This episode really resonated with me — I have always loved drawing, took a bunch of art classes in high school, and have my 2 year degree in visual communication and a certificate in character animation, but ended up taking a retail/tech support job to pay for my school. This went from part time, to full time, to being there for 5 years, to getting a corporate tech support job to escape retail — plus getting married and having my son along the way.

On the surface it doesn’t look like failure but it feels that way to me a lot since I am not primarily employed in a creative field. I do freelance work very occasionally, but mostly I am too worn out from working 40 hours a week/commuting/taking care of a 1 year old to do much with art when I do have free time. I beat myself up a lot for not “going for it when I had the chance” and feeling like it’s too late and I missed my opportunity to pursue what I’m passionate about.

It was really encouraging to hear Jake’s story about the period of time between quitting the studio job and getting to a steady point as an independent creator — a good reminder that things take time, yes we need to push for our goals but we also need to be patient with ourselves and give ourselves some grace when we have to be in a less than ideal work situation to support our families.

Thanks for making this podcast — I’ve listened to most of the episodes in the past month and it has been soooo beneficial to my mindset, and inspired me to work on taking a step at a time towards my goal of having art be my main gig instead of an occasional side hustle.