a couple of times where I would like I like would miss something cause I was just, like, in my head too much and not just playing.
[27:11] And I would the left brain would start to kick in, you know, get out of the zone of the zone and I'd be like, Shut up, chap.
You know, I mean, it's like this podcast, right? Like this. This is a different format than I've been doing.
But part of what I've been investigating, it's just letting it be just so be it, like, let it be what it is.
I'll figure it out, you know, like, I'll figure out the story and like how I want to convey this.
But it's about this experience with you and this back and forth that we're having. And that was what was so great with Reggie animals I wasn't prescriptive. I hadn't.
I didn't have my producer hat on. I had my just being me.
[27:51] You know, fellow artful, sitting with another artful person and just being artful, you know, And that's getting down to that essence, paring down to the essence that I was just so loved.
It's like the my favorite quote from that book.
Rework. I was just like I read. That was like I like because I was like, That's it, I get it.
I've been I've been tracing another life, you know, I was I was tracing.
I was actually going against my whole motto of drawing your life and I realized it, and I'm now saying it out loud. You know, I was like, Fuck, I'm actually doing that and that's not me.
[28:29] I'm getting away from me, and I just didn't know it. I thought thought is like, Ha. This is this makes sense to me.
It's going this path, you know? But it was not being true to myself.
I love that. So, um okay, So something else you've said you have done things without people noticing.
You've said this a bunch of times in bunch of different, like when you're deejaying. You want a transition without people noticing?
Um, when you're telling a story or your but it helps the experience, I think right.
Even like the embracing the culture in the food, right?
Your your experience. Experiencing it without even noticing it. You're not like prescriptive.
Now we're going to go and have this dish and then this dish.
No, that's not culture. That's that's order taking or pushing pixels, or I just hear that. So I am excited that I've seen you light.
Uh, the way you said you like to mix is like the composer. So the composer has to do the research, right?
We have to know who your, um, like your friends are.
Me. You're my friend now, I hope, But like you said, I've written it down twice. Transition without people knowing emotion and sound without them noticing.
[29:52] And I I love this because this is so natural.
It's like the drums for you, if you or even just a score or something that sets with sound sound is so important and more so than video quality, right?
The sound qualities wait more important.
You were saying, you know, tribes communicate that this was the first way and motive.
So emotion is really there's something in this I don't know if you've captain this enough for you have and you're like guy, and you should listen to episode lovable known But, um, but like there is something there.
[30:33] About you've used the word light or light you up, shine the light. So there's something about light.
But think about things you've been putting. You said put two together, right?
Whether the composer, the orchestra of the song, whatever right that when you're a d.
J, you're putting together the music and the people right when you're in a band, you're putting together the band that that plus the people you're also doing as design and design or art.
We're doing what we've made and then we're thinking about how it's it's, um, read or expressed, right? So there's always these two things.
So when you want to help somebody, you want to help them. Because, you know, everybody has something to offer, right? Yes.
[31:21] They might not have all found their voice yet or found their rhythm like you did when you were five. Right?
Or some people have have found it when they were five, and then they went away from it because it wasn't like Tiff, right?
She was in that and then got burned out because maybe that wasn't it was she was good at it.
But it wasn't her true genius, right?
The philosophy and the psychology is all, really, um, interesting to me for sure.
I think there's something with exploring for sure. You know that you have a tattoo of, you know, a compass on your on your arm.
It's on your right arm.
Is that your dominant arm? What number kid are you? Three?
That's actually the interesting thing. So my brother and sister are older,
and from my mom's first marriage, and they moved to Florida,
when I was still up in the D C area when I was very young about that same time, actually, when I was starting to get into music and they were actually my baby sitters when I was little, but I it so I ended up kind of growing up an only child.
[32:23] And so I was like, this sort of weird anomaly. I have siblings, but they're like, half siblings, and they moved away and they're older, and I didn't actually, like, grow up with them.
Um, so I ended up being down in the basement, you know, fighting dragons with my paper tube with your imagination.
Which is why you really believe people need toe sit and and absorb and explore go outside and explore.
But they also need to sit and philosophizes, and they need to sit and listen to the lyrics, right and and be challenged in those ways. Maybe that's why,
you've always had to go out to search for adventure on your own.
So you it's totally great going and exploring new culture or making new friends. You've always probably had an easy time making friends. Yep.
So one of the things I would have done early you were an except er because you said I was in Gotha. And then I did the could go with the granola kids. And what was I wrote?
You were an except, er you were a non judge. Er you were You could do whatever you were just you. But you didn't.
Maybe you tried to fit that box, which you realize that that was in the box for you and that you are more than those things. Were all of those things?
Yes, very much so, which I thought was That's actually one of the things that wrote about on the website.
A my bio was that I thought that was like a curse.
[33:52] You know, being that's one. The things I loved about your bio when I was reading Is it?
You know, it's like I I thought I had to inter mean voice like you.
And she's like the mean Gabe.
Ah, like you're mean Diane and and I.
[34:09] I because I would get made fun of even by friends. They would make fun of me.
And why? What would they make fun of you about? Well, cause I'm also really sensitive, right? So I'm more in touch with my feminine side. I was raised by a wonderful mother.
She she actually supported my creativity. She was an artist.
Uh, she played violin and drums and Drew and I initially started drawing and was really big into that comics, all that stuff illustration enemy all those things.
And she supported that.
And so being more sensitive, I would like, make these comments and they would, like, say, they ask if I was gay or they would like, just make thes remarks of like, You're so weird.
That's part of my admission with the show is supporting everyone, you know and supporting Artful is creative misfits like myself because we are out liars. We are different. But it's not our curse it czar something to be grateful for.
It's a blessing, and it's part of what makes us who we are. And it's a superpower, as you call it.
[35:17] And so when I started to lean into that and realized that that was the case.
That was this kind of culmination of where I am now with, like, getting really clear about the artful and getting so focused on that.
And I was just thinking about that when I was doing the new artwork.
[35:32] I was like because I was playing around with, like, you know, a lot of times it has our picture in it, right?
And I was realizing that I don't want that. I don't want my If it's if it's a solo episode, I think it's great, right?
Because it's me talking, you know, And for this will be yours and it's us talking. But like it's it's part of what I love about the doing this podcasting is.
[35:54] I'm a talker. I love talking. I love connecting with people. I talk.
My I talk to think, if you're familiar with that, Yeah, I mean to my wife is a thing to talk.
So we're, like, completely opposite. She's like grain and I'm right brain.
She's a thing to talk. I mean, talk to think.
[36:09] And it's been so wonderful getting connected into these things that make us who we are because it allows you to be able to work together and to be able to say, Look, this is how I work.
How can we figure out how to work together, whether it's your partner, whether it's, you know, your business, whether it's with contractors, whether it's with clients, whatever it is, you know, and like being able to use these things and realize like, No, this is what if you lean into this, it's actually better.
And so that was part of what I chose with the artwork is to just have it be about the artful, and I have me at the bottom really small right like it is with me.
But it's about the artful, and I don't need to have my picture on it. to be this like shining white, literally shining white Hope.
You know, I don't need it to be that way. Now is part of why I had chosen to have black and white photos.
I'm now shifting that toe have my primary color that I'm using because it's just it's like fun and vibrant, you know, Um and that's kind of where I wanted to take the look because I wanted to feel that way.
But I do like that. Everybody looks the same.
It's not about what color they are. And that's the thing. I also love about audio, just like in podcasting. It's just the same for me as it is with dance music.
That's why when I started, podcasting was like, I love telling stories. I love the interaction, connecting with people and sharing you curating these people and sharing them.
[37:31] But I also love that you don't. It doesn't matter what you look like.
It's just audio. You get the power of audio. That's part of what my messages out to.
[37:41] Those that I'm serving with this show and having people like yourself on that air serving people,
with your creativity and your knowledge and experience and all the things that you share with your clients and students is that purpose.
Creating with purpose is what finally brought it all together for me.
[38:04] And that, that is what I've realized is the like meaning of life is to find purpose like, yes, you can have your craft that you're,
getting better at and that you're mastering whatever that is for you, whatever your whatever your thing is that you do or things, but that there's purpose behind it and that the purpose is actually what guides you.
[38:28] Because you, even if you're if you're struggling and like businesses sucking, you could still get up and be like, But this is why I do it.
And it might suck today, but it's gonna be a good learning lesson, making it making life more than just making money.
But I find that a lot of people are in that.
[38:51] And maybe I don't know if you find this with people that you coach your in your groups,
but that they are not able to use their creativity to make a living yet or you're making an ends meet, but,
and there doing a little bit more.
But they're not able to thrive, and and I think they can thrive.
I think that there's some things that they have to do to be able to get to that place, you know, but like they, they haven't gotten it yet, and that's where that's what I hear.
[39:27] I hear. Is that what you here it is. And I You talk about self doubt as well.
Yeah, I'm all about self doubt. You need an expert. I've got a PhD in that right here, sister.
OK, Do you have perfectionist syndrome to and imposter syndrome?
I'm probably not as if you could see my best.
You would be like, Nope. She does not have perfection is so I used to know everything where everything waas It was a calming thing, probably for me to be super super organized.
My husband is not Hey, broke me of that s O But I think in like if I see a kids or see somebody, if I'm looking at a bellow colleagues work or something a designer and they're showing me their stuff and I.
[40:12] If there's nothing bad, I just started nit picking.
I'm like, Well, I think this word should be changed or I think you're turning is just a little bit off. For what? It because I think you couldn't always improve, right?
But I also think of that in life. I also know that you could tell me things that I could do to improve, and if I really want to be better.
I want today to be better than yesterday. Then I will take that and I will do what I can with that.
I think the the best thing anybody could be if somebody asked me. Oh, Diane, what would it be? You know, I love beavers.
I love that's my spirit Animal really hard workers, right?
They don't give up, they just keep going. I'm such underdog, and I think Bieber's air misunderstood a little bit, but they're great engineers, but they're very community it worrying that they let mice and and other animals live in their dens in the winter.
Did you know that like, that's who Who does that Come on in right there.
Such a community. They they slap their tail when amount lines coming to the to the pond so that the fish and the other the rabbit knows, and I mean anyway.
[41:21] I have a whole talk about how designers like Beavers, so I think me nit picking.
I think that I would do think being a beaver, right, be the beaver. I'm gonna get a T shirt, be the beaver.
Um but I think probably the best thing I could say if anybody was like, Well, what's the best soft skill or what's the best skill Overall?
I said, I think you need to be teachable. I think you need to be humble. I think you need to know that you can grow.
You can always get better and you can figure it out.
And just because you're damn got broken, just build another one.
Like so to me, a beaver is such a good analogy because they hear the call, they hear the call of water. There was a whole documentary. It's on illegally, I think on YouTube called Leave It to Beaver or Leave It to the Beaver.
Something is to play off of that, but it's a PBS documentary, but they taught there so many. When I watch that I was like Oh my goodness, that's a designer That's a designer that's a designer, you know, that's what the designer. We should be.
[42:21] They, um you know, they're very family oriented that when humans air trying to raise a baby like a baby's bit of the parent has gotten killed.
You leave a lot of space because your they're going to go back on the wild.
Well, they you don't with the beaver, you swim with them, you show him where to go. You you spend a lot of time with them because they need community and we need community. I think that what I see when I'm teaching college kids, I see community.
You're talking about music being something. I see they don't know how to interact with each other in person.
They, um they I even see this with some my friends who have teenagers, you know, they're like they don't need to go get their license. I'm like, What?
You It's too soft at your house. Then you better have hardened, yucky rules because I needed to get out of my parent's house. Right.
Um, I just think.
[43:15] I think that I think we have to grow. And we also have to know if your teachable you know you don't know everything and you know you're going to fail and you know you're just going to keep trying.
[43:27] But, you know, I want to solve kind of that base level of let's get you where you can do this thing that you love and you could make money.
Then I think it's as a automatic. It's gonna be that you're gonna give you're gonna help others because that perp if you understand what you really want to do and I think it really a lot of people have to really dig toe what that really was.
I think it takes sometimes 40 years to be able to figure out what what that purpose was. When I was in college, I had a professor who I think saved my life, and I knew at that point I wanted.
I mean, I was in design school. I finished in design school, but and I was a designer in Denver for five years.
But I knew that I felt like God called me to be a professor because I felt like that was Somebody took the time to be more than just teaching me about a skill.
And they took the time to push me. They took the time. Um, there was so much stuff, you know, college.
And I said, I want to be a part of people's lives at that point because there's so much exploration there, exploring who they're they're figuring out life.
It's it's It was what they knew in high school. And now it's something else. And now I see this.
[44:45] Sometimes it feels like I'm teaching high schoolers again.
I mean, I've never taught high schoolers. Not again. But it feels like the kids I was teaching 17 years ago or 10 years ago are different than the kids, and I'm teaching now.
So when you're talking about 10 years ago this decade, the music, it makes sense.
That's a whole other conversation, but it's concerning.
[45:12] That they don't sit and listen and they don't sit and listen with other people. And they don't talk about things right there holding a lot of things in.
And we have conversations with our clients. We have conversations with our customers. We have conversations with the people who we think will buy our stuff and who won't buy our stuff. And but it's like you have to have really conversations with people to know.
And I think that I think that people are less scary than what they think, you know?
I mean, I'm just super thankful you didn't ever give up on me because you reached out to me.
We connected, and I was like, Yes, and I signed all the papers.
And then it was like I ghosted you. But I didn't mean to ghost you.
I didn't at all. It was just life. Thank goodness you were traveling. I was like what?
Thank goodness. Right. But it just it was a perfect timing, right? I think it's really good that your last one, I don't know if I will be one port anyway.
But the most recent podcasts out to date right now was your solo and I'm so glad I'm so glad you've found courage.
[46:18] To know that you have something to teach and this stuff I wrote one plate.
Let's see. 1234557 pages of notes whole. They're not all perfect, right?
But neither our way right. But it's like, OK, I've got some stuff.
I have some people I want to connect you with. I just think that I'm glad we're friends.
I think that there's there's something for you. It's about tiling stories. It's about telling people stories.
[46:49] And you know what gets them to be able to tell those stories? I think that some of the stuff you do with your coaching, you also probably help uncover some of that stuff.
But you know what? I what I hear some people are exploring for the people that are in my group are.
But a lot of times people have this. They've done that. They've been doing it. You've been an entrepreneur, Centura, paperboy.
But it's like sometimes you just need to talk. You need other people to be the mirror.
And here, like light, is a really important thing for you. I don't know if you lived in the basement. If you would be as productive.
I actually used to have my studio set up in the basement cause that because I have my drum kit and the deejay gear and stuff and I realized like I have to have light I love when I shoot photography. I love natural light.
That's my favorite. Have another friend who is a photographer.
Kelly Shrodes. She's on the show. We both love natural light because it just looks so beautiful.
And I guess so. I had actually had to switch to an office upstairs what I had to windows surrounding me, cause I love light.
Daylight. Yeah, I'm with you on the I need. Like one time I dated a boy. He lived in a basement as, like, isn't gonna work.
[48:12] What? It was like I was like you. You like living in the basement?
And he's like, Oh, yeah, I'm, like, move like, Oh, we're gonna win. Yeah, okay.
Yeah, I didn't Usually I I didn't usually make that decision that quick.
Uh, I would be like, Wow, maybe, but that was a Denver boy, But, um, any I have a friend who teaches with me and I tell kids there cause you know, usually were not great with science.
So when I have to advise them to take us whatever science I'm like, OK, I know which one you should take.
My friend Leslie Gregory ca. She hunts for vampires in her off season. And they're like, what?
She's a PhD dying. There are no vampires.
You've been reading too much. Um, toilet? Yeah. Twilight.
And, um, I was like, No. Did you know? And so Leslie teaches this class, you know, she's this young professor, and she goes and,
studies in all these other cultures, and they would bury them differently if they thought they were vampires, so they would be buried.
It would take their head off and bury it in between their legs.
They would put a knife over the throat so that when they rose up that would their head would get cut off.
It was It's really cool. But it's, you know, it's about culture. And it's about some of those legends, you know, and I used to work with this guy, Rudy.
[49:37] In Denver and me and Man, we had the best time and Rudy was from Thailand and his dad was American. His mom was a tie right anyway, and so his dad was an FBI agent.
And so him and his older brother ended up coming to America and living after they had gotten divorced or whatever. And he lived with his mom for a long time.
But he would go back to his mom every summer, whatever. And he was telling me He's like, Well, you know, if my mom has to go the bathroom in the middle of the night was outhouse or something.
We have to go with her. And I was like, What?
And he's like, Well, there's a pig. ASU I'm like what he's like, Yeah, you can't even leave food out.
And I like Rudy, Do you?
He's like, Look, I don't believe it when I'm here, I get it like I know I sound like I'm crazy, but when you're there, the Pincus Sousa riel and it's it's like a vampire person that sucks your blood, but they look like a normal person during the day, but at night there,
and I'm not sure any he's seen one right?
But it's the legend, right? And it is how much culture really shapes, even though logically. But in a way, isn't it beautiful that he's a designer from Texas living in Colorado?
But when he goes to see his mom, he's not gonna leave food out on the picnic table because of P. Gesu will put stuff in it and then they will also be biggest.
But they they walk around with just their head and their entrails.
[50:59] Right? That's how that's the pig. Assume I don't know how to spell it or anything, but maybe you could do a little research.
But maybe next time you're in Thailand, you could do a little research on the peak. ASU's.
[51:09] But to me, that's belief. Right then, that what? Willie, if you believe it.
[51:16] Then that's what it is. If our actions follow our thoughts and why don't we visualize good things better? Right?
[51:26] And then that's killing that mean Diane or bring a Brown is one of my favorite people toe Listen, do or maybe right am affair off for sure she psych I have such a crush. Our I'm Wynia.
I'm being girl in big time.
[51:42] I'm a fan girl, too. Yeah, I just think that it's the way even she studies, You know, she studies Bernet studies things as a backwards method.
You know, she's, I think, in academia. People probably look down on her for a long time, and I also think people probably in academia are like, Oh, you have this commercial business,
man, go Brittanee like you're changing people's lives and I don't think it was about the money. That's where your purpose comes in.
But I also think people need to uncover the purpose People do need to make enough right.
They need some of the basics to be able to use their their gift or their creativity to make enough money, but they also they once you get to that point, it's not about money in your.
[52:29] That's actually one of the things that I have been finding so much with clients and like my coaching clients specifically is.
[52:40] Understanding what is enough. Like whether that's for you as a person or you and your business, right?
Like what is enough? And that you are enough.
When you start to become like an essential ist about things and you figure out what is enough.
I think that's when you can really start to answer what you're speaking to, right? Like what we coach about is like, Okay, now, this is what you are get at. This is what you are passionate about.
[53:07] Now, this is your purpose.
[53:10] Now, when you have a reference for, like how you need, like what you need to bring in to be able to live that life. And you know what that looks like?
You can actually start the work toward a couple. You believe in it, you see it.
It's not this figment that you never have put your finger on.
It's not this like arbitrary, you know, thing that you don't have any like visibility into you've actually clarified it.
So once there's clarity, you can then start to make that work towards it, as opposed to,
justice every day, like striving for something but not knowing what it ISS and I've What I've learned over the last few years is like that's,
that's what helps you get to that place is by actually sitting down and thinking about those things, looking back like we were doing earlier, looking back at what you did before.
[54:04] And thinking about what you want in the future and then bringing this together to figure out what's your purpose.
What is it that your passions are? How did they all coincide?
And then when you have also answered what is enough for you? You can also be answering how to be enough.
So how much do you think intuition plays for you in when you're coaching?
Or is it just based off experience when you were, are you because you're coaching creative entrepreneurs, right?
[54:38] I would say more more than it waas.
[54:44] More than it was. I've leaned into it more than I was right. I was.
[54:49] You're following that North star now, right? Which is part Yeah, again. That's part of why I wanted it to be inked and be permanent, you know, cause it's like a great reminder.
I actually wanted to ask you what is your North star?
[55:03] Ah, Jesus. Probably.
[55:08] Yeah. I just think we're supposed to love people, you know, and.
[55:14] And if they're hurting, I love David in the Bible.
Okay. David was talking about the underdog, his dad, anyone? Him, right? He's like, Well, you're gonna go be the sheep.
But that was, like, the worst job. You also have that and you positive, like stink because you told even as a kid, you would be like, Well, I don't really like this paper route, but yeah, I'm gonna see a positive it.
I get to see the sun dress, right? I love that. So I'm sure David was I think probably he was like that to really it melded because he was alone. He was He wasn't alone. He was with God, right?
But he his relationship with God grew, But he also really tended those she every single sheep.
And that's where everybody matters.
I don't know if you know, start. No, you know the story, but probably David Glyph.
But Malcolm Gladwell wrote a book called David and Goliath. Have you ever read that? Not yet.
I have. I have a couple of his books. On my cue.
I love Malcolm Gladwell. I will eat up anything. Malcolm Gladwell. He just he had one that came out. He has a podcast. Also only in the summer.
Um, and you would really like it, cause it has to do with music. There's one has to do with music, and then one has to do with something else.
So you might really like the music. One can't remember what it's called, but, um, the other ones cover revisionist history.
[56:30] And man talk about making you cry like I will be out there moment and I am just bawling, crying, listening to these parts other, just like I'm sensitive to.
So I again and I can connect to David. I think about David a lot.
So I one summer I was reading that David and Gleb Goliath five. Malcolm Gladwell. And then I was also in the Bible study with law, like old 80 year old women and my church.
Not really the Bible study. I thought it was gonna be okay, you know? Hey, I think there's talk about wisdom, right?
People who lived it after your 80. You're not putting on any airs. You're telling it like it is, right?
There's some truth coming out of those ladies. So we're doing a Beth Moore study called, Um.
[57:13] Secret places, and I don't remember anything except the first chapter. The first, the second cover I can't remember, but really it waas he started talking about. She started talking about David and Goliath.
She talked about, and it was the same time. Like God was pulling these two things to me at the same time, right?
[57:32] And she said, Beth said Beth Moore is a Anyway, she writes a lot of Bible studies soon, So she was saying that what God teaches us in secret places, he was used to his glory.
So all this test off that you're kind of uncovering and learning, man, there's a book in you.
You you need to write a book about this time cause you're super passionate about all the things that maybe we're wasting our time or our money on.
And we need to be in community, right and and understanding people and loving on people. Right?
So all right, so there's so David is protection is sheep, right?
A bear or a lion Mountain lion more unlikely comes up.
And I'm sure he was like, Hey, Lord, uh, could you take that?
Could you get that bear to go? The other way and he prayed and prayed. But even there bare didn't go and maybe attacked one of his sheet. Maybe it took a street, but David had to get it good with you know of slingshot.
And there were plenty of rocks, you know. And so he had to think about how many sheep he had to lose before he got so good that he could hit the bear in the right spot or could hit the the lion in the right spot. Right?
So again, he had no idea. And I'm sure he was calling out for help because he didn't want to be in this bad place, right?
You didn't want to lose any sheet and he was not valued. He was the last son of I don't even know this man comes. He's,
from the king and he comes and he's like, um, one of your sons will be king.
[59:01] Is this all of them? And he's like, No, I have another son. He's over.
And it was an older son. You'd live somewhere else, and he's like No. Ah, and that's not the one I'm talking about.
And he's like, Yes, I do have one But he is not the one. He will not be king, and he's like, That's the one.
That's the one. I remember that, right? And so And so he didn't even value him. He David was sent to go check on his brothers that were fighting.
The whoever was can't remember was fighting the Israel Lights. And they said, If anybody could be Goliath, you can you win, We'll call it.
You know you'll win the word. No, because he probably had giant ant is, um and so he was bigger than other people.
And in the Bible, it says, um, Goliath's. Who is this that comes at me with sticks.
So he had one staff David 11 staff, they don't call it carried to. They're not, you know, crutches.
[59:53] So he had one. But with giant ism. And this is where the Malcolm Gladwell comes in cause he did the research.
He said they had double vision a lot of times, right?
So he was protected by his nose and his any at all this armor on. So his brother, he's like, Mom, I think I could kill that guy. Is that all you guys need?
I you sure me to kill him? And they were like, yes. And then they start putting him into the box, right? Like we do our musicians. Or this is the way you're gonna have to sell make money, right? Right.
And they they start putting the armor on him. He's like, No, no, this I do not.
I will not work as well. If I have all that and they're like, Well, here's the sort I'm like. He's like, I'm not getting that close to glide.
It will. I'm not solving it the way you think I'm gonna solve it because I've been working on something. God made me really good at this.
[1:00:41] I've lost a lot of sheep. But now I know every sheep is important, right?
So he goes, he kills Goliath, takes Goliath's sword and chops his own head off with it right because he stunned and because he had such accuracy, because think about how many times he had to lose a sheep to be able to practice.
So it's all this practice that makes us that it hurts.
It's hurt Terfel to be in that desert or the symptoms. It's like we want to get to the Mountain Peak.
But really, the mountain we've lived in Colorado is really bearing up there. No trees, not a lot of life.
So you want to get there to see. But it's just to see where the next step is, and we think the Valley sometimes is. The is the worst part because it's at the lowest.
But really, that's where that's where we can be fed. That's where the water is.
That's where the that's where life is.
But we have to keep going on the journey, right, So to me I relate to David. But what I realized recently I read something and said, once Jesse O. R, whoever came to get.
[1:01:42] Him said he was gonna be king. God didn't take him right then he's like, OK, well, now I know where you are.
You're out there in the field doing the sheep thing from And then he came back and David was never impatient.
He was like, OK, well, I know my purpose. I know that right now this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
And sometimes it's like, I think you need to know that there's something greater and I think the people who really suffer from no purpose and feel, um, you know, the battle with depression or feeling like it's just not worth it.
I'm not worth it. Nothing, right? There's always somebody you're gonna help somebody.
One of the things about being professors, that I see all these kids that they're struggling. And I'm like, Man, you're gonna be David somebody.
You, your You're just going through your your You're she, period, right? You're just alone.
[1:02:35] But there will be a time when you will have to share the story because somebody else needs hope.
And to me, that's what design recharges about. It's just stories about hope, people.
Somebody else did it. If they did it. You can do it. There is no difference in you and them except in just a different body. Right?
We can, ah vb years. We can all work hard if you want a golden ticket there in a golden ticket.
Right. Command Z doesn't happen in the real world, there is no command f to find your keys. Maybe one day, right?
Maybe there's a tap on our phone. But what if we lose our phone? What if What if we can't go out and see? What if there is no electricity? Your You know, all these things that we're thinking about? What? What if we didn't have Internet, right?
I just think there's that story, Your story in the desert. Your story is gonna help somebody keep going.
And I think everybody has that story. And you never know if you're gonna help one person, you're going to help thousands.
And to be honest, one person is enough.
There's no time to give up its never There's never the time to give up. You just got to keep going. If somebody.
[1:03:40] Trashes your beaver dam. You hear the call? The Carl Is he beaver? Here's the call of the water.
I hear running water. I know what we got to do without a pack of it. Pack it up. We got to stop the running water.
But for us, we hear the Carl of whatever that the thing is that we're supposed to do. And you just can't lose track even when somebody crushes it.
Just know that maybe this is part of your David in the Chiefs time.
It's just something you're learning that's going to help you do this even better. Great thing in in the future.
[1:04:15] Hear, hear, my friend, um, Adam Martin does a halftime show. He does a podcast.
Makers of sport is what it's called and he does every other week, so he doesn't interview. And then he does. Ah, halftime and halftime is just him. And you know what? I think that that was something I was missing in the very beginning, and I would really encourage you.
Toe added in Have the you in because you were in every interview? Absolutely. You're asking questions and you're there and your present.
But there is wisdom that is just needing to seep out like sweat.
It's not just about who you're interviewing, so I definitely believe in community, and I believe in lots of people have something to teach, and I think sometimes we think.
These people, You're going to get the same thing that you saw at a conference. You get the same thing. And my friend Dustin was like dying.
So I had this. I felt like God put it on my heart back in 2016.
But stuff happened and I couldn't do it until now. And I felt like last year. I was like, Okay, it's happening this year. I'm doing it.
[1:05:18] And, um, this is a little icon guy. He's a little flame in a power pose.
Yes, anyway, yes, I don't know what his name is yet, but it will probably start within our but it's really cause I what I hear in my group or in other groups that I'm a part of where I'm in a mastermind group, I hear the.
[1:05:37] Is that we either are refining right.
We're finishing down, but we really don't know we're scared and we don't know how to reach those people.
So there's refining. There's reaching, there's retaining our customers. There's some love I think we need to share instead of just, you know, Jean Cash in the check, right?
There's some There's some love and I mean, I've had kinds for 15 years. I've had kinds for longer than that, and these air long these air every month or every, you know, it's like this is relationships.
And so I guess there's five hours. There's what the other fourth R is reframing because there's so much stuff mindset work right that we have to do.
And then, um, it's about relationships and and building. And I really believe in community.
And so it's gonna be summer camp for creative entrepreneurs called creative ignites. Got a cute little guy.
Come my friend Matt Wood made, But anyway, so it's gonna be 25 days, um, five week in July and it's gonna be summer camps. So then there's going to be that kind of community thing.
It is paid because I think there's some things that are valued. There's some things that really require.
[1:06:45] You. If you're going to see some change in your business, it's going to require work from you, right?
Like fever anyway. So it's five day Monday through Friday for the five weeks in July, and Chris does going to speak. Mike Danda, Tom Ross, Melinda lives e.
And then lots of people who you don't know, too, because I think there's lots of gold and a lot of people, and I can't wait.
But I'm excited because it is that community. So we'll be doing it together, and it will be hopefully fun.
I love that idea. A summer camp for ah, as I love it.
That's part of why I wanted to pare back down with that essence of the artful, because it's playful.
And it's not getting mired in the entrepreneur, you know, And like this, like Bujji.
Yeah, status e bullshit. And that was something that you know, Heather Crank.
[1:07:42] Heather. She's my girl who doesn't know how that girl didn't She?
[1:07:48] Yep. Well, and so we work together. It craftsy for a long time. And that was when we first met. And she was like my work wife. With music, we would like swap music were like so kindred.
She's part of what has helped. She's been kind of my avatar, like just people like that, wanting to help them take charge like she's doing right.
Like I was coaching her on getting her podcast going, which she like interviewed to make a Coleman recently and like she was on Chris Martin's show.
And he talked about how she's a champion for artists, and that is how I got my whole little tagline of champion and creative misfits, cause I was like, I love that term.
Have you happened for artists, you know? And like,
now that's like my thing when I'm like getting ready to do an interview are getting ready, toe like coach or whatever.
I kind of channel that's now my North star is championing creative misfits, you know, championing the artful and remembering that.
That's what I that's where I live. Not this, like awful long trip in A You know what? I'm making fun of myself, right?
I'm making fun of myself. But it was like, part of, like, that journey of like, I made that damn.
[1:08:59] But I can make a better damn. You could make a better pond because the dam is just part of it.
That the dam is just the thing with the conned feeds many.
[1:09:10] So there was a whole thing in Colorado. You gotta watch that video thing. Leave it to Beaver.
Yeah, any right PBS like PBS documentary because it's where there's where there are beavers.
There are life. There was a drought in Colorado, and that's what they found. They found that where there were beavers, there were other life, and people think, Oh, they're just making all this problems and all this where they are.
It's sustained life. During that drought, which this is a drought for a lot of businesses right now, right? Yeah.
Yeah, Just people in general. But we designers are the thinkers. They're the problem solvers. There were the ones that are communicators, right?
Anybody in that creative? I think so. We are called. This is the call. We've got to get out there. I love it.
Thank you so much. It was great to me. Thank you so much for having me. I really am honored that you asked, and I'm super thankful I could turn the tables on you. But thank you.
That was a fun thought experiment to just, like, let that go and see what happened.
What gets it lets me get to know you better. And also your audience to know you better, right? Yeah.
Well, thank you. Die and have a wonderful day. And I look forward to keeping this conversation going. Me too. Thank you. Bye.
[1:10:25] Music.
[1:10:33] Well, that's it for this episode. Whether this is your first time listening or you're already a fan. Thanks for being here.
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[1:11:13] Music.
