Are You Growing as an Artist? Spoiler: It's Not Just About Likes!

Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
How do you know if you'rereally growing as an artist?
You know, it's not alwaysabout selling more work or getting
more followers online.
Sometimes the biggest growthhappens in ways nobody else sees,
like confidence, technique, orhow easily you bounce back from mistakes.

(00:45):
In this episode of Create ArtPodcast and our series the New Artist
Compass, we're going to betalking about how to measure your
creative growth in ways thatactually matter.
We'll look at tracking yourskills, celebrating the small wins,
and redefining success on yourown terms.

(01:06):
Because growth isn't justabout reaching a finish line.
It's about noticing theprogress along the way.
Hey there.
This is Timothy Keem o',Brien, your head instigator for Create
Art Podcast where I bring myover 30 years of experience in the

(01:30):
arts and education world tohelp you tame your inner critic and
create more than you consume.
So we're going to be talkingthis time about measuring your growth
as an artist, which I think isvery important for a number of reasons.
I'm going to share with you 5reasons to go ahead and do that,

(01:53):
to measure that growth.
The first reason is, you know,why does it even matter?
Why should I measure my growth?
And here's the thing withgrowth, you know, it can be invisible
if you don't pause to look at it.
You can do all this work andnot notice.

(02:13):
You know, you, you starteddrawing stick figures and now you're
doing, you know, oil coveredportraits or you're selling in galleries,
you know, and you started off,you couldn't even give these things
away at Christmas time.
So it's really important thatyou look at that growth that you

(02:36):
already have.
And I'm sure that you alreadyhave growth in your practice, whatever
it is.
So we need to measure that sothat way we can avoid mistakes, we
can avoid going down pathsthat we don't need to go down.
And here's another thing tothink about too, you know, without
reflection, you risk feelingstuck even while you're improving.

(03:02):
And, you know, our innermonologue can really be not the best
thing for us.
And you know, we think, oh,yeah, I'm still doing the same old
same old.
I'm still writing the samepoems, I'm still painting the same
pictures, I'm still doing thesame dance routines.
But are you, I don't think you are.

(03:24):
You, with practice, have grownas an artist and you need to stop
and think and pause and go,I've been doing this for however
long now.
I always start off my showswith, you know, a, you know, bring
my Art and educationexperience for the past 30 plus years.

(03:44):
That's a long time.
That's.
I remember when I firststarted, it was horrible.
When I wrote my first poem, itwas horrible.
I've never showed that toanybody because it was that bad.
But now I've got four books ofpoetry out there.
And part of, you know, beingan artist is you're looking back

(04:05):
and going, man, that's where Icame from.
That's what I started from.
And this is where I'm at right now.
And being happy with that,being really happy with that.
You know, you deserve a pat onthe back.
And if no one's giving youone, I'll give you a virtual pat
on the back.
But take a pause, look whatyou've done, and maybe it leads you

(04:31):
onto your next project.
Maybe it leads you onto abrand new project where you comment
on the growth that you've had.
So that's why we measure our growth.

(04:54):
My next point is, now we knowwhy we do it.
Let's talk about our skillbased growth.
Let's talk about the actualskills that we're using in order
to come to our finishedproject or product, whatever you
want to call it.
Whenever I hear somebody calltheir projects a product, I'm like,

(05:17):
it makes me feel squishy.
I don't like that.
So what I want you to do is Iwant you to take a look at your old
work.
Take a look at that firstpiece that you've done.
Oh, my God, you cringe at it.
I know I cringe at it.
And then take a look at whatyou just created.

(05:37):
So, you know, for me, as apodcaster, I can listen to my first
episodes.
And let me tell you, the first10 years, and I said years that I
was doing podcasting, I can'teven listen to those episodes.
Luckily, they got lost, youknow, in a. I lost them on a.

(05:59):
A hard drive someplace, so Ican't really listen to those.
But when I rebranded and whenI started again back in 2016, I can
listen to those episodes.
And wherever you're listeningto this podcast at, you can go back
and listen to those episodesif you want.
But go back, compare what youused to do with what you do right

(06:21):
now, and instantly you'll seethe growth.
Instantly.
I don't care how long you'vebeen doing your art, you're gonna
see some growth.
Why?
Because you're building yourskills, you're putting in the reps,
you're getting better with it.
You're practicing, practicing, practicing.
And not just you Know how itlooks or how it sounds, but how fast

(06:45):
you can do it, the techniquesthat you were doing, you know, how
you solved problems to getover whatever creative barrier yet
you are experiencing.
So really think about that.
Skill based growth.
Take the old, put it rightnext to the new and compare the two
and go, wow.

(07:05):
And again, that's that virtualpet on the back for you that we all
need.
We all need that.
And if we don't have peoplethat give that to us, then we need
to give it to ourselves.

(07:26):
Okay, so we've talked aboutwhy it matters.
We've talked about skill based growth.
Now your personal growth as an artist.
You know, when you take a lookback at all your stuff, it's going
to give you confidence insharing or finishing projects because
you know, you've been able todo it in the past.

(07:47):
You've been able to see yourgrowth, you've been able to see yourself
get better.
So you're going to want to,you're going to be more likely to
want to share that with others.
And you're, you're going toknow that, hey, I have finished hard
projects before and I'm goingto finish this one just like I did
last time or the time beforethat or the time before that.

(08:09):
So it's going to give you thatconfidence which we all need.
The other thing too, it'sgoing to give you resilience when
you face criticism and setbacks.
You know, people are going tocriticize your work, but you can
always go, man, yeah, you maynot like this, but oh gosh, you should
have seen what I did 10 years ago.
It was really horrible.

(08:31):
But I've grown as an artistand, you know, maybe that helps you
get different jobs, you know,different commissions in your, your
artistic discipline.
You never know.
But it's going to help youweather that storm that we all go
through when people criticizeour work or when we have setbacks,

(08:54):
or when we are working on aproject and for some reason we're
just not able to work throughit and finish it off.
We can go back and go, well, Iused this method when I did that
project five years ago tofinish it.
Maybe I can try it again.
So it's a great way to helpyou finish those projects that you're

(09:18):
working on right now bylooking back in the past and seeing
how you did it before.
So now let's look at externalversus internal metrics.

(09:39):
Okay?
We live in the social mediaworld and everyone's trying to go
for likes or sales orfollowers and that can Be, you know,
really motivating, make youfeel like, oh, yeah, finally, I've
got a thousand followers.
I'm doing great.
Not one of them are buying anything.

(09:59):
But I've got a thousand followers.
It's not the whole story.
It's not.
We shouldn't, you know,measure ourselves by the external
world.
Rather, let's look at.
Are you enjoying that?
Are you enjoying what you're making?

(10:19):
Do you get some sort ofpersonal satisfaction?
Have you taken some risks?
You know, Bob Dylan took arisk when he went electric.
And we still talk about BobDylan today, you know, and he's like,
what, 80 years old orsomething like that, and he's still
putting out records, still touring.

(10:39):
But if he didn't take thatrisk, would we still have talked
about him?
I. I don't know.
You know, so look more towardsthat internal metric.
And, you know, another thingtoo is let's look at our consistency.
Are we creating things all thetime or we just, you know, once,

(11:00):
twice.
I didn't get a thousand likeson that.
I'm not going to do that again.
Who cares?
Who cares?
Are those your true fans?
You know, maybe you got athousand likes and two people bought
it.
Although that's your true fanright there.
But if we just base oursatisfaction on what other people

(11:20):
think, you're never going tobe satisfied because it's never going
to be enough.
Because let's say you get thatthousand likes.
Why don't I have 10,000 likes?
Okay, you get the 10,000 likes.
Okay, now I need a hundredthousand likes.
Okay, I got a hundred thousand likes.
Still haven't sold a piece,but I got a hundred thousand people
clicking a little buttongoing, hey, I like that.

(11:42):
And they're moving on withtheir day, and there's no discussion
afterwards.
It's just like, hey, you like it?
Great.
Bye.
That's kind of hollow in theway I look at things, you know?
Do I look at download numbers?
Absolutely, I do.
But do I obsess over them?
No, not really.
You know, I like hitting milestones.

(12:03):
But, you know, I have this on YouTube.
Do I get, you know, views offof that?
Sure, I do, but I don't obsessover it, I don't think.
You know, every night when Igo to bed, how can I get more people
to view my YouTube channel?
Or how.
How can I get more people tolisten to this podcast?

(12:25):
I'm just putting out what Ifeel is relevant to you, and that's
why you keep on coming back.
And I thank you for that.
I'm Happy about that.
But if I didn't enjoy doingit, I probably wouldn't do a podcast
or I probably wouldn't do avideo, but I really enjoy doing.

(12:45):
Gives me a lot ofsatisfaction, and that's why I do
it now.
Hey, if you want to, you know,hand me a thousand dollars, not a
problem.
I'll give you my bank accountnumber and let's go to town.
But I do it for you.
I do this for you because Ifeel like I'm doing you a service.

(13:06):
But I also do it for mebecause it feeds my soul.
And with podcasting, I get to,you know, use my artistry with the
audio production of it, withcreating the graphics for it, with
creating the ideas for what Italk about.
That's my satisfaction right there.
If I get money from it, great.

(13:27):
I have a day job.
I, you know, and it pays me.
But the reason I do this,because I don't have to do this.
I could stop this tomorrow andnever do it again.
But I enjoy it.
I enjoy the connection that Ihave with you, and I hope you enjoy
the connection you have with me.

(13:55):
Last point I want to talk toyou about is practical tools for
tracking your growth.
However you track it is fine.
Whatever is going to work foryou, that's fine.
The best thing is the trackingmethod that you will actually use.
Okay?
I can give you a milliondifferent ways to track it.

(14:16):
Hell, I can sell you a programfor 1995 per month.
But if you don't use it, thenyou're just wasting your time and
your money.
So I recommend, you know,keeping a progress portfolio or a
sketchbook timeline.
Hey, I, you know, I startedthis project here, and I ended it
here, and I put it out intothe world on this date.

(14:40):
Simple.
Just do that.
You can journal about that project.
You know, you can keep a dailyjournal or a weekly journal from
it for each of the projectsthat you do.
And that way, when people say,hey, you know, that, that painting,
what's the story behind that painting?
You can refer back to that andgo, well, I. I made that painting

(15:03):
back in 99.
I was going through a reallybad breakup.
And these are things that are.
That I was feeling at that time.
That was my worldview at that time.
It's obviously changed since1999, but that's what I was doing
at that time.
And it gives a story behindthe project.

(15:27):
Why do you think?
Back in the day, when we didDVDs and VHS, they had, like, they
would do a movie, and thenthey would do, like, a little Mini
documentary of the movie.
People love those specialeditions, those add ons to it.
People love to know, you know,how did they do this?

(15:48):
Or what was the idea behind it.
I know, I love that kind of stuff.
So do that for you.
So that way you can track itand you know, find better techniques.
You know, increase your speed,increase the success that you want
to have that you define.

(16:10):
But also do it for youraudience so that way they can get
a peek into your.
Your madness.
As I like to say, you don'thave to, you know, do all this right
now.
Just set a small goal,something measurable.
You know, maybe it's finishinga piece a week or maybe it's learning

(16:32):
a new technique.
Do that and you're going toreally see that growth in yourself
as an artist.
And that's going to bring youa lot of satisfaction, which is going
to make you want to make moreart, which is going to bring you
some more satisfaction.
And especially those timeswhen you hear crickets, your crickets

(16:54):
out there, when no one'scommenting on your work, when no
one's discussing your work andyou think nobody cares, you can go
back to that and go, yeah,well, you know, I was kind of feeling
that at this time or that time.
But look at the growth thatI've done.
Look where I started.
Look where I'm at today andlook where I'm going to be tomorrow.

(17:16):
Give it a shot for yourself.
It's not going to hurt.
All right.
That's all I got for you this week.
Thank you so much forlistening in on this.
I really appreciate you and Ican't wait to see what you're going

(17:40):
to come up with in terms ofmeasuring your gross, feel free to
let me know what method you use.
You can email me, Timothycreateartpodcast.com and if you'd
like to, you know, leave mesome critique on the show, that's
the best way to go about doing it.
Really appreciate those of youthat have emailed me in the past

(18:03):
and would love to have you,you know, contact me and let's start
up that discussion.
If you'd like to be on theshow, same method.
Timothyartpodcast.com is thebest way to get a hold of me.
Share this with a friend.
Share this with your friend.
That's the artist.
You're the artist.
I know you are.
But, you know, if you have afriend that is really discouraged

(18:27):
or down or something likethat, share this with them and say,
hey, have you been measuringyour growth?
And if they say, I'm nothaving any growth.
Really?
Are they not having growth orare they just ignoring it and just,
you know, doing their projectsand going willy nilly all over the
place?
So share it with a friend.
Speaking about sharingpodcasts with friends, I run another

(18:50):
show and it's called Find aPodcast About.
You can find that at Find aPodcast about xyz.
That's where I review podcaststo help you find your next binge
worthy podcast and outsmartthe algorithm.
Keep it a look.
See, last thing I wanted toshare with you is I do run a business.

(19:12):
I started it here in 2025 atthe beginning of 2025.
It's called TKB Podcast Studio.
You can find it attkbpodcaststudio.com and that's where
I help my clients lead throughthe noise with quiet professionalism.

(19:33):
I help people set up their own podcasts.
I produce, I edit, I consult.
Check it out, you'll see myportfolio there of the other podcasts
that I work on.
Again, I love doing podcasts.
Maybe we can work together anddo something for you.
All right, that's it.

(19:53):
That's all I got for you today.
Thank you for spending timewith me and want you to go out there,
tame your inner critic.
Create more than you consume.
Take a long look at what youhave done.
I'm giving you a virtual paton the back.
Go out there, make some artfor somebody you love.

(20:15):
Yourself.
I'll talk with you next time.
It.

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Are You Growing as an Artist? Spoiler: It's Not Just About Likes!