573 - Need More Joy? How Creativity is the Discipline in Optimism Tina Roth Eisenberg

0:01This is a timely message because applications are closing in two weeks. So if you're struggling to start and finish your creative ideas or projects, you feel jaded by all the times you've started and then stopped, or you feel completely unable to get any perspective on your own creative practice because you're just too in it, listen to this. I've felt these things tons of times, and it's why I love working with creative professionals and helping them strategize and stay on track with their plans and have some accountability there. That's why I'm going to start coaching just five creative professionals on an ongoing basis, one 60 to 90 minute call per month where we strategize and problem solve your current creative season to help you break into the next level.

0:45This is not for hobbyists or part-timers. This is for established full-time creative pros and freelancers. Applications are open for two weeks and will close on September 18th and there are just gonna be five spots. If you want to see if it's for you, go to andyjpizza.com slash pep talk for more information and to apply. And if you're not quite there yet, join our supporters on Patreon and Substack. And we have two monthly calls, group calls, where we talk about episodes of the show and apply ideas to your creative practice. But if you're ready to apply, go to andyjpizza.com slash pep talk.

1:25is your creative flow feeling damned up right now i get into that zone sometimes where it just feels like oh i was in a zone where everything was clicking and things were coming together and i just felt like i'm right at the center of my creative path and then just a few things throw me off and all of a sudden everything feels kind of out of whack. Today on the show, I have a creative legend in my books and probably many of your books as well, Tina Roth Eisenberg, the founder of Swiss Miss and Tatley and Creative Mornings and so many amazing creative projects that have inspired me over the years.

2:07Creative Mornings in particular had such a huge impact on me. The talks from that pulled me out of a really big rough patch back in 2011, 2012, something like that. Ended up helping me find out that I was ADHD. Just played a huge role in my life and in my creative story. And I just owe so much to Tina. She's been so inspiring over the years. We have a chat about lots of different things, very ADHD episode, which has become kind of my go-to way to interview recently. I just go through so many different things that I want to cover because I like listening to podcasts that have tons and tons of different things.

2:45You never know what's going to hit or connect with different people. So I like kind of sprawling and especially when I'm talking to somebody that just has so many creative gems in their brain. So we're going to talk about all kinds of things. First thing we talk about is this project that she just did called Release Day. We're going to get into that. That just happened, but I was so curious about it that I wanted to ask and see if we could learn anything about how to get projects out there into the world, which we do. And I did at the end, I'm going to come back with our creative call to adventure.

3:19It's called open to adventure. And this is something we talked about in the episode. And then I have been practicing and it's had such a massive impact on my whole energy, all of my life and how I feel about life and my creativity. And so I'm coming back with that. So if you're feeling damned up in the creative flow, this is something that can help open you back up. But for now, my very dense and fun and enlivening chat with Tina Roth Eisenberg.

4:00lifter. Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk.

4:30instead of drains them, you probably have a lot of money sitting in your closet. That's where Vented comes in. Vented is a secondhand marketplace with a mission to make secondhand your first choice, make some extra cash, secondhand is better for the environment, and this taps your good taste. Selling on Vented is a win-win-win. In fact, I was just searching for black tie-dye graphic tees and a ton of super cool, unique t-shirts popped up instantly. So also a good place to check out your next outfit as well. Listing on Vinted is quick and simple, so give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees so you keep everything you earn.

5:15Plus, for a limited time, enjoy free shipping in the U.S. on Vinted. That's V-I-N-T-E-D.

5:26Ah, I've forgotten how to talk. Do you ever feel like that while you're trying to have a conversation, because I do. I work alone in my studio a lot. And with the remote work and global stuff in recent years, it just feels like conversation has become harder than it ever has before. And that seems like something that a lot of people are going through. That's what made me check out the class, The Conversation Advantage with Harvard professor, Dr. Allison Wood Brooks on Masterclass. Tons of helpful ideas in there. But the most powerful shift for me was when she said that when you get nervous before a social outing or a presentation, it's natural to try and fight that and force yourself to calm down, which rarely works, but it's much easier to embrace it and go into the situation feeling energized.

6:11Be like, I'm gonna use this as energy and excitement. I love that Masterclass allows you to get access to the greatest minds in their respective fields and that there's a 30-day money-back guarantee so you can try it worry-free and see if it's for you. Masterclass keeps adding new classes so there's never been a better time to get in. Right now, as a listener of this show, you get at least 15 % off any annual membership at masterclass.com slash pep talk. That's 15 % off at masterclass.com slash pep talk. Head to masterclass.com slash pep talk to see the latest offer. Well, the first thing I wanted to tell you was a huge thank you.

6:51I feel like you already have heard me say this in some capacity on the internet, but But your projects have been so inspiring to me over the years. And then especially Creative Mornings really helped me in a dark time early in my practice and even really was a huge contributing factor to me getting diagnosed with ADHD from someone's talk about ADHD back in the day, something like 2012, 2013, which ended up really having a huge impact on me. So I just have to start by saying thank you so much for all the work that you do.

7:24Tina Roth Eisenberg:Oh, thank you for sharing that with me. That's like rocket fuel for my chat pack. I love that. I love that. And I just had, I know you've probably heard me on the internet talking about it, but I had to just tell you since you're sat in front of me. It makes me so happy. You know, like creative warnings just makes me so happy when people tell me the impact it has on their life. That really makes me, keeps me going when days get hard. Yeah. Well, I'm happy to share that with you. So I have a bunch of stuff I want to talk to you about. But first, I want to talk about your latest project that's sort of a partnership called Release Day, which just happened.

8:00Could you just tell us about that? Because I think there's a lot of interesting stuff to dig into with that.

8:06Tina Roth Eisenberg:This was the first prototype of what we will hopefully do every year in May. And that is that last year, I saw our dear friend, Sam Furness, who's one of the most creative people I've ever met he's like a creative unicorn he's in england uh about an hour outside of london i follow him and i saw him in a very scrappy way put together what was the very first version of release day and basically he realized he used to work in the in the music industry and you know in release day when you release your album as a thing and and he realized that he had some side projects he wasn't really working on and he was like what if i give myself a deadline and i invite my friends to participate and work on that thing that you're neglecting or never started.

8:55Tina Roth Eisenberg:And so he did that last year. I saw that and I thought it was brilliant because it really gets you back into your sort of this innocent creativity, just creating for the joy of creating. And so I invited him this year to bring release day to the global stage with Creative Mornings with the help of Adobe, who's our global partner. And it was the largest campaign I've ever worked on, the most beautiful, in-the-heart, creativity-celebrating invitation to our global community to say, like, what's that thing? What's that thing you have neglected to work on, or you haven't started, or you haven't finished, or you have finished it, but you haven't really shown it to the world?

9:40Tina Roth Eisenberg:And we had over 2 ,000 people pledge that they will participate So the entire month of May, we basically ask people to work on the thing and then on May 29th to release it to the world. And it's a real act of bravery to show your work. And I think more than ever now where there's so much cancel culture happening and so much just negativity. And so to me, it's an act of bravery to put your work out there. And it was the most beautiful thing that I think I've ever created with Creative Mornings together with Sam and Adobe. And we're already scheming to do it again next year. And the cool thing is you can now see everyone's work online.

10:21Tina Roth Eisenberg:So if you go to creativemornings.com slash release day, people have uploaded what they worked on, what they started. And the beautiful thing is that a lot of people have told me that it got them back into whatever it was they have neglected. For example, I used to go to art school. I used to draw every day. I had a sketchbook with me all the time. I mean, I was hired for illustrations. I had one, I had a spread in Elle magazine. So I was serious about illustration. But then, you know, you get busy and you have kids and whatever. And it just went away. And it got me back into drawing. I just tasked myself to draw every day.

10:58Tina Roth Eisenberg:And so those stories where people come to me now and said, hey, it sparked it again. It's back. And I re-picked up the practice. That makes me really happy. That's amazing to hear. The thing I loved about the idea is I think that it really addresses the bigger problem that most creative people face. Because I think there are a lot of books out there about how to be more creative. Some of them are really great. But a lot of the creative people I know don't struggle with the creativity. They're naturally creative. They have all these ideas. They have all this stuff. But they don't execute. and if they execute, they don't share it.

11:33Like there are these huge obstacles in the way of putting this stuff out in the world. What do you think it is both from release day, but then also your experience doing all these other projects? What are the things that have helped you continually ship bigger projects?

11:49Tina Roth Eisenberg:That's such a good question. I really do think the secret to me creating so many different projects and labors of love, as I call them, is that I surrounded myself with extremely supportive, entrepreneurial, cheerleader, creative types. I started the first creative co-working space in Brooklyn in 2008 and didn't realize that surrounding myself with kind, creative people from different industries, creative industries, was so empowering. Most of my business ideas came through lunch conversations. and then when you have really smart people at your site that that kind of push you and say like you should try that and you should you know that sort of that that collective support that you get is what i think we have created with creative mornings now with this campaign and i sort of this collective invitation and then giving a deadline those two things really work yeah i think that's totally true i definitely need deadlines that's my biggest problem with like book pitches is that nobody's asking me to do this.

12:58No one's saying this is when you need to do it. The best ways that's happened have been when I have an agent that has given me sort of arbitrary deadlines and pressure. But yeah, I think you're totally right. And when it comes to surrounding yourself by people, because you've been so good at that, it's obviously a superpower that you have to gather people. But I'm guessing even if that's always been something that you've naturally done. It seemed like that happened throughout a process of moving to New York and then doing your blog. Was your blog a big part of kind of connecting to those people?

13:34Because I'm thinking about someone who is in a random place, doesn't have, don't feel like they have creative community. How did they start putting out the feels and the messages? How did it happen for you?

13:48Tina Roth Eisenberg:Yeah, well, I know that feeling because I moved to New York City in 1999, not knowing a soul, finding an internship that then turned into a full time job. So I literally moved to New York City from Switzerland, realizing, oh, wow, I was a very social butterfly, but I didn't know anyone. And it's really humbling when you realize, oh, how do I make friends? And so Creative Mornings is my answer to that. Creative Mornings is the community I wish existed when I moved here. And nothing makes me happier than when people come to me and say like, hey, I've gone to Creative Mornings. I've made friends.

14:24Tina Roth Eisenberg:I always joke that ROF, return on friendship, is the only metrics I care about at Creative Mornings. And I had an incredible event last year when Timothy Goodman, who you probably know, spoke. And we had 475 people in the room. And I played this audience engagement thing where I said, stand up if this is your first event. It's really fun. And then I said, stand up if you've ever made a friend at a Creative Mornings event. And what I wasn't prepared for is that out of 475, 450 were standing and smiling. And I was moved to tears because this is why I created it. And so I would say, if you're someone who's trying to find that creative support system, look up the cities on creative mornings.com.

15:08Tina Roth Eisenberg:We're like in 252 cities in 70 countries. Chances are pretty high. And if it's not there, anyone can start a chapter in their city. That's great. And we have a great one here in Columbus that does really great work and is just a great community. So thanks for being a part of that too. One of the things I've heard you talk about is being in tune with what lights you up. I would call this taste. That's how I think about it. And it seems like that was something that you were regularly cataloging and kind of getting really fine tuning with your blog. And it seems like that also connected you to a lot of like minded people.

15:52Does that feel true?

15:53Tina Roth Eisenberg:Yeah. So I started my blog Swiss Miss in 2005, which was sort of really when blogging became a thing. And this was before the Influenza era even was a thing that the algorithm didn't exist. So we actually curated, you would curate the blogs you would go and look at every day. And I was incredibly lucky to be at the right time at the right place. And I just, when I see something I love, I want to share it with the world. So I had in the heydays, I had like 2 million readers a month, which was incredible. And yeah, I didn't realize that just by sharing the things I loved and I have, I guess I have a very particular design aesthetic.

16:34Tina Roth Eisenberg:I grew up in Switzerland. It's very minimal. all it's very clear clean uh but i it's not just that i shared design things it's also uh sort of thinking frameworks books quotes etc and people really appreciate it and then actually opened doors for me like the amount of connections i made invitations i got people i met just because i generously shared things that that made me grow and made my you know made me sort of broadened my horizon. I deeply think that we sometimes forget what would, when you're generous with the world, the generosity comes back to you in other ways. And that my blog was definitely an example for that.

17:18I've heard you talk a lot about generosity. And I think that that's something that matters a lot to me. But I'll be honest that I'm about 40. I'd say in my early 30s, mid 30s, I felt like just went through a few things and a couple bad relationships and work and that sort of thing. It definitely made me feel less generous, made me feel kind of tightened up. And I noticed that that openness closing had a really terrible effect on all sorts of things beyond, even beyond work, just the way that I engaged in life. And so I've been working really hard to reverse that while not, you know, not forgetting some of the stuff that I've learned.

18:08I'm wondering if you could, this is just, I'm sure other people will have analogs to this and can learn something from it, but this is partially just selfish and saying, you've been so generous. You've worked with so many people. How have you stayed optimistic and generous when I assume you had to have had some rough patches or bad relationships?

18:34Tina Roth Eisenberg:Yeah, we all do. We all do. It's such a good question. It's really a question that is so central to what I think about every day. I'm a very spiritual person. I remember reading in 2018 Michael Singer's The Untethered Soul book, which literally changed my life. I've seen that, but I haven't read it. I've looked into it. I highly recommend it. Really, I can wholeheartedly say that book changed my life. And then I went a bit on a Michael Singer binge. And there's this one, I think if you search on my blogs with stashmiss.com, Michael Singer and whatever you do, don't close. he gave a talk once it was like an online conversation with someone and i watched that clip i i think every three months religiously and he speaks to the fact that whatever you do whatever happens in your life in your day whatever you do your work is to not close your heart and to stay open no matter how hard it is.

19:43Tina Roth Eisenberg:And to me, that's the practice. That is it right there. And I know when I do close, opportunities close, goodness goes away and the magic goes away. And when I can stay in my heart and stay in a loving place and in a sort of an open place, the opportunities are abound. And I know this sounds woo-woo and fluffy, but I swear by it. It has really created a very magical life for me. I completely agree. And even in the, I feel like in the past year or so, I've been actively trying to open. And I love that phrase because that's exactly how I've experienced it. I've thought of it as, oh, I have been closed for two or three years.

20:26And I've watched how much that wreaks havoc on my life in all kinds of ways that it isolated me, all of those sorts of things. And then just by literally just being open, there's kind of a yes posture to it, how much stuff abounds. And it reminds me of stuff I've heard you talk about how projects are increasing the, I can't remember how you said it, the square footage of lock or something. Yeah, let me talk about that. Yeah, yeah, no, I'm a big believer that putting yourself out there increases the look, the surface area for look to find you.

21:06Tina Roth Eisenberg:Square footage came to mind. Yeah, I know, but surface area. Right, yeah. And to be honest, like I have put myself out there with my blog, with my project, and so much goodness has come to me. And I admit, I actually just thought about this this morning because I see all the cancel culture on Taylor Swift's wedding. and I'm not even a Swifty fan, but like, I just see the incredible hating and canceling everywhere where I'm like, what is going to happen to us? Like, I understand that I have a 20 year old and a 16 year old that they keep their accounts private, that they don't want to put themselves out there.

21:41Tina Roth Eisenberg:Like I had a long conversation with my daughter, who's a poet. And I said, put your poems out there. They're good. And she did it. She was brave. But I have to say, if I was a young person right now, I would have to take a deep heart breath to put my work out there. It's very different than when I started out. But I think this is where we need to push through and just be strong and believe that the right people will find us.

22:25This episode is brought to you by Vented. We talk a lot on this show about not putting all financial pressure on your creativity. And we also talk about how being a great creative means having great taste. Vented is a perfect meeting point of these two things. If you want to make money on your taste in a way that supports your creative endeavors instead of drains them, you probably have a lot of money sitting in your closet. That's where Vented comes in. Vented is a secondhand marketplace with a mission to make secondhand your first choice, make some extra cash, secondhand is better for the environment, and this taps your good taste.

23:02Selling on Vented is a win-win-win. In fact, I was just searching for black tie-dye graphic tees and a ton of super cool unique t-shirts popped up instantly, so also a good place to check out your next outfit as well. Listing on Vented is quick and simple, so give your clothes a second life with Vented. Download the Vented app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep everything you earn. Plus, for a limited time, enjoy free shipping in the US on Vented. That's V-I-N-T-E-D. I don't know if it's just me or not, but couches and chairs in my house end up taking on a kind of personality, and they feel kind of like part of the family, which is weird, I know, but I bet you kind of know what I mean.

23:48I have this yellow satin love seat that we've had for probably like 10 years and we've been through so much together. It refreshed our living room vibe back in the day. And now it's been in a few different rooms. It's in my home studio now. It's where my dog comes and sits as my studio pet. And I just love that couch. I mean, not more than my dog, but I do love that couch and it's been easy to move. It's held up for years and it still looks really cool. I have had a handful of items like this from Wayfair. Wayfair helps you create a home that stands up to real life with quality products, great value and trusted reviews.

24:24Wayfair verified products are hand vetted by product specialists using a 10 point quality inspection. Transform your space with pieces that hold up to real life. Join Wayfair Rewards today and get 5 % back on every purchase. Head to wayfair.com or shop the Wayfair app for all things home. That's W-A-Y-F-A-I-R.com.