Analyze Your Time

Episode 456 LIVE on Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 at 7:30pm GMT / 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT / 9:30am in Hawaii.

When will it finally stick?
When will it become a habit?
When will I stop doing ________? When will I start doing ________?

These are all questions I have asked myself in the past. This year something finally stuck.
I did something different last year and this year and it is helping me get to my goals. It helps me to live with more joy, and be more content.

Let’s celebrate long time listener and friend John Ingles’ birthday tomorrow too!

I love our community and I love how we support and throw out life-lines for each other! Can’t wait to share stuff tomorrow.

I hope you will join me as I share what I have uncovered. This month we focus on mental health. I will tell you what’s coming up. I will be LIVE on Wednesday, Jan 10, 2024 at 7:30pm GMT / 2:30pm ET / 11:30am PT / 9:30am in Hawaii. Sign up to get the link at https://creativesignite.com/signup

You can always join us for the live taping experience and be part of the community. Come a little early and introduce yourself in the chat, tell us where you are located in the world and say hey!  

Listen here

Transcript

[00:00:00] diane: Hey everybody. Welcome to another episode of Creatives Ignite. I have a hat on because I was trying to do my hair, see, do you see this wing? And I was trying to do these little twists that I’ve been doing ’cause it holds it back seven minutes. I tried. I was like, I’m giving up. But in a way, we’re talking about some of the, and this I think is cool for some, I don’t know if I could wear this on [00:00:30] screen ever, but this just happened naturally.

[00:00:32] I’ve had this hat for like 20 years. I love this hat. Worry Eagle for all my Auburn people. So today I’m gonna talk to you first. Happy birthday. Happy birthday. Hey Amanda. Um. Happy birthday. Not to Amanda, but to John Ingles. Long time friend, long time listener. I super appreciate, um, you being here on your birthday, so I’m glad to have you.

[00:00:56] So today, um, I’m doing something [00:01:00] uncomfortable, um, and I hope that you will do uncomfortable things too and I’m gonna tell you what it is and I’ve thought about this and I’ve been, it’s just been kept coming in. So we’re gonna play a couple games ’cause I think it would be fun. Um, I think Amanda maybe, are you in New Orleans?

[00:01:20] Is that right? I can’t remember exactly, but anyway, I know I met you in person. Okay. Yes. Good, good. She’s in New Orleans. I got a cough. Sorry. Hey, Adrian’s [00:01:30] here from Ireland. So I always think, hey, Brandy’s from Canada. Well, I mean, not, I’m not, I’m excited Brandy’s from Canada, but I’m excited Brandy’s here.

[00:01:38] So anyway, I think January is hard. Always, every year. I think January’s hard. January’s just difficult. And I think it’s difficult because, um, it sometimes I get in different rhythms and after the holidays, not that I don’t wanna work. Um, but like the sleep [00:02:00] schedule’s different. You’re traveling and sometimes there’s hard things.

[00:02:03] It’s hard to be with family sometimes. It’s hard to be without certain family members sometimes. Can y’all tell my camera’s different? I know random question there in there, but I got a new camera and I just wanted to know if you could tell, but whatever. Back to the thing. So I always think Jan, you know, that May in the United States may is mental health month.

[00:02:28] I don’t know what it is in the rest of the [00:02:30] world, Adrian. Maya, you’ll have to let me know, but I think it should be January because January’s hard. And then you have all this pressure coming on you to do all these new things and be better and skinnier and more, I don’t know, get more in in the day productive.

[00:02:50] And it is overwhelming to me. Now. I like planning. I actually love planning, but what I’m [00:03:00] not great at is finding time to do all the things that I wanna do. And so that’s kind of what we’re gonna talk about today. The avoiding, and it leads into who is coming next week and is gonna be talking to us.

[00:03:13] Brandi, you’ll love it. It’s like, um, time blindness and some other things that, uh, maybe people who are similar to me who may have a DHD or maybe not, but you just want to think about mental health than maybe a different way. [00:03:30] Um, or, or you need to think about asking for help in a different way. And I think sometimes as a solopreneur it’s hard, it’s hard to get feedback.

[00:03:40] It’s hard to plan time in our schedule, like in our busy schedule to get feedback on client work. Obviously we get it from the client, but maybe from a peer if we’re really trying to grow. Right? So anyway, there’s lots of things. I’m gonna be sharing some books. I, well, one [00:04:00] book and I’ll have links in the episode ’cause I don’t have ’em here.

[00:04:05] Sorry. Um, I should, I’ve sent them to lots of people. But anyway, so this book I’m gonna talk about, I didn’t take a picture of it, but I took pictures of pic things in the book ’cause I have a little slide deck. But look, I will be at home in this space every Wednesday for I. Semester. I’ve changed my semester up and I’m really excited.

[00:04:26] So I have a new Debbie Clapper back here and I have a [00:04:30] new Emma Carlisle book. Woo. You know, uh uh, Paul, I showed you that other one. And look, I have Maya’s painting here. See, look at that. Isn’t she awesome? Um, so I have it. I don’t know where I have it sitting, but it was, anyway, so you have the Emma Carlisle, the Devon and whatever.

[00:04:49] I know it’s super pretty. And then now I got a New Zealand one for Christmas. I always try to get something like that for Christmas. Anyway, ask for those things. Anyway, we’re gonna play a [00:05:00] couple games, so it means that you have to put something in the chat. I want you to tell me what you are most dreading for this year.

[00:05:10] We’ll start with the negative in the chat, and then the ne just say like number one and then what it is, and then number two and what you’re most looking forward to. No one’s. I know Debbie’s piece is super awesome. It’s really tall. I don’t know if you can see the whole thing, but nobody’s playing with me.

[00:05:29] That’s [00:05:30] fine. No problem. I will, um, I will wait uncomfortably, so lemme tell you what I’m doing. That I, okay. Dreading number one is dreading number two is looking forward to, yes. So in the chat or what if you’re watching on YouTube, number one, just write this and then add it in the chat. You can add multiple times.

[00:05:50] Number one would be, um, what are you dreading most in this year, the beginning of the year, what are you dreading most? And then besides taxes, that would be [00:06:00] me. Um, or number two. What are you looking forward to the most? Paul says he dreads being exactly in the same place in one year. Oh my gosh. Then Paul, me and Mia, you are super aligned.

[00:06:13] Um, Maura says, I. She’s dreading her daughter moving. Oh. And she’s most looking forward to her daughter graduating where it’s kind of like you want her to move on, but Oh, you know, can kind of still, um, Amy says she found out her [00:06:30] manager. Oops. Going too fast. Everybody’s participating. Thank you. Um, her manager is leaving after February.

[00:06:35] Oh man. I hate when a good boss leaves. Um, so there’s a lot of unknowns as to her duties, what will be parsed out and the rest of the team. So, changes things. Changes. Dreading the changes, yes. Um, will says he’s not dreading much, which is great, but for sure looking forward to creative South. Me too buddy.

[00:06:55] Me too. Number two for Paul. Uh, what he is looking forward to, [00:07:00] looking forward to getting a client. I didn’t think I could get, is that already happened, Paul? Oh my gosh. That’s super awesome. But if not, it’s good to think about positively. And Amy’s also looking forward to Creative South. Um, Amanda says she’s dreading the inevitable failure of reaching my active outdoor goal and letting that stop dreading the inevitable failure of reaching my out active outdoor goals [00:07:30] and letting that stop me from trying.

[00:07:31] Oh, yes, I totally, totally get that. Like there’s no way I can run a hundred more miles or something in this tiny little bit of time or something. And then she’s looking forward to putting effort into getting her finances. Finances and check. I don’t know why I said that. Finances funny. Uh, Daniel’s, uh, dreading putting myself out there to get X amount of freelance clients.

[00:07:54] Amen. Hear ya. We’re gonna talk about that too. Um, and number two, he’s looking forward [00:08:00] to putting out a full length comic with his friend. Oh my gosh. You’ll have to tell me about that. Uh, I think you have my te my cell phone number. We’ll need to get, do a catch up. And Amy and Maura had a little comment there.

[00:08:15] Um, and Paul, no, it hasn’t happened yet. It’s what I’m looking forward to, even though I don’t know how I’ll do it. Okay. It’s gonna happen. You’re gonna do it. Um, no. It’s totally fine, Amanda. I love it. Okay. Brandy says she’s uncertainty the [00:08:30] potential posting, no idea what’s happening, what may, when no idea what is happening.

[00:08:36] When makes running a business really difficult. Absolutely. And she’s most looking forward to new blood. The feeling that comes with the literal shake up, forced change that comes with force change, having to leave poop behind to get and let poop go. She said a different word, but. We’re keeping the G people.

[00:08:58] And John here on [00:09:00] his birthday where he’s turning 29 again, um, he has no long-term dread. He’s excited about new opportunities, more, uh, national parks and monuments, and he’s drawing again. If you guys didn’t know, he’s, let me see. I think I have my Christmas card. They did this whole series of, is that nothing that’s focused?

[00:09:21] Anyway, I’m just gonna hold it. But they have, uh, coloring books, adult coloring books of the national parks, and they’re in two parks already. Huge win. [00:09:30] Go wild routed. Um, okay. Maya says, how long do you have? Okay, so anyway. Oh, I don’t care. It’s fine. Um, Brandi, I can change your potty words into a word that I would say.

[00:09:48] Okay. So back to what this is. So. I teach full-time at a university, and I like to have everything planned out so that I can actually do [00:10:00] client work and I can do other things that I want to do. Podcasts really put time in and do these things, but what I’ve found in the past is that I have avoided, and it’s been like coming into like, like it, I, it’s showing itself more as something that, oh, I’m avoiding and it’s in the growth part.

[00:10:24] It’s things that I wanna get better at. I just don’t wanna fall down and get bloody, I guess. [00:10:30] So that’s one thing. But I did this one class. I was really excited. I don’t know how it’ll go, but I think it’s going good. It’s a ton of introspection. And then. It’s a ton of, um, thinking about how you’re self-motivated and how you motivate others.

[00:10:46] How you mo motivate others to buy your stuff, whether you’re an artist or you are trying to get grants or you’re trying to win clients. And I think about this a lot and I was thinking, I had some conversations. I’d kind of [00:11:00] like, since May of 22, I’d kind of like pulled back on some of my just regular meetings and I kind of went, my friend Raffi would call it turtle mode.

[00:11:12] So if I was still meeting with you or if I met with you in May of 20 23, 23, because 23 was a rough year. Um, you were important, right? And, um, I needed to talk to you and I it, but I had a hard time. It was, [00:11:30] it, I just felt over extended and I. I mean, it was good. I, but I realized, so I started talking to people again.

[00:11:42] That sounds really weird. But anyway, but I started like, okay, I’m not gonna pull back ’cause, but I have to have a better balance of when I’m meeting people and what and how. And I really just need to start thinking about my time and how I make [00:12:00] money and how I make things that are fun, that maybe can make money, but then also just ’cause everything’s not always about making money, but how I can grow.

[00:12:09] So my time needs to be split into being productive and helping others and doing something that is financially viable. But then also where is my growth and when am I planning that in? I don’t know if that’s hard for anybody else, but it’s really hard for me. [00:12:30] So, um. Here’s the, one of the hardest things for me that I’m starting off Mental health month.

[00:12:36] ’cause that’s what I call January, because that’s what I think it should be is January, not May, is because last year I ended the podcast with me talking and now I’m starting the year with me talking super uncomfortable. Super uncomfortable because it’s just something I’m trying to step into and, but it’s uncomfortable when [00:13:00] we are growing and learning because we know that we’re gonna get bloody.

[00:13:04] And some people don’t like change and some people they’re like, oh, it’s just her again. Ugh. I’m not gonna go. I’m unsubscribing, which is fine. Probably isn’t a good fit for me. And that person I. So I had two things that happened. One happened this week in my grad class. We, it was like a whole bunch of questions and we did, I made up this game, I’m sure I didn’t make it up, but I made it up.

[00:13:28] I’d never heard of anybody do it. So we [00:13:30] had index cards and I had them write the number that we were doing and then they, it was like a one word answer or something, and then they passed it in and they had different color markers. So I was trying to make it so that no one would read the same, they wouldn’t read their own answer, and I didn’t want them to try to, oh, did Jason say that or, or was that Ashley?

[00:13:55] Right. I didn’t want them to try to be thinking about it. I wanted them to actually [00:14:00] hear and empathize with what the answer was. So one of ’em was like, what was the worst excuse that you’ve ever heard? What was the worst excuse you’ve ever given? Um, I. One of the things, this is one I’d like for y’all to do.

[00:14:14] What is one word? You can put it in the chat. Just say, this is question number three, just so that if people are playing on YouTube, um, once it’s up. Number three question is, what is one word you would never want to be used to [00:14:30] describe you? Like in a professional setting? In a, like somebody’s saying, oh, hey, how do you, um, how do you like, uh, Amy Lyons?

[00:14:38] You know, like, can you tell me about her? Gimme one word to describe her. Amy would be like, please do not ever say blank. What is it the bad word? Boring. Oh, Paul, you are not boring. Amanda says lazy. Yes. That, oh, Maura says Unreliable. Unreliable. Oh. A lot of people unreliable. Oh, that is, that is irresponsible [00:15:00] or unreliable.

[00:15:01] Okay. Lazy. Yes. Yes. Boring. Was Brandy’s too waste? Oh, something along that line in regards to teaching. Oh, it was a waste of time. Oh, he was a waste of time. Oh yes. Amen. That would be terrible. Okay, so now the next thing, and we did this as a, um, a group and so in, we had already done some other questions. At this point, it wasn’t number three.

[00:15:25] They’re now comfortable reading someone’s and not trying to point it [00:15:30] to, was it Ashley? Was that Jason? You know, because it’s really important that they’re like, thinking about these words as if somebody was describing them even, right? I mean, I know y’all are, I’m te saying who it is. But anyway, so now I want you to, I’m not gonna say your name here, so you could hit host and panelist if you want, so nobody else sees, but I’m not gonna share your name in this one.

[00:15:56] I’m just gonna, um. Say the words I want you to [00:16:00] write. This is question number four, three words you would want people to describe you as, again, I’m, it’s gonna be anonymous when I’m reading ’em back. So again, what we did in the class is they had this, we switched it. Now, at the beginning of the class, before any questions, the number one question, I think we got to like 14 questions that day.

[00:16:23] The last question was this one, the, the one I just gave you as number four, which were, what are three words you do want [00:16:30] to be described as professionally? So a client is describing you this way, or, um, a, a colleague is describing you this way. Uh, Amy’s new manager or new boss or will describe Amy as this, right?

[00:16:45] She would want this. Uh, again, I’m not gonna read, I’ll, I’ll read them, but I’m not gonna connect them to your name just so that, ’cause sometimes we need to be. Like me feeling like I’m taking up too much space [00:17:00] because I did the show last in December and now I’m doing it first in January. But it’s really important for us to practice.

[00:17:06] That’s something like in all my groups, I think that maybe it gets annoying that I make you do your pitch over and over. But if you do it over and over, you’re continually refining it and you are getting used to standing in that space and it becomes natural because the awkwardness has passed. ’cause you’ve already gone through that.

[00:17:27] So I’m just gonna read some of these. I’m not gonna connect ’em [00:17:30] to your name. Reliable, hardworking, trustworthy. Good one. Re, and this is the next person. Reliable, efficient, and empathetic. Next one. Enjoyable. Entertaining. Creative. Next one. Reliable, kind. Happy, fun. The next one, creative. Passionate, trustworthy.[00:18:00] 

[00:18:00] This is the next one. Insightful, honest, empowering. Very powerful. Another one, insightful, efficient, and creative. Important. Truthful, knowledgeable, and creative. Okay. So what we did in the class is they, again, we switched those and we’re just thinking about these words. And at the very beginning of the class, the number one question was [00:18:30] they had to write three word, one word to just first impressions.

[00:18:34] ’cause they didn’t all know each other, but what’s the first impression of these people that they’re sitting with? And some would, they didn’t have, they didn’t know them at all. So it was just like a physical thing. Like this one person wears hats a lot. So that was what they wrote. Hats, you know, um. One didn’t know there was a completely new girl and they wrote New Girl, right?

[00:18:56] That was all they had. But what we ended up doing is, [00:19:00] so they had about 15 people and now I’m reading First Impressions. I’m not reading who wrote it ’cause I don’t remember, you know, I don’t know what color marker you had, but now I’m reading it and I’m reading it to them and they were all pretty positive.

[00:19:16] I mean, hats, that’s not really positive or negative, you know, but, but first impressions. Isn’t it cool to know what your first impression would be like? To me it’s powerful of how do I come across, I think [00:19:30] I probably come across a little too strong and I would wanna be known as team player, Diane, but I think sometimes I can kinda steamroll things so I’m working on it.

[00:19:43] Or maybe I come across as too silly. I. Or not serious enough. I mean, I think in school they’re pretty sure I’m serious, but, okay. So then what we did was really, to me, this was like an awesome icebreaker kind of thing, but it was totally [00:20:00] safe because the other people who wrote the thing, they don’t know who they, they, no one will know who wrote what they did, you know, there, it would be too difficult to, to, to tell.

[00:20:13] So I was reading these and then I would give them all of the cards. So the person who I was reading, their first impressions, I gave them back. So they, they weren’t really the same words that you’re talking about here, like your three words. And then what I said was, [00:20:30] okay, you have 16 weeks to make those people think of you in those three ways, what have you.

[00:20:37] So this is for you to think about. This is question number five. You can write it down, but you don’t need to write it in the chat. But you could have, I guess you wanted, but think about this, this week. If you were trying to live out being insightful, what does that look like? What actions have you taken in the last hour or in the last [00:21:00] week that were insightful?

[00:21:02] This kind of hit me. I just, this is some of the stuff that I’m like, oh, God just went, boop, tried this, Diane and I just did. And it was to me super powerful. Um, thank you John. I appreciate she said, but I guess my steamer awareness makes me approachable or maybe the silliness makes me approachable. Um, so anyway, I was thinking about this.

[00:21:26] Okay, well, if I wanna be described as, [00:21:30] um, gregarious, what, which is just friendly, um, outgoing, um, if I wanna be described as that, what am I doing? To show that, what am I doing to show that I’m kind, what am I doing to show that I’m trustworthy? Um, how do I share my values in a way that is someone would use those, those, those are your three words.

[00:21:57] And obviously the three words can maybe change and [00:22:00] adjust because you’re like, Hmm, maybe I’d wanna be done this way. ’cause this word kind of talks about this word too. So maybe I could find, but what have you done and what are you doing that have you done in a week? Or in a month or in last year that you would be described.

[00:22:16] And I also think words that were described as are things that we have to be seen and shown. Um, we have to be showing regularly. But how do you show trustworthiness? Oh, well, let me tell you. Oh no, I’m not gonna tell you. I’m not gonna tell you [00:22:30] about that secret I learned because I’m trustworthy. You know, like, how would you say, how would you show that to a client?

[00:22:36] You could talk about some of the things that you don’t share or talk about, whatever it is. I don’t know, but maybe I don’t see a lot of people doing that, that kind of like, this is what I wanna be known for. Like students will say a lot of times, which kind of bugs me to be honest, they’re like, well, I wanna show that I’m imaginative.

[00:22:58] And I was like, okay. [00:23:00] Um. I should be able to pull up your Instagram and see imaginative, you know, like, I wanna see that you’re being creative or imaginative. Your imagination is all over the place. So it’s a super easy way to be described. So if you were looking at your own Instagram, what words would you, I mean, mindset.

[00:23:20] So, I mean, I need to take my own advice here, but this is something uncomfortable for me. And maybe it’s uncomfortable for you. I wanna be [00:23:30] known as these three things, but what am I doing? How do my clients see me or, or my students, Daniel and me, you know, how do, how do we show up today? How would, how, what action have I taken today that is helping me show up that way?

[00:23:47] Anyway, I thought that was kinda interesting. Um, I don’t know if y’all think that’s interesting or not, but whatever. I mean, not whatever. ’cause I, I actually, uh, value what you think. So [00:24:00] let me go to my little deck. We’re gonna analyze your time. If you’d, if like, I ended the year last year on, I did a planning session, which was super powerful to me.

[00:24:11] If you haven’t listened to it, go listen to that episode or watch that episode. But, so I did this brain dump. I did all these kind of like, um, I set up some questions and then we an, we worked on the questions silently, and then we came back and it was just me and, and two other people. [00:24:30] Usually would be three people, but it’s people that know me really well.

[00:24:33] We meet once a week for like. Two or three years. So, all right, so let’s go to the next slide. So we’re analyzing your time here. And this is, this is literally what I did. So some of you’re gonna be like, whatcha doing? Um, but these are my, this is my dream thing, you know? So I did it on paper first. I have a paper one somewhere.

[00:24:54] I don’t know where. It’s somewhere. Um, and so orange means that [00:25:00] I’m in school like I’m teaching. So I don’t have all that stuff. And you will see I have plopped in these black circles that are quarter planning sessions, because that quarter planning session was so powerful to me that I was like, man, I’m, we gotta do it again.

[00:25:17] And it, the other two people also said, oh my gosh, it was really good. Like, let’s, let’s definitely do it again because I, they know me. So then they could say, oh, what about this? Or they were [00:25:30] saying something and I was like, oh yeah, I need to write that down. I need to do that. But they could also like keep me in check.

[00:25:35] So I do think this is something to do with some people that know you but are not maybe in your, they’re not in your business. So I don’t think D and John should maybe do it together. I think that they should pick some people, other people to kind of do it with, because I think that there’s some powerful of sharing something outside of your business or company or whatever.

[00:25:57] Okay. So the orange shows [00:26:00] me that I have school. So you see in May, there’s no school, June, no school, July, no school. And then part of August I have school, but I really have May, June, July to just hone in and focus on whatever I wanna do. And I’ve wanted to get better. Um, I wanna do more patterns and I wanna make more art.

[00:26:22] And I’ve said this and I draw on my sketchbook, but I haven’t made it a priority in the past couple years. [00:26:30] I’ll do it in May and June, right? Or maybe June and July. But like, I haven’t done it, like I was working it like it was a job. And I think about when you’re doing something, you’re adding something in or you’re pivoting, you have to start attacking it.

[00:26:47] Like it’s a part-time job, I think. Um, which maybe y’all already know and whatever, but I’ve just, I’ve done the podcast and I have all these things where my time is really splintered and [00:27:00] I can’t have a ti 10 part-time jobs. So what I decided was in this map, um, I have. I have a max of four things that I can do, which if you notice over here, I think you can see my mouse in March I have launched webinar and then webinar and do you see how light it is?

[00:27:19] It’s ’cause I was like, I don’t know if I can do that. That was my attempt at uh, what do you call those, ventriloquism where I’m not moving my lips Anyway. See, it’s [00:27:30] much more fun if you come live and you see the, the video people. Anyway, so then I have, okay, well I’m gonna be working on my website and these might be multiple websites, right?

[00:27:41] But these are work on website. Work on website. This is website launch. Ideally I would like to finish a website within two months. Some websites you can’t do it, it takes six months ’cause it’s just too big or it’s just too much for the client to gather. But some I’ve done in three weeks, you know, it just [00:28:00] depends.

[00:28:01] And then every other month, so I’m gonna be focusing on drawing. Then focusing on making patterns and then focusing on drawing a thing, really analyzing something. So January’s birds march is trees and plants. It may just end up being trees again. I don’t know. Sometime it says spread too deep. Too deep spread.

[00:28:23] Too wide deep would be good, Diane. Um, but I realized that I can’t do [00:28:30] everything. I know if my mom was here, she’d be like, say that again. She is here, but you know what I mean. So then I made this big decision, which I should have already sent you an email, but I’m sorry, I’m just announcing this now. I had to move Power Station, so I usually would love to do it in January, and I just couldn’t.

[00:28:49] I, I think it’s too hard for me because January is such a sucky month now. It’s beautiful here today. But we had like. It was like a [00:29:00] hurricane the other day. Like it was 45 degrees and then at midnight it was 70 degrees. Like it’s scary things are hitting the roof. Uh, John’s like, what is scraping the walls?

[00:29:15] You know? And it was like a stick or branch or something just kept like hitting. Anyway, there’s just all kinds of stuff. And then the stuff with my mom and stuff, you know, just having to support my dad, although my dad is doing awesome. He’s like, you guys don’t have to do so much. [00:29:30] Um, but he, he’s doing great.

[00:29:32] But if I hit four things, it’s too much. But if I really wanna get better at making art and patterns, I better freaking schedule it in because if I’m not scheduling in, it’s not happening. I realized last year with Imagine Number, if anybody did that with me, it was a lot. Maybe it was because like when we did, um, blobs, it was pretty easy, pretty fast.

[00:29:56] To me. This one took a lot more time and it overwhelmed [00:30:00] me. So I was like, okay, nope. I’m not gonna do Imagine number for a whole month. Maybe there’s enough content to be able to do for a whole month, but it was too hard for me to post. Right. Um, so I’ve decided for Power Station, I’ll do a launch in May, and we’re gonna start June, I think the first, uh, Tuesday in June is the fourth.

[00:30:20] So I have enough time to talk about it, to focus in, to hone in, and then I’m going. I always think, you know, my friend Van, she [00:30:30] likes to have a word, a word for each year. And so ever since, since she’s done that, I’m like, okay, you know, I’m really gonna pray about this and see what God’s really just laying on my heart.

[00:30:39] And I really felt like the word was listen. And then the other word was explore. So instead of. Having everything, like, I’ve gotta do this and this is what I do. I’m like, no, you know what? I feel like God is big enough and I can have faith and trust that I can. I’m gonna be okay, [00:31:00] but I just need to, um, explore some things and if I wanna teach more, like I am so excited about this grad class that I’m teaching, but really it’s what I would teach y’all.

[00:31:12] Not that I feel like anyway. I feel like you’re participants, not students, you know what I mean? They’re students, but whatever. But I’m giving them things that they can actually use to make money and it’s so, it’s more entrepreneurial anyway. Um, but if I don’t schedule in [00:31:30] art, challenge birds and then schedule in how I’m gonna do that and have the books, you know, that I’m gonna use or the links that are for these.

[00:31:42] You know, birdwatching things already done, then I’m not gonna do it. So anyway, this is for me. So what challenges, if you were looking at your whole year, what challenges do you wanna participate in? So where do you wanna grow? Um, for me, what do you wanna [00:32:00] make? So mine is making art and patterns. Probably more would be the same.

[00:32:04] Um, these are things that I’m making, obviously I’m growing in this as well, but I need time to draw it. And then I need time to execute it in the computer. Um, the art still is gonna be on paper because I don’t wanna not like, I don’t wanna do one month only digital and one month only manual, or starts with a, I can’t, whatever.

[00:32:26] I don’t remember what the word is, nobody’s telling me in the [00:32:30] chat. Okay. Um, but it starts with a analog. Analog, remember, on my own. And then what are you launching? If you’re not launching anything? I mean, if Paul wants to do blank, which we don’t know, X-Men blank, right? If Paul wants to do this, then he needs to be talking about it so that people, his friends can start sending people that way and that people know that he’s wanting to do this.

[00:32:58] Because if you say, Hey, I wanna [00:33:00] plant tomatoes, and you never buy tomato seeds and nobody knows, so you don’t ever clean your garden, or you don’t ever have a place, you don’t even buy a pot. How are you gonna grow tomatoes? And just so you know, I still have tomatoes growing on my front porch. In a pot.

[00:33:15] They’re little, I mean, probably gonna be frozen. I’ll pick ’em today. But anyway, so what are you launching? Even if it’s not like a new website or a podcast or a book or a product, what are you wanting to launch for you? Right? Maybe, [00:33:30] uh, Daniel, you wanna have more freelance, so then maybe you’re gonna do a launch day for saying, Hey, I am.

[00:33:37] Open to doing these kinds of projects and you’re gonna have a launch day for that. I think that that’s good. And then I think planning days, this was a four hour session, and then I actually wanna take another four hour session to do this again, because this also was really fun for me. And then what are you working on working on blank?

[00:33:58] When are you gonna work on the [00:34:00] blank that you’re gonna be launching? When are you gonna work on whatever? So what are you gonna be teaching? I know Maura does a lot of mentoring. I would consider that teaching, right? Like that’s something that you’re gonna really focus on in one month, or focus on, it’s going to have one week out of, or five days out of the month.

[00:34:21] And then what are you building? Maybe you’re building a website, maybe you’re writing a book, maybe you’re doing a Kickstarter, um, maybe it’s a different product or [00:34:30] it’s a widget or a service, or you’re trying to build a new income stream or you’re pivoting or, or whatever. Right. For, uh, John and Dee, they’re doing more, um, coloring books and more products that are going into the National Parks Service.

[00:34:46] Happy birthday John. I’m just gonna say it multiple times anyway, so I’m gonna show you what was in the bottom stuff in just a second. I hope. ’cause I did make a screen like that, but I don’t know. Um, okay, here it is. This is my, I, I sort of [00:35:00] ran outta colors, to be honest. Analog. Thank you Amy. Um. So I said school was in session.

[00:35:07] If it was orange, the lighter orange, um, the launch series. It could be anything. It could be a webinar, it could be what launching a website could be launching, um, a portfolio could be launching. Um, what else did I have that I was launching? Um, power Station, you know, product something, maybe a class that you’re gonna be teaching.

[00:35:28] You’re gonna be launching it. [00:35:30] Um, and I mean, I think I even said launching what, uh, imagine number. Um, and then when am I gonna be making these art and patterns? Again, I’m limited to four things in one month. If I go to over four, I can’t do it anymore. So webinar or workshop. These are like two hour. Two and a half hour workshops.

[00:35:51] These aren’t like three day retreats, although at some point I would like to do something like that in person. Oh, I realized that my peas aren’t, oh, and those aren’t, [00:36:00] uh, must have an extra space there. Sorry about that. Uh, I didn’t zoom in until now. Um, what am I building in my portfolio? We’re always building our portfolio.

[00:36:12] Not every piece, not every client piece that we do is building our portfolio, but maybe you start tagging it, oh, this is, this is a portfolio builder, and you just tag it in your computer that way. And then at the end of that project, or at the end of that month, you pull those pieces and then you can put ’em out on your site.

[00:36:29] I think [00:36:30] sometimes we get, um, overloaded that we don’t have enough time to put the stuff that we’ve been doing into our portfolio, but I. When are, when are you gonna do that? Uh, wait, what you mean? I can’t do all 14 things in one month. Paul says, along with all my regular work, yes. This is exactly what I was doing wrong too, Paul.

[00:36:50] Um, when are you gonna pitch that portfolio? If Daniel wants to have X number of freelance clients that are doing these things, when are you gonna [00:37:00] pitch to them? Right. So Power Station is a product of, of service. I have, I offer, I’m gonna do it once a year. I’m gonna do art challenges, maybe not every other month, but I’m gonna do art challenges and these are just my art challenges.

[00:37:16] These, like, I’m doing art challenge part of Omar Wynn’s Patreon currently, but the bird challenge is Diane’s challenge. That’s what I’m talking about. Not like ones that I’m necessarily participating in, um, book [00:37:30] uh, and product development. I added a thing for that. I don’t know if I even have anything on my calendar that’s that color this time, but I wanted to think about it.

[00:37:40] And with the podcast, I usually plan about six months at a time. And what I would do when Ashley was working for me is, um, I would give her all these people that I would want and then she would find dates for them. And I would try to combine them into certain months or, you know, groups. Sometimes they went over a month.

[00:37:59] Um, [00:38:00] and we would do the best we can. And now I’m doing it myself. And, um, man, I super appreciate Ashley and all she did, but, um, I’m realizing it’s really helpful to have it in a confined space. So we already have, uh, mental health awareness. So next, next week we have a psychologist, a friend who, she’s been one of my best friends since we were.

[00:38:23] 13 or 14, I think four 14, maybe 13. I don’t know. I’ve known her since eighth grade. And [00:38:30] then, um, but she does a lot of stuff with A DHD and we’ve talked about a lot of things and just, um, she really helps parents of wild children, you know, like wild teens or something. But she’s, that’s just what she does.

[00:38:46] Anyway, I’ll share with her next week. Um, and then Love on Designers is in February and I’ve done different things in that month, but I. This time it’s gonna be different again, but we’re gonna do [00:39:00] inspiration. It’s gonna be all these people sharing their inspiration. I don’t know if you remember the episode where Mina came on and she was, she was talking about something else, but she had, part of her presentation was people who had inspired her and it rocked me.

[00:39:13] I freaking loved this and it so got me on fire because she was sharing what got her her on fire. Anyway, so that’s what Love on Designers is gonna be. And then planning session. It should have been a circle, but whatever. Imagine number is gray. I don’t know why I made it gray ’cause I was [00:39:30] running outta colors and then working on a website and then camp or a course.

[00:39:34] So I’m not really doing camp right now ’cause it was just too much for me to do alone. And I don’t have enough of a team to, and I don’t have the bandwidth right now to, to put that together or even if I had a team. But I know that there are other things that I wanna teach and do. So that’s why I’m focused on webinars this time.

[00:39:54] So I’m gonna do, you can expect if you are on this list to have huge discounts. That [00:40:00] webinars usually $97, they won’t be for you. Um, because they’re gonna be hugely discounted. And because I’m figuring things out and I’m trying things and I’m gonna see what people want and what people don’t. And in this, I’ve had to decide if one person shows up.

[00:40:19] Is that enough? Do I still run the workshop? Amen. Yes. One person is, is enough for me. Might be awkward for that one person, but you know, I’m [00:40:30] awkward, so it’s fine with me because it tells me something, but it also tells me maybe I didn’t explain it enough, right? Maybe I need to get Brandy to help me write it better, or, um, whatever that is.

[00:40:45] Those are things that I’m exploring of things that I would like to teach to entrepreneurs, to creative entrepreneurs instead of, um, always feeling like I’m just having other people teach. So, [00:41:00] again, I’m uncomfortable. I do it all the time. I’m very comfortable at school teaching. Um, I think it’s about delivering.

[00:41:07] Okay, so next you’re like, oh my gosh, we’re on page four. So then I went to January. I. Do you know how easy it is to make a calendar and InDesign? I was like, there must be a better way. It took me less than four minutes to make this calendar, like, you know, and you just tab, I mean, I’m sure Paul already knew how to do it, but it is so easy.

[00:41:28] People, I’m gonna make a [00:41:30] YouTube video on it. It so easy. So easy. So then I got here and you can see I was like, copy paste. And then I, I did all for the whole year. I did my, um, school schedule because that one’s pretty easy. And in like August through December, it doesn’t take this tiny amount of time. It, the orange fills up the entire day because I need to know that it’s so much time.

[00:41:57] August through December, I don’t have a lot of [00:42:00] time because it’s focused in, so I need to know what I’m teaching and then I need to have limited projects. But this at this point, because this is really difficult for me. I realized I, I’m terrible. And I, I got overwhelmed. I mean, I was like, oh my God, I can’t do it.

[00:42:23] And I literally did. I started here like, I’m gonna, when am I gonna do my coaching things? When am I gonna do [00:42:30] client, you know, work? I was like, Nope. Can’t do it. Can’t I just whoop overwhelm? So I realized there were three things. I had one, I know I have time blindness. I think, oh, it’ll only take a little bit, or I won’t get distracted or whatever.

[00:42:46] But I need to realize my prioritization. And this is where Brandy and Paul, maybe you can, it’s like, I want to do all these things. Well then freaking plan it in Diane, because you’re never gonna [00:43:00] get it done. I’m never gonna get any better. I think somebody said that that was the thing that they dread that next year at the same place.

[00:43:06] I will be at the same place. I will be at the same skill level. I will be at. I don’t wanna be, I don’t wanna be stagnant. I don’t want to not grow. So I know I needed to prioritize. And at this point it overwhelmed me so much that I was like, I can’t, I need to step back and I need to do that this weekend.

[00:43:26] So I know it’s the middle of January, like, Hey, you should have [00:43:30] already done this. I don’t care. I’m not shoulding on myself anymore. I’m just doing it when I am. I’m just doing it when I’m doing it. And then what am I gonna have to sacrifice? I can’t sacrifice my family, right man. I mean, it’s just me and John and all these animals, right?

[00:43:45] But if I’m like, I’m working hard for us, John, you know, and then I don’t spend any time with them, that is not helpful. So what am I gonna sacrifice? So what I decided was that I wasn’t gonna do as many webinars. I wasn’t gonna [00:44:00] do as many, um, challenges, but I was going to make sure that I am doing things that are fun and not, and things that are hard.

[00:44:11] Things are fun but hard. Um, Brandy says, let’s, I gotta move. I don’t have the whole, anyway, it says, um, you’ll, or you think you’ll have the mental and emotional energy. Amen. Mm, that is so true. Um, I’ll have the time. It should be productive time. And then no one else in the family or world will ever [00:44:30] need anything from me during this time.

[00:44:32] Yes, absolutely, Brandy. That’s exactly, you know me. So I need more flex time. That was where the four things coming in during the month was where I realized I need more of a buffer. So I will probably have three things a day, um, maybe two things a day, in a normal day, um, for like January, February, whatever.

[00:44:58] Oh, here we go. [00:45:00] Gotta go back down to my Plus. Okay, so then I felt overwhelmed and I found a new typeface on Adobe TiVo or something. I like it. What do y’all think? Um, okay. But I want to have, I wanna be overwhelmed with joy. And joy doesn’t always just be happiness, right? Um, so I think of, instead of being, saying the word happy, I want joy.

[00:45:25] So I want to know that I’m making a difference. Even when it’s hard for me, [00:45:30] I’m still gonna keep going. So here’s what I had to do. I had to tackle my responsibilities. I had to question my priorities, decide what I was gonna sacrifice. I always misspell sacrifice. I had to look it up, sacrifice with an I, and then I also did something fun.

[00:45:47] So again, just to remind you where I was, I was here and I was like, oh, okay. So then I was like, okay, I gotta come back. What I normally do is I usually just avoid, I’m like, you know what? I’ll come [00:46:00] back. It’s like my taxes, you know, until I can’t avoid it anymore. I mean, I always get it in October at least, but I don’t wanna do that this year.

[00:46:07] So tackle my responsibilities. That is my first thing. This is how I avoid, I tackle my responsibilities. Well, you know what? I don’t have time to do that right now, but I do. I’m gonna work on this client project ’cause it’s due, and I’m gonna work on my taxes, or I’m gonna clean the toilets or because I need to do those.

[00:46:23] Those are my responsibilities. These are my excuses. But what I need to do is question what my priorities. [00:46:30] Diane, you keep saying that you wanna get better at drawing or you wanna put these patterns together, but you’re not doing it ever. Why? Oh, okay. Well maybe I’m not prioritizing this. I’m saying it, but I’m not acting on it.

[00:46:43] That’s why we started with what’s the three words you wanna be known for and then what are you freaking doing to show those three words? Right? And then I had to decide what I’m gonna sacrifice. ’cause again, when I look at that January where I haven’t even finished, I’m like, I am going to have to not do some things.

[00:46:58] So then I went back to that big [00:47:00] calendar the whole year and I started take, I had six webinars scheduled and now I have two and one gray out one I think. Okay. So, and then I, I do think it’s impor important that we do some things fun. And so here’s some of the fun things that I did, I. So, okay, here’s another interactive part.

[00:47:18] So if you’re doing your work or whatever, just come back to the chat real quick because this one I think is funny. So I was looking at this book, ’cause part of it is looking at inspiration and I know I have to go [00:47:30] quicker ’cause I have that meeting. Um, so I was looking at this book and it’s just awesome.

[00:47:35] Paul, you would love this book. I don’t know if you have it. It is Rockport again. Yeah, but I was looking at it and it’s printmaking, you know, and I’m not a printmaker, but a lot of illustration anyway, so I’m doing birds and I’ll show you some stuff. So in this book, as I was looking through, it wasn’t in this, there was like some cat and it was like, looked like it was riding a bike.

[00:47:56] I did not mark this one, of course. Anyway, so he [00:48:00] was riding a bike, coming to look real quick for it. And I was like, oh my gosh, that’s hilarious. Um, and on his sleeve it said milk, like it was one of the sponsors, you know, for his race or whatever. ’cause he was a cat in a race, like a bike race. Like the tour.

[00:48:17] The front. Oh, here. It’s okay. I know you well, maybe I should stop the share so you can see it bigger. Okay, so here. Oh, sorry about that. Oh, I don’t even know if it’ll focus, [00:48:30] but do you see milk on his leg? Do you see that? Anyway? Oh, and this is by. The little friends of printmaking and it’s called Psycho Cat.

[00:48:41] Anyway, I just thought this was so funny. You know, I mean, milk would have a brand, I guess, but not really, I don’t think. Anyway, so who, here’s the number five. If you’re answering is this, maybe this is number six. Number six in the chat. Write down [00:49:00] who would be your sponsor And it’s not, not a brand sponsor.

[00:49:04] We’re gonna do that next. But who would be like milk? You know, something that’s not a brand. I’m gonna show you what my, my sponsor would be. I mean, it could be like marigold’s, you know, like you love marigold’s. I don’t know. I haven’t marked that. Pizza. Will says. Okay. Anybody else? Oh, Amy Lyon says like, yeah, [00:49:30] pizza.

[00:49:30] Um. Pop culture. Oh, I love that. So Daniel’s like, I’m sponsored by pop culture. Oh, John Ingles. That’s a good one. I’m sponsored by Pine Trees or National Parks, right? Like, uh, the, the Beat beaten trail, um, regime is sponsored by Art Today. Sponsored by art in that coffee goats. Oh, Adrian, I love that. Okay, so, so now think of this, okay, I’m [00:50:00] gonna go back to my shit paper.

[00:50:03] Oh yes, Paul, the good stuff. Absolutely. Okay, so I am sponsored, you know, our play thing, I just think it’s fun. Like we need to have some fun, these little bitty things. Um, Brandy says words or dictionaries, um, but now she feels like food themes and wanna say chicken nuggets. You know, you could be spon, you can have more than one sponsor.

[00:50:27] So I think that’s good. Um. [00:50:30] Now I just drew it out. These are my tomatoes. I’m like, I use these in this class that I’m doing. I just made some little graphics for it and I was like, this is me practicing. And it’s like, why can’t we be sponsored by tomatoes or humans or pine trees or trails or, you know, it’s like, I love that that cat was sponsored by milk and I was just looking at art in a book and it sparked [00:51:00] another question.

[00:51:01] So I do think it would be funny if you were to Now number seven, tell me three brands that you would be sponsored by. I don’t have a slide for this, so, but I think this is fun. This is just a fun exercise. Okay. Brandy’s like I love, oh, take, I takes it back. Not chicken nuggets, tomatoes and potatoes. Ooh, those are rhyme.

[00:51:25] And then it goes with the words too. Tomato and potatoes. Thanks [00:51:30] Amanda. All right. So me. I’ll tell you what mine are. Mine would be if anybody is doubting diet Dr. Pepper, people, I’ll take a sip. The other one you might not know brought to you by plain Pringles. Look, I brought props today. Oh, I guess I should.

[00:51:49] So plain Pringles, no flavors for me. Uh, diet Dr. Pepper for me and Amy Lyons. Maybe something. Ay [00:52:00] and what else was it? Oh, I think I just had to throw my jacket on the floor. But I wear LANs in. I think they would be. Everything. I have so many lanzen things. I mean, my leggings or land, I, I could be a sponsor for lanzen or fleece jackets.

[00:52:21] I have every day I wear a fleece jacket. Do you know what I mean? Um, all right. I thought it was fun. Like why can’t you, like this meeting is brought to you [00:52:30] by I, of course, I always like to do commercials with my sister, so, um, I just think it’s fun. Why can’t you say, you know what, Wednesdays we are, it is Wednesdays are brought to you by tomatoes and potatoes, and this week by Pringles, you know, like one brand in there and just you have something with tomatoes and potatoes for lunch and that is, then you add the Pringles in there or something.

[00:52:56] You know? I guess that’s sort, it’s not potatoes. I don’t think they’re were on [00:53:00] potatoes. I think they had to stop saying that they were, I don’t know. I watched some fun thing about it. Okay. The end on that. Sponsored by Wild Routed. That’s right. Okay. I just thought that would be fun. Okay. Here’s what else happens to me when I get overwhelmed or if I want to start something.

[00:53:21] These are all right here beside me. I buy new sketchbooks. Anybody? Anybody with me? These ones are, I cannot wait [00:53:30] to start using, so I’m like, Ooh, I’ll do better if I have new materials. Sketchbooks, because I love sketchbooks. These ones are awesome. They’re from Jackson Art Supply. There’s Kadi, K-H-A-D-I, papers.

[00:53:47] Very inexpensive and handmade, and handmade paper, hand bound. Oh my gosh. I love new sketches, but trying different ones, right? This is a way I avoid, so I am an [00:54:00] avoider, so instead of filling them up, although I have men filling them up, I buy a new one. Thinking that’s gonna make a difference. It’s not gonna make a difference.

[00:54:09] I just need to get busy drawing the birds. So here are some of my birds. Obviously they’re not all great, um, but I’m not trying to be great here. I’m trying to get ideas and I’m using GU or I’m using marker, or I’m using a pen and I’m just kind of simplifying, but I get too [00:54:30] much in my head and it holds me back really bad.

[00:54:36] So, um, the other Amy, Amy Lynn says she buys new papers and pens. Oh my gosh. We do this. This is an avoidance. I am an avoider. I wanna get better at drawing birds, but instead of drawing and practicing and getting bloody and making a lot of failures, I’ll buy a new sketchbook and I’ll wait till that comes in and then I’ll, I’m not writing in those yet anyway.

[00:54:59] Okay, [00:55:00] so back to these are some more birds. Very similar. But then I’ve also figured out that I need to go back to basics. So whenever I take a class, I took a domestica course recently by Mar, M-A-R-U-D. Hmm, G-O-D-A-S. It’s a domestica class, and it’s, I mean, she has a lot of ’em and she’s awesome. I can’t wait anyway.

[00:55:27] Um, so most of these people will [00:55:30] ask you, start with your brushes, just make some marks. So if you can see an upper right hand corner, there’s some birds, there’s some feathers, there’s some wings. But I’ve also just done loopy loops and like little bird feet on the ground, like just making patterns. This helps just ground me.

[00:55:46] Hey, I can make marks. I’m not trying to make huge fine art. I’m just trying to make marks. So I think that that’s, that’s really important for me. That may be something that’s important for you. Um. Brandy says [00:56:00] specifically an anxious AB order. She says, with hypocritical love and deep empathy, totally get it.

[00:56:07] Even how a brush goes, it’s like, Hey, that could be a wing, right? Because it, it’s just how the brush is kind of dry. So I’m finding new things that maybe I don’t have to do all this on my own. I just need to use that specific brush, um, that will help me. So I made an ostrich and a penguin. I tried to make an owl that was really ugly.

[00:56:26] And then these just really simplified [00:56:30] birds, right? And some more, I like this little guy’s turned around. Um, but I don’t love him, love him. But this little arctic term, I really like him. Now, would, I think he’s amazing right there. No, but there’s something to this one that I like that I could work on. If I don’t ever try to draw this term again or turn whatever it is, I don’t know, I cut it [00:57:00] off on the photo.

[00:57:01] Um, then I won’t ever get better at drawing him. I need to draw some of the same things over and over. So something else I realized, okay, so then I need to refocus and stop avoiding. I do need to take a break because when I’m in the overwhelm, if I’m looking at January and I don’t feel like I have time, I am, I’m sweating.

[00:57:20] Sometimes I do need to just walk around, go outside, do something else, right? Do something fun. Uh, see who my sponsors are, right? [00:57:30] I mean, Pringles is not sponsoring me. This is the Maru. God ask. I watched the, almost the whole thing in May, and then I watched it again in December and I started taking all these notes and I started doing all these little exercises just in my sketchbook, the 10 by 10 ilo, which is my favorite brand of sketchbooks.

[00:57:49] But then I was also, I mean, some of these are terrible, and I did some trees that I’m like, and then I scratched on like this bottom one with just [00:58:00] pencil. It looks like, you know, just writing. I liked that. That wasn’t in her class, but I was like, Hey, I found something that I liked. ’cause again, I was safe in a sketchbook, but I just need to play more and I need to give myself time to play more.

[00:58:14] Even though some of those birds are terrible, I need to do more. I also realized that I need to look at other things. So me getting that book out, and I found this artist, Jesse Ledou. I’m gonna ask and see if Jesse will be on the show. [00:58:30] We’ll see. No, I can ask. I love this bird. This bird blew my head about what I could do.

[00:58:37] It doesn’t have to be all the pieces. I wanna do a series that’s like Omar Wynn of birds. She does fruit. I’ll show you some. I’m doing her 14 day challenge right now on Patreon. And then, uh, I love this lady called Julie Hamilton. And there’s another lady that’s skills share teacher. She’s [00:59:00] French, she’s in Canada.

[00:59:01] I can’t think. Lucy Dilu, Dilu de, I’m sure somebody else could say it better, whatever. She’s awesome. L-U-C-I-E-D something. But it was like, oh, I don’t have to be so exact specific. Making it look like it’s a science textbook. I actually could do something like this. These are all Jesse. I don’t know about this book, but what if I put it all inside an egg?

[00:59:29] What are all the [00:59:30] pieces of a bird that I could put? It’s bird pieces and it makes a bird. Maybe it doesn’t have to be an egg. It doesn’t have to be a circle. I need to think outside, and so I need to bring in inspiration. I need to look at other things. And then things that I were wasn’t even trying. I don’t need to just look at photos of birds, although I do think photos of birds is helping.

[00:59:52] And then I also need to think about things that I love. I love texture, and that Maru Godes, she uses a [01:00:00] lot of texture, but I didn’t really gel with how she did the texture. I was like, okay, I’m gonna find my own texture. And then I saw this in this book today and I was like, oh, I really like that picture.

[01:00:12] It looks very retro supply, to be honest. And then I don’t re, I don’t know who did these two, but this one was like, I’m not really, I think it’s cute, but I don’t, that’s not like what I would a style. But what I looked at, these birds, they were like three birds total. This looks like a balloon with [01:00:30] wings and very limb legs.

[01:00:32] You know, I’m pretty sure their legs are like pretty tight behind when there’s, but it just gave me permission. Everything maybe could be seen as a bird. Everything doesn’t have to be so absolutely perfect. That’s the end. But, um, so I just love using tools. Inspiration. I love playing. Oh, I did have this and I forgot to put these images in.

[01:00:56] Oh, I’ll share one. So I had all of them [01:01:00] ready boogers. Anyway, so I’m taking this, uh, Omar Wynn, love this lady. She, we did, it’s 14 days of fruit and she did like, we did a zoom session the other day. So these are my fruit ones. So this was just making a big mess and then you were portioning something out.

[01:01:19] And then I did apples yesterday and the picture I have is three. Our cat, it’s on top of this because he wanted to sit with me. And [01:01:30] not every, I mean this looks like, like a thing for when you’re fishing, but the rest of ’em, maybe not so much, but these were like little slices of apple, but they’re not great.

[01:01:41] But at least I was playing. I like some of the texture that’s happening. I was at least seeing and putting things and I was making things that I liked looking at Pinterest, which was what she was suggesting that we do. So, because I went out and I [01:02:00] started trying new things that other people were doing, putting on other people’s shoes, you know, seeing how they felt.

[01:02:05] Just like the, this is my piece that I did that was, I didn’t do everything the lady did. I didn’t like how she did part of her seat ’cause I kept messing it up and then she had people in a house somewhere. Anyway, mine wasn’t the right proportion. Ended it on paper. But I learned things. I tried to replicate.

[01:02:25] I do really like, like some of the things that are happening here. I just don’t, [01:02:30] I learned a lot actually, but like, I was having fun just making collage paper. Look at, that’ll be a cool, let see a little, uh. Watermelon. Oh. Oh my gosh. I just hit myself. Thank goodness I didn’t get a paper gut. This is collage.

[01:02:52] This is collage and then this is like marker. But do you see, can you see it kind of coming off? ’cause it just used yuhu. I [01:03:00] saw somebody on lime. They called it UHU. I think it’s you who isn’t it? You who? Anyway, maybe it’s not. Maybe I just call it you. Who? Anyway, then I just, these are more collage papers.

[01:03:14] I mean, hello. Let’s just have some fun people look. That one has gold. Anyway, um, am trying to read the chat. Um. I know that’s a chocolate drink, but it’s, it’s a brand. Uh, I’ve heard [01:03:30] people call it u Yuhu. It’s UHU. Maybe it’s just me. Who does it? I don’t care. I like calling it Yuhu, um, chocolate drink. Yeah.

[01:03:42] I’m not even sure that’s real milk in that yuhoo, but whatever. They are not a sponsor and I don’t need them to be a sponsor. Um, I had a kid say to me last year, she was talking about changing her major and to graphic design, and she said, this is how I’m gonna end it, [01:04:00] man. This is the worst. This is like one of the worst advising appointments I’ve ever had.

[01:04:04] Not the kid. The kid wasn’t the worst. I just was like, I have, I don’t know what to say, but she said, well, and it felt like I was talking to a meme a little bit. You know, I don’t dream of laboring. I. I was like, well, what do you dream of? You know, what do you want to, what’s your dream job? She’s like, I don’t dream of laboring.

[01:04:23] I literally have seen that in a meme. And I was like, oh, okay, well how do you wanna spend your time? [01:04:30] And you know, the next question I did ask, I said, do you like helping people? And she said, no. I said, well, I don’t think it’s a good fit for you then, because, um, uh, we help people. That’s all we do as graphic designers, really.

[01:04:45] I mean, interior designers, writers, creatives are helping other people. They’re helping other people see themselves or have a piece, or it’s a voice, it’s a visual. It’s, we’re [01:05:00] helping people anyway. I told her she probably maybe doesn’t need to be doing. Um, this last week I went back to listening and getting into the things that I loved.

[01:05:14] I didn’t even know I was doing that. I was just having conversations with people, but I was like, Ooh, I have an idea. Ooh, I have an idea. I just love doing things like that. I don’t want to have to have, I have to have 16 people that are needing me to do this, that, [01:05:30] hmm, that stresses me out. But if I, you said, Hey, Diane, you need to do six websites a year.

[01:05:35] Like, I need to have six website clients here. That’s not a problem. That doesn’t make me throw up in my mouth, like having to have 16 coaching clients or something like, Nope. It’s a smaller part of my bucket. So for me, I started looking at what do I wanna do? I like doing that. I just don’t want to only do that.

[01:05:56] And again, I’m not into a niche. [01:06:00] One only thing I do think you need to be known for certain things in certain avenues. I was just looking at my notes for the rest of the thing. Um, I had this one other thing like this when I was teaching in that class and I was having him write some of these things down and it was kind of like, your why?

[01:06:18] What is your purpose? And the kid didn’t know I was gonna ask him to read it out loud. And he said that, oh, I didn’t know I was gonna have to read this out loud. And I was like, [01:06:30] oh yeah, you’re gonna have to, if you wanna do this, if you wanna do blank, you need to be comfortable saying that. And I know that this is hard for me.

[01:06:43] It’s hard for a lot of people. I’ve seen it, I’ve seen a lot of people, it’s hard when they say, I wanna do this, but then like, I’m not doing this, but maybe, is there something that you want to do, you wanna be doing, but you are not yet doing it? Can you [01:07:00] think about that? And can you have that as a priority?

[01:07:04] Can you get comfortable saying that you wanna do those things? Okay. I am, um, over time, like always who can talk to themselves. Thank goodness you guys are here live, but who can talk to themselves alone. But thankfully I do see you in the chat. I see you saying LMAO. I know what that means. Um, thankfully, uh, I do remember when I had to ask what event, um, but let’s, this is, this month [01:07:30] is mental health awareness.

[01:07:31] So my friend Amy’s gonna be on, then my friend Natalie’s gonna be on talking about a sabbatical and how it maybe wasn’t exactly what she thought. And then my friend Collin’s going to come on talking about what he does and how he helps and how he has balanced his mental health. He’s gonna be February 1st ’cause he’s in the UK and he teaches something for mental health.

[01:07:52] Um, does something on Wednesdays at the exact same time when, so he can’t do it. So it’ll be on Thursday, February 1st, but we’re still considering it [01:08:00] January. And then, um, in. In February. It’s all love on designers. We’re still gonna do challenges and you’ll get pulled and you’ll get some art supplies.

[01:08:11] ’cause I just think that’s freaking fun. And um, and I have other things. But, um, this year it’s gonna be focused on inspiration. So you’re gonna come and see what people are inspired by and then see what they’ve made with that inspiration. And I just think it’s fun. So the end, I hope I’ll see you next week with my [01:08:30] friend Amy, Amy Bryant and I will, um, see you guys.

[01:08:36] Amy says, you’re not alone. You’re just the only one on the screen. Amen. Amen. All right. And I can’t wait to see everybody at Creative South. And if you want a volunteer ticket, I am looking at my emails this week and I will be sending out the volunteer code. If you do want the volunteer ticket, you can always email me at diane at creatives.

[01:08:54] No, no Creative South. Yes, diane@creativesouth.com. And then I’ll [01:09:00] send you, you’ll, I’ll send you a link and you’ll fill out this form and then it’s a much cheaper ticket. And it’s really fun ’cause you make new friends. The end. Okay. And, um, Adrian, it was great to see you and I’m glad you love goats. You’re sponsored by goats.

[01:09:14] I hope to see a goat drawing soon. All right, the end. See you next week.[01:09:30]