"I started asking and I started getting" (Dan Woodger bonus episode)

0:00Radim Malinic:Hey, welcome to this bonus episode of the Daring Forever podcast. This is my opportunity to zoom in on a few stand-down moments from this week's interview, finding those moments that deserve a second look and dig deeper in what makes them special. This week I spoke to Dan Woodger, who is a freelance illustrator, animation director and a returning voice on this show. In our conversation we talked about Dan's project titled Run London, Draw London, because it's about what happens when a hobby and a hunch and a sheer vision collide. his project grew from a 500 donations into a full crowd scene with 200 hand-drawn characters a cameo and connection with paula ratcliffe and much more the episode published a few days ago was titled dare to ask for what you want and if you're an illustrator that's looking for new opportunities you're in the right place it's a pure masterclass in going after what you want if you haven't checked out a full episode yet let me share with you these four standout moments i have been so guilty of waiting and sitting and I've got an agent and I've been letting them do their thing and I've been chipping away at social media but I have not been asking it is true don't ask don't get I started asking and I started getting and I every time I was thinking oh this is really dark and don't get me wrong there was lots of things that didn't happen I shot messages of people they never responded 60 70 percent of the time I got something back from it and it's amazingly effective just asking for things and just being cheeky and just shooting a shot I think it helps I believed in this as well i think it wasn't me just asking a random question there was very much purpose behind what i was asking but every time i felt like i shot for something it came off the reason why i've gone for the title of the episode with dare to ask for what you want is because dan has really shifted his energy from being an illustrator who's commercially busy along with an agent with all over with the social media presence but momentarily actually waiting for things to happen and kind of reach him because in his own words he's been saying i've been guilty of sitting and waiting for what might come my way but the idea of just pursuing what you really want his love of running and illustration combined together on the back of many years of editorial illustrations for many different magazines that featured sports themes this really started working for him and i'm really happy because i had the pleasure of sharing studio space with dana witness parts of your career kind of unravel and flourish and it's a beautiful way of sort of showing what can be done if you really go after what you want so when he was saying that some of the messages that he sent out 60 70 you just don't get anything back or with most of the time you don't get anything back i still personally believe that sending just a few three four five emails a day after what you want it'll become the law of averages sometimes at some point someone will reply to back to you and give you what you really want and i think in this instance it's great to see what dan has created because he had an idea of a project and he went after it and did it and didn't really stop until the end the challenge was that it could be anything and then the idea was that with each donation it would build up this huge crowd of runners and supporters on a image of the london marathon route so i drew the entire tailored version of the london marathon route that went past all the London landmarks and then you had the crowd scene filled that space and it was a bit of a mad idea because it required a lot of faith that the idea would work the only way that it works as a piece is that if crowd scene is filled so I put a lot of faith in the idea and put it out there with basically nothing to show for at the beginning I had to start this project the idea was that I was just going to show something extremely raw and open again I've been talking a little bit about beginning about AI and how I want to show the creative process from a completely open book this is how it all works these crowd scenes always only ever get shown at the end i wanted to show how something like this is made in real time in dan's career he's created quite a few crowd scenes that normally get revealed once the work is done and finished and what he's done with his london marathon project was the fact that he built it in real time kind of from beginning to the end in front of an audience especially mainly strangers his love for running and illustration has been beautifully connecting through his passion for both of the topics in a way that it's combined in most perfect way what he was doing with the london marathon piece was the actual way of showing what goes behind the scenes in a way that potentially required quite a bit of imagination from some participants at the beginning but once the crowd team started taking shape it was a lot easier to translate it to people and actually get them to do the backing and again what's really good in here is the fact that we want to show what goes behind the scenes last week i spoke to eliza williams who's the editor of the creative review magazine and she's very much a believer that showing the polished final piece is just a fraction of the story and potentially some of the most boring part of the story i'm paraphrasing but there's some truth in it because showing what really goes behind the scenes what is the struggle what is the logistics what goes wrong and what goes well it's kind of the part of the humanity of creativity because we want to share with others the parts that are a little bit rough around the edges but the ones that people can learn from well i want to make sure that if i do it again i do it with the same level of intensity and commitment so i'm making sure that i give myself enough time to recover and build up again so that i can take it on with the same level of dedication but yes definitely actively looking for ways that I can partner as well with brands or with organizations that could help take off some of the burden of me doing it all myself because this was really DIY this was fully me and if there's any way that I could have the exposure of a running brand or a sponsor for one of the events to partner with me to help facilitate some of the things like the prints I did all myself I used the money I took for money I made from the observer double page spread and put that all back into printing and shipping costs for the prints.

6:05And I did it all by hand, delivered the prints to myself in the office that we share and then bagged everything up and sent it out by hand to the post office. Those things came out of pocket. If there's a way to help facilitate some of those things in a way that other people could cover those costs and help me take some of the burden off, that'd be amazing. But all things to work out for the next one.

6:24Radim Malinic:I mean, let's be honest, this is a pure commitment to the cause. I have chatted to Dan about the fact that he managed to get his illustration printed in the observer as a double page spread just before the marathon and it's one of those pieces that wouldn't have really happened that double page spread wouldn't be there if he didn't decide to go on and pursue this whole project throughout a full interview Dan was telling me like how he not only had a 16 week training block to get himself on track to be marathon or race fit but at the same time as a busy dad of two, he was also juggling client work, he was juggling this project, he was juggling so many other things.

7:04Radim Malinic:And I think we always tell ourselves that things are impossible until we realize that even the smallest of turbulences going up to the major turbulences and hurricanes are worth in our lives because we can enjoy what's the part of the outcome. Because what's done, created for himself here is remarkable because it's that one thing that It's ownable, it's his own, and he's managed to pull it off on his own, even from sending prints by hand in a post office, getting them delivered, commissioned, all of that stuff. That requires extra time and patience, but I'm sure we'll agree the outcome is absolutely worth it.

7:44I would love to say I had given that loads of forethought and that it wasn't a happy accident. It was a combination of the two. I knew that there would be an element of if I could bring other people's stories into that, that would make the illustration more rich and interesting. But the unhidden thing that I didn't really consider was that when I was adding in the characters, I would tag them in Instagram, and then they would then be able to share that with their followers. And it almost widened the reach. But it was really lovely to bring in these stories that I could highlight about what other people are doing.

8:13So it almost brought more people along for the journey. And when I almost like brought them, gave them a level of investment in making this work as well, which was really nice. They had invested enough to sponsor, but when they see that their character is now in this too, it almost brings them along for the ride.

8:30Radim Malinic:I guess the most important part I need to highlight here that the project wouldn't really have happened if it wasn't for Dan's brother, George, who ran the marathon previously and connected with the real story of the real meaning of the marathon. because yes of course you get the absolute weapons the absolute incredible runners who can cover the distance in a fantastic time but most of the other runners are there for other reasons they celebrate in someone's life someone's cause and their stories i was telling dan i always admire how people can run the whole thing like dressed as a phone box or a dinosaur or bin or something like that or an ambulance because that's a horrendous distance and the extra weight extra everything but people do because they do really care so dan has kind of connected all of the points together illustration running human stories charity but mostly the stories of people who are in the race for others so him being able to create all sorts of different characters more than a couple of hundred in his illustration showcases why people run where they come from and how we can connect with one another.

9:44Radim Malinic:If you haven't checked out a full interview we've done, would you please do? Because it's amazing always to see how many hidden or how many runners are in a creative sphere that show up as soon as I published the episode and shared it on socials. A lot of people showed up and listened to the episode. And it's a truly remarkable story of when you really go after what you want and ask all of the questions that you want to ask. remarkable things happen and i know from a first hand for a first-hand account now that dan months later after the project is very much working on the back of the project getting more commissions and being mentioned in the interview that some of the work wasn't coming to him because most of the work is now under nda it's one of the ways of getting yourself seen being out there and again let me repeat the title not dare to ask for what you want thank you for joining me on this bonus episode and I'll catch you next week.

10:38If you enjoyed this episode and would like more

10:41Radim Malinic: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. Every physical book purchase comes with a free digital bundle including an ebook and audiobook to make the content and 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.