Colleen Wainwright_The Creator's Journey #12

Colleen Wainwright is a Los Angeles-based writer, designer and consultant who obsesses over making complex ideas easy to understand. I met Colleen four years ago in Philadelphia at the Strictly Business Conference created by ASMP, the American Society of Media Photographers. As one of the keynote speakers, she absolutely rocked the house with her presentation and made me a fan of her mind and her writing. In this episode, Colleen shares her belief that almost everything good in her life has come about as a result of walking through some kind of fear. “Fear can be an ally – or it can be a foe,” she reminds us. A recovering perfectionist, Colleen says that hearing about the rough and rocky road others have traveled in their quest to make art helps her persevere. “The creative act is the process of giving birth. It can be ugly and painful.” Colleen is also a firm believer that clutter is one of the chief enemies in the creative life. “I cannot say enough about the power of letting go of the crap you don’t need,” she observes. “It’s easy to just turn to television for comfort, or to food, or to whatever it is for you – to turn away from the challenge because it’s hard. To just quit, give up. Don’t give up! If you keep looking for something, you will find the thing you’re looking for even if it doesn’t turn out to be the thing you set out to find. Don’t quit before the miracle. These are not going to always be easy times.” ~ Colleen Wainwright