Steal Like an Artist (401)

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Episode transcript below:

Mike Malatesta:

Hey everybody, it’s Mike, and welcome back to this free Thinking Friday solo episode of how to Happen Podcast. For those of you who are here for the first time, thank you for coming and I hope that you get something powerful out of this podcast. And for those of you who are returning, thank you so much for investing your time in me again, and I do appreciate it. If it is your first time here or you’ve been here before, you like what I’m doing, please consider hitting the follow or subscribe button on your podcast player and you will get every single one of my episodes directly into your feed. I do these solo episodes on Friday. They’re typically short and it’s something that I’m interested in, became aware of, I’m intrigued by and I want to share. And on Mondays, I do a longer form conversation with people very successful people from all walks of life and we talk about how it happened for them, but most of all and more importantly, we talk about why it matters to you. So again, thank you so much. 

And today I am talking about stealing like an artist, and I was inspired to do this one because I heard someone talking about the book Steal Like an Artist, which is by Austin Kleon K-L-E-O-N, and it’s the New York Times bestselling book that serves as kind of a manifesto for creativity in the digital age, and I’m not sure exactly what I was listening to, but anyway they brought it up and I thought, oh, I’ve heard about that book before it’s called. 

Like I said, steal Like an Artist 10 Things. Nobody Told you About being Creative and you and I like to think of ourselves as creative. I’m sure I like to think of myself as a burgeoning creative and doing this podcast as one example of that. So when I heard that stealing like the artist and then, of course, we’ve been hearing a lot about AI Bard, which is Google’s product, and OpenAI’s chat GPT, which I’ve been spending a good amount of time on I bought the $20 a month version that lets you put plugins in and basically takes the information from the free version, which is September of 2021, and it extends it into today really, and tomorrow. When tomorrow comes, it basically gives it the opportunity to search the web for things and provide answers. So I heard about this stealing like an artist and I’ve been thinking about and playing with chat GPT. So I sort of took the two together and I created essentially top list of the most important things in this book using chat, gpt, and I will share those with you right now. 

Number one steal like an artist. So what this does is it encourages readers to draw inspiration from the work of others and incorporate it into their own unique creations. And when I think about that, I think well, almost everything is made up, but based upon something else. It’s very hard to come up with a truly unique first thought. Really, it doesn’t matter. I think too many people think that they have to start and come up with this creative, brand new idea, and you really don’t. You can take an existing idea or something that’s intrigued you or influenced you or whatever, and then you can make it your own. And that’s what it means to steal like an artist, and I’m sure that came from millennia of artists actually stealing from other artists maybe not stealing their work, but stealing their concept, idea and then maybe borrow is a better word and then making it their own. Next thing don’t wait until you know who you are to get started. This suggests that the process of creating and doing work can help you discover your identity. 

I’m a good example of that, because when I started this podcast, four man it’s almost five years ago, I think, and I knew nothing about nothing. I knew nothing about doing any of this, I’d just been running a company for basically my whole working life and I wasn’t really on social media and I just had not produced anything and I just thought this is kind of cool and I think I can do it, and so I didn’t wait until I knew exactly how to do it although I did drag my feet, I will admit that I didn’t wait until I knew exactly how to do it. I finally just said this is something that I want to do and I did it. I think the same track is available to all of us and I try to keep that in mind when I go to try to do other things, like develop my coaching business and make investments and do write a book and all those kinds of things. So don’t wait until you know who you are to get started. 

Next is write the book you want to read. This encourages readers to create work that they themselves would be interested in, and that’s exactly what I try to do Not always successful, I will admit, but hopefully I’m doing that today with you. It’s successful. I try to create things that make me happy, which is the whole point of the free thinking solo episodes. Free thinking Friday episode. That I’m doing right now is. I try to think of things that interest me and I hope that I can package them and articulate them and talk about them in a way that interests other people as well, and if it does, that is a victory, and if it doesn’t, well, it’s still interested me, so I didn’t really lose anything as a result. 

The next is use your hands. This emphasizes the concept of personal engagement, like getting sort of getting your hands dirty. In other words, get in there and start doing something, even if you’re using your keyboard with your hands, just get moving. Next is side projects and hobbies are important. So you need, according to the book and I believe this to this as well, you probably do as well you need to have diversion. I call it diversions in life. You can’t be working on what you want to work on all the time. 

I was just listening to someone talk about the power of thinking and how, just plain, putting everything down and thinking is almost like a lost art and people think that they’re thinking by accessing things on the computer or on the phone. I do that as well, but it’s not really thinking, that’s just exploring, but just being okay to relax with a hobby or with yourself and your mind is often the way that things pop into you that wouldn’t have if you were focused on exploring and researching everything. The secret do good work and share it with people. That goes back to sort of the don’t wait, do good work, share it with people. That’s sort of like a Seth Godin thing that he talks about all the time is get something out there. You never know how good it is or how much work it needs until it’s actually out there and people are experiencing. You also never know what people are willing to pay for, for example, until you actually put something out there. You learn a lot more from having put something out there than you do from having kept it inside of your head. 

Next, geography is no longer our master. This kind of acknowledges that in the digital world, your audience, your customer base, isn’t just what it may have been for. A lot of your life Just around you are accessible to you. In the digital age you can produce things Of course you all know this that can go and be consumed and influence people anywhere. Again, my podcast. It’s not a great big podcast I’m no Joe Rogan yet but my podcast it gets listened to in a bunch of countries. Who would have thought. Get it out there and don’t worry about geography, because you will find audiences all over the world. 

Next is Be Nice. The world is a small town. I’m talking about this over and over and over again that being kind to people when you have no reason to be kind to them is the very best thing that you could possibly do for your I guess mental health, I guess mental state, for your curiosity. Being nice to people and just for a human that’s just for being a human Doesn’t cost you anything. To be nice to someone Doesn’t cost you anything to be kind and it helps because people want to help people who are nice and who are kind. 

Next up is Be Boring. It’s the only way to get work done and I definitely raise my hand on this because I’m boring. I am a person who is habitized or habitualized I’m not sure what the right word is but I get up every day and I do the work that I have to do, and it’s boring and it’s to other people and it’s just. I do a lot of work by myself and I like that. It’s comfortable with it, it makes me happy and I guess I could be a lot more experiential. So I could. I could be missing something, but I find that if I do the work every day, every day, every day, or for five years, I can lengthen this podcast, for example I will get better at having a discipline to do that work, or writing a book, for that matter, which I did in November. My book came out in November of 2021. 

Owner shift how? Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck. If you have not heard it or heard about it, pick it up on Amazon or wherever you find or get your books. And then the last thing is creativity is subtraction. So the book says that creativity often involves simplifying and focusing on what truly matters, and I believe that I am one that can get complex, add complexity in my life, and I’m sure you know a lot of people like that. You know, at the drop of a hat, you know I overthink things or I feel like, if I don’t know how to get from A to B, I got. Or A to Z, I got to figure out B, c, d, e, f, g, all those. And the fact is you don’t. Simpler is better. Einstein, I think it was said. You know, make something as simple as it can be, but no simpler. Or was that Ben Franklin? I’m not sure, but anyway, simplicity is the way to make the biggest breakthroughs. I think those are my sort of chat. 

Gpt summary of the book Steel Like an Artist by Austin Kleon, k-l-e-o and 10 things nobody told you about being creative. So if you want to pick it up, go for it. If you want a summary of it, type it into GATGPT or Google or whatever you like to put stuff in to explore and learn more. So thank you for joining me for this solo Free Thinking Friday podcast. If you like it, please hit the follow or subscribe. Feel free to contact me, mike, at mikemalattestedcom. If you have thoughts about the episode you want to share with me or you’ve got an idea for something that I could do on the podcast, I’m happy to get all of that and produce what you want. I am here to do good things and my goal is to inspire and activate greatness in all of you. Until next time, please maximize the greatness that is within you and make your future your property, something that you are very proud to own. Until next time, see ya. 

Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this show and before you go, I just have three requests for you. One if you like what I’m doing, please consider subscribing or following the podcast on whatever podcast platform you prefer. If you’re really into it, leave me a review, write something nice about me, give me five stars or whatever you feel is most appropriate. Number two I’ve got a book. It’s called Owner Shift how Getting Selfish Got Me Unstuck. It’s an Amazon best seller and I’d love for you to read it or listen to it on Audible or wherever else Barnes, noble, amazon you can get it everywhere If you’re looking for inspiration that will help you unlock your greatness and potential. Order or download it today so that you can have your very own copy, and if you get it, please let me know what you think. Number three my newsletter. I do a newsletter every Thursday and I talk about things that are interesting to me and or I give more information about the podcast and the podcast guests that I’ve had and the experiences that I’ve had with them. 

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