A short bonus episode showcasing a few stand out moments from this weeks guest interview with Thiago Maia

Daring Forever. Podcast with Radim Malinic

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Radim Malinic: [00:00:00] Hey, welcome to this bonus episode of the Daring Creativity Podcast. This is the bonus episode number 15. And as you might now know, this is where I revisit the interview published earlier in the week, provided me with the opportunity to zoom in on a few standout moments for extra value and meaning taking time to digest the goodness my guests share with me every week.

This week I was chatting with Thiago Maia a Brazilian animated designer, creative who now lives in London. And the episode that got published a few days ago, well, it's had very minimal edits because what we recorded went out. 

It was such an honest conversation about things that matter, the creative humans working and living today, and thinking to those who've already sent such nice messages about it because it's resonated with many.

I've been design and animator for the last 26 years, butI feel [00:01:00] myself more nowadays. I like to say more like a magician.

Thiago: I like to solve people's problem and, in a creative way. I'm not the best animator in the world. I'm not the best design in the world, but I make shit happen. That's what I do.

Radim Malinic: So the conversation started with Thiago being very honest about what he thinks, and it's not that English self-deprecation, it's more about the fact that being honest with what you can do and how you can do it, it goes against the toxic perfectionism that can paralyze so many people. I have to say that in the creative industry, We are constantly bombarded with incredible portfolio and highlight reels, and that can only make you feel like an imposter. But when Thiago said, you know what? I just make it happen. And I go back to something I've said many times on this podcast is not how good you are, is how good you want to be or how good you accept yourself to be.

Because when you do that, and this resonates back to conversation with Mali Patel, [00:02:00] that, letting go is part of self-acceptance because saying what? You can do, and however you can do it creates a space for you. Because when Thiago said, look, I make shit happen. It just represents the execution of over ideation.

And I just liked the way he opened the conversation because it opened the way to say, look, I am who I am and we're gonna get a really deep,

I'm still struggling to get back. I still having ups and downs. I was hit by not just all this mental breakdown, but we being hit by the industry being really bad, than the last couple, two years. if the industry was good, probably would be easier.

Thiago: But I think that's all part of the lesson that I needed to learn, and I need to learn hard. 'cause all my life I, as I told you, I focus on something, I push through and I get what I wanted, and I'm a person then. [00:03:00] Therapy made me to understand I'm a person. Then I create goals, but I create a list and I go and tick, and I tick every single goal I put on my list, but I don't enjoy the process.

I lost them through disease. As in a relationship, a parenthood or I work. I lost the enjoyment of the process. And there I feel I lost the happiness,

Radim Malinic: The main part of our conversation was about Thiago struggle with depression. Depression came around COVID time and it's.

Created a lot of negative experiences, negative outcomes, and he was very honest and and beautiful from Thiago to say, look, I was so deep in all of this that I just didn't care about what I had to do. And he said, he's still not through all of it, something that came through. The [00:04:00] depression wasn't something that he thought he would ever have to struggle with, but it was at a time where even though things were really good on paper.

They didn't manifest themselves in his life andeven though he's achieved everything he set out to do with his successful studio, international recognition, financial stability, he found himself profoundly unhappy. And in this standout moment, he talked about the fact that. he's still working through his depression.

 the hangover of depression or the residue of it, and. Even though he's not enjoying some of the goals that he has to create for himself and just manually take them off, he doesn't enjoy the process, but that process is ultimately what is gonna get him through. 

 I think happiness for me is having freedom. I think happiness. It is having freedom and I think running the business, a [00:05:00] lot of people confuse that, especially like the young generation.

Thiago: They say, oh, I'm gonna open a studio. That's the reason I open, I'm gonna direct my own work. I'm gonna do the things I love. Yeah. But once you are business, you have built to pay, you have stuff, and, you need, or you have a few partners, then take off everything else. Or you need to run outta everything and come from a place, then I didn't understand any of them.

I need to learn on the go. I think that really burns me out, And, I didn't have the freedom to create what I wanted. my marriage didn't give me the freedom at some point than, as. I want to be, I'm not saying freedom to be a couple, but not being a couple, but it's the freedom as a person and in the relationship, the freedom to be the father I wanted to be.

So I start being really unhappy because I felt trapped in the loop of relationship work, parenthood all [00:06:00] the things. Then none of them was making me happy. they, but I think what was, I felt trapped. I felt a bird inside a small cage that couldn't fly. 

Radim Malinic: This is part of the conversation where we really talk deep about how the manifestation of depression had very strong impact on creative life, on personal life.

Relationships, family. parenting because feeling like a bird inside a case that couldn't fly is the antithesis of creative life. Most people do not want to feel any element of being closed off, having limitations, because ultimately we dream about creative freedoms in a way that. We want to sometimes do what we wanna do, the way we want to do it, and if something stands in our way, it can be, devastating.

I think with times in our lives we learn that [00:07:00] to be able to do whatever you want to do, when you want to do is a massive privilege because, if you wanna live the high stakes game, be a parent, have a run your own business. It is no low hanging fruit. It's more about the fact that you really want to push yourself, and that comes at price because none of this stuff was ever meant to be easy.

I'll repeat myself. There's never such thing as the end of problems, and we do see happiness as the ultimate sort of definition of freedom. But maybe it's just contentment. Maybe it's just, not needing to, fight another battle. 

 not having the freedom to express himself had a devastating impact on his studio, on his family, on everything, and being able to say, that's how I felt and that's what I wanted to do, and changing things.

It's very powerful.

I said in the talks, in the [00:08:00] lectures, I do, I didn't even give a fuck. I was in a situation then. Didn't, I was like in autopilot, in automatic, and I didn't even think I was just going to try and survive. and it hit me really badly. And that's why I love sharing that story, and I'm going through because I realize there's being like a eighties kids, I realized we grow up like swallowing that shit.

Thiago: boys don't cry, you just move on. The only way to go is pushing through, And so I never really spoke up. I didn't even have a vocabulary to talk to people about what I'm feeling until I met. A friend and he said, man, why you don't talk? if you want, I recommend you to my therapist.

And I used to hate the word therapist because my ex-wife used to, you need to do therapy, you need to do therapy, you need to do therapy. And I said, fuck, I don't need to do therapy. I know my problems. I need just focus and keep going. And that's not reality. And I think most of the eighties, people now is doing all the [00:09:00] therapy, is the therapy, time but I start opening to people 

Radim Malinic: Wherever you are in the world listening to this, the approach to mental health. And fixing mental health is still wishy-washy. You get maybe some people and some layers of society are a little bit more attuned to the fact that we can get help. Some societies even as developed as they might be, might still not have the best, understanding of mental health or ways to help people because some of these things.

It seems really strange to be saying this in 2025. We are still getting to understand our mental health. We're still getting to understand things that make us not function really well. And the disabilities or mental health is not always obvious. It's not visible and it's not always something that people want to share.

So, Thiago talked about the fact that, Boys don't cry. You just move on. And what [00:10:00] happens? You just drag that baggage with you on your back to another day to another destination, and it's never gonna get lighter. In fact, even though you're not adding much of a new stuff to that baggage is still gets heavier and heavier until you deal with it.

So I would encourage you if you feel in a similar position or you're just curious. Listen to the conversation with Thiago because he is someone who clearly struggled, ex clearly struggled, expressing himself about what he feels. There was definitely a shield of, 

 manliness about the fact that, you know, even though people surrounding him, suggested that he gets help. He thought. It's not something that he would ever do. And luckily he found that help through other people in his life who opened conversations, showed him away into therapy, showed him a way of solving his problems, [00:11:00] because as I just said, that baggage just doesn't go away until you really, you know, emptied that bag of it all.

And tell yourself how much of a person do you wanna be going forward and how much of that heaviness do you wanna carry forward? So yeah, my conversation with Thiago is one of those that has resonated with so many people already and it's been only a few days since it's been released 'cause it's honest and you are most likely to hear some of the stuff that is relevant to you and some of the stuff that you might be going through or have gone through and.

As you know, one of the reasons why I've started this podcast is to really shine a light on the fact that we are so unique yet all equal in life and creativity. So thank you for joining me on this bonus episode, and I look forward to seeing you next week.