On the creative journey, it's easy to get lost, but don't worry, you'll lift up.

Sometimes you just need a creative pep talk.

Hey, you're listening to the Creative Pep Talk podcast. I'm your host, Andy J. Pizza.

Now, unfortunately, for most of us building a successful creative practice means swimming into the dirty waters of social media and everything that that entails.

And recently I was sent a question by a musician who makes really great indie folk tunes named Olivia Rafferty.

And she brought up something that I think hits the nail on the head of why trying to succeed on social media for so many of us as creators and artists and illustrators and musicians just feels impossible.

Hi, Dr. Pizza. This is the 20th time I've recorded this. It's Olivia Rafferty, a singer-songwriter from the UK.

And I would like to talk to you about social media. As a songwriter who likes to dabble in the illustration collage, motivational content, and sometimes just pictures of me jumping up and down, I sometimes find it hard to remember to fit my music in the picture.

And when I do post my music, it never performs as well as the other stuff.

So here's the bigger picture. I often feel like on social media we have to be comedians and cultural commentators and hot take havers or curators in order to like trojan horse our actual art into people's lives.

It feels like we have to do something other than the art in order to get people to even consider looking at our art. And I would love to hear your take on this. And how you feel we can strike a balance between sharing what we make and also providing value to other people.

Man, that hits hard. Stings because I feel like I know that I feel like that very often that I'm going to have to redefine who I am in order to become someone who can succeed on social media.

And that I have to do that in order to get my creative practice where I want it to be. And if you have ever felt like that, I just want to encourage you that there might be another way that doesn't involve becoming a different person.

And that's what we're going to dive into today. Some practical stuff for the new year all about social media, growing your audience there and engaging with them there and doing so without losing your soul.

All right, let's do it.

Before we jump in, I got to tell you about this other creative podcast. So whether you are new to Creative Pet Talk or you've been listening for a long time, there's a good chance that you're searching for extra creative fuel.

And so I'm excited to tell you about this podcast. It's called American Masters Creative Spark. It is a webbie award winning podcast from PBS PBS makes good stuff. They know some creative things and they have a new season of American Masters Creative Spark.

It just dropped and it's definitely worth a listen from first cow director Kelly Reichart up and coming actor John David Washington to Pulitzer winning novelist Jennifer Egan host Joe Skinner taps into the minds of artists and icons across disciplines follow American Masters Creative Spark on Apple podcast Spotify and wherever else you listen.

And then you can send us a thank you later when you're when you're creatively sparked out of your mind. Go check it out. Yeah.

Quick little heads up. We're just starting to book speaking engagements for me and 2023. A big part of my creative practice now has become given live creative pet talks to creative teams at places like Warby Parker, Sesame Street and Starbucks and also creative agencies like the Marv Agency.

And then also to schools and students there's not really much I enjoy creatively more than live storytelling in real time and getting to take some of the things we talk about on this show and then and even more than that into real live spaces like I have started to do again.

If you are interested in booking one of those go check out my website antijpza.com to learn more and you can contact me through their OBSI in 2023 and yeah let's get into it.

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