Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Weird is the new cool

Back when I was WAY past ready to leave my cozy insurance job, I was dishing out my art portfolio like fresh crab at an all-you-can-eat buffet.  

One problem that kept coming up was, most publishers said my art was too ‘cartoony’.

I used to draw more realistic but exaggeration won.  Especially after I read this quote:

“At Pixar, we’ve always said that reality is just a convenient measure of complexity—we take a step back and create something the audience knows is not real, then we make it look as believable as possible.  See, the closer you get to reality the harder it is to be convincing to an audience.”   

John Lasseter, from the Art of The Incredibles

From that point on, drawing cartoony was my jam.  I accepted that my weird cartoony style was not for the mainstream.  This was my style 20 years ago and I still draw and paint like this today.

In an interview actress/comedian Aisha Tyler did with CNN.  They asked her what would you tell your younger self about who you are now?  

She said: “I would probably tell my younger self, Don’t worry about it. You’re always going to be a weirdo, and at some point that’s going to be OK. That’s eventually going to be your calling card, or your badge of courage, that you’re going to be a weird kid.” 

Not only do I not mind being the weird ‘cartoony’ comic book artist guy, but I own it and embrace it.  Like Tyler said everything weird or negative about you usually becomes your strong suit. 

Arnold Schwarzenegger was told his voice was too robotic and his accent was too strong to make it in Hollywood.

Oprah was told she was too female, too black, too caring, all sorts of nonsense.  

And ironically those are the same reasons why Oprah and Arnold have had tremendous success doing what they love.  It’s because they are who they are.  

The Artist Paradigm is about playing the long game.  Embracing that you’re different and knowing what’s weird about you is your greatest strength.  

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam

P.S.  Seth Godin has an excellent book on this topic called We Are All Weird. 

Removing the pressure

My mentor Chance Wolf asked on Facebook, what knowledge would you share with younger artists? This is what I wrote.

“One of the biggest ‘ah ha’ moments, ironically I learned it from you is… It’s not if you can make it, it’s WHEN. If you don’t quit anyway. That took the pressure off of wondering if I could make it so I just focused on doing the work.”

That’s just as true for a young artist as it is for an chiropractor who has been in business for 30 years.

You suck at email marketing?  Guess what?  You can change it.

You don’t have enough quality customers or prospects?  You can change it.

Want to go on more vacations?  You can change that too.

As long as you have a pulse, you can make the changes necessary to get what you want.  

If you’re willing to do the work…and NOT quit.

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam

There are no secrets

There are no secrets to success.  

Actually there is.  There’s a TON secrets out there, that’s why they’re secrets. On just about every topic too.

There’s a reason why Disney’s Nine Old Men, their original nine animators, produced animation no one else could replicate for decades.  There’s secrets to making a one dimensional object look 2D.

There’s secrets to losing weight fast.

There’s secrets to taking great photos with bad lighting.

I just saw a video yesterday and it seems no one still knows the secret to how the ancient Egyptians moved those 30 ton boulders inside the pyramids.

Those are secrets, my friend.  

And the main secret that holds most entrepreneurs back is…  

Belief.  

You have to have faith in yourself and KNOW that you can do it.  That’s why you study, take courses, and get coaching.  Yes, you may be doing sales and marketing but energetically what you are doing is building your belief one brick at a time like the Great Wall of China.

And when someone quits chasing their dreams?  They lost their belief.  

And there’s no books or consultants that can change your situation if deep down inside you don’t have the confidence and faith that you can turn the negative around.

If you believe you’re poor with handling money, you’re right.  

If you think you’re not as skilled as you need to be to suceed, you’re right.  

If you think you are enough and you have everything you need, you are right.

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam

PS  And let’s not forget you have secrets you can monetize and share with the world too.  😉

Enjoy the wine and not the label

You ever watch the show, Schitt’s Creek?  

It’s brilliant.  Like Seinfeld brilliant.  It’s a little zany, but it’s so good.  Here’s one of my favorite quotes from Dan Levy’s character David Rose.  He was explaining his sexual preferences to Stevie in season one. 

“I do drink red wine. But I also drink white wine. And I’ve been known to sample the occasional rosé. And a couple summers back I tried a merlot, that used to be a chardonnay. I like the wine, and not the label.” 

I legit LOL’d! 

When I watched the documentary  after the final season of Schitt’s Creek I learned that simple exchange did tremendous things for the LGBTQ community. 

Alexander Peartree from https://www.winemag.com said it best:

“As a gay man, I find it can be draining to constantly see myself reflected on screen in characters who are struggling as a result of their own sexuality…  It was so simple and nuanced, yet profound, uplifting and incredibly refreshing. The fact they did all with a wine-focused metaphor only broadens the scope to a wider audience.”

I think there’s a lot you can take from David’s wine analogy with your personal development.  Some people don’t get the info they need because they’re hung up on labels.

“That’s too spiritual”.

“He’s too religious”.

“I don’t like books, I only like video…”

Get the info that can propel you forward, and don’t worry about the label.

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam Street

What to do if you don’t feel ‘good enough’

I was at an event today and met a lady who was interested in drawing caricatures for a living.  I love helping people or pointing them in the right direction so I gave her my contact info.  Back in the days I hesitated doing this but after a while I realized I was safe.  

Why?  Because almost NO ONE did what they said they were going to do.   Most the artists I came across either knew better than I did—so they weren’t coachable.  They wanted immediate success or they found another shiny object to go after.

And some just wanted a “hook up”.  I met a kid who was 19 and after one meeting he just straight up asked for a job.  Nothing wrong with that but he didn’t have the skills.  I told him I’d point him to where he could work on his chops and suddenly meeting me was about as fun as shopping for a vasectomy.

A lot of people get scared of the work.  They want success like my buddy in high school wanted his women, fast and easy.  

But us unreasonable peeps in the Artist Paradigm know better.   We do our work because we enjoy it.  It’s our voice.  It’s a piece of who we are.  I love that Megan Macedo closes most of her emails with, “keep doing your work.”  Again, it shows that we need to run TO the work, not FROM it.

And the more work that you do the better you get at it.  So become SO skilled and SO good at what you do that no one can deny you.   And by ‘no one’ I mean YOU.  Doing the work is the first step in showing YOU that YOU can do it.  

So when your head trash speaks up and tells you that you’re not good enough or that you can’t do this.  You can answer back with confidence that…

“I got this.’

https://www.adamstreet.net

Adam