E60 The Creative Journey to “overnight success
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[00:00:00] Hello, my creative friend. Welcome to this episode of Create Today with Beth Buffington.
This is a podcast where we explore Your creativity and how to keep your creative passion burning bright, even if you're feeling a bit exhausted or the road seems [00:01:00] rough. And today we will explore the journey to finding success with doing what you love.
And we're going to dive headfirst into this fascinating topic, overnight success, and why. It's kind of a myth. In this episode, you'll discover why it feels so hard to have success, why overnight success seems to happen to everyone else except you, and we'll take a peek at the fears you might have about your success.
And in this episode, you'll find hope so that you can stay the course. and carry on. First, I wanted to tell you something I did last night. I watched the Grammys. Now, I think you know, and if you don't, let me tell you, I love singing. I sing in the shower, I sing in the car, [00:02:00] I sing in front of my pup Raspberry, I sing in the kitchen, and about once a week, I sing with a band.
So last night, I curled up on the couch with raspberry and a glass of wine and of course procreate to watch the 2025 Grammy Awards and it didn't disappoint. It was great. I watched every single minute from seven o'clock to 1030.
Now, if you were watching the Grammys last night, you would have seen one of my favorite parts, the Best New Artist nominees. I am fascinated with who is new. Now, each new artist nominee had their moment to perform.
Did you see them? They were amazing, right? The new artists also each had a short interview that shared a little bit about their unique musical journey. Each artist was completely different [00:03:00] in their style and their personality, but the thing that they all had in common with each other was. None of them were actually new artists, a new artist who is performing at the Grammys.
Well, that sounds like these nominees were all, a, mystical overnight success, a recent arrival who was whisked to fame and fortune in a heartbeat, but a rocket rise to fame. My friend, that rarely happens. These new artists. We're all working, performing, perfecting, and building their careers for years. So this is what we're going to talk about today.
The myth of the overnight success and what we can learn from the Grammy new artist nominees. So let's start with a reality check. We hear [00:04:00] stories about artists, musicians, and creatives who seem to just blow up overnight, right? But, if you pull back the curtain, you'll see that these artists have a closet full of stories about their years of hard work, rejection, and their uncanny persistence.
For their passion, despite what others thought or said about their unique and often quirky flavor of creativity and their meteoric rise to fame was not a sudden spotlight.
It was years of. Looking for a person or a place that would pay attention to the creative message they had to share. So let's look at the Grammys new artist nominees. For example, Chappelle Rhone, if you saw her [00:05:00] electrifying Grammy performance last night, you might think, well, she burst onto the scene out of nowhere, fully formed with her pink pony club and that everyone immediately embraced her songs and her message.
I mean, why wouldn't you? Her performance was magic. But the truth? She's been working at her craft for over a decade. She started uploading covers on YouTube as a teenager, and she did get signed to a major label at 17, which was a wow, but the label dropped her when she didn't reach expected sales. And she was left with nothing.
Accept her creative passion for her music. But instead of giving up,
she went back to her hometown and just kept working. She worked as a barista, but she kept making music on her own terms.
[00:06:00] And guess what? That persistence to stay with her passion and remain on the path that she had chosen led her to release the rise and fall of a Midwest princess in 2023.
And that is what brought her to the Grammy stage. So. What are you focused on? Maybe you've been putting in the work, creating, designing, and building your creativity, but it feels like no one is noticing.
Let's take a page from Chappell's book, Success is in About One Big Break. It's about the work before the recognition and the work you put in between what might feel like a big break. And it's the consistency, the perseverance, and the continued belief in your unique identity and your unique creative passion.
[00:07:00] Another incredible takeaway from the best new artist nominees. Well, they were clearly all musicians, but they were all entirely different from one another, different ages, backgrounds, styles, genres, genders, identities. There was no one
single formula for what makes an artist worthy of recognition. And I love that. This means there is room at the table and the table just keeps getting bigger, allowing more creatives to come to the feast.
Let's look at Raye, another new artist nominee. Her music and her path to the Grammys was totally different from Chappelle Rones. Ray started in the UK music scene, collaborating with well known producers and singers, but after feeling restricted, she made a bold decision to go independent.
Now this was. A bold [00:08:00] decision to concentrate on the music that she loved, the message that she wanted to communicate through her music. And when she made this decision to follow a creative passion and be consistent with a message that was important to her, that's when Raye truly found her voice and began topping the UK charts with her own unique sound.
Two artists, Chappell Roane and Raye, two completely different paths, two completely different sounds, two completely different looks, two completely different genres. And yet they were both recognized as best new artist nominees for the Grammys. That was an honor. And what does this tell us? What can it mean for you as a creative with a passion for reaching your specific goals?
Well, this story from the Grammys tells us
that there isn't just one way to be [00:09:00] successful as a creative. it tells us Don't try to fit into someone else's mold to be successful.
Don't think that you have to follow a specific timeline to be successful. Don't think that you are too old or too young to be successful. You need to stay true to your creative passion and the story that you feel you need to tell. And then just stay consistent with your work. Keep creating, even if it feels like no one is watching. Now, my friend. Because you are listening to this podcast, you probably have a creative dream of your very own.
Maybe you want to sell your work online or wholesale or at craft shows or galleries, or you want to license your work. Maybe building a creative business or a side hustle is part of your [00:10:00] journey, or you simply just want to be recognized for the unique creativity that you do.
Let's be real. Sometimes it feels impossible and out of reach to make a difference, to be seen or heard and feel like you are on the right path. Are you thinking that today? Maybe you're overwhelmed by the sheer number of artists out there who seem to be succeeding while you are stuck in the grind.
Spend any time on social media and you might feel like, the creative table has no open spaces and that everyone is already serving up all the creativity that the world needs.
And you might think there's no room for me, or maybe you worry that your work is too different or too niche to [00:11:00] ever gain traction, or maybe you're feeling frustrated that it's taking too long to get the recognition you deserve. And you're thinking, yeah, that's me. I think that way. Here's the good news, my friend,
Every artist that you admire has felt. These exact same things. I hope it helps a little to know that you are not alone. If you're feeling overwhelmed or overlooked.
And here's a secret about those who are successful with their creativity. They kept going, even when the going was uphill in the snow, in the middle of the night, and they were barefoot. Can you get this bleak metaphoric picture?
Yeah. Successful creatives. They keep going, even when progress seems impossible. They keep going one step at a [00:12:00] time, even when the road is bumpy, even when quitting seems like rest, when you have a creative passion that is ignited and on fire, quitting won't feel like an option,
and the solution to staying ignited because that is important to stay on fire You have to just keep moving keep working stay the course So you have to just stay focused on what that passion is and why you started in the first place So don't feel alone. If you have that, I can't go on fatigue.I get it. I've been there and any artist that is right now successfully creative, they have been there. They have felt that fatigue. So [00:13:00] I get it and I see you. So let's explore. What you can do to stay the course and keep your passion ignited, you know, a good list can be a lifeline. So here's a few lifeline ideas about how you can keep pushing forward when success just feels out of reach.
Number one, this is so important, my friend. Stop comparing your chapter 2 to someone else's chapter 22. Social media makes it look like everyone else is effortlessly succeeding, but you don't know how far they've gone in their journey, and you can't see behind the scenes to see how they have struggled.
You don't see their beginnings. You don't know about their crash and burn projects that taught them valuable lessons, but made them feel a [00:14:00] little unseen. You don't know about their long list of rejections. You're seeing them on chapter 22 when they are killing it. And if you're on chapter two but could see their chapter two and compare, you would probably think, Oh, actually I'm doing okay.
But you don't know their chapter two. No one shares the, beginnings or the things that made them feel humble. That is very rarely shared, especially when you're on social media. That's not something that people are going to show. So it's important to run your race. Don't focus on who is running in front or beside you or even behind you. Stay focused on your journey and don't dwell on what you think is a failure or a rejection. Don't dwell on that. Celebrate absolutely every little [00:15:00] inch of progress that you make. You are going to learn a lot from bad experiences. So celebrate that. That means that it's important to find that silver lining every day, especially on your dreariest days.
Number two, embrace your uniqueness. Chappelle Roan and Raye didn't try to blend in. They leaned in to what made them different. And your uniqueness might make you an absolute unicorn. But new messages and ideas. These take a while to soak in and get noticed and get appreciated. So your biggest goal, my friend,
is to find your audience and then shine your creative light on them. They need you, but they don't know about you yet. [00:16:00] So you need to shine bright so they can find you. Your unique creativity is your biggest strength. So my friend, be bold, be shiny and own it. Number three, don't do this alone.
Become a part of a creative community. Success can feel impossible. If you're trying to do it all by yourself, especially if your friends and your family do not understand what you're working towards with your creative goals, if you're a little bit quirky and unique about your message.
Chances are, a lot of your friends and family are not going to understand the path you're on. Having friends and family who don't get you is so common in the creative world. So you, you, [00:17:00] Absolutely need to find creatives who are your people. These folks will become your ride or die friends. They will encourage you.
They will give you objective feedback that you can use to find positive strides. And they will remind you why you started this journey in the first place.
And they will constantly tell you why you should stay on course. Number four, remember that overnight success is just consistency in disguise. Every small step forward adds up my friend. So keep showing up, keep creating. And trust that your moment will come when the progress pace quickens. And if you stay consistent, this will happen.
So when things start to fall into place, you'll have a firm [00:18:00] foundation on which to stand all because you took time to. Find confidence in yourself and in your creativity. And you found this by learning from all your ups and downs, you became aware of what you needed in order to become the successful creative that you aspire to be.
Does that make sense? So, my friend, I want you to pause for a moment to view the scenery around you right now. Take a look at where you are in your journey today. And then I want you to look back and take a look at where you've been. Oh, see how far you've actually traveled.
I want you to celebrate where you've been. I want to have you celebrate what you've learned. And celebrate the confidence you've gained for the chapter you're [00:19:00] in right now. And then celebrate the progress you can see that you have actually gained. And then, take a deep breath and look to the future that you have set for yourself.
Proceed to your desired destination, but do it one step at a time. Now, Here are a list of things that you must remember as you continue on this journey. Number one, remember, it doesn't matter how fast you go, you'll make progress as long as you don't stop. Number two, remember, do not take this journey alone.
Find your community, let them support you and let them cheer you on as you travel on your path. Number three. Remember every artist, musician, [00:20:00] and creator who has ever made it to whatever destination they decided was success for them well. They started at the beginning and at some point in their journey, they were exactly where you are this very moment.
And they probably wondered if their work was ever going to get noticed. Imagine if Chappelle Roan had given up when she was dropped from her first label. Imagine if Beyonce thought no woman of color has ever won Best Country Album, so why should I do country music? There's not a place for me. What if she thought that imagine if your favorite musical artist, whoever they might be decided that the journey was just too hard, that there wasn't a space at the table for them.
What if they thought that way? Imagine the lyrics and the music that [00:21:00] would not exist today. That's. Chilling to think about now. Imagine the unique message that you have to share with the world through your creativity. The world needs exactly. The unique creative message that you have inside you that you have to share.
Don't dim your creative light by trying to be like other creatives or worse by giving up on your creative goals. And the fourth thing that you must remember is. To connect with the Create Today community,
We are here to support you to provide inspiration and give you the tools that you need to help you find the confidence to map out your creative journey and to reach your goals. [00:22:00] Now my friend, if this episode resonated with you, share it with a fellow creative who needs to hear this message.
The world needs creativity more than ever right now. Your creative voice is a message that needs to be heard. Are you shining bright enough so that your audience can find you? Remember your breakthrough overnight success moment is out there. It's waiting for you. You just have to keep moving towards it.
And no matter where you are on your journey today, I want you to stay creative, my [00:23:00] friend.
