Inspiration is the Greatest Threat to Creatives

Today I share about something my friend Josh Scott said recently about creativity. I also talk about the "d-word" for creatives.  

SHOW NOTES
For information on my monthly creative community groups check out these links: 
https://www.justinrizzotraining.com/journey-1
https://www.justinrizzotraining.com/legacyco

Chapters

• 0:05 The Importance of Discipline for Creatives
• 12:46 Encouragement to Pursue Creativity and Entrepreneurship

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Hey, welcome back into another episode. Thanks so much for listening. My name is Justin. If you're a first-time listener, so glad that you're here. If you've been around for a bit, thanks so much for coming back and listening to what I have to say. I hope it is encouraging. I'm really excited about what we're going to talk about today on this episode. If you are a first-time listener, again welcome in.

Speaker 1: 0:28

This podcast focuses on the intricate life of being an entrepreneur and creative, while encouraging the pursuit of passions and dreams from a biblical worldview. That's what I'm about. It's what I love to talk about. I hope that this is encouraging to you. Before we get to the topic of this podcast, which is a good one, you're going to want to stick around for it. First, I just want to say thank you so much to all of you who have downloaded, streamed, watched my new live album that came out here recently called Matchless. If you're not aware, it is available wherever you stream the full worship night. The live capture is on YouTube. Just so encouraged, so blown away by the support and the love in streaming, in the comments and shares and emails and texts I've gotten from so many people. It's just amazing to be able to take what the Lord did an hour worship night with myself and my good friends Matt Gilman, jay Thomas and Kay Thompson and the whole band and the congregation that was there here in Kansas City. We captured it Then. Such an amazing thing to be able to then share that with people from all over the world and then to hear their testimonies of this song or this moment or this specific lyric, whatever just touched me. That's just what it's all about getting people's eyes onto Jesus, seeing lives transformed, drawing closer to Jesus. So the album is called Matchless. It's available wherever you stream. You can check it out. The link is here in the show notes.

Speaker 1: 2:02

What we're going to talk about today is based on something that a friend of mine said here recently. I had him in to speak. I run a monthly kind of discipleship mentorship group with a bunch of worship leaders, a bunch of creatives, and we meet together twice a month on Zoom for community accountability and just kind of that iron sharpening iron that creatives need, and so I invited my good friend, josh Scott, who is the president and founder of JHS pedals. If you don't know what that is, go give it a Google. It's amazing what he has built and the amount of people who are obsessed with his company their guitar pedals. So if you're a guitar player out there electric guitar player specifically you probably know who Josh Scott is. He just has done amazing things in the guitar pedal world and so many other things. He's an entrepreneur, a dear friend, he loves the Lord, and so I had him come in and share with this group of creatives on a Zoom call here recently and he said something that at first I was like no, that's definitely no, okay, that's not true. But then I was like, oh wait, that's actually like an incredible, incredible statement, and so I want to share that with you guys because it literally transformed myself. And then, you know, there was a good amount of people on this Zoom call, heard feedback from so many of them of how this just kind of like struck them.

Speaker 1: 3:27

And so here's the statement he says inspiration is the greatest threat to a creative. Inspiration is the greatest threat to a creative. What does that mean? What Josh continues to talk about and what I want to talk about briefly today on this episode is as a creative right. If you're an entrepreneur, creative, worst-plated musician, you know. Whatever it is, we all have moments of inspiration. Right, the light bulb goes off and we just kind of feel it in our gut, we feel it in our heart. We're like I must go to my writing room and compose, I must go here and write a song, I must go here and, and you know, seek out this deal or whatever it is. And that's beautiful, you know, inspiration can be a beautiful thing.

Speaker 1: 4:10

But what he continued to talk about was how creatives do not like the other word. It's called, it's a D word and the word is discipline. He said so many times we, as creatives, focus on oh, I'm just like waiting for inspiration. If you're a Christian, I'm waiting for the Holy Spirit to kind of like, speak like. You know, I don't want to create like in the flesh or you know, all these kind of wrong misconceptions that we have about creativity. And discipline must be at the center of our creativity. So you show up to your writing room whether you feel inspiration or not. You show up to do this or to that, whether you feel it or not. And he just talked about how inspiration can be the greatest threat to a creative. Because if you're not inspired, then you feel, oh, I can no longer create. And as I began to think about that.

Speaker 1: 5:05

It's so true in my own life having, you know, written tons of songs and released records. And you know, written and produced. You know, going on my fifth full-length. You know, stage, musical and doing three films, all those different things and looking at how much it's taken to get to this point. If someone was to ask me, hey, you know, are you inspired to do this? I'd be like man. I have moments of inspiration, but you know what? I also have moments of Feeling like a failure, feeling a ton of fear, wondering if I miss God, why in the world am I doing this? You know this need isn't being provided for. The money's not here. You know, whatever all the different things, and inspiration is not the main emotion that I've experienced in my life as a creative of doing it. You know, full time for nearly 20 years.

Speaker 1: 5:58

You know, through doing worship, leading and songwriting and doing records and musicals and films and all these things, inspiration has not been the main motivation for me doing what I'm doing and it's taken discipline for me to show up. It's taken accountability with other business leaders and other creatives who are counting on me to show up, to continue doing what the inspiration started and I can attest to this. I have so many friends near and far where it's like, man, this is just an awesome moment, whether it's the start of a song or the start of a record. And you need 12 songs and you only have three and it's like, well, I'm just like kind of like waiting for the Lord to give you know the other like 11 songs that I need. I don't want to only press it, you know whatever. And again, there's beauty in that. And again, I'm a creative, I get it Like I want to like emote and like, just, you know, vibe, oh, my God, there's the inspiration, let's go.

Speaker 1: 6:54

But it can be years later, years down the road, and some people could make the argument for, well, that's okay, that's true to the creative, and I understand that. But what I've seen it do to so many people is delay getting to the destination because I'm using an album for an example. This album is my destination. Everything's riding on this 13 song record and it can take like eight years to complete. Or we could say you know what? I'm gonna write these songs, get this record out in year one or year two, I'm gonna get the money to do it, get the songs to do it, hire all the team to do it, the production team, whatever. And then by year three, I'm doing another record. And then year five, I'm doing another record.

Speaker 1: 7:46

You get what I'm saying, and so many times again I've been guilty of this as well. All my eggs, if you will, are in this one basket. Like this is the thing, this record is a thing, or this show is a thing, or this deal is a thing, and it has to be perfect. It has to be perfect, it must feel inspired at every moment. And what is so true for us as creatives is the discipline of creativity will get us to the destination. The discipline of showing up to the writing meeting, to the co-write, to your office alone, to sit in silence before the Lord and listen, that's like a discipline. Like if you apply this to other areas of your life and we're getting really, really simplistic here in these statements but like if you only spent time with the Lord when you were inspired, how much time would you spend with Him? Use your spouse. If you only spent time with your spouse when you were inspired to do so, how much time would you spend with Him? So, if it's true in those two regards of like. It's not based on your emotions, justin. It's not based on how you feel in your relationship to your spouse or relationship to the Lord. It's based on the discipline to say you know what this is valuable in my life, this is important, or this is something I feel called from God to do.

Speaker 1: 9:04

Now I wanna just make one distinction here and I talk about this with my clients a lot who are part of my online mentorship groups, like we use songwriting, for example. This is the difference of being a songwriter who has it as a hobby and a songwriter who has it as a calling from God. There's a difference there and only you can make that distinction. Am I called to be a I mean, as an entrepreneur? I'm not sure how you'd have a hobby of being an entrepreneur, but put whatever your craft is in there, am I? Is it like a hobby for me, or is it just like a calling from God? If it's a hobby, then you know, maybe you just kind of flow with the wind and kind of vibe in and out of things as emotion and inspiration come. But if you genuinely feel like it is a calling from God, then I believe biblically, according to Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents, that the Lord is looking down and saying hey, justin, I've given you this to steward and to multiply and I've gone away. When I come back, what kind of multiplication will you have to show me for what you've done? And so there's a difference between it being a hobby and being a calling from God.

Speaker 1: 10:11

Now, as I say that like this, this is not to put some pressure, you know, on anyone out there to be like, oh my gosh, like I have to do a record every other year, I have to do this or I have to do this. Like, no, like. We operate, and this is like a base biblical value that hopefully we all understand Matthew, chapter 11,. His yoke is easy, his burden is light. We operate from a place of peace. You might be on the verge of finishing a record, you might be on the verge of, you know, landing a business deal, or you know, seeking out a new business deal, or whatever it is, but from a place of peace the Lord will speak. But it's also from a place of peace that we show up, that we step up, that we don't run away from the disciplines of honing our craft, from the disciplines of writing, from the disciplines of business, from the disciplines of relationship or whatever it might be. So inspiration can be one of the greatest threats to creativity.

Speaker 1: 11:05

Again, it doesn't mean that you don't pursue inspiration. I love going into like for me, coffee shops are very, very inspiring to me. So, side note, there's four things I base a good coffee shop on. Number one the vibe of your shop. Number two the quality of your black coffee. Number three the quality of your specialty drinks. Now, I'm not talking about like Frappuccinos, but like more of the you know, espresso, tonic type realm of drinks where you're like combining different things you know to kind of like bring an amazing flavor to me with coffee as the base. Number four the quality of the staff. The vibe could be great, everything can be great, and then the person treats you, you know, like a jerk and like man. I kind of like ruined the vibe, right? That's a total side note. If you love coffee, follow me on Instagram coffee, justin Mizzo.

Speaker 1: 11:52

I travel and I coffee, but anyway, I'm all about seeking inspiration and there's people that I talk to that inspire me. There's places in this world I go that inspire me, like coffee shops, like mountains, like you know other different places Like out inspiration. It's not that you don't pray for inspiration. You know all those different types of things, but you just don't wait for inspiration. And one of the greatest ways that I've found if you're short on cash to go to the Swiss Alps, if you're short on you know an awesome coffee shop to go to, you probably are not short on another human being who knows you and loves you, even if they know you a little bit, who would pick up your call. If you call them today, if you call them tonight and said, hey, I am feeling like garbage, I'm feeling like trash. Here's what I'm pursuing, here's the five barriers that stand in my way and here's how that's making my emotions feel.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Will you pray for me? And if they're the type of frame you could ask for advice, do that. Say, hey, do you have any advice for me and could you pray for me? That is one of the greatest places just to start Bare bones. You don't need money, you don't need any great connections with some. You know Fortune 500, you know whatever A friend the Lord has provided.

Speaker 1: 13:05

You know communities of people around us and sometimes we're just not looking for them. We're looking at the externals and say, well, if I only knew the owner of that business over there, he could connect me over here. You know, whatever it's like, no, like, look, look around you. The Lord has provided like myself, he's provided some amazing friendships right around me that I can pick up the phone and I know that they'll answer. I could text them right now. I know that they'll pray for me, and so I want to encourage you in that that don't just be satisfied not being inspired.

Speaker 1: 13:34

Don't glory in your lack of inspiration.

Speaker 1: 13:37

No one would ever say, like you know what.

Speaker 1: 13:39

I just never feel any feelings towards my spouse, but I just hang out with them anyway.

Speaker 1: 13:43

It's awesome. Aren't I a saint? Like, no like, of course, we would never do that With Jesus. We want to feel his affections, we want to feel his love, but just because I don't doesn't mean I'm not going to pursue it right, and it makes the times and that, that love and the inspiration when the motivation comes, you know whatever, it is just so much sweeter. So I just hope and pray.

Speaker 1: 14:04

This is encouraging to you to jumpstart you on your creative journey, your entrepreneurial journey and wherever you find yourself today, whether you're got one more song to finish for that record or whether you haven't even started the record, whether you've been thinking about it for five years, whether you have known for years that you're called to do a songwriting. You're called to do whatever it is it's not just a hobby and even running from it, and maybe the Lord's been like kind of poking and prodding you, you know, gently, to hey, it's time to like, it's time. It's time Then hopefully this podcast is just another prodding of the Holy Spirit to say it's time to pursue your creativity. Whether you feel it or not, it is the balance of effort.