562 - Show the Real You, Why the Death of Insta isn't All Bad, Do Your Thing by Being Part of Something Bigger & ADHD

Creative Pep Talk - Andy J. Pizza

Andy J. Pizza shares his journey of authenticity, ADHD self-acceptance, and the power of being part of something bigger. The episode blends personal stories with insights on mental health, identity, and creative courage.

Key takeaways

• Embracing your real self beats trying to fit in

Transcript preview

This is not an ad, it's a gift. I'm going to be at the ICON Illustration Conference this year in July doing a handful of different things and I asked them if they could give me a discount for the listeners of the show because I would love to see you there and hang out at the afterparties and whatnot and they let me have a hundred dollar discount to share with you which is just so generous and so awesome. If you're an illustrator I highly recommend going to I can it's been a magical experience the times that I've gone even the first time in 2014 in 2014 in 2014 in 2014 in 2014 that I went But so worth it go to icon. creative pept talk.com to learn more the discount is automatically applied to that link icon dot creative pept talk dot com hope to see you there conversation and we cover a lot of topics around making authentic work. We talk about how to strip away the ego and throw off trying to be cool and why that's really essential, why Instagram being kind of over for artists might not be such a bad thing, why doing your thing often starts with being part of another thing, being part of something bigger than yourself. Why art and collaboration is a fight and that's a good thing and we touch a bit on, you know, AI just a little bit and why it doesn't it doesn't matter what AI can do what it's going to be able to do in the future all of that I think is missing the point we get into that we also explore some other things I haven't heard people talk about with AI It's only a tiny portion of this chat, but I do think it's kind of interesting This episode is different this time I am the person being interviewed I was on the captain off script podcast and had such a great time and had such a fantastic conversation that I wanted to make sure I shared it with all of you So here it is. 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They're both soft and textured, very schmancy but cozy, perfect for elevating summer movie night, couch vibes, and yet very affordable. Make your summer wardrobe easier. Go to quince.com slash pept talk for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too, that's QUI n ce.com slash pept talk for free shipping and three hundred and three hundred and sixty 65 day returns, Quintz.com. Pep Talk. Hi Ice and welcome to another episode of the podcast. I am today going off script with the third illustrator in a row and this is actually not an illustration podcast so this is quite a coincidence. Well first of all Andy welcome to the show. Happy to be here Alan. I'm excited to chat. a pleasure. I've talked to, well the last episode I published was with Louis Mando, he's an illustrator, Spanish now living in Japan. This morning I recorded a podcast with Belgian illustrator and now it's you so it's quite a coincidence here. Now you've got Ohio, that's all the big places. You're pretty much, you can cross them all off. Absolutely, yeah. I wish I was in Japan, honestly or Belgium. I could go. I love Ohio. I love Ohio. get me wrong but that sounds fun. Yeah, Belgium is really really nice. I've been there like two times I think and it was really really great better than the Netherlands the Amsterdam it's way way more interesting I would say but yeah I mean I don't want to get us off topic right away my ADHD will do that but I just want to go because it's the kingdom of Mayo with fries I love that I'm everyone in America hates that, can't even understand that, I want to go, I just mainly for that. Yeah, well I definitely, I mean I say you go and those are the best fries I've ever had in my life. I want that. Like I went I think maybe some seven eight years ago and it was like I couldn't believe it. You know, it's, you eat fries all your life and then you stumble upon the best fries. in the world and that was like real like I never have real Mayo at home because like okay that's just too much I have to get the light Mayo or the avocado male Mayo or something but yeah like when you have real Mayo as a treat you're like whoa this is and you know I mean it's terrible for you but it's yeah and you are world known by your, well, let's say last name, Pizza, Andy J Pizza. But a lot of people don't know that your last name is actually Miller. True. And that you hated your domain name. Yeah. And the, well, like, Wine, J, Dash, Miller. And then you picked the And the pizza and everyone started calling you that way. Yeah. And the, well, like, Dash, Miller. And then you picked the Andy J Pizza and everyone started calling you that way. Yeah. I mean how did you accept it you know I mean it's not my name but it is you know people call me that way you know I think there's a couple different levels to it there's the there's a personal level and then there's the professional levels the personal level didn't really I mean this is kind of sad I don't need to turn this into therapy right away maybe we'll get into that but we'll get there yeah I think that I don't have I don't feel super connected to my last name I feel like family you know I love my family and but I I'm kind of the odd one out honestly and I have kind of a broken up family and even my extended family is kind of all over the place in a way and so I love all those people but I don't really feel like a Miller I don't feel like I ever felt like a Miller I kind of related more to my mom's side and they're Anderson's and so I it never really clicked with me so I didn't have a lot of attachment. Then on the professional side the biggest hurdle I think what and this I think this is a dumb example of this but I think it's an important idea I think you have to at some point be ready to disobey your masters so to speak. My example is like when Luke Skywalk or disobey his Yoda that's when he becomes his own hero and I think you know went to go save, put his life on the line and save Han and Leah, I just accepted the name Pizza so it's not the same but it has some similarity in that. I realize like if I roll with this this is like not what my heroes would do. Like a lot of my illustration heroes are just much much cooler than that and you know just more professional more I don't know like mama like that kind of that kind of vibe. And so it was interesting like crossroads kind of thing of like oh I'm really accepting who I am which is a Midwestern guy who eats too much pizza and You know is also grew up on sponge Bob and just like so it was kind of like a I feel like it was as dumb as it sounds it was kind of a good acceptance of like yeah that's me and I think it fits and I think it has like kind of work for me And what's your favorite pizza? Favorite pizza. Okay, I like the Neapolitan kind of classic. Okay. So first of all I don't discriminate against any pizzas. I can eat all pizzas. Okay. Pretty much any pineapple one? I will eat it if it's all that's there But I hate pineapple on pizza, but I'll still eat it Even mushrooms and pineapple not my favorite toppings, but you know They can't ruin pizza like it's still pizza But I like the classic chewy wood fire crust Marinera or tomato sauce. I want I'll have mozzarella in the classic kind of way but I love pepperoni I love jalpino I love if I'm getting really fancy I'm gonna go hot honey in a little bit of goat cheese oh that pizza I mean just call that the Andy Jay pizza that's the perfect pizza okay I have to try that now The reason I got into that is because it was a topping option at Pizza Hut in the UK and I went to college over there. The Pizza Hut in the UK is just like a tad bit fancier than the American one. And they had goat cheese on pizza and I was like, dude, this is number one topping. Okay. Now I have to find that. Yeah. My favorite is, well, since I'm a vegetarian, it's my options are kind of limited, you would say, but not completely. There is a super cool place here in Madrid that does like pizzas vegetarian ones well actually begans so it's it's absolutely amazing and it's with onions and also oh my god pistachio sauce all over it. Oh that's good I was surprised you know because I'm not like an onion kind of type person. It's red onion red but the young ones like the green ones. Oh okay. Yeah Yeah. Yeah. That's not well like yeah And I was super surprised and it's definitely one of my one of my favorites here in Madrid If I'm in Madrid. I'm gonna go there. What's it called? Yeah The place was renovated recently Pitzi Dixie is cold. Okay. Yeah, here goes the free commercial. Yeah, but it's. It's absolutely amazing place and the best. is in Madrid that I've tried so yeah definitely cool yeah I will take you there sounds great yeah okay so enough about food I mean I don't mind I like these off-script things I mean even the podcast is off-script so I absolutely love that I'm ADHD so I'm all for tangents okay yeah so I'm ADHD so I'm all for tangents okay yeah so I'm all for tangents okay yeah so about the ADHD A lot of the things you write, a lot of the things in your podcast, Creative Pep Talk, are related to kind of mental health, to finding yourself, to being more yourself, to actually, you know, get to the bottom of who you are. And from what I've found online and from my research about you, um, your childhood apart from what you are, from what you said, that you were from a broken family. You have moved quite a lot to the UK and back to the US as well and in the US. Do you think that affected the way you see yourself and the way you actually work today and in what in what way? I definitely think so. I think especially moving around. I think you're right, like a combination of moving around and then also not feeling super secure. in my family meant that I do think that's a recipe for an identity crisis of sorts as a kid. So I think that initially the negative of it was moving and this is one of the reasons why I'm not saying it's wrong to move your kids around. I think for some there are lots of benefits to that. that you may risk is just realizing like they need security they need stability they need the social component they need to feel secure in the social component so they're gonna do whatever they have to do to survive so as I move around in all these different places I just have to become whoever I need to become to be part of this group and the thing is that's kind of wild is from school to school depending on lots of factors both like the context of where it is in the world and what that space is like versus also just the size of the group is such a huge thing like I went to small schools big schools like we moved around a lot even in the United States and I think that yeah like all of the norms are different and so initially this is kind of a classic story structure and initially it was like this huge hurdle for me of like being myself because everywhere I go I have to be somebody else and I tried that and did that a bunch of times and then eventually on the other side of it I think when we went to England that's probably when it hit me the hardest in that I was like oh there's a part of people that changes wherever you go like dramatic cultural change and that is kind of the surface level it's not really the thing that matters but underneath that people are the same interesting too because sometimes I'll go I do a lot of public speaking and sometimes I get brought into a creative space you know a creative conference or something and it's all of my peers and I feel very at home and I'm like okay I know exactly how to exist in this space and I feel confident but sometimes I'll get brought to a company or in a corporate situation or like an art school because I didn't go to like a fancy art school and I'll feel really like a fish out of water and feel like very intimidated by these people and my dad and my dad always that people are people. Even when you go if you I've never been to Harvard but if you go to Harvard there people there like wherever you go Google there people there that and so it kind of is amazing to have that experience and realize like oh yes the surface the way that you package people is so different from place to place but underneath we evolved to have a very similar core similar needs and we go about getting those needs differently but we have the same aches and pains and desires and so I think yeah there was a there was definitely a valley through that experience of like losing myself not knowing who I was trying to be whoever I needed to be to have friends and then eventually I think it caused me to be like no I'm gonna just I'm gonna kind of strip away as much of the contextual stuff that I've picked up along the way and I'm going to try to be earnestly grounded in who I am and if I can do that I can connect with pretty much anybody and so I think that that really did help me because you know when I say I've told this story I've never told this story and had a reaction that made sense to me but I'm gonna say it anyway I don't know what I can you know when you say something you can't tell what people's reaction is This is one of those stories where I'm like I don't know why people don't get this I don't know it's not even that interesting honestly but it was profound for me Okay, in seventh grade I met a friend a guy who was like a massive football dude But a big goofball and he became my best friend and he's one of the best friends I ever had and he loved Ensign the boy band and Sink and he went second album came out and got it like first day at the record shop and I just thought like this is what cool is this is what cool is cool is being yourself 100% and not giving a crap about what everybody else thinks and I just thought this dude is a jock and he likes like he liked to sing he like like I was just like this is amazing and I think that was the first seed of that like that is I think that was the first seed of that like that is I think that was the first seed of that is that's the core of making great artwork is being okay with somehow finding like the space between the taste that you've acquired where like this is like quote-unquote good stuff and then this is the guilty pleasures and I'm just gonna own it 100% and so yeah so I think that moving around a lot really forced me to like strip away the superficial stuff and secure and just be try to find confidence in who I am. Okay I