We shouldn't be looking at other people as the enemy. We should be looking at each other as other people who can help one another to grow together, to improve one another. And even if we disagree with each other, talking with other people, having conversations is a crucial part of life. Welcome back to another episode. This is episode 29 of the Nick Amp podcast. I'm really glad that you tuned in. I appreciate you coming in to listen to what we have to say and I hope
that you can take something away from this. Before we get any further, if you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit that subscribe button, leave a comment below saying what's up, share it with a friend if you found it helpful. If you're listening on the streaming services, Spotify, Apple Music, any of those good ones and you don't want to see my face and you still want to help
the podcast out, go ahead and leave a five-star review, share it with a friend. This is how we can get this podcast out to more people and helping them out and giving them insightful information about the creative industry, entrepreneurship, self-improvement, and watching some young guy understanding life and figuring it out as he goes, growing. Because I know I'm not the best interviewer, but I'm trying to get better every single time and I really appreciate you guys
all tuning in. And even if it can just help one person, my day is complete. Thanks again for tuning in. And with that being said, the guest we had on today is Mr. Gabe Foustay. He's based out of Florida. Amazing guy, creative. He's a photographer. Met him a couple months ago back in Yosemite. And I think you're going to take a lot of information from what he has to say. He has been in the industry for a long time, has some insightful information,
really good wisdom, also a man of Christ. And we talk about how he navigates all these different topics, whether it's the creative industry, balancing the household in different aspects. And I hope you really take something from this and I'll stop talking about it and we'll cut right to the episode. Hope you enjoy. All right. Episode 29, we're here with Gabe Foustay. This is a guy
who's based out of Florida, creative, photographer, video, works on a black magic. He is a beast. I recently just met the guy back in Yosemite, has a lot of wisdom and I can't wait to hear what he has to share with all of you today. You are in for a treat. I am telling you. So Gabe, it's a pleasure to have you on brother. Oh man. Thank you so much for even extending this invite for me. It's truly an honor to be able to share with you and talk to you about a lot of the interesting
stuff that you have in store for me to ask. And I just want to throw out in there. I was really cold in Yosemite, man. It was beautiful, but I was freezing. Miami boy. Not used to the cold weather, huh? No, man. I was so cold. At one point I forgot that I was like, I just took off my gloves and I was trying to take pictures. My hands froze. Like I couldn't close them. It was hilarious.
Dude. So I mean, off the bat, you have more wisdom than probably a lot of us. I mean, everyone there in terms of just life and then pairing that with the creative path, ups, lows, in the middles, everywhere in between. I'm a ripe age of 24. I don't know anything about anything still. I'm
still learning a lot. And a lot of my listeners are closer to my age. So from your perspective, what is one thing that you could share with a young audience that you would bestow upon them in terms of wisdom as they're entering this creative journey? I think for me, it's just jumping in. A lot of times we're fearful and doubtful
to enter any new space just because it's human nature. But I think once you dive into something and even though you're going to make mistakes or you're going to fail, it's fine because a lot of those things are what guide us and teach us to get better in our craft. And I know at least for me, personally, I didn't study this. So a lot of this I learned by trial and error and reading and kind of guiding myself and understanding how things function and work just because I love to
learn. So I made a lot of mistakes. Honestly, I made a lot of mistakes. I didn't know a lot of things, a lot of technical things. But in the end, I kept fighting and kept pursuing because it's something I love. I truly do enjoy it. And if you enjoy something, just go for it. Don't worry about the failure because that's inevitable. It's about the success that comes after it. So failure has something that a lot of people talk about and everyone has to go through it.
Everybody has to overcome it. But as you've endured more than I have at this point, probably, because you're just being on this earth, you've been here longer than me, do you ever get used to it? Man, that's a tough question. I want to say no, you don't get used to it. I think what you do inevitably does happen is that you turn to be built a tougher skin towards it just because
every failure is different. None of them are the same. But you learn to adapt and kind of like acclimate yourself to understand that there's something after that failure. And at least within my belief system, because I am Christian, it is a part of our life. Nothing was made to be easy. There is some struggle, but at the end, there is victory. So that's kind of how I look at it. I don't know if that answers your question.
But that's kind of my take on it. 100% that answers my question. Yes, you're absolutely right, brother. I mean, what do you have to fear outside of God? You're with God, not much else to fear about. You're with Him. What can we take away from us? Correct. Victory at the end, brother. Amen. Speaking on top of this, I mean, you're someone, you're a family man.
And your terms, how do you balance family, the industry, the demands, all of the above? I mean, what kind of piece of advice could you give to someone who is thinking about starting a family and going about trying to navigate this? Oh, this is a good question. I'm trying to figure out how to navigate this. For this, it balances something very difficult, I believe, to achieve. But when it comes to like your family or let me rephrase that,
when it comes to the sets of your priorities, because it all comes down to priorities. If you don't align that properly, then everything gets out of whack. So in terms of like my life, my priority is always first God, because that is my belief system. And I've created that relationship with Him. And I feel like whenever that doesn't align properly, everything else kind of like gets dismantled. So once I put God first and my family and then everything else, it kind of works
simultaneously. And you have to be intentional about these things. So if I, obviously because I own my own business, and I've done this for a while, if I just pursue work, and I just pursue my business, then my family is going to suffer, my relationship with God is going to suffer.
But if I in turn say, I'm going to dedicate X amount of hours a day for my family, X amount of hours a day for my work, X amount of hours a day for God, then it allows me to understand that these blocks of time are specific to that particular topic or that particular relationship or that particular business. And it allows me to almost find that balance. It's never perfect because
there's always hiccups or roadblocks along the way. But as long as you make it intentional, then you're able to set that time apart and know what the priorities are for that. You answered it very well. I mean, some people may have no idea, like, what the heck? And putting God first, I mean, forefront, everything else falls in a line, right? That's what we're supposed to believe. And that's the goal. And hearing you prioritize that is an important thing. And to piggy
back off this, the household is a staple of God's word. And from your point of view, how important is the household to going off to do other things? Does that make sense? Having that in check. Yeah. And then going into the creative industry, how important is that? What importance should we be putting on this? Man, I feel the household is probably one of the most important things that if that's not aligned or in check, like you said, everything
outside from that won't function properly. Because for instance, if I, you know, being married and have my kids, if I don't prioritize or put my family first, you know, aside from putting God first and then putting my family, if I don't do that, then my wife is going to feel neglected. My kids are going to feel neglected. And then in turn, that's going to cause friction and stress in my other, like in my business or my creative flow. So then it won't allow me to function and
properly work effectively. And then everything else kind of starts to window down because you start to carry a weight saying like, you know, I'm stressing everybody out or I'm not giving enough time for my family or for my wife or my kids. And they're not feeling my love or my commitment to them because at the end they deserve that first and anything else.
A hundred percent. And with that being said, so it dwindles down. I hear you. I'm following with you here and your work in the creative, in the industry, whatever you're doing starts to also suffer and you're not acting into the best of your abilities, whether it's treating others with love and respect or just performing at a good level. Right. So from your point of view, from your point of view, having that household being strong, it allows you to love others more
properly. If that makes sense, if what I'm saying. And so the point of views that I'm saying is here is when you have that, you don't have that. Can you imagine, could you imagine how the way you would be treating others in the industry and how much success would be harder to find? If that makes
sense. Yeah, it makes sense. I feel like if, I feel like in, I would like to say that if I, if my household isn't good or if my family isn't good or if they feel a lot of stress because I'm not spending quality time with them then, but yet I'm almost re-divert, re-diverting that,
that attention towards everyone else and then treating them a certain way. I feel like I would be a hypocrite because if I can't treat my family correct, why should I, you know, how can I prioritize like a community or friends or, you know, other loved ones over my like immediate family? I think that doesn't equate properly. And I feel that going to, I feel like I'm kind of answering your question, but if I didn't treat them well, then I feel like also you would almost
release that stress on somebody else. And then you would in turn not be effective in what you're doing. And at the end, at least in my point of view, like in terms of like community or the creative community, my goal has always been one to help and to assist, but most of the time, to help and to assist, but most of all to shed light on the good news. How can I do it effectively if I'm not living that in my own house? 100% brother in keeping this conversation going,
pushing it a little bit forward, going in a little bit of a different direction. How do you go about having a walk with Christ and then also being in the creative industry? Because the creative industry is very expressive as we know, and just how do you navigate that? How do you find where you have your creative outlet and how do you balance that with also being a Christian?
In the very beginning, like when I first started promoting more or at least using social media to express my creativity, I was kind of like battling between that, whether I took pictures of landscapes or did I do portraiture or did I go more into like a creative realm? And I came to a conclusion having a conversation with a friend saying, if it makes you feel uncomfortable,
then you shouldn't do it. And I feel like that's where I got a little bit more of an understanding pursuing my creative outlet, because as you know, a lot of creatives, like we think outside the box and a lot of our thinking revolves around certain things that can affect our belief system. But how do you get that outside thinking and then bring it into our belief system? And have a positive influence on the people that see it. And I feel like over time, I've developed a better idea
and how to do that. And I'm going to use an example, like one of the most recent projects that I've been working on personally for myself, which is Netflix series. And I try to take something secular and see how that secular either show or movie or whatever, can translate to something that's within our faith or within the living work. Yeah, you hit that on the spot. I mean, first one, if it makes you uncomfortable, that's your
conscience. You don't want to violate your conscience. And being in the creative industry as people who are believers, I mean, it's not, you don't see it as often. I don't know if you've seen a lot of them, but for me, I haven't. And it's very interesting. And I think that's the thing. And it's very interesting navigating that because if you feel like you're in your own
little area, if that makes sense. Yeah, you're not doing the creative people, but then also like the Christians are like, Hey, like you're a little like, you know, I'm like, bro, I'm still good. But it's as well as this curious, because I don't know many people who are in the creative industry and also share their Christian beliefs. And so I was just really wanting to pick your brain about that because it's different. You have to watch yourself. You're right. And you do.
And I mean, how long, I mean, how long have you been in the creative industry? If you don't, I mean, when did you enter it? When did you enter the scene? Well, first, I've always loved the arts. I've started drawing since, I don't know, like four years old. And I've always drawn, I've always sketched. And I've always done that. But it wasn't until I actually started going to church that they gave me an outlet to kind of start
dabbling in other areas. One of them started with graphic design. And I want to say this was probably like 14 years ago, I even started like, I used a program called GIMP, which is free. And I started dabbling in graphic design. And then one day they gave me a camera and they said, you know how to record and this is where I go about like failure. I was like, yeah, I know how to record. I had no idea how to record. I didn't even know how to use a camera. I didn't know where
to turn it on. I didn't know what anything meant. And I just started recording. And little by little, and little by little, all of that started kind of like evolving. And then it wasn't until maybe like two, two and a half years ago, I want to say, maybe towards the end of COVID, where I started to actually display my work. And when I mean my work, I started displaying like videos and photos, I never actually shared everything else that I do. So I want to say like two and a half years ago,
where I really started like showcasing that. And I took more of an interest saying like, maybe this is something that I can do where I can inspire others. It wasn't for the likes or for the follows. It was more to inspire. But that's kind of where I ended up like kind of really displaying my work, maybe like two and a half years ago. Every sheet matters, even if it's just one.
Right. They all matter. And I mean, you're someone, you, your whole team, the Arturo, you guys really inspired me to just, by the way you guys carry yourselves, even before I met you guys, the way you carry yourself in terms of caring more about the relationships than the likes, the vanity, the metrics, all the showy stuff. And a lot of people can learn from that and all what you said. I mean, yeah. Can I inspire one person? I mean, that's a chain effect, brother.
I mean, you inspire one person, you inspire maybe 10 more than that 10 goes to a hundred. And just think about that. That blows my mind. I mean, I'm sure that gets you excited. I see that I see the look on your face. Like, how cool is that? If you can do one, bro, you're doing a lot. Yeah, you really are. And that's a really exciting stuff. And so you, you started with drawing and then you had these opportunities in church to be in the creatives where there's graphic design,
recording and all of that. And during all that whole time, did you ever imagine you doing more than just helping out there? Or was it just kind of like a, let's get to it? Or was it a gradual like buildup? Like, okay, maybe, maybe we're gonna share more out to the public. Or maybe it was just like, all right, today, I guess I'm going to start, I'm just going to do it. I think it was a little bit of both. I feel like the, the church itself, which I feel like a lot of people don't know this.
I was actually having this conversation with my pastor that, which is a really good friend of mine. He's the one who taught me like audio and video and photography. He taught me a lot of what I know. Super smart guy, great guy. And what I feel like is a lot of people don't really realize is within the church world, there's so much you can learn. And there's trial and error without like judgment or repercussion. Because you can make mistakes there and not get like, punished or ridiculed for it.
Like they almost love you and they want you to do good. Correct. They love you. And they're like, you can do better. Like they encourage that creative, at least for the creative, they encourage that for you to get better. And so I feel like it was a gradual thing. And then I remember vividly even past few years, because I had had originally launched something in my Instagram more towards like the graphic, like design type. And it was, I wanted to do it on
the seven deadly sins. So I designed the graphic based on the seven deadly sins. And I started with lust. And I remember that I launched that and I was like, I kind of sat back and I looked at it and I was like, I don't know if this is gonna attract what I'm looking for. Like what I'm looking for is to inspire. And I feel like this is like a really hard hit right off the bat. And then fast forward, maybe like a couple months, like I was sitting with my wife, I had just finished
like recovering from COVID. And I was like, listen, I want to get out of the house. I can't be in this house anymore. We've been stuck here for like, like 10 days and I got to get out of here. And I remember that we drove an hour and a half. So Florida is known for palm trees, beaches. We don't have a lot of mountains. We don't, that's not our thing. We have water, palm trees and a lot of sunshine, which is beautiful, but I wanted something different. And we found this like, kind of like
preserve sanctuary is called blowing rocks over here. I actually took on doodle to see that. And that's where I started filming with a drone. That was the first time I took it up. That's the first time I did anything with a video. And I was like, I'm gonna post a series. And coincidentally, when I started that I doodle had just started like kind of messaging him and he was starting a project that was within, I think seven days, seven reels or something like that. I can't remember
exactly the terminology he used, but I was like, I'm going to do the same thing. I think he was doing with pictures and I started doing with video and I challenged myself for seven days to post. And I think that's what really took me like catapult, like catapulted me to go dive deeper into that. So, okay. I got you. Okay. So gradually did it or two rows, seven days, seven reels. I mean, I don't know. I'm a big believer in this. You have motivation, but you need to take action to
create it. It's there, but you have to build the momentum to build on top of it. They keep going. So it's interesting the way you thought about the topic you were trying to talk about. What do I, is this what I want to get out of it? And a lot of people, they do things and they don't think of the repercussions and maybe that's just you having more wisdom than the younger generation.
And the younger generation doesn't think about repercussions and not everyone, but some, normally they think about it less than someone who has been through a couple of things. So it's just, I think that's a really strong point that some people listening could really take from is this really, what do I want to gain? Someone asked me once, what do you want to gain by doing this? Like by literally, you literally ask yourself, if I post this, what do I gain? We
shouldn't be thinking about what do we gain literally. Like it's not about what we get, but what is going to come out of this? What do I gain from this? And if it's vanity, is it fruitful to me? Am I being fruitful to them? All these different topics. And I really think that you hit really nicely on that. And to move further along, as Christians, we know that our hope is not here. It's elsewhere. So us being in the arts, there's this whole topic of, is art actually meaningless?
Doesn't mean something. That whole topic, right? So for us, we know where we're going. And the question is, is art meaningless if nobody sees it? That's one of those other tough questions, because if you look back a couple of years, I don't know, maybe like 10, there was no social media. There was no, like this constant feed of whether graphic design or photography or video, or any realm of creativity, even like music or anything, anything that involves creating something.
You had to, most of the time it just stayed on a piece of paper, or it stayed as a thought, or it stayed as a moment in your room playing a guitar. And I feel like it's a little bit of both. It's not lost because at the end, at least in my eyes, you're not really creating to get justification for something or praise for something. You're creating because it makes you feel good. It makes you alive. It makes you feel that ease. At least back then, like when I used to
draw and paint more, it was a moment for me to relax and disconnect. Like whatever was in my mind that would paint it and draw it, and I would relax. And I feel like now within fast forwarding in time and all this instant gratification, sometimes we lose what it is, the meaning of creating. And we want this like instant gratification, a multitude of likes, a multitude of comments, and like this praise for something that originally we were going to create
anyways. Like we weren't doing it for them. We were going to do it anyways. So it kind of gets lost in between. So it's like a yes and no. You shouldn't create for the satisfaction or the gratification that someone gives you. And it's not a lost art if no one ever sees it because at the end, it's something that you love and you're passionate about. How many
things can we all reflect on and say, I created this and no one saw it? Or how many unedited pictures or unedited sets or unedited videos or a painting or a music or a dress or a multitude of things that have been done and no one has ever seen but you did them. And they're there. And you kind of get excited. It brings me back to a, I was doing some research for a client a couple days
ago, and I had to dive into a company that I used to own. And when I went in there, I was able to see a marketing campaign that I created for it with some designs and like some of the things that I'm like some sketches and some numbers. And I was like, I got excited. I was like, man, I didn't remember I did this. Like, this is so cool that like, I was able to do this. And a lot of it never nobody ever saw it was just it was there as information and as a source for me to kind of
inspire the next part or the next phase of that business. So it was pretty cool to see and how excited I got in the moment, like even asking myself, I can't believe I did this. No, so I think it kind of answers your question, kind of went a little bit everywhere. But no, you did. And you're right. I grew up majority in the social media generation. Most of my life that I've been alive has been social media has been around almost the whole thing. Facebook came out and what oh five YouTube
came out seven, I was five and seven years old during those times. I didn't use any of that till I was about 13 Instagram came out. So imagine everyone's perspective who grew up with all of that. That's all they know. Right? All they know. And a lot of people from my perspective don't even know how to create art, including myself, this is something I'm learning how to do in terms of
creating art just to express yourself just because you can because why not. And so you say, we shouldn't be doing this for gratification, all those different things for the people's praise, all that. And you're absolutely right. So my question to you is, how do we spread this message to help people create more art versus creating just another piece of content is what they call it. And how do we get people to create art and not not always have to share it? How do we do that?
That's tough, right? Because, you know, we've by nature, like, we're like habitual creatures. So the habit kind of is instilled in us that. That keeps getting done like you, you post satisfaction, gratification, post satisfaction, gratification, post satisfaction, gratification, and it's kind of cutting that that cord and saying it's it. What if this was down? What if you decided to delete your Instagram for the
week? Would you go out and create? Would you take pictures or do video or sing a song or sketch something or design something without having to ever show it to anyone? Would you do that? Would you really want to do that? And I think it comes down to seeing if you would. You know, there is countless pictures or, you know, countless sketches that I've done that will never probably make it to social media. And it wasn't because I.
Did it because I wanted to post it. I did it because I really enjoy what I do. I really enjoy just the the space that it creates to be able to. You know, whether within photography, it's more of the connections that you make with people. You go out with a group of people, you take pictures and. It's just a fun time like you. You're all collectively getting excited over something that you visually see in your mind and putting it into reality.
And when it comes to like an artist, like someone that sketches or someone that plays music, it's more about just sitting there and creating something that you love. So. I think it comes down to that, like how for those that grew up in that world of social media, would you. Cut social media from your life for a week for a couple of days, and would you go out and create anyways? Would you go out and explore and see the beauty that is already out there and
make something out of it? You know, would you do that? And I think that that's the question that we have to ask ourselves. Would we get to that point? You bring up a lot of valid points, man. For me, just I'm just I'm talking for a lot of people who grew up in this generation about trying to talk about me as Nick, but like as I'm kind of a spokesman for people my age. And so for me, I started out photography in high school. I learned
the skills like without social media, without posting about it. But then as I got on social media, I started to do photography. I started to do photography. I started to do photography. But then as I got on social media, I got better, got better, but I was getting better for the wrong reasons. And I feel like this last year, two years, I've really learned the art side of it.
And it's crazy. I feel like I'm falling in love with the art for the first time. And you might have had that moment back when a couple of years ago, whenever, but I was like, what was I doing before? I wasn't even spreading a message. I wasn't even creating. I was just posting the post. I didn't even know the in-depth details that I can convey, the feelings and emotions. And this is like, it blew my mind. I'm like, I have a fire lit in me now. I'm excited.
I'm like, whoa. And then being around you, the Art Factory team. I mean, dude, I can't tell you how inspiring that is and encouraging to be around all you guys, all the creatives. Because I'm like, I feel like I'm a baby. I'm a babe in art right now. I'm just learning. And I have all these technical skills. I have it all, but the storytelling, bro, it's a whole different thing, no matter whether it's photography, illustration, graphic design, video, whatever. You can get so
deep with it. And that brings me up to you guys, the Art Factory team. You guys are all pretty similar minded. What has your experience been like with that? I mean, you live in Florida. You don't live in Texas with them. I mean, that's crazy, right? The thing about. Yeah. Yeah. Man, honestly, it's been an amazing experience. It's something that I never thought
would occur, honestly, from a platform like this. But it did. It started with a simple conversation about something technical within the platform that I didn't really understand that evolved into a friendship, then evolved into like building a family. And then it evolved into everything that people see now, you know, and more people that are coming into the Art Factory family. And it's just it's cool to be able to be a part of a group that thinks similar in terms of the
creative space, because we don't all believe the exact same thing within like personal things. But when it comes into the creative space, we we all kind of see everything very similar. We all want to create to. For the love of it, not for the gratification of it, we just love to create. You know, we all we just all get excited. I mean, whenever we're all together.
It's funny because all of us have kind of similarities and like, for instance, like me and Juan, we like a lot of like rundown buildings and like these weird abstract things. And then art loves a lot of the low light and a lot of like the vibrancy of that. And then you even have like like Ria and like, you know, Andy and all of them have their own like little spice to it, which is cool because we all like kind of like balance off each other or
feed off each other. And then we just get really excited and we all have like our own like dynamics to how we create and how we get together. But I think it's an amazing experience
just for the fact of community. You know, being in a community of other creatives is a huge thing and it's an encouragement because a lot of us now, at least, we're a lot more solitary where people don't realize a creative mind connected with other creative minds just elevates your creativity to a whole other level because you're constantly feeding off of one another. And that makes you grow more as a creative than you think.
Dude, I'll tell you a story. Right after you guys left, literally the next day, I went up to the hills and I created a video just because I was so pumped up and like creative mind juices were going. And I was like, here we go. I brought I even brought a light just in case I was gonna do some low light on my own just out there just because you guys got me all excited about it. So that's that's living proof of exactly what you're saying, man. So you couldn't have said all that better and
responding to focusing on community and the family and all of that. I mean, by nature, we all want to be included in things, whether it's the running club, the music club, ours just happens to be the creative club, I'm just saying the creative club, but the creative the arts. So I was like, I'm not talking about called pawns or drawn shaped or something like that. It's cool to work with I'm just saying the creative club, but the creative, the arts, right?
other Incubities and hearing calls from other And so finding community is huge anywhere and you guys all do a very great job of that. ular communities in our community. And so the whole sort of club, ours just happens too be truck And anyone listening, again, make sure you guys go check out all their pages and what It doesn't block our vision..,and so really finding community is sonra locals for Welcome they're doing. They're doing amazing work over there. Couldn't recommend them more.
And transitioning, you're a graphic designer, you're someone who is in that space. And that's not my strongest out of my three skills, but I do know one thing that runs in the mind of graphic designers is good enough, good enough. I know you can see the tiny uneven edges that you could have improved on. I know the shape builder tool that you didn't clean it up just enough right there is good enough, good enough.
Is being good enough okay when you're creating a graphic art poster or whatever it is, a logo, a sketch, a brand design. I want you to share some experience and insight on that aspect of it. Man, that's always a struggle for me because I am like a perfectionist and I like everything to be like top notch all the time. But then you have the triangle, good, cheap and fast, right? And within that triangle, you can't get all three. It's very rare that you can get all three.
And at least when you're depending on where you're at or you're, I want to say graphically, like where you do this graphically. If you're in a print house, you're just pouring out design. You're not thinking of the perfection of it. You're like a machine in a factory. You're just spitting out design.
But when it comes to your own personal thing, sometimes it's better to take a little bit longer to just fine tune that to what you really feel good about than to just throw it out there because you're like, it's good enough. I just need to get it out there. But then you just kind of like left it halfway. You didn't give it 100%. You kind of just said, I want to do 80 and I want to get it out. So it's kind of like a balance.
Because a lot of times when even within like the church, like I do a lot of their designs still. And we have to move like production has to go fast in our church because it's quick turnaround times. And sometimes you have to produce it quick enough so that it gets out there. But even then I still try to take enough time to get it as close to perfect as possible or as close to that good enough that you're like, all right, I'm fine with it. I can make it.
So it's just really what you feel comfortable with. What you really say like, I really like this. I think it looks good to me. It looks good. Yes. Can I use something better or can it be perfected in a certain way? Of course, everything can. But eventually you develop a system where you say, OK, next time I might add this or next time I might do this different or next time I might be able to learn a skill to be quicker so that I can take more time for a different section of this design.
So it already depends, you know. So I guess it can't be good enough, right? Yeah. Yeah. What's been your learning curve with taking criticism on your graphic design work? Because especially craft design work, you're expected to pump it out and be like a machine, like you said, and people can be very specific and nuanced what they want in it. And for me, I mean, for you, I want to know where your learning curve was and taking criticism. At first, when I first started, I sucked at it.
I really did. It was horrible. I didn't like it. Whenever someone told me something, I was like, no, you're wrong. You don't know what you're talking about. I know what I'm doing here. And I was kind of like I was like a like an arcs of blinders. I was just like moving straightforward, no thought process, just kind of running over things.
And then as I got older and over time and over conversations and, you know, really taking a step back and listening, I learned that the criticism is actually an avenue to be able to get better. And now I welcome it because it's not criticism. It's really more of like how I can improve. You know, if you see it as criticism and you're always going to be offended, you're always going to be angry, you're always going to be like stand office about it.
But if you see it as an avenue to get better at it, then why not? Why not take it and say, I pull so if I do that different and I'll get better over here or look better this way. So over time, honestly, now it's kind of just like rubs off my shoulders and I'm like, oh, that's what you wanted. Let me perfect that. Let me make it better and let's move on. And that's a big part of the creative industry being on take criticism.
And with that being said, that is incredibly important because you talked about earlier in the conversation how being around the creatives is where we grow. But then you're also talking about a growth mindset here where people are offering us criticism, advice, feedback, whether it's positive, negative, it gives us an opportunity to assess ourselves.
And I love how this aligns with the Bible because we're called to self reflect on our actions and what we're doing, our behaving, the way we view things at all times, we should be self reflecting on that. And so it's just insane to me and just fathoming how that can translate to this, to taking criticism here, being okay, because you've heard the term iron sharpens iron. And for you, what would you say to someone young?
Same as you're talking to me, 24 years old, green, and how would you explain iron sharpening iron to me when someone else, the client is trying to tell me something? I think I would approach it in the fact that in the literal term of iron sharpening iron, in the beginning, that iron is rough, it's brittle, it's difficult to shape in. But then after time, it becomes smooth and it's able to be more functional. Because if it wasn't smooth, it would be a lot more difficult to use.
So I feel like when you're younger and you start off in this industry and those criticisms come in, if you see them as an ability to be quicker, smoother, and more creative, then you would be able to advance quicker in your skill set. Rather than allowing it to continue to be brittle and tough, you would just prolong the inevitable, which is you were already designed to be effective, a masterpiece and divinity within that space. That steps were already a line for you.
It's up to you to say, am I going to get to those steps quicker or am I going to take longer because I'm stubborn and I just want to do it my way? And that's where the fine line comes with that, where you say, I'm going to eliminate my own pride, my own stubbornness, and I'm going to allow people to learn from the people, whether younger or older, because a lot of times we think that just because they're older, they know more. That's not necessary too.
There's some that are younger that might know more. But when it comes into that space, that more of that criticism that comes in and you take it as, okay, they told me to make the lines more curved or use a different color as a background for a foreground. Those are like common sense things sometimes where you have to look at it outside of your own thought process.
Sometimes we get in our own ways and we kind of got to eliminate that and say, I'm going to look at this from a third party's perspective and how would it make sense and would it look good? If I was sitting here, not as a designer, but as a third party, would I really like this? And then it's more of a learning thing. It's more of useful information because criticism is everywhere. Take away the creative part, what we're talking about, what you wear, if you cook, how you cook.
There's so many things that are always criticized. And if you take it offensive, then you're going to stay stuck in that hole or you're going to stay stuck in that position and you're never going to move because that's it. Nobody else knows what they're talking about. It's only me. So then eventually there's not going to be no one to look at yourself because you've pushed everyone away. And that way.
You make such strong points, Gabe, strong, strong points in elaborating on that actually being literal, how iron sharpening iron works. Sometimes we do need a literal example. Sometimes we really do. We are creatures of different learning styles, visual, hearing. We actually need to understand how the heck is this you saying? What are you saying?
And closing out this conversation, which has been very fruitful for me, people in 2024, different times now, and younger people who are Christians and who are also in the creative industry now, they're rejoining, thinking about it. We have a younger, a younger crowd, 18 year olds, 25 year olds, even 50 year olds. I mean, who knows? Who cares? And what advice would you give to them walking with Christ and being in the creative industry?
Oh, man, that's a. There's so much that I can give, but I feel like if there's one thing that I can tell them. Is I'm trying to remember the exact verse right now. I had it. I had it in like the tip of my tongue, but. It basically talks about how. You know, God already aligned your steps. He created you as a masterpiece and you are divine in every way. And if those steps are already ordained for you, they're already prepared for you, then. Just take the moment to.
Walk upon those steps to take those steps to trust that. It's already been a plan laid out for your life, a plan that is perfect in every way. So try not to get in your own way with that. Try not to. Compete with others or try to. Mimic others or. You know. Kind of allow yourself to see that you are an individual. Every strand in your hair, you know, your your prints, your your whole look, your feel, your internal everything. You are an individual. You are uniquely and.
Uniquely designed and created specifically for something. So allow that to be your guiding force. Allow that to be the thing that drives you, you know, trusting that. God has a plan for your life, has a purpose for your life, has something magical, something wonderful for your life to be able to achieve anything that you want. And don't allow yourself to be getting your own way.
There's going to be moments where you have self doubt, self reflection, but allow those things to be stones to continue to pave the way for what God already aligned for you. And if you don't believe. In God, then I would say first. He is real. He is there for you. And he's waiting for you. And he has a place in his heart, his world, his kingdom for you because he created you. So that's my advice for like twenty twenty four.
I know that great things are coming for a lot of us, and I believe that we will all eventually see what a lot of us already see. Everything you said, man. Absolutely fantastic. And with that being said, twenty twenty four year, the future looks bright. You said everything that we know and we see. It's coming. It's the future looks bright. And I don't know what it is about this year, Gabe. Something just seems a little bit different. And I know you see it too. I see a smile on your face.
Look at that. I know you see it, brother. And topic of twenty twenty four. What are you, Mr. Gabe Foustay? What are you looking forward to this year? Tell the audience what we're looking forward to. Honestly, this year, you know, I. I wanted to refocus on what. I was on here for what my purpose was for, and I want to just continue to inspire people.
I want to. Continue to bring new light to like the good news, and I want to use the platforms that I that we have within the social spectrum to be able to shed that light. I'm working on new projects, working on talking a little bit more of my culture, my heritage, because I am Cuban. And as well as sharing more information on the things that I've learned over the years, whether it's branding or marketing or videography or photography or graphic design.
It's just really sharing more information for people to use. A lot of times we want to charge and we want to try to get some gain out of it. I don't want any gain. All I want is for people to learn. I want people to know what I know. And to be able to apply it to their day lives and tying it into a biblical principle, because it's something I strongly believe in. And I believe that it is something that can help you in your life because it helped me 14 years ago.
It transformed my life completely. You know, it it allowed me to see things clearly. You know, a lot of times what we don't realize is we're walking through this world blind. But that allows you to see. And that's what I feel like 2024 is for me. New projects, newfound closeness to God and just being able to share what I know to the masses as much as I can and as frequent as I can.
I know that lately I haven't been on social media as much and I've been busy, but I am working on these things for everyone to see. So that's that's what I see for 2024 and possibly maybe another kid. We don't know yet. Gabe, that's a good deal, man. I'm excited for you this year, man. I can't wait to see all the fruits that you are bearing out and the fruits that you're receiving. I'm truly excited to see what you put out there, what life's going to bring you this year.
I really do appreciate you coming on here and chatting with me. I really enjoyed this conversation. And for people who want to see all this great things that you're going to be putting out, where can they go to find you? You can find me at Made by Fuste and all of my all platforms, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, even though I really don't write on Twitter. But mainly YouTube and Instagram. You can find me there and I have some on TikTok, but it's all made by Fuste.
I'm sure that Nick is going to put the link there because my last name is kind of hard to figure out. But yeah, that's where you can find me. And I hope to connect with some of you and share some of my wisdom as we've been sharing here with Nick. Thank you, Nick, though. You you're a good man. Really appreciate that, man. I really appreciate you coming on here and chatting with me, giving me wisdom. I'm a student as well. I don't know everything.
And like the people listening, they want to learn too. So just like my people listening, I'm going to try to just be as humble as I can with this podcast and just be a student of everyone else who I have on here because everyone knows something that I don't. So again, brother, I appreciate you having you on here. Thank you very much. Oh, thank you so much for having me. And I'm excited for you because a lot of great things are coming and I will be praying for you and every all your endeavors.
Likewise, brother. Mr. Gabe Foustay has left the building. Man, that was a good conversation. I really do appreciate you staying till the end. And if you're still here, I really appreciate it if you would hit that subscribe button, leave a comment, share it if you found it helpful, share it with someone who you may think benefit from this.
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And with that being said, I will let you go and I'll catch you in the next episode. Thank you guys.