You Got An Arts Degree!...Now What!?
After You Graduate, Read This
Shoutout to all of the graduates of 2024!
With graduations happening, I started thinking about how I felt when I graduated with my Masters in 2016.
8 years ago, I was riddled with self doubt and fears about my future. I felt disoriented and overwhelmed with the idea of “the rest of my life.”
I was in a dark place back then, and I needed advice.
In today’s newsletter, I want to share advice that I would have given my 24-year-old self.
With that spirt, let’s get into it.
24-year-old Drew, here are 5 actions you should take immediately.
1. Keep Learning
Commit to a lifetime of learning.
You have finished school, but your life of learning has only begun.
As an artist, I urge you to develop a variety of skills that will make your art more powerful.
I wrote about some of my favorites here.
Be intentional choosing new skills to learn. Choose skills that can compound the effects of your other skills.
For example, I stacked my skills in this order:
Viola Performance → Photography → Video Creation → On-Camera Performance → Interviewing → Writing
Viola Performance
I practice the viola most days of my life. This is my core skill, and every subsequent skill I learn works to compound its effect.
Photography skills
Between 2014-2020, I learned about technique, equipment, style, and developed my own way of editing. I use photography to tell stories and capture poignant moments in my life.
Video creation skills
I applied my photography skills towards shooting and editing video.
I developed my sense of style while learning photography. This allowed me to skip the step of developing my style when I expanded into video. I use video creation to capture my artistic process and share it with the world.
On-camera skills
This skill is often underrated. It took me more than 5 years to be able to perform, communicate, and relax in front of a camera. This skill was a residual effect of pursuing my photograph and video creation skills.
Podcasting skills
I spent 3 years building a podcast, and I am thankful for all the lessons I learned.
Podcasting requires that you learn a bunch of different skills all at once: research skills, interviewing skills, listening skills, critical thinking skills, situational/improvisational comedy, and more.
I also learned how to work with a group, delegate tasks, and stay accountable to a team. These skills have helped me build wholesoul.
Writing skills
This is the skill I am developing as we speak. Content creation is becoming a more saturated market every year. Standing out from the pack requires that you create compelling stories that capture peoples’ attention. I am not very good at this yet, but I’m thankful that I get to practice it every Friday!
Action Item: Never stop learning. Choose and develop a unique stack of skills that will give you an one-of-a-kind perspective on life. This perspective will allow you provide services to niche markets and reduce your competition’s ability to compete with you.
The world is constantly changing beneath our feet. Stop learning new things, and you risk getting left behind.
2. Save and Invest Your Money
The modern world is built upon Capitalism. It is a game. Learn its rules.
Your survival depends on how well you play it.
A core phenomenon of fiat-based capitalism is inflation. Because our fiat (dollars) currency is not backed by anything, its buying power diminishes year over year.
To beat inflation, you must invest your money.
Invest your money into assets that grow faster than the rate of inflation. Do this slowly and continually for decades, and you will have a wonderful retirement.
One of my favorite books about investing is J.L. Collins’ “A Simple Path to Wealth.”
If finance and investing gives you hives, read this book. It will be the only book on investing you’ll ever need to read. It delivers 95% of everything you need to know, and I can’t recommend it enough.
Do not feel the pressure to keep up with the Jones.
Let your friends spend all their money. Save yours. Play the long game.
You cannot invest if you cannot save. This savings will be your fuel. Use this fuel to actualize your dreams.
If you are lucky enough to reach old age, you must have the financial means to take care of your future medical expenses. Do not depend on your government to help you.
Action Items: Track your expenses. Spend less than you make.
3. Do Not Compare Yourself To Your Friends
This is painful to admit, but honesty is the best policy. Here is why I rarely watch IG stories anymore:
Whenever I used to watch them, I would develop overwhelming, irrational envy.
Last year, I saw a friend post about an awesome gig on IG. I wrote about it in my journal, and I read my own words back to myself.
“Why don’t I get to do stuff like that? What’s wrong with me?”
I couldn’t believe I wrote something like this…cuz I was actually on that gig too.
I just didn’t post about it.
“WHAT?!”
This line of thinking makes ZERO sense. Even typing this makes me feel a little ashamed to admit it.
The crazy thing about emotions is—they can be irrational and powerful.
I started to feel like I was not good enough.
Because I felt like I was not good enough, I stopped producing content.
And that’s when I knew—I needed to keep my eyes on my own paper.
Here’s the lesson: Do not become distracted by the accomplishments of others.
Never let these distractions blind you to the quality of your own accomplishments.
Action Item: Watch this Protect your cookie jar.
4. Put Up Blinders
3 short words are all you need.
3 short words took YouTuber Casey Neistat from 500,000 subscribers to 3 million subscribers.
For Casey, creating a movie every day was the most important part of his creative strategy. He continued this process for many years and became a YouTube legend.
Whatever your process is, focus on committing to the process, and numbing yourself to the outcome.
This is the best way to learn a lot in a short amount of time.
If you are committed to being an artist, focus on making art.
If people like it, great! If people do not like it, great!
The goal is simply to create, refine the process, create, and continue to refine the process.
Do not become distracted by accomplishments.
I have been listening to Cal Newport’s book, Deep Work. It is teaching me useful frameworks for increasing my focus and drowning out the noise.
I have developed deeper focus in my work, and I think my overall output has been of a much higher quality! If you’d like me to do a breakdown of this book for a future newsletter, please let me know!
5. Have Fun
Life is short. Follow your fun.
It is possible to make money and have fun at the same time.
Honestly, I think that this is what success truly is. Creating a secure life from work that is fun.
If your fun does not make money, it probably isn’t a business…yet.
That means you need to make a business.
To test a business idea, invert the problem. Go backwards.
Action Item: Ask and answer these questions for yourself:
“How can I serve other people, and do it in a way that is fun for me?”
“Do I like solving problems?”
“What kind of problems are the most fun to solve?"
“Can I solve this fun problem for myself?”
“Can I teach other people how to solve this fun problem?”
Go out and build your dreams.
Building in Public
Whole Soul Music, LLC
Instead of writing everything out, I’ll share a screenshot of my Task List!
This is why I build systems!
Nothing else to report…for now. I have some fun projects coming up a couple weeks. I might be playing Hollywood Bowl with a living legend this Juneteenth!!
I’m finally back from vacay. It was a vibe. My girlfriend Michelle caught it perfectly. 🧡
See ya next Friday!
Drew
