Shifting to a More Creative Path with Annie Wong
Many of my clients are interested in taking a new creative direction with their lives. They want to tap into their inner creative and understand how to prioritize their creative and passion projects with making money for the life they want.
In today’s episode, I’m chatting with one of those clients, Annie Wong a.k.a. Headexplodie, a mixed media artist and storyteller who works in the mediums of sculptures, illustration, and stop motion animations. She’s sharing her path to becoming an artist, why she chose to start her own business, how she channels her inner creative child, and how she balances her art with owning a business.
Annie is also talking about how coaching has helped her to find clarity in where she wants to go with her business and to prioritize work that is in alignment. Coaching can help you understand your why and gain the insight and tools to make it happen. Following your creative energy, finding community, and getting a coach when it feels right will help you take a leap into shifting to a more creative path.
This is the last episode of this season, and I’ll be taking a creative break to focus on my memoir and shifting my work as a coach. Thanks for being here with me, and if you want to stay connected, follow me on LinkedIn or Instagram, or sign up for my email list.
And if you’re looking for extra support in navigating your own crossroads moment, I’m here to coach you through these big changes and leaps. Visit my coaching page or send me a message to learn more.
In this episode, you’ll learn...
[03:14] Annie’s story of how she met one of her heroes, Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman), and why Pee-wee’s Playhouse was influential to her work
[09:03] How Annie describes her art and her business, her path to becoming an artist, why she chose the direction of starting her own business
[16:10] Balancing your creativity with the need to make money, how to manage that tension (coaching has been helpful for her), and how to make the most of the ebbs and flows that allow for unencumbered creativity
[23:53] Annie’s advice for anyone reviving a creative practice that has been dormant, how she practices self-compassion, and how progress (not outcomes or awards) motivates creativity
[31:59] Why Annie decided to do coaching, the clarity she has found through coaching, and why aligned work is so important
[43:26] Upcoming creative projects that Annie is excited about that we’ve developed through our coaching, how channeling her inner creative child helps her get out of being blocked or burned out, and how creativity is a source of healing
[51:33] Following the energy you feel from being creative, and the importance of community to creative growth
This season is all about the different kinds of leaps you can make in your life. If you’re looking to add more creativity to your life, be sure to tune into this episode.
Links mentioned in this episode…
Make Your Art No Matter What by Beth Pickens
Episode #10: A Love Story from Barcelona to Patagonia (and Back)
Connect with Lisa Hoashi
Connect with Annie Wong
Annie Wong’s Bio
Annie Wong, a.k.a. Headexplodie is a mixed-media artist and storyteller known for cooking up playful eye candy in the form of sculptures, illustrations, and stop-motion animation. Her work is a blend of delightful fun, oddball humor, with a touch of teenage rebellion.
Her taboo-smashing GIF project Ovary Actions has received global coverage and she is a Giphy Featured Artist with over 26 billion views. She has created art for clients such as Adult Swim, Apple, The New York Times, Vans, Creative Mornings, Instagram, and The Greater Good Science Center.
Pee-Wee Herman once told her she was very talented and she’s been riding high on that achievement ever since then.
Transcript of Episode 45: Shifting to a More Creative Path with Annie Wong
[00:00:00] Annie Wong I think I've had to learn over time to really just create a partition, like a mental partition between like the business aspect of the work and the pure, playful, creative aspect. And that there is it's kind of like a yin yang, you know, like one kind of feeds the other and the other feeds the other.
[00:00:27] Lisa Hoashi Welcome to Leap Like Me, the podcast that helps you to be bold in life, to stretch what's possible and find more adventure, joy and purpose along the way. I'm your host, Lisa Hoashi. I'm a life coach who can help if you're ready to take a new, more authentic direction in life. On Leap Like Me, we share the inspiring stories of people like you who have made a brave leap and offer practical tips for how to set your leap in motion, too. Let's get started. Hello, everyone. This is Lisa Hoashi, and welcome to Leap Like Me. Our guest today is one of my clients and an artist that I hugely admire. Annie Wong is with us today, a.k.a. Headexplodie, and she's a mixed media artist and storyteller known for cooking up playful eye candy in the form of sculptures, illustrations and stop motion animation. And I love her work because it's such a blend of fun and humor and weirdness with some rebelliousness and with like heart behind it as well. Annie is a giphy featured artist with over 26 billion views, and she's created art for clients such as Adult Swim, Apple, the New York Times, Vans, Creative Mornings, Instagram and the Greater Good Science Center. Annie we're so happy to have you with us today.
[00:01:53] Annie Wong Thank you so much for having me super excited about this.
[00:01:56] Lisa Hoashi Annie and I were just talking about how we want to, if possible, bring some of the visuals of her art here. And, you know, even just like a quick look over at Annie's Instagram account, you'll see like, you know, just is really it is like eye candy. It's like really fun and super engaging. You know, animations and sculptures and paintings, these images that are just so beautiful and so much fun. And I wanted to bring on Annie because I just think she's great and all of you are really going to love her. And I also know that many of you are interested in shifting to a more creative path, or you want to just keep going strong with your own creative work and businesses. And Annie is doing this and I wanted to bring her on the show to really learn more about how she's been navigating and continuing to make her art while making money and what she's learned along the way and how she has been using our coaching to explore these new directions. So Annie, you are such a playful person and I wanted to start off this interview somewhere fun. So you have mentioned that you got to meet one of your heroes, Paul Reubens, Pee Wee Herman, and I want to hear more about that. When did you meet him and what did that mean for you?
[00:03:14] Annie Wong Yeah, so very, very early 2020, Paul Reubens was touring the US for the 35th anniversary of the movie Pee wee's Big Adventure. And so when we found out that was happening, my partner and I instantly bought tickets and we bought the VIP meet and greet package because a couple of years prior to that, Pee-Wee Herman has an Instagram account and I wasn't sure at the time if, like he runs his own Instagram account or if he has a social media manager. But whoever was running that account had posted one of my animations on Instagram for National Ice Cream Day. So I have this gif, which is like a strawberry ice cream with a face on it, which is smiling. And then every, every few seconds it like screams because it's like ice cream. So they had posted that, which I thought was like super, super cool. They posted it like a couple of years in a row. And I remember like the second year because this was, you know, like several years ago, I think people weren't quite yet tuned into the edit and the etiquette of like finding the source of the artist, the original artist that, you know, you might be posting a meme from people. I think people are a lot better about that now, but I remember the second year that they did it. A whole bunch of my Instagram followers kind of like jumped on the comments and was like, This is headexplodie. Like tag her work, you know, or whatever, which I thought was very, very sweet. Mostly I was just incredibly honored that they found my my art at all in like decided to share it. So I thought it'd be really cool to show up and meet him. And I really wanted to give him, like, a gift of the ice cream, but I wasn't sure, like, what the protocol was in the meet and greet. Like, like if they were allowed to, like, accept gifts or if he was just, you know, kind of like take it and put away and we'd like take a quick picture. So I decided to recreate the ice cream as a necklace. So I actually have it here. So if you're watching the video, you can see this ridiculous life size ice cream cone with a face.
[00:05:31] Lisa Hoashi Like a grimacing face.
[00:05:33] Annie Wong Like a grimacing, like steaming, and I attached this gold chain around it. Because I was like, Well, if I'm wearing it, they they can't, like, not see it. And then I also kind of wasn't sure, like again, like, would he recognize what this is or it will just be a silly thing and it's fine if it ends up being a silly thing. So at the beginning of the show, you know, we kind of like we're making our way up the line, the meet and greet line, and then it's finally our turn and I'm walking towards him and he's kind of just looking at me. And then he stares down at the necklace at my chest and, you know, and he says, like, that's an interesting necklace. And I could see like the gears turning in Paul Reubens head. And then he recognized it and he's like, Wait a minute. I know that. I know that ice cream. Did you make that? And I was like, Yes, that was me. And he was like, Oh, I love that. And he remembered it from like Instagram. And he remembered like people saying in the comments like, this is the art of the artist. And it was just a really like man. Just to have that recognition in that moment. Like that was one thing. Just to be like, Oh, he remember me. And then the other thing was like, And then he gave me a hug and he just said that like, you know, you're very talented. Like, you know that, right? You're very talented. So basically, like, in that moment. I felt like I had been, like knighted by the Queen and I just, like, died and was so happy to have shared that moment. And I was just like on cloud nine, like for the rest of the night, like watching the movie and listening to him talk afterwards. And it was just very, very awesome to just meet this person who, you know, made Pee wee's Playhouse and I think was like very influential in a lot of the work that I do. And then
[00:07:39] Lisa Hoashi What did Pee Wee's Playhouse mean to you?
[00:07:42] Annie Wong What I loved about that show was it's very surreal. It's very cartoony. And it is also they're very sweet moments, but it's just a mix of a lot of things. I also love that there's a little bit of like obnoxiousness to it, kind of like a playful obnoxiousness. And I think it really just kind of showed me that you can have this work that maybe on the surface looks very goofy and childlike, but also there can be a complexity within it, which is like what I love to do now.
[00:08:16] Lisa Hoashi Yeah. One of the things that you and I have talked about with your work is like how it has like this empathy behind it. Right? So there's like, there's this like goofy and oddball and rebelliousness and yet there's like this empathy behind it of like, you're really trying to relate, like on, on a human level with people through your artwork.
[00:08:37] Annie Wong Yeah, for sure.
[00:08:38] Lisa Hoashi Yeah. Well, so I remember that 2020 was kind of a pivotal year for you.
[00:08:45] Annie Wong For everyone.
[00:08:46] Lisa Hoashi Yeah, but like, there are a lot of things going on in your career. Well, first of all, I don't know if you want to just kind of describe for us like, what is your art slash business, you know, at this moment? How would you describe it? What are you doing.
[00:09:03] Annie Wong At this moment right now? Well, right now, I think I would describe basically that I am an artist, a visual storyteller, working in the mediums of animation and illustration and teaching also. That's something that I started doing about a year and a half ago. That's kind of like the very short version. I like to just say like I'm an artist, but yeah, yeah. Primarily I'm known for my work in like claymation and stop motion animation that I share widely on social media. Do you do a little bit of actually like these days? And we can we'll probably get into this later. I'm really interested in exploring more of the sort of live speaking storytelling aspect of my self-expression.
[00:09:55] Lisa Hoashi And maybe it would be helpful to go back a little bit further just to like that question of like, did you hope to be an artist when you grew up, when you were a little. Was that something that you always thought you would do or what has that what has that been like for you?
[00:10:10] Annie Wong I have always wanted to be an artist, and the older that I get and the more that I think about it and the more that I talk about it with people, it does seem a little bit strange that I feel like I only know a small number of people that, you know, when they were ten years old or like a child, they're like, I want to be this. And then they just did it. But for me, I think it was just creativity and creative self-expression was something I was always drawn to, and I was very lucky and that my parents never swayed me, you know, in any specific direction. They were kind of very much like they're they're not creative professionals at all, but they I think they were just very like, well, if that's what makes you happy, we don't know how to make that happen. We don't know like what that world is like, But go to school, you'll figure it out. And that's, you know, and you'll probably be fine. So I think just because I never was pulled away from that path, and when you're the kid that kind of like, draws well and like you become known as like that artist kid in school, it's a little bit validating because you're encouraged to keep on doing it. So I think it was just always like, Well, I guess this is the thing that I'm going to do. People say that I should do it. I like doing it, so I'm just going to keep on doing whatever the things are to achieve that label artist.
[00:11:34] Lisa Hoashi So you went to school. And did you study art there?
[00:11:38] Annie Wong I did. I grew up in Texas, and after after graduating high school and doing a year of community college in Texas, I moved out to California to go to art school. So for my undergrad studies, I studied like painting and photography and printmaking. Then I graduated, eventually took on a job at a local children's park called Children's Fairyland, where I developed the art department there. And then I did that for about seven years. And, you know, I think for anyone, like after five years or something, things can get kind of, you know, it's a good time to be like, do I still want to keep doing this? So after working at the park as art director for seven years, I decided to go back to school to study animation because the park Children's Fairyland is actually like a storybook park. So it's basically like Disneyland, but only ten acres. Yeah, and it's very local to Oakland. So I think it was just something about the practice of like bringing these stories to life. I also became a puppeteer at Fairyland. So I think the natural one of the natural formats for visual storytelling is animation. And I was also kind of really lonely in the park because I didn't have a very big art. It was really just me and my partner Michael, and I was interested in sort of like the collaborative environment of animation. So I went back to grad school to study that. Yeah. And then graduated from animation school. And then I think about a year later, I started my own business.
[00:13:22] Lisa Hoashi And you talked about how like at that point of grad school or finishing grad school, that you could have gone to work in the industry for stop motion animation in New York or in L.A., but instead you did decide to go into your own business. And I was just curious if that felt like scary, if it felt like a leap at that moment or what it was like for you to choose that direction.
[00:13:46] Annie Wong Yeah, it's interesting because in a way, I didn't really felt like I chose it. It kind of organically ended up that way because when my partner Michael was also going to school at the time and had also graduated from audio school and he had gotten a job here in Berkeley, like a very good job. And you know, we had graduated around the same time and so we had never really had a serious conversation about like. Where our careers could take us, because I think we have always just been very presently focused on like, what is the thing we're doing right now. So I think once I graduated and the common path is, yes, people will move down to L.A. because that's where all the animation studios are. Or New York, because there's a lot of other animation studios there. I didn't feel comfortable doing that. And plus, you know, I just had like a lot of social anxiety, too. So it's was just like I think it felt more like a leap to do that. The common path, I don't think I necessarily had the intention to start freelancing and run my own business, but it just kind of ended up being like, Well, if I'm here and I want to make money and I want to exercise my craft, I guess this is like the way to do it. Yeah. And so I kind of just started taking like, like various types of online business classes, trying to teach myself how to run my own business. And it just kind of slowly unfolded from there. After graduation, I took on a couple of different day jobs and then, yeah, at some point I think the leap was quitting my day job as an assistant photographer to to be like, okay, I think I'm getting enough work through client work that I can just do this. I'm going to do it. But also, I didn't like my day job anymore, so I was just like, No, can I quit? And just like. Do this now and rack up my credit card bills. So I will say that like the way that I did, it wasn't the smoothest, but I really wanted that freedom of running my own business and controlling my schedule and creating the art that I wanted to make.
[00:16:10] Lisa Hoashi Yeah, well, there I mean, the description that you're making, I mean, it's really it's resonating a lot with me. I feel like if I were to, you know, I started out my career with like, the intention of like being an artist, which was like to just be a writer, follow my own creative expression as well with writing. And and then there's like, okay, how am I going to make money with this? Like, how am I going to support myself? And and it has kind of felt like if I look for at the thread, like across my career, it's like it's always been that question of like, how are these things interplaying with each other? Like, how do I keep my Because it's like if you are not like actively engaging with yourself creatively, it's like you get very dissatisfied. Right. I don't know if that's like how you would describe it, but it's like, So if you don't tend to that thing, then you start getting very dissatisfied. And yet there's like this always this sort of like figuring out of the balancing of like, how can this actually work? Like what is going to be the right mixture or balance, you know, and then and back and forth between these sort of two realities?
[00:17:27] Annie Wong Absolutely. It's one of the hardest things about doing that path, doing the creative path.
[00:17:33] Lisa Hoashi I actually remember in one of our sessions, I think you mentioned that your agent had said this, but she said to you, an artist is like the only one who has to have a job in order to do their job. Am I saying that right? Is that basically the quote?
[00:17:51] Annie Wong Yeah. That comes from Beth Pickens, who's an artist consultant, and she wrote a book called Make Your Art No Matter What. And yeah, I think once she kind of explained that and explained it that way to me, I was like, Oh, my gosh, you're right. That's why I am exhausted all the time, because a lot of artists will work some kind of job that is, you know, the pay the bills job and what that income part of what that income is doing is making it so that you have s tome time to work in the studio on whatever the art is. That is not intentionally supposed to result in making money, but it's just like maybe it'll make money later. But going into the studio with that intention is just kind of it makes the creative process very, very difficult and it puts a lot of pressure on it. That doesn't work when you're trying to come up with ideas for yourself.
[00:18:56] Lisa Hoashi So I get the sense, at least in my own career, that like this is going to be something that I have to kind of keep playing with throughout my career. Like it's always going to be there. It's kind of like I also was thinking about this the other day, too. Is that like having started out as an artist kind of makes you like, particularly sensitive to being like anti-capitalist because it's like you never really fit capitalism, like to begin with. And so it's like you're like always struggling with this. You're like, Yeah, this, this, this doesn't really support, like, what I'm trying to do here. Exactly. So there's like this low buy in, you know, just by it, just by the fact of being an artist. But I'm curious about, you know, like, what have what do you feel like you've kind of figured out so far works for you in terms of like managing that tension.
[00:19:49] Annie Wong Managing the tension between like having to pay the bills and and.
[00:19:54] Lisa Hoashi Like, come into your studio and make art as if that wasn't a reality, right? Like, you have to kind of suspend it in order to, like, access your best ideas.
[00:20:05] Annie Wong Yeah, it is true. I think I've had to learn over time to really just create a partition, like a mental partition between like the business aspect of the work and the pure, playful, creative aspect. And that there is it's kind of like a yin yang, you know, like one kind of feeds the other and the other feeds the other. So I think I've learned at this point just to find ways to achieve that balance. And, and coaching has really helped me with that too, because I think it's interesting because I think early on we had a session where you normally do sort of like what is your ideal day exercise with your clients. But I think that we found that with me it might actually be more helpful to do like what is my ideal year in which maybe there are seasons or chunks of the year where maybe I'm a little bit more focused on the moneymaking work and then maybe there are like micro sabbaticals or something that I can take like throughout the year where I'm like, okay, I've saved up enough. I don't have to take on any more client jobs at this time. I'm just going to make a bunch of new things or really dabble in just not having to worry about external obligations for, you know, maybe it's like a week, maybe it's like a month, maybe it's like a summer. And I'm finding like, for example, with the teaching schedule, it kind of helps with that since it's sort of structured based on the semester. So I'm kind of looking forward to the summer time this year to see like, okay, maybe this is like a comfortable chunk of time that I can I don't know just go wild in the studio.
[00:21:51] Lisa Hoashi We'll see. So yeah, like what we talked about was kind of like thinking about, like the natural kind of ebbs and flows of like both, like income wise, but also energetically. I think, at least for me, I've noticed, like in having my business over the last eight years, I've noticed similar ebbs and flows and it's like, how can you take advantage of those so that they are actually restorative or useful times for you, rather than being sort of just like a time of stress or like a dead zone or like, you know, that we haven't really fully made the most of them.
[00:22:28] Annie Wong How do I most take advantage of those chunks of time? I think it is helpful to just know my own patterns and my own self. Like I know it'll take me at least a day or two to settle into the. Like, Oh, now it's rest time or now it's recharge time or it's art time because just the energy and the pace of like doing work in the world is very extremely structured. So I will definitely try to continue to maintain some kind of structure when, you know, maybe it's like the off season of whatever it is teaching. But I don't know. I think the way I think it definitely helps to just actually also develop a practice in a habit of going into the studio and doing a little bit of art every day. So it's like it's like a muscle to exercise. So I'm not I'm not waiting for inspiration. I'm kind of already in the practice of like, all right, just move the hand, start or do the morning pages or something like that. I think that helps a lot because I really do think of creative practice as like it's a muscle and if you don't exercise it routinely, consistently it can. It just gets really hard to get back into.
[00:23:53] Lisa Hoashi That was one of the things I wanted to ask you was, you know, for people who might be listening, who like maybe they're on a more creative path previously or they had a creative practice and now they need to kind of come back to it and revive it and they feel a little rusty. What's some of your advice for them?
[00:24:14] Annie Wong Firstly, I would say self-compassion. You know, like don't feel too worried about maybe you want to be making more. Maybe it's too difficult at this point. It's not too terribly different from any kind of just sort of like habit building thing. Like I'm also into meditation and like they say, you know, when you're trying to build that meditation practice just 5 minutes a day, just 2 minutes a day or whatever, and then build on top of that. I think what has worked for me is just finding like small forms of trying to build a daily practice. So for a while and I've kind of been maintaining this just because now I'm intrinsically motivated to do it because I find it very pleasurable and fun. I've been doing these digital collages which, you know, I've shared them with you, and I find it to be a very low effort, a very relaxing way to kind of close my day at the end of the day. So I think that helps too. If I can not make the the the daily practice feel like work, but make it feel like some kind of like, oh, this is a treat now. So, so usually that's part of my wind down routine for the day now where I'm like maybe it's after a long day of teaching or doing client work or whatever. And I'm like, All right, now I'm just going to I'm going to lie in bed and I'm going to hold my iPad up and I'm just going to start doing these collages. And sometimes they will be well, a lot of times they'll just be my summary of the day. And occasionally they'll include like pictures that I've taken throughout the day. So it feels very much like a visual diary. And that's something that I like and something that I'm interested in because it's so easy to just not have a very good sense of time. So it's like documenting what I did during the day. So because it's something very low effort and something that I find to be pleasurable, it's giving me some sense of pleasure. It's been surprisingly easy to maintain that practice. I didn't expect to do it when I first got into it. It was just like, Oh, this seems like a fun thing to do while I am recovering from my COVID shots and I can't can't go out. But yeah, that's, that's like a like a small version of like an artistic practice that I've been doing that allows me to keep in touch with my creative self. We have many, many different selves, and that's the one I want to try to like. The creative self is definitely the one that's high on my priority list to try to like, you know, make sure I call her on the phone every night and just be like, Hey, how's it going? Let's just chat for 5 minutes.
[00:26:56] Lisa Hoashi Whatcha thinking about.
[00:26:57] Annie Wong Yeah, what are you thinking about? And then maybe it'll be like an hour long conversation or whatever.
[00:27:03] Lisa Hoashi Yeah, I like that. So it sounds like kind of a way to think about getting back into your practice that sort of, like initiating this kind of pleasurable, easy, like where it feels easy kind of conversation with your creative self. And I did hear like initially, like that self compassion was important part of it. I've definitely learned a lot more about self-compassion like and along this journey as well. And I'm just curious and hearing your own words, like how has self-compassion kind of come into your practice for you?
[00:27:38] Annie Wong Oh man, it's become like one of my number one things that I feel like is necessary to maintain the. Creative career. And I think it goes a little bit back to what we were saying earlier about how because entering into. While choosing the creative. The path of being a creative professional is kind of counter-culture to the the market economy that we basically live under. I think that kind of like the competitive nature of capitalism, sort of, you know, either directly or indirectly will will tell you you need to be constantly producing. You need to be constantly proving your worth. And how you prove your worth is through money and how much money you make. And so I really needed to learn the self-compassion to kind of be like, my worth is not, you know, my my annual salary, like my worth is I'm worthy just because of being a human and finding, you know, I think that kind of mentality helped me sort of start to break away from the pressures of, I don't know, doing that kind of that kind of thing or just, you know, giving in to the pressures of productivity.
[00:28:57] Lisa Hoashi Yeah. One of the things that I wanted to mention, just as in that you and I have in common, is that our Asian American background and so Annie is Chinese-American. I'm Japanese American. And you know, when I think about like that self-compassion, I guess there are kind of like there, there are two like very heavy threads. Like when I was as I was like starting out on this journey and one was like, related to what you were just saying, which I feel like is related to my Asian-American ness, are just like, you know, there's like a certain way to do things and you have to do them perfectly and sort of it's like, but all of those like the pressure of, like achievement and perfection that can kind of go along with some of those expectations can like really like clamp down on my creativity. Like that's not a space in which like, creativity flows. And I feel like the other one that like really I came up against was in school was just like around like the genius idea of like, who are the people who have talent that are like the ones who will be the artist and the ones who will be not, you know, So like I had the writers and the poets. And so I felt like for me to, like, maintain my creative expression, I just had to keep saying just keep working. Like the most important thing is to just keep working at it because it will never get better if I don't keep working at it. But there will be no like arrival at like, perfection.
[00:30:28] Annie Wong Yeah, Yeah. Because perfection doesn't really exist in the first place. And there is no magic. There is no magic like download or like pill that we can take to suddenly be like, Now I'm the master artist or whatever it is. Like anything. Just like building, building the muscle, considering it to be a practice which kind of allows one. I think it's I think what's been healthy for me too, is just to kind of focus more on I heard a a YouTuber, an animation YouTuber I think is name is Toniko Pantoja, who talked about focusing on progress goals more than vague. I don't know, like outcome goals. I don't think he phrased it as outcome goals. But basically, instead of being like, I want this to be the best in my class or whatever, just kind of being more like I want to put in like an hour in the studio today, or like, I want to create one 30-second animated short and then that's achievable. Like that's you can do that and then you can you like up that later. And it's just kind of like focusing more on progress and like how maybe you're doing a little bit more or you've added more on top or you did have one painting, now I've got two, now I've got three. That seems to be more motivating than I won the award. That's not really in our control.
[00:31:59] Lisa Hoashi Yeah, one thing I want to just make sure to ask you about is just to think about, like, the point in your journey where you decided that you wanted to do some coaching.
[00:32:09] Annie Wong Oh, yeah, Yeah.
[00:32:12] Lisa Hoashi And I'm curious, like, what? What kind of made you think like, Oh yeah, I want to do some coaching with Lisa?
[00:32:18] Annie Wong Yeah, it was last year. So I had been running my art business for already four years at that point and I had started a little bit of teaching and my partner and I tI ook a trip to New Mexico because we were kind of getting to the point where I also turned 40 last year. So we're also getting to that, you know, that age and that point where we're like, it'd be great to have a house, which is very difficult to do in the Bay Area. Yeah, maybe, you know, let's check out other locations. I think there is something about like physically being in a new space and a new land and kind of being inspired by the landscape that kind of made that potential vision, that potential desire, that potential goal feel more real, like when you're physically there. And then I got hit with the hard realization of just like, well, I'm not making like buy a house money at the moment, but I feel like I could be. But my the work that I had been doing, the commercial work that I'd been doing, I feel like I had kind of hit a wall or it was kind of starting to feel stale because I hadn't really had a break from it either for four years. I had at that point developed so many different, I guess you could say, like income streams or like experimented with a lot of different things. But I didn't know what to focus on because like, it wasn't necessarily that any one of those single things was making me like buy a house money. So I reached out to you specifically because you have shared that you are a clarity coach. And I yeah, it was just kind of that that moment on that vacation where it was like, okay, well, if this is what we want, then I need to figure out like some kind of focus because I was kind of spread out in all these different areas, like creatively and business wise that I remember writing to you that the weird problem that I had was like, I feel like I'm good at a lot of things, but I don't know, like where to focus on. Like maybe I could go in this direction, maybe I can go in this direction, maybe I can go in this direction. But I don't know. Like, what is? It felt like I needed to find the. The reason underneath or like, the purpose underneath that would help me figure out a more cohesive path forward in my in my business, in my life.
[00:34:57] Lisa Hoashi And what do you feel like has become clear now?
[00:35:00] Annie Wong Definitely. What has become clear? Well, we very recently kind of did the find your why exercise, which I love, and that has been super, super helpful because what was cool with like in our meeting.
[00:35:15] Lisa Hoashi We haven't debrief this by the way we did. So just to give people I'm getting the debrief right now and thought, yeah, yeah. For people who are listening, we did like a mini version of Simon Sinek Find Your Why Exercise, which basically Annie brought, I think sort of like three kind of really important pivotal types of stories from her life to a session. And we and she talked about them and I sort of found I was listening for different themes so that she could write a why statement, which is like serve her purpose statement for what she's here in the world to do. What's been bubbling, you know, since since we did that.
[00:35:58] Annie Wong I just love that. I think what I'm. So some of the themes that came up for me was like human connection, creativity and trying to, like, make complex ideas accessible. These are all things that are highly interesting to me. And I didn't realize that all the work that I'd done in the past were sort of like different versions of this thing. And so I think when we kind of came upon this, you know, it's definitely just kind of like a first draft of a why statement. It was just like, Oh. I was always focused on the what because again, I think that's I don't know, it just seemed easier to be like, you know, when people say, like, what do you do? You describe the service or the product that you make.
[00:36:49] Lisa Hoashi So you had been saying like, I'm a stop motion animator, essentially.
[00:36:53] Annie Wong Yeah, I'm pretty much, I think because I was focused on that, just finding like that surface level language, I kind of didn't. Put it together that. Okay, but like, why do I do these things? Like I could do any other kind of thing? Like, why this? So, yeah, going back through those stories and finding those themes, I was like, Oh, that's cool. And what's cool about the why statement is like, Now that's kind of a North star of just like, what opportunities do I want to take on or say no to or what opportunities do I want to build that are new and exciting for me? So, you know, that's a little bit what I'm thinking about now. Just like the the opportunities that I'm interested in the moment. And it's also helping me kind of like Marie Kondo, like my business, like the past stuff that I've done that's just like, okay, I see now I see there could be some tweaking here, or maybe these are the types of jobs that I don't really need to take on. Whereas before I was just like, I'll take anything. I'll take anything because because it was about like trying to hit like an income goal. But that kind of would lead me to a lot of like burnout.
[00:38:10] Lisa Hoashi So what I'm hearing is like, you had had like all of these different possibilities of like directions that you could go in. And even, you know, when we talked about it was that you were doing a number of them and you were feeling, yeah, that burnout of like doing all the different things and like you said, like you have this really beautiful vision for you and your partner being able to move to like a house in New Mexico and like have both this dreamy life there. And, and so, you know, that like really brings home the goal then of like, where can I focus in a way that's like super aligned with my why that also brings in, you know, the type of buying a house, you know, income that I would really like to have. And I really get the sense that that we really hit upon like some really exciting, like new directions for you that are, that you knew about before we started coaching, but maybe even like through coaching and like having this space that you were like felt a little bit braver about like talking about them. And since you've been getting like more validation from even wider about, like, you know, these new directions that are like super aligned. And I think when you are able to do work that is so aligned with you that like the making the money income is going to follow because it's like because it just like really resonates with people, you know, because it's like really coming from a super, a super charged place inside from you, you know?
[00:39:47] Annie Wong Yeah, completely agree. I think when we've talked about just the different kinds of opportunities that I've had, which I think we call them, like magical opportunities, like it's, it's not necessarily that they were magical and that I didn't do any sort of like spell or had my crystals out and, you know, incantations and whatever. But they were not linear. That was for sure. They were seeds that I had planted when I was in a, a happy, creative, productive mode maybe years ago that, you know, maybe would eventually come around like a year, three years, four years later, that someone saw the thing and and would invite me to whatever the opportunity was that I never could have. I didn't I didn't pitch myself for that. I didn't necessarily like it was like this. I want to do that thing. But it was just that I was in a really. I was happy enough and I was not pressured and I was not stressed out enough to just make work that made me happy. I felt confident about sharing it. And then it's kind of so that's kind of the other half is a little bit like putting some faith in the the forces that be that maybe someone will see it that that you have never met before and will reach out. And that to me is like that to me is sort of the magic. I recently was I had a couple of paintings in a in a group show that I was invited to because the curator, I think, bought a sticker of mine at one of the local gallery shop spaces here. So that's how we met. And there was a curator that went to that show that I was just in there, reached out recently to ask if I wanted to do a studio visit for them. So I was like, Yeah, that's amazing. It's just kind of like very interesting how that can happen, but one has to kind of plant the seed.
[00:42:02] Lisa Hoashi Yeah, yeah, yeah. And in our coaching together, like, we've kind of talked about that. Yes. Like how do you do your magic, right? But like, it's that idea of like, how do you plant the seed? How do you, like, make something and you're like, purely happy and like in the, in the super pure sort of creative sense and, you know, how how then do you see the results of that and how could you, like, do more of that? It's really similar to just like the overall I mean, I kind of hold this philosophy overall in my coaching, which is just that like this is why we do that, like visioning and sort of dreaming about like what's possible so that we can so that we can kind of like be in our happy place and just like be aiming towards something which is yes, like, you know, just like having it's like this mixture of like taking intentional action and also having faith that it's going to like, lead you closer to that place that you ultimately like to go.
[00:43:07] Annie Wong Yeah. Yeah. It's nice to have a just a direction to move towards. And that's how I try to think of things now, of just maybe not necessarily like the specific destination, but just sort of like moving in the direction of that thing.
[00:43:26] Lisa Hoashi So, Annie, what is if you could just give us a little taste like what is this the next thing that you're excited about? That like coming out of our coaching lately, you're going to be you know, you're feeling like more prepared to take on and excited to go forward with.
[00:43:45] Annie Wong So I, I want to start creating either some new offerings or a new body of work that's a little bit more of me mixing in the realms of like creativity and like mental health self-care. And it's so cool, like how I feel like that came out in coaching, like where you said you kind of already knew probably that you wanted to do this thing, but the coaching helped like bring it out, which is absolutely true because I remember when I was trying to come up with ideas for like for some potential workshops, I was like, Well, there's this one that I think would probably like sell really easily. But then there's this one that's a little bit more on the witchy side. I don't know, but it kind of like I'm excited about it. I don't know if anyone else will be excited about it. And you're like, Let me hear what that idea. And it was just sort of like, it's a wonderful feeling to kind of like, feel like, you know, if you're sort of like the timid, shy child and you're like, Oh, what about this idea? And then you kind of, you know, get that encouraging support from another person that's like, Yeah, that's great. And then you can see, because I see this in some of my students sometimes like, and then they're like, Oh yeah, they light up and they're like, Okay, great. Because that was actually the thing that I wanted to do, but I was a little bit afraid about if it would work or not. So one of one of those ideas at the moment was really into this idea about how your creativity is, is like an inner child. So I'm currently like working on I'm taking like a public speaking program where we're kind of practicing developing like a five minute talk around this. It's just fun for this sort of like the performative side of me. I get to talk about these ideas that I'm really interested in, and then I would love to at some point also develop like a workshop where I'm helping people like build like an altar for their, like inner child. I've done a couple of them for myself and they're really sweet and fun, and I love the idea of just connecting with people in that way and just kind of like encouraging their own creativity. Because as much as I've talked about how long I've been doing creativity professionally and the ways in which it's working, I've also deeply experienced the flip side of that, of just being extremely frustrated and stressed out and burnt out. So I'm very happy that now I feel like I have a lot more tools to kind of deal with the harder parts of being a creative professional. And I would just love to share those tools with people that are basically like the younger version of myself.
[00:46:40] Lisa Hoashi So kind of mentoring along a a next generation of creators.
[00:46:45] Annie Wong Yeah, Yeah. It's it's hard. It's especially because sometimes the work is like so personal. So it's very easy to get discouraged and to not want to share and not want to self express. But I think for me, if if you can tap into it and if you can kind of build that self-confidence, then it's really liberating and it's really fun.
[00:47:09] Lisa Hoashi Yeah. So for you, the inner child is like a way of kind of getting of getting back from that place, of being like, discouraged or blocked or burned out.
[00:47:22] Annie Wong Yeah, absolutely.
[00:47:24] Lisa Hoashi And so it's a tool of of kind of. Well, you also talk about like creativity is like a source of healing. And I it sounds like it's related to this idea.
[00:47:37] Annie Wong I've been a creative for so long, it's hard for me to think in a way that's different, but I really feel like it's a way. I think it's a good way to solve a lot of problems. So healing is one of them in that because what creativity is to me is like one's ability to just be open to possibilities and to be a little bit curious, to ask the like, what if question? And I think to practice that muscle is it can be really helpful in getting yourself unstuck. So for example, in during the height of the pandemic where everything was kind of shut down, my partner and I, you know, we would before the pandemic, we would have like our date nights. We'd go out and we'd like intentionally like give each other appreciations and stuff like that. And and of course, it was just a very like a stressful and scary time. And we were like, All right, well, let's bring date night into our living room and pretend this is like a fancy restaurant. And we're going to put on, like ambient restaurant scene on the TV and the lights and candles going to dim the lights and it's like we're just making like Trader Joe's microwave food or whatever. But it was just kind of like I think it really helped to be like, okay, but we're still you know what? What it is, is we're still having our face to face time our intentional time that we wanted, but we're pretending that we're doing the thing that was normal to do before the world changed. So I kind of feel like to practice, and that's what children do. They're just like, All right, give me a couple of construction paper swords or whatever. And like, it's very easy to kind of jump to that Make-Believe world of like, now I'm doing the thing and potentially that leads to like other like practical, yeah, practical ways of doing and being and relating. So that's, that's kind of how it's helped me.
[00:49:56] Lisa Hoashi Mm hmm. Yeah, it's funny, we actually have a ritual that originated out of the out of the pandemic, too, which came from. It was like New Year's Eve, like the first of the first year, right? It's like New Year's Eve for the for 2021. And we couldn't go out and like, usually we have a really big New Year's Eve dinner with friends and a party with them and we couldn't go out. And it was just like it was so sad. It was 8:00 and it's like I was so depressed and I was like, we got to do something. So with the kids, my husband and I, and then our two kids who are like two and three at that time, we transformed the living room into like a discoteca and we like dressed up like we were going out and we totally, you know, it just like, turned out the lights and put the music on really loud and pretended we were at like the club. I loved that. And we actually still do that every Friday night.
[00:50:51] Annie Wong Yes, I love it. Yeah, that's great.
[00:50:55] Lisa Hoashi The kids like won't let us skip it now. But it's like, yeah, we like let down our hair and everyone like, you know, sometimes we play like soccer inside the house, you know, like your parents wouldn't let you do it. Like, we're just, like, doing all the things that just, like, helps the kids see us in a different way. And we get to be different with them, too, and ourselves, like from whatever we were in our work day, you know, it's sort of how we showed up and it's just like and it is really it is really healing. And like, it also, like, really strengthens our relationships, I think, by doing something totally different like that.
[00:51:30] Annie Wong I love that. I love that. Makes me so happy to hear.
[00:51:33] Lisa Hoashi Well, Annie, so to wrap up, I want to just ask you if there's anything else that you feel like you would really like to share with this particular audience about creative process or making a living as a creative person or making some sort of leap to go in a new creative direction? Is there anything you would want to add?
[00:51:55] Annie Wong Yeah, I think I would say definitely. It's actually something that you've kind of shared with me and something I've heard before. Just like follow that energy. Like if, if that is like if spending more time with your creativity is something that really lights you up and you start to feel just alive from doing it, then it's definitely worth doing. And I think the other thing that I've learned in the past five years of doing this professionally in the way that I have, that I didn't know going into it, is that community is also really important. Finding other people that can support you on your journey of growth because it is growth makes it makes it feel like the hard things that are kind of that are that are inherent to being a creative professional are achievable if you're if you're with people that. Are encouraging or they're also on the same path. It just makes it makes those hard things seem more possible and achievable. And I think that's part of what coaching is. I think that's part of just having like friends that are maybe they're not doing exactly the same thing, maybe they're a similar thing. And even people that are not doing that at all, but they're like, I believe in you. Like ask me for help if you need. So asking for help, having community, it really helps a lot and it makes it feel like you're not alone in this process.
[00:53:36] Lisa Hoashi Yeah, great. Thank you. And if people want to stay in touch with you or follow your work, how can they do that?
[00:53:43] Annie Wong So you can find me on social media on Instagram. My artist name is headexplodie. H-E-A-D-E-X-P-L-O-D-I-E. And then my website is also headexplodie.co And you can sign up for my newsletter through my website.
[00:54:03] Lisa Hoashi All right, great. And we didn't get a chance to do the show and tell yet. Can we close with a little show and tell of maybe the things that you have on your table behind you? Will you tell us about them.
[00:54:17] Annie Wong So my table behind me. Let me grab it real quick.
[00:54:21] Lisa Hoashi Or if there's anything else that we can see that you want to grab and show.
[00:54:26] Annie Wong I'll bring the self-portrait Clay head. So I have in my hand for anyone that can't see. It's a great goofy clay head of me with my when I had my short hair and black bangs. And this head actually opens up and I so I'm opening up the lid of the head and I'm pulling out a brain. So I made this just for fun for myself with no like I was just like, Oh, I wonder if I can make like a 3D head that's hollow inside. And I brought it on to like a Patreon video once where I like to use and I like to talk about how like scatterbrained I am sometimes and I just pull random things out of the head.
[00:55:12] Lisa Hoashi Oh that's so good.
[00:55:14] Annie Wong So yeah, there's that. And then the clay unicorn that's in the back is from an old client project where I think in 2018 there was a trend where unicorn everything was a trend unicorn, I don't know, like lattes, cupcakes or whatever.
[00:55:31] Lisa Hoashi I have a five year old so the unicorn trend is alive and well in our household.
[00:55:37] Annie Wong Yeah.
[00:55:38] Lisa Hoashi And I think I've shown my daughter a gif that you made with this. Like it's where there's a unicorn and there's like.
[00:55:45] Annie Wong It's vomiting rainbows.
[00:55:47] Lisa Hoashi Yeah. Vomiting, shiny stuff. Yeah.
[00:55:50] Annie Wong Yeah, exactly. So that's what that is back there.
[00:55:55] Lisa Hoashi So cool. Well, thank you, Annie, for sharing with your art and a bit of your journey with us. It's been really great to have you on the show. Thank you.
[00:56:05] Annie Wong Thank you so much.
[00:56:08] Lisa Hoashi Hey, everyone, Lisa here, and thanks for joining us for this episode of Leap Like Me. Today's episode is our last one for this season and I am headed off into a bit of a break. Aptly, it is a creative break so I can dive a little more deeply into my book project, which is a memoir of my adventure of taking a sabbatical year. If you're curious about what it's going to be about, listen to this story on episode ten, A love story from Barcelona to Patagonia and back. I'm also allowing a bit of time for my own work to shift as a coach. As you have noticed in this episode and others, I'm coaching more people who are interested in taking a new creative direction. And without getting too meta here. This also represents a new creative direction for me too. And like we discussed today, for our creative ideas to unfurl and take their true form, they need an easy, playful and no pressure kind of space, which I may not be fully able to create. But this is one step, taking a bit of a break from recording episodes. So while Leap like Me is on break, you can continue to stay connected with me. Head on over to LisaHoashi.com to join my email list or connect with me over on Instagram or LinkedIn. I will definitely still be posting over there. I am here and I would love to hear from you. Until next time, be bold and take good care.
