52 – Celebrating One Year of Podcasting

Nikki

0:00
Oh my god, Laura, we’ve been podcasting for an entire year.

Laura

0:04
I know how crazy is that? Man, time flies. We’ve published 52 whole episodes!

Nikki

0:13
I know! What are we going to do to celebrate?

Laura

0:16
Well, I know that you’re celebrating with bourbon.

Nikki

0:19
Yeah, of course, I’ll definitely be celebrating with bourbon. But we’ll be meeting in person soon for our second Startist Society planning retreat. We can celebrate together and I will make you my current favorite bourbon cocktail: maple, black walnut old fashioned.

Laura

0:36
Ooh, sounds fancy. Well, that’s a great plan. But for now, let’s talk about our first year of podcasting, and the exciting plans that we have for the upcoming year.

Laura

0:50
Hi, this is Laura Lee Griffin.

Nikki

0:52
And this is Nikki May with the Startist Society, inspiring you to stop getting your own way and start building an art biz and life that you love.

Laura

1:01
We are artists who believe strongly in the power of community, accountability, following your intuition, taking small actionable steps and breaking down the barriers of fear and procrastination that keep you stuck.

Nikki

1:15
Follow along with us on our creative business journey as we encourage you on yours.

Nikki

1:24
Alright, Laura, let’s start off with sharing some of the things we’ve learned in our first year of podcasting.

Laura

1:30
I’ve learned so much about audio editing, especially after having interviewed, what, like 15? I think 15 guests in total. And all of them have different audio environments and situations. We’ve had everything from trains, automobiles, rustling clothes, dogs barking, bad microphones, echoey rooms, internet issues, all the things! And you don’t necessarily hear that in the end product. So, it’s definitely a challenge. And remember that last episode when I told you I live next to an airport? Airplane, airplane, we’re just gonna wait for this plan. So editing the audio is a ton of work.

Nikki

2:18
But Laura, it is work that’s well worth it because you make us sound so professional.

Laura

2:24
Aww, thanks.

Nikki

2:25
And one of the biggest things that I’ve learned is that I love interviewing people. I was so nervous before our first interview with Shannon McNabb. But once we started chatting, I discovered that I really enjoy the process of just talking back and forth and playing off each other. Let’s listen to an example.

Nikki

2:46
So how did you go from having the patterns on Etsy while working in the more corporate design world to doing what you’re doing now?

Shannon

2:55
Well, basically, after two years of corporate America, I was like, I hate this. I’m always super stressed out. I want to work for myself.

Nikki

3:03
Oh, you’re so lucky that you figured that out in two years. It took me 10.

Shannon

3:08
Oh my goodness. I don’t think my stomach could have handled 10. I got so much anxiety from working in corporate America, that I would just, yeah, especially the holidays. Because I worked for a retailer. And it just and it was the marketing department, which I know Nikki, you have some background in marketing and in email marketing specifically. So you know all about that.

Nikki

3:32
Yes, yes all that I do. I do. So how did you how did you make the switch?

Shannon

3:35
So my husband, who is a game designer, supports us and basically has since I stopped working corporate.

Nikki

3:44
Does he have an older brother?

Shannon

3:45
He does, but he’s married.

Nikki

3:49
Does he have a single dad?

Shannon

3:51
No.

Nikki

3:52
Okay, I’m sorry, Carry on, carry on.

Laura

3:55
Nikki, you’re so silly. But it’s a shame that he didn’t have a big brother. Right?

Nikki

4:00
Right.

Laura

4:02
But I have to agree, it turns out that you are really great at interviewing, except for all that interrupting that you do.

Nikki

4:09
I know! It was so hard for me not to interrupt you just now. I know it’s extra difficult to edit the audio when I talk over you.

Laura

4:18
For sure. One of the challenges of editing audio is when people talk over each other. And Nikki, you’re just so talented at that.

Nikki

4:25
Hey, it’s good to have such marketable skills. You’re just jealous.

Laura

4:31
Yeah, when we do interviews, it’s particularly challenging to edit three different tracks instead of just two. And it’s hard to find that balance between not wanting to interrupt the flow of the conversation but making it so that you can actually hear everybody’s thoughts in the final episode, and not just Nikki’s.

Nikki

4:47
Hey, I’d be offended if it weren’t so accurate.

Laura

4:53
But seriously, doing these interviews has been an amazing process for us because we get so much inspiration from the guests that we speak with, they always provide a golden nugget or two from their own experience that is invaluable. Here are just a few of our favorites.

Nikki

5:09
So one of my favorite interviews was with the only man that we’ve had on the podcast so far. Tyler Thrasher, an artist, illustrator, musician, self-proclaimed mad scientist and D&D geek. He is so inspiring in his way of just trying whatever he’s most curious about at the time and finding a way to make it work for him. Here’s a snippet from his episode, number 38.

Tyler

5:34
You know, for me, there are no rules. There are none. There are people who who just have the craziest ideas, and they’re spontaneous, and they work really well. They’re people who are organized and it works really well. You just kind of have to play to your strengths. I’m the kind of person where I have an idea and I have to do it right then and there while I have the fuel, or it’s gone. I’ve known this about myself since I was a child. I’m a very sporadic, spontaneous person to be around at times. That’s kind of mellowed out since having a kid like, as things tend to do.

Laura

6:06
You have a little more routine in your life.

Tyler

6:08
Yes, a little but I still love the spontaneity and so that did fuel all these other ideas I had. I never sought out, when I was making crystallized cicadas, I never thought it would be my bread and butter. I never thought I could pay off my student loans from art school with crystallized goddamn cicadas.

Nikki

6:28
How amazing is that?

Tyler

6:30
It’s awesome. The weirdest sentence, like the most specific thing someone could say is “I paid off my student loans with crystal covered bugs.” It’s ridiculous.

Nikki

6:41
I raise my cicada tattoo to you.

Tyler

6:44
Right on.

Laura

6:46

Tyler

is truly an amazing Startist He just gets an idea and runs with it, and just sees where it leads. I love that about him.

Nikki

6:55
He’s amazing.

Laura

6:56
So one of my favorite interviews was episode 34 with Flora Bowley, an artist, a gentle guide and author who taught us more about the art of aliveness and the connection between art and life.

Flora

7:10
To bring it to its essence would be to really understand that we are creating a life. Right? We’re creating a life. Life, isn’t it…well, sometimes it feels like life is just happening to us, right? But that’s what this whole book is about is remembering that we are the ones that are creating the life. And the same way in which we might create a painting. And so the same principles that I allow to guide my creative process, and we can talk about those, are the same ones that have taught me about how to live and I believe that painting has been my greatest teacher in life. So, so many things, like you just said one about, you know, trusting that one next mark you make, you know, and feeling that fear and then just going well, am I going to stay and not do anything? Or am I going to go for it. And then trust that I, I’m a capable enough creator where even if that one mark I make/that one thing I do in my life doesn’t work out that I get to choose again, and that I get to choose again and that it all builds on itself.

Nikki

8:27
The episode with Flora was another amazing one. I get so focused on the business side of things that it was a nice change of pace for me to dig into more of the the mindset that she focuses a lot on. And another one of my favorite interviews was way back in episode 19 with Stacie Bloomfield of Gingiber. Aside from being a great illustrator, and businesswoman, she’s an extremely generous educator, and an amazing example of a Startist. Listen to her advice on just getting started.

Stacie

9:01
And this is the thing, whatever you’re trying to figure out your way forward in your trajectory, you have to be a little bit gutsy. And if you wait to have everything figured out, I see this all the time, people don’t start because they want to have every single thing figured out. And so they just keep coming up with reasons why it’s not perfect, right?

Laura

9:17
And people can’t see but Nikki and I are raising our hands.

Nikki

9:20
We’re raising our hands.

Stacie

9:23
First I said yes, actually hired this woman to be a coach for me for six months. And I’ve always been really big on if I don’t know how to do something, I find someone that I know who does and I just say hey, how do I do this thing? And I gotta tell you, I’ve had so many big breaks because of that. So I do what I can on my own and then I go to someone who knows better than me and I learned from them.

Nikki

9:46
Fantastic advice.

Stacie

9:47
It honestly is a formula that can’t go wrong with. Of course, you know working with someone else is expensive. So I always try to push things as far as I can on my own. And then whenever I see like okay, I’ve reached like the point where I feel like if I don’t figure this out, I’m going to hold myself back, you know, then I did it.

Laura

10:08
So another interview I loved was episode 42 with Lisa Glanz, an artist and designer who talked to us all about creating amazing digital products for marketplaces like Creative Market, Design Cuts and your own website. And she just happens to make my favorite Procreate brushes.

Lisa

10:27
It’s like what I was saying early on, it’s like, you exercise that muscle of putting yourself it’s widening your circle, like each each time you widen your circle, it’s scary at first. And you just want to like, you know, crawl into a hole and, and hope it all goes away. But if you power through and you get past your fear and you and you live in that circle for a little while, eventually you get used to it, and then you push yourself to expand your circle again. And so you just keep doing that until eventually you reach the ultimate, well not ultimate but you reach those goals that you were after. And then once you reach those, you realize, hang on a minute, I can go ever further. You know. So

Laura

11:08
It’s growing that confidence muscle.

Lisa

11:10
Yes exactly. Yeah.

Nikki

11:13
Oh, yeah. Aside from how enjoyable it is to listen to her accent, Lisa gave us a great combo of practical advice, along with good mindset stuff to think about. And although we could spend hours sharing interviews with you, we think you should just go back and listen to all of them again.

Laura

11:30
For sure.

Nikki

11:31
But now let’s move on to some more things that we’ve learned in the past year.

Laura

11:35
So another fun thing we learned was how to create some awesome free resources for our community.

Nikki

11:41
Oh, yeah, Laura, the guide to teaching live workshops that you wrote for us could really almost be a book.

Laura

11:48
So true. I’m pretty sure it’s like six pages long and probably could be a class.

Nikki

11:53
Six pages crammed full of great knowledge. Maybe we should expand it into a class.

Laura

11:58
Seriously, we should. But we have seven awesome freebies out there related to different episodes. And you can get access to them all by joining our Startist Society email list at startistsociety.com.

Nikki

12:12
So another thing that I’m pretty proud of is the branding of the podcast and website along with all the episode graphics. It’s been super fun to create those each week to go along with each topic.

Laura

12:24
Yeah, you did an amazing job Nikki, with that. I think you’re a Photoshop wizard.

Nikki

12:29
Thank you.

Laura

12:29
You definitely have mastered the selection tools.

Nikki

12:33
Yeah, thanks. I’ve become pretty good at cutting our guests out of the backgrounds from the photos they send us. But man, it’s hard with all that hair flying in the wind.

Laura

12:43
Note to self: use hairspray in any photos you send to Nikki.

Nikki

12:47
Excellent advice. Another thing I’ve learned to do and really enjoy is creating the audiograms that we share on social media for each episode. And first, I had to learn what an audiogram was. But it’s been super fun to choose a short clip from the audio and add captions and make those cute little videos.

Laura

13:07
Yeah, it’s just a little hook to get people to know what an episode is about. And you do a great job of creating those, Nikki.

Nikki

13:13
Thanks.

Laura

13:14
Yeah, those have been so fun to share on social media. And I can say that creating this podcast has been probably one of the most fun and hardest things that I’ve ever done.

Nikki

13:25
Oh, totally. It’s been so much fun getting to know you, Laura, and having this great thing that we’ve created and been accountable to each other on and the amazing community that’s gathered around what we’ve started.

Laura

13:37
Yes, I want to give a huge shout out to all of our listeners for supporting this podcast and coming along on this creative journey. We’re truly all in this together.

Nikki

13:48
Yeah, we had this idea of starting the podcast to be accountable to each other share our stories and what we’re learning as we’re going through it ourselves. We thought it would be really interesting to talk to other artists out there who are just starting and growing their own creative businesses. So it’s really great to have learned that you actually are interested and have both learned from us and taught us things that we didn’t know.

Laura

14:12
You all are the best. Okay, so we’ve learned a lot in the past year and have really enjoyed the process, but what does the future of the Startist Society podcast look like Nikki?

Nikki

14:24
Well, Laura, we’ve reached out to our community – and if you aren’t in our Facebook group, please feel free to join us. We’ll have the link in our show notes, to hear what you’ve enjoyed and what you’d like to hear more of and we’re working those ideas into our planning for the upcoming year. We have some more exciting interviews coming up that we can’t wait to share. And of course, we’ll dive deeper into our print on demand series. But there’s so much more that we have planned for you all.

Laura

14:50
If you haven’t listened to our last episode yet, we announced some pretty big life changes and half of our podcast will actually be hitting the road soon.

Nikki

15:00
Yeah, so expect some more fun audio editing challenges, Laura.

Laura

15:05
Yay!

Nikki

15:08
The other exciting thing we’ll be sharing soon is how we’re planning to expand beyond just audio. We have some new projects in the works for you that will add value and connection beyond simply just listening.

Laura

15:21
We’re listening to what your needs are. And we hear that you want community, connection, motivation, practical resources and tools that will help take you to the next step in your creative business. And we’ll be sharing more details about all of this with you soon.

Nikki

15:38
So in order to do all of this, we’re going to take the month of December off from publishing new episodes, which would be a great time for you to go back and catch up on any episodes that you missed.

Laura

15:48
Absolutely.

Nikki

15:49
And while you’re doing that, we’ll be doing a lot of behind the scenes work on planning, creating and implementing our upcoming episodes, and the secret projects that we’re teasing you about.

Laura

16:00
Definitely.

Nikki

16:01
For today’s Startist Society show notes, go to startistsociety.com/celebrate.

Laura

16:08
This podcast is a labor of love and it’s our gift to you this holiday season.

Nikki

16:13
And every season.

Laura

16:15
And every season. If you’ve enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to give us a gift back and help us cover some of our episode hosting and recording fees, it would mean so much to us if you would buy us a coffee.

Nikki

16:29
Actually a bourbon.

Laura

16:32
Coffee/bourbon either we’ll do. You can find the link at the bottom of our website startistsociety.com.

Nikki

16:39
Thank you so much for making our first year so successful. And we look forward to bringing you more in the next year and beyond.

Laura

16:47
Happy holidays. Thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next year.