Meet Taylor Bunn

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Taylor Bunn a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Taylor, so excited to have you with us today, particularly to get your insight on a topic that comes up constantly in the community – overcoming creativity blocks. Any thoughts you can share with us?
I do a lot of creative work, and I often feel like the least creative person in the room – even when I’m the only person in the room. The benefit of having a lot of different creative opportunities running simultaneously is that if I get stuck on one project, I can move on to something else that might feel more inspiring. When I’m deep in a creative rut, sometimes the best I can do is take one small step to get started. When I’m creating a video for Hope 4 All’s Awareness Wednesday series or my YouTube channel, 3-2-1 with Dr. Bunn, that might mean getting all the clips in order to tell a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. When I’m writing a blog post or academic manuscript, a small step could be writing an outline (sometimes with an assist from AI) or identifying a couple of compelling quotations from a source. Reading others’ writing is always helpful for me. When all else fails, stepping away from the work entirely can be a more productive use of time than spinning my wheels and getting frustrated. I get some of my best ideas while out walking my dogs, hopping on my paddle board, or trying a new recipe!

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
My favorite things to do are create opportunities, tell stories, bring people together, and give back to my community. I’m lucky that I get to do all these things through my professional, academic, and personal service endeavors. As the Executive Director of Hope 4 All, I’ve been able to lead our work cultivating equal access to hope and opportunity in our communities. Our organization is special because, in a crowded nonprofit sector, we focus on collaboration and celebrating the work of other charities as much as our own. Our Awareness Wednesday YouTube series highlights different nonprofits every month to showcase all the inspiring work happening in our communities, and our Community Changemakers Coffee Club holds space for nonprofit stakeholders to share news and needs with each other. Our biggest collaborations are building projects: As a Community Housing Development Organization, we are partnering with the City of Grand Prairie to build affordable homes; and, also in Grand Prairie, we are building an equine center with STEPS with Horses to provide equine-assisted mental health services and thoroughbred aftercare. In my academic life, I am thrilled to have been named the first Managing Editor of the Texas Journal for Multicultural Education, launching in early 2024 as the official publication of the Texas chapter of the National Association for Multicultural Education. The quarterly journal will focus on various topics in multicultural education, providing special opportunities for emerging scholars and guest editors. I also keep up my personal learning through my 3-2-1 with Dr. Bunn YouTube channel and Leading Off the Page, a space I created with Dr. Amy Britton to help leaders hone their leadership philosophies in a supportive community. We have an active book club and are growing our other resources to include a blog, presentations, and more. Stay tuned! I am also very fortunate to have been selected to serve in several service positions as a board member with Stars United Global Outreach and STEPS with Horses, a community advisor for LifeLine for Families, and an alternate commissioner on the Historic Preservation Commission in my hometown of Grapevine. These positions have helped me grow as a leader, improve my community, and build lifelong friendships.

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?
I studied theatre in college and I go back to my performing arts training every day. Putting on successful shows requires many skills, but I believe three of the most important are (1) accepting and delivering feedback, (2) working effectively as a team, and (3) adapting to new situations. If you cannot accept feedback, you cannot grow. That doesn’t mean all feedback should be taken without considering the source! However, learning to gracefully process and act on feedback is a skill that shows open-mindedness and willingness to improve. Giving actionable feedback is also a critical skill for leaders. Clear is kind and opinions should be backed up with data. Feedback should be direct, timely, specific, and delivered with positive intent. The goal should always be to improve or course correct, not to tear someone down or force submission. Directors give notes after rehearsals to make a show better, educators grade assignments to ensure content mastery, and editors revise manuscripts to improve the work. On to teamwork – it makes the dream work! Almost everything I do is collaborative, so I’ve learned the importance of clarifying roles and responsibilities. Sometimes you’re the director, sometimes you’re the lead actor, sometimes you’re Tree #3, and sometimes you’re behind the scenes. Every role is needed to make a show successful. The same is true for collaborative projects in any space. Everyone cannot lead, but someone has to lead. It is just as important to be the first follower as the leader! Whatever your role, make sure you understand your responsibilities, the resources you need to succeed, and how your role fits within the scope of a project. Finally, in the theatre one must always adapt. Live shows can never be the same because the audience changes and mistakes happen. We rehearse to master the lines, blocking, and costume changes. The better you know what should happen, the easier it is to recover after a mistake or adjust delivery for a different result. Learning to be flexible has helped me deliver better results when leading a presentation or meeting, working events, or responding to a community need. I have also found that the less prepared I am, the harder it is to be flexible! Preparation builds confidence and resilience.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?
I am always looking for collaborators! At Hope 4 All, we would love to work with new donors, volunteers, and content creators. You can write for our blog, create videos for Awareness Wednesday, or donate cash, materials, and time to our affordable housing and equine center construction projects. Skilled volunteers with expertise in construction and landscaping will be needed in the first part of 2024. The best way to get all the info is to sign up for our newsletter at www.hope4all.us. The Call for Proposals is now open for the upcoming Annual Conference for the Texas branch of the National Association for Multicultural Education! We are accepting proposals for posters, papers, papers in progress, and artistic expressions. This is a great opportunity for K-12 and higher ed practitioners or student researchers. More information is available at www.txname.org. Anyone is welcome to join the Leading Off the Page book club! We meet every three to four weeks to dig deeply into leadership books by focusing on how we’ve applied what we’ve learned in our reading. You can sign up online at www.leadingoffthepage.com. If you’re a YouTube fan, check out 3-2-1 with Dr. Bunn! I would love to collaborate with you to make a video about anything you want to teach me, or we can learn something together. At Stars United Global Outreach, we need guest speakers, student mentors, and other volunteers along with donations to support our life skills, financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and leadership programs so we can continue to offer them at no cost to underserved youth. Learn more at www.starsunitedglobloutreach.org. STEPS with Horses has a miniature donkey, two miniature horses, and eight full-size horses who need sponsors! Joining an equine’s Carrot Club allows you to connect with a specific member of the herd as a supporter. You can meet the herd at www.stepswithhorses.org. There is even an opportunity to help your chosen equine create a one-of-a-kind painting! Finally, LifeLine for Families can always use laundry supplies, gas cards, and diapers for families at risk of homelessness. You can collaborate buy donating online or organizing a drive to collect supplies. Check out www.lifelineforfamilies.org.

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