A candid, one-year anniversary conversation on how we define the line between a hobby and creative work. Alessandra’s clarinet journey reframes “work” as honoring a gift beyond pay, Greg centers mission-driven support as creative practice, Shadows champions fun as the fuel, Dr. Timeka offers a three-legged stool (hobby, work, pay), and Devin contrasts low-pressure hobbies with identity-heavy writing that demands selective feedback.

Greg
00:00 - 00:27
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Creative Work Hour podcast. Today is Saturday November the 1st and today we're doing episode 69 and Alessandra reminded me just a few minutes ago that it's actually been one year since we started doing our podcast. So that's exciting. We've also got an exciting topic today, and that's the difference between a hobby and creative work.

Greg
00:28 - 00:35
More specifically, today's question is, what's the difference between a hobby and creative work? Alessandra, what do you think?

Alessandra
00:35 - 01:11
Well, it is a very personal question just to suss out what is the difference. If there's something that you're interested in doing, you want to bring your gifts and talents up and interact with them. I mean, for me, I came back to classical music decades after I had given up in a huff. and literally played the best recital of my life, but I couldn't stomach, I couldn't crack how to solve the problem of stage fright.

Alessandra
01:12 - 01:29
And I decided, good or not good, I can't live like this. And I left the stage and I threw away the key to my clarinet case. And in that case, that thing sat for 30 years. And this little public health crisis came across.

Alessandra
01:29 - 01:44
You may have heard of it. It may have kept you from going anywhere for two, three years. And during that two, three years, when we weren't really going anywhere, the same psyche that threw away that key did not throw away the clarinet. It sat there.

Alessandra
01:45 - 02:12
And when I saw online, on YouTube, people starting to sing that had never sang, or people starting to play their guitar that hadn't been played since high school, And some people were coming together in groups and they were like recording individual pieces, and then someone would produce and put these things together and they would have these virtual concerts. And I'm like, that is the coolest thing I have seen since sliced bread. And I started thinking about that clarinet sitting in the closet.

Alessandra
02:12 - 02:37
and I pulled it out, and I sobbed, and I got the thing open, and I sobbed some more. And then I thought, I wonder if I could find somebody to reconstruct this clarinet, pull the keys off, re-soak the wood, test the bore, re-pad everything. I wonder if it could be made playable again. I wonder if I could be made playable again.

Alessandra
02:37 - 02:53
And when you look at something like that, Like, was that a hobby I just lost interest in? Or was that fricking creative work? See, to me, some people's not gonna make a difference. Call it a hobby, call it creative work, call it whatever you want.

Alessandra
02:53 - 03:05
But for me, if somebody were to come along and go, oh yeah, I heard you have a hobby of playing clarinet. To me, those would be fighting words. Why? that's not a freaking hobby.

Alessandra
03:05 - 03:11
To me, that's creative work. Do I get paid for that work? No. I'm lucky.

Alessandra
03:11 - 03:34
Dr. Tomika was talking earlier about having gratitude about doing the work. This is my gratitude. This is my honoring the gift, the talent that was given to me by showing up with the reconditioned clarinet. And now I get to go all over the world and play and sight read and meet people.

Alessandra
03:35 - 03:52
And yes, fall on my face and screw it up sometimes too, because that's my creative work. No, I'm not paid to do that. But in that comes more freedom than my colleagues who are on contract. So for me, that shit ain't a hobby.

Alessandra
03:53 - 04:02
That's my creative work. But that's just me. And I'm wondering, Greg, what is that distinction for you?

Greg
04:02 - 04:14
Well, you know, I love these questions. Not really. You know, I was thinking, because initially, work implies, you could imply financial gain. It doesn't need to be financial gain.

Greg
04:14 - 04:32
It could be any kind of a gain, really, to gain notoriety, to gain status, to gain something, right? To benefit in some way. But when you were talking about your clarinet and your music career, I was thinking, what's my creative work? I guess I hadn't really thought about it.

Greg
04:32 - 04:53
But my creative work, I believe, is to carry a message of kindness into the world and try and bring a little bit of light into the darkness. And I'm also very passionate about supporting people. And so I do some support groups. I do one for brain injury, and I do one for chronic pain, and I do another one for mental health.

Greg
04:53 - 05:04
And I take it very seriously. Now, that's kind of my creative work, but I don't gain from it financially. But it's my mission. It's my creative work.

Greg
05:04 - 05:25
A hobby, like you said, if someone said, oh, I believe you have a hobby of helping people, or I believe you have a hobby when it comes to kindness, it would diminish that, wouldn't it? It would take away from that. So I think it's very subjective, and it can mean different things to different people. But therein, I think, is the secret, what it means to you.

Greg
05:26 - 05:39
Because your creative work, It could be your mission, your passion, your calling. It doesn't need to do with finance, with cash. So that's my thought. But I'd be interested.

Greg
05:40 - 05:47
Shadows, when we talk about the difference between a hobby and creative work, what comes to mind for you?

Shadows Pub
05:47 - 05:53
As long as it's creative fun and not just work, I don't care if it's a hobby or not.

Greg
05:53 - 05:57
Right. Well, it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, I can see that.

Alessandra
05:57 - 06:39
And what I wanted to say to Shadows, this made such a difference on me, but I don't know that you remember this as a conversation so much as I was thinking about it this morning. I was taking kind of an artsy walk through Leeds and Contemplating this topic of hobby and creative work is, I used to think that, oh, hobby is like, oh, it's something that you're interested in. It's for fun or enjoyment. There's not really a driver necessarily to take that thing and put it out in the world, although you could, but it doesn't have a driver behind it besides expressing an interest.

Alessandra
06:39 - 06:48
Now, creative work, on the other hand, for me, is like, this is serious. Like, I mean this. Like, ooh, I want to be good at this. You know, I don't want to suck at this.

Alessandra
06:49 - 07:12
I want to grow. I want to see accomplishment with it. And there was a conversation that we had like three years ago, and I was just really kind of starting to hit my head against the wall because I wasn't getting something to work that I needed to work in my creative effort. And you said, hmm, kind of sounds like to me, you're having fun with that.

Alessandra
07:12 - 07:21
And it took my breath away. I was like, what do you mean fun? No, this is like my creative work. What do you mean fun?

Alessandra
07:21 - 07:56
Like I actually thought if it was creative work, that meant it couldn't be fun i had to just do it by pure interest alone and i completely would not pick up on the cues that i was experiencing of enjoyment i was literally because of how i define creative work i was ignoring enjoyment and it took you just teasing me a little bit for me to find that and so shadows Thank you.

Greg
07:57 - 08:22
I think when you enjoy something, you're more invested in doing it and you're going to do a better job because that will follow through in whatever the creative work that you're doing, the fact that you're enjoying it, you're invested. I think that will follow through in that work, in that endeavor. Dr. Tamika, when we talk about the difference between a hobby and creative work, for you, what comes to mind?

Dr. Timeka
08:22 - 08:41
What comes to mind, Greg, and team? The three-legged stool. You know, I take the hobby, I take the creative work, and I also take the third leg as being the pay component. And when I sit down, I make sure I enjoy it, and I kind of intertwine all three.

Dr. Timeka
08:41 - 09:04
to make sure that I have fulfilled the hobby that I've always loved. I love creative work and I love pain. So all three of them create enjoyment for me and that's how I enjoy all three together and make all three work together in concert. So that's my spiel on how I, you know, create, I mean, look at the both of them.

Greg
09:04 - 09:09
Thank you. Devin, the difference between a hobby and creative work, what comes to mind for you?

Devin
09:10 - 09:35
Well, I'm not sure about the difference between creative work and a hobby, but as an old tax preparer, I can tell you the difference between a business and a hobby is about 30% depending on your tax bracket. So you gotta pay attention to that. But seriously, on the creative side, I made a post not too long ago about my hobby, and I'm clear that this is my hobby. I play chess.

Devin
09:35 - 09:38
And I'm very serious about it. I read about it. I practice. I study.

Devin
09:38 - 09:53
And I love all things about chess. But I am not a good chess player. But I'm totally OK with that. I'm happy to play with other people and learn from them and see them get a thrill out of winning when I lose.

Devin
09:53 - 10:12
You know, it's totally fine. And I read an article in a major newspaper about two weeks after I did that, where they said, why do we enjoy failing at our hobbies? Why is it so great to have a hobby where you're not good? And, you know, it's in one perspective, it's you're not under pressure.

Devin
10:12 - 10:34
This is my hobby. I can suck if I want to, or if that's just how it is, because nobody's going to fire me from my hobby because I didn't, you know, meet my quota. But, If I then look at something else I do, not for money, which is write, and I do different kinds of writing. but it doesn't matter what kind of writing it is.

Devin
10:34 - 10:48
If I am in that process, that is something very personal. So I'm gonna call the writing creative work. And now, while I'm still having fun, it's serious to me. My identity is invested in that writing.

Devin
10:49 - 11:21
And I will agree with something Dr. Tameka said earlier, which is being very selective about those from whom you solicit feedback. So, hey, anybody can say anything they want about my chess playing, Not going to hurt me, but you talk about my writing and we may have to step out back. So, I'm going to be very careful who I put that in front of and ask for that feedback because it matters to me and I've got a lot of good or bad. I'm not sure if this is the right way to go, but I'm invested in that writing and I care about.

Devin
11:21 - 11:32
what, you know, those that I trust to share it with think about it. So that's my distinction, I guess, my best distinction of clear hobby versus clear creative work.

Alessandra
11:33 - 12:04
Well, that's the perfect segue for the whole reason. Well, Greg and I were talking in the podcast prep breakout room before we came here and turned on all the lights and checked the sound and all those things that we do to make a beautiful episode to share with our friends here. But what... What we were talking about is, you know, that whole thing about we don't want to put our creative pearls before swine, right?

Alessandra
12:05 - 12:35
Our family and friends may care about us, but they may not give a shit about our creative work. In fact, that is how Creative Work Hour, the community, came to be. We fill a niche between your family who loves you, and they don't care about your creative work, and your friends who love you, but they're sick of hearing about it. That's where we come in.

Alessandra
12:35 - 12:56
because the way that we work here at Creative Work Hour is, yeah, we make this space available every day. Now, we don't want to hear all and all and all and all and all about your creative work. We want to hear about five minutes. And then we turn off the microphones and we go to work.

Alessandra
12:57 - 13:10
And at the end of the hour for five minutes, we want to hear some more about it. Like, how did you progress? Now that, to me, is a really good bowl of soup. It gives you the comfort that you need, that you're not all by yourself.

Alessandra
13:11 - 13:40
It gives you a place to say, ah, this is what I'm working on. I'm not really feeling it today. It also gives you a place to say, I made a breakthrough or it gives you a safe place without judgment to be able to say, yeah, I didn't make the cut on that thing I was going for. And that is the magic of creative work hour is that it is kind feedback where your secrets are kept, where you don't have to work alone.

Alessandra
13:40 - 14:03
And whatever you're going through, you can have as little support or as much as you like. So we want you to know that if you are listening to this podcast and you're like, I don't know what to do with my crazy creative self. Well, we are an option. Look into us at creativeworkhour.com to just get an idea of what is our ethos?

Alessandra
14:03 - 14:17
What are we like? And if you want to get an invitation to apply to sit alongside us, because we keep it small. We keep it trustworthy. This is a safe place.

Alessandra
14:17 - 14:31
We keep it that way. You can reach out to me in any of the socials at Alessandra White. That's 1L2S at Alessandra White, and I'll be there to answer your questions. But I'm wondering, We've got a couple of things worked out.

Alessandra
14:32 - 14:43
We have an idea of what it means to us for something to be a hobby and what it means to us for something to be creative work. But what we need to know is what time it is. Greg, what time is it?

Greg
14:43 - 14:56
It's that time again, and Devon's holding a watch in the air, which you can't see. But it is that time again. You've wasted some perfectly good time listening to the Creative Work Hour podcast. when you could have been doing something else.

Greg
14:56 - 15:08
But what about you? What does the difference between creative work and hobby mean to you? Let us know again at creativeworkhour.com. Come back next week and we'll be here for another interesting topic.

Greg
15:08 - 15:10
Have a great week.