Episode 18: Intentional Planning with Lissie Teehee
Lissie has always seen herself as an artist and would create things even as a little girl. She chose to study art in college and graduated with a degree in graphic design and raised her family afterward. But when she became a single mother overnight, she had a lot of tough decisions to make as to how she was going to support her family.
She had dreamed of having a studio in the past but has some doubts as to if she could run her own creative business. With support from family and friends, Lissie let go of her doubts and committed to running her own business as a full-time artist and didn’t look back. She believed everything would fall into place as she took one step at a time.
Lissie loves the career of being a working artist because she can have flexible time and a flexible income that doesn’t have to be capped.
Planning with Seasons In Mind
Being a single mother of three, Lissie has to be very intentional about her time management and working in the margins. She also plans how and when she makes work with seasons: seasons of the year, seasons of her business, and seasons of her creativity level. She looks at her childrens' school schedule and where her collections and creating content for education need to take place. She also determines when in the year she can make room for rest and be ready to be inspired and create in the next season. She has the desire to only work from 8am until 3pm during the school year and carve out time to be with her children in the evenings.
Lissie explains that winter and summer are her slower and more creative seasons, whereas spring and fall are her more busy times where she can get more done while her kids are in school.
Looking For Inspiration
Lissie describes when she is inspired she begins scribbling. Her emotions when coming to a blank page can also be a gauge of needing rest. Seeing that there is often something going on behind feeling uninspired has been comforting to Lissie at some level. However, she says that there is always a way to “push the page” and simply play with mediums to see where it might take you.
Lissie describes that her best work is born from a genuine place of being inspired by things around us in the natural world and living life and not from looking at other artists’ work and Pinterest.
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
It just takes ONE person to help you believe in yourself. How can you be that one person to help someone in your life?
Intentionality leads to success. When we are intentional in how we are creating, what we are creating, and what we are pitching can help us experience more momentum in our businesses.
If you want to go all in and shift into a creative career, take inventory of where you are at today. What skills do you need to develop? What next steps do you need to take? Think about all the things you need to do and start tackling those things one day at a time.
Quantity of time doesn’t always mean quality of productivity. When we work in the margins with our little amount of time it can lead to us being more creative and productive.
As creatives, structure can be very helpful to make us feel safe and balanced. Therefore, being mindful of seasons and how we plan for our year can be very helpful. When we are mindful of seasons we can best plan out when to be creative, when to slow down, when to be inspired, and when we need to put our heads down and do the harder work.
Our best work is born from a genuine place of being inspired by things around us in the natural world and living life and not from looking at other artist’s work and Pinterest.
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“Lissie is a mother, fine artist and designer, and teacher in Oklahoma. She creates surface patterns, products, textiles, and other lovely works of art. Her aim is to celebrate the home and the nature surrounding our lives through all of the artwork that she creates. Every day, she collects little joys like laughter, the feeling of the light coming through the window, or a walk near the water on a hot, summer day. It is Lissie’s hope that her artwork can be a representation of the things that we love and cherish.”
Visit her website at www.lissieteehee.com and on instagram.
Sign up for the waitlist for her course, "Art and Digital Processes."
