
The Gap Between Where You Are and Where You Want to Be Is Not a Problem with Kat
From The Create! Podcast by Ekaterina Popova
March 24, 2026 · 13 min
About this episode
Ekaterina Popova discusses the challenges of bridging the gap between current abilities and future goals for artists and entrepreneurs.
You invest in a mentor, a course, or a new skill, and instead of feeling excited, you feel exposed. You see the artist you admire and wonder if you will ever get there. Your ego wants you to quit before you even start. Sound familiar? This week Ekaterina gets honest about her own experience of evolving, trying new things in the studio, shifting her art, and the vulnerability, self-doubt, and resistance that showed up right alongside it. She turns that moment into the most important conversation you can have as a creative or entrepreneur: what to do with the gap between where you are today and where you want to go. This episode will shift how you see your progress, your timeline, and your worth as an artist right now, before you have it all figured out. In this episode: Why your brain treats learning a new skill like a threat, and how to push through anyway The one question that separates artists who grow from artists who stay stuck What the research says about how fast you can build real confidence in a new skill (it is faster than you think) How to stop comparing your Chapter 1 to someone else's Chapter 20 Why sharing your work before you feel ready is one of the…
People in this episode
Host: Ekaterina Popova
Topics covered
- creative growth
- self-doubt
- entrepreneurship
- artistic vulnerability
- skill development
- comparison
- confidence building
Keywords
- mentorship
- artistic journey
- self-improvement
- creative process
- overcoming resistance
- personal growth
- learning new skills
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