Dealing with Critisism

Criticism is inevitable when you put your work into the world. In this lesson, we’ll break down how to separate constructive from destructive feedback, how to stay true to your creative vision, and why detaching from views, metrics, and outside opinions is vital to making authentic art.

Video Transcript

Dealing with criticism

In this lesson, I’m going to teach you how you should handle criticism.

Unfortunately, you can’t avoid criticism. Making art, and putting it out into the world, will be subject to criticism, from somewhere. And so broadly speaking, there’s two different types of criticism. Constructive criticism - “I really enjoyed this video, but for me, I would have used different music in the intro”. And non-constructive criticism - “this was shit”.

Lets start with Constructive criticism. I am of the opinion that, you should listen, and consider this type of criticism. But when you consider it, (and consider means, you do not have to act on it).. you listen, you think about what they’ve said, and then you act on as little or as much of it as you like.. Because remember, you’re the fucking creator. Not them. You are. This is your work.

I remember I once saw a Facebook status where this guy was writing his own book. And he said in it “Thank you to the people who have given me feedback on the first 5 rounds of amends on the first chapter of my book.” I was like “wahhhtttt.. Who’s book is this!?” I didn’t write that, but I was thinking it. Your content will shine and be unique because of your unique perspective, not a mix of of the closest people to you...

Art and fashion evolves because of pioneers who are brave to try something a certain way. A way that THEY have thought from their unique perspective, would be innovative. Imagine if before they did that, they asked someone else what they thought, and then acted on their opinion. “Oh hey, what do you think about selling bottled water in supermarkets?”.. “That’s dumb, never going to work, you can get it free from the taps”.. “Good point, I’ll leave it then”.

So yeah, just be careful when people are telling you their opinions about your work. Especially when it’s coming from an audience that isn’t your audience. I tell you what, I will listen to feedback so much more from my subscribers, than friends and family. And that’s tricky, because when you’re starting out, the first people you show your work to, will likely be… friends and family! And they are not your audience. There’s a whole world out there, 8 billion odd people, and your audience is probably not, the 100 people closest to you. So just be careful taking criticism from them. This is your art, and it should remain that way.

Something I sometimes think about is a fact I read that was, if 0.00037% of the people online like and follow your work, you’d be making a good living from your content. So how I think of this, is literally like those people are out there, and I’m sifting through everyone trying to find them. I believe that we all have our 0.00037% of people.. You just need to find them!

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So what about non-constructive criticism, the haters, the internet trolls, the bitches. “You look about 12 years old video boy”. No one’s actually said that, but yeah.. Those people. Those people I feel sorry for, they are probably jealous in some way, and have gaps in their own lives that they’re taking out on you. It’s easier to bring you down, then anything else. You must ignore these people, and focus on yourself... I don’t really get much stuff like this, so it’s difficult to comment on it a lot. There must be a lot of resource out there for dealing with internet trolls, but my advice would be, ignore it, focus on yourself. And in some cases, use it as fuel, to show them what you’re capable of.

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So much of this is about detaching yourself from all of that. What will other people think of our video? What will other people comment? How many times will other people watch it? Will they like it?

We’re obsessed with this idea that those things reflect how good the video is. “Ah well it had 100,000 views, so it must be good.” or “shit that video flopped on TikTok, so it’s a bad video”. I mean how crazy is it that, once I remember making a video about using a piece of string to buzz myself back into my building because I lost my key fob, and I wanted to get a McDonald's. I remember having to defend that idea, and I defended it with “yeah it got 100k likes on TikTok”. I used the metric as a “you’re wrong to laugh at the idea, because it went semi viral!”. How f*cked up is that. That’s wrong, and we shouldn’t do it, because the content should speak for itself, regardless of numbers. And smart people do see past the numbers.. There’s a number of creators I’ve worked with who have seen sub 100 view videos of mine but still reached out to work with me.. They get it.. You know..

So yeah, I do believe that you need to somewhat detach yourself from the views, and what a third party (like a platform , or another person), thinks about YOUR art. This is YOUR art. And all this ties into the very meaning of what it means to make art. If criticism is affecting you a lot, think about Why you make your art? Do you do it for yourself? Do you do it for other people? Do you do it to satisfy your own ego? Maybe it’s a mix, I dunno. Every person will have a different response to these questions.

Since I was making music when I was in a band at 14.. All the way through to my videos in my late teens.. Up until now, I’ve been subject to criticism, people taking the piss out of something, even your own mates, “ah it’s just a bit of banter”. More so in the early days, because in the start you’re figuring everything out. You’re learning from every video, and I still do learn from every upload, but at the start especially, you’ve got to go through some fairly tough times of putting a hell load of work into something, and for people to not really be that interested. I’ve done that SO many times. But, every time, the actual making of the video was really good practice, and a learning experience.. That I used to practice my content creation, instead of worrying about other peoples criticism.

So if you chose to show people your video you’ve made and be subject to that criticism, I really want you to be aware, and think about what I’ve said in this lesson.