Igniting your creative passions can lead to a fulfilling life.
Recording a solo episode for the Winging It Travel Podcast at a campsite in Canada
Episode 140 - Travelling With Dave Herring - Using Your Creative Passion To Live Your Life
My latest guest episode is with Dave Herring, a freelance creative specializing in photography, videography, YouTube, writing, and music. From a creative perspective, I got a lot out of this conversation.
Dave shares his story and journey from his marauding youth travelling the USA with his band to learning how to take photographs by himself and now working with brands worldwide.
I felt that Dave and I have had a somewhat similar path. We are both creatives, both trying to make it as musicians when we were younger and now being freelance creatives, but Dave is way ahead of me in the stakes of this being a full-time job. I am very early on this journey.
Of course, we talk about travel and why Dave rarely goes to the east of the USA right now, with his life and travel work being based in the West. As he says in the episode, he loves the West much more than the East of the USA; he loves living in the Bay around San Francisco.
Dave’s website can be found here. It will give you a sense of what he is offering right now regarding creative projects.
Let’s dive into a few topics which really hit me hard but if you want to hear the full episode then click below to listen
Dave Herring - credit
Empowering others in the creative world
One thing that struck me about my conversation with Dave was his compassion for other creators and his willingness to help them, whether behind or in front of him in their journey.
This is refreshing to hear in a cut-throat world where we prioritize competition with each other at the expense of helping and making money. It creates sadness, insecurity, and the potential to always think about the extrinsic results of creativity.
There is room for everyone in any creative space, and as Dave said, there will always be people who produce better podcasts than you, take better photographs than you, or be better guitarists than you. This doesn’t matter; what does, is us or you being better human beings and a pleasure to work with.
I understand competition drives excellence, but compassion, hard work, and empathy also matter. If people want to work with you, then you are guaranteed to get work. This is where I need to support myself in my own creative journey.
Being humble is such an underrated trait. This is key to always being motivated to learn more about your craft and ask people for help, advice, or a critique of your work.
This is the exact conversation I needed to hear about this week.
Wow! Dave on location. Photo credit - Dave Herring
People can be brutal online.
Being a creator online these days requires some thick skin. You need to embrace the petty hatred of individuals who seek out people to comment on and get a kick out of.
Dave shares a story about a group of people from Reddit leaving horrendous comments on his YouTube video regarding imposter syndrome. There was even a sub-Reddit about Dave and his video.
He asked himself whether he should leave the video out there for everyone to see or take it down.
Dave’s answer was ‘I need to leave people’s receipts out there for people to see’. I love this approach.
If people are willing to trash your content to make themselves feel better, then the pity is on them. Dave has made their week, and the huge difference is that Dave and the rest of us are trying to do something, creating things that work or don’t work but putting ourselves out there.
Don’t comment if you yourself are not even trying to do something; we are not even playing the same game.
Dave is pushing his YouTube channel this year, and you can check it out below.
Dave’s top tips for experiences in the USA
Check out my latest YouTube episode in Luxembourg and Liechtenstein!
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My Instagram promotion for my episode with Dave Herring
Who is Dave Herring?
A cool shot on the road! Photo credit - Dave Herring
I’m a creative. These days, I’m mostly a creative director, commercial photographer and videographer. I’m just as much a musician as I am a photographer. And I’m just as active engineering in a studio as I am with gear in my hands or behind a microphone. I write songs, too. I also write creatively, from blogs to books. To sum it up, I try to keep my heart, mind, & hands engaged in creating something pretty much every day.
My family & our tribe are the most important things in my life. Find your people and ride or die with them.
You can find my images with Nomad, Bespoke Post, Target, and many other companies large and small. You can also find my images with tourism boards scattered around the country.
You can find my music on Spotify and Apple Music. You can find my book on Amazon.
Want to know more? Ask. Or follow my social accounts. I’m pretty active on at least one of them at any given time.