Hello and welcome to the adventures and podcast where we analyze floor and celebrate the creative journey. My name is Julie Fe bo, and I'm a working artist living outside of boss and. I've been hosting this podcast with my super special c host and my mom. Ai Shoe balls since 2012. Hi mom. Hello, Julie. So we recently had a group coaching session over at my monthly membership site, my art
practice doc. Com. And I had a chance to chat with many of the talented artists who are part of the online community. And what was great to hear were about a month in, maybe to the new membership site and, it was great to hear that they love the content. They found the message board, the app and the site, you know, either to use, was a lot of the things that I was nervous about, they just absolutely were like,
oh, this is easy. This is great. And I was particularly pleased when 1 person pointed out that the search function is super robust, and she was able to immediately find what she was looking for. And in fact, I've had a couple people say, oh, I'd love to see you do a tutorial for instance on, like tents. And I said, oh, have you used the search function because I've done a few over the past few years, and I'm sure enough, they type in tents and up comes everything that I've ever done about
it. So that is super exciting because it's really useful, which is what I like. It kinda becomes like a wiki for sort of art techniques and ideas which I really like. In case I'm putting the car before the horse, I wanna make sure everybody knows that my art practice is a community and education hub for artists of all levels from hobby to professional, who are interested in creating systems for growth, the systems for consistency, systems, for radiation systems
for helping you make decisions. I think you get the idea of systems. You know, at its heart, and art practice is about creating systems that work and help you make better work. So in our practice is much more than the act of making art. It's thinking of ideas. It's researching. It's developing consistency. Schedule. Its mindset it's recovering from failure. It's networking, at
so many different things. And you can come and work on your art practice with a friendly community at my art practice dot com. So the membership doors are gonna open for 1 week beginning on 08/08/2024 practice And I hope that you will check it out. If you wanna be the first to know when the doors open, you can sign up for my mailing list, which you'll find over at my art practice. Dot com. So this is episode 01:60, which I have given the enormously long title.
Let's see if I can say it in 1 bat breath. Growth mindset and morning noon night at the Att edinburgh Arts museum. So, today, we're gonna talk about how continuous learning and bring facing challenges and being open to new experiences and feedback is a huge part of success as well as satisfaction with your work, and we're also gonna talk about the exhibit morning new nice at the Att Arts museum, they are actually related, but you're gonna have to listen to the podcast
to find out how. It So mom, I know. So today's episode is about growth mindset, which is often held in contrast to fixed mindset. This is like, a... This is a theory that's been around for a long time. It's nothing new. Is this something you'd heard of before I said that this is what today's topic was gonna be? I have heard about it. Mh. Not as applied to an art practice, but that figures because I don't have an art practice.
To me, growth mindset is similar to a phrase that's often used lifelong learning mh And I think the idea is very similar, which is you never see yourself as a fixed endpoint.
You see yourself as someone who's always interested in something, unexpected, new, different, a new person, a new taste, a new piece of art, a new movie, whatever it is, music, you like to travel or you like to just watch people, you know, go to a cafe and watch people, I think 1 of the issues that's different in the way I approach it is that I don't have a particular thing. Like in our practice that organizes and focuses me on this lifelong learning. I'm just interested in things.
I often find myself reading something from a magazine or pursuing something, which has no relationship to anything I've done be 4, but I'm interested. So I follow it. And then I use whatever it is, as it comes up in my life as opposed to what you're offering, which is having in particular area where you want to keep learning more That's the difference I think. Doesn't mean you can't do both.
I don't know that growth mindset is quite so needs to be quite so specific, which is apparently a very difficult word to say. I think that a lot of growth mindset, the reason this this topic came up for me is 1 of the things that happened is in group coaching we were talking about confidence and how to have confidence. And I was saying that, you know, 1 of the things I believe in is that you have to believe that, like, it's not that you're inherently smart or you're inherently talented,
but it's that you can learn things. You can grow. You can develop skills. Right? And somebody, in the class you has a background in psychology said, oh, that's called growth mindset. And so we sort of talked about a little group coaching, and then I went to go look it up and really look at some of the formal definitions of it. Because it... It's related a little bit to a story that somebody told me once a woman had been a consultant that... I've always always loved.
Because I think it speaks to mindset, which is they gave a group of women and men, a fairly easy test, And afterwards, they said to the women, why did you do so well in test, and they also said it's easy. It was easy. And when they asked the men why they did so well, the men all said because I'm really smart or I'm really good at this. Right? So women are saying giving the credit to the test and men are giving the credit
to themselves. Right? And then they gave them a very, very hard test and they said to the women, why didn't you do better? And they said, I'm not that smart. I'm not really good at this. You know, they were blaming themselves for it. When they asked men, you can guess what the men said, the men said because it was impossible because it was too... You know what I mean? And they blamed the test. And in some ways to me this relates out to how we think of ourselves? I'm
not... How many times do I tell people I'm an artist, and they say I'm not creative. And I say, no, you've chosen not to be creative, and that was a choice that you may. Right? Just like, I could say, I'm not athletic. But the truth is I've never once for a day in my life tried to be athletic. So I could say I'm not naturally athletic. But it's a choice that I've made not to try running, try gymnastics. Try, like, whatever else it is to make somebody athletic. So
so very formally the definitions here. So a growth mindset is the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed. With effort learning and persistence, not that they're inherent qualities.
Right? And so some of the characteristics are all the things you were talking about mom, embracing challenges, persisting through set, seeing effort as a path to mastery, learning from criticism, finding inspiration, other success, emphasis on learning, So for instance, in in the art world, right, a person with a growth mindset will likely believe that they can improve their painting skills with practice and learn.
Okay? So then the opposite is a fixed mindset, in which it's the belief that abilities intelligence are static traits that cannot be significantly developed. You're gifted with the ability. You're born creative. You wake up knowing how to do these things. Right? And so people who have a fixed men's mindset tend to avoid challenges. They give up easily. They see effort as fruit. They often ignore useful feedback, and they often feel threatened by others success because they don't
see any way to close that gap. Right? So a person and text mindset, in our art world, might believe that they're either naturally talented painting or not naturally talented, and basically there's no amount of practice that can change that. So that makes sense. Well, I'm trying to look up this quote, which, as you know, I'm I love the new england patriots, and they had a big event where they ind Tom Brady into the patriots hall of fame last week,
and he gave a speech. And 1 of the things he said in the speech which I can't find this minute, but I think it goes to what you're saying is that he said it's not that you don't have to be supremely talented, but you have to be is consistent and willing to do the work. And I think that's... Similar to what you're saying actually. Yeah. And I think, like, Tom Brady is a great example of someone who... For people who maybe don't know and don't follow sports
at all. You know, very low draft pick, not considered a top quarterback, not considered particularly athletic gifted called Stiff and wooden his hole life have all his success attributed to other things, other people, other... You know what I mean consistently. Right and yet, you know, closing out, you know, 1 of the winning Qb in football history. And I think that it is again, the idea of do you
have to... With, like, which would you rather be, like, naturally gifted or a super hard worker and to be, Frank, most people, it's better for you to be a super hard worker because that generally gets you further than the natural gift. Now the natural gifts can give you a head start. Right? But it's the work that's gonna get you there every single time. Yeah. And I think the point he was making is that you don't have to be supremely gifted. What you have to be is consistent
mh. Over a period of time and really work to improve yourself. And I think that's probably true about a lot of things. Some of getting better at something is wanting to. Mh. And then hearing out some pathways for yourself. I think there's a dis... As a couple of steps and people often look past the middle 1. So the first step is you want to be,
you know, a really good painter. And then so you could choose to, like, take classes or work at it or study with someone or get critique or read But instead, you just skip right to the become a famous painter and you leave the whole middle part out. You used to be when you were a theater director, used to talk about how some people really like the acting work. And other people will come in and what they really want us to be an actor. But they don't wanna do the work to
become an actor. And I think that's part of this growth mindset as you understand, you have to do the work to get to where you wanna go. Yeah. So, an example of it is this. So I've I've written a story for you guys. So let's... I... You know, I have a theatrical background. So let's set the scene. So this... The character's name is Growth mindset
Julie. Now growth mindset Julie starts her art making journey with traditional mixed media collage techniques, you know, combining paper and paint a lot of you were listening I've probably done that before. And over time, growth mindset Julie becomes interested in new technologies, but She knows nothing about how they work. She doesn't have any of the equipment and cash is tight. So what does growth mindset Julie do? Growth by essentially takes online classes to learn
digital art tools. She watches you free Youtube videos. She visits her local maker space to use their equipment and get some advice and some help. She seeks feedback from peers and mentors on how to proceed. She applies for scholarships and grants. To be able to buy the stuff that she needs and get the education that she wants, and she actively seeks to learn and the outcome, the happy ending of our
incredible fairy tale. It's not a fairy tale though, is that growth mindset Julie continuously evolves her style by embracing new technologies and methods through creative problem solving and by the belief that she can learn new skills. And the result is a vibrant and ever changing body of work. Now let's contrast this to fixed mindset Julie.
So fixed mindset that the evil client. Go fix and mindset that Julius faced with the same scenario, but instead of pursuing new technologies and ideas, she allows the barriers of knowledge equipment and cash to remain in place, and the outcome, of course, for poor fixed mindset Julie is that she continued to make the same art she has always made.
And while that's not bad. The issue is she makes it with some dissatisfaction because she'd like to do other things, but she's scared or unsure or unwilling or unable to do them, and that leads to dissatisfaction with what she's making. Right? And so that was sort of, obviously a fantastic example, but I actually have a really a real world example, and this is where we're gonna talk about the Att Arts museums
current show, morning noon and night. Okay? So here's the real thing that happened, which is for years, you know, I've been going to art shows. I'm going museums. I see other people's art in shows, I see online, thousands of people having shows and art in this, and I hear about art called and all that kind of stuff, but I was fixed mindset Julie. And I allowed my insecurities to stop me from applying to shows with lots of excuses, things that you might have said to.
You know, things like, I don't have time to apply to these things. It's really expensive to pay those entry fees, you know, they'll never take my work anyway. I don't make the kind of work that they like, you know, blah blah blah blah. And the outcome was basically like a lot of longing and frankly envy of other people. So I shifted my mindset. And in the day. I know yeah. And I became growth mindset, Julie, but truthfully at the end of 20 23, I said I'm done with, like, making excuses.
And I'm gonna start applying to stuff, and I'm gonna... And I'm gonna stop saying all the reasons I can't and start thinking of all the reasons I can. So I try turn all the excuses into action steps. I... Instead of saying, I don't have time to apply. I said I'll make time to apply. And I I put in my calendar once a month, There's a There's an appointment that says apply to calls. Then it's too expensive to apply, and I
said, you know what? I'll create a budget for trying to show something that's reasonable and make decisions on what to apply to partially based on cost so that I'm not... You know, because it's 30 or, it can be anywhere from usually 15 to 45 dollars each time you apply for a call? And it's like, you know, do you wanna spend all that money on what often ends up being nothing a rejection? And then, you know, instead of saying they'll never take my work. I don't make the
kind of work that they like. I said, I won't know if they'll take my work. Until I apply. And the outcome, the happy ending to our story is that this year in 20 24, and it is June now. I think this podcast podcasts will go out in July, But this year, I've had 1 solo show. I've been in 7 group shows. And I won a Jurors award at the Att Arts museum show, morning noon and night. My first time in a Museum show, my first time winning a Jurors award, like, very
exciting stuff. And that 8 shows is about the same number of shows that I've been over the past 5 years combined. And, you know, I think this is just an example of how changing your mindset can lead to a lot of success that you were maybe too scared to reach out for. And at the same time though, I've been doing the work. My work is better than it was 5 years it's better than I was a year ago, You know? And
I've... Everything that I've entered into the shows has been new work that I've done recently. And so that's another part is believing that I can. You know, for engineers, people have told me that I need that my work is too busy. And My work is too busy. And I heard it, and I heard it, and I heard it and I heard it, and I could think of a thousand reasons why there are other artists whose work as equally as busy or more busy and, like why can't I also, But then I started to listen
and I started to think about it. And I've now found some ways that still feel like me to draw down some of the busy. And I think that has helped out of the success too. And part of that is growth mindset is actually like listening and hearing what people are saying, but sometimes the timing has to be right for that, But that's a whole separate other thing. Anyway, the fairy tale is true. Mom, you look like you were gonna say something.
Well, I was thinking that some of it is changing your mind, but some of it you do have a fearless about putting yourself out there because when you were a little kid, maybe you were in middle school, and there was a call for a Tv show, 1 of those after school specials at 1 of our local Tv stations and you decided you wanted to do this. And it was, you know, everyone else sort of looked like Britney spears, you know, 1 of those little skinny blonde girls, and you look like you.
Mh. And I'll try not to take that as an insult, but okay. We're not... Yes. Out Yes. I'm a I'm a little around dark haired girl. I get it. And so... But I took you to the addition, and you got a callback and you book the part out of nowhere. And I think a lot of people were surprised. The point is you took an emotional chance, and a lot of this growth mindset is emotional, even though it may not seem so. But, I mean, to let other people see your art
some will like it, some will not. Some will get it, some won't. Yeah. Do you apply of things that you could be rejected from, Mh. And not let it feel like a rejection of you. Mh. I think that's hard. I think it's hard too. I think rejection and failure are super scary things and the whole idea of growth mindset I think or the reason that it works for people is because it's it's like things permission to say that failure and rejection are growth.
It's permission to believe that, you know, every time you fail, every time you're rejected, that's an opportunity to grow. I mean, I I would add the extra step in there and say that it isn't enough to fail and say that that's growth. You have to fail and consider why.
Why did you fail? And so I will give another real world like example, which is we went to a a show that I was in, and the juror was giving out awards and you know, gave out the awards and afterwards, you said to me, you know, because I didn't get an award. You said, you know, are you okay or something or do you feel alright about that. And I said, you know, I do. I said he didn't give an award to a single abstract piece of work. And everything
that... And what I had in the show was abstract, you know, but everything he had given a award to was representation. And so I said, it's always the jurors personal taste, like, the hs is. Right. And some jurors have a wider taste. And some have a narrower taste. And so you just never know whether you're gonna hit it with the dirt or not, but that 1 in particular, the taste of the juror was so clear to me. Mh. That it wasn't difficult to not to, you know,
wasn't difficult to not feel bad. Is that too many negatives, but it it it... I didn't feel bad because they under... It was so clear how his taste was his taste, and I wasn't even in the conversation of that taste. Right. I mean, then this goes back to on a previous podcast. I think we said this. You always have to consider... Who is giving you the critique or the advice and choose whether or not you think that person as an insight that's useful to you or not? Yeah. I agree. So
just... And thinking that the opposite is Issue too, which is, like, I got the Jurors award at this Att Arts museum show, but a different juror on a different day. You know, I wouldn't have. And, like, I'm... Who knows if I would have gone in the show because every juror has a difference, taste profile. I have to say though, that
show... So I... This so the concede of the show, morning Noon night is very much what it sounds like is that they wanted entries that, had something to do with, you know, time of day or sense of that. And 1 of the things I talked to the juror at the show and Actually, she's gonna be a guest on a podcast, which I'm very excited about. So I won't talk about it too much. But I will just mention that she said, you know, there were 450
entries or something like that. And she said a lot of them were, like sunrise and sunsets, and it would have been easy to fill the entire show that with sunrise and sunsets, but she didn't wanna do that. Right? She wanted to think about the theme in sort of broader terms and all of things that it could be. And then so she
chose art that fit that. And then I also think she was very thoughtful in the sense of trying to include a wide range of art because that show had sculpture, quilt, print geography, photography, makes media, painting ink the models. Yeah. I mean, there was just the glass work, like, there was just so many there was such a wide range of art. It really... I mean, maybe because
it's a museum too, but it it... It felt like a very wide spectrum of art and, like, a true representation of lots of different kinds. Of our unit I mean? So there was kind of like, a little bit of something for everything. Some stuff that was more of I I wanna say theoretical, not not the right word conceptual perhaps, for instance there was a piece that I'm thinking of, which was, about this guy who was a photographer photographer... Chap who was a photograph.
Oh a man, I'm having trouble speaking today. With a photograph of a man in a storage unit. And there was, like, a flickering light sort of above the piece and real 3. Actual flickering light. And then the the photo was, like, printed onto to kind of wooden slots almost like a pallet. Yeah stuffed in between the cracks. Of it, what you could see, like, bags of stuff and garbage and all sorts of stuff. And and I was kind of like I don't get it when I looked at
it. And then I read the card, and the card was super informative, and I basically said, like, this is... Stores that's provided to these addicts that are often homeless so they can obviously have their belongings somewhere. And so the whole piece of morning moon and night
is and she's it set is. And so they're their their belongings are available to them 24 7 morning noon and night, you know, and that they're able to access their stuff when they need to, And I thought that's such an interesting interpretation of morning noon and night as opposed to my piece, which was, called... Memory of a summer day, which is about me and my son going for a walk.
Right? And having that feeling of walking and, like, it's just not only and Looks was a different, but just an interpretation of the theme it was so different. And I loved that. That those pieces could exist in the same show and both make sense.
You know? And I thought they, they just did such a nice job too because each of the pieces had the art statement about how it fit into the theme, and I thought that was really nice so that it made everything feel a little bit deeper a little more interesting in terms of more than a title, you know, doesn't always help as much. Yeah. No. I thought it was a good show. And I think the jury did a good job at being open minded.
Oh, by the way, the show in Att is open for another week if anybody's interested in seeing it. And if you're interested in changing your mindset, Here's a list of 10 fixed mindset statements that you can easily transform to growth mindset statements. And these are statements that I hear from students and fellow artists all the time. So that's and that's how I picked them, not out of the air. So the first 1 is the most common thing that I hear all the time I can't draw.
That is a fixed mindset statement. The growth mindset, tone of it is I don't know how to draw yet, but I can improve my drawing skills with practice and dedication. And so that's gonna be the same for anything else. I can't sew. I can't knit. I can't paint. I can't draw people. I can't draw, you know, and and I have to tell you, I was talking to an artist the other day, actually, at the Att show.
And she was talking about her work, and she said that she does all this watercolor, and she doesn't normally draw people. Because she just can't draw people. But she was doing a demo... Oh, wait, This isn't... This wasn't a battle show. I just realized this was separate. Okay. Anyway, brain fart, let's give and rewind that and just say I was talking to an artist.
And she said she doesn't normally draw people and then she just decided that's something she had put into her painting looked a little like a person. So then she decided it was a person and she made another 1. And then she felt so incredibly proud of herself that she had drawn right people. And that is... The growth mindset, which is instead of believing that you can or you don't or whatever else, it's that you try and you see what happens. You know, but knowing that you can get there.
Okay. Fixed mindset I can't afford expensive materials, So my work will never be good enough. Where there's a will there's a way. I remember when I was touring colleges, and my father was incredibly impressed, so with this girl who was our tour guide at Brown. She talks about how she couldn't get into this class she went on a campaign to get the professor to let her into the class.
And the campaign to let her into class, a included, like, all these letters she wrote to him and this, like, big leg demonstration that she did about it and all the other stuff and she did eventually make it into the class Right? And and that's a growth mindset in a lot of ways too. Right? Believing that there is a way to figure out how to get it done.
So the growth mindset version of not being able to afford the expensive materials, so your work whenever would be good enough is to say, creativity isn't limited by materials. I can innovate with what I have and still make great art. I can also look into other ways of gaining access, the materials they wanna use. This is this whole idea of, can you get a grant? Can you ask people for donations? Can you, you know, find a way to use a makers space or another
resource in town. Did you know that there are all sorts of programs for artists who supplies. Like, they're there are ways to do it. I mean, even if the expensive material thinking of is, for instance, like, I don't have access to a press, so I can't be a real print maker. Okay. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's first talk about what a real print maker is. And second of all, let's figure out, like, there are lots of ways to get access to a press. Is there a printing club in your town?
Is there an art center in your town? Is there a way that you could, you know that somebody you know has an... Etching press that you could use time on. Can you rent time from another print maker. Can you... I mean, you can find creative ways to solve your problems, And I think that's why growth mindset is so popular in entrepreneurial circles is because it's about creative problem solving instead of accepting that the problem is.
You know, I was just thinking that a lot of times, 1 of the hallmarks of some outsider art. Is that they use unconventional quote unquote materials that is to say materials that are accessible to them because they don't cost a lot of money, including didn't we see 1... And we're I am it break. But the point is you have to think about materials as, a wide spectrum of things of possibilities, and you are not bound by having to, you know, by the most expensive
paints and the most glorious brushes. Mh. Yeah. And, like, I will say after having used a printing press now, I can confirm that you do not need a printing press for auto printing if you have a gelatin plate. Like, I can't see the difference. Between the 2 for that particular, you know, thing. And, like, there are lots of other ways to get around. Like, what could you use in dead. Don't you what class an online little video or something about doing screen
printing on making your own screen? It's I do. I taught I taught a class about that where you can make your own screens for screen printing with very inexpensive supplies. You can also find lots of tutorials online about it. And the same with, like, making stamps the same with, like there are lots of paints that you can make lots of ways to vape expensive supplies like, people have found a way. A lot of times expensive things are based on convenience.
And if you're willing to put in a little more work, then you can make the cheap thing work for you. Okay. Fixed mindset statement. Oh, gosh. I hear this 1 so often. If I can't do it perfectly, what's the point? In fact, I hear that 1 sometimes from a voice inside my own hat. The growth Fine perfectly. Is perfectly the way you had imagined it. Do you know what? Yes. Is is perfectly the way another person looks? Yeah. That's all those things are fair, and a lot of times that is what people mean.
And the fact, the growth mindset version of it is making mistakes as part of the creative a process, and it helps me learn improve, doing it a different way than what I thought is okay, doing it not exactly like somebody else is fine. Me you know, like I'm me. I'm not them. And, like, if you can get out of that fixed mindset of the task to be this 1 way.
That's enormously helpful. I often tell people, the the best art skill that you can develop is an openness to not having it turn out a particular way. Like, that's the art skill that you'll really lead just most success. Because if you're too fixed on it, You just never get there. None of us will. Right? Okay. Fixed mindset. I'll never be as good as insert the artist. Picasso, my neighbor, and my mother, whoever it is. Right? And the growth mindset version is,
I can learn from said artist work. And use it as inspiration to develop my own style. You know, I think once you... As I say, comparison is the thief of joy. Once you start the comparing, it's so hard to stop. And it's like, what does that mean as good as? Does that mean as successful? Does that mean that everything looks great? Like, what does that mean? You know, and I think that's an important thing to think about. What is it that you want that that artist has?
Okay. Fixed mindset. I failed at that when I tried it, So it's not for me. This is the old. If you fall off the horse, you gotta get back up again. If you fall off your bike, you gotta get back up again. If you fall down on your paintbrush, be careful where it poke you and get up again. Right? So the growth mindset version is, I didn't get it right the first time or the second time or maybe even the fifth time, but with more practice, I can master that.
Right? And I think it's kind of like, I can practice yoga with someone who's been practicing yoga, for 20 years. And they're just gonna definitely at least grind through their son's sal irritation. And I'm gonna hu and puff and have to look at the teacher to make sure I know what I'm doing and think about on my body parts and I can't imagine that that person would look at me and be like, get out You're terrible at this. Right? Because they don't care. They're in their yoga practice doing their
yoga thing, You know what I mean? I... I'm am irrelevant to what's happening. But I might be looking at them and think to myself. Oh, god. That person so good, and I'm so terrible, but it's ridiculous. Isn't it? For me to compare myself in my first yoga class or even my 2 years of a yoga to someone who's doing it for 20 years. You know, my 4 year old told me yesterday that that he knows how to drive because he's watched us drive, which was a hilarious conversation I then sent to him, Oh, really?
Do you know how to read since you've watched us read at which point I had him. But I don't what did he say? He was, like, No. And I was like, okay. So you don't know how to drive because I don't want you getting behind the car and trying to right do any type of wheel. Yeah.
But anyway, so I think a lot of times, though, we have this desire that I see in him that I think is a innate and a lot of people to sort of be at a different point at a further along point to say that we we we can do it because I I saw your drive so I can drive. I saw you do I can do Yoga. I saw I saw you paint this. So since you can do it, I can do it. And it's like, it doesn't work that way. There's a lot of steps in between, There's
a lot of practice. There's a lot of work and things that look effortless are often because that person has been practicing for so long. That it's become a innate in them. Right? So practice is the key. Okay. Fixed mindset, my work should speak for itself. I don't want to do marketing. And I hear a lot of people do various versions of this, including, like, I don't wanna have to make videos and reels, and I don't wanna have to, you know, do blah blah blah. And the answer is fine.
But then you you have to understand that marketing is what you wanna do if you want more people to see your work. If you don't want more people to see your work, that's also fine, but that's just a choice that you're making. Right? So the growth mindset version would be like, listen. Marketing my work is an important part of getting my work out in the world. I can learn how to do it. I can hire someone else to do it. I can choose not to do it. But, like, that is your... You're in control of
that. Mh. Whether you want or not. Do you have to dance on tiktok in order to get people to see your art no. But can you find a way to make an 8 second video? You know what I mean? Of you painting or drawing or knit whatever if you want a little more attention, Sure. You do it. That goes along with if you want your artwork to be part of your a business. You have to accept certain things about being a business. I mean, am I gonna just sit in my house and wait for the doorbell to ring and
call that a business. No. So marketing, you don't have to market like everyone else does, you know, but you can't expect people to find you when they don't even know you're there. I think there's also some sort of belief that some people have sometimes that marketing is either, like, shady or, like, tricking people or you know what I mean? Doing something, that isn't aligned with your goals, but I think, like at the end of the day, the best marketing is honest.
And the best marketing is truthful. And the best marketing is just about... It's like putting up a big sign that people can actually read from the road You know what I mean? The best marketing is saying, like, this is what I do. This is who I am. I'm just trying to tell you that I exist so that you can find me. It's not like, hey, you know, let me trick you into doing this. Let me trick the algorithm. Let me... I mean, I think that that's a whole separate other thing.
But I think if you really wanna think about what marketing is meant to do is it's just meant to bring the right people that people are interested in what you have. To you. You know Well then you tell me that once you are talking to someone who said to you, you don't have to change yourself to make yourself somehow appealing to everyone. You be yourself and the people who are your natural audience will find you. Absolutely.
And I believe that a hundred percent. It's actually 1 of the reasons I've I started to change the kind of videos that I post online. So for instance, I I think there are a lot of people who, like, watch let's say reels or Tiktok videos, which are usually short as entertainment. Like, I watched a lot of cooking videos for stuff I'm never gonna make because I enjoyed, like, the theater of it. Right?
So it doesn't matter to me that it goes too fast that I couldn't actually follow the instructions that they never give measurements that they don't because I'm, Caught in the magic of, like, the bowl turns into the this turns into you what to mean? And this, and it's fun and, like, the final thing is dramatic and it's entertainment. Right?
And so I made a lot of art videos like that, where it was really about, like, it was almost performance art and, like, things are so cool and it's not tutorial and it's just for entertainment. But what I found is those aren't my customer. My customers is not people who are seeking entertainment. My customers is people who want to talk about art and learn about art. And so it's better for me to have fewer views, fewer likes,
fewer people, but the right people. And that's been a mental shift too to understand that you're not trying to go for the most you're not trying to go for the widest swath. You're trying to go for a very narrow slice of pie. Well, also, you want people to think that you know them in some way that you are speaking to them in some way. And if you try to speak to everybody, will all get it that you aren't speaking
to me. I do think it also, sometimes people are shy to market because they feel like they're self. Toot your own horn too much, you know, not humble, But I mean, would you wanna buy something from someone who's who who doesn't have anything to say about it, who won't give you any information about it, who, you know, won't show you their face, I just feel like there's a line that you can not go over where it it you don't have to turn to 1 of these people who says, buy it
now. It's, you know, the best thing that ever happened. I mean, you're not selling the Gin knife here. Right. And you're for is not not who everyone's faced. Right? And you're also not the amish, you think that buttons are. Yeah. There you know. It's like finding that Gold lock sweet spot where it's not the honest, and you're not... And neither are you selling your gin and knives or somewhere in the middle of just talking about what authentically talking about, like, what you do?
Okay. Next fixed mindset. I'm not good with technology. Oh my gosh. I need people to stop saying this. What you've done is you've made a choice. Not to understand technology, and that may sting to hear, but it's true. The the growth mindset version is, I don't know how to do that yet I can take classes or seek help to become profession in any kind of technology. So for instance, I say things all the time, that's completely untrue. I say, like I'm not good at
you know, remembering people's names. Well, no. I'm just kind of a jerk, and I like, it's not a priority to me. And so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about... Let me remember that person's name, but I do spend a lot of time thinking about, you know, let me remember the name of this paint color.
Because that's important to me. And so it's like you just have to think about it as if you want to be good at technology, you can be, if it's not a priority to you, then it's not a priority to you, and that's okay to say too. But saying I'm not good at it, is just a very... It puts you in a place where you're somehow helpless. Right. And you're asking other help me. By the way, 1 way, you can do it is the way I've done it, which is you have 2 children whom you can call
a bear night and beg for help. With, you know, on your technology issues. A fine way to do it. A fine way to do it. Okay. So fixed mindset. I can't take criticism. It just discourage me. Well, let's think about it first in the growth mindset way. Criticism of my work is not criticism of me, and it's valuable feedback that could help me grow and improve as an artist, and I will consider everything take what's useful and leave the rest. Right?
You know, that's really key. So it's not that you can't take criticism and that Criticism discourage you. It's that you... In your brain, you're somehow con what people are saying about your work with you, which is natural. It makes sense that... Because we put so much for ourselves into our work. But but can you make an effort to stop doing that? Can you make
an effort to, you know, take everything? I'll tell you something I'm like Quick group has been doing, which has been really useful, which is everybody gets, like, I think 10 or 15 minutes, To show their work and have everybody's sort of talk about it. But in addition, we give everybody little slips of paper, and everybody rights down whatever it is that they're thinking of. So there are really like...
There's literally probably 10 benefits of this. Like, the major benefits of this are like, that 1, you get some written feedback that you can process later privately, digest it, think about it, etcetera. 2, people can say things that they wouldn't necessarily say out loud. And oftentimes what I find is there was a very vocal person during the session, but then the cards, many more people say something opposite, and I wouldn't have known that.
If not for the cards beg the very vocal person often, you know, wins out in that conversation. And then the third thing is that it's different when you read it a day later. It's different when you look at it even like a week a month later. Because you have more emotional distance from it. And it's even different than it was, like, in my memory of it, So I find it really, really useful to have that, like, multi layers of feedback. Another thing that you do which is good
is... So you try to have people ask the people who are doing the critique very specific questions. So They're not presenting something and suddenly saying here, do you like it? They're saying, j is x or y successful. Yeah. Do you see the, you know, z and r. So I think asking specific questions like that, doesn't leave you as vulnerable somehow, and it's a good way to get into the having your stuff criticized. I agree. And because thinking also about, like, what is the feedback you want? Are you
just looking for praise? That's fine. You can say to somebody what you like about this piece? You know? Are you looking for... And, like, oftentimes I'll say, like, this is done. I'm not gonna change anything about it. But I'd love to know if you think that it's too crowded or if it feels joyful or you know what I mean? But I like, make very clear or I say something like, I like this very much. I'm pleased with how it turned out. I'm just not sure
if there's too much weight. I don't plan to change anything about it, but I'm curious to hear feedback. That again is another way of kind of protecting and then I can take that and roll it into the next piece. Okay. So related to this, there's fixed mindset that thing that people say, which is some version of, like, they just don't get my work. Critics don't understand what I'm about. Those people didn't know what I was trying to do. So that's a way of blaming them.
Right, for not understanding. But a a growth mindset would ask the question of yourself, can I find another way to explain or describe my work? This is like what we were talking about in the morning noon to night exhibit, how I was saying that the little cards that explained each of the pieces really helped me understand what was going on in a way that I couldn't just looking at it. And so this is why I often hear our artist complain. I'm not a writer I became an artist So I didn't have to
write. Why do I have to write these statements and these and it's like, well, because... People need a way into your work. You know? So you're not a writer, but you are people person who is making something, you know, that needs to be talked about thought about? And so can you find some ways, that you can write in just a conversational way about your work about what you're doing. Can you use chat To clean it up you know, can you find a way to get a friend to help you work it around.
But there are are again, creative solutions to that problem? I also feel that you have to give to get. M, if you're not gonna participate. Open yourself up a little bit and gives also some critique, then people don't feel comfortable doing it back. So then what's the point? Mh. It's a conversation. Yeah. Yeah. I think Art is almost always a conversation with the viewer. Where they're bringing their stuff to it, and I'm bringing my stuff to it. The same is, like, you could say...
So years and years and years ago I went to therapy. And I started out with a therapist who been recommended to me, and I shared a very upsetting email I had gotten from my father. Started and she was like, could not see it as upsetting, refused to see it upsetting, made me acted like I was over reacting to it. And what I realized is she wasn't the right therapist for me because either I was unable to communicate the baggage, how, like, yes. That's a normal sounding sentence.
I agree. But but not from this man on in this occasion. Right? And she couldn't understand that or I couldn't communicate it, And I was like, this is not a good fit, and I stopped seeing her, and I started seeing somebody else who immediately was able to to listen and understand about why it was upset and understand that it came with baggage. Right? So just like everything else who there's a conversation, everybody brings their own
perspective, their baggage to what you're showing. If you show a picture of a woman, and she looks like someone in that person's life, they have a different interpretation of it than if she's a stranger. You know? That's just the way that it is. Okay. The final fixed mindset statement that I am turning around here is I've always done it this way. Sometimes you've always done it that way, and that's the... Because you don't know any other
way. Sometimes you've always done this way because it works every time and you just want it to work. You know, there are lots of reasons why you've always done it this way. But growth mindset is saying I'm curious to explore new techniques and methodologies to see how they can and pants my work. Right? I'm owing to the new. I... So I just... We just read a book club, the
Rick Rubin books or Creative acts. And 1 of the things that he talks about in map book I think is really true is he says, like, every now and then, no matter what it is that you've been doing working, and you're the most success that full singer song in the world, you need to do the opposite. You need to just do the opposite. You need you to just see where that leads you. You know, you need to try something that's very far away from what it is that you're doing. Okay? Sense for me.
Yeah. And I think it's really true. I mean, as you can sort of hear from all the examples that we've been giving, those are the grown mindset, growth mindset tend to embrace challenges and persist despite setbacks. And conversely, those are the fixed my may limit their potential by adhering to familiar methods and resisting change. And by cultivating a growth mindset and you can unlock your full artistic
potential. You know, it applies to organizations too, which is why they often want to overturn or add on some different board members or drawn from a different group. We... I'm I was doing a strategic planning session the other day with an organization. And when they divided us up into sections to work on different parts of the plan, 1 of the things was they took the 3 people who were already doing this task. And they put them all together in the
same group. And I suggested would they consider having at least 1 of those people swap out with someone from a different group who is not currently engage in that task so that a new way of thinking or looking at it. Mh. Could happen. And I think that's the same thing, but on a on an organizational basis. You want to make sure that there's an open an open window for some new ideas to come in. And and I think that's the way you keep an organization striving too.
Mh. I think that people sometimes think that diversity and inclusion means be somebody being a different race than you, and that's the only definition of what that can possibly mean. But I think it's also, like, differences in perspective. Differences in a bill it. Like, there's a lot of ways to have a diverse I group of people look at something. And I think that it's important, that's 1 of the reasons it's so important
right? To have all those different perspectives is because people come at things from different directions, and that makes for something that's better and stronger in the end. If you want to develop a strong and thriving our practice I hope you'll check out my our practice dot com. See this is my marketing, but I'm not selling you against you knives. I'm
just telling you what it is. Right? This is a monthly membership for artists at any level who want to create art regularly and develop a system for getting better at making your own unique arch. You can get on the wait and be, the first to know when the doors is open on August eighth for cycle 2. The focus of cycle 2 is gonna be on iteration or working in a series, and I'm... Super excited for it. So any last thoughts, mom, While we sign off. Just about drained. I'm a mere hu of myself now.
Well, I am in a growth mindset, and I'm excited to open myself up to lots of new opportunities out of Failure, I am a Phoenix rising from the ashes. And if you want to connect with me. You can find at julie balls dot com are all over social media as app balls or designs. I hope you'll sign up for the free weekly newsletter. That best way to make sure you keep up on the latest news. There's a big button on the homepage of julie balls dot com where you can do that or you can go to the show page
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