Episode Recap Avoiding small obstacles can keep us from accomplishing big things – yet we do this all the time don’t we? On this episode Caleb Arnold interviews ME! We talk about adversities and obstacles I’ve faced in my relationships, as a design professional, and the happiest moment of my life.
One of my guests suggested that I, Briana, should be interviewed on the show to talk about how the podcast started and some insights into my work and life.
How I Started Creative Calling Podcast This is a loaded question as I never originally intended to study design in college, but rather illustration. I thought there was probably more money in design and the schools I could afford were not offering illustration as an major. Further along in my career, I realized I was going to need to learn how to market myself because I could tell right away I was not the “pure talent” type of creative. So, I double majored early on in business. So, I left school with lots of education, but none in the career I actually wanted, illustration.
In my last few years at college I became obsessed with consuming podcast content. Friends would often hear me start sentences with, “I was listening to this podcast and..” or “I know a podcast you can listen to about that topic”
After college, I moved to a few hours away to San Diego with my husband where I hesitantly took a part time job in communications for a church. Just a few short months later I left.
I now had lots of free time on my hands and a lot to learn about starting my dream, freelance illustration career. Then, I finally decided to start Creative Calling podcast – formerly the Briana Christine podcast for about 12 episodes. Intending to teach everything I learned about becoming freelance illustrator to those who were interested in the same information.
Since then I have interviewed a few different types of creative entrepreneurs as I believe you can learn a lot from those outside as well as those inside your industry.
Adversity in Producing Creative Calling Podcast My small, but very frustrating obstacles in producing the podcast have been setting up the website, submitting the podcast to iTunes and uploading the podcast artwork. So embarrassing to admit that, but it’s the truth. Personally, I felt like the process wasn’t very user friendly considering it was created by Apple.
Especially, since the other biggest adversity I have faced is others telling me this content either isn’t relevant or that they would never produce a show that hasn’t been 100% developed before launching. Those people made me feel bad and that I was rushing the process.
Since I understand that I need to release my projects before they are complete, I’ve had to learn to ignore these types of comments.
Balancing Roles in Marriage Marriage and moving in with someone requires an adjustment period for every couple. For me, one of the hardest things to adjust to was the way I spent my time. Because my husband and I hadn’t established shared roles in the relationship, I had personally put it on myself to take care of all the household cleaning and cooking. Neither of which I had been doing previously, at least not single handedly, before moving in with him. I had to come to realization I had in fact put these responsibilities on myself. We made time for a conversation about how we should delegate these responsibilities in the future – which is actually something we have to re evaluate every year. From there we were able to make boundaries for personal time, which I used for my design projects.
Ladies, it’s ok if you can’t do everything for your husband. If you are like me, your dad put a lot of pressure on you to be that sort of 50s house wife in marriage.
It was important for Mark and I to be able to find what works best for us and not what had previously worked for our parents.
Adversity with Freelance Clients Early on as a freelancer I would be approached by prospective client’s about projects they had in mind. Because I believed I had better ideas than they did I would try to tell them how I believed their project needed to be completed.
Influences in my life were validating my position that as the professional designer the client was wrong and I was right therefore they should listen to me. I got myself into a lot of trouble – mainly just burning bridges – because I would let my frustration come over me and quit projects.
I soon believed I perhaps was not cut out for design work o that I must not really like it.
It wasn’t until after I got my mind right and learned client relationship techniques that I realized I was just mismanaging the situation. This came through becoming self aware and what it means to be a “professional” – which isn’t too different than being a nice person.
Ultimately I had to realize it wasn’t about me, the project was not mine to take over. I had a voice in the end result, but that was it.
Overcoming the Same Problem Multiple Times Everyone has certain problems that they run into again and again that they will at one time overcome and then fall right back into the habit. To manage these types of adversities it takes very disciplined will power to decide enough is enough and make you mind up about it one way or the other. The last thing you want to do is promise to yourself that you will start or stop doing something only to let yourself down. If you can’t trust in your own promises, who can?
Accomplishing Greatness I share a story about winning a gold medal in high school for winter guard. This accomplishment particularly stands out to me because I remember the amount of passion I had brought with me that season. I was so proud to have my own solo in the show, even if it was only 15 seconds long. Our team practiced for an incredible amount of hours on weeknights and even weekends.
I’m not typically a cryer, but that day I cried tears of happiness from being overjoyed that my hard work and effort had paid off for something I truly desired.
How I translate that to what I do now:
You could say my current adversity is that I am constantly looking for something that was as fulfilling as that level of happiness. Perhaps I will never find anything quite like it again and I will need to accept that I was blessed enough to experience it once.
Final Words Continue your dream one step at a time until you reach your gold medal :)
Episode by Creative Market – the best place for design resources online