Like many of you out there, I enjoy listening to podcasts. There are many reasons to listen to them: it’s a subject that interests us, we want to learn something, we want to be entertained, etc. Lately, I’ve been listening to learn.
There is nothing more valuable than listening to others who have made it; those who have already reached that goal you’re striving towards.
My goal, as I’ve shared, is to become a freelance artist. Basically, I want to be an entrepreneur. A lot of this was sparked by first of all rediscovering my passion for illustration (which is a whole other story that I’ll share in another post), looking up inspiration for that passion, and stumbling upon some pretty awesome people.
I must first of all point out the talented Sean McCabe, A.K.A. Seanwes. When you Google “Hand lettering” links to this guy’s website are the first things that pop up. Which is exactly what happened when I recently started diving into hand lettering. I stumbled upon this guy’s work and have been listening to his podcast a whole lot and getting extremely inspired by him. He’s done things the right way - with integrity, attention to detail, and flipping hard work!
It blows my mind how much time this guy spent on getting his teaching courses created and his huge following generated. I really respect Sean, and want to create something like he did. But not the same thing… I want to establish my own voice, absolutely unique in a huge sea of voices. I want to be heard because I’m unique. I’m not just another fish in the pond, I am me. And nobody else has what I have.
All this hope and inspiration is great, but where do I start? Well, what I’ve learned in these great podcasts is that you have to iterate. In my case, that means creating lots and lots of art. I’m having a hard time keeping my focus on that, because I discover people like Pat Flynn and the guy from Entrepreneur on Fire and I’m like “oh my gosh! I want to be at that point NOW!”. But then I have to remind myself; it took them YEARS to get where they are. None of it happened like magic. There is lots of hard work, hours, elbow grease, ingenuity, and commitment to get to the point where people like them are at.
So I’m setting out to do those things. Work hard, stay committed, squeeze out tons of elbow grease (ew…), and employ a sort of “overlap technique” to quote Sean McCabe. I work a full time job (a great gig) and while I’m working that, I spend as much of my non-job time as possible creating art and sharing it with as many of you out there as are willing to see it.
If you want to help me, want to share my journey, please let me know! Post a comment in reply to this blog post, or hit me up on social media using those teal colored buttons on the left.
Thank you so much and many blessings to you!
Ad astra per aspera = “To the stars through difficulty”