Creativity Jijiji
Creativity Jijiji: "Conversations about creativity"
This podcast amplifies the voices of our true leaders—the artists. Writers, composers, producers, singers, actors, and poets show us new ways to see ourselves and the world around us. They illuminate the invisible threads that connect us, revealing the deep ties of our shared humanity.
At a time when we must come together as citizens of a small and fragile planet, the voices of artists matter more than ever.
Creativity Jijiji goes beyond the spotlight to explore the mysteries of creativity—where it comes from, why it moves us, and how it shapes our world.
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Creativity Jijiji
5 Tips for Turning Creative Rejection into Resilience
Sitting at my kitchen table, anxiously scanning emails for that one response that could change everything, I found myself on a journey all too familiar to creatives—waiting for validation, fearing rejection. Join Air Jijiji and me, Chris Mchale, as we share this rollercoaster of emotions and lay out five strategies to help artists like you navigate the murky waters of creative rejection. We'll delve into the importance of developing a resilient mindset, drawing from personal stories and years of experience to help you stand strong against the inevitable "no" that every creative faces.
We redefine what success means in the creative world, emphasizing practice and preparation as the cornerstones of artistic growth. Hear how embracing positive and negative feedback can be transformative, and discover the power of distinguishing between valuable criticism and mere noise. Whether you're a writer, musician, or any creator, these insights will empower you to see rejection not as a setback but as a stepping stone to artistic achievement. Tune in for practical advice, motivational anecdotes, and a fresh perspective on turning those "no's" into "yes's.
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This is chris mckownm. This is air g. We're talking rejection deduction, five things to get you through the night and set your creativity free. That's the story we're telling today. And the story starts one day when I sat at my kitchen table scanning my email on my laptop and there it was what I'd been waiting for for months. I met an agent a while ago at a writer's conference and there was a connection and it was the connection. I was looking for an agent. I'm a writer, she's an agent Connection. It was like that. I believe that she was the one that I had to give my book to, that she was the one that I had to give my book to. And we had a little conversation and she said send me your book. Magic words Every writer wants to hear. Send me your book, I'll read it, I'll tell you what I think. And then the ultimate fantasy I read it. It's fantastic, I'll rep it. I mean all that is either in or not in the unopened email on my desktop.
Chris Mchale:I used to bruise like a peach. I was so sensitive and vulnerable. I had skin like lambskin. What I mean is I was very defensive and I took rejection very deeply, but these days my skin's gone full-on lizard mode, tough weathered, way less bothered by the sting of a no. It's not that I don't care anymore. I've just been hit with so many rejections from publishers and editors and brands, account execs, a&r guy, you name it.
Chris Mchale:I've reached a point. You have to dig yourself out of a hole. You can find yourself walking the streets and going into a dive. Sitting at the pine bar and staring at a mirror can happen, but creative rejection is part of a creative worker's life. What separates the artists from the executives is how you deal with it. It never gets better. Okay, I mean, I've been doing this over 30 years. It never gets better. Nobody ever likes facing the no, but learning to face the no will get you to the yes. That's a lesson I learned from a lifetime of rejection. Every artist either gets it or doesn't. But the truth is not getting. It is the path to failure in an artist's life. You may never get back out of the dive, you know, if you don't learn to deal with rejection. So if your goal is to live your life and seek the success your art can bring, listen to this story.
Chris Mchale:Let's start by defining success in an artist's life. It doesn't matter how art manifests through achievement. In a book, on a canvas, in a spiraling wind tunnel of an alto saxophone, success is defined the same way the well-played solo, the perfect paragraph, the gentle blending of watercolors, that's artistic success. But I don't mean perfection. Anvil of perfection is no place for an artist to find themselves. I'm talking about achievement through practice.
Chris Mchale:Practice is key to any artist. What is your practice? How have you defined your practice? Honest practice will lead to honest results, results that an artist can stand by. Why? Because they prepped the ground, they brought their best achievement to the stage. Whatever happens on that stage, they practice for it. So, good or bad, they're going to go on that stage and they're going to perform and give the best performance. That's the goal to give the best performance, not to achieve perfection. This is important to think about because solid practice lays the groundwork for dealing with rejection.
Chris Mchale:I'm going to be looking at this practice, this issue of practice, on another Air to Gigi podcast, but I'm not saying it'll keep you out of the dive bar, but maybe you won't fall onto the sidewalk in front of the dive bar at dawn. Whether you're posting a new song or putting out art, posting content or pitching the next big idea. You will get feedback and some of it's going to be legitimate and full of pro advice to help you grow, but some of it is going to suck. That's just the fact. People love to get negative on your ass, but you've got to learn to kind of navigate those two points. Is it legitimate feedback or is it just bullshit? And a lot of it is bullshit.
Chris Mchale:I once knew a writer, a friend of mine, who stuck a pencil in the ceiling whenever he was rejected. He worked in the basement and he had kind of like what I think they call a drop ceiling up there and he'd sharpen his pencils and he'd walk up to the ceiling and they would stick in the ceiling. And by the time I visited him one day at his writing studio in the basement there had to be like hundreds of pencils up there. I mean hundreds. He was kind of honoring his rejection. That was one of my earliest lessons about dealing with rejection To him he was seeking rejection, he was actually looking for it, it was important to him and he was sort of marking it with pencils in the ceiling. That's what rejection does I mean.
Chris Mchale:It can pile up, but you have to vibe with it and own it, because the reality is that most of your big ideas won't even make it off the runway. The reality is that most of your big ideas won't even make it off the runway. I mean, I always talk about baseball because Hall of Fame baseball hitters miss 7 out of 10 times. I think when you're a writer, you're probably going to miss 99 out of 100 times and rejection is going to sting. That's the truth. But it's also the road, the path, the sidewalk you walk on to get there.
Chris Mchale:The move isn't to avoid rejection, it's to own it and use it to get better, flip those no's into yes's or, at the very least, leave things behind with no regrets. I've had a tough time with that one, but it's essential to look at the regrets in your life, acknowledge them and move forward. For me it's the most critical thing of all. It's something that took me years to really get to to look at those regrets, own those regrets, honor them, love them, hug them and then move forward. I think for an artist, for a creative worker, there's nothing more important. You're going to get rejected. You need to learn to look at it and move forward. Move forward. That's the job. Creative rejection is part of the process. 12 publishers rejected Harry Potter, 12.
Chris Mchale:Van Gogh only sold a handful of paintings during his lifetime. Does that mean their work was trash? No, I mean it doesn't. Obviously. What it means is that rejection is part of the process. Van Gogh paintings are worth millions. They fill museums. So what did the rejection mean during his lifetime? Museums? So what did the rejection mean during his lifetime? Nothing. It meant nothing at all. The artist's job, as I said, is to keep moving forward. Period, that's it. When you do that, you'll have the opportunity to move from rejection to success. Steven Spielberg was rejected from USC Film School multiple times. Sylvester Stallone, on rejection, said, quote I'll take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going rather than retreat. Charge right, Sylvester Stallone. I love that. Quote. Stephen King his novel Carrie got rejected 30 times before it got picked up. I mean 30 times. He even threw the manuscript into the trash and his wife fished it out and boom, look at where he is now. The moral is rejection sucks, but it's also fire that fuels the comeback.
Chris Mchale:I made myself a cup of tea and sat at my table and opened the agent's email. I'd taken a lot of time with this book maybe three or four complete drafts, like 100,000 each. I poured blood on the page. I'd made the writing my best writing. I loved the voice of the book and the characters and the scenes. It was everything I wanted it to be. It dove deep underneath the surface of a distinct and violent story world. I'd lived in this story world and felt the sharp pain there. This book was exorcising some demons for me and it was saturated in harsh truth. But it was fiction. But I loved it. I love this book. I still do. The agent wrote in her email that she liked the writing. She said it was decisive and powerful and intelligent everything you want to hear. But she missed the stakes. She didn't get the stakes and didn't understand what was driving these characters, so she took a pass on the book.
Chris Mchale:Rejection can crush you or you can use it to level up. Here are five ways you can flip the script. Make rejection your power move. Five ways to get you through that dark night of the soul. So get your pencils out, because here they come.
Chris Mchale:Number one Reframe rejection as feedback. Don't take it personal. Rejection isn't failure. Think of it as someone handing you free notes. Every no is a chance to tighten up your game. Maybe your idea wasn't ready or maybe you need to shift your approach. Either way, it's intel you can use to level up the writing.
Chris Mchale:Reframe rejection as feedback. Feedback notes, things to learn. Number two separate yourself from your work. I really love this one. Separate yourself from your work. It's hard, I get it, but your work isn't you. Your work is not you. You're talented, whether someone says yes or no, I mean you're valuable. You're a human being. It doesn't matter whether someone says yes or no. Separate yourself from your work. Rejection is about the project, not about your worth. Learn to step back emotionally to move forward and without carrying the weight of every rejection through every single day of your life. It's so important. Right audience. Sometimes you're just pitching to the wrong crowd.
Chris Mchale:A rejection doesn't mean your work sucks. It means it didn't click with that person right, the person you sent it to. They didn't like it. They looked at it and said you know, I'll take a pass, but that just more times than not, that means you're talking to the wrong people. Keep hustling and you'll find the right crew who vibes with your vision, with your words, with your canvas, with your poem, with your song. Find the right audience. Find the audience that dances to your music. Make them dance and if they don't dance, find another audience, because they're out there, people that get you. Being an artist means sharing your truth and being an audience member means vibing with the truth of the artist. I mean those two have to come together like magic. Find your right audience.
Chris Mchale:Number four embrace growth mindset. I mean that's kind of like Corpy speak and I've done a lot of copywriting, so forgive me, but it's really an important thing. Maybe a better way of putting this is like keep beginner's mind, because in beginner's mind you approach everything like you're going to learn something and it's crucial that you're not static. Your skills are constantly growing. Rejection is a chapter, not the end of your book. It's an L that you turn into a lesson. You got W for win and L for lose. Unless L becomes your lesson, you embrace the growth mindset. You turn rejection into a lesson. The more you learn, the better you get, and that's how you win. That's how it works. Number five use rejection as motivation. How about that? Huh, flip the hustle. Flip the hurt into hustle, flip the hurt into hustle. So they said no to you. Cool, watch me come back stronger. I mean, this isn't about revenge, but maybe it is a little, but it's more about proving to yourself that rejection isn't a wall.
Chris Mchale:I thought about my book's rejection a lot. I mean it was on my mind for weeks. The agent offered to re-read it. If I worked it over with an editor, she recommended. I mean, that's a pretty generous offer, but it's one I passed on. Why would I pass on that?
Chris Mchale:Because of the rejection, I faced something else that had been in the back of my mind. There was a growing sense in the book trade of something called own voice. I liked that idea and it was an idea that I hadn't heard before when I heard it. The first time I heard that phrase was at a book conference. It struck me, it stuck with me.
Chris Mchale:Upon looking at my book, it became obvious to me that it wasn't written in my own voice, quote-unquote own voice. What do I mean? Simply put, the book was not reflective of my voice. It was a work of fiction based on part of my life that had been intense and brutal and had changed me, and I'd used it to write this story. But I did begin to think after the rejection. Why hadn't I just written my story in the first place.
Chris Mchale:My rejection became the fuel to tackle the real story, and tackling the truth of my story was harsh. It's a tough thing to do to bring your writing truth to the pages of your own story. The rejection of my book gave me the courage to do that. Everyone gets rejected. Everyone, every artist, gets rejected, and the winners are the ones who keep going when others quit.
Chris Mchale:The road to success is messy and filled with roadblocks and dead ends. But your only job keep moving forward. That's it. The path to success is not linear. It's a maze. There will be roadblocks and detours and bridges to nowhere and dead ends. It's crazy. However, keep moving forward. Perseverance, that's the word. Perseverance, that's the key word of everything I've been talking about. Perseverance Rejection is part of the grind, unnecessary part. Get used to it, learn from it, make it work for you, eat rejection for breakfast and burp out success. I mean, keep doing. You, the artist. Eventually, those no's will become yes's and when they do, you will earn every beautiful feeling that wraps around your bones.
Chris Mchale:This is Chris McHale and this is Air Jijiji, and we look at the practice and the business of creativity. We're looking at every aspect. I've had a long career and I'm going to have a lot of people come on here and talk about their interesting and labyrinth careers, starting next week with Lance Massey, who is a successful and well-known sound designer, one of the original iconic sound designers who I had the honor to work with, work with and together we worked on a project for T-Mobile that turned into a ringtone that Lance created and became iconic for many, many years. Two decades of Lance is coming on here next week and we're going to talk through the process of creating that ringtone and sonic branding and all sorts of good stuff. So join us next week on Air Jijiji. This is Chris McHale. Thank you so much for listening. Go to studiojijijiio and subscribe to our newsletter. It comes out every week. Join the website. It's artist-friendly, artist-first. Thank you again for your time. Bye.
