We were lucky to catch up with Shawna Mills recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Shawna, appreciate you sitting with us today to share your wisdom with our readers. So, let’s start with resilience – where do you get your resilience from?
I was raised by my grandmother. She was a woman who never had “I can’t” in her vocabulary. While raising me, I’m sure it got tough, but she never made it apparent to me. I was allowed to be a child. Her goals were always accomplished and i wasnt ever away of how rough it was for her. Thats the mentality that raised me. To me, i was and am capable of everything if i put my mind to it.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I’ve worked on TV production straight outta highschool. I did mostly freelance work in the earlier days. Being a New York native, i found it difficult to stay. I made the leap to LA in 2013 and lived out of a storage room for a year, building up bank after landing my first official Hollywood job as a storyboard revisionist at Cartoon Network Studios. From there, i became a story artist at Marvel, warner brothers, lucas films, nickelodeon, disney, and other animationg studios. For over 11 years, I have worked professionally as a story artist until I officially became a director in 2023 at Nickelodeon. While the year of 2024 started off rough, i am excited to see what it brings.
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?
My ability to break down issues, understand and take in information is what makes me a great artist. I’m always asking questions and i always want to know more about things i love.
One of our goals is to help like-minded folks with similar goals connect and so before we go we want to ask if you are looking to partner or collab with others – and if so, what would make the ideal collaborator or partner?
I am indeed looking to collaborate with strong, open minded people who can truly understand the craft they aspire to perfect. Tenacity is important. Capability is very important. I am pro active and i require pro active people in my circle. With my circle and through my company, SodaMonkeyEnt, I look forward to building and creating worlds and projects that will inspire a new generation.
Contact Info:
- Website: Sodamonkeyent.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thelazymills?igsh=Ymc1NnNqbDllNnRu
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawna-lazymills?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@SodaMonkeyTV?si=9K7RZITlCwEsa0P3
Image Credits
Shawna mills
