Don’t Overthink It, Jump

Episode Transcript:

Michael Clements  00:00

You know, and that sort of like begins you up the ladder of trying to free yourself, where you can have your creative path, your creative skills, be the income generator that helps you survive.

Isotta Page  00:12

This is Art Is... a podcast for artists a podcast for artists, where we brainstorm the future of the art world and the creative industries.

Michael Clements  00:22

My name is Michael Clements. And I'm creative. And I'm an artist. And I'm also an entrepreneur and a business owner. And, as an artist, I've always been drawing and creating ever since I was like a little kid, I didn't wasn't sure that I was an artist. But it was always in me, it just took me a really long time to pair that with what people would consider your professional career kind of like marry the two together. And that creative outlet that I do is not only visual, but I was a writer and an editor for magazines. But for many years, I've acted in film and television and theater, and I, you know, I played some music here as well. But I would say it's hard to focus on which Art Is... a podcast for artists my favorite, I find that they come in seasons and like paired together, I guess right now, the season that I'm in right now as an artist is working on a book of poetry and drawings and sketches. So I guess publishing right now. And then on the business side, I run a business called Art jams. Our focus is to make the world a more creative place. And we do that two ways we get people painting and painting classes have mostly acrylic art classes. And we hire artists, in order to teach these classes we do these live in person, and virtually. And we had a big pivot over the pandemic, which I hope that we can talk about. And I also have another company called ganky. Media, which is essentially the umbrella company that I funnel like all of my personal artistic projects through and do some investing in creative projects and incubation of creative projects through that. So I'm kind of all over the place. I think this thing about being a jack of all trades and master of nothing that saying which used to be, I guess kind of like a slight, you know, when people would say, oh, you're a jack of all trades, master of nothing. But I feel as a creative, that's kind of who you are, I always joke I said, the blessing and the curse of being creative. The blessing is that you can do so many things. And the curse is you can do so many things. So it's hard to focus.

Isotta Page  02:27

It's so interesting to hear that like straight off the bat that you've had all of these kinds of diverse interests and how you've been able to manage them. Personally, I'm grappling with that right now, in terms of how to understand both just organizationally, financially, structurally how to do that. So you must be a real master at time management. I don't know.

Michael Clements  02:47

I mean, I think we all sort of find our own path in terms of like how to organize our lives, I'm especially creatives, it is hard to focus, and we have to choose those things. And there are so many books, and everyone has their own sort of way to keep things organized. I tried to focus on like four things a day, you know, and I mean, and they almost kind of sorted themselves out by what is the top priority, like this thing needs to get done. So it's happening today, whereas the thing that kind of needs to get done, but that we can wait for it tomorrow. So those things sort of like bubble up to the top of the list, but I am realistic about my time, and what I'm able to kind of take on and as I get farther along in my creative journey, especially as an entrepreneur, I also learned the power of saying no, and understanding what your value is and what the value of your time is, and where you need to focus that time. And I think that when you start off on your journey, it's a really double edged sword because like, we all need to pay the bills. Right? And a lot of times the thing that bubbles up to the top is the thing that's like, Okay, what's gonna feed me what's gonna pay the bills, what's gonna get the rent, and you don't necessarily have the creative luxury being like, Yeah, well, I think I'll just spend the time on this new poem that I'm working on, or this new project or something, because that's not paying you, right? And I feel like that first, if you were to look at like that Maslow's hierarchy of needs, were at the bottom, you know, that pyramid, like the bottom of the pyramid is like food and rent, right? That our journey as creatives sort of starts at the bottom of that pyramid, as how can we turn our creative powers and our skills into income generation where we're not like working that job that we hate or something on the side in order to make the money while we then do the passion projects on the side that aren't really earning us anything. But the balances is that job or that we're we're getting the money that's like sucking my soul and all of my time, is it taking away from my creative journey and that is a really first difficult step to kind of break out of that cycle to bring in your income into your creative path and journey. And you know, and that sort Like begins you up the ladder of trying to free yourself, where you can have your creative path, your creative skills, be the income generator that helps you survive. For me, the first creative thing was writing. And a lot of times you have to look within yourself as a creative and be like, Okay, I can do all these things. But what's this kind of the one thing that I'm really skilled at I'm really good at that'll kind of get me to the paycheck fastest, right? For me, it was writing. And that was really kind of my entree into the creative world is writing and editing for magazines and doing travel articles and things like that. And becoming an editor in a magazine that was sort of like my toehold into the creative field.

Isotta Page  05:41

I think it's so interesting that you brought up that immediate dichotomy between the creative work you want to do versus like how you're going to pay yourself pay the bills survive. And I feel like at least I graduated from art school two years ago now. And we never discussed the practicalities of being an artist. And I know that pretty much no one does. So it's not like special or new. But at the same time, the less you talk about it, and the less you confronted, the scarier it gets, and the more isolated you feel. So I was wondering, you know, you said that your your first foray into merging those two, financial and creative was through writing, did you like sit down and think like, okay, these are all the things that I love doing that I'm good at. But this one is the one where I could get paid to do or something like, how did you come to that conclusion? Or like, do you think that there's like a formula? Or could you like shed any light on, you know, people who are at that phase right now? How could they maybe start thinking about it in a practical way,

Michael Clements  06:43

ultimately, everyone has their own set of variables. And it comes down to taking step putting in the work getting the inertia of your creative journey moving, and it's like billiards, right? Like, you have the cue ball, and no balls are gonna fall in the pocket unless you hit the cue ball, and you just don't know, you just need to hit the ball and let the balls kind of spray and spread across the table. Maybe something falls. But now you're going right, you're not sinking all of the balls on the first shot. And a lot of times, we want all the balls to fall on the first shot, right? And we're hungry. And we just want to get out there. And we want the success fast. But it really is a process that it takes a couple turns, right. And it starts with taking that first step. So first of all, the answer is within you. So I think one of the reasons I fell into writing was because of necessity, I needed money. And I was kind of like, Alright, what's the thing that I can kind of do and get some income fast, I've moved to Hong Kong, and China and kind of on a whim. And when I turned 30, I was not living any creative life. And I was doing consulting and like some teaching and things like that. And it just, I was very unhappy because I wasn't pursuing creativity. So I think the first step for me was to draw a line in the sand and say, Okay, from this day on, I'm only gonna do a job. That is a creative pursuit, I don't know what that is right now. It could be I don't know, getting an acting gig, it could be doing theater, it could be maybe doing a little bit of writing, it could be playing a little music, it could be helping on a film set. I don't know what it is, right? I know that I have these four or five skill sets. All I know is that from this day on, I'm going to use one of them in order to make a living. So I think first it was a question, it was more of like, are you going to do this? Are you going to be a creative? Are you dedicated to the profession, a creative profession, and then once I sort of made that leap in, which included quitting my other jobs that wasn't that way, and gave myself essentially like three or four months, where I literally flew to Hong Kong with a one way ticket and that didn't know anybody or anything like that. And I'm like, I'm gonna make it happen, right? And sometimes the universe is the thing that tells you what you're going to be doing. Right? It wasn't like I set out to be like, I'm gonna make money doing travel articles, or, actually, the first money that I started to get was an acting because once I landed in Hong Kong, and I was in a youth hostel, because it was $7 a night, right? It's like, the only thing I can afford is like me and 25 people in like a narrow room like backpackers, right. And, you know, like I had dedicated I'm gonna make this happen. And one day, there's an agent came in, and he was like, looking for background artists, Western background artists to go on like Hong Kong, television and film sets and things like that. And he walks into the youth also is like, Hey, I'm looking for essentially, like a white guy, right? I'm like, I can do that. I don't even have to act and it's like, okay, you just stand in the bag. And it's, you know, whatever it was 30 $40 us at the end of the day, cash in an envelope, no questions asked, and I'll ask your visa or anything like that. It's just like under the table. I'm like, great. I'll do it. Right. And then You know, says I have a little bit of background and acting, and I went on set and I was professional and did a good job. And he asked me back and yada, yada. And then I started to book more jobs. And so that was sort of money coming. I was like, Well, I'm getting paid acting, right. But it wasn't enough to be a living, but it was a start. And then not only that, but every single day, I would go to this business, you know, where they had like free internet and free computers. And I was just applying for jobs, I found a place that was a free place that you could go and use computer terms. This is before smartphones, like this is like early 2000s. Okay, it wasn't I didn't have a smartphone and have a laptop. So you had to like go to a business center that had free Wi Fi and computers. And I just started applying for jobs like every single day, that was my job. And I wound up getting a job as a writer, as an editor for an online magazine in Hong Kong, that also provided me a visa. So I'm like, Okay, I guess I'm going to be an editor now. And at that point, I did have a master's degree. And I have done a little bit of writing. When I was in graduate school, I worked as an editor on a magazine, kind of like a one of the university magazines. So I had a little bit of that background, and a master's degree and I my English is pretty good. You know. So, I mean, I like parlayed that. But it wasn't like I went to Hong Kong to like, I'm going to be an editor, you know what I mean? Like, that's kind of what the Universe brought to me. But then I also kind of met the moment, by moving there. By making that decision by putting out the resumes by applying for the jobs, it took like three weeks of like, literally every single day sending out lots and lots of you know, resumes and getting rejected and getting rejected. But then I was kind of getting a little bit of money on the side with the acting right. And fast forward to three and a half years, I was in Hong Kong, and I helped build this publishing company was a managing editor. And then I was able to kind of come back to the States with that title of managing editor that maybe would have taken me 10 years in New York or LA or somewhere to get, but I was able to kind of shortcut it. Because in Hong Kong, there aren't as many people like me that are, you know, like Americans expats, basically that was able to kind of do that the English writing, and then that's kind of launched this journey into, you know, being a magazine editor, you know, for a decade. So that's kind of a long answer. But it also shows the path, which is doing things like getting it done, but I didn't know what the thing would that would land. But I just knew that I had to move forward. And I think the irony of everything. And this dovetails with the business that I started with art jams, is that the idea of our jams actually was incubated while I was living in Hong Kong, because there was a lady that had an art gallery there. And she would let people go on to the second floor of the art gallery after it closed. And we would listen to music and have wine and she would supply canvas and paints and you could just go in there and paint whatever you wanted. Right. And she called it art jamming with ing. And it was something I did a couple of times when I was in Hong Kong. And it was like the first time I really worked with acrylics. And with Canvas. And it really had an impact on me, I was like, wow, this is how I was always just like drawing by hand and sketching with like materials that were laying around my house. And I never really worked in a large format with Canvas and acrylics. I'm not a trained artist, I'm an outsider artists. And you know, fast forward like a decade, when I'm in Washington, DC now, I'm editor in chief for this fancy magazine called luxury lifestyle magazine. And after a decade of like writing and working in this magazine, I was really it's time for me to have my own business, I never have my own business. And I was kind of burned out from the magazine cycle just like 10 issues a year. It's like you're always on deadline. But not only that, but when you're a magazine editor, you're interviewing a lot of interesting people over and over and over again, I get really motivated, right? It's like every person I interviewed was like, okay, there, they got a film dropping or a book or they're a chef, or they're a celebrity or they're like a billionaire or they're like a socialite that's like donating all their life to You know, like great causes. And I was like, I need to do something to you know, like, I love writing and all the perks of it. But it's like, I want my own business. So if you are in that same stage where you're like, what am I gonna do? I'm an entrepreneur, I know that I want my own business. I'm ready for that challenge, right? I've been working for other people my whole life. Are you smart enough to do your own thing? Like challenge yourself? Yeah, let's do this. But what am I going to do? You know, like, okay, that's, that's a great stage. I know, I want to do this. But you know, what's the idea? And I remembered this painting experience that I did in Hong Kong, you know, like 10 years, 11 years later, it's still like resonated in my soul that that was a really fun experience. And it was simple. It was like I just got with some friends. There was a space there was like bottles of wine, there was good music, and there was canvas, and there was paints, and we just like painted until like four in the morning, and just had a great time. And I did that a couple times. So I was like, well, maybe I could do that here in DC. You know, this is before painting. CIP was like a thing and no one really was doing that. And so I was like, okay, so I got an art gallery had a space that was open. I knew a lot of people from running a magazine for 10 years. Again, I think it goes back to what do you already have, that you can leverage in order to get you to that next stage? And I can't tell you what that is only you know what that is, right? I think a lot of times people look outside of themselves for the answer to their problem, when really the first place you should look is inside, what do you already have that you can leverage right now, in this moment, you don't have to wait for someone or some thing or some force that all sudden, like turns on the light for you, you can do it with the things that you have. And in this case, since I've been working in the magazine for a really long time, I knew a lot of people. And I was able to get the space, kind of like, hey, you know, like, I didn't want to rent this space out for a weekend we did. And we had this party when everyone came in and painted. And we had a DJ and food. And it was like sold out. All my friends were like writers and journalists. So I got in all the magazines and free press and everything. And it just took off. And I did that for like two years as a side gig while I was working full time as a magazine editor. And it got to the point where we were doing so many of these pop up events, that I was like spending a lot of time just, you know, all this stuff was in my basement, and I was packing it into my car and like, you know, doing like the circus, like we just go pop up. And I'm like, Alright, I need a space. And I happened to be at this thing, you know, like a business conference. And I asked a question, and I was like, 100 200 people there, you know, like small business gathering or whatever. Again, I'm like putting myself in position. And I asked the question, talk a little bit about my business. And afterwards, some guy came up to me, and he was like, Hey, you have a really cool business, I have this retail space. I'm just looking for someone, just for a year. It's like a empty space. I'm not looking for a long term tenant, I got a long term tenant, but it's just like, I need someone to fill this gap for a year. Do you want to do it? I was like, Yeah, this is this is kind of the bridge from doing part time roaming around, let's get a retail space and see if this works. And I quit my full time job. And then now I'm in retail, which I'd never done ever a day in my life. And I am a Communications major. So I don't I didn't study business, or I didn't have an MBA. I didn't understand. I didn't even know what a POS was, how do we take money, like it was just starting from scratch. But now that you have the space you had to learn, and it was like I jumped and now I need to learn to fly. And I think that there's a lot of that as well in your creative journey. Again, it's just everyone has their own path. But I found that a lot of times people overthink it. And jumping is really scary. You know, making the leap is really scary. And you it's like you want to figure out all the variables before you make the leap. Like okay, this is how I fly and I want to make sure that I fly really far. And then maybe the variables changing, you never leave. I mean, sometimes you just need to leap and then figure out you know what I mean? Like, I don't know, like how else to explain it. It's like you put in the work, but serendipity definitely comes into play. And those two sort of are always dancing with each other as you go through your career. I wish you the best with your creative journey and everyone out there as well that's going through a creative journey. It's a process, but don't give up because the world needs more art and more creativity. Now more than ever. You can find my business art jams at AR T J MZ. You can find my Creator side at not for profit. That's k n o t for profit as an prophesy art that predicts the future. And my book is called Gen exiled dispatches from an Analog Age. So those are a bunch of things. If you want to see pictures of me and my garden because I love gardening on my Genki three on Instagram.

Isotta Page  18:44

Thank you for listening to Art Is... a podcast for artists a podcast for artists. Please leave art as a podcast for artists a rating and review on Apple podcasts. It really helps others find us. Also I would love it if you took a moment to reflect on who in your life might also benefit from listening to this podcast. When you do please share Art Is... a podcast for artists a podcast for artists with them. So we can continue to grow the show organically and brainstorm the future of the art world together. You can also support the work I do by subscribing wherever you listen, and by donating to the podcast. The link to do so is in the episode description. Okay, that's it for now. Thanks so much and see you next Wednesday.