(click the pic, to BIG the pic!)
This month’s meet-up at Anodyne Coffee is one I’ve been looking forward to for awhile. Jon Henry is a music-maker I met through Twitter, where – I forget exactly how – I came across the very inventive, clever, fun music video he created (it happens to feature steampunk and Ultimate Spider-man and Godzilla costumes, so yeah, it’s GREAT).
Jon spoke with us about his journey in creativity, and the turns it’s taken, to bring him where he is today. He went to college at UW-Madison, works for an insurance company now (“I”m OK with it.”), and has done a lot of living and learning in between.
“I want to talk about direction.”,
is what Jon started with, and I was pretty sure that it was gonna be a good talk, as this is something I think many creatives struggle with. He went on to say, “when I started making music, I feel I had a very clear vision…like ”I’m gonna be on TV, on Broadway”…I had people around me though, who didn’t know what they wanted to do. I always felt fortunate to have a sense of vision, or direction.” Jon devoted all his energy, effort, and attention to attaining the success he felt destined for.
Jon was certain he was going to be a performer, even early on, – “I was the class clown, I’d get sent to the principal; I didn’t have a …filter. Sometimes that’d work to my advantage, sometimes not. I struggled to find the right avenue to express myself positively.” While in college, he and his friends started recording music, sometimes going to a studio, and burning CDs. They handed out 1000s of CDs and the response was so positive that Jon and his friends left Wisconsin to find success on the West Coast!
After a few years, though, Jon had a major realization…”what I learned was that the pursuit of what I >thought< was most important to me meant neglecting other things that were also important to me – family, friends…I realized the success that I thought was The Mission might not have been the most important thing.” Jon came back to WI and started rebuilding those important relationships, letting go of the “success-chasing” and worked at really “getting my sh*t together.” Jon realized that the perceived goal wasn’t as important as “just working to be happy, trying to be more selfless, more responsive to the folks I say I care about.”
This doesn’t mean that he’s stopped creating, just that he’s approaching it differently: “Before, my goal had been to be as big as I could be – I don’t think it ever got more specific than that. Now I move when it’s organic, when the ideas come to me – I try not to force it. I’ve found a different kind of success – that obsessing about success, really, it doesn’t need to be all about that.”
One of the attendees asked, “How do you stay (creatively) healthy now?” Jon replied, “I live with my sister and her kids now – being of service to them feels the best; it makes me more responsible. Being active is good, that gives me more energy.”
Someone else asked if Jon thought he might be able to find that success he was originally chasing…”I think I could; the industry has changed so much (location isn’t as important now). …It’s important to tap into your intuition; it’s good to have mentors, but you have to listen to your (heart). Redefine what success is for you, and let go (of expectations)”.
Find past MKE Creatives meet-ups.
