Are You Really Prepared for Your Viral Moment with D. Michele Perry
[00:00:00] Made Remarkable Intro: Welcome back. And thanks for tuning into the made remarkable podcast, hosted by Kellee Wynne. In today's episode, Kellee has the pleasure of speaking with Michele Perry. And inspirational icon in the creative world. D Michele Perry is an award-winning multimedia artist, published author and creativity coach, who has helped over 11,000 creatives unlock. New levels of their creativity. And this episode, she shares her journey with sub stack. Marketing strategies. And the challenges of going viral. Kellee and Michele also get into the details of artistic evolution and how pivotal projects like the 100 day project can be for online art businesses. Check out the show notes and transcripts for more information about Michel exclusive promotional offers and any special links mentioned during the episode. Kellee loves connecting with listeners. So don't be shy. Reach out on social media or just tap replying. Kellee's latest newsletter.
Together, let's build a community that celebrates the remarkable. If you want to be notified every time a new episode hits the airwaves. Just hit that subscribe button on your favorite podcast platform. Thank you for joining us today. And always remember you are made remarkable. Destined to achieve the unimaginable. Now let's get to the good part.
Introducing Kellee Wynne and Michele Perry. /
[00:01:14] Kellee Wynne: Well, hello. Hello. I'm Kellee Wynn, artist, author, mentor, fiercely independent mother and wife, and the founder of a multiple six figure creative business. And I love my life, but I've been where you're at. I was slogging away at this art business thing for more than a decade. Once I finally connected with my true calling, unlock the magic of marketing and built a system that could scale, while I realize I can make an impact and make a substantial income, I'm finally running a business that I love and it makes all the.
Difference in the world. My biggest dream is to help you do the same. Let this podcast be the catalyst to your biggest success. You already have it in you because you are made remarkable.
/Hello, I have Michele on the podcast and she's done one of my favorite things, which is build her business off of the consistency of a 100 day project. It blew up your Instagram account and connected you with all kinds of new, wonderful people. So Michele, please introduce yourself and let's get going with this conversation because there's some really cool surprises.
People will be very surprised to find out how vast and wild and cool your life experience has been and why you are in a perfect place right now to be doing what you're doing.
[00:02:38] Michelle Perry: Oh, my goodness. I am so excited to be here and to get to have this conversation and just hang out.
I think we are going to have a really, really great time. It's going to be a lot of fun.
[00:02:48] Kellee Wynne: Yay! So, Michele, I found you and everyone's probably going, here she goes again. It was threads. But yes, right now, I'm connecting with people on threads in a whole new different way. Now, I think I was following you already on Instagram, but for some reason Instagram has this scroll ability and we don't stop and connect, which is kind of the key theme of my fall right now.
Connection over virality, connection over the showiness of what social media might be, and we were able to connect. I, I was, I put a call out. I actually put a call out in this. Summer that said, I'm looking for new voices on my podcast, people who are, queer, a minority, disabilities, new points of view. I didn't want the same old, same old.
So I got all, all the whole fall lineup has been nothing but diverse and interesting. And Michele, I mean, you fit the bill check. And the fact that you are disabled, you are, you're a one leg wonder. Right.
[00:03:56] Michelle Perry: Well, my situation has gotten me into very interesting places, and in some cases, maybe more importantly, out of them. So I'm sure we'll get to that. But, it's amazing. I think growing up, Already having to figure things out a little bit differently because the world isn't built for somebody who uses like one leg and crutches, even in the U. S. there's their challenges and I don't know that that wasn't part of what has helped me be an out of the box thinker from early on, There are times it's been challenging, but then there's also times it's been an incredible opportunity to open doors and to encourage people. So, yeah, it just here we are
[00:04:40] Kellee Wynne: Being born with, um, you were born with 1 leg and some other slightly functioning or unfunctioning parts that are now, obviously, as you're a grown woman.
Totally survivable, but thrivable. So you're a globe trotting world impacting woman?
[00:05:03] Michelle Perry: Well, my journey has been a very interesting one. The first, 20 or so years, 15 to 20 years of kind of my professional post college kind of life I've spent working in a number of different spaces overseas. I've lived for months to years in places like India and spent time, in and out of the Middle East and Central Asia and spent the longest chunk of my time in Africa and what is now South Sudan and that has to be.
One of the highest honors of my life to get a chance to walk with the people that are there because they're just indescribably beautiful, wonderful folks.
[00:05:48] Kellee Wynne: Yeah, it's so incredible the roles that you've played. We were talking about all the different ways in which you've served and helped people, but something came out of that trip to Africa, which, by the way, just still blows my mind because.
Most people don't want to leave their home to live anywhere, but let alone to go somewhere in during a civil war of, you know, you watch South Sudan be born. But in that, you also saw the miracle of children experiencing new things like creativity and crayons and it and this is 1 of the reasons you're an artist today.
[00:06:23] Michelle Perry: Yeah, I think the thing that Blew my mind with how incredibly creative the kids that, um, the program that I was working with and started, like just how incredibly creative they would take things that we think would be trash that would be like thrown, thrown out and would turn them into these sculptures of trucks and land rovers and things that they saw.
And they would just, they already were brimming with creativity. And so being able to go You know, we take a lot for granted or I'll speak on my for myself. I take a lot for granted or did and so it didn't even cross my mind that when we brought crayons that that would be a novel experience and to watch their creativity explode.
And because I saw the impact that. It was having on them. One of the things that we tried to do is we got some of our basics established and had a little bit more margin to do other things than just figure out how to feed people and keep them safe. I wanted to be able to help. The kids that were in our care explore their creativity because it's so healing.
But what do you do when you don't have Michaels and Amazon doesn't deliver? And there's no arts and crafts store down the road. It was no paved roads and barely any doctors. And it was like we were in the bush. Like way off the push. So I did a little research and learned how to mix some stuff together that we did have and make some paint and use some earth pigments and things that I knew nothing about.
But I learned and to see the beauty and the creativity that came out of these kids as they were able to embrace parts of their own stories through that was just, It's what got me started on my own art journey. I was already a writer and was creative with graphics and things, but it's what allowed me to dip my toes into the art space and really became a precursor to where I am now.
[00:08:27] Kellee Wynne: Hmm.
Well from our discussion you were back stateside by the 20 teens, correct.
[00:08:36] Michelle Perry: 2013 was like my last year being based there, so, it was middle of 2013. I was back in the states trying to figure out what's next and unfortunately my health had taken a huge hit. And I was quite sick. I kept getting the cerebral strain of malaria and it did some damage and I had to figure out like what's next.
And I really didn't want to be living in the States. I want it to be living with the people that were so near and dear to my heart. But. For lots of reasons, health being one of them, it wasn't a feasible thing for me to be doing. So I kind of had to reinvent and pivot and I have a background in leadership training and consulting and communications and did a bunch of branding and web design and messaging and things for, the project that we started in Africa.
And so when I came back, I was like, well, let me kind of parlay this into something. And so I did a lot of freelance. Web design, graphic stuff, some coaching, things like that, and had built up that and a wedding stationery business. I saw on Facebook, this is like 2016 story of Michele's life. I saw on Facebook where there was a styled shoot in the wedding industry.
That was here locally. They needed wedding invitations. And I had already sort of been looking into maybe dabbling with some watercolors. It seemed doable. So I messaged them and like, what do you need? And so they told me and I was like, yeah, I could figure that out. And so like a week later, I show up with a suite for their style too.
And started into the wedding industry. Um, really built that up over, Subsequent year and a half or two and was about ready to kind of go full time with that and business consulting as well. And, within a freak car accident, wound up with a brain injury, damaged my wrist, which spoiler with my dominant wrist and my ankle was like my ankle.
Cause I use crutches to walk so, by, by wedding stationery, calligraphy. Industry and I lost my words and my ability to find the words I was looking for. So goodbye, consulting. Goodbye. Copywriting. Goodbye. Anything in that realm. At least, it's been a 6 year journey to find new ones. And I'm really grateful because I'm in a different space now than I would have been if that hadn't happened.
Yeah, so it's been a wild ride.
[00:11:08] Kellee Wynne: Oh, you keep taking the punches and getting back up again, Michele. So, at some point you transitioned to really creating for yourself, obviously. But when you did the, the 100 day project in what was it? 2022? 2023. 2023. You had started with just over a thousand followers on Instagram and it totally blew up your account.
[00:11:38] Michelle Perry: Well, I had decided out of all of the things I could do, I can do a lot of things. That doesn't mean I should do all of them. Right? Like, I could do a lot in business, but I really had drilled down on, what was the thing that I really wanted to do. And out of all the things I could do, the thing that lit me up the most.
And so, I had tried doing the 100 Day Project kind of in years previous, and it just never really stuck. For me, I'd do five days, and then, like, stuff would come up, and yeah, okay. Missed it. So I kind of, you know what, I'm going to give myself this hundred days in 2023, and I'm going to do everything I can to set myself up for success with it.
So I decided to do a doable project instead of something that was like super intimidating. So I did a hundred days of tiny landscapes, and I cut up these little two by three kind of watercolor paper Got it so that it was all stacked and prepared and I knew that it wasn't going to take me the same amount of time like painting in a sketchbook might or doing something on a larger scale, but I had no idea I was just like taking a step into reels because they were popping off back then and it was kind of.
If you want to grow, that's the thing you do is you must do reels. And I didn't know that's still the case now. Unfortunately, it still is. Although I hear carousels with music are having a moment.
[00:13:09] Kellee Wynne: Who knows?
[00:13:10] Michelle Perry: I have yet to try that one out. So, maybe that'll be tomorrow's adventure. So. I want to say it was February 2023, and I just posted my first reel, and it was very simple, but it told a story in a way that I hadn't really told a story before.
It kind of set this thing up of, here's this girl cutting paper in her studio, and she's going to do these hundred, hundred tiny paintings, and, It is the first time I ever went viral on anything and it went viral to over 2 million and wow, I've never had that happen. Yeah, it was it was. Boy, the things you don't learn until you have a moment like that and you realize how much you don't know and you have to, like, kind of build the thing as you're, like, build your wings as you're, you know, leaping off the cliff type of videos.
[00:14:00] Kellee Wynne: Pack the parachute as you're jumping, right?
[00:14:03] Michelle Perry: Yeah, and that's exactly right. And so that made my art go viral. So come this year, a hundred day project. I was like, I want to do the hundred day project again, but me being me, I'm like, I don't want to do the same thing. That's boring. I'll do something else.
And so I said, what do I want to do? And I thought, well, what if I did. Cause a lot of my, , emphasis of content and things that I create around is on like wonder as a practice and as a daily, thing that we engage with to help, ground and center our creativity. So I thought, what if I did a hundred one word wonder prompts?
That sounds like fun. So I basically figured out the most magical cottagey forest, like kind of set of words I could think up and wrote them all down. Again, not thinking I would at this point all of my engagement had tanked again, like it comes in these big waves and you go viral and it's awesome. And then four months later, it's kind of like you're getting lower engagement numbers because now you have a higher, it's the whole algorithm math.
[00:15:13] Kellee Wynne: Yeah, yeah, from the algorithm. So you, Going viral doesn't necessarily mean instant success. There's still a lot of work from that first aha moment to where you are now, and that's setting up this new season of 100 Day Project again this year.
[00:15:35] Michelle Perry: Yeah, and so I was like, I don't want to do the same thing.
I want to do something else. And I, wanted to take what I had learned and kind of be a little bit more savvy with it this time. Not really thinking it would do much. I thought maybe, you know, a couple thousand people will see it. And at this point I was at about the 30, 000 kind of mark in terms of followers.
And this was, for any Instagram nerds that are out there, was pre Instagram switching up their entire algorithm. So this was right before Like April when like the algorithm rhythm apocalypse happened and
[00:16:12] Kellee Wynne: yes, this is what we can call it. The algorithm apocalypse status. That is the red
[00:16:19] Michelle Perry: like fills the fills it right there, but I got in right before that happened.
So it was kind of a. Accidental timing thing that just was really fortunate, but I just said, hey, I'm going to do these 101 word. Wonder prompts, hey, Internet, who wants to join me and it went viral again and then I was like. Oh, oh, well, how do I, how do I like leverage this? So this actually built a sustainable business.
And, so I looked into a bunch of things and I thought, you know, I was already on Substack, which I kind of referred to as a, some people think of it like a newsletter type of a deal. And it's really not in my point of view, it's not a marketing platform at all. It's more like. It's long form. It's long form written social media.
It's kind of what it is.
[00:17:15] Kellee Wynne: It's a blog platform. Let's be honest with those. And if you want, it can be delivered to your email, but I really feel like it's a catch all blog platform because it's got, you can have video and live format and photos and podcast and everything. So it is very versatile, maybe a little bit like Patreon.
[00:17:37] Michelle Perry: It is. I was already on it. So I thought, let me parlay this. Let me just move this into, this is where we're going to do the hundred days. So I am like pulling these incredibly long, ridiculous hours, trying to get things set up as things are blowing up in a good way. And, it was a wild ride. But it basically took my, sub stack from about a hundred to at its peak, we had about 11, 000 in the community over there, based on Instagram blowing up.
But I made some mistakes, and one of the mistakes, and I should know better because I used to educate on email marketing, is Substack says that, you know, you can, you own your subscribers there. You can export them. And this is true. You can do that. But for the email platform that I use, I don't think that all of the information that was needed to legally import them in into a different email platform was there.
So. I couldn't import them into my email marketing, platform. So what I've learned now, when I do promotions or anything that drives towards sub stack, it has to go through my email marketing platform before they get to sub stack because you know both and, but that took my sub stack from, barely anything to a sub stack bestseller badge, which means you have a hundred paid subscribers.
That's, that's all that means. But like, it's cool.
[00:19:05] Kellee Wynne: It's still really wonderful. You know, it's a, it's a good start.
[00:19:08] Michelle Perry: It's a great start. It's just, when I saw people, I mean, you hear a bestseller, like, it is such a, it was a good marketing, total good marketing play for Substack to do this. I'm like, well done you, because it, it makes you feel really, like, Right, you share about it and it's just it's a really good organic marketing like on their part.
And, but I have loved the platform. It's a wonderful space to connect with people and to write and to build community and whatnot. It's, I love it. It has its limitations, but it also has some tremendous benefit spending on what you want to use it for.
[00:19:45] Kellee Wynne: Now, I have some questions about Substack, especially because, and let's go into the business building, how we create, how we, I mean, part of what you coach and teach on is sustainable creativity, right?
Yes. But with Substack, so in my, in my coaching community, how I mentor people is pick a long form content. One of them could be video. It could be audio and it could be writing writing. I would say some stack is primarily writing and I have and it's a new platform for me. Like, I'm there as a consumer, but not as a creator, right?
I have many people who are interested in learning more and more about Substack because we're all trying to find that place where it feels comfortable. Driving people there from Instagram makes sense. Are you finding new, new customers and new people to follow or who follow you right from Substack? Or do you still feel like you have to drive people there?
[00:20:45] Michelle Perry: I absolutely I have people I have about, I mean, I last looked at my analytics. I think it was around 5 or 600 subscribers that came through sub stock. Okay. And Substack has the capacity through its notes feature to be, it has a social media kind of a feel to it, so that you're able to interact.
And at this point, the thing that really made Substack appealing to me as a long form writing place is that it did have a community backend that you could kind of build from within that, that app itself, but it also doesn't use an algorithm. It does more of a. what's the word? Not longitudinal. That's not the right word.
Um, time based feed based on like, based on who you follow. Like, chronological. That's the word. Chronological feed based on who you're following. So, you're not having to figure out their algorithm because there isn't one. Right. In the same way.
[00:21:44] Kellee Wynne: It's still about traditional. Social media in the fact that you show up create relationships and be social.
[00:21:53] Michelle Perry: Exactly.
[00:21:54] Kellee Wynne: Right. I've heard that the community over there on some stack is pretty amazing. People are very supportive. I love that it is still a growing platform. It's not huge like Instagram, but it's substantial now. A lot. I find that I keep hearing a lot more. Artists and makers are heading over there, but it's yet to be a huge platform for visual artists where it might be better for writers, primarily writers.
And so are you, but you found like more than, more than 500 people who are following you right from the platform. So that's the part that I always have to remind my clients is, where is your customer? Are they there? Right.
[00:22:40] Michelle Perry: Yeah, and there is a growing visual arts kind of sub community within Substack. I think it's, you have to be smart in how you use it and I like thinking about it as a long form written social media kind of a construct versus a blog because blogs in the best way should be driving, people to your website, right?
And it should be basically, like, if a blog's really worth its salt and working, I mean, in my, I want it to, like, drive people to my primary website where they can buy stuff, right? And so this is a way to write and put your information out there, very much like YouTube is, where you can then monetize your expertise and either drive them to your shop or drive them to your commissions or whatever it is that you're doing.
[00:23:33] Kellee Wynne: Right. Or your courses or your courses. Yeah. However it is, or in your case, you can monetize right on the platform.
[00:23:43] Michelle Perry: Yes. And there are a number of different ways that you can monetize. Similarly, I think convert kit came out with like a creator community that can be monetized not on convert kits.
I don't know that, but I've seen other creators, monetize slightly differently, but sub stock. It connects in with a payment processor so that you can set up subscriptions. And it's really, it's very seamless and it's lovely. It's, it's an easy thing to be able to do. Me being me, like I want to do things like the, the super in depth way.
Right. So I built out a long form sales page for my sub stack. And so what happens now is once it goes live is that anybody who would be jumping in on Substat that isn't coming from native within the platform will be directed through my long form sales page in order to be able to get to Substat to subscribe.
And that harnesses the power of the email marketing as well and making sure they're plugged in in both places.
[00:24:44] Kellee Wynne: Right. It's gathering those emails. It's so important because who knows when the. Algorithm apocalypse is going to happen again, right? Exactly.
[00:24:54] Michelle Perry: Exactly. Like, would we have part B? I mean, it's
[00:24:57] Kellee Wynne: Oh, we will. We are. We're probably in the middle of it. I've given up all hope. I've just finally been like, okay, we really can't think about it anymore. And for those who are thinking, oh, but it's ruined my business it's killed my sales. I have to stop and say, why are you not getting people on your email list?
Because that's the only, and even that may not be as secure as we think, but it's still way more secure than
[00:25:26] Michelle Perry: way better. And honestly, to be able to have, like. them in a platform where you're able to appropriately segment and tag and automate and it allows you to build out so much more versatility in how you present your offers and what's available and how you serve your audience allows you to be really hyper specific and I think that's super key.
[00:25:54] Kellee Wynne: For sure. I really think that that's where we have to show up more. Yeah. I'm pushing right now for a movement where we're a simplifying our businesses and be having a lot more connection and communication with the right people rather than this, Oh, you know, as you've seen, you can go viral and have 2 million views and it doesn't equate to money.
No, it doesn't change the way we think about how we do business. We have to change our relationship with social media and these statistics. They don't mean anything.
[00:26:33] Michelle Perry: No. And here's the deal. There is a downside to going viral and, number 1, you can get a bunch of people that get on your, like, platform, whatever it is that you're viral on, they are really not there to connect and to support and be part of a community that, where you're building a long term investment, they liked what they saw, they clicked, it's all, you have all of this almost dead weight in a way, like, that if there's not engagement there, it can actually make it harder for you to show up, especially with the changes that have happened, and to get So there's, there's that.
And the other thing is, is if you're not prepared to scale when you go viral, you really aren't able to take. Like advantage of the exposure in the same way that if you're at a point in your business where you're ready to scale So
[00:27:24] Kellee Wynne: yeah for sure. Absolutely. I mean, it's the novelty of it I mean think everybody has this like dream of going wildly viral, not everybody, but a lot of us, it's like, if we're in business, it's like, Oh, wouldn't that be great?
Wouldn't that be amazing? And then you stop and you really talk to people who have that happen. Or you take a look at what the true important metrics are of a business. And that's not it at all. But like you said, because then you have all these people who said, yes, I'm going to follow, but then they never pay attention again.
And it actually brings your algorithm down even more. So creating content. Singing and dancing and doing the latest trends and using the latest music honestly doesn't serve you very well at all. No. Showing up, and we've heard this probably for a decade, be authentic, be authentic, but it's lost its meaning.
And so what we have to say is actually be yourself. Yeah.
[00:28:23] Michelle Perry: And that's the thing.
[00:28:24] Kellee Wynne: Stop following trends.
[00:28:25] Michelle Perry: Yeah, it's the thing that, like, it almost shut me down to the point that I almost left Instagram. I mean, it was so overwhelming and I'm like, oh my gosh, if I make one step wrong, I'm gonna, it's gonna blow up.
It's not ever gonna work again, especially after the algorithm change happened this year. It was such a crazy headspace to be in and I finally was like, you know what? Screw the algorithm. I'm going to do what I want to do. I'm going to put who I am out there. I'm going to serve the people that are at my table.
I can't worry about the people who are eating at someone else's table. I'm going to serve the people at my table. And the people that are showing up and I mean, We have a community aspect on our substack, and so I do a monthly kind of create together where anybody who's part of our paid community can show up on Zoom and we hang out and stuff.
Most months it's been me and one other person, and like, you would think that's, that, what? And I love it, and the reason I love it is because I'm actually able to get to know Where the people that are in my community are at, and to be able to speak and serve and build relationship with them directly.
That's what's sustainable right there.
[00:29:41] Kellee Wynne: Yeah, I mean, if you really thought about it, if you just had like. A handful of the people who, you know, you're looking for tens of thousands of followers. That becomes a number. Whereas if you just had 10 people. Yeah, hosting 10 people is a lot of energy. And when you create more deep connections, and I'm not saying each connection is meant to be a sale, but each connection is another connection of a human life that we're supposed to be serving, engaging with creating.
When I think about the early days of Instagram, the reason why one, why I think I did so well, even in the Connections to this day is because we did engage, spend time getting to know each other. We commented, we got to know people and what they were creating, what their ups and downs were. We weren't just lawyers, right?
We're actually creating friends and community, which is why I think I'm enjoying threads so much right now is chance to do it all over again. And I'm sure at some point we're going to hate it. It'll be polluted. There'll be ads. We won't be able to see the people we care about. It's going to happen, which means we have to learn how to be flexible and adaptable to each phase of this all new frontier of online business.
It's just always changing. You know, to say like, just don't get your panties in a bunch because they changed the algorithm again, folks.
[00:31:11] Michelle Perry: I've heard it. I've heard it said many, many times that if you're not paying for the service or the product, you are the product. You are the product. So it's, keeping that in mind and that I don't want to build my dream.
In somebody else's house that Oh, right. Like, I want to build it in my own. Thank you very much.
[00:31:36] Kellee Wynne: This is why the wall this summer. I was like, wow, I had 75, 000 followers and people are like, wow, go Kellee. And I'm like, oh, my goodness. I just dedicated 10 years of my life. To building somebody else's business and yes, I can't deny the fact that it's built my business too, but all my creativity went there first.
I wasn't saving my creativity for me first, for my platform, for my newsletter, for serving my people the way I needed to. It was always like create for the machine. Yes. And when I had that breaking point, that's when I was like, Oh, I got to do something different. I am still in full transparency in a transition to figure out what that is, what that means, how I feel about it.
And I have concern because I'm not showing up there. What is that going to actually mean? Is it, is it possible to build a business without always being, beholden to one of these platforms? Yes.
[00:32:33] Michelle Perry: I think this is the great experiment that a lot of us are in, and I still show up there, and I show up there really because the people that I've met, and they interact, that we do interact in comments and things, I show up because my people are hanging out there, and they're engaging, and that's, that brings me joy.
But. Don't want to feed an algorithm. I call it the algorithm alligator. Like it feels like this. It keeps wanting to eat all of the things and like I don't want to feed the algorithm alligator. Sorry. I just
[00:33:05] Kellee Wynne: want to create for ourselves. And I think when I can have that healthy relationship with Instagram again, I'll be back.
Right, right where it's not always a strategy or a trend because I am really passionate about finding a way for us to build more holistic business practices and sensible marketing without always. Feeding the algorithm alligator, as you've called it.
Yeah, there's really and I'm finding my way through this. There's a lot. I do understand about marketing, but there's still some new things to discover here
[00:33:42] Michelle Perry: with the advent of AI and a lot of the tools that are out there. Yes, they can be incredible tools, a hammer can be really great when you're pounding a nail, if you're trying to, you know, screw a screw, not so much, and, learning, like, where they're useful and where they're not, but also having to deal with the onslaught of all of the noise.
I know for me, like, when I had a brain injury six years ago, one of the big things I became. Instantly noise sensitive to that in ways I hadn't before. It's like my brain couldn't process it. And I'm still very hyper aware of noise, whether that's visual noise, or it's noise, background noise.
And I'm in the season of I'm stripping and have stripped everything back down to the very core things that I'm made to do, and I'm not going to do anything else, even though I have skills in other areas. Right. That's what helps it to be less over. And for me, and in terms of Instagram, yeah, it's cool if it goes, if, if like a lot of people see it and it gets engagement very nice, but I'm gonna post stuff because I feel like I should post it, right?
Not because I'm worried about how it's gonna perform. And it has taken the better part of a year to get that straightened out in my own head. So cheers on, on that journey.
[00:35:11] Kellee Wynne: I still haven't figured that out. I was still at the point where, Oh, that didn't perform well, so I'm going to delete it. And now I'm just like, okay, we're reworking the relationship with full online marketing and business.
I still fully believe in it because that's what I coach and teach is how to set up these kinds of sustainable businesses and create marketing that actually works. Right. You have to do it in new ways. And I'm, and I'm learning like at a rapid pace, but also at a pace. Rapid learning rapidly, but not acting rapidly and taking a lot of time to figure this out
[00:35:50] Michelle Perry: and that's okay.
This whole like hustle grind. Have it done like by 5 days ago type of a deal is so incredibly toxic. It commodifies who we are as people. It doesn't allow us to embrace like wonders kind of a huge part of who I am and what I do and like, and messaging and it's just really core and central to kind of what I'm about and you can't rush through to find wonder wonder is found by slowing down and looking at the small details and making space to be able to notice it.
Um, the wonder habit, we talk about five, like core things we talk about. Curiosity and about learning to be curious, and that brings the ability to be connected. And when we're connected with ourselves and one another, the world around us, that helps us to build courage. When we're in that space of courage, it unlocks greater creativity and creativity embraced, um, really can lead into and should lead into compassion for ourselves, one another, and the world around us.
And yeah, I actually, Love alliteration.
[00:37:00] Kellee Wynne: That way I love alliteration too, but I've never heard it quite. I've heard some of the other pieces, but to end it on compassion, but what creativity can do for us, because this is something I can't. Trying to remind everyone who's like, I'm not in Africa helping build new countries, right?
Most people don't ever do that. They're like, who am I? I'm just an artist. But if you really think about it, you just spelled it out. That creativity leads us to compassion for ourselves and for others. And that is a beautiful thing. Like, you know, there's no reason for any of us to sacrifice that, which I have.
I mean, I really have. Sacrifice my creativity and my well being to feed this monster and it's not, it's not worth it to me anymore. The part that I love the most about my job, I want to be able to do and do wholly, and that's communicating with other people. I love that part. My community knows that my favorite day of the week is Tuesday because that's the day that I get to get on zoom calls.
You know, that's the day that I get to talk to people and see really doing for me. That's the joy and in my business, but finding our ways around it. So, let's just segue exactly into something that's really important to you. Speaking of wonder and your systems, I am struggling to find my creative mojo. I mean, like, when I say struggling, I'm saying it took me 2 months to finally finish 1.
Landing page because I'm struggling, right? I am struggling with life. I'm struggling with work. I'm struggling with identity. Yeah, I'm okay with admitting that this is a, this has been like climbing up a mountain with concrete shoes this year is hard, but at the same time, I'm determined to make it up the mountain where share with us, like, your advice and the way that you help people make A creative habit rather than waiting for inspiration.
[00:39:00] Michelle Perry: Well, I think the biggest breakthrough, for me was when I realized that creativity and very specifically inspiration, like, If you're creatively wired at all, or you're having to come up with things for your job, or you're, an artist and you're wanting to paint stuff, like, I think we've all at some point hit that same kind of an experience where we hit the wall and it's this big fuzzy blank, and it feels like all this pressure, and we're stuck, and we can't get beyond it, and what do we do?
And then, All the anxieties and then it just gets harder and it snowballs, right?
[00:39:35] Kellee Wynne: Especially if you're running a business and you know that there's a lot to do and my listeners are mostly business owners or want to be business owners.
[00:39:45] Michelle Perry: Exactly. And like when inspiration and this is when your creativity affects your bottom line, it's now a business asset.
[00:39:54] Kellee Wynne: Right.
[00:39:55] Michelle Perry: And so being able to care for it. As a business asset, for those that are a little bit more on the business and strategy ways of thinking these things through, I think is a really key understanding to realize you're not being flighty. You're not wasting time. You're not doing the, like, you're working on your business by making space to care for your creativity because it's a business asset.
[00:40:20] Kellee Wynne: That's a really good point. And that's why I've been working on ways to, not just for myself, but for others, build a lifestyle a week schedule that leaves space for the creativity. Yes. Right? Because when you think this to do list comes before something like you've just very clearly outlined, it's a business asset.
[00:40:44] Michelle Perry: It's a business asset. You have to take care of it. And then the other thing is, is that Creativity and inspiration specifically is what I focus on because I find out that is one of the the really tangible areas that a lot of people get like just stuck like jammed in and don't even know like what and inspiration Isn't just a state where we feel something, where we have to sit on the couch and wait for it to float down from the, right?
And then, oh, we're inspired now, we'll go make something. Inspiration at its core is a skill and it's something that we can learn. It's something that we can practice. It's something that we can get better at and we can put into a system so it can be repeated. Time and time again, and one of the big things that I help clients and friends and anybody who will listen to me do is before you get to that place of being blocked and feeling stuck where you're already there and it's harder to get out of it because you're, you're in all of the mire and the emotions of the moment is.
Learn how to notice the things that capture your attention, that capture your imagination, and build yourself an inspiration archive, just like you would have a Swype file for marketing or for business content. A lot of the marketing people Prefer your recipes! Great! Exactly. Creating the space, whether it's a journal or it's a box or, you know, it could be a Pinterest collection, but I really find for most people, we're on screen so much that there is some, there is a actual neurobiological connection between writing with your hand and what goes on in your brain and getting out of the spaces that are all lived on screens so that you can be in the moment and the end.
Look around right where you're at and find one thing that inspires you to think a little differently, or like, I'm looking at all of the colors of my colored pencils that are sitting right here, and I'm noticing that The greens are up front and if I were going to sit down to create those are probably be the 1st things I would grab and I would maybe do some patterns with leaves in them.
So it's like little teeny tiny things that you can do. There are also, exercises just like you kind of build your build your arm muscles. You can build your inspiration muscles. It was a game. I started playing out of necessity when I was in Africa, but I still play when I'm bored to this day and it's I look at a random.
Okay, I'm just going to pull a random object. Here's a jar. And I just go, okay, 30 seconds. How many different ways could I use this jar? How many things can I think about that this jar could become? And I'll write them in my phone. And it's so you're constantly priming kind of the pump for your inspiration.
In your creativity and then finding a way that works for you to be able to archive it and access it on demand.
[00:43:51] Kellee Wynne: Wow. Fabulous. Do you have you ever done the artist's way?
[00:43:56] Michelle Perry: I have read through it. There's some things that really resonate. And then there are other things that maybe didn't quite fit as well for me and but I think the artist way is very, very powerful.
There are a lot of people that really like it and find a lot of value to I think that I was already doing and just thought was it was just good. Confirmation was the whole idea of morning pages or, you know, Being able to write and just get all the stuff that's out on paper so that it un gums the area and allows you to be more focused.
[00:44:29] Kellee Wynne: That's what I thought. I thought of when you were talking about writing. I know that that's a really important practice in the artist's way, which I have not actually practiced myself, but I do feel like that there's certain things that we need to spend more time doing.
In order to find that healing, the creativity, to be able to take the break from the screen, which is one of the reasons why I deleted the, the apps all off of my phone. It doesn't mean I don't have access. I just don't have constant access. Right. So it forces me to notice the world a little more.
Yes. Unless I'm playing Pokemon Go and then I'm not paying attention at all and that annoys my husband. Well, but it's Pokemon Go so, you know, the Right, right. So, Michele, well, are you prepping? I know it's only like November by the time people are listening to this. Are you prepping for the 100 Day Project next year?
Are you going to be bringing people along on your adventure?
[00:45:34] Michelle Perry: Absolutely, I think I haven't exactly decided what we're going to do yet, but I've been thinking through kind of what's the next iteration of this and how can we, we being me, and Charlie, um, like, create something that is going to bring that.
Even additional value to what happened this year. So kind of again using we had 101 word wonder prompts and we may do something similar to that, but I want to be able to add some more things in that really brings another layer of value, but the stories that have come out of the people that participate it just it's they keep me going, honestly, and keep me excited to see the transformation of people.
Many times in very hard life circumstances that are finding joy and connection and people that were, we had one gal that was like in her 80s and she had never painted before and she started painting and so like just these precious moments and I want to really be intentional about how to. foster and cultivate even more of those for people so they can be in touch with the creative part of who they are that brings joy and brings life.
[00:46:51] Kellee Wynne: That's exciting. I would love to direct people to sign up for your sub stack. I am already a follower, a subscriber, whatever they call it, um, sub stack. And so when I, when I remember, To check in on that beautiful platform. Actually, I really am finding the writing on that platform and the people there are amazing.
[00:47:14] Michelle Perry: Really truly it's a it's a writer's paradise. And I think that it's like writers 1st and then the news media has kind of independent media has jumped on it because it is such a versatile platform for a lot of content forms. But. I think the artists and creatives are the next. You would go to, my sub stack is wonder. dMicheleperry. com.
[00:47:39] Kellee Wynne: Okay, we'll put that in, obviously, in our show. Thank you. We want to make sure everyone has a chance to connect with you and Your beautiful art and your point of view. It's been fun to see two sides of you, because I was following you on Instagram and I was like, wow, very beautiful eye catching.
I don't know that I spend enough time connecting with you as a person, but on threads I've gotten to know you and I see your ups and downs, your struggles we're, we're very much cheering each other on over there and, and it's been really exciting. Like I love to that. That's one thing that's fun about bread, so.
/For those who want to join us on threads. This is not a place for art for us. This is a place for being real humans and connecting on real human level. It doesn't mean we don't talk about art or business. It's just that we get to be more of ourselves there and it's really great. It's been fun to get to know you that way and even better to see your face and have a conversation.
I love it. I love it. I love it too. Thank you so much, Michele. Thank you for having me.
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