"Being a muralist is brutal. It is not sunshine and rainbows." (Danielle Weber bonus episode)

0:00Radim Malinic:Hey, welcome to another bonus episode of the Daring Creative D Podcast. I am back to unpack some of the gems from this week's conversation, Polinado's moments that deserve a second look and digging deeper in what makes them special. This week I spoke to Danielle Weber, who is a muralist, creative entrepreneur and founder of a D Collective. In our conversation, we went well beyond the beautiful walls. We talked about what it really costs to create in public, the physical and emotional endurance, the strangers who won't leave you alone while you work, and why Danielle believes slow growth is the only kind worth having.

0:34Radim Malinic:This episode, published a few days ago, was titled Dare to Protect Your Peace, and it was a rare and honest look at what it means to create a career as a muralist, creative and a human being. If you haven't checked out the full episode, let me share with you these four standout moments. I think I spoke about the social media and people going from here to here really quickly. similar in what we do as creatives give you I wouldn't want overnight success I wouldn't want anything to go quickly I would do this 15 years over and over and over again because it's given me that time to be able to learn and explore and and I think time equals like sustainability as well because I don't want to burn out in two years time and not ever be able to do this again So I think the patience that I've had to get to where I am now is what I carry through in the day-to-day encounters.

1:29Radim Malinic:I think it would be fair to say that we are living in a world that is obsessed with hacks, shortcuts, and maybe even six-week transformations. In this moment, Danielle says something quite honest and a little bit radical. She would take every slow, difficult year without hesitation. And the reason why it matters, because it's not nostalgia. because she told me those 15 years are a product of patience, the intuition, the client radar, the ability to say no confidently, the understanding of her own energy. None of that could have been downloaded faster. Patience, as she's told us, isn't just a virtue.

2:06Radim Malinic:It's actually strategy here. And it is the one thing that makes a creative career sustainable rather than spectacular than burnout. For anyone staring at someone else's highlight reel wondering why they're not there yet, Daniel's answer is quietly powerful. For me, when I came out of it, it wasn't a conscious thing, nor did I understand the meaning of what my art was doing for me. But I guess it does come down to curiosity, and I think the curiosity in creatives, if they're not exploring it creatively, comes out in other ways. Yeah, coming out the other side of it, it was, I think, mentally, I still was so lost and inconsistent in how I showed up as a creative and troubled, you could say, because of my lack of understanding.

3:03And then now looking back, you can see how I evolved as a person. But essentially, it took time. It wasn't like I'm coming out of it and I'm saved and I'm good. It was like I've been on this roller coaster for the last 10 years and now it's probably going to take another 10 to find that clarity and that consistency and just be really comfortable going through those waves without sending yourself on a roller coaster.

3:29Radim Malinic:It's an amazing and honest thing for Danielle to say. She isn't just talking about productivity or output, but she's talking about survival. For her, creativity isn't a hobby or a profession. It's a regulatory system. What goes unexplored, something else fills the gap. And that gap is not always plugged in with something healthy. It stops being something you do when you feel inspired. It becomes something you need, like sleep or movement. For every creative who's ever talked themselves out of making something, and they told themselves it wasn't the right time, or they weren't ready, Daniel's experience is a quiet reminder.

4:08Radim Malinic:the cost of not creating is higher than you think. My community asked me, they were like, oh, what's it actually like? And I told them that the other day and then I said, but it is such a privilege. It is the utmost privilege to be creating and trusted to create like that, but also to have those conversations and those encounters because not everyone has that colourful diversity in the beauty of art and then the rawness of the streets, the comfortability of how people share because you're standing there painting. It's like you're just like, I'm a creative and I'm open to this and I'm going to share.

4:53So it's just, it's the utmost privilege but also the most difficult thing because it is something that you love and you try to protect it with everything but you also just sometimes can't and that's the choice that you make as a mural artist. I'm very honest about that. When I speak to people who are like, I want to be muralized, I'm like, it is brutal. It is not sunshine and rainbows. It is the most rewarding thing, but it'll test you in all ways that you would never have even imagined.

5:23Radim Malinic:I have spoken to two other muralists and I've got utmost admiration and respect for what they do. because Daniel being the third muralist I spoke to, it's a physical work that I think some of our creatives in the audience might not fully appreciate because I'm sure we are stuck in the office thinking, oh, it'd be nice to do some work outside. And you've got a muralist being harassed by people, you know, doing all they can to focus on their work and not being able to. It throws a totally different light on the profession. because let's be honest the image of a muralist at work looks undeniably poetic from the outside the reality as daniel told me is something else entirely it's a physical exhaustion members of public who don't understand boundaries unsolicited conversations that drain the creative tank before the day is even halfway done she tells it without bitterness and she tells it clearly and that honesty here is the gift because creative careers are consistently over romanticized and under-explained.

6:31Radim Malinic:The gap between expectations and reality is where a lot of people quietly give up. Daniel's willingness to name that gap, to say this is what you're actually signing up for, is an act of respect for every aspiring muralist who deserves to know the full picture before they pick up the brush in public. I don't want to burn out in two years' time and not ever be able to do this again. And so I think the patience that I've had to get to where I am now is what I carry through the day-to-day encounters. Yeah, patience is a really big one. And just not getting too attached to every encounter or the things that we hope happen.

7:14I used to be like, oh, I hope this job comes through. Now I treat the things that I can't control as much a bit more transactionally. and it's not taking, it doesn't mean I don't care, but it's just, yeah, whatever's meant to happen will happen. Let's not get attached to every little conversation and encounter that you have and just trust that whatever's supposed to land will.

7:35Radim Malinic:The last and that moment from our conversation with Danielle, it's very stoical because she's learned to think about her career from more, I guess, a stoical perspective. Control what you can, leave what you can't. detaching yourself from outcome without detaching yourself from the work itself is genuinely hard for creatives and it takes a long time and actually in daniel's case she would say it was the 15 years that she's done so far so let's be honest we tend to pour meaning into everything what she's been describing as a kind of emotional efficiency still caring deeply about the craft still showing up fully but releasing the grip on whether a particular job comes through whether a project lands the way that you hoped it's not indifference it's a protection and it's what allows daniel to keep going without the highs and lows becoming a roller coaster that eventually throws you off for creatives running on hope and anxiety in equal measure and let's be honest how many of you is there my younger self seems very seen here it is the shift in thinking that might be the most practical takeaway from the whole conversation the episode was titled there to protect your peace and it's a fantastic reminder of what you can do to ultimately find a way that works for you that creates a sustainable career that you would cherish and do over and over again if you haven't checked out a full episode i can only encourage you to do so thanks for being here and i will see you on the next one if you enjoyed this episode and would like more accessible resources to help you discover your daring creativity, you can pick up one of my books on themes of mindful creativity, creative business, branding, and graphic design.

9:23Radim Malinic:Every physical book purchase comes with a free digital bundle, including an e-book and audio book to make the content accessible wherever you are and whatever you do. To get 10 % of your order, visit novemberuniverse.co.uk and use the code podcast. Have a look around and start living daringly. I