87: Derek Miller on Creative Action, Having Positive Mindsets, and Not Getting Down on Yours

Derek Miller has always had a creative side to his life. As a kid he wanted to be a cartoonist, and little did he know, he would become deeply entrenched in that world as an adult through the web comic Cyanide and Happiness.

While he was in college, and a few years afterward, Derek was part of a small metal band and also ran a small music blog. He was also a part of a non-profit to help artists turn their passion into full-time jobs.

All that experience in the art world helped Derek run three successful Kickstarter campaigns at Cyanide and Happiness. Instead of treating Kickstarter like another crowdfunding tool, he treated each campaign like its own event.

After three successful Kicstarter campaigns and constantly being approached by creatives about crowdfunding, Derek decided to write a book on the topic. This led to the creation of his book Six Figure Crowdfunding.

In this episode, Derek talks about why you need to keep your creative momentum, the power of a positive mindset, and not getting down on yourself, among many other things.

Here are three lesson you can learn from Derek:

The Importance of Acting on Your Creativity

As someone interested in creativity, you have probably felt the urge to do something, anything, to get your idea out there. The problem is, a lot of times, we feel that creative urge, but never take action on it.

Derek believes movement is the most important thing about creation. Creative people suffer when they stop creating. So remember to always leave time for your own creative projects.

“The act of creation is very important for intellectual growth and happiness. I really think the most important thing about creation is movement. And the movement of creating it forces you to make decisions, figure out what’s important to you and what’s not, and what kind of emotion, what kind of world you’re trying to create. So any time I’d be overwhelmed with too many projects or something, it came down to I had to drop a project to give myself breathing room to create, because… the process of creation improves all other aspects of your life because it teaches you to generate ideas.”

The problem many of us have is, we bog ourselves down with too many projects. We feel the need to occupy all our time to stay busy, but we don’t leave enough time to work on creative projects of our own.

That’s why Derek advocates for coming up with, and more importantly, executing your ideas.

“Everything you do is ideas and executing ideas. That’s the basic equation for getting anything done… It’s been very important, and any time I’ve jumped in the deep end too much with too many projects, it made my performance suffer and everything, if I didn’t have time to be creative.”

Just remember creativity is not a binary thing. There’s no such thing as being creative or not creative. Creativity is a process.

“It seems a lot of people view creativity like you are or you are not. That’s a weird way to do it. Oh, you’re either healthy or you’re not. No. It is a process. It’s a process of self-care. It is a process of development. It’s a process of just using your brain and stretching it. It’s not something you are or are not. It’s either you are behaving in creative ways or not creating. It’s not a binary thing. It’s not just Oh I’m creative so that part of my life is handled.”

The Power of a Positive Mindset

Many of us believe talent and luck are the things holding us back from finding success. Luckily for us, that usually isn’t the case. The thing that most holds us back is our mindset.

You can have all the talent in the world and still find failure if you have the wrong mindset. That’s why Derek believes in the power of a positive mindset.

“The biggest thing holding most anyone back, myself included, it’s mindset, it’s behaviors, it’s the strategies you use. Those are the thing that hold you back more than in-born talent or whatever aptitude you’re born with. It’s the mindsets and strategies you use and the way you’re able to push past the uncomfort that makes you good.”

One of the most helpful mindsets you can develop is one of an experimenter. Don’t let the fear of failure prevent you from trying things out. After all, trial and error is one of the best teachers you can have.

“I like the test and failing mindset because again, that gives you the right mindset to focus on the fact that, yes some things you do are going to suck, no matter what. There’s no artist that I can think of, regardless of context, that has not put out one or two bombs… That’s the process of learning and figuring out what your art is. You’re going to bomb. Just learn. Every time you bomb, learn from it.”

Just remember that failure isn’t final. It is is our ability to dust ourselves off after failures that allows us to grow and become better.

“A failure now doesn’t necessarily mean it won’t turn out being something fantastic a couple years down the line.”

Don’t Get Too Down on Yourself

No matter how much success we have, we will inevitably face some failure. That’s why you should never let yourself get too wrapped up in your own success or failure. Celebrate your success, but also keep in mind failure could be just around the corner.

“Even when there’s a lot of public facing ‘Oh, this is going great.’ Again, struggle, and difficulty, and uncomfortableness, it’s a constant in life.”

The thing to remember is to not let your struggles get to you. Most people don’t see your struggles. If you are creating great work, most people will actually like your work. Don’t let negativity drag you down. Know that there are people who will be behind you, no matter how much you don’t like it yourself.

“It’s very easy to get down on yourself and focused on the moment of ‘This thing is bad right now.’ But when it comes down to it, the majority of people watching anything or any piece of art you do are not going to know and see all the struggle… A majority of the audience won’t notice that, and the few of them that do, that’s fine. You put a piece of art out there. Nothing’s perfect, but you put a piece of art out there that makes people happy.”