Meet Jennifer Lind Schutsky

We recently connected with Jennifer Lind Schutsky and have shared our conversation below.

Jennifer, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I think there is so much to be said for that old adage what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. And honestly, sometimes I don’t want to be strong, but I think growing up with parents who just didn’t get what I was about or who I was really set me up for success. As backwards as that is, my mom never understood my art “it just isn’t [her] style” and that really allowed me to process from an early age that some people are just not going to get it. That they still love you, maybe. But they don’t have to understand what you’re doing. And growing up my dad just never understood me, and I had a very controlling adolescence – like I was a good kid and wasn’t allowed to do what I wanted when I wanted. Those boundaries and restrictions only pushed me further to do what I wanted and in that allowed me to become fully who I wanted to be. Now, I know exactly who I am and what I’m about and there is nothing that’s going to stop me from accomplishing my goals.

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?
My name is Jenn and I am a photographer and an artist from Phoenix Arizona. I grew up here. I really love supporting community and building a strong network of talented creatives. I teach art part-time, private lessons, classrooms, various settings. I do photography as my main source of income. It is one of my most liberating art forms, I love the human connection. I love playing with light. I enjoy freezing time and capturing moments. I know how important photographs are historically allows us to essentially time travel and that is where I focus a lot of my energy. I also do henna which is a really fun way to reinforce community and I love using all three of these elements together in my work. New products I’m working on are my Hustle + Honey podcast which allows me to go even deeper with human connection and share stories of the struggles and success of running your own business. and that has been really fun to co-create with my fellow entrepreneurs,

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
The three qualities or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in my creative journey were 1. Confidence. Knowing that I have the power to create the life I want, and the experience I want as an artist and as a human. If somebody else can do anything I can do it too and I think that’s really important for people to remember – is not to get jealous, or be envious of what other people are doing or what they have, but let it be a signal that you can also do that same thing and you can do it in your own way.
2. The areas of knowledge that I think are most impactful are business awareness. The art part isn’t something you can teach but the knowledge of how to run a business successfully is absolutely something that you can comprehend. There’s books, there’s education courses, there’s so much information of how to be logistically sound in your business and to make sure that you’re doing things correctly in regards to taxes or backend admin things that is really really important to make sure that everything done in a legal and profitable way.
3. Additional skills would be just always re-investing in education and you might think you already know how to do something, but are you the best at it or are you improving skills yourself? If not, hiring someone to educate you or help you or teach you is always a great option and if you can’t afford it, then YouTube it baby.
If you’re early in your journey just start where you are with what you’ve got where you’re at, keep learning, keep going!

Thanks so much for sharing all these insights with us today. Before we go, is there a book that’s played in important role in your development?
Right now I think the most impactful book that has played an important role in all of my is the artists way by Julia Cameron, and she outlines a lot of ways to set yourself up for success in terms of creativity. And I am currently hosting a 12 week book club to really dive into this book again deeper because it was so impactful and I hope that it helps other people find their creative Source again. I love each of the tasks and assignments and habits and practices that she suggests for implementing, and I think that if you do all of the things that she mentions, you will be on a path to success in all that you create.

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Image Credits
All images copyright Jennifer Lind Schutsky 2024

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