We were lucky to catch up with Christina Gliha recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christina thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

I have had many “regular jobs” throughout my life and nothing can even come close to the satisfaction of working for yourself while doing what you love. If you have a passion for any subject and can cultivate that, I would encourage you to pursue it wholeheartedly. When you work for others, you will invariably find yourself in a situation where your values don’t align and one of you will be forced to compromise – and as the employee in that dynamic – it will likely be you. When you work for yourself, it’s much easier to say no to opportunities that are not a good fit. This ability to stay true to your vision, values, and standards is so profoundly validating that you will wake up younger and happier than you have ever been. Nothing is more draining than working for something or someone you don’t believe in or have no passion for. If you think your work isn’t good enough yet – just keep learning and seeking out knowledge everywhere. You have to refine your skills every single day if you want to succeed and you must have a burning desire to do so to sustain yourself through the doubtful, dark night of the soul periods. Push through it – magic is on the other side!

Christina , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I went to art school for branding and advertising and then started working on the client side right out of school after a brief stint in the film industry doing props and set design. I quickly went agency side and started working on national and global brands creating big identity systems. This led to opening offices in the US and Europe and eventually my own firm that focused on fashion and beauty clients. After some success for several years, my business partnership eventually dissolved, and I went back to agency work doing digital and advertising and then retail design. During that time, I created a lot of work utilizing illustration and discovered that the look I was trying to find wasn’t coming up in my searches – so I decided to create it myself.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

The most important lesson I have learned is that one should never limit oneself. Don’t argue for your faults or limitations ever. You are not a fixed, static object – think of yourself like water. You can flow and try new things all the time and redefine what your life means to you. Many people and artists get trapped into a certain way of thinking or they give themselves a title they think they must adhere to. You don’t have to ever stick to one idea of who you are of what you can do. During my 26 year career, I have had many different jobs throughout my journey : art gallery director, film and tv art director / set designer, graphic designer, web designer, social media manager, art director, advertising creative director, agency founder and owner, store and product designer and now illustrator and I have had great success and in all of those roles. During those individual experiences, I’ve been surrounded by people who have said things like: “one person can’t be good at many things and I could never do that, I only do one thing.” To which my answer has always been: “who says? Being a creative or artist just means that you are a creative problem solver. Each one of the jobs I have had was just creative problem solving with a different set of rules that just have to be learned. Anyone can learn new rules to a game pretty quickly – and the rest is just about applying the same methodology: research, prototype, test, execute and refine. I say all of this not to show off but because I really want to encourage others who are stuck to realize that they don’t have to be. If you are in a role or mindset that feels like it doesn’t fit anymore and you need a change, that is normal. Your desire to evolve and learn new things is normal. Humans were not all put on earth to be or do one thing for 50 years and then retire. Those days are long over. The reason we think it’s not is because capitalism forces you to into a very narrow pathway that screams the only way to the top is to stick to one thing and climb the ladder of endless promotions and raises even if you’re bored or miserable. Wrong. You don’t have to play by those rules at all if you don’t want to. You can pivot, sidestep, passion stack and take your incredible hard earned skills and apply to them to something else in a parallel field or something entirely new. The key is to have focus and determination. I became a full time illustrator in my late 40s. I started drawing at the beginning of the pandemic to help curb a social media and shopping addiction and it blossomed into a whole new career within a year. People think new endeavours have to follow a certain trajectory to be valid or successful and what I want to share by my own lived example is that it’s never too late to try something new. Don’t listen to any naysayers – they are simply projecting their own limiting beliefs onto you. If you want to change or do something new, start small in your spare time and when it feels like a passion you could build upon, just do it and don’t pay any mind to the background noise. Your life is yours to enjoy and you can play it by your own rules if you show up as your authentic self, work hard and most of all, have fun. Your greatest asset in life is your belief in the value of your own ideas and abilities.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

One hears the advice that going to therapy is critical for a happy marriage and harmonious interpersonal relationships, but I would also argue that one needs it in order to be truly successful professionally as well. Look at all of the (mostly) male leaders who are throwing emotional fits daily around the world and humanity en masse has to suffer for it because these guys never learned to self-regulate and soothe. That may sound hyperbolic but I think the world is run by emotionally dysfunctional people who should all be in therapy to process childhood trauma instead of projecting their destructive issues and greed onto everyone else.

So get coaching, uplevel your skills constantly, but also, consider therapy as part of your professional toolkit. Once you learn to not take everything personally and that most conflict is a projection, work conflict can be seen for what it is and managed much better. It will help you focus on what you really want and need much faster and you will waste a lot less time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.christinagliha.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christinaglihaillustration/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/christinaglihaillustration/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gliha/