Episode 24: 10 Lessons Learned from a Year of Creating

See the show notes for this Episode here.

This transcript has been automatically generated.

It brought everything together for me. That's what I'm doing. That's why I love what I do. That's why I am always driven to do more, because I'm actually adding the beauty that I want to, you know, have as my unique impression on the world.

I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things, creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town, tucked right inside the Smokey Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. When I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today, I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want and is wildly profitable.

Welcome to the Professional Creative podcast. The year was 2011, and little did I know that I would learn more about myself and life and how everything works in the world than ever before. I think about this year, all the time. And so this was the year that I took to do nothing but create. I gave myself permission to do nothing but create for an entire year,and it was beyond profound. I learned 10 things that I wanna share with you today, and I really have no notes. I have 10 like prompts that I wanna talk about, but no notes beyond that because I am so intimately close to the version of myself that I was in 2011, I'm gonna be able to talk about this and I am, I'm gonna try not to get emotional, but this year came right after I had decided to learn Adobe Illustrator.

So I wanted to become a fabric designer. Had no idea how to make that happen, but I knew that I needed some skills that I didn't have. And so I spent almost another year really just learning this program. It shouldn't have taken me that long, but at the time there was not a lot of information out there there.

So I was piecemealing together this whole program very much on my own, which side note is completely why I'm so passionate about teaching it today, because I can teach you what took me a year to learn. And about four weeks. But anyways, this year that came after I was kind of proficient, so I was able to make artwork, but I was such a new artist that I didn't have a body of work to speak of at all.

And so I decided to just take a year in order to develop my craft. And so all 10 of these things I think are gonna be applicable to you no matter what creative industry you are in, because we all have this time period at the very beginning. Which brings me to number one, the the first lesson is to really cherish your early work.

I think that this is difficult for so many of us because the type of work that we see in our minds and we have, and our hearts are not necessarily matching what's coming out of our hands. And that's difficult and it's tempting to give up. It's frustrating. You kind of want to arrive already. And there's also, for me at least, there was this pressure or fear of missing opportunities because I was still here, like trying to refine my ability to even create the thing that I wanted to create. However, I changed my mindset around that in the moment and decided that I was going to really embrace and cherish this early time, the time before anybody knew who I was before anyone knew that I was even trying to become a licensing artist or a fabric designer. And one thing that this always makes me think of is this philosophy called the Gap that Ira Glass talks about.

So there's this really amazing short video. We'll link it in the show notes, but it basically talks about the gap that we all experience between our beginner ness and our advanced self, and the journey that it takes to cross the gap between those two places. And how so often people fall off before they just broke through to the other side. So for me,

I took an entire year to create about 100 repeating patterns, and I just let myself, I let myself have the time, which brings me to number two, which was to explore all the different approaches and techniques there were to creating art. Now, this could be to creating whatever it is that you create, but likely there are a million different approaches.

So for me, I needed to test out what it felt like to sketch on paper with a pencil and sketch on paper with a pen, and then paint. And what kind of paint was I wanting to use, what kind of brushes did I wanna use? What kind of photography did I wanna take? What kind of techniques did I wanna layer? What was my subject that I was so,

you know, familiar with or wanted to create more of? And so there's really just a necessary exploration of all of these different techniques and approaches to creating whatever it is that you create. And there also has to be permission to test out some things that you're not gonna end up liking. And so that brings me to number three, which is permission to make bad artwork or bad,

whatever it is you create, it's actually part of the process. Because if you don't test out that technique or approach, you'll never know whether it was something that would, you know, add to your signature style or enhance the way that you create, or if it's something that you really ended up not liking. So I would say out of 100 patterns I threw away, well, I didn't really throw 'em away, but I never used about 70 of them. I would say I came out of a hundred with 30% work that I actually liked. And so this is key. I mean, you talk to anybody else, and if they said, I really don't like 70% of the work that I create, that's alarming. Nobody wants to not like 70% of what they do, right? But it is such a necessary part of just building a skillset, building a skillset, and layering in technique over technique, which is going to end up being the thing that creates your unique impression on your craft. And so it has to be a love for this time. It has to be an embracing for this time, it has to be an exploration, and it has to be permission to make things that you actually don't like, but you learn all the way through them. Number four is to create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And I really say this all the time, but there's heavy truth behind it because there was a time in my creative practice where I was creating stuff.

I was creating stuff because I thought I should, I was creating stuff because I saw other people creating similar things. Or oftentimes I'll create things in a color way that just kind of like go with another color. And it wasn't until I stood back and really thought like, am I really in love with this work? Like, is this the work, the work that I wanted to birth into the world, give life to and bring into this world? And the weirdest thing was that the answer wasn't yes, not for all of it, at least at the time. And so when I transitioned my thought around this to not make stuff for the sake of making stuff, but to only create literally the beauty that I wanted to see come alive in the world, it brought everything together for me.

That's what I'm doing. That's why I love what I do. That's why I am always driven to do more, because I'm actually adding the beauty that I want to, you know, have as my unique impression on the world. And so this just brought way more meaning to my work. It enhanced my why, my purpose. It also enhanced my signature style because all of the sudden I wasn't creating things that looked like everyone else's.

I was really just creating what I wanted to see. And so this was also, in hindsight, kind of a trick to establishing a more unique style as well. Number five is to grow a love for yourself and where you are right now, no matter where that is. And so it's similar to cherishing your early work, but as a practice, once you learn to love where you're at, even when you're not technically where you wanna be, yet you love yourself where you're at, you'll take that through every stage of your business. And so sometimes we long to be in a different place. We want, maybe we missed the earlier days where things were just easier and and there was less pressure, or maybe we long for a more advanced, more successful version of ourself.

But I think it's incredibly important to just love yourself where you are right now, you're not behind, you're exactly where you need to be, and you have gotten to where you are today, which wasn't easy. And so even if you're not exactly where you wish you would be, I think it's important to grow a deep love for where you are and appreciate all of the things you've done that have gotten you here.

I am so excited to share with you a brand new project we've been working on. It's called 60 by 60 because there are 60 incredible artists who have come together to share with you one way that they create income from their artwork in under 60 seconds each, which means that it's 60 minutes of incredible knowledge and wisdom being shared by some insanely talented artists that I know you're going to love.

Our hope is that it not only shows you what's possible, but it also encourages you and helps you get clarity on the very next steps you want to take in your own creative endeavor. And it's entirely free. We've also created an interactive directory with all of the artists included so that you can go dive into all of their worlds and get to know them a little bit better.

To watch the video, head on over to bonnie christine.com/income. Again, that's bonnie christine.com/income. You'll be able to watch the 60 by 60 video right away, and we cannot wait to meet you there. Number six is how good it feels to be obsessed with developing a skill. I don't know how to say that more quickly or more concisely, but when I think back on this year, I just, I can't help but smile because it was so fun. I was literally obsessed. I was enveloped in this completely surrounded by this effort of creating artwork. It filled every moment of my day. It, I woke up thinking about it, I dreamt about it. Every day was filled with gathering inspiration and exploring new artwork techniques and then developing patterns and prints and and illustrations.

And some I hated and some I loved. And it was all so thrilling. And so this actually doesn't happen very often. Like being obsessed with something means you really can't get it out of your mind. And developing a new skill like this is, it's kind of contagious. It's kind of addicting. Like when you're out of it, you kind of wish that you were back in it, or at least back in another skill development that was so exciting. I mean, I, it was so exciting I couldn't even wait to, you know, hit my feet on the floor in the morning. And so just really remembering how good it feels to so intentionally and, and so consumable develop a skill has helped me just remember, you know, when I start to develop a new skill, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. And so remembering that actually once you get started, it's so fun to just see the progress and explore and, and figure out new things that it helps reduce the overwhelm and it just helps me get excited about it. The seventh thing that this year of creation taught me is that there's no shortcuts. There are no shortcuts to success.

There aren't overnight successes. Usually there's no shortcut to a signature style. There's no shortcut to your landing, a dream contract or job. It takes putting in the work and not many people are willing to put in the work. And so when you put in the work, there is this whole groundwork that gets laid that sets you up for success. And there's really, really just no way around it. There's no shortcut. There's no shortcut to developing, you know, the skillset and specifically the style that you want. It just takes creating the work. And so give yourself permission to just relish in the process. The process is slow. The progress is slow as it should be. Number eight is related. It's that clarity only comes in the doing.

I could sit at the beginning of this year and just crumble into a million pieces on the floor from not knowing all the things that I was going to need to do. I didn't know it was overwhelming. It could have been stressful, but I didn't need clarity, even though I would've liked it. I didn't need to have it because clarity came in the doing.

It's just the getting started. That's so hard. But once you begin, once you begin doing, clarity will come, one question will lead to one answer that leads to another question that leads to another answer. And then you'll get to a place where you're able to look back and you'll have so much clarity that you would've never had at the beginning, but you must just begin.

Number nine is that we can do hard things and in in turn, hard things become easier with practice. This was hard. It was probably one of the hardest things I've ever learned, hardest things I've ever done, hardest things I've ever had to develop, but it was so worth it, and it does become easier because today it doesn't feel hard at all.

But I wasn't sure at the beginning that I would be able to do it. And I'm sure you feel the same way. I'm not sure, like today, I'm not sure that I'm gonna be able to learn how to throw pottery. I have a hunch that I can just because I know that I can do hard things and learn new skills, but I'm at that weird place where I'm like, I don't know. And I was at that weird place at the beginning of the year. And this year as well is feels so hard. I don't know. I don't know. What if I can't? What if I don't end up creating anything that I like? What if everyone thinks I'm silly? What if I am not successful? What if I have to go back to a day job?

It's all very difficult, but we can do hard things and those hard things become easier with practice. Number 10, learning something that is considered a hard skill will open so many doors for us. And so let me unpack that one a little bit. I consider learning Adobe Illustrator a hard skill, meaning it can be used in almost any industry in almost any country, or I would say any country, any industry can utilize someone who has this skillset. And so it was almost like insurance as well, because even if I couldn't create an entire career on my own, at least I had learned something considered a hard skill that would make me a potential asset to companies all over the world. And so truthfully, learning Adobe Illustrator has opened more doors for me in my life than anything else.

Truly, I always get this question of like, well, do I have to, and can I use another program and can I kind of piecemeal it together with all these other things? And I'm like, you, you can, but no one, and I'm, I'm serious. No one has ever told me that they regretted learning this program because it's such an enhancement to your skill set.

Even if you don't end up turning out to be, you know, a graphic designer or an illustrator or a surface pattern designer, it'll open up so many doors in your own life, you'll be able to create your own business cards. My mom uses Adobe Illustrator to create her own sewing patterns like illustrated and written instructions for quilting. And then she also uses it to create SVG files for her cricket machine and her Glow Forge machine, which is such a cool thing. Like I don't teach that, but by way of learning Adobe Illustrator, she's able to take it and do all these other things with it. Just to bring home my point. It's a hard skill. And so anytime we can learn something that's applicable to multiple industries across multiple, you know, decades, across multiple countries, that is a skillset worth learning no matter what. Talking about all of this makes me curious as to where you are. Are you at the beginning? Are you possibly entering what you would consider early work or are you reflecting on it? Did you make it to the other side? Did you make it across the gap? And you're lovingly looking back on your early work and, and really just wishing that you could go give yourself a hug? That's kind of where I'm at, even though this never goes away. I'm in this early work stage with other things that I'm trying to learn right now.

And so the gap is really interesting to me. And I think anytime we can just give ourselves permission to take time to create with no pressure, you know, there's no obligation to share all of this on social media or monetize it or even use it. You know, you can even make it and throw it away. It's just permission to explore and develop and enhance your skillset, and then you come out the other side with this refinement that is noticeable. You know, I can kind of always tell when someone has just rushed through this stage and, and felt like, okay, I'm here already, which is so easy to do and, and so tempting to do. But when people really marinate in this early time, in this early work time of exploration and development, you come out of it with such a refinement that you make up for any lost time in no time. Anyways, my friends, no matter where you are in your journey, I just wish you so much love and so much success. If this has got you feeling any types of feelings like imposter syndrome or overwhelm or you know, struggling with perfectionism or anything like that, make sure to tune into our very next episode where I'll be covering something that we've developed called The Weeds and the Seeds. That's all I'll say for now, but you won't want to miss it. I will see you on the very next episode. Thank you for listening to this one of the Professional, creative podcast. Don't forget you can get today's show notes and all other episode show notes over at professionalcreative.com.

Like I said, work to create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you. I'll see you next time.