Hi my name is Natalie Byrne, I’m an an award winning Latina illustrator & author, based in London. My unique colourful style focuses on social issues, education and honesty. I’ve worked with brands like Nike, Canon, Hypebae, logitech, badoo, bbc, adobe, facebook, the body shop and many more. I wrote and illustred the book Period, which is everything you need to know about periods period, which was featured on the bbc womans hour, huffington post, and mashable. I also won award for the book i illustred Break the mould written by Sinead Burke, which is a heartfelt and inspiring guide on believing in yourself. & to top it off I’ve also done a bit of public speaking, being a guest speaker at over 10 in person events.
but before all of these amazing things happened, and i decided to become an illustrator and live out my life long dream. I actually had little to no confidence & no believe in myself. After i graduated university, where i studied graphic design, my confidence reached an all time low, and i gave up on my dream to have a creative career. Maybe it was a mixture of being overwhelmed by the amazing talent in my class and the rest of the world, maybe it was the lack of diversity in not seeing many people who looked like me, or were working class like me, or had immigrant parents like me, so i started to feel like i don’t belong here, or maybe it was because i was afraid of trying my best, afraid of failure, afraid of rejection, afraid of humiliation.
My journey to feeling more confident, was taking very small baby steps of action. I started to post on instagram sketches and photos of my sketchbook and after over a year of posting everyday i began to get work from it. Over time I really tackled my insecurities, and looked at building confidence the same way i looked at learning anything new. With curiosity and homework.
In this workshop i will be going through aaaaall the tips and tricks from how i made it from severly anxious shy girl who believed i wasn’t good enough, to creating confidence.
please grab a paper and pen and take notes and let’s figure out how people can live more creative confident lives.
WHAT IS CONFIDENCE?
The topic of confidence feels like something so vague and huge, so lets define it so we are all on the same page.
The dictionary definition of confidence is the feeling or belief that one can have faith in or rely on someone or something.
the opposite of confidence google tells us is, doubt, uncertainity, scepticism, • apprehension and even insecurity
It’s also important to note the difference between arrogance and confidence
Arrogance is - im better than you
Confidence is - I believe in myself, I trust myself.
My favourite explanation of confidence is by life coach Brook Castillo who says
confidence is a feeling that creates and inspires actions and results. When you are confident you create momentum, action and movement in your life
confidence creates actions
So if confidence creates action, what stops us taking action? Fear, self doubt, selt trust? Scars and tramas from our childhood, rejection, criticism, self sabotage. We are all unique beings with different stories to tell, but i’m hoping this steps will help you as they helped me.
ACTIVITY: What does confidence mean to you, imagine someone confident and who do you see? Do you know someone who is confident, can you remember i time you were confident.
STEP 1 - Be grateful for our fear, it’s the reason why we are alive!!!
we should feel grateful for the past because it got us to where we are, it got us to survive
Our fear and apprehension to new things, are a hangover of the past. Back when humans lived in caves, our fear protected us and kept us safe. Listening to our fear kept us safe from bears eating us, listening to our wize elders meant we learnt what food was poisonous, what leaf caused a rash on our bum and other survival tactics. Leaving the tribe or worse being rejected from the tribe could result in death. Throughout generations, and even the lives of our parents or grandparents, It was utterly important to survive, which meant to trust established authority and keep our heads down. Especially if your parents are immigrants, or not white, or working class, or members of the LGBTQ+ community, that fear of survival could very much still be present in your life today.
Fear keeps us safe, it tells us that this street isn’t safe, This cars gooing to fast. This guy is giving my serial killer vibes.
But lets start with gratituide for our fear. it’s thanks to ancestors who only just barely got away from preditors or war. We sit here today now getting anxious when we send an e-mail, or having our hair stand on end while we hit post on social media. But those things aren’t putting our life in actual danger, we need to realise that the only real danger there is... to never try
ACTIVITY - Say this affirmation next time you feel any fear in your creativity
I am grateful to my fear for keeping me alive, it can come on this journey with me, but i’ll still be driving
STEP 2 - Take on a growth mindset
Confidence is not a gene you are born with, confidence can improve with practice,
confidence can be a skill you learn.
When I was unconfident, I often felt like oh it’s just not something I have, like I'm not born with the confident brain so that's it, i’m never going to be confident. I’m just an anxious mess, with social anxiety. I am who i am, and nothing will ever change.
A huge aha movement was when I discovered the creative pep talk podcast, andy j pizza definitely can’t recommend that podcast enough and he introduced me to Carol Dwek and the book Mindset which shares the fixed and growth mindset. This mindset is called the growth mindset and is a term coined by doctor Carol Dwek in her book Mindset. The fixed mindset is i am who i am, and nothing will ever change. And the growth mindset is: I can improve with practice. Here is how the different mindsets view certain aspects of life.
I learnt with Carols research,that the greatest factors in determining on whether or not you improve in your abilities, is in fact your mindset.
ACTIVITY - Take a screenshot of the screen and answer the following, or you can find downloadable materials here nataliebyrne.uk/creativeconfidence
circle the ones that apply to you. And pay attention to your inner thoughts when they are the fixed mindset.
STEP 3 - Route yourself in what you want
Illustration - hard work diagram
My brother loved music ever since i can remember, but he hated having the spotlight. He wasn’t interested in boeing on stage, or getting attention. But he loved music, he loved writing music, he loved playing music and he loved being in a band. It was a surprise to the whole family to see him and his band play on stage at 14 and he’s been performing live ever since. Recently I asked him, what made him take the leap and start performing as a shy kid.
He told me, i loved music so much, and I had to acknowledge that performing was part of it. Especially this is before social media and youtube really, this was early 2003. So if i wanted people to hear my music, this was the only way. I wanted to be a musician, and to become a musician, performing live was going to be a part of that. I still get nervous but it’s worth it because i love music.
Putting yourself out there, networking, showing your work, completing your project, e-mails, all of these things i felt like needed confidence for me to complete, but connecting you with your WHY, your purpose, your reasoning can push you to find motivation.
Whats your vision, your dream, where do you want to be? Remind yourself of your goal. For me my goal was i wanted to become a full time illustrator, learning how to put myself out there was necessary to get me where i wanted to go.
ACTIVITY - what is Your vision…..Your dream…. Your energy… Why do you want this in the first place…
STEP 4 - EMBRACE NOT KNOWING
a man who thinks he knows everything knows nothing
Shakespeare wrote, “A fool thinks himself to be wise, but a wise man knows himself to be a fool” .
SO you don’t know everything, you might even not know anything, That could be a key part in why you don’t feel confident yet. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn as you go.
The phyolospher erasmus talked about how everyone is a fool and once we realise everyone is a fool and an idiot, making mistakes, falling over and embarrassing themselves doesn’t seem like the end of the world, is it merely just humans being humans. Even the most important people, are fools sometimes.
No one really knows that the F they are doing
Elizabeth gibert also shared that she had no intention of becoming a fearless person because often they are psychopaths. So embrace not knowing everything, and you’ll find that actually the awareness of you will have, the willingness you have to learn, and the more ready you are to soak information up like a sponge, that attitude is really a key component to success and action.
Creativity will always provoke fear because creativity is uncertain
ACTIVITY - Think of one person who always thinks they know everything, but doesn’t?
Think of a time when you didn’t. Whats one thing you didn’t know how to do it, then you learnt it?
STEP 5 - YOU MIGHT SUCK AND THATS OKAY
Life Is not about doing it perfectly, it’s about getting up time and time again - ME I SAID THAT
Your mistakes or your failure don’t take away how capaliable and smart you care
Failure is inevitable when trying new things, trying to achieve your dreams, or goals,
My first year of university, i failed. And it was the biggest lessen ever, i learnt so much from that failure. My relationships that failed, i learnt so much from. Failure is data, and teaches us valuable lessons. I don’t learn or get better when someone agrees with me , or i do a good job, or even doing things well. I usually learn best by falling flat on my face.
Failure is also the core of the creative practice. organisations in the world, including Google, Apple, Dyson and Pixar who have all developed cultures of accepting failures and the courage to test ideas.you don’t see the creative journey behind the finish piece, but creativity is just a process of creating then correcting mistakes along the way.
ACTIVITY
Think of a failure youve experienced, it can be personal, an experience at school or something in your creative pracitce. What did you learn from it? And how did it make you the person you are today? What would you do differently next time.
Step 6 OTHER PEOPLES OPINIONS
This is by far the biggest thing that pops up when im talking to someone who wants to do a creative project and aren’t working on it.
What will people think? What if it’s been done before? What if i get rejected, or worse, ignored. This is our fear from living in tribes and the safety and survival that being accepted kept us humans alive. But with things like creativity where no one is going to die and things are much different. We have to be realistic with ourselves, what is the worse that can happen? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EIoOf06duu8&ab_channel=XStriveX
“Other peoples opinions is a really shitty way to view ourselves, its like chaging your face to look good in a broken mirror” Will smith says
The only people you should really listen to is people you wouldn’t change lives with, stop taking advice from people you don’t know what they are talking about, and even then, question everything. You’ve got to pay attention to your inner voice, and trust your gut. And lazer focus in on yourself and your craft. Every successful people was met with an intense amount of their idols, their critics, their fans, even their loved ones, telling them no, and they couldn’t.
ACTIVITY
What is the worse that can happen? WILL ANYONE get hurt? What will you loose if you start your creative project?
Self trust excersice
STEP 7 -A DAILY HABIT
Andy j pizza “if your not making piles and piles of work, your doing it wrong”
There is always one action you can take for your creativity daily - julia cameron the author of the artist way
No one becomes confident overnight, it takes baby steps and ive benefited so much in those early days but creating a daily habt to be creative, you’ll be growing your confidence bit by bit everyday. Early on in my career i did a lot of personal projects where i drew everyday, and i found them so beneficial, and atm im doing the 100day project.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2SlHNAkD6Q&list=PLoDlD7OiN4UygqI-4wKixrhD8axTbtc-E&index=7&ab_channel=EmpressOf
Musician Lorely Rodriguez known as Empress Of, began uploading her first recordings onto YouTube: a collection of minute-long snippets designated with a single color. These demos, dubbed Colorminutes, were produced day-to-day as an exercise for Rodriguez to hone her technical proficiency and creative discipline.
Morning pages is an exercise i often go back to which is coined by julia cameron in the artist way. Morning Pages. Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing
For me i posted on instagram daily an illustrating, even when i had a full time job and was waitressing. So i know how time can be so sparse, but don’t underestimate what you can accomplish in 20 mins
The point here is not to create something magnificent, but to simply create something every day and to leave some type of record of it that you can return to later. I think eventually you’ll find that it becomes a positive feedback loop as other artists begin to comment and respond to your work.
You have to remember, however, that no creative effort is ever wasted
ACTIVITY - what is your baby step? Can you break down where you want to be into tiny tiny steps and just take action. How can you create a daily habit for your creativity? Is there a hashtag you can find? Can you join?
STEP 8 FIND THE JOY
Do you remember the first time you were a child and lost track of time because you were painting?
Or if your a musician the first time you wriote a song you were proud of
Or if your a writer the first time you wrote a story you were proud of?
Why did you choose creativity? How old were you when you fell in love with creativity? Remember why we do what we do, reconnect with your childlike joy and remember that. We can get so lost in social media analytics and what people want from us, or whats our niche, but that it can completely take us away from our joy and the reason why we create in the first palace. Or bury us in rules that we can no longer find a way out.
Reconnect with the joy of creativity, follow your creative path where it may lead you even if it means letting of of the comfort of what you know
ACTIVITY - Follow your joy, how can you create work that you, what does following your creative joy look like to you?
FORGET CONFIDENCE HAVE COURAGE AND TAKE THE FIRST STEP
“Confidence is overrated, whats more important than confidence is courage” Debbie Millman
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EteY-ExdacU
LITRALLY f confidence, and focus on hainge courage. Courage to accept imperfection, courage to get out of your comfort zone, courage to jump.
BONUS ACTIVITY - create your elevator pitch
A little bonus activity from me, that dramatically helped me with my confidence in networking situations. Was practing my elevator pitch and having it down good to go whenever i needed to introduce myself. It’s also good practice to be good at explaining what your creative work is with words. So you heard mine at the beginning of this workshop it’s:
Hi my name is Natalie Byrne, im a award winning latina illustrator based in lond. I create work that centeres around social issues, education and honesty.
You can create yours, practice it in the mirror and get it down. It will be extremely useful, Your welcome
THE END
Thank you!
You can see all the downlodables for this workshop here
I’ve also listed all the resources and quotes I’ve mentioned here, definitely i encourage you to go deeper on this.
nataliebyrne.uk/creativeconfidence
Biblography
Confidence by Debbie Millman - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EteY-ExdacU
Elizabeth Gilbert Talks “Big Magic” — Fear, Failure, & the Mystery of Creativityhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyUYa-BnjU8
Episode 47: Finding the courage and confidence to build the business you want to build - https://www.lettersfromahopefulcreative.com/episode-47
SELF DISCIPLINE - Featuring Will Smith - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft_DXwgUXB0&t=483s
Julia Cameron - The artist way