The Test That Has Nothing To Do With Test Scores

There’s a quiet test that determines whether you’re creating art in your work or just clocking hours.

It has nothing to do with your title, your industry, or how creative your job sounds. It has nothing to do with whether you call yourself “an artist.” It has nothing to do with what you majored in, what your LinkedIn says, or how impressive your portfolio looks.

It’s this: If you stopped tomorrow, would anyone be different because you were there?

Most professionals, even very competent, well-paid, highly-credentialed professionals, would have to answer no. The work would still get done. Someone else would slot in. The deliverables would ship. The lights would stay on.

That’s not a moral failure. That’s a description of what happens when work is treated as a job to be completed instead of a craft to be inhabited.

But every once in a while, you meet someone who fails that test in the other direction. Someone whose stopping would leave a hole.

That person is an artist.

Mrs. T Held Up a Leaf

Darren didn’t care about biology. He didn’t really care about school. He was in eighth-grade biology because they made him be there.

Then Mrs. T held up a leaf.

She started talking about how everything in it fit together, the veins, the cells, the photosynthesis. And in the middle of class, she just stopped. She looked at the leaf and said, “Oh my goodness, isn’t it just so cool how this all works?”

Eighth-graders don’t know what to do with that. Most of them thought she’d lost the plot. But over weeks and months, the kid who didn’t care about biology started seeing the world through it. Not because Mrs. T had a better lesson plan than the teacher down the hall. Because she was unmistakably moved by the thing she was teaching.

That’s the difference. That’s the whole difference.

Mrs. T was teaching the same standard biology curriculum every other public-school teacher in the state was teaching that year. The content was identical. The textbook was identical. The tests were identical. What wasn’t identical was Mrs. T. And the part of her that wasn’t identical, the part that wasn’t on the lesson plan, is what made her an artist.

Three Things That Separate Clock-Punchers From Artists

1. Artists bring the part of themselves the job doesn’t ask for

The job description for “eighth-grade biology teacher” does not include “have a transcendent moment with a leaf in front of thirty bored teenagers.” That’s the part Mrs. T added. The art is always the part that wasn’t required. If you’re trying to figure out where your art lives, look at what you bring to your work that isn’t in your job description. That extra layer, the perspective, the care, the way you frame things, that’s the artistic input. Most people miss it because they’re looking for art in the wrong place: outside their actual life.

2. Artists communicate why something matters, not just what something is

Anyone can transmit information. Mrs. T transmitted importance. Darren’s co-host Dustin tells a parallel story about his own eighth-grade biology teacher, Mr. Cummings: “He was so convinced that everybody needs to understand this — and that if they could just grasp it, it would change the game for them.” That conviction is the deliverable. That’s what the artist is actually selling, even when they’re “just” teaching biology, “just” doing taxes, “just” running a meeting. The information is the ticket. The conviction is the show.

3. Artists make ordinary work compound for other people

Darren’s dad was a CPA. By every external measure, the least artistic profession in America. Tax returns. Quarterly filings. Books. But over decades, his “boring” work funded a business, missions work, and jobs for hundreds of people who got to be part of something bigger than themselves. That ripple is the artistry. The art isn’t in what the work looks like, it’s in what the work does in other people’s lives. A CPA who treats accounting as a craft creates more art in a career than ten people who put “creative” on their LinkedIn but punch the clock.

The Counterfactual That Changes Everything

Here’s the move from this segment that’s worth sitting with.

Darren imagines a counterfactual: what if Mrs. T had been just punching the clock? What if she’d been getting through the lessons, going home, sitting on the couch, watching TV, and showing back up the next day to do it again?

He says — and this is the part you should pay attention to, “That would be a completely different experience than what I had.

Different experience. Different student. Different trajectory. Different life.

The clock-puncher version of Mrs. T is a perfectly competent eighth-grade biology teacher. She’d hit the curriculum. She’d grade the tests. She’d collect a paycheck. Nobody could fire her. Nobody would even necessarily complain.

She just wouldn’t have changed anyone.

That’s the cost of clock-punching that nobody puts on the spreadsheet. It’s not the money. It’s not the productivity. It’s the missed transformation in the people you would have changed if you’d shown up as the artist version of yourself.

How to Tell Which Version You’re Operating As

Run this audit on your own work this week. Be honest.

Question 1: When was the last time you brought more to the work than was required?

Not what you should have done. What you actually did. If you can’t think of a specific recent moment, you’ve probably drifted into clock-puncher mode without realizing it. That’s recoverable. But it has to be named first.

Question 2: Who is different because you were there?

Not “who would be different” or “who might be different.” Who actually is. Names. If the list is shorter than you’d like, that’s not a verdict on your worth — it’s a signal that the artist version of you hasn’t been showing up enough.

Question 3: What part of your work makes you come alive?

Not the part the market rewards. The part where you lose track of time. That’s where your art lives. Most professionals know exactly what that part is and have never built their work around it.

Three Myths That Keep You Stuck Punching the Clock

Myth #1: “I’d be an artist if I had a more creative job.”

No, you wouldn’t. Mrs. T was an artist with a leaf and a public-school curriculum. Darren’s dad was an artist with a tax return. The job doesn’t make you the artist. The way you inhabit it does.

Myth #2: “Bringing more of myself to work is unprofessional.”

Bringing your moods to work is unprofessional. Bringing your conviction to work is leadership. They are not the same thing. The professionals you most admire are not less human at work, they are more visibly themselves at work, in ways that serve the people around them.

Myth #3: “If I cared this much, it would burn me out.”

The opposite is closer to true. Punching the clock is the burnout vector. Burnout is what happens when you do too much work that isn’t yours. Caring is what makes the work yours.

Final Thoughts

You don’t have to quit your job to start creating art.

You have to stop showing up to it as a clock-puncher. That’s the whole instruction. 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 Mrs. T had just been punching the clock, my life would have been completely different.” – Darren Cooper, Create Your Art Podcast

Somewhere right now, an eighth-grader in a class you’re not in is having their life shaped, or not shaped, by whether their teacher chose to be an artist this morning. That choice is being made in your work too. Today.

If this resonated, watch the full episode of the Create Your Art Podcast.

Then go decide which version of yourself shows up to Monday.

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Full Transcript

The Heart Behind the Mission

Darren: I’m gonna share a little bit about where my heart is on this, because I want to come at this from the listener’s perspective. This isn’t about me, this is about finding a way to encourage as many people as I can to do what they have been created to do.

If you’ve been around this podcast for any length of time, you always know that you see on my hat any given day that it says Create Your Art . This is a mission of mine that I know 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.

But I hold this mission near and dear to my heart: we are all artists in our own way.

Mrs. T, My Eighth-Grade Biology Teacher

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 wasn’t there because I loved this class, I was there because I had to be.

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, 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 class and applauded God for how awesome He was. We’re sitting in the middle of class going, “Okay, Mrs. T lost her mind, all right, we’re going.”

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. Through the eyes of her passion about it.

Dustin: Yes.

Darren: And so 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.

My Dad the CPA Was Also an Artist

Darren: My dad was a CPA by trade. He did books and numbers and all of this, 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.

I look at the way that he could put together tax returns, do CPA work, run books, and it was an art. It was a beautiful art. And because of the work that 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 him to his face, he would go, “No, I’m not.”

I’m sure there are a thousand people that come to mind in your life. Dustin, maybe I’ll softball-pitch it to you. There’s got to be somebody in your life that you go, “Holy cow — the way they see this, the way they work in this way, 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 in your life?

Mr. Cummings (Dustin’s Mrs. T)

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 grades I ever got in science throughout my 12 years of K-through 12, I don’t know whatever that’s called, grade school. 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 that 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, and 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, yeah. It’s so true, man. If you have that person in your mind that pops in when we’re talking about this, 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. And 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?”

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.

Welcome to the Create Your Art Podcast

Darren: Moving forward, this podcast, that is currently Coaching with Content, that had it’s time and place. We are moving now to what we’re going to call the Create Your Art Podcast .

We’re going to spend our time talking with industry experts, industry artists, if you will, that are doing amazing things in their field. We’ll sit down with storytellers. We’ll sit down with graphic designers and songwriters and sales leaders. We’ve got a couple of people on the list that are outside the box, like somebody that 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.

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.

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 gotta either go work with that person, or I gotta 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. And it’s time for me to get off the sidelines and get into the game.”

That’s ultimately what my hope and my prayer for the Create Your Art podcast is going to be.

The Heartbeat Behind the Pivot

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 .

I just wanted to share that with you guys. Because even though the first few episodes were really, 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 just felt like, if Mrs. T had not really been 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 and sit on her couch and watch TV — that would be a completely different experience than what I had in that eighth-grade biology class.

And that’s what I hope to do in this new form of the podcast.