Meet Annie Lynn

We were lucky to catch up with Annie Lynn recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Annie, thank you for being such a positive, uplifting person. We’ve noticed that so many of the successful folks we’ve had the good fortune of connecting with have high levels of optimism and so we’d love to hear about your optimism and where you think it comes from.
I love this question. I’ve actually been thinking and reading a lot about the word “hope” lately. To me optimism and hope are super close. For me I simply couldn’t keep as positive or optimistic as I like to be without continually taking consistent steps and actions towards specific things I’m aiming for. In short, I just don’t give up.

I work incredibly hard, and diligently for the things I want and have in my life. I’m not shy to say many things have not come easy to me. I’ve had to learn many new skills and techniques over the years, and do the work required to reach the goals I’ve wanted to get to using my unique gifts and talents. While I’ve more recently been focusing on writing music and exploring my creativity simply because I want to, and because it brings me joy, I don’t buy into any idea that talent alone is enough if you want a career in the arts, never have.

But I also think too many people stop being creative because they think it’s some sort of pre-determined way a “creative life” might look like. I think we all have the ability to be creative and what that looks like from person to person will vary, and of course what success looks like to them will vary too.

Before I was ever writing and releasing songs, and was studying music, theatre and dance at the the University of Minnesota, I wrote a book called “Beyond Talent.” It was at first a part of a senior project, that I later self-published before too many people were really doing that. I started writing it the summer I didn’t get cast in a particular production that was running on the Minnesota Centennial Showboat. I’d been cast the previous two summers. At the time it was the number one best paying non-union job in the Twin Cities, and I loved it and learned so much what life as a full time performing artist was like. I wanted more.

But that summer I didn’t get cast and I was devastated. I remember my roommate was helping work on the show and every day she’d go off to the boat I’d be home kinda feeling sorry for myself. But that summer I started writing this book and gathering questions I had on how to make the performing arts a sustainable career. No one was really answering these questions for me in school. So I started a mission, a kind of personal quest to find the answers by asking others in the local professional theatre community their thoughts, and other students who maybe had similar questions. I even had to formally learn how to set it up like an official research project through the university, and gather signatures for getting the information, and consent to use their quotes in my book.

At the same time, as a side note, I was volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House, just down the street from my apartment, weeding their overgrown and neglected garden all on my own. I completely transformed that garden over the course of the summer! It was very therapeutic. I’d work there a handful of hours a week and then go home and write everything I’d been learning on how to start and sustain a performance career, leaving gaps for information I’d fill in with the input from others. I even read a book on formatting text and how to make content look more readable. I learned how to add images, and even later posed for the cover in a photoshoot my brother-in-law helped me set up.

I just shifted focus, kept “optimistic” and was hopeful good things were ahead. I chose to do something other than just sit on my couch and lose hope. To garden, write, learn, and grow.

The next school year the project fit a need for myself and what I thought could help others. It was great! I was optimistic for it to be useful which fueled the next thing I did after graduating, which was to get it online and available both in print and digital format. So I learned how to do all that, got an ISBN number and barcode for it, copyrighted it, the whole thing!

I was hopeful I could sell the book to lots of performing artists like myself, but I quickly learned I knew almost nothing about marketing a book. I ventured into learning about that area for a while, but eventually I kinda moved on from it. Today I look back on it as one of many projects along my journey.

I tell this story because one thing can lead to another. I followed my desire to have a career in the performing arts and instincts to write. To this day, I still do. I didn’t let something I couldn’t control like not getting cast in a show, stop me from moving forward, even if it meant for a few months I’d need to pull some weeds and regroup. This lesson has been helpful to remember over and over again. I’ve learned “hope” and “optimism” are a choice, and I’ll borrow from Jane Goodall “a survival skill.” Combine that with not just thought, but real action and you’ve got something so so powerful. With good intentions, it can be not just inspiring but a source for real change.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
If I were to describe the genre I write in, I’d say kinda a folksy-pop Americana. A lot of my music is really upbeat, positive, singable and catchy. I adore writing what I call my “Annie’s Adventure” pen-pal letters (emails) that folks can sign up to receive on my website called the Annie Lynn Club. I send it out every other Friday, giving updates on what projects I’m working on in a fun and engaging, personalized way. I also provide Annie Lynn Club members exclusive access to a free acoustic album of the songs I’ve released, and a “members only” area on my blog where I have what I call a micro-museum. This includes more personal stories I’ve curated about my journey and growing up. It’s nostalgic, and really a sneak peak into where I get ideas for lyrics for the songs I’m writing.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
#1 Believe in yourself and trust your instincts. I think at a very young age we know ourselves almost better than we do as adults, and we can lose touch with what makes us most happy or what we really want to spend our time doing. I love to spend time being nostalgic, writing about the past and growing up to remind myself of my past self, but also to look ahead and dream about what I’d love my future to look like too.

#2 Be willing to learn and grow.
I try to keep a part of that little girl inside of me that was flipping her hair for the camera at six years old, but be open to where she’s gonna go next! (there’s a fun little video on my Annie Lynn Club website blog called “Party like it’s 1988!” that shows me doing this. It was my sixth birthday and my dad just got a new camcorder. It’s the first video I’ve ever been recorded in, and I was imitating the girls in the 1980s hair commercials I saw flipping their hair. I even made up a song on the spot he captured that day too) I just loved having an audience from a very young age and I guess over the years I try to remember what I most naturally have always had in me that is uniquely me and lights me up.

#3 Be adaptable and flexible.
This is a super hard one at times but also has been incredibly helpful to me on my journey. I’m naturally someone who loves a plan, I mean LOVES a detailed plan, spreadsheet… but here’s the thing, life does not go in a straight logical line, especially a creative life. Life is like an adventure with its ups and downs and unexpected, even life altering moments. It’s why I developed and share my motto “Make it an Adventure” to help navigate life with a more open minded perspective. This doesn’t mean I don’t still have what I’d like to happen in mind, or try to prepare or anticipate what’s coming next, but it reminds me that some things are in my control and some things are not. It’s okay to adjust, and take a different path, and necessary to make changes and allow for changes to happen. And in order to get through it, it’s like we all have to have our own little internal compass, something that continually keeps you pointed in a direction you want to go. Getting stuck or lost happens, but constantly re-directing myself over the years is how I’ve gotten to where I am today. I think we each have incredible stories, and to me finishing or starting a new chapter is really something to celebrate, or write about!

Before we go, any advice you can share with people who are feeling overwhelmed?
I love to write every morning, even if it’s for only a few minutes. Just anything on my mind to get it out. I have a notebook handy by my grandma’s old dining room table where I love to eat breakfast, and look out into my yard and garden. I pick up a pen and just start writing. It could be things I’m thankful for, or things I’m disappointed about, or thoughts I’d never want to say out loud. These are very personal writings, different from a journal that I’d save or date. These clear my brain and mind so that I can feel better, free up some creative space mentally. I don’t show this to anyone, I throw it out. But sometimes I’ll underline things that come up that I do want to follow up on, like a little todo list item, or bigger problem that I need to schedule time to think more deeply on. But after I capture those and transfer them to my calendar or an organizing app on my phone for specific lists I keep, I totally let it all go. Sometimes it’s a ten minute thing, other days it’s a few pages. Sometimes only a paragraph. But I try to write most days to keep myself from getting overwhelmed.

I also have been walking nearly everyday outside in the morning, and as much as I can I get out in nature, even if it’s only for ten minutes. I don’t actually listen to any music on these walks either. I let my mind wander and might think about a specific problem I’m trying to work out or idea I’m bouncing around, but it’s amazing how by the end of a relaxing walk many things just feel better and I might have a clue as to what to do next or how to solve something small that’s bugging me. At the end of the day, I try to remember tomorrow’s another day.

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Image Credits
@julesredwine

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