How do you know if you're really growing as an artist?

You know, it's not always about selling more work or getting more followers online.

Sometimes the biggest growth happens in ways nobody else sees, like confidence, technique, or how easily you bounce back from mistakes.

In this episode of Create Art Podcast and our series the New Artist Compass, we're going to be talking about how to measure your creative growth in ways that actually matter.

We'll look at tracking your skills, celebrating the small wins, and redefining success on your own terms.

Because growth isn't just about reaching a finish line.

It's about noticing the progress along the way.

Hey there.

This is Timothy Keem o', Brien, your head instigator for Create Art Podcast where I bring my over 30 years of experience in the arts and education world to help you tame your inner critic and create more than you consume.

So we're going to be talking this time about measuring your growth as an artist, which I think is very important for a number of reasons.

I'm going to share with you 5 reasons to go ahead and do that, to measure that growth.

The first reason is, you know, why does it even matter?

Why should I measure my growth?

And here's the thing with growth, you know, it can be invisible if you don't pause to look at it.

You can do all this work and not notice.

You know, you, you started drawing stick figures and now you're doing, you know, oil covered portraits or you're selling in galleries, you know, and you started off, you couldn't even give these things away at Christmas time.

So it's really important that you look at that growth that you already have.

And I'm sure that you already have growth in your practice, whatever it is.

So we need to measure that so that way we can avoid mistakes, we can avoid going down paths that we don't need to go down.

And here's another thing to think about too, you know, without reflection, you risk feeling stuck even while you're improving.

And, you know, our inner monologue can really be not the best thing for us.

And you know, we think, oh, yeah, I'm still doing the same old same old.

I'm still writing the same poems, I'm still painting the same pictures, I'm still doing the same dance routines.

But are you, I don't think you are.

You, with practice, have grown as an artist and you need to stop and think and pause and go, I've been doing this for however long now.

I always start off my shows with, you know, a, you know, bring my Art and education experience for the past 30 plus years.

That's a long time.

That's.

I remember when I first started, it was horrible.

When I wrote my first poem, it was horrible.

I've never showed that to anybody because it was that bad.

But now I've got four books of poetry out there.

And part of, you know, being an artist is you're looking back and going, man, that's where I came from.

That's what I started from.

And this is where I'm at right now.

And being happy with that, being really happy with that.

You know, you deserve a pat on the back.

And if no one's giving you one, I'll give you a virtual pat on the back.

But take a pause, look what you've done, and maybe it leads you onto your next project.

Maybe it leads you onto a brand new project where you comment on the growth that you've had.

So that's why we measure our growth.

My next point is, now we know why we do it.

Let's talk about our skill based growth.

Let's talk about the actual skills that we're using in order to come to our finished project or product, whatever you want to call it.

Whenever I hear somebody call their projects a product, I'm like, it makes me feel squishy.

I don't like that.

So what I want you to do is I want you to take a look at your old work.

Take a look at that first piece that you've done.

Oh, my God, you cringe at it.

I know I cringe at it.

And then take a look at what you just created.

So, you know, for me, as a podcaster, I can listen to my first episodes.

And let me tell you, the first 10 years, and I said years that I was doing podcasting, I can't even listen to those episodes.

Luckily, they got lost, you know, in a. I lost them on a.

A hard drive someplace, so I can't really listen to those.

But when I rebranded and when I started again back in 2016, I can listen to those episodes.

And wherever you're listening to this podcast at, you can go back and listen to those episodes if you want.

But go back, compare what you used to do with what you do right now, and instantly you'll see the growth.

Instantly.

I don't care how long you've been doing your art, you're gonna see some growth.

Why?

Because you're building your skills, you're putting in the reps, you're getting better with it.

You're practicing, practicing, practicing.

And not just you Know how it looks or how it sounds, but how fast you can do it, the techniques that you were doing, you know, how you solved problems to get over whatever creative barrier yet you are experiencing.

So really think about that.

Skill based growth.

Take the old, put it right next to the new and compare the two and go, wow.

And again, that's that virtual pet on the back for you that we all need.

We all need that.

And if we don't have people that give that to us, then we need to give it to ourselves.

Okay, so we've talked about why it matters.

We've talked about skill based growth.

Now your personal growth as an artist.

You know, when you take a look back at all your stuff, it's going to give you confidence in sharing or finishing projects because you know, you've been able to do it in the past.

You've been able to see your growth, you've been able to see yourself get better.

So you're going to want to, you're going to be more likely to want to share that with others.

And you're, you're going to know that, hey, I have finished hard projects before and I'm going to finish this one just like I did last time or the time before that or the time before that.

So it's going to give you that confidence which we all need.

The other thing too, it's going to give you resilience when you face criticism and setbacks.

You know, people are going to criticize your work, but you can always go, man, yeah, you may not like this, but oh gosh, you should have seen what I did 10 years ago.

It was really horrible.

But I've grown as an artist and, you know, maybe that helps you get different jobs, you know, different commissions in your, your artistic discipline.

You never know.

But it's going to help you weather that storm that we all go through when people criticize our work or when we have setbacks, or when we are working on a project and for some reason we're just not able to work through it and finish it off.

We can go back and go, well, I used this method when I did that project five years ago to finish it.

Maybe I can try it again.

So it's a great way to help you finish those projects that you're working on right now by looking back in the past and seeing how you did it before.

So now let's look at external versus internal metrics.

Okay?

We live in the social media world and everyone's trying to go for likes or sales or followers and that can Be, you know, really motivating, make you feel like, oh, yeah, finally, I've got a thousand followers.

I'm doing great.

Not one of them are buying anything.

But I've got a thousand followers.

It's not the whole story.

It's not.

We shouldn't, you know, measure ourselves by the external world.

Rather, let's look at.

Are you enjoying that?

Are you enjoying what you're making?

Do you get some sort of personal satisfaction?

Have you taken some risks?

You know, Bob Dylan took a risk when he went electric.

And we still talk about Bob Dylan today, you know, and he's like, what, 80 years old or something like that, and he's still putting out records, still touring.

But if he didn't take that risk, would we still have talked about him?

I. I don't know.

You know, so look more towards that internal metric.

And, you know, another thing too is let's look at our consistency.

Are we creating things all the time or we just, you know, once, twice.

I didn't get a thousand likes on that.

I'm not going to do that again.

Who cares?

Who cares?

Are those your true fans?

You know, maybe you got a thousand likes and two people bought it.

Although that's your true fan right there.

But if we just base our satisfaction on what other people think, you're never going to be satisfied because it's never going to be enough.

Because let's say you get that thousand likes.

Why don't I have 10,000 likes?

Okay, you get the 10,000 likes.

Okay, now I need a hundred thousand likes.

Okay, I got a hundred thousand likes.

Still haven't sold a piece, but I got a hundred thousand people clicking a little button going, hey, I like that.

And they're moving on with their day, and there's no discussion afterwards.

It's just like, hey, you like it?

Great.

Bye.

That's kind of hollow in the way I look at things, you know?

Do I look at download numbers?

Absolutely, I do.

But do I obsess over them?

No, not really.

You know, I like hitting milestones.

But, you know, I have this on YouTube.

Do I get, you know, views off of that?

Sure, I do, but I don't obsess over it, I don't think.

You know, every night when I go to bed, how can I get more people to view my YouTube channel?

Or how.

How can I get more people to listen to this podcast?

I'm just putting out what I feel is relevant to you, and that's why you keep on coming back.

And I thank you for that.

I'm Happy about that.

But if I didn't enjoy doing it, I probably wouldn't do a podcast or I probably wouldn't do a video, but I really enjoy doing.

Gives me a lot of satisfaction, and that's why I do it now.

Hey, if you want to, you know, hand me a thousand dollars, not a problem.

I'll give you my bank account number and let's go to town.

But I do it for you.

I do this for you because I feel like I'm doing you a service.

But I also do it for me because it feeds my soul.

And with podcasting, I get to, you know, use my artistry with the audio production of it, with creating the graphics for it, with creating the ideas for what I talk about.

That's my satisfaction right there.

If I get money from it, great.

I have a day job.

I, you know, and it pays me.

But the reason I do this, because I don't have to do this.

I could stop this tomorrow and never do it again.

But I enjoy it.

I enjoy the connection that I have with you, and I hope you enjoy the connection you have with me.

Last point I want to talk to you about is practical tools for tracking your growth.

However you track it is fine.

Whatever is going to work for you, that's fine.

The best thing is the tracking method that you will actually use.

Okay?

I can give you a million different ways to track it.

Hell, I can sell you a program for 1995 per month.

But if you don't use it, then you're just wasting your time and your money.

So I recommend, you know, keeping a progress portfolio or a sketchbook timeline.

Hey, I, you know, I started this project here, and I ended it here, and I put it out into the world on this date.

Simple.

Just do that.

You can journal about that project.

You know, you can keep a daily journal or a weekly journal from it for each of the projects that you do.

And that way, when people say, hey, you know, that, that painting, what's the story behind that painting?

You can refer back to that and go, well, I. I made that painting back in 99.

I was going through a really bad breakup.

And these are things that are.

That I was feeling at that time.

That was my worldview at that time.

It's obviously changed since 1999, but that's what I was doing at that time.

And it gives a story behind the project.

Why do you think?

Back in the day, when we did DVDs and VHS, they had, like, they would do a movie, and then they would do, like, a little Mini documentary of the movie.

People love those special editions, those add ons to it.

People love to know, you know, how did they do this?

Or what was the idea behind it.

I know, I love that kind of stuff.

So do that for you.

So that way you can track it and you know, find better techniques.

You know, increase your speed, increase the success that you want to have that you define.

But also do it for your audience so that way they can get a peek into your.

Your madness.

As I like to say, you don't have to, you know, do all this right now.

Just set a small goal, something measurable.

You know, maybe it's finishing a piece a week or maybe it's learning a new technique.

Do that and you're going to really see that growth in yourself as an artist.

And that's going to bring you a lot of satisfaction, which is going to make you want to make more art, which is going to bring you some more satisfaction.

And especially those times when you hear crickets, your crickets out there, when no one's commenting on your work, when no one's discussing your work and you think nobody cares, you can go back to that and go, yeah, well, you know, I was kind of feeling that at this time or that time.

But look at the growth that I've done.

Look where I started.

Look where I'm at today and look where I'm going to be tomorrow.

Give it a shot for yourself.

It's not going to hurt.

All right.

That's all I got for you this week.

Thank you so much for listening in on this.

I really appreciate you and I can't wait to see what you're going to come up with in terms of measuring your gross, feel free to let me know what method you use.

You can email me, Timothy createartpodcast.com and if you'd like to, you know, leave me some critique on the show, that's the best way to go about doing it.

Really appreciate those of you that have emailed me in the past and would love to have you, you know, contact me and let's start up that discussion.

If you'd like to be on the show, same method.

Timothyartpodcast.com is the best way to get a hold of me.

Share this with a friend.

Share this with your friend.

That's the artist.

You're the artist.

I know you are.

But, you know, if you have a friend that is really discouraged or down or something like that, share this with them and say, hey, have you been measuring your growth?

And if they say, I'm not having any growth.

Really?

Are they not having growth or are they just ignoring it and just, you know, doing their projects and going willy nilly all over the place?

So share it with a friend.

Speaking about sharing podcasts with friends, I run another show and it's called Find a Podcast About.

You can find that at Find a Podcast about xyz.

That's where I review podcasts to help you find your next binge worthy podcast and outsmart the algorithm.

Keep it a look.

See, last thing I wanted to share with you is I do run a business.

I started it here in 2025 at the beginning of 2025.

It's called TKB Podcast Studio.

You can find it at tkbpodcaststudio.com and that's where I help my clients lead through the noise with quiet professionalism.

I help people set up their own podcasts.

I produce, I edit, I consult.

Check it out, you'll see my portfolio there of the other podcasts that I work on.

Again, I love doing podcasts.

Maybe we can work together and do something for you.

All right, that's it.

That's all I got for you today.

Thank you for spending time with me and want you to go out there, tame your inner critic.

Create more than you consume.

Take a long look at what you have done.

I'm giving you a virtual pat on the back.

Go out there, make some art for somebody you love.

Yourself.

I'll talk with you next time.

It.