We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Lisa Shaw McKenzie. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Lisa below.
Lisa, so excited to have you with us today. So much we can chat about, but one of the questions we are most interested in is how you have managed to keep your creativity alive.
I remember a conversation with my husband on this topic a few years back. We were dating at the time and sitting in my backyard and I was talking about being multi-passionate and all that pressure, of wanting to do so many things, burnout in one area, etc. (I have heard many times that wedding photographers usually have a ten year mark for burnout and I was there but couldn’t fathom actually stopping this business that I had worked so hard for-my baby). I have so many things that I’d like to do. So does he. He had put it to an analogy of gardening/farming. How crops can deplete the nutrients in the soil after a few years and the best thing is to plant something else there to get the nutrients back.
Sometimes it is just a season, time to do something else, but that doesn’t mean you can’t pick that back up again later. We learn so much in the pauses, and it does all connect.
Then he went on to say that doing something else, whether it’s art or playing an instrument or whatever, opens up parts of the brain that were dormant. Parts of the brain that weren’t being used interact with other parts of the brain and everything lights up differently. So, two unrelated things help each other, like playing an instrument and mathematics.
I often find that all things connect to each other in some pretty enlightening ways. Pottery helps me with letting go of my perfectionism, which is necessary when you own a business and deal with clients, but not exactly necessary in life, personal views of myself, art, or writing. It teaches me nonattachment, because I don’t have a ton of control, and I need that reminder in my life. Plus, working with my hands, working with dirt, is literally “grounding”. It is therapeutic on so many levels, but it also opens up my mind while I’m on the wheel and solutions to other things usually come without forcing it. When you give your head a break and focus on something else, the answer usually comes then.
Whatever I am going through connects to all aspects of my creative life. And my creative products usually teach me something as well. Happy mistakes transform the meaning of a drawing. I love stuff like that. It happens a lot to me. Or something different pops out that was not originally intended. Or something really beautiful emerges from a mess of watercolor frustration and that is such a clear message/sign to me that helps me get through that struggle.
Creativity is such a good teacher. These “happy accidents” happen in life as well and if we can see the blessing in them, if we can view it in a different way, stretching our creative muscles, we have a much better time. There is a reason teachers know that creativity teaches problem solving skills.
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou
I realize my “problem”, of being multi-passionate, is actually the solution to this question. How do you keep your creativity alive? Give yourself grace to do all the things. Keep learning.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Lisa a multi-passionate business owner. –Founder of The Bigger Picture Photography and Your Influencer Image
–Writer, contributor to several publications and restarting a blog, Cheshire Moon Smile. Two books in the works.
Lisa is passionate about helping neurodiverse families and also Al-Anon Family Groups move toward healing and
growth
— Artist and ceramicist, found on Etsy and Instagram at Cheshire Moon Works. Artwork also sold locally in Michigan.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Discipline, balance, and believing in yourself. It takes discipline to get the work done when you are the only one who’s goal it is. Get it on the calendar or it won’t happen. Make your goal the first thing you do instead of emails and getting distracted. Set timers. Clap for your damn self. Balance! Wow, it is so necessary to keep burnout at bay and to live a life while still being a business owner. Take time to play. Again, get it on the calendar. Take days off, take vacation days like everyone else, make recurring dates with friends, learn how to say “No” and be ok with that. It’s hard for people pleasers, so I’ve had a lot of help with that and found many mentors. It’s business. Treat it like a business, but you still need to live your beautiful life too. Believe in yourself when no one gets it or you receive negative reactions to your dreams. Trust your gut. Always. Invest in yourself. Keep learning and surround yourself with encouraging, like-minded goal-getters. Think bigger. Don’t listen to people who say you have to niche and want to put you in a box. Push yourself, but again, make sure you clap for yourself and take time to play and pray.
What has been your biggest area of growth or improvement in the past 12 months?
I finally got the message that I am enough. Me, myself, and I. This is a common saying right now, but I never truly, deeply got it until I went through some difficult pressures that I put on myself recently. I remember thinking “I should’ve.. ” “I should’ve…”, but realizing how much personal trauma was thrown at me, and it was a lot at the same time, and giving myself grace- to process, to grieve, to find the beauty in the chaos, to … come back to me. I think I should be productive all the time. I should write about this traumatic experience and help other people. I should “help”, I should “fix”… And a message popped in my head about “You are enough”. It is enough that you get it. It is enough that you are ok. Giving myself grace to enjoy this for a while. To know that I don’t have to be productive all the time. Over-achieving and pushing right on through, not letting myself rest. I can concentrate on me for a small amount of time. Catch my breath. Stop feeling guilty about the fact that I matter to me.
I lived on Maui for a few years. One thing that I loved was no one cared about what you did to make money. That’s a mainland thing, where we put so much emphasis on what we do. We make that who we are. It is not. We are so much more than what we do. In this respect, I feel like my “purpose” kind of gets muddled in that line of logic as well. So, sometimes, I just go to the beach and let myself just be. I am not a wife, daughter, sister, aunt, friend, business owner, artist, writer, helper, fixer, etc. I am just me. I hear the sounds, I smell the smells, I feel the feels, and I smile just to be alive.
Contact Info:
- Other: writing- www.cheshiremoonsmile.com — Under construction, work in progress! photography–www.lookatthebiggerpicture.com www.yourinfluencerimage.com art- Instagram– @cheshire.moon.works Etsy- Cheshire Moon Works
Image Credits
Some of these photos- credit to Caedy Convis and Amber Andrews
