The Day My Biology Teacher Stopped Class to Applaud a Leaf
Eighth grade. Period three. Biology.
I was thirteen years old, slumped at my desk, watching the clock tick toward freedom. I didn’t care about photosynthesis. I didn’t care about cell walls. I didn’t care about school in general, if I’m being honest. I was there because someone older than me had decided I had to be.
And then Mrs. T held up a leaf. She looked at it like she was seeing it for the first time, her voice changed, and she said:
“Oh my goodness. Isn’t it just so cool how this all works?”
Then — I am not exaggerating — she looked up at the ceiling and applauded God for being awesome at making leaves.
You can imagine the reaction. Thirty eighth-graders silently agreeing that Mrs. T had finally lost it. We went back to the worksheet. We took the test. We got our grades. The bell rang.
But something had happened in that room that I wouldn’t fully understand for years.
What She Was Actually Teaching
Over the weeks and months of that semester, the kid who didn’t care about biology started caring about biology. Not because the curriculum changed. Not because the textbook got better. Not because the tests got easier.
Because Mrs. T was unmistakably moved by what she was teaching.
Here’s the thing nobody told me at thirteen: that conviction is contagious. You cannot fake it. You cannot replace it. You cannot get the same effect from a more polished lesson delivered by someone collecting a paycheck. Mrs. T had something the curriculum didn’t have, and she handed it to a roomful of bored kids whether we asked for it or not.
Looking back, I always say it the same way: Mrs. T was an artist. Biology was her medium. The leaves and the cells and the worksheets were her materials. And what she made (out of standard biology) was something you genuinely couldn’t get anywhere else.
That’s the thing about artists. Most of them don’t know that’s what they are.
My Dad Was an Artist Too. He’d Tell You He Wasn’t.
My dad was a CPA.
Books. Numbers. Tax returns. Quarterly filings. The kind of work that, if you described it at a dinner party, would clear the room before you got to the verb.
And yet.
Over decades, quietly, methodically, the way only an entrepreneurial CPA can, my dad built a business. Not a small one. Big enough to generate millions of dollars over the years. Big enough to fund missions work that reached people I’ll never meet. Big enough that hundreds of families got to wake up in the morning and have a job to go to because my dad knew how to make the numbers behave.
If I told him to his face that he was an artist, he’d laugh me out of the room. “I’m not an artist. I’m a CPA.”
He’d be wrong.
The art wasn’t in what the work looked like. It was in what the work did. A tax return is just a tax return, until it’s threaded into a business that supports a family that supports a community that funds a mission that changes someone’s life on the other side of the world. That’s not bookkeeping. That’s the kind of art they don’t give awards for, because the people who give out awards don’t know how to see it.
The Definition of “Artist” Most of Us Have Is Way Too Small
When most people hear the word artist, they picture a paintbrush. A guitar. A studio with brick walls and good lighting.
That definition isn’t wrong. It’s just embarrassingly incomplete.
Here’s a better one:
An artist is anyone who infuses their craft with so much of themselves that other people walk away changed.
That’s a much wider door. By that definition, the eighth-grade teacher who applauded a leaf was an artist. The CPA who built a business that fed hundreds of families was an artist. The mechanic who finds the misfire nobody else can find is an artist. The leader who walks into a meeting and resets the temperature of the room with three sentences is an artist.
You probably know one. You’re probably thinking of them right now.
You might be one and not have given yourself permission to use the word.
The Question That Will Wreck You If You Sit With It
Here’s what I think about, all these years later.
What would my life have looked like if Mrs. T had just been punching the clock?
The clock-puncher version of Mrs. T is still a perfectly competent eighth-grade biology teacher. She’d hit the curriculum. She’d grade the tests. She’d go home at three. Nobody complains. Nobody fires her. Nobody even notices.
But she also doesn’t applaud the leaf. She doesn’t show a kid who hates school what it looks like to be unmistakably moved by something ordinary. She doesn’t plant the seed that quietly grew, decades later, into the conviction I now build my whole career around: the way you do your work is your art, and the world needs you to do it on purpose.
That kid, the one who didn’t care about biology, does not become the person writing this. Different teacher, different trajectory, different life.
That’s the cost of clock-punching nobody puts on the spreadsheet. It’s not the salary. It’s not the productivity. It’s the missed transformations in everyone you would have changed if you’d shown up as the artist version of yourself.
Somewhere right now, an eighth-grader in a classroom you’ll never enter is having their life shaped — or not shaped — by whether their teacher decided this morning to bring more than the job required. That same choice is being made in your work today.
How to Find Your Art This Week
If any of this hit, don’t just close the tab and go back to your inbox. Try this.
Step 1: Identify your Mrs. T. Write down the name of one person who changed how you saw something. Be specific about what they did. That’s what art looks like in real life — not the postcard version.
Step 2: Name what they brought that the job didn’t ask for. It wasn’t the lesson plan. It was the extra layer — the conviction, the care, the way they framed things. Write it down.
Step 3: Ask where that same layer lives in your own work. Where do you bring more than the job requires? That extra layer is your art trying to show up.
Step 4: Say it out loud to one person this week. “I am an artist. My art is __________.” It will feel weird. That’s the point. Naming the thing makes it real.
Two Lies That Keep People Stuck
“I’m not creative.” You don’t have to be creative in the traditional sense to be an artist. You have to bring your full self to a craft other people benefit from. That door is much wider than the one you’ve been standing outside of.
“Someone is already doing this better than me.” Maybe. So what? Two people can teach the exact same lesson and the listener will resonate with one and not the other — not because of what was said but who said it. You are the variable. Stop trying to remove yourself from the equation.
Final Thoughts
Mrs. T retired a long time ago. I have no idea where she is now, or whether she has any clue what one Tuesday afternoon with a leaf did to a thirteen-year-old who wasn’t paying attention to most of his other classes.
I hope she knows. I hope every Mrs. T knows.
The world is shaped, quietly and constantly, by people who refuse to clock in — most of them without ever realizing they’re doing something extraordinary. And the harder, more useful question is the one I have to ask myself every morning, and the one I’m passing to you now:
Whose Mrs. T are you being this week?
You don’t have to quit your job to start creating art. You have to stop showing up to it as a clock-puncher. The art is in the layer you’ve been holding back — the perspective, the conviction, the part of you that isn’t on the job description.
You probably already know what that part is. The only question is whether you’re going to keep waiting for permission to bring it.
If this resonated, you can hear more conversations like this every week on the Create Your Art Podcast. Listen here or follow along at 1898creative.com.
Full Transcript
Darren: I am a fraud. I’ve really been wrestling with some things. I’m not being me on this podcast, and that has to change today. I decided that we’re going to turn on the camera. We’re going to talk about it a little bit.
The Confession
Darren: Dustin, I have a confession.
Dustin: Go for it.
Darren: I am a fraud.
Dustin: I know. Hey, me too. Look at that. We’re frauds together. Hey, fraud brother.
Darren: But no, man, I’ve really been wrestling with some things, and I decided we’re going to turn on the camera and talk about it a little bit because that’s it. So we’re talking full confessions.
Darren: I feel like I’m a fraud, man, because this is episode 19 of this podcast, and we’ve been going strong for a while. You and I have been sitting here having these conversations, and they’re really good conversations. I’m not sad about the conversations that we’ve had per se, as much as I’m a little frustrated with myself, because I feel like I spend my life trying to tell you — not you specifically, but you as the audience — to find your voice, to create your art, to spend your life on expressing the art that’s inside of you, whatever that art is.
Darren: And I feel like I’ve spent the last 18 episodes trying to be the guru, trying to be the framework guy, trying to be the influencer that I’m not. Today I have to come and confess that to you and to everybody else listening to this. I feel like I’ve kind of been at a place where I’m just not being me on this podcast. I’m not being me in the way that I’m showing up here and talking with you. And that has to change today.
Dustin: There’s a sports radio show I was listening to earlier today that I listen to every day, and they were talking about this college athlete — it’s coming out now that he had a gambling problem, and he’s in rehab for it. The host was having different experts on, and they were talking about how it doesn’t really matter what the addiction is or what the thing is — in order to recover from it, the first thing you need to do is confess it. So that’s what we’re doing here.
Darren: Well, thank you. Thank you. Man, I feel like I’ve spent the last little bit — let me start there — my goal of this podcast and of what we’re doing here each and every day is to help people. That’s my goal. And if I’m honest with you, I sell myself a little short, because I don’t feel like I have what it takes to actually help people.
Darren: I look at other people that are out there — the influencers that you know, some that you might not know — but they have large audiences. They’re doing the thing that I go, “Man, it would be cool to do that.” So what I’ve done over the last 18 episodes is I’ve mimicked those things to try to catch fire like they caught fire. Instead of doing what they actually did, which was be 100% authentically themselves.
Darren: What we found is we’ve gotten to a place where, I’m going to be honest with you, the last couple of episodes we’re talking about SOPs and SEO and these things that are good information — and Dustin, you bring a lot of good insight to those conversations — but for me, I’m over here going, “I’m just trying to do this because I think that’s the thing that everybody wants.”
Darren: You know, have you ever been in a conversation where you’re trying to say the thing you think the person wants you to say? Instead of actually saying what I need to say or giving my perspective or my insight, I’ve been trying to play that game. I’ve been trying to play the content game. And it’s sad for me, dude, because I’ve spent a lot of time telling clients to be themselves. “Hey, just have a good conversation. Just sit up and do your thing.” All of our clients that we coach and walk with and help produce their content — the ones that are crushing it are doing exactly that. They’re being 100% authentically themselves.
Darren: That’s why I said I felt like a fraud. I’m not doing what I tell other people to do. And I think that has to stop today.
You’re Not Fired (Yet)
Dustin: Yeah. And I think as you’ll unfold what that looks like for this podcast moving forward — I mean, obviously I’m being fired.
Darren: Hey, it’s been great having you. You’ve been saying some good stuff, but we don’t really need that.
Dustin: Cool. They need to go listen to the Chief Creative Partners podcast.
Darren: Thank you so much.
Dustin: What’s interesting is that I’m joining you virtually from Atlanta right now. So I’m seeing more than what the viewer of this podcast is seeing. I’m seeing a little bit outside the frame, and I’m able to see the podcast studio that you’re sitting in, which has been a long-time dream and baby of yours for as long as I’ve been working with you, which started in 2023. Three years now. You’ve been talking about this podcast studio, and now that you’re getting people in the podcast studio, you’ve set up — whether it was intentional or not — that round table, which we’ve talked about in post-production can cause some lighting issues sometimes. But what you’ve created in that round table is a place to gather and have conversations that are authentic to who the host is and to the mission of the host.
Dustin: I’m sitting here listening to you talk, and I’m like, man, it really started in that studio. One of your main clients started having you produce their podcast, right? You’re sitting off camera, him and a co-host are sitting on camera in that very studio where you’re sitting right now. And it was through those episodes of just having conversations that you started coming to me with this idea of what you’ve been missing in our podcast.
Darren: Yeah, exactly. Because deep inside, the desire that I have to help people, to give inspiration, to give encouragement, to help somebody find that unlock that eventually gets them to say, “You know what, I can do this” — I know that when I sit up in conversations like that…
Darren: The other day, for example, we were having a kickoff call with one of our new clients. And at the end I just got a minute to share with them how cool it is that they are stepping out and making this a reality. That they’re kicking fear in the face. That they’re going to allow themselves to be put on camera and to share their heart and their vision and their ideas — and that doing that is going to help somebody, is going to change somebody’s life. I just got to share my heart, man. I think I actually called you after that initial call with them, and I was just like, “Bro, yes — whatever just happened was exactly why I got into this business and why I feel so strongly about helping walk alongside others as they find their voice, as they create their art, as they begin to put their mission out into the world.”
Darren: That was almost the catalyst to some of these conversations we’re having now: “No, I think I’ve got more to give than what I’m currently giving. And we need to figure that out.”
Clarity Doesn’t Come Before the Work — It Comes Through It
Dustin: Yeah. And I’ll say too, what I’ve seen, what we’ve walked through together in our businesses over the last three to six months, is just an enormous amount of what I’m calling clarity-seeking. The industries say, “Oh, you’re niching down, you need to niche down, niche down, niche down.”
Darren: Yeah.
Dustin: I think what they’re trying to say, Darren, is you need to get clear. I don’t think it’s necessarily that you need to niche down. My business — yes, I serve creative business owners. That is pretty niched down. But what we’ve been on, what we’ve been building, what we’ve been talking about over these past 18 episodes — whether it was a framework that we were making up on the fly, and we made some pretty good ones, by the way — it got us to the point that you are able to better serve your clients. Because in those conversations, whether anyone was listening or not, we came up with the five pillars of podcasting, and now you’re using that with every new client that you onboard.
Darren: Yeah. We’re seeing it unfold, right? Because we want them clear about it.
Dustin: As much as anything, we’re getting clear about it. That’s why I can’t wait for you to share the new direction of this podcast, because it’s so much more clear. It’s actually less niched down. This new direction is broader than the concept we’ve been doing for the last 18 episodes. But now that you’re firing me and you’re moving on and you’re doing better things — I’m just kidding, he’s not firing me — now you have this clarity. But what I’m getting at is we’ve been doing this clarity-seeking through the work. The intentionality of noticing what hits with your clients, what unlocks for your clients, and what unlocks for you.
Darren: Yeah. I just went through this whole rebrand from Chief Creative Consultants to Chief Creative Partners — from a simple moment that was 18 months in the making — of me going, “I’m a fraud. I’m not a consultant. I don’t want to be a consultant. I don’t want to tell a creative business owner, ‘This is what you need to do, now good luck and Godspeed.’ No, no, no. I want to partner with them.”
Dustin: And that’s what we’ve done over the last three years.
Darren: Exactly. So that’s what getting clear looks like. And I’m so freaking pumped about the new direction of this podcast.
Darren: I love that, because often — I know not everybody’s like this, but I am — I want to get it right before I start. I want to get it perfectly clear before I start.
Dustin: You’re preaching.
Darren: I always go back to that — it’s easier to steer a moving vehicle. I’ve heard that my whole life.
Dustin: You never heard that?
Darren: Oh man, that echoes in my brain often. It’s easier to steer a moving vehicle. The minute that you’re in motion, you can get that clarity. You can move in the directions you need to move into. The hardest time to steer a car is when it’s parked. You can crank the wheel, but it doesn’t go anywhere.
Dustin: Correct.
Darren: What you just said there, Dustin — the last 18 episodes were not in vain.
Dustin: No.
Darren: It was to get us to clarity. The only way that we get to that — it goes back to people saying, “Oh, he was an overnight success.” And the guy’s like, “Dude, I’ve been doing this for 15 years. I’ve gotten up every day to become an overnight success.” I put in the work. The only way that happens is by putting in the work. And you can’t do that on episode one or episode two or episode three. You’ve got to get down the road. That’s essentially what we’re doing here.
Dustin: Songwriters, right? You have to start writing songs. Most of the first dozens of songs you write are going to be bad. That doesn’t mean you’re a bad writer. It just means you haven’t found a good song yet. You’re going to get to it. Now, if you’re 5’3″, you’re not going to play in the NBA. But the lesson in the first 18 episodes of this podcast is in doing that — and why it matters to just go ahead and do it.
Everyone Is an Artist — Including Mrs. T
Darren: Yeah. And that’s really where we’re headed. I’m going to share where my heart is on this, because I want to come at this from the listener’s perspective. This isn’t about me — it’s about finding a way to encourage as many people as I can to do what they have been created to do.
Darren: If you’ve been around this podcast at all, you always see on my hat any given day that it says Create Your Art. This is a mission of mine that can often be misinterpreted: art as a creative endeavor. As an artist. Create your music, create your art piece, create your digital graphic, or any kind of creative endeavor that you would naturally think of.
Darren: But I hold this mission near and dear to my heart: we are all artists in our own way.
Darren: I tell this story often, and I love it so much. I was in eighth-grade biology class. Mrs. T. Mrs. T was my eighth-grade biology teacher. She was awesome. Let’s just say, Dustin, I didn’t care for biology, and I didn’t really care for school. I was there because I had to be, not because I loved this class.
Darren: But Mrs. T was a special person. She began to unfold how the world worked and the biology behind everything. I remember there was a moment — we were talking about leaves or something crazy like that. She held up this leaf and was talking about how everything goes together and how it all is put together in this certain way, and she goes, “Oh my goodness, isn’t it just so cool how this all works?” She literally made a stop in the middle of what we were doing and applauded God for how awesome He was. We’re in the middle of class going, “Okay, Mrs. T lost her mind, all right, we’re going.”
Darren: But over the weeks and months that unfolded in her class, she showed me — somebody who didn’t care about biology, didn’t care about anything school-related — she showed me the beauty of the world through the eyes of biology and through the eyes of her passion about it. I always said: Mrs. T is an artist. Mrs. T creates beautiful art when she gives me the biology lesson in a way that inspires me even beyond just getting the test right.
Darren: My dad was a CPA by trade. He did books and numbers, but he also had this entrepreneurial spirit about him. We call him a serial entrepreneur now at this point. My dad knew how to run numbers and make things work, to build things. He got to work and built a business that, over years and years, generated millions of dollars for missions work, for the business, for everything.
Darren: I look at the way he could put together tax returns, do CPA work, run books — it was an art. It was a beautiful art. Because of the work he could do, so many people have jobs. So many people have the ability to go, “I get to be a part of something bigger than myself.” My dad was an artist, even though if I said that to his face, he’d go, “No, I’m not.”
Darren: I’m sure there are a thousand people that come to mind in your life. Dustin, maybe I’ll softball-pitch it to you to tell me a story. There’s got to be somebody in your life that you go, “Holy cow — the way they see this, the way they work, the way they communicate this idea, it changes me. It makes me better. They are an artist in their way.” Dustin, does anybody stand out to you?
Dustin: Man, so many. As you were saying biology, I was like, yeah — I remember Mr. Cummings in eighth-grade biology. He was the same way. He was so fired up about it. He approached it from such a different angle that he made kids who cared zero about biology actually like it. Someone like me — that was always my hard subject, science. I never got good grades in science. The best grade I ever got in grade school in science was eighth-grade biology, because he made me see it through his eyes. He was able to convey the passion he had about it. That was how he saw things, and the way he conveyed the importance of the message — he was so convinced that everybody needs to understand this, that if they could just grasp it, it would change the game for them. That’s what we’re seeing now for our clients at 1898, and that’s what we’re starting to unlock through this Create Your Art journey.
Darren: Yeah. It’s so true, man. If you have that person in your mind that pops in when we talk about this, then you understand what I mean when I say you’re an artist. Because you come across those folks who are creating their art each and every day. That’s what I hope you experience — you as the listener, you as the watcher — that you get to do that hard work of going, “What is that thing?”
Darren: You can put together a few podcast episodes of your own, and finally after 18 episodes you go, “You know what, this is the thing that I need to be about.” I hope that for you in some way, shape, or form.
The Pivot — Welcome to the Create Your Art Podcast
Darren: Moving forward, this podcast that is currently Coaching with Content — that had its time and place — we are moving now to what we’re going to call the Create Your Art Podcast. We are going to spend our time talking with industry experts, industry artists if you will, who are doing amazing things in their field. We’ll sit down with storytellers, graphic designers, songwriters, sales leaders. We’ve got a couple of people on the list that are outside the box — somebody who works in water, all kinds of things. All kinds of conversations where we’re going to have industry experts on, sharing their heart, sharing their vision of what it was like.
Darren: It’s going to take me back to my eighth-grade biology class, where I sit there with Mrs. T and I get to listen to and be inspired by people that are doing amazing things in the world.
Darren: My greatest hope in this whole thing is that you listen to a conversation and you get unlocked somewhere along the way to go, “Holy cow. I’ve got to either work with that person, or I’ve got to go start doing my thing. Because I’ve been on the sidelines for too long. I have not been putting in the work. I’ve not been putting in the time. It’s time for me to get off the sidelines and get into the game.”
Darren: That’s ultimately what my hope and my prayer for the Create Your Art podcast is going to be.
Darren: We’re going to switch this — you’re going to see things from logos to us talking about it like, “Welcome to the Create Your Art podcast,” and all those fun things that we get to switch over time. But I wanted to come on and give the heartbeat behind this. I’m sure you’ll hear more of these stories and maybe even some of the origin story behind this, but ultimately this is the play. Because I’ve spent the last handful of years in my own content journey going, “How can I inspire people to create their art?” Every hashtag I use is create your art. That’s probably the only one I use at this point, because hashtags are dead, I guess. So we’re just going to keep create your art.
Darren: I just wanted to share that with you guys, because even though the first few episodes were really strong and really good and needed, I was trying to be somebody I’m not. It’s not that I can’t teach on those things, but it felt like — if Mrs. T wasn’t really excited about biology and she would just kind of get us through the test, just punching the clock so she could go home at night, sit on her couch and watch TV — that would be a completely different experience than what I had in that eighth-grade biology class. That’s what I hope to do in this new form of the podcast.
Darren: Hey, quick pause here. If you are thinking about starting a podcast or have already started one and it’s not driving the business results you would like, we would love to help. At 1898 Creative, we install a proven podcast system — a strategy that helps you leverage your message to attract premium clients without adding more to your plate. So if you’re ready to turn your podcast into an authority engine, book a call over at 1898creative.com and let’s build something awesome together. All right, now let’s get back to the conversation.
Midlife Clarity, Not Midlife Crisis
Dustin: Yeah, I’m excited about it. To reiterate your point that everybody has an artist in them — and I don’t think I’m crossing the line here to get spiritual for a second, because we were — you were created by the ultimate Creator. Because of that, we all have creativity inside of us. Whether it’s working with water, or working with leadership, or working with concrete, or working in canvas, or working on set, or working at a desk — it doesn’t matter. We all have this desire to create inside of us. And whatever it is that is burning in you to finally get out and create that thing — that’s your art.
Dustin: So that’s what this podcast is going to be about moving forward: having conversations with people who are out there creating their art. They’re putting their best foot forward. They don’t know — they’re taking the right step, but they don’t know what the left step is going to look like. They’re entering through and they’re figuring it out. But they’re moving forward, and they’re turning the wheel as the car is moving. That’s where they’re learning. That’s where they’re getting clearer and clearer about their message.
Dustin: There’s a reason they say that some people make it in their 20s, but most people make it in their 40s. The ones that make it in their 20s are the exception. That’s the virality, the instant overnight YouTube success, the Insta-fame. The rest of us — you make it in your 40s because you’re spending your 20s and 30s getting clearer.
Dustin: Someone asked me the other day — my wife just turned, I’m not going to give her age away, I almost did. She just turned an age that has a four in front of it. Someone asked me, “What has been your favorite season of life?” And I’m like — now. My 40s have been… I used to think my 20s were going to be the best. Then I got into my 30s and was even more convinced. Now I get into my 40s and people are like, “Oh, when you’re in your 40s, you start breaking down, things start aching, you’re not as sharp.” I’m like, I feel the best I’ve ever felt mentally. I’m certainly not in the best physical health of my life, but I feel great. I’m loving my 40s because I have the most clarity I’ve ever had about the art that I’m here to create.
Darren: That’s good. Don Miller says he spent his 40s feeling old, and then he turned 50 and realized he’s really young. It was this mental shift he had. There is something when you turn 40 — like, “Oh man, I remember my parents getting to that age and being kind of like, oh, they’re really old.”
Dustin: Most parents at that age, when we were growing up, the slowdown started. What we know about ourselves, and about society, and about how business and the world operate now, as opposed to 20–30 years ago, is — people with a clear passion who can connect that to their well-being and their income live longer. They’re more connected to their purpose. They’re more connected to the art that they’re here to create.
Darren: Yeah. It’s so true. Because you don’t know what that is in your 20s. You feel like you do in your 30s. Then you get into your 40s and you’re like, “No, I have this thing. I have something to give. I have a perspective to share.” You’ve had the experience to bring some things along the way. The midlife crisis is really more midlife clarity.
Dustin: Oh man. That might be the name of this episode.
Darren: Vitality journey with Dave. I want to talk about that. Let’s go. Shout out to all the awesome clients.
Dustin: Oh, that’s so good.
The Closing Exhortation
Darren: Well, Dustin, I appreciate you. Letting me be vulnerable in this moment and share some of this stuff. And I’m going to say — you’re not fired from this podcast. There are going to be times that I’m going to want to share some ways that we can step into finding that art within us, and I think you’re going to be somebody we can bounce ideas off of and have conversations with. So you’re not going to go far, even though there might be some other faces on the podcast as we interview more industry experts, as we have more conversations with those who are doing awesome things.
Darren: Ultimately, my goal for this podcast is to help as many experts out there in the world — and I know some people might not see themselves as experts, but you are. You have something inside of you. I want to help you unlock that. I want you to get that into the world. I want you to spend the time creating that and sharing it with us. Because that makes the world a better place.
Darren: I’m telling you — everybody we remember, or know, or who has made an impact in our life in one way, shape, or form — had to do the hard work of risking some things and putting themselves out there in some ways. Some of them had to hit record on the camera and start talking. Some of them had to start to put their art down. Some of them had to write the manifesto or the book and begin to ship it. That is the hard work of doing this thing.
Darren: Dude, I get nervous every time we hit record on this thing. Like, “What am I going to say? How do I have it? Who am I? All these other guys out there are way better at this than me.” But the reality is — my perspective, my ideas, my art, the way I present it, the way I put it together, the way I package it — it’s special to me and who I am. I could be saying the same thing as the guy down the street, but you resonate with me more because of the way I am, or you resonate with him more because of the way he presents it. And that is okay. That is a beautiful thing we can step into together.
Dustin: The best podcasts that we’ve ever done in the 18 episodes we’ve done are the ones where we just had a topic and had a conversation about it.
Darren: Yeah. I always remember the episode — I don’t know if we did one or two on this — but the episode we did on mental health when I was in town, and we just kind of sat and chatted about it.
Dustin: I can occasionally pop back in on the podcast. Find a time to be on the show next time I’m in town and we can just sit at the table.
Darren: Conversation across the table. I like it.
Your Homework — Write Down Your Art
Darren: As we wrap this up, I want to encourage you to do something. This is off the cuff now, so it’s not going to be fully bullet-pointed out and perfect — but I want you to spend some time thinking about what is that special thing, that art that you have inside of you? What is it? Just simply write it down, or say it out loud to somebody else.
Darren: For me — I have the ability to encourage people, and I want to do more encouraging. I think that’s a piece — not all that I do, but a piece — of the art that I have. Every client that comes in, I want them to know I want to be their biggest cheerleader on the sidelines, going, “Man, you can do this.” When you feel like an episode doesn’t land the way you thought it should or could, no — let’s look at it. Let’s make the tweaks. Let’s have the conversations about why it did make an impact.
Darren: Much like what we talked about today, Dustin — you just said, hey, we learned some things in the last 18 episodes, and now we’re stepping into a new place. That’s totally a beautiful thing.
Darren: So I want you to write down what you feel your art is. Even if you’re not “an artist” in the traditional sense, please take the time to do this. Sit down and say, “What is my art?” Write that down and just share it with somebody this week. I think it’s going to be a simple unlock for you.
Darren: I remember years ago, somebody — I think it was Jeff Goins, maybe — I was going through his “How to Write Blogs” course or something. He just encouraged everybody to stop and just say, “I’m a writer.” Just say it out loud. I remember doing that and going, “That’s weird.” That’s almost what I’m encouraging you to do today. Whatever that thing is — I am an artist. Maybe even say that. I am an artist. As you write that down and share it with somebody, I think it’s going to be an awesome unlock for you.
Darren: As we land the plane here — and you’ll hear that more as we move forward — I want you to remember this: you are an artist. The world needs you to do the hard work of finding out what that is, bringing it to life, and sharing it with us. I also want you to know that you are loved more than you could ever imagine in this world. And then I need you to go out and create your art.
Darren: We will see you here next time on the Create Your Art Podcast.