146: The Importance Of Taking Care Of The Entire Self w/ Shivawn Mitchell
As creatives, it can be all too easy to overlook our mental health and wellness. Sometimes we even feel that this better helps us tap into our creative side. Today’s guest is not only a wildly successful filmmaker, but she also comes from a background of mental health counseling and helps others learn the importance of taking care of themselves.
Shivawn Mitchell is a producer, director, and writer as well as the founder of Sam Studios and The Creative Outsiders. Since committing to her filmmaking career, Shivawn has gone on to work on production teams that have won the accolades of the Official Winner of Women’s Only Entertainment Film Festival, Top Indie Film Award, two time Africana Independent Film Festival and the Hollywood Screenings Film Festival, Semifinalist. As a speaker, Shivawn focuses on developing the voice of other storytellers, using your influence as a filmmaker, and the mental health wellness of creatives.
Shivawn covers many crucial topics in today’s episode, starting with the effect of networking with people who are at the same level of success as ourselves. Instead of trying to work with those who have achieved a much higher level of success, working across the table helps everybody level up and grow together. As Shivawn explains, this gives everyone a chance to succeed and contributes to more talent and skill in your field overall.
Shivawn also explains the importance of perseverance and focus in order to achieve success. Rather than being too caught up in what others are doing and thinking, we can all best move forward by focusing on doing the work that’s most meaningful to ourselves.
With her background in mental health, Shivawn shares some really important advice for how filmmakers and other creatives can support themselves in this area while still creating great work. The power of community, self-care, and practicing mindfulness are a big part of this and can help sustain your career in the long run.
Do you regularly carve out time to focus on taking care of yourself? Tell me how it’s going in the comments on the episode page!
In this episode
- Why networking up is the wrong approach in business
- The power of understanding that our skills are just as valuable as our experience
- The dangers of getting side-tracked by what others are thinking, saying, and doing
- The importance of taking care of your entire self in order to build a business that is better than just “good enough”
- Why you need to make time for yourself to avoid burnout
Quotes
“I found that there are people in your direct vicinity who are across the table from you and on the same level as you. They just have a different skill. Instead of trying to bypass everybody, why can’t we just work together?” [14:15]
“Sometimes we care too much about the crowd and not enough about the craft and doing the work. If I keep doing the work and putting in the time, success is going to happen.” [19:46]
“I think creatives think that they have to create from this toxic place in order to be amazing. I want filmmakers to recognize it’s okay not to be okay.” [27:41]
“Say no. We say yes too many times to things we know we really don’t want to do. That creates resentment and then we don’t have time because we’re always saying yes to other people. It’s okay to say no.” [38:00]
Links
Find Shivawn Mitchell at The Creative Outsiders
Follow The Creative Outsiders on Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
The Creative Outsiders Podcast
Learn about our upcoming Studio Sherpas workshop
Additional Links:
Check out the full show notes page
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