RYVPOD, Ep. 0 : Introduction

ENGLISH TRANSCRIPT:

Hello everyone,
thank you so much for being here,
thank you for listening to this first episode of the RYVPOD,
it's actually episode 0,
an introductory episode,
I'm going to talk a bit about the motivations behind this podcast.
For those who don’t know me,
my name is Ryvka,
I’m the creator of the RYVDOLL brand.
So, I wanted to create this podcast to answer a really
essential question in my eyes,
which is how to live a creative life?
How to find the balance between the good and the bad that come with a creative life?
So, for a bit of background,
this really came as a reaction to a period of great self-doubt,
doubt about this life I’ve chosen,
the life that has chosen me,
because it’s so tied to our personality, to who we are,
and that’s also the complexity of it, of course.
It’s my friend Lauren who will be with Igor,
the two creators of Ex Libris,
the first guests of this podcast.
It was her who suggested I start this podcast to exchange with others living creative lives on this topic. Also about mental health when you’re creating.
Before we start, before you listen to the first episode of the podcast, I’d like to set some groundwork.
And for that, I’d like to read a quote from Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic:
“Learning to tolerate your disappointment and frustration is part of the work of being a creative. If you want to be an artist, (I add in parentheses: if you want to live any kind of creative life), knowing how to deal with your frustration is probably the most fundamental aspect of your process. Frustration is part of the process. You can’t just go from one brilliant moment (which she calls a bright moment) to another. How you behave and manage the in-between moments, when things aren’t going so well, is an indicator of your commitment to your vocation and, above all, your ability to handle the demands of a creative life.”
So, from there, for me, the question is when you have a creative profession, how do you manage your mental health in a way that keeps you motivated?
How do you successfully complete a project that not only rests on you, on your shoulders, but also involves that alignment of the planets that is creation and creativity?
In fact, the question I ask myself is: at what point does the pursuit of efficiency become counterproductive?
I think it’s important to have some keys for understanding.
So first, what is a creative life? I think many of us, more than we realize, live creative lives. Of course, I include in a creative life people who have jobs, permanent contracts in large companies.
What matters is having ideas; we all have them. And I think that creativity is that life force, that spark that makes us go forward every day and keep going. And that, of course, applies to everyone.
Next, I’d like to distinguish creation from creativity, since not all creative people are necessarily creators. So we’re going to focus more on the notion of creativity, which encompasses a much larger group.
Next, the duo, efficiency-inspiration in relation to instinct and motivation. What I mean by that is that the notion of efficiency is really complex because who can say who is actually efficient? How do you know when you’re being efficient? And when you have a creative job, the instinctual part is essential to motivation because, very often, you realize that it’s not by sitting at your desk for eight hours a day for weeks that you’re going to achieve anything and that sometimes, it’s precisely by taking that time off or having the right idea or the right encounter.
This is a topic we’ll talk a lot about. There’s also, of course, that guilt of not being efficient. So we’ll revisit that.
And what is the role of instinct?
That’s obviously super important because if you don’t believe in what you’re doing, no one else will. You need to have a bit of the instinct that you’re doing something that matters.
And also a lot about the synergy-competition duo. The way we surround ourselves is so important: people who don’t necessarily have similar jobs to ours, but who stimulate us, and not falling into the trap, when people do similar work to ours, of competition, of being afraid that others will steal our ideas or copy us, etc. That’s really complicated.
And I’d like to end with one last set of ideas: the notion of rationality versus naivety. This ties back to everything we’ve talked about, about instinct, motivation, efficiency, but what is the balance between reason and naivety that we need to have, which is tied to instinct? And sometimes, of course, we’re caught up by the concrete side of things.
To discuss these vast topics, I’ll invite people who are in the same position as me, that is to say, who still have everything to prove, who are at the beginning of their professional lives, even though this notion is always a bit tricky because people are starting younger and younger, so we often feel like everything is moving so fast, that we’re behind, that we have no time to waste.
On the other hand, there will be guests who are already well into their creative lives, who have a good part of their professional journey behind them, because a creative life never ends, but at least have a solid part of it, and who especially have that perspective.
So, in general, this will be an exchange on the theme of creativity, about what keeps this little spark alive. The guests will share their moments of doubt, the lessons they’ve learned, the solutions that worked for them, and perhaps also the remedies, how they anticipate and maintain their creative lives, both in their environment and in their sources of creativity.
So the guests will share a few works with us, which you can also find on Instagram. Don’t forget to follow RYVDOLL.
And also on Substack, since the episodes are transcribed there.
So, see you for the first episode with Igor and Lauren from Ex Libris. I can’t wait! I hope you enjoy our conversation.
Thank you so much for listening and see you very soon.