Jumping In

"...if we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin." - Ivan Turgenev "If we wait until we are ready, we'll be waiting for the rest of our lives, let's go." - Lemony Snicket (Daniel Handler) "Just Do It" - Nike slogan Whether it's a 19th-century or 21st-century writer, or a 20th-century ad campaign, the sentiment is the same; this idea has been quoted by a lot of people in my universe recently. I am increasingly ready to embrace this philosophy. I plunged into podcasting without much preparation when starting on The Digiscrap Geek Podcast, learning on the job. I had been a guest on podcasts but doing one is a whole different ballgame. When that show went on hiatus, and I decided to start A Creative Approach Podcast, I had this foundation but still was very unprepared for the task of doing it alone. Now, three months in, I've learned a lot and am pretty proud of what I've accomplished. The web page is still a work in progress. Like most beginning podcasters without a professional broadcasting education, my interview skills need to be honed. Marketing is coming along. I am so grateful for my professional contacts who are teaching me a lot and helping me to improve the podcast experience for my listeners. I think my web page will be up-to-date within the next week, or so, I'm finally feeling relaxed during interviews, and I love the pearls of wisdom about creativity that come from the shows. My guests are amazing. Even when I've known some guests for years, there are always surprises. Kit from Royal brush I am trying to apply the idea of just going to a lot of things. I'm taking part in the American Medical Women's Association annual meeting soon. I've planned a paint night which sounds easy enough. I mean, theoretically, everyone participates in producing a piece of art that allows room for some personal interpretation but involves the same paint and canvas and a guideline to reproducing something pretty close to what the original artist has designed. It's pretty much a project designed for socialization and "spirits," but I have heard doubts about the idea from some young artists. The arguments I've heard include, "too much like a class," "might not allow enough individual expression," "might not fit with a theme (white coat) focus." I just want to have fun and show other people that art can be fun! I'll report back how it goes. I'm just going to just do it and not analyze too much. I have these fabulous ready to go Art Instructor Painting Party Packs from Royal Langnickel. Royal Brush sent me some sample products after the AFCI Creativation show in Phoenix, and I placed an order for 9 more of these kits to use for our AMWA Paint Night. My ad for AMWA program Marketing is another area where I have questioned just what I need to do. I'm pretty much an extroverted introvert. Are you saying, "What?" Here's a link to an article about this because we all fall somewhere on the bell curve of these personality types. However, I think that may not be a good analogy because I think that rather than the middle, I bounce from end to end of the curve! So, in this case, my thinking went, "Ads? Well, of course." Then, "Gulp! OMG, my photo is part of my podcast logo, am I calling too much attention to myself?" I decided to go ahead and put an ad for A Creative Approach Podcast into the program for the AMWA meeting and not worry too much about it. I also decided it would not hurt to put a Patreon section on my podcast web page. I love Jess and Elsie from She Podcasts. They admit that it is not the primary source of income for their podcast and that it took a while for people to sponsor them. Nonetheless, they had no problem including a Patreon sponsor link. So, I did it, too. I mean, even $1 a month is significant to me. It's a way you can encourage podcasts you enjoy. I support Jess and Elsie at a small level because I really want to say thanks for their show, it's helped me a lot. I hope some of my listeners will feel the same.