558 - Start, Do, Finish: Get Around What's Blocking You from Doing Stuff

0:00This is not an ad. It's a gift. I'm going to be at the Icon Illustration Conference this year in July doing a handful of different things. And I asked them if they could give me a discount for the listeners of the show because I would love to see you there and hang out at the after parties and whatnot. And they let me have a$100 discount to share with you, which is just so generous and so awesome. If you're an illustrator, I highly recommend going to Icon. It's been a magical experience. The times that I've gone, even the first time in 2014 that I went, it was a very scary leap. but so worth it.

0:31Go to icon.creativepeptalk.com to learn more. The discount is automatically applied to that link. Icon.creativepeptalk.com. Hope to see you there. Are you stuck doing nothing? Overthinking, analysis paralysis, imposter syndrome, can't pick a project, can't get through the constraints that you're facing. You don't have enough time. You don't have enough resources. All of these things are against you doing stuff, taking action. Are you making the work that you want to be making? I am ADHD, and that means that doing stuff is my biggest weakness. It's called executive dysfunction. That's actually what it's called.

1:14And it means that doing stuff, taking action is so freaking hard for me. And yet, I'm also a person that has made over 10 books. I think, you know, maybe even a handful more than that. One of those hit the New York Times bestselling list. I have worked with clients as an illustrator. I've done a bunch of projects, self-initiated projects that I did on my own that turned into client projects for Xbox and Nickelodeon and Apple and a bunch of others. I have made this podcast for 10 years and it's turned into getting to speak to some of my heroes, but also going to talk to a team at Sesame Street and Warby Parker and MailChimp and all kinds of different schools and all that.

1:59All came from this self-initiated work, doing stuff. When doing stuff is my biggest weakness, it's the hardest thing for me. And so in this episode, I want to tell you the thing that has shifted my brain the most into helping me be someone who is action-oriented. helping me be someone that gets over that creative block that's stopping you from doing what you need to be doing what you want to be doing making the work that you want to be making and i am going to come back at the end i'm going to be here the whole time but i'm also going to be here at the end of the episode with our call to adventure it's called out block you've heard of blocking things out maybe you're blocking out how you're not actually making anything right now you're trying to keep that at bay trying to shush that voice we're going to do out block this is going to help you take action today on those things that are stopping you and get around those things that are getting in the way.

2:55We'll get to that in just a second. But first, I got to talk to you about why creative block isn't a thing. And I mean something that you might not expect by that. I actually have two reasons why that's true. I'll get to the first one in a second, get to the second one later on in the episode. Stick around for that. Let's do it.

3:14Andy J. Pizza:On the creative journey, it's easy to get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift off. Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk.

3:33Man, I can't tell you how badly I wish I had been able to find a great therapist that accepted my insurance back in my mid-20s. I was figuring out I was ADHD. I was struggling in my career and struggling to support a new family and finding a good therapist that I could afford would have been a total game changer. I'm almost 40 now and I've been in therapy in some capacity for the past few years and it has made such a massive impact on my mental health. I truly wish that everybody could do it and that is why I'm thrilled to tell you about Rula. Rula is an online healthcare company that allows you to quickly and easily find therapists that accept your insurance.

4:09Literally, the first thing you do on their site is put your zip code in and your insurance into the search bar and Rula asks you a few simple questions about the care that you're looking for and boom, delivers lots of options of therapists that take your insurance. Rula patients typically pay$15 per session when they use their insurance and I love how this is making therapy accessible to more people. Thousands of people are already using Rula to get affordable, high-quality therapy that's actually covered by insurance. Visit Rula.com slash Pep Talk to get started. That's R-U-L-A.com slash Pep Talk.

4:46You deserve mental health care that works with you, not against your budget. This episode is sponsored by Squarespace. I freaking love having Squarespace as a sponsor because it's easy to sell it when you love something this much. I'm a big fan. And Squarespace is an all-in-one website platform designed to help you succeed online. Here's what I love about Squarespace. They're intuitive and super versatile drag-and-drop tools. I mean, you can make a custom website without knowledge of code that makes people say, whoa, who made that for you? Looks like you built that from scratch. People have really said stuff like that to me about my site, and I built it myself quite easily with Squarespace.

5:29You can check it out at AndyJPizza.com if you wanna check that out, what I did with it. It doesn't look templaty and it screams my creative brand. I also love that I have all of my domains through Squarespace now, which makes it seamless and easy to manage. I know the first thing us creative folks do when we get an idea is to grab that URL. Now you can keep track of all your websites and your domains in one place that's super intuitive and easy to manage. Head to squarespace.com slash peptalk for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, use promo code peptalk, all one word, to save 10 % off your first purchase.

6:03of a website or domain. Creative block isn't a thing. And I emphasize a thing, a, for a very specific reason. And I want to tell you kind of two shifts that I think are essential to breaking through, busting through creative block. And the first piece of this is that block, the creative block isn't a thing it isn't a thing it's many things i think one of the reasons why you get people saying yeah creative block really isn't a thing just do the work part of that is because it's not a thing it's many many things it's inner resistance it's outer lack of resource it's you know not believing in yourself it's not having opportunity it's not having you know having executive dysfunction, like having these problems in your brain that you can't get through.

6:59There's all these different things. There's imposter syndrome. There's analysis paralysis. There's so many different things. That's why creative block isn't a thing. It's many things. And so that's part of it. Every single freaking stage of my creative journey, I have had blocks. I think about back when I fell in love with band posters, screen printed band posters, baby. That's why I became an illustrator that's why i went to school for design and illustration unfortunately when i went to school in the uk for design illustration i couldn't find anybody in my town that knew how to screen print onto paper i went to every person that owned a screen printing apparatus of any kind and said hey i really want to get into this like cool that's awesome man that's great yeah i could show you this i could show you that i'm like yeah i really want to make posters like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa this is for t-shirts now that might not be true now or maybe there were people i just couldn't freaking find them it was just another block i think about when i did my first kind of storytelling talk in 2014 and i was like oh my god i want to do talks but nobody is inviting me to speak anywhere, not at conferences, not at schools, not at community events, not at corporate situations, corporate situationships.

8:25I was not being invited. So that was the type of block. I wasn't getting the opportunities. And there are so, you know, I think about, oh, I want to make this book. I want to make this project, but I can't get myself to do the work. I can't seem to get my butt in the chair. Still a block on a frequent basis. I want to make this project, but I don't have the time to make it. And this is the creative journey. This is the creative story. But even more so, this is every freaking story. This is what a story is. You've heard it a million times. A story has to have conflict. There is a block. That's what a story is all about.

9:11And I am obsessed with story. I'm a picture book author. and I tell stories on stage, like story is my jam. My favorite definition of illustration is writing with pictures. I am obsessed with story. And as I've become obsessed with story, I've realized, okay, so what happens in a story is a character grows, that you hear that, through conflict, through challenge, through going through something. So that growth means they start with one perspective and they end with a more adaptive, productive perspective for the situation that they're in. And so for the longest time, I realized like, okay, every challenge, every block that these characters go through is a product of having the wrong attitude, having the wrong perspective.

10:08And once they get the right perspective at the end, they get to the other side of this challenge. And so initially, as I was studying story and actually did episodes about this idea, even though I still think there's some merit here, but ultimately I've gone through my own stories and changed as a character myself. And I have different opinion on this. I've done episodes on this years ago about how the lesson from stories then is just get the right perspective and you don't have to go through the challenge. You don't have to go through the block. You don't have to go through the obstacle, right?

10:40Like that's the lesson that all stories are teaching us. If you just get the right attitude, you don't have to go through a story, AKA an adventure, AKA pain and suffering. You can just circumnavigate that. So just really think hard. Problem with that advice is what it leads to is overthinking. Overthinking. Thinking, is this the right thing? Before I act, I don't want to suffer. I don't want to make a mistake. I don't want to feel the pain of failure. And you just think, think, think, think, think. I got to make sure that this thing that I want is really what I want, what I need. So I don't have to go through the pain of doing it and doing it wrong and hurting and it going poorly and it, and not being so fun all the time.

11:20And so for the longest time, I kind of thought that's kind of the lesson of stories is make sure that what you want is actually what you need. And then you won't have to go through all the pain. But now having written stories for a lot longer known, you know, studied this longer, experienced more, gotten older, got a little gray in my hair and in my beard. I have a totally different takeaway from what the main message, the main reason we keep going back to stories over and over and over as a culture, as a society, as a species. Why are we so obsessed with stories? Why do we keep telling them? Why do we spend so much money on making them?

12:01Why do we spend so much money on consuming them? Why do we have so many streaming services. It's another question, but it's still about story. Why? Why do we obsess over this? And I don't think it's because you need to think really hard before you make any choices or you're going to suffer. I think it is almost the opposite of that. That I think that every story tells you the same thing, that the way to figure out what you need is to take action on what you want. That what you want is a hint. It's an imperfect hint at what you need. And if you will take action on that thing, yeah, it'll be difficult.

12:42Yes, there will be challenge, but that challenge will refine that desire into something that you really need in the perspective that you need to gain to get what you need. That the only way to get what you're looking for is to embrace the block, is to go into the block, is to face the block. And you hear people say it like this. They say, the bumps in the road, that is the road. The road is just bumpy. You hear Stoics say, the obstacle is the way. That the thing that gives you what you need is the thing in the way of what you want. And the only way to figure out what you need is to embrace it, is to go through it, is to move around it, is to engage with it.

13:27and that the lesson of story is that the way that you'll get what you need is by taking action, is having an active response to life, doing things, not thinking about them. That's why I'm so freaking gung-ho about daily projects, about personal projects, about making stuff, not just pitching, not just proposing, not just prospecting, but doing stuff, taking action imperfectly, trying to find the way around that block the way I would say it is the block is the brief because guess what the thing that I really needed when I was going to college wasn't just to do what everybody else was doing it wasn't just to make the kind of posters that everybody else was making in that block that got in the way of me making those posters it caused me to make this coloring book that's up on my shelf.

14:25It's called the Indie Rock Coloring Book. It started my freaking career as a full-time illustrator. It didn't make me a full-time illustrator, but it was a key part of that journey was not being able to get what I want. And it gave me what I actually needed, which was to do something different than what anyone else was doing. No one was, everyone was making posters. No one was making coloring books. That was my creative way that the block became the creative brief. If you don't have enough time, if you don't have very much time, if you don't have enough time to do what you want, you have to figure out what you can do with the little time you have to do what you need.

15:01If you don't have enough resources, you need to figure out how do I make this thing with cheaper things? You see how that block becomes the brief. It becomes the constraint. If you can't get yourself to get your butt in the seat, how can you make on the treadmill? You ever see that guy? I wish I knew his name, but he's on Instagram. He does all these videos of he's like drawing on the treadmill. He's painting while he's riding a bike. Like that block became a brief. That guy clearly can't sit still. For me, it looks like just chewing tons of gum and drinking lots of treat drinks because I got to keep my mouth moving at least while my butt's not moving.

15:38The block is the brief. The obstacle is the way the bumps in the road are the road and that the way that you will get what you need, where you want to go, isn't by avoiding the obstacles. It isn't by being so clever that you don't have to go through them, but it is actively taking a active creative stance against them. When nobody was calling me to do talks, guess what? That situation, that block created the brief to make this podcast. And guess what? the podcast and the Indie Rock Coloring Book ended up being more what my career needed than doing the things that I wanted. Yes, I got to make screen printed band posters after that.

16:21Yes, it was fun, but never did anything to my career like the coloring book did. And yes, I still do talks. I love doing talks. It's one of my favorite things ever. But this podcast has made such a bigger difference to my creative journey than doing talks probably ever will be able to. And so the block is the brief. That's the takeaway of storytelling.

17:04Last summer, me and the fam went on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Italy. It was amazing, but very hot. And I had to learn how to dress for that kind of heat. You want looser, breathable fabrics, which I hadn't really ever thought about. And I started carrying that learning and look back to my wardrobe here in the States for the summer. Like my new stripy short sleeve European linen button down shirt from Quince. Sophie just got a new pair of European linen pants from Quince that looks swishy and flowy and cool and light. And look, in my heart of hearts, we know we will never be as cool as the effortless Italians that we saw in Florence, but with these summer looks from Quince, we can look the part and feel literally cool, like temperature-wise at least.

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18:25Quince.com slash peptalk. I could really use your help. Now, as a rule, I try to give way, way more on this show than I take. But every once in a while, I have an ask. I think it's been about three years since my last big ask when we launched me and Sophie's book, Invisible Things. And now it's companion, Mysterious Things, is on its way. And we could really, really use your help by buying a book and spreading the word. Pre-orders can make or break a book's success. If you can launch a book with momentum, it has a chance to get into people's hands. And we really, really want to get this book into kids' hands because it was written to ignite kids' curiosity, to get them curious about our mysterious universe.

19:08And I don't know about you, but I am hoping this next generation is curious, open, full of wonder, and engaged and excited about living life on this planet. If you pre-order from our local bookshop, Birdie Books, you can get a copy that is signed by me and Sophie. There's also a bunch of links to everywhere else. You can get the book at invisiblethings.co. And by the way, I'm doing some talks to virtual groups, schools, companies, and conferences in exchange for what's called a pre-order book buy, aka buying copies for your group or the attendees. So if you've ever wanted to book me to speak, this is the least expensive it'll ever be.

19:48Write to me at hi at andyjpizza.com and I can walk you through how that works. If you love my art, this is one of my favorite collections of paintings that I've ever made. If you loved Invisible Things, You're going to love mysterious things. And if you have children, nieces, nephews, students, or friends with kids in your life, ignite their curiosity with mysterious things. Pre-order at invisiblethings.co or click the link in the show notes. Thank you so much for your help. We really, really, really appreciate it. All right, so this is your creative call to adventure. You know we don't want to just pep you up.

20:23We want to leave you with something you can do, action you can take because we're action-oriented. That's what I'm talking about this whole dang episode. and your creative call to adventure this week is Outblock. You've heard of blocking out. Maybe you're like me and your dad called you Rodman during basketball games because you couldn't shoot, but you dang sure could get a rebound. And so that was me. So I have a special place in my heart for Dennis Rodman. He made it okay to be weird and he made it okay to just be a rebound machine. That was me. Blocking out is in basketball where you push people back and you get the rebound in case you didn't know.

21:00But also blocking out is when you try not to think about something. You block it out of your mind. You're trying to push it away. That's what we do with our creative blocks. That's what we do with our obstacles. That's what we do with the thing that is in the way. We try to ignore it. Try to be like, oh, you know what? Every other comedian lives in LA and New York City, but I'm going to figure this out in Toledo. here's the thing buddy Toledo guy you in Toledo I know there's someone in Toledo listening to this maybe you're even a comedian if you are I'm sure you feel very called out you can't block that out that is the reality but it doesn't mean there's not a way and the way is outing the block meaning calling it out embracing it admitting what is the thing that's probably the most in the way of you succeeding.

21:53Maybe it's a skill. Maybe it's time. Maybe it's a resource. Maybe it's location. Maybe it's network. What is it? Out that thing. Put it out in the open. Make it your brief. You can't engage with it if you won't admit that it exists. So out the block. Figure it out. What is the thing that's really truly in the way? Once you get it out in the open, you can make it a part of the brief. If it's about networking, make it part of the next project that you do that you collaborate with people on the internet. I love this thing. You've heard it probably a billion times, this idea of the 100 rejections.

22:28You try to get 100 rejections in 100 days. Maybe it's this kind of thing where you reach out to 100 different artists to collaborate on a piece of work in the next 100 days and you put yourself out there. If the network is the block, network, get out there, put yourself out there, figure out how to make it a part of your creative project, make that block the brief. and I said earlier in this episode that there's two reasons why a creative block isn't a thing. The first one is it's many things. It's not a thing and the second one is it is a brief. Every creative block. If you can't figure out how to write this thing, make that part of the brief.

23:07Make it, oh, I'm gonna write something else. Make it part of an action plan. If you can't get yourself in the seat, make it part of the brief. You can't make this while sitting in a seat. I do almost all my emails walking. I look like a maniac. You know what I did? I used to hate. I'm something I'm most proud of because it's one of the most unhinged, unmasked things I did as an ADHD person. I freaking hated mowing the lawn so much to the point. I'm embarrassed about this. I actually faked an injury once when I was like 13 so that I didn't have to mow the lawn that day. I have compassion on Andy.

23:45I like being honest, being trustworthy is such a high virtue of mine. But, you know, he was in a tough spot. He didn't know what to do. He hated it, whatever. It wasn't the right thing to do, but I have compassion for you. What he ended up doing is figuring out how to tape songs off the radio, making mixtapes and then singing at the top of his lungs while he mowed the grass. And I did that all the way until like 2010 when I really got into podcasts. thank you know the neighbors are just thanking god for podcasts because it stopped me from singing at the top of my lungs while i was doing the yard work doing the mowing but i had to figure out how to make that requirement part of the brief the grass was going to grow whether i liked it or not i had to make it part of the brief and so out the block be honest about the block and then make that part of the brief no block is a real block because it's always a brief it's always part of the constraint.

24:36It's just part of how you have to be creative to get around this thing or to go through it. That's the biggest creativity that you'll ever have to embrace.

25:03hey would you do me a favor real quick just go to invisiblethings.co and order a few copies of mysterious things while it's on pre-order i love this book i'd love for you to take a look at it I love for you to give a copy of this book to every kid in your life to instill a passion and curiosity for learning for the rest of their life. I wasn't a lifelong learner when I was a kid. I became a learner later because I realized how mysterious and weird our universe is and that the more that we know, the more we realize we don't know and that mystery abounds the more that we learn. That's the knowledge paradox.

25:41Yeah, we made a kid's book about the knowledge paradox, but it's also just, I think it's think it's nice for all ages. I put some of my favorite painting work in this book that I've ever done, and I'm just very, very proud of it. And pre-orders, if you don't know, can really make or break a book. And so if you have any inclination and you've been putting it off and you thought, maybe I'll do that, would you do it now? InvisibleThings.co, pre-order mysterious things. If you order from our local bookshop, Bertie Books, we're going to sign every copy before they go out all the pre-orders. Um, but you can get all the links to all the different places to get books are on that site.

26:21We so appreciate it. Thank you so much for the people that have already acted. Um, it just makes a huge difference. So thank you so much. Um, yeah. And if you order it, spread the word, tell people about it. If you get it, you love it. Tell people about it. Really, really appreciate it. Thanks to Sophie Miller, uh, for being an editor and producer on the show. Thanks to Connor Jones of pinning beautiful for audio edits, video edits, animation, and sound design. Thanks to Yoni Wolf and the band Y for our theme music and soundtrack. Thanks to all of you for listening. And until we speak again, stay pepped up.

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