The MOOD Podcast
In The MOOD Podcast, Matt Jacob, renowned cultural portrait photographer, dives deep into the world of photography and the visual arts, with guests from all around the creative industry, across all parts of the globe, sharing inspiring stories and experiences that will leave you wanting more. With years of experience and a passion for storytelling, Matt has become a master of capturing lesser-told human stories through his photography, and teams up with other special artists from around the world to showcase insights, experiences and opinions within the diverse and sometimes controversial photography world.
You can watch these podcasts on his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@mattyj_ay.
You can also follow Matt's work on his Instagram @mattyj_ay and his website: https://mattjacobphotography.com.
The MOOD Podcast
The Performance Trap and Creative Amnesia - Moments of Mood, 2.7
That familiar question we all dread - "So, what do you do?" - is more than small talk. It's a sorting mechanism that triggers our instinct to perform rather than connect. We scramble to sound impressive, to land in the 'interesting' pile, polishing our titles and subtly flexing our achievements. But this performance comes at a cost: the more we perform, the more we forget our authentic voice.
Childhood creativity gives way to adult performance so gradually we barely notice it happening. One day you're drawing in your sketch book; the next you're color-coding spreadsheets and wondering when you last created something not measured by metrics. Creativity gets replaced by correctness, expression by efficiency, and authenticity by applause-seeking. Yet this creativity - this ability to make, imagine, and see possibilities - isn't just for artists. It's a birthright we all possess, not something we achieve, but something we remember.
What if the secret to finding your voice isn't adding more credentials, techniques, or polish? What if it's about stripping away the performance, the masks, the need to impress? When we create from truth instead of performance, something profound shifts. People respond differently - not because we're technically perfect, but because we're genuinely present. In a world drowning in information but starving for imagination, creativity isn't indulgent - it's revolutionary. Because when people reconnect with their creative voice, they don't just make better work, they live more honest lives. They challenge broken systems, speak truth when silence is expected, and imagine possibilities beyond current paradigms. Your creativity isn't lost; it's just buried under expectations and fear. Stop asking what others want to hear and start asking what you actually want to say. The world doesn't need more performance. It needs more of you.
Happy Shooting.
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Do you ever notice how quickly we perform? One of the things that's always quietly irritated me and I'm sure I'm not alone here is small talk yeah, not all of it, but that question, that one that always seems to come up within the first five minutes of meeting someone. So what do you do? And on the surface it's innocent enough, I guess, because, let's be honest, it's not just a question, it's a sorting mechanism, and that's perfectly natural. It's really just an attempt to categorize you, to slap on a label, sort you into a box and decide, based on your answer, whether you belong in the interesting pile or the politely move on pile. The person asking doesn't really want to know you, they really just want to place you. And the funny part is we know this, I think we feel it that split second panic kicks in, where you're scrambling to choose which kind of version of yourself is going to sound most put together, most successful, most impressive, and in that moment you're not really answering the question. You're performing, polishing the resume in your head, editing the job title, throwing in a subtle flex about that one cool project. We give the version that sounds most impressive, the version that makes them maybe raise an eyebrow instead of lower their expectations. Right, because ego is the architect of the mask always building, never belonging. It doesn't speak, it performs.
Matt Jacob:Just recently I was preparing for a talk and I caught myself doing it. I was writing down ideas for the opening and suddenly I noticed I wasn't really thinking about what was true. I was thinking about what would land and what would really sound clever, what would make you think, wow, this guy's worth listening to. And it hit me even in a talk about voice. I was performing Because we're taught to perform for approval, for opportunity, for belonging. But I think this is the catch the more we perform, the more we forget. We forget what our voice actually sounds like and we all have one. We live in a world where success has a hierarchy. And art, creativity, self-expression they're usually buried somewhere near the bottom. Remember what childhood was like? Right, maybe they were fun when we were kids, but they weren't serious, they weren't useful, they weren't important. So it's no wonder so many people grow into adulthood thinking they aren't creative. Grow into adulthood thinking they aren't creative, that creativity is a luxury or worse, a waste of time. But I do not believe that at all. I believe creativity is a birthright that every single person starts with it, not just the artists and the poets and the romantics, but the builders, the leaders, the parents, the kids who doodled in the margins. It's not something we earn or achieve. It's something we remember. So what actually makes us forget? Well, in order to answer that question, we're going to go back.
Matt Jacob:As a child, I was obsessed with sport. I still get something from sport that I don't get anything else. Maybe it's a nostalgia, maybe it's a competitive passion, and that was my thing back in the day. But I also played piano, and I played it really well. I loved the classical pieces. There was something about jazz that intrigued me, though. The idea that you could sit down and just make something up and have it fit in real time actually blew my mind, but improvising felt almost impossible. I was frozen, scared to hit the wrong note, scared to mess up. Looking back, I can see it clearly now. I was already performing right. I was trying to do it right rather than do it real, and that tension followed me into photography.
Matt Jacob:I remember one of my first paid gigs as a photographer. I booked a creative shoot with someone I met through Instagram. I thought we'd do something edgy. I thought I'd try and look cool. You know, in a studio cinematic, cool lighting. Yeah, I thought I knew it all. She showed up with her mum, not in the background, but actually on set. The whole time I was trying to direct like, okay, now give me something relaxed, honest and real. And her mum was just off to the side with snacks and silly feedback like honey, tuck your shirt in. And then at one point she actually asked me if I was a real photographer or if I was just figuring it out. Well, obviously I didn't really know what to say and after some murmuring I eventually just said yes to both. It was the longest hour ever. And the photos, well, they looked like a school portrait session held in some corner of an auditorium. They were average at best and it was brutal. But the worst part wasn't the mistake, it was that in trying so hard to appear like a pro, I had stopped showing up like a person. I was all mask and no connection. And yet that moment was really pivotal because it cracked the performance and through that crack, something really started to come through over time. Okay, so now we've gone back, let's zoom out a second, because this isn't just about me. I mean, of course this is about all of us about me, I mean. Of course this is about all of us.
Matt Jacob:Somewhere between childhood and adulthood, most people stop creating I see it with my own eyes all the time Not because they suddenly lose interest, but because the world quietly teaches them that creativity doesn't belong in the real world. We're told to be practical, mathematical, be efficient, get a job, get serious pay bills, climb the career ladder and over time, what starts as subtle nudges becomes actually a deep disconnection. We trade imagination for instruction, we trade expression for performance. And the most tragic part of all of this is that we don't even realize it's happening, because the shift is gradual. You know, one day you're drawing on your bedroom wall with glitter pens yeah, glitter pens and the next you're color coding a spreadsheet and wondering when the last time that you actually made something that wasn't measured in KPIs was something that wasn't measured in KPIs was. And the wild part is, we've been here before. We have done this as kids. We created because we could, we had no limits, we played, we imagined, we made weird stuff up. We didn't need a strategy or a portfolio or a five-year plan or a spreadsheet or a certificate. We needed space and maybe just some crayons or a ball. But somewhere along the way, creativity got replaced by correctness, that sketchbook got swapped for test scores and silly, stupid exam grades, and slowly we started aiming for applause instead of authenticity.
Matt Jacob:Now I host a podcast, as you know, the Mood Podcast. Shameless plug, yep. But it's where I speak with creatives photographers, writers, designers, filmmakers because it interests me, and what strikes me again and again isn't just their talent, it's their return, their return to something that they had forgotten. Either's their return, their return to something that they'd forgotten either immediately or eventually, a part of themselves that never really left. It just got quieter in the background. Take one of my esteemed guests.
Matt Jacob:I had the pleasure of talking with who I still think about and I've read his book Sean Tucker. He spent years mastering the technical stuff lenses, lighting, composition but the better he got at the rules, the more lifeless he felt his work started to feel. So one day he put it all down, took a single camera into the street and just followed whatever moved him, not what was trending, not what looked good online, but what felt real to him. And the moment he did, everything shifted Not just the work but how people responded to it, not because he was the most polished, but because he was the most present. So that got me thinking and it really reminded me of that shoot, you know, with the mum, the girl with the mum.
Matt Jacob:Looking back, the real issue wasn't the outfit critiques or the snacks or the mess that the mum made, or even the car park location. It was me. I was trying so hard to perform, to fake it till I made it, to impress, to appear like I had it all together that I wasn't actually there, I wasn't listening, I wasn't playing, I was posing just like the client was, and we both felt it and the work spoke because of it. But that moment, as painful as it was, taught me something important you don't get to the good stuff by posturing. You get it by being honest. Yeah, it's a longer and more difficult road, oh, but it's so, so worth it. So I realized we don't find our voice by adding more. We find it by stripping things away. We don't chase it, we remember it, we return to it, and that return really changes everything. Because I saw this in myself more than anyone.
Matt Jacob:Right, the moment I stopped trying to be impressive and started creating work that felt really true. Everything shifted, just had more freedom. I stopped obsessing over whether my work looked like everyone or anyone else's. I let go of all the filters that I thought I needed to be taken seriously, and that's when the real opportunities started showing up. It's an energy shift. People aren't stupid, they have the sixth sense, and the clients I admired found me. The work started feeling like an extension of my soul, not just a service, and, maybe most surprising of all, people began to tell me that my work moved them, not because it was perfect or I got technically better, but because it was mine. It was more me, because this isn't just about making art and being all arty, farty, but it is about making meaning. Isn't that what we're here for? It's about building a world, even if it's just your little world that doesn't just function but feels.
Matt Jacob:Look around at our systems, our politics, our planet, our screens. We don't have a lack of information. What we do have is a lack of imagination. We've been trained to think in boxes, optimize for profit and measure value in attention spans and productivity scores and exam grades and test scores, but the truth is that's not how real change happens. Real change doesn't start with answers, right, it starts with much, much better questions, starts with pushing the boundaries, it starts with curiosity, empathy, vision, which means creativity isn't the opposite of progress, it's the engine of it.
Matt Jacob:We need more makers, more poets, more people who can see what isn't there yet and believe in it anyway, because when people reconnect with their creative voice and we all have them they don't just become more fulfilled, they become more free and free. People do radical things, they do great things. They do world-changing things. They challenge broken systems and then they build new ones. They speak the truth when silence is expected. They imagine possibilities that the current paradigm can't compute, and that's why this matters. That's why I feel so strongly about it, not because everyone needs to.
Matt Jacob:So I realized we don't find our voice by adding more. We find it by stripping things away. It's not something out there that we chase, something else that we remember that we return to, and that return changes everything. So when you start creating from truth, not performance, you have to know that something does shift. You begin to act with intention, not anxiety. You slow down, you become more present and something unexpected happens. People actually start to notice, not because you're shouting louder, but because you're shouting clearly. Not because you're trying to stand out, but because you're finally standing in something real. And I've seen this shift in many others too.
Matt Jacob:On my podcast, I've interviewed artists and thinkers who've spent years chasing perfection, only to find that the moment they let go of being impressive and started creating from alignment was the moment their work finally started to connect. Because when you create from who you are instead of who you're trying to be, your work becomes something people feel. Yes, you have to know who you are, but that's part of the journey and that's the power of remembering your voice. It gives you back your agency, it anchors you in your identity, it gives your work a pulse again and it's not selfish, it's actually service. It's the opposite. And this idea it's not new. Of course, I'm not some prophet, inspired guru or even an evangelical messenger. I just believe what I have experienced and what I've seen across hundreds of people up close and across a huge portion of my clients and those within my community and mentorship groups. It's prevalent everywhere.
Matt Jacob:Picasso once said all children are born artists. The problem is to remain an artist once we grow up. That's the work we're being invited back into not to become something, but to unbecome all of the noise and all of the shit. That's the work we're being invited back into, not to become something, but to unbecome all of the noise and all of the shit that told us our creativity doesn't matter. And when we do, when we reclaim that part of ourselves, we don't just make better work, we live more honest lives. It's not just about the work, it's not just about the output.
Matt Jacob:But here's the issue. I see Most people won't do this right, not because they can't, but because they've been conditioned not to, because they've been told their creativity doesn't matter. They'll stay busy, they'll feel busy, they'll feel important, stay reactive, scrolling, consuming, striving, editing themselves into someone else's algorithm and slowly they'll forget there was ever a voice to remember at all this. This is what happens when we stop creating. We numb, we burn out, we shrink. We give our attention, our most precious currency, to people who profit from our disconnection, most precious currency to people who profit from our disconnection. But every time you sit down to make something real, something that reflects what you actually feel, believe, love, you take some of that attention back and that act, that act is not trivial, it's revolutionary.
Matt Jacob:Your creativity is not a side project, it's not decoration, it's not indulgent, it is a necessary form of resistance in a world that trains us to perform. Not creating because you think it doesn't matter is like holding a healing salve in your hand and refusing to use it. What if we've been taught to look in the wrong place? What if the real answer was with us, inside of us, all along? This is what it comes down to. We're taught to perform for success this stupid word success but your creative voice isn't found. It's remembered. It's not rare, it's not elite, it's not reserved for artists, it's in everyone. And it's needed now more than ever Because in our world that makes us feel small, distracted and powerless. Creativity is how we reclaim our agency. It reconnects us to meaning, it anchors us in presence, it opens the door to change, not just in us, but in everything we touch and everyone we come across.
Matt Jacob:Imagine if more people remembered. Imagine if parents modeled expression instead of perfection, perfection. Imagine if leaders built with clarity, not ego. Imagine if schools made creativity the foundation, not the footnote. If artists stopped seeking approval and started seeking truth. The world would change, not from the top down, but from the inside out. So no, this video, this talk, is not about finding your voice. It's about remembering that it was never lost. It was just buried under expectations, under performance, under fear. So maybe today you stop asking what do they want to hear and start asking what do I actually want to say? Because the world doesn't need more performance it really doesn't but it needs more truth, it needs more presence, more soul, more of you. So stop performing and start remembering.
