Creativity, mindfulness and the impact of AI with Radim Malinic

[00:00:00] Radim Malinic: With creativity, you can be and reinvent yourself so many times depending on what makes you happy. Everything that we act upon is creativity. We just don't label it because we feel that creativity should be just that thing you do either in school or you do it at work, or you need a title for it. Whereas it's liberating to tell everyone, to make them believe that, of course, everyone's got creativity. 

[00:00:27] Nirish Shakya: That's Radim Malinic. Radim is a designer, creative director, and best selling. But before becoming those, he was an ice hockey player and a bassist in a death metal bat. In this episode, Radim talks about how you can explore your own creativity and use mindfulness to tame the beast that creativity can be. And we also talk about the impact of AI on creativity and how you can use it to be more creative instead of being scared of it.

[00:00:58] Shivaun: This is the Design Feeling Podcast with your host Nirish Shakya. 

[00:01:08] Nirish Shakya: Hello. My name is Nirish Shakya and I'm a human-centered designer, educator and coach. And this is a podcast for well, human-centered designers and innovators and problem solvers who tend to forget the human within the. The conversations you'll hear will help you increase your self-awareness and creative confidence so that you can make the impact that gives you the joy and meaning that you seek.

[00:01:41] Let's get started. 

[00:01:44] Raich, welcome to Design Feeling.

[00:01:47] Radim Malinic: Hey, thank you very much for having me. 

[00:01:49] Nirish Shakya: And, 

[00:01:49] and the funny thing is that we're all, we're both in Kingston upon Tes, near London at the moment.

[00:01:54] Radim Malinic: This is potentially like the, the closest virtual podcast recording I've ever, ever done. 

[00:02:01] Nirish Shakya: we, we could have done this in person to be honest, but we just didn't have the actual tech to do 

[00:02:05] Radim Malinic: too. It's too cold outside. It's too

[00:02:07] Nirish Shakya: two. Yeah, two

[00:02:08] Radim Malinic: we?

[00:02:09] Nirish Shakya: So raam. Um,how does an ice hockey player and a bassist in the death metal band end up becoming a designer?

From being an ice hockey player and a bassist in a death metal band to a designer 

[00:02:18] that's a good question, isn't it? I mean, there's, there's many sort of analogies I can use for this, but when, when I, analyzed it in, in, in retrospect, Is the tribalism, is the, is the teams, is that, is those, you know, you've got in ICE or in sports, you've got teams and they've got their branding and they've got their sort of followers.

[00:02:40] Radim Malinic: And then you've got, in the music, you've got, the people who like particular genre, you, you, you sort of make a little adjustments and so there's, there's a strong sense of feeling and there's a strong, strong sense of belonging to a group of people that you sort of have with the like-minded people.

[00:02:55] To me, I was always. Interested in many different things when it came to music. I mean, I, I, I, I started with the most extreme genre and in my very sort of early teens, and it, it was, it was all about exploring and kind of analyzing the identity, if that makes sense. Identity was, it was, was the glue throughout all of it. Czech Republic became post-communist country when I was 12.

[00:03:21] And the branding that was surrounded me in my life wasn't particularly exciting. 

[00:03:27] It wasn't as open to to outside world as it is now. My windows to the world was through NHLs. When I was an ice hockey player, I was fan of Boston, bro, I've never been to Boston, never watched them properly life. But, it's that sort of identification wave.

[00:03:41] I like these colors. I like that logo. I like this. I thought my mom could easily make replicas of the training jerseys or like a, game jerseys. I was like, oh yeah, my mom could do it. Like, just how difficult could it be? Because when you're 11, you're like every, I mean, you know,fi five minutes and you've no job is done.

[00:04:00] And um, this sort of rudimentary world of branding, like analyzing branding and then going into band logos and that kind of stuff. It was always, the expressional aspect of of, of each of these things. from album covers to t-shirts, everything.

[00:04:14] That was always what fascinating me. And at that time, you really don't know what, like, that's, that's the thing. It was just like, I like this. What is this? What you try to sort of explore and try to find out. 

[00:04:25] And where it's. Where it's happy to be. So , Iki and, and, and music was pretty much the starting point. I tried to do a bit of journalism, music, journalism, pre blog, era, the degree in economics. I mean, it's, it's the, the background is as varied as you like. 

[00:04:40] Nirish Shakya: I love that. And, um, I mean, is, is hockey big in Czech Republic or Cze here?

is hockey big in Czech Republic?

[00:04:46] Radim Malinic: Yeah, it's, it's the biggest sport. It's, it's been like sort of Canada second removed. And at that time, as I, as I was saying, like there was no access to buy replica shirt.

[00:04:56] you can in hit in London, you can pop in jealousy and you can look like one of the Chelsea players 200 pounds later, like, da da, I'm a full kid. W like this, this is, this, this is there. Whereas it wasn't there. Whereas now it's, it's pretty much the com commercialization of the sport is what makes it lucrative, what makes it interesting.

[00:05:15] Radim Malinic: And that's the same when it comes to music merchandise and stuff. It was a lot less. And I think that was the interesting part because we were in a DIY culture. Like you, you wanted to sort of replicate something. You wanted to make something. You, you, you, you used the means available to us rather than fucking just go and buy it, if that make sense.

[00:05:34] Nirish Shakya: And was there a moment in time when you realized that Yeah, I'm a designer.

Was there a moment in time when you realized that Yeah, I'm a designer?

[00:05:40] Radim Malinic: 20 years later still, I still . I still don't think, I'm a designer. This is the interesting part because I remember the day when I was in my early twenties. I was fascinated. I mean, throughout my teenage years I had part-time Joe with sign makers and like the creative agencies.

[00:06:00] I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't, this is rude people using chord draw on like a basic PCs making posters and stuff. But through, through my music and for, for, for being in bands that I've started, no one wanted to do a poster. No one wanted to do a logo. No one wanted, no one, no one was interested in merchandise.

[00:06:19] Like, I was interested because my mom used to run a screen printing studio. So, We could go and explore. We could, we could look like the part, like we could look the part with having our logo printed on t-shirts, but nobody else had that. We were like, we can do this. I moved to the UK when I was in my early twenties, literally like 2021. I finished degree in economics. Best. That's what you do, obviously as a graphic designer. I came over here, because I love the music. I, I wanted to be closer to the labels because the internet in year 2000 was a thing, but it wasn't as good as it's now. if you were no accustomed or if we were sort of keen on listening to the modem sounds and whatever, like, that's, that's what we had.

[00:06:56] Broadband was just that. So I wanted to be close to the record of labels, the events and everything. I wanted to speak English every day. That was, that was my thing. I just wanted to speak English every day and somehow through the world of music. DJing, I haven't even mentioned that I spent 10 years DJing because as I didn't like my band mates.

[00:07:16] So I, I went on my own and I was playing like five different styles across five different nights. I mean, I just, I mean, this is a big playground. Life is a Disneyland if you, if you, if you're happy to go in. And for me it was just like I, something associated throughout those development years that I liked playing with graphical packages, coral and that kind of stuff.

[00:07:38] I was always intrigued, like, what'd you do with it? So I got a really questionable job in a print shop in Southampton. I used to live in Southampton, got a really questionable job making graphics for the T-shirts. 

[00:07:53] Nirish Shakya: Why was it questionable?

Why was it questionable?

[00:07:55] Radim Malinic: Because it's not really how you start, is it like, I mean, well, obviously that's how I started, but people now, like if people graduate and they want to be earning 350 pounds a day, day rate because they just graduated and I was working in a print shop doing Happy Birthday Brenda t-shirts, like it's, it's, it's not

[00:08:15] It was, it was, it was formative, huh? It was definitely needed, but it was, it's not like the job that you go and say like, I'm a graphic designer, like, this is it. but I did call myself a graphic designer. I remember that day. I was like, I've, I've been in there for a few minutes. I, I've kind of made my way through and I was like, okay, I'm a graphic designer now.

[00:08:34] It was, it was exciting because I was surrounded by posters, flyers, music, like this graphic design was a, a, an essential part of music scene. And I realized, oh, I can do this better than I can do music production like this. This is, this is my thing. This is what gets me excited. And I remember that bride and that I felt like I'm, I'm six for two, but I felt eight feet.

[00:08:58] like I was like, I'm a graphic designer, this is great. I've done two days of design work on a business card for Taxi driver or happy birthday Brenda t-shirt, But I remember how proud and, and as sort of liberated, like it was something, cause I, I was, okay, I'm doing this, this is my title.

[00:09:19] Radim Malinic: But as we know, throughout a career, I, I would call myself fewer times a designer now, even though I'm a fully grown designer now, 20 years later. Because I am exploring creativity for what it is. And I'm, I'm kind of less reliant on the title, 

[00:09:38] Nirish Shakya: What do you mean by.

[00:09:38] Radim Malinic: we are happy to take on a title even though we've been doing it for a few minutes.

[00:09:43] like, we, like you put someone in a chair and, and give them a junior design job. They are junior designers. Technically, they are very early in their career, but I think it's very important. Maybe tell ourselves what we are. So we believe in ourselves, because I, I, I, I didn't even think there was something called the imposter syndrome.

[00:10:04] Radim Malinic: Like I was like, I was graphic designer, even though. I knew very little, the excitement and that sort of beautiful oblivious, oblivious, naivety, was what fueled me. I was like, I was graphic designer because I told everyone I was graphic designer. I was able to get freelance commissions. I was able to build a granular business one by one client by client, like a freelance business because I told everyone I was a graphic designer. Today. If, if you ask me what, what, what do I do? I mean, like, I'm, I'm, if I could say I'm alive and I'm exploring creativity, you'd be like, okay, we, I'm fine about the first point.

[00:10:43] But how do you explore creativity? Because then you can reel off the long list of things that we do and we explore, and I feel like I need less and less the label that we need to have for ourselves on the world out there.

[00:10:57] Nirish Shakya: The, title is this external label that we, adopt, to, I guess do things that allow us to do things within that, within that role or title.

[00:11:07] Radim Malinic: I, I think, , I think at the beginning of our careers, titles are empowering. If you give someone a title and that the title's better to what they think of themselves, they grow into it. You, you, I remember what, like, being a junior and I want it to be senior designers so hard.

[00:11:23] I was like, I wanna be a senior designer. Like, dude, chill. You've been here for 10 minutes. You right. like

[00:11:29] But I, I was 

[00:11:30] striving, I was like, I was striving to be the next level and, and then I remember when I changed my title to creative director, and then I've added a few different things.

[00:11:41] I remember that. Sense of growth, the sense of, I mean the empower, I mean, empowerment is definitely one of the, the, the key words I remember how it made me feel and it's titles I think are less important when we grow further in our careers because we just are, and we just become us rather than the title.

[00:12:01] Whereas the beginning of the career is so important that the title kind of pushes us to, to, to go somewhere because it just gives us identity. Because we could be anything, like, I wouldn't want to start a creative career again at the moment because you can be anything and you can do anything available.

[00:12:19] So you can be a typographer, you can be UX designer, you can be a 3D designer, animate emotion, graphics. You can make whatever you like, like the world is an amazing and tantalizing buffet of ideas and, and outcomes and, and, It's just like, how, like how do you find the starting line? I mean, because it's, it's un Unless, unless you're really, really, really, really passionate about in a particular type of work. What, what music do you make? Like there's so many styles, so many genres that do you make five different style or hundred styles? Like how do you find yourself? So I just feel like sometimes the title helps us to ground ourselves because it's, it, it's a starting line. Like we need to be good at something.

[00:13:02] We need to sort of find our own piece and then grow from it, if that makes sense.

[00:13:07] Nirish Shakya: Hmm.

[00:13:07] Radim Malinic: it's like a pizza base,

[00:13:09] Nirish Shakya: Yeah, I love 

[00:13:10] that. And also, I guess, um,the title gives you that anchor for safety in terms of if you get lost, you can come, always come back to that anchor. And also, I guess it gives you a sense of community, right? If you are, if you say you're a designer, you tend to hang out with other designers and, and learn from them.

[00:13:25] Radim Malinic: that is actually, that's a very good point, yeah. Yeah. Because. It's, it's, it's, it's interesting when you, when you start being something and say, I'm a graphic designer, and someone says, oh, my friend is a graphic designer, you should do some work together. It was 

[00:13:37] like, 

[00:13:38] I don't think we need to right now. I mean, like, I'm, I'm, he might be looking for a web designer or coder or developer or something.

[00:13:45] Like, we don't, we don't, but it's, it's cute because you're not gonna say, oh, you might, I'm a ceo. Oh, my friend is a ceo. You should do some work together. Like that

[00:13:54] Nirish Shakya: And, I mean, most people ask the classic, icebreaker a question like, at a party, like, what do you do ? Right? What do you do for a living? I mean, I hate that question. especially, I hate asking that question. I hate, receiving that question. But that's like that the go-to, question to build a relationship, like your identity of what you do.

[00:14:12] And what is your title?

[00:14:14] Radim Malinic: And it's, and it's a, it's a double edged sword because I, I, I'm, I'm busy on this one because I used to be a, a, a label as, my label would be, let's say, graphic designer or creative director and people like, so, so what'd you do? So you design it. Okay. What'd you design? Well, actually, I'm also a commercial illustrator and advertising.

[00:14:30] I've been doing this campaign, but also directed this music video and then working on this animation, and I'm doing, I'm doing a website for this artist, and they're like, all right, I'm, I'm getting lost to, to, I'm like, okay, I'm getting lost too. I mean, I wish there was a singular title, like, I do Creative Work for Living, and people go, is it colorful?

[00:14:49] Yes. Okay, good. Let's leave it there. because because some, because people, obviously we are in, we are on this fringe of, of employment, if that makes sense. Because with creativity, you can be and reinvent yourself so many times. Depending on what makes you happy. If Brenda with her happy birthday t-shirt in accounts, she's an accountant. Unless Brenda's got a real passion for painting or she's really good singer, she's gonna be an accountant. And Brenda, what'd you do? I'm an accountant. Okay. Account numbers. Yes. Done. and Brenda's not gonna say like, well actually we just had to do, a couple of music productions whilst we were waiting on the v a t.

[00:15:30] it's, it's, the people's worlds are more defined, whereas if your creativity, I mean, of course you can be a, you can be a creative artwork and you can be making legal, legal text on a packaging. Like you can, you, you can have a more defined role. But when you use creativity as an expression of who you are and do follow the, the endless sort of intrigue that, that comes with this gift of life.

[00:15:59] Radim Malinic: Then you get lost and you, you, you go and, and you go and explore and, and it begins to, begins to be a bit harder to tell people what you do without spending 25 minutes reading off the list of projects you did that

[00:16:10] month. But it's, it's, it is, it is a question of our message, like you can say as opposed to what you do is why you do it.

[00:16:20] Or like, there's, there's, there's a list of, I mean, the message thing like it, there, there should be a way to explain it, but it can be sometimes really

[00:16:27] Nirish Shakya: Hmm. I'm actually really intrigued to, intrigued to learn more about, how, how do you explore your creativity and what does having look like?

how do you explore your creativity and what does having look like? 

[00:16:35] Radim Malinic: I guess. I think exploring creativity is about acting on your impulses because it could be anything and we can tell ourselves that there's a ceiling or there's a limit or there's a, there's a fair factor in what we could or should do. That make sense. . so I have stumbled into, I mean, I have, I have, I feel like I have reinvented my career so many times.

[00:17:00] And I think exploring creativity is that we can allow ourselves to be what we feel like we want to be. So, my current iterations of my creative career is that I'm, I'm, I'm writing books, I'm publishing books. I like every part of the process.

[00:17:20] Yeah, I think it's just being almost fearless and just giving things a go that's exploring creativity, it's everything that we act upon is creativity. We just don't label it because we feel that creativity should be just that thing you do either in school or you do it at work, or you need a title for it.

[00:17:40] Whereas it's liberating to tell everyone, to make them believe that, of course, everyone's got creativity, because we feel intimidated sometimes not acting on the impulses because we feel intimidated by how good we are at days.

[00:17:55] Nirish Shakya: Hmm. 

[00:17:55] Radim Malinic: sure you've had clients drawing boxes, drawing rectangles on the paper saying, I'm not very good at drawing.

[00:18:01] Well, nor am I.

[00:18:02] Nirish Shakya: All the time, to me that the way that's landing is, exploring one's creativity is about challenging your own norms and, and routines. your usual kind of, I guess, comfort zone and trying to I guess be more playful around how you pretty much live life and seeing like, what, how, what else can I do or how else can I do the same thing?

[00:18:26] Radim Malinic: That's that's true. Yeah. I think there's definitely fewer gatekeepers to what you can do. So you don't have to be a assigned artist to re not to release an album. You don't have to be. Merchandising company to start a mech, to start selling merch. Like the, the thing is like the world has created those desire paths that if I wanna do something and it requires tooling or production or something, you, you can do it.

[00:18:53] Like, it's just, this is so, so, and, and is the outcome of, of, of making one thing happen and makes you wanna do another. So I remember when I did my very first piece of graphic design, it was a flyer for a Brazilian night in an Italian restaurant. that's the career highlight that you'll start with. And I remember looking at that flyer for hours. Front back, front, back. It was dreadful. It was not what I wanted to do, but it was the first piece of work I did.

[00:19:25] For myself, God paid for it. And I again, I felt eight feet tall. I was like, this is it. It's not very good, but it should get better for sure. And this is, this is how, this is this.

[00:19:38] This was the fuel driving me forward. And I think the more you're intrigued and the more you go into exploring how better you can be just for yourself, you don't have to be better than everybody else out there. But I just believe like it goes to the title of, I think it's Paulden, I forgot it. Right? Says it's not how good you are is how good you want to be.

[00:20:01] That is the one quote, one title that resonated with me from day three. Like I wanted to be better for myself because the people who used to employ me, I had like one and a half real jobs, right? The print shop and then one senior job afterwards. And if I can swear, no one gave a shit how good I was. No one gave a shit how, how good I could be.

[00:20:23] No one really cared. Where we going next? And I understand I have employed people, you try to do everything, especially pay their salary and pension as well as keep everyone happy. It's a big task. Like no companies would really take upon themselves to be pushing their employees to be better and better and better unless they could. 

[00:20:44] Nirish Shakya: So I have a question there, Adam. in, in theory it makes sense. sometimes you gotta get lost. Sometimes you gotta spend time for exploration, while you're in the middle of exploiting your skills and talent. But how do you know that something is worth exploring?

How do you know that something is worth exploring?

[00:21:01] Radim Malinic: It's how it makes you feel. It literally, it's about how it makes you feel. It could be the worst technical ability. It could be the worst drawing skills. It could be the worst guitar skills. It's how it makes you feel when you do it. That's, that's, that's what it should be about. 

[00:21:18] Nirish Shakya: So when you say, how does it make you feel? Like, feel as in, in terms of like physically may feel, mentally, emotionally, is there like a, a particular metric people can use to determine that

Is there a metric you can use to determine how you feel?

[00:21:30] Radim Malinic: no. I'll be making an argument against the metrics. It's like against the metrics, how it makes you feel. 

[00:21:36] Nirish Shakya: well, what should people be looking out for when they're, for example, trying out something new or doing something that they, already do? How, what should they be looking at for, in, in terms of like measuring, like, or not measuring, but like feeling what they.

what should they be looking at for, in, in terms of like measuring or not measuring, but like feeling what they are feeling?

[00:21:50] I, I've got a couple of analogies, but I made, I made a recipe the other day and I ma I made a food, it was like a, it was made from the, um, mob kitchen, fresh book, and it just, I tried something different with pane, and made into whatever that was, and I took a bite with me and my wife and looked at each other go, that is good.

[00:22:14] Radim Malinic: We eat pane every week. But that week, it's just because we tried something different and that made us feel something and we are gonna do it again. So, When you, when you try to go from A to B with your creativity and you get there, that's a hint of dopamine. That's a hint of, of, of good feel.

[00:22:33] Like when you finish something, you look back, you go, I did that. That makes me feel something. It doesn't contain any numbers. Do I want to go back in? Do I wanna do it again? And do I wanna do for longer? In fact, do I feel brave enough that I can build my business around this, that I wanna put myself on the line to do this over and over again?

[00:22:54] That's how it makes you feel. That's literally about that expression. Yes, I want to do this over and over again, and it doesn't matter. Like what is the metric at first? Obviously, when it comes to supporting ourselves, the metric is, is the rent paid? Is the electric paid? have I got food? I, I'm, I'm trying to sort of articulate this in my, in my new book called Creativity for Sale, where I'm talking about a fuel like it, the, the creative fuel is excitement with naivety, if that makes sense.

[00:23:26] yeah, excitement and naive Is like when you fall in love with someone or when you meet someone you're like, you're not gonna be thinking about their, the family or their, their relatives or like how, where they on the social ladder or whatever. Like, you're not gonna be sort of thinking who's behind this person?

[00:23:43] So we don't always have the excitement of being creative all the time, but it makes that condensed part a lot more exciting when you get to it, because at the beginning you can start. and the creative part is a lot bigger because you don't really think about taxes or promoting yourself or, setting up social channels because you exploring it.

[00:24:06] So it kind of like, it, it, it goes that six hour a day, creativity goes to 60 minutes and everything else, but it's a development, it's a change. And some people still feel they're entitled to be creative six hours a day and someone else doing this for put it. But 

[00:24:23] Nirish Shakya: What about designers who, let's say they're very good at what they do. They've been doing it for a while, but they're not getting those moments where, they feel good about what they're doing. it's just everything's become routine and mundane and they're just doing it for, you know, money,

What about designers who are just doing it for the money?

[00:24:41] uh, that, that's a, that's a very interesting question because you have to kind of be honest then at that point that you have to kind of grow. If you grow a business and if you grow your career, things will change.

[00:24:55] Radim Malinic: And I remember interviewing years ago, a typographer called Seb Lester. He did the typefaces for weight and all of that stuff. Like really like, meticulously tedious person. Like, he just, he's very good at being patient and doing lots of things. And he is, he's now big on social media than calligraphy.

[00:25:13] But I remember asking him like, do you get creative blocks? What do you do when you get creative blog? And he. I don't . I was like, what do you mean you don't get creative blogs? It's like, well, there's always something to do. so there's always something to do. There's always something to get on with. I'm like, how?

[00:25:30] Because I was an illustrator who was subscribed in, in, in my mind that I have to be doing better work every, with every assignment. I got commissioned to do key illustration for campaign for Bacardi breezes in Canada. I'm like, this is gonna be the best piece of work. I'm like, it's Bacardi breezes. Like

[00:25:51] No one's pushing you to be striving endlessly. I wanted to be, you know,this is it. It's, it's how good you want to be. I wanted to be making better, better, better, better work to the point where it was unhealthy, super unhealthy and, and ended up with a burnout. and it's not for everyone.

[00:26:09] If, if your, If your career doesn't grow into fully fledged business and a profitable business, then you're doing something wrong.

[00:26:16] Like go and make meaningful connections. Like go and find the people who might be wanting to do something with you. and I used the quote, which I was told by the one and only Mr. Motivator who was my client, 14 years ago. I didn't know who he was until I was told who he was. And I dunno, I was very happy to say Mr.

[00:26:36] Motivator was my client, but he said, if your ship doesn't come to you, you swim out to it. You go and make your luck. So, , the most amazing agencies that exist, the most amazing designers. There's a massively big proactive part about them broadcasting, marketing to other people. Say, Hey, this talent can do this.

[00:27:00] Do you need it? You don't just sit, they're like, when Barack Obama published a book, there was an advert everywhere. Barack Obama's got a new book. Well, he's a Barack Obama. We know who he is. , he's, he spent eight years been everywhere we know, but it's, we need to be told about it. And this is, this is where if you want to spend two hours a day being creative, or if you wanna spend eight hours though have been creative, you did spend almost twice as much actually telling people that's what you do.

[00:27:29] You still wear your title, you still wear your business expression and say you do this. And I, most of the time sent at least one email a day. Two people. I want to be speaking to people, I want to connect with people, I wanna work with people, old clients, you keep that engine going because you might be most amazing person with the most amazing talent, but if nobody knows Ed, then you are very most amazing, very broke artist sitting at your home

[00:28:00] Nirish Shakya: hmm. So essentially you are, using all the different tools and techniques to nurture your creativity. and that could mean, reaching out to people who can be part of that creative journey for you.

[00:28:11] Radim Malinic: yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And, and people would say like, oh, I haven't got a business since. but then get employed

[00:28:17] Nirish Shakya: Hmm.

[00:28:18] Radim Malinic: Because if you, if you don't want to look after your business, then let somebody else do it. There's, I I, I've once found myself had a sort of networking breakfast about lead generation. They, they spoke a language that sounded foreign to me, but I was listening to every word like, oh yeah, so you do this and you do that, and, oh yeah, it was, your job is to make people who are creative, busy. Like, but it's your, whereas if you scale it down just to yourself or a couple of people, or three people, you have to, I hate the expression, but you have to wear different hats.

[00:28:51] you have to be multitasker. And that always reminds me of this meme where I saw. A while ago, which is like to be DJs in the nineties 0.1 DJ to be DJ in 2010s or 2020s is like dj, like curate, like social media. And I, and it's, and it's somebody replied to something similar the other day on Twitter saying, you have to have at least, like you spent 50% of music and 50% on TikTok reels Instagram, it was like, fuck, honestly.

[00:29:21] Radim Malinic: Like you want to build a healthy fan base or healthy client base with meaningful connections. And I, I always go back to Kevin Kelly's, th 1000 Tree fans that you only need thousand people to follow. And you sell them a hundred pounds worth of merchandise a year, and you're on a pretty much,insurance broker salary.

[00:29:45] You're on a hundred grand a year, and that's enough to sustain one man creative business. You create a value because the more, the more you grow, the more you need to sustain the growth, the more you sustain the growth just to hit the baseline. People expecting you to hit above the baseline because you need to make profit year on year.

[00:30:06] If it dips by a percent, ooh, it was a rubbish year. I'm like, Ooh, come on people. And like, it's not 10 million enough for you. and so this is, this is how capitalism works. This is how creativity, which is this ancient thing that's obviously, that's from beginning of us. this is why we're here talking from microphones, recording podcasts for people to listen in between their ears for no most amazing airports.

[00:30:27] That's the creativity, but the, the growth is. It's, is the mist, is that like, okay, where do you go? How, how do you build your business? Like you don't have to start differently. You have to start . Growth is good. Growth pushes you into places where you don't want to, a always want to be. Like, I've been, I've been, I've grown my agency to the place where I, where I have, I was employing people and it was fun to do less creative work and see, and given a chance to other people, but then my time was not exactly spent on where I want to be.

[00:31:02] I, I didn't want to be managing people. I didn't want to be explaining like how to do most recruitment tasks. So I've pulled it back and, and I'm, I'm just back to back at crossroads of where I can be next. But I know that I need to add my impulses because this is where I feel, again, something new. there's, there's a new something 

[00:31:24] Nirish Shakya: was that something for you?

[00:31:25] building products, I mean building products and making my own mistakes and building my own things. I've started a publishing business seven years ago, which will be in, in March, seven years. by the time may hits, it'll be, I've have published my own six, six books in seven years, which I think is pretty good, pretty good outcome for, for those years.

[00:31:46] Radim Malinic: And I'm trying to see like how I can share my knowledge with, with, with other people rather than work through the client deadlines and that kind of stuff. I mean, that, that always comes to a creative time. And then say, you know what? I've had 20 years of clients in my. And they've been put, I've been helping them to make products and companies and services that I was not always connected with.

[00:32:10] So I wanted to explore like how I can use my creative and branding and, and marketing skills to create things. So publishing business is one of them. It's exciting because it's got so many offshoots where it can go. around the same time in my new book's Head, we are launching a coffee company. So launching a high end coffee company that's, uh, built around the mood of, of, how, how we drink coffee.

[00:32:33] And it's, it's very much built with the sort of, highest premium, premium coffee. And we tried to build a sort of more like a world around it, like what, what, what, what, what can we do with that? And then on top of that, we're thinking of more drinks. Brands, potentially do a brand of beer, doing potentially some interior sort of design stuff.

[00:32:53] So anything that could be sold through a, as a D two C, a brand. That's what I want to build it at first and explore that part. And it's, and, and, and it's a sound Pitt again, like I, I, I'm decimating my savings

[00:33:05] Nirish Shakya: Hmm.

[00:33:06] Radim Malinic: to give myself a freedom to explore something because we could easily could have kept the employees, we could have kept the work going, could have done the same thing over and over

[00:33:16] Nirish Shakya: Yeah, but I think, I guess at the same time, that meets a, a deep need for you to explore, have the freedom to explore things.

[00:33:24] Radim Malinic: yeah, it's, I think it also comes with, as I, I call it like seasons change. Seasons change. And I'm a parent of two young children. And I can, I don't, I don't have even the ability to spend 16 hours a day working. I, I don't, if I get sometimes 16 minutes a day, I'm lucky. You know, the world has changed the, the time my, my world has changed,and it's about that quality of what do I want to do?

[00:33:48] Because the first 10 years of my career was spent endlessly, relentlessly working. I loved every minute, and I, I, I was not always well paid for it, Like we, we all grow and learn. But I was obsessed. I was like, I was, when I was full employed in, I was, was in full-time employment. I tried to build my own freelance business at night.

[00:34:10] I was going to bed at 3:00 AM in the morning, getting up at eight, working all day. Again, I was happy. That was my fuel. I was, the excitement was the fuel and some little knowledge, but excitement was keeping me going. And then when you look back at your folio from 10 years and you're like, well, Very little of that survived.

[00:34:31] All of that's a kind of like a history. I realized as an illustrator,through my endeavors, I got into editorial illustration and it, you could do an illustration for a newspaper or, or magazine, and that's a history the next day, unless you keep a copy that's in the bin or a chip paper, like I wanted the longevity.

[00:34:51] I wanted something, and it's not like for this legacy kinda, I need to leave something behind me for one day. Like it was more like I wanna create things that people actually use and have time to have a feel and have time to actually fall in love with it. Because the fast consumerism is exciting because he keeps us busy and paid and on our toes, Sometimes it's the balance, like how much of what I create will be here in a few years time and how, no, like, because everything's a work in progress. Like we just created this version of it now and it can be better tomorrow and then, and so forth. But it's, it's, it's about a longevity. So I, I know where I want to go with my life next about what we wanna do as a family, where we want to move, how our sort of situation will look like.

[00:35:37] we, my wife's got horses, my daughter's a horse rider. we wanna have horses at home, and I don't wanna be setting a summer house, clicking panton colors and sending PDFs to print. like it's, it's about having a reward for very, very busy 20 years of relentless work that, this is the next chapter because I am now in a position where I can define. on paper. What I'm, what I can define my expectations. I can define my future. I define my successes. We are not building the next, what's a big coffee brand next Starbucks or whatever next, Costa, we are building something that built appeal to thousand true fans, and we see where we go with this because it's, it's about the other, it's about like, what can we create that can just really resonate with smaller,

[00:36:22] Radim Malinic: smaller bunch of people. Smaller, smaller number of people, rather than you gonna be on Carnaby Street 

[00:36:27] Nirish Shakya: Mm-hmm. 

[00:36:29] So,Adam, like I know you are very big on, creativity and it's a relation to mindfulness and, you've got, um, some books coming out on that as well. So what is that relation between creativity and mindfulness?

So what is that relation between creativity and mindfulness?Doesn't answer the question, cut from here?

[00:36:42] Radim Malinic: I think creativity can, creativity can be a beast, , because if you, if you, if you keep it untamed, it can consume you, especially, If you give a shit, like if you really wanna grow in every aspect, as I said, like you can spend endless hours and feel like you've done nothing. I mean, that's fa like ev, every, every creative said cracky.

[00:37:10] I've spent all day, I've got nothing done. Like, and sometimes do projects because they get longer and longer and longer. The dopamine doesn't come at all. Like it's, in fact there's, this is a, is depleted because clients zooms feedback changes. You like need something and need something to just, to feel happy.

[00:37:30] And, and, and I used to set it by just writing the chapter for a book or just doing a little personal project, like for 20 minutes a day just to have something I've achieved some, as something tangible in a day. And mindfulness is a part, not just for creative, but for life that. You put things into perspective.

[00:37:51] You, you, you sort of, you remove yourself from a situation that can feel so impossibly pressured. like when, when you, when you put people who I'm trying to make, make a quick analogy. Like when you put 11 people on the pitch, they know where they're going, they play together, and they don't always agree. Even though they've been playing the game for years and years, there's always gonna be misunderstanding. If you put that analogy in a creative process, when you've got 11 people in from, from wall to wall, there's gonna be misunderstanding.

[00:38:23] And because you put creativity in the middle of it. Creativity can be anything. Like we want a poster, we want a campaign, we want this who, ooh, options, everything. like, let's go reffing on the idea, like that gets really noisy, really quickly, really complicated. And if there's no true leader or if there's, if there's anxiety, if there's inexperience, that process of getting something invisible visible can feel really hard.

[00:38:52] And it just depends on that with, within that sort of food chain, it just depends also how well you prepared for it. Because again, when I was saying earlier, like with, with the. With the employers. Like no one necessarily cares how you feel. Are you okay? Are you ready? like, is this, is this making you, you, you are employed, you'd have to do the job.

[00:39:12] And again, because creativity can't be anything. Sometimes you get lost, sometimes you waste day, sometimes you lose, lose a month on something, you know of, of once worked on a project, which I thought was a branding project, it turned out they wanted an animation. I was like, we spoke for a month every day.

[00:39:27] How do not, it's just like, ah, and panic, Everything happens. So the misunderstanding, it's almost as, sort of, so I'm trying like omnipresent. Part of creativity as creativity is like, we don't know what we are doing unless it's really like, color in this object and we will make it red. So, so things can get really pressured and really tough really quickly. And if you don't know how to. Sort of metabolize them how to, how to work them, how to digest them. They only can grow to a bigger problem in your head, in your body. And, and that, that's, that's how you know it, the creativity.

[00:40:04] Then creativity then becomes an obstacle. It becomes something that we don't particularly like. it's, as I said earlier, like, creativity's got a marketing problem because it makes you believe that you'll be enjoying and making the thing that, that, that you love. But it's not, it's not, creativity's not meant to be easy because people lose interest in it. And it's, it's, it's the part that we want to make when you have the right balance. And the moment we, as we talk through, through episode, like if the creativity is only, let's say two hours a day, Then you are happy there. It's just a two hours a day because you, you, you have to spend time and you're gonna create a balance in equilibrium.

[00:40:43] So for me, mindfulness or the element of mindfulness came in that those unsustainable 16, 18 hours a day working in a small room remote. Like from, from people like I would see my wife at or my girlfriend and time, my wife, like six o'clock in the morning, she leave, she leave for work, she would come back home about eight, I'd be working all day.

[00:41:04] I, I would go to the shop, maybe not even that, and I'd be like, enclosed thinking I'm doing most amazing work. I, people liking my stuff. Maybe I get 500 likes on this next post. I was so all over the place. And that resulted in the fact that being over caffeinated, overstimulated over, anxious, over driven.

[00:41:26] I struggled to walk down the road, down the street. I remember going to the poster office after it was gonna die. And I remember like crossing every. Because I used to live on this grid, which was like a bit like a part of London, which is interestingly like just all in sort of square road. And I remember like making it for every blog and I'm like, I'm still alive.

[00:41:46] This is okay. But I felt like crying. I felt I was, I was dying. It was horrendous. I couldn't, I was going to the gym on a tube for just the two stops to Wimbledon and I struggled to get on a tube. I thought the tube was gonna run me over. I was mess. I was a royal mess. And the worst thing was that I thought that was it.

[00:42:07] I thought that this, this, this is who I was, that was my identity. That was my problem. I couldn't do anything with it. I just, I, I thought I, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm ate good food. Surely I must be okay. And that was a, that was a real low point to the where to, to the situation where, thank God my.

[00:42:28] Don't go from now. My wife said, you need some counseling. I'd be like, what? I remember having a conversation with her. She said like, have you ever thought about taking a day off? I was like, the, very much the opposite of the port noodle advertising man, in, in 1980s and 1990s. Like, I was not a slacker.

[00:42:45] I was the opposite. I was so obsessed that I worked all the time. She's like, what do you mean day off? Like, I was literally, I was irritated. Like, like what? How, how, how? I mean, I go to meetings, she's like, that's still work. I'm like, well, I'm like, imagine having a conversation. And I was so riddled with the strive that I couldn't understand what she was saying.

[00:43:07] That was our argument. Like of course when I went to see the, the therapist, I did cognitive behavioral therapy as a result of all of that and. She was like, so what is your diagram? Like when you put your a hundred percent of life, like, how much is work? How much is rest, and how much is play? And I'm like, 95% work.

[00:43:26] She's like, okay,

[00:43:27] Nirish Shakya: Hmm.

[00:43:27] do you wanna talk more? Like, oh, okay. All right. Okay. Maybe that's, that's maybe the problem. But I was excited, like I was consumed by this untamed beast because I loved what I was doing. It was unhealthy relationship, How would you have done it differently?

[00:43:42] Radim Malinic: unless we burn our fingers, we never know what's hot, do we, 

[00:43:46] Nirish Shakya: So that was part 

[00:43:47] Radim Malinic: to do, 

[00:43:48] Nirish Shakya: that was part of the 

[00:43:49] Radim Malinic: was part of my, my journey for a life. I've been given a lot of, I'm a, I'm a, I'm, I'm from a single parent family, and my journey for life is very much a self exploratory like, Of course I got, I got to rid, I got the basics in life, but I had a lot of freedom in my life to explore things and find out.

[00:44:09] So as a parent now, I'm trying to sort of backtrack on this. I'm like trying to look after my children. Like, don't bend your fingers, whatever. Whereas, you're falling off your BMX bike every day and falling into ditches and whatever, and making mistakes. Like that was, that was, that was the part of my life.

[00:44:24] And, and I think I wouldn't, now I'm knowing what I've done. I wouldn't want to change the, the journey because it's given me a real life understanding of what I need to avoid. Because I can tell you, you need to meditate or I can tell you how to look after your life. And I'll write in a book about being a mindful creative, how to be o like how not to be overloaded, creative. We will see how it's received because. Unless something hurts, you're not gonna put a plaster on if your leg, unless you break your leg. You dunno what it feels like not to be able to walk for six weeks. This is the problem. So I can tell you all of the things, and I've been trying, I've, I've tried, I've, I had a, I had a sort of taste of product called, taste of Book called Paul's Breathe and Grow, which is like a journal where it stops people from overanalyzing things.

[00:45:15] It literally makes you poor. So like, take a time out of work, actually take time to breathe and then where you going next? And that's been a hard title to sell. . It's been really hard. Cause mental health is invisible. Like mental health is within us. And if you tell someone, someone, have you thought about working differently?

[00:45:33] Well, I don't have time to work differently. I've, I've got work today. I'm like, it's. Yeah. It, it, it, it's hard and I mean it's, it's been interesting because selling book about, as a Federalist book of ideas that sold tens and tens of thousands of copies, book on branding. Again, tens of thousands of copies sold because it's as branding, it's clearly labeled, , but mindfulness, self-help under self-understanding. It, it's, it's a lives journey. It's a lives journey to understand how we could be better, like how we could look after 

[00:46:04] Nirish Shakya: Yeah. It feels a lot more 

[00:46:05] ethereal as opposed to, with branding you can clearly see the colors and the pictures and the typography,

[00:46:11] Radim Malinic: and you still get like reviews, like, well, I was expecting you to tell me how to do everything. I'm like, oh, Christ. I mean, yeah. Working with public, as you get to learn what people think and, and what they expect. so. The reason why I'm doing two books at a time is that I'm telling people how they can launch their creative career.

[00:46:29] Like again, it's, it's not a guide. And I'm not telling you like, go and see John. Well, at 44 Cambri Road, it's more like heavy thought of this like heavy not desk things, because it can get busy. And there's a book that helps you not to kill yourself launching your creative career because it's like the relationship, like creativity is a relationship with creativity.

[00:46:53] Like our relationship with creativity is, it's akin to relationship with a person. You fall in love, sex is amazing, everything's great, and then things change, and then you start resenting each other and then you're like, oh, maybe this is not for me, like this, this, this, this is very akin to it and it's coming.

[00:47:11] I mean, Brad Pit divorced an Angelina Jo, you know, it's, it's for everyone and.It's a silly example, but, it's, it's, it's a hard work. Like, it's a hard work to make things work. Like we feel on, on the surface level, on the outsider, things must be easier. Things must be like, if that person's doing it, if those people were married for 20 years or 30, 50 years, it must work, right?

[00:47:36] It must be just because you turn up and then you just enjoy it. But we are like swans, like the ducks on, on the pond, like there's the, the, the paddle underneath the water is, is solid. like you go strong just to make sure we stay afloat and we don't see that first, like, oh, this graphic design thing looks great,

[00:47:56] Nirish Shakya: Hmm.

[00:47:57] Radim Malinic: oh, there's clients and there's Oh, oh, what, what do you mean

[00:48:01] Nirish Shakya: Yeah. We definitely see the process and the system in very simplistic, abstract terms and don't, don't see the complexity and the messiness underneath. Definitely Um, RA, like one of the things I wanted to, um, ask you about and something that's been going on in the industry for the past, couple months maybe mainly is around the impact of, artificial intelligence on design and creativity and pretty much, any work that exists in the world, with things like, chat, G p t, Dolly, mid Journey, you name it.

[00:48:27] There's so many different AI tools coming up at the moment, and it's actually freaking a lot of designers and creative people out there in terms of what about my job? Like, who's gonna write copy, AI's gonna write copy, AI's gonna do all the design and this and that. And I was watching some YouTube videos where designers are also talking about how can you use AI to do wire frames, as a UX designer as well.

[00:48:48] And even like, create copy, with things like Jarvis AI and so on. what, what's your perspective on this in terms of what's, what's the role of, AI and creativity?

What's the role of AI in Creativity?

[00:48:57] Radim Malinic: I think I allow, I think I will allow myself a third square word of this episode, but it's all bollocks. It's literally bollocks. It's, it's almost like, I mean, it's, it's inevitable. It's undeniable that it's here, but it's just another mass hysteria that when you look at like das and mid journeys and stuff, this stuff looks all the same.

[00:49:22] Like we used to be clapping on on Instagram, like, oh, this is a, it's a fake product packaging mockup, and now people are clapping for like AI in my packaging mock-ups. Oh look, this is this, this milk packaging. And we are, people are like, oh, this is great. I'm like, okay. 20 years later, 20 years ago. This is great.

[00:49:40] I know nothing about graphic design. Absolutely. This is the most amazing thing. Years later, bollocks. Like, it's, it's good to see, like, I think, I think what was interesting for me in my, in my career, that I felt like as, as someone who spent most of my adult life working in Photoshop, I felt like I found a natural end to what I, I can personally do with Photoshop.

[00:50:01] So that start, started collaborating with people making 3d, because my ideas could be done visualizing 3d, but that had to be made to measure and to the storytelling aspect. Now, if you just say bababababa, I wanna see this. Okay. It's an idea that stops you from spending 10 years of working on how to use Photoshop to do level, that you were happy to do this, but it's an ideation.

[00:50:25] You can't pull out a files, you can't print it, you can't do it. It's an ideation. So it's almost like, What if? What if, like imagine sitting in a boardroom and going like, so what's our ideas guys? Let's ask the ai, okay, that's a good starting point. Why actually, what are we really gonna do? How is it gonna make people feel?

[00:50:43] Because it's almost like inventing the new keyboard settings or whatever. Like it's there. It all sounds the same. It's how you use it to the point that it makes people feel something. Because we all felt, oh, I need to upload 10 pictures and have a cartoon made of myself. Ooh, this is really interesting.

[00:51:02] Oh wait, John at 44 Cambri did exactly the same and he looks exactly like me now. Oh, and she did it in LA and he did it as that. All right, everyone's following this. It's like bubble tea, like it's all right, but it's only for some people like it. It's not gonna make ice creams out of, out of an out of business.

[00:51:20] So there is an element that AI can give us the map. To what the AI thinks based on the previous people's journeys, what the idea could be. But I know mean I'm threatened or feel that AI is gonna replace what we've got because it's, it's lovely to look at. It's, it's, it's, it's really fun to see how, how the results are working.

[00:51:48] But AI only feeds the buffet of life by what you give it. It doesn't come up with this stuff. It's a, it's a recycler. It's a very clever regurgitator. It's not like, have you thought of this? Huh? Wow, this is out of this world. Like, we've never seen this. You look at this like, okay, yeah, I, I can see how that makes 

[00:52:09] Nirish Shakya: but in a way, isn't that what creativity is in terms of like mix and matching things that already exist and coming up with something different?

[00:52:15] Radim Malinic: okay, you've got a point there. That's, that's, that's for sure. But. It takes out the magic. Like would you want to listen to Spotify playlists of your music that's mashed up from random elements. I have. Someone wants to tell you a story across 12 songs. You're gonna be, you're gonna be more interested in, in the, the human expression rather than something.

[00:52:39] I mean, you can listen to house music. I mean, we can have house music made, made on, I mean, people coding, house music. I mean, you can have that, but that's, that's there. And then like how often would you go back like, oh, you know that real code and that break and this like, no like this was it then this is an entertainment.

[00:52:55] But like how do you create value when you AI can't do meaning AI can do recycling, but it can't do meaning it can't. It can, it can do lots of interesting things. But even now proving how within weeks, not even months or years, everything looks the same. Oh, you did use ai. I mean, you don't have to be an expert on this. If you wanna write AI copy, gen AI generators, copy. Well, who's gonna read it? And why would they give a shit? Like, I, I, I could have used tools to write my books to use the AI generated copy, but it's a nonsense.

[00:53:28] Like it doesn't have 

[00:53:29] a fear.

[00:53:30] No, it doesn't crack a joke.

[00:53:31] Nirish Shakya: yeah, it doesn't give the give, it doesn't give people the meaning that you, ra malish have, has gained through your lived experiences.

[00:53:41] Radim Malinic: Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm trying to squeeze in as many live stories into and into sharing, like, using analogies like, I did, I did stand with a surfboard in, in barley on the beach. It was like, this looks easy, nearly died. You know, like It looks easy, it looks like it makes sense, but we didn't get this far on our journey because we pressed the button.

[00:54:08] like this, this whole thing. There's some, I've seen some fascinating results that made me think, oh, maybe I should do this. But I stopped myself learning even 3d. I wanted to work with people who do this stuff as people because we want to collaborate with other minds, not other sort of, engines.

[00:54:25] Radim Malinic: So it's just something for people to be scared, Like when, I remember when Ki like when internet came out like, oh, this is the end of books. This is the end of books, people. End of books. Then Kindles came out, oh guys, this is the end of books. Okay. And now we've got like the end of life is because it's begun.

[00:54:41] I have gonna have Metaverse. I was making jokes about Metaverse seven years ago in my talks because there were people sat, someone said House with their Oculars Rift and just like doing this in a room like. Well, that's a great experience. You could do it at home. Like, why did you travel all the way to London?

[00:54:57] You're like, I'm very much about the feel like you can simulate a guitar sounds on a computer. You can make as much music on a computer, but it will never feel like you feel when you're in a room with people making the music for the first time. Like that newness, that that dopamine is irreplaceable.

[00:55:17] It's absolutely irreplaceable. Like, just because you put in five words an an AI generator, it's not gonna make you feel like five hours trying to make the impossible. It's all about that, and that is still being rewarded. You can, you can, you can use AI to shortcut thinking process. Like, I wonder what if, like in, in my, like during my years, it was like, I wonder what if.

[00:55:42] I spent five hours on searching for stock imagery or searching for ideas and then put it together. Then I found out, so you can do it much quicker now, but you still have to do the work. You still have to produce something. Because my ultimate motto is that you, you create stuff to make people feel something and, and make them feel something 

[00:56:03] Nirish Shakya: And only you can make them feel people the way you wanna want them to feel. Not any machine generated 

[00:56:12] output. 

[00:56:12] Radim Malinic: Y yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I, I feel is the intention, like the outcome can be sometimes vastly different and you, you can't predict how people might feel because to some it might be lovely and some people might hate it,

[00:56:24] but , 

[00:56:25] but it's, it's, it's what you've put out there, which is a gen, genuine expression of who you are and, and what you try to share.

[00:56:33] Nirish Shakya: I love that. Love that. I think that's a, that's a great place for us to wrap up this amazing conversation we've had. And I think a lot of it comes down to the opportunities that you give yourself to explore, and not just stay on the highway because the highway's predictable and, but you're not never gonna discover new trails or, or new hidden beaches just by staying on on the highway. One of the things that you mentioned earlier around how, yeah, life is that playground, that this is led, what that lets you explore things that you haven't explored before. but a lot of times, we, we tend to, I guess hold on to, titles. For example, the example you mentioned was, how we start off maybe as said, say a junior designer, the next thing you're waiting for is senior designer.

[00:57:19] And whilst that title is useful in gaining your first set of identities and your first set of communities, sometimes you also need to kick for yourself the opportunities to kind of let go of that and see like what's, what's underneath it that's really driving you in life and, and in work. And what is the jungle that you are trying to explore, right?

[00:57:41] and when you are exploring things, I think one of the, the litmus tests that he can use is to ask yourself like, how does this make you feel? Does it make you feel good? And. , and I guess, it doesn't, there's no kind of one right answer to that. It, the answer will come to you in terms of what is that feeling in the moment, right?

[00:58:00] just like that example of UK around, cooking a dish and you might have cooked the same, panier dish for, for weeks, but at one time it's like, wow, this was, this was amazing. kind put my finger into it, but this feels good inside. also, I loved how like, how you nurture your own creativity or explore your creativity, not just through, for example, producing work, but also, you mentioned sending that one email a day to someone who might be, who Michael could help you in that creative exploration and, and journey.

[00:58:31] it's kind of like, I guess, nurturing a garden, right? You just, add a bit of water, a bit of fertilizer, and just let, let the garden grow and see what happens. during this entire process. Like I mentioned, creativity can be a massive beast, right? It can be this untamed beast that can grow, out of proportions.

[00:58:47] Nirish Shakya: And, and that, that's where I saw that connection between, your journey, your creativity journey and how something like mindfulness can help ground you, and give you that sense of calm and peace when everything's so wild and crazy, outside. but at the same time, it's like building a relationship with creativity.

[00:59:06] Like, you go through like different in absent flows. It's, it's never the same. Like in the beginning it might be super exciting in that kind of infe infatuation phase, but it can become boring in doll at the same time. But I think it's also what you bring into that journey with, in, in, in that relationship with your creativity.

[00:59:24] Just like, when you're in a relationship with your long-term partner, it takes a lot of hard work. A lot of times we don't see that hard work in loving couples within the long relationships. You only see the highlights, but there is a lot of hard work that goes behind the scenes that is proactive.

[00:59:39] It just doesn't happen by itself. Right. another thing we also talked about was around, um, the whole mass hysteria around the impact of AI in design and creativity and how you said, I, I love how you said, um, there's nothing to worry about, but because, AI gives you that map based on other trails other people have walked on.

[01:00:01] Right. And you can, choose to follow those trails, but you can also still create your own trails for other people to follow. And I think there's a really powerful shift in mindset that I think is definitely gonna help me. and I'm, I'm sure that's gonna help a lot of designers as well. 

[01:00:17] So thank you so much for your time today, Adam, and sharing energies, with each other.

[01:00:23] How would you like people to find you online after this?

[01:00:26] Radim Malinic: I would identify me via, Instagram, and my website. I'll give you all the links that you can put in there so clickable. I think the best thing that I could share is that I've got a weekly newsletter. Or they can find me on Amazon. But yeah, I'd try to share things weekly now and yeah, find me from off, from my work, from my books.

[01:00:44] Nirish Shakya: Awesome. And you've got, two new books coming out.

[01:00:47] Radim Malinic: They coming out in May. Yeah, it's a creativity for sale and mindful creative. They're both coming up on the same day, on the 23rd of May as the sort of bundle for creative career guidance.

[01:00:59] Nirish Shakya: Awesome. So we'll put the links to all those books, and also are your other five books that you've already written as well. and also links to how people can get, get in touch with you and also subscribe to your newsletter as well. 

[01:01:11] Great. 

[01:01:11] Radim Malinic: you so much. Thank you 

[01:01:13] it's been a, a great exploratory and exciting adventure with you 

[01:01:17] thank you so much for taking me along with that journey. 

[01:01:20] Radim Malinic: Yeah. Anytime. Absolutely. Thank you. 

[01:01:22] Thank you so much for listening in. If you have any suggestions or topics or people that you'd like to have on the show, please email me at nirish@designfeeling.co. I respond to every email. And see if you can share this podcast with one friend who wants to increase their self-awareness, creative confidence and meaning. See you next time.