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 Creative Pep Talk, a weekly podcast companion.

I'm your host, Andy J. Pizza. I'm an illustrator for clients like Apple, Xbox, Lego, and The New York Times.

I make this show because I have ADHD and I was born into a world that wasn't built for people with brains like the one I have.

And I know for some of us, whether you're neurodivergent or it's some other reason, we were born into a world that wasn't built for people like us in mind.

So we have to be creative to find our way in the world. It's not an option, it's not a nice to have, it's a necessity.

And so if that's you, this show is for you. Most of us don't get what we want.

You don't get the opportunities that you want the most and you're always too late or you're in a line and the line is so long you know that the supply available is not going to last.

By the time you get to the front of the line and it just feels like a waste of time to stand there waiting for something that will probably never happen.

Do you ever feel like that in your creative journey? Like the jobs that you want, the things that you want to happen in your practice.

Just too many other people want the same things and you're just stuck in a huge global line that is not moving and will not pay off.

And it gets really hard to continue to stand there when you know the supply has probably already run out.

But when I look back in my own creative practice, I can see that those lines were often not the thing that was in the way of what I wanted.

But were the way to getting something better than what I thought I wanted.

And so we're going to talk about how long lines leading to nothing may be the secret to your next big break and the art of knowing when to stick to things and when to quit them.

That's what we're going to explore in this episode. Let's go.

So step one to reaching dream opportunities that I didn't even know that I wanted is to know when to stick to what I wanted.

And to stick to what you're stuck in and let me explain what I mean by that.

So what do you do when your spirits are low and you're in the pursuit of tasting those dream opportunities? Do you just give up or do you wait around for someone to come find you when I chose the path of illustration?

My dream was to make a living making screen printed band posters for my favorite bands like I discovered these indie bands that had this incredible merch when I was in high school.

And I wanted to be like the designers that were doing that. And that's why went into illustration. It's why I chose illustration and design is my major in college.

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