Prologue 1 - Let it All Unfold

[00:00:00] And of course, that was a moment that hatched in my mind that I have to live on purpose, a life by design and not by default.

[00:00:22] You are listening to Unfold with Kellee Wynne. This is an unpolished, imperfect, and totally honest podcast. And I'm talking to all the artists, creatives, visionaries, and change makers who wanna live a life by design and not by default. If you're ready to have thought-provoking, eye-opening, heart-centered conversations that explore the stories that made us who we are and break through the boundaries of expectation, then you are in the right place.

[00:00:55] Well, hello. Hello. Let's get this party started. [00:01:00] You're listening to Unfold with Kellee Wynne and we're doing a little prologue episode here so that we can warm up, get over perfection, and just get going. You might be wondering why another podcast, doesn't everybody do podcasts? What is it that she's gonna have to say that will be different from anybody else?

[00:01:22] Well, I'll be honest with you. I have no idea will I be any different, will I be any more interesting than all the other voices out there? I guess we're just gonna have to wait and see how this unfolds. But why a podcast? It's because in this day and age of fast-paced talks and reels and scrolling so, so, so fast on Instagram that we hardly even take time to read what each other.

[00:01:52] Say I thought, how could we be more intimate? How can we have a little more time together and connect deeper and maybe [00:02:00] show up a little more real and raw? And I realize that the time it takes to sit with me in your ears, having this conversation might just be a little more intimate, and that can be a lot of fun and hopefully interesting, but definitely real.

[00:02:19] I'm gonna show up and be my very real self. I'm not holding back because my goal is that if I can show up real, maybe I'll inspire you to show up real raw, honest, unapologetic, and do the thing that you've always dreamed of doing. I know you are artists and creatives and change makers, visionaries with your head full of ideas, and that's probably why we're connecting today.

[00:02:49] That's exciting to me because I think the more we put this creativity out into this world, the more we add art and love and speak our truth. [00:03:00] The better things they're gonna get. At least I know it's gonna be a hell of a lot more enjoyable and there's freedom in that. Freedom in showing up and being real.

[00:03:11] I wanna tell you about the aha moment I had and how I finally decided to go ahead and do this podcast. Every year I have the pleasure of taking a little family trip to a cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania, and I love this trip because I unplug. We all unplug, we play games, we cook good food, and we get close to nature.

[00:03:34] I sit out on the back porch and the little stream runs by, and I hear that trickling of water all day long. Well, I do my art, put together puzzles, listen to podcasts, write my ideas down, and read a good book. I also take time to hike. In nature, and there's this hill right next to the cabin, straight up for two miles.

[00:03:57] It is a very steep [00:04:00] hill. Takes a lot of work to get up that hill, and for some reason I always forget in between each visit how much work I need to do to be prepared for that hill. I get a little outta shape, and so this last year, I'm hiking up that hill and I'm putting my whole heart into it. I'm gonna make it all the way up the whole two miles and back down the whole two miles and let every capillary in my lungs burst and the muscles and my legs wanna give out.

[00:04:30] Because I haven't done this in a while. Mind you, and I'm just thinking. How beautiful it is to be able to have this body to go up the hill and the strength to keep going. And this moment is kind of a spiritual, mental, emotional and physical connection. All parts of me are moving and I'm feeling very alive.

[00:04:56] It sometimes pain will do that to you, feel [00:05:00] very alive using. This body and all my fortitude to just keep going up that mountain and my brain is thinking how much more I want to thrive in this life that I have as 50 is knocking on the door. Yep, that's it. Two more years to 50 and I don't wanna lose what I've got.

[00:05:28] I want my brain to stay sharp, my heart to love fully, and my body to keep moving up that mountain. And of course that was a moment that hatched in my mind that I have to live on purpose, a life by design and not by default. And I was like, that's my message. That's what I wanna share. I finally have my reason to show up.

[00:05:54] Do the podcast and connect with you. And I don't know what it was about [00:06:00] that moment, about needing something so deeply for myself that I knew that I needed to share it with you, but I did. And all the wonderful ideas that came along with that, including big, huge goals of what I wanna accomplish in the next two years and all that I've learned in the last couple of years of living through a global pandemic.

[00:06:22] It was a pretty cool experience. Of course, uh, it was challenging to go ahead and do it again the next day and the next day. But there's one thing I know for sure I gotta. Climbing up that mountain so that next year when I show up and I'm not gonna be so challenged. And that's kind of a metaphor for life too.

[00:06:44] Once you know that there's something you need, that the your heart needs, your soul needs, your spirit needs, your creativity, needs, needs, you gotta keep working those muscles. And I think that that's something that I wanna keep coming back to over [00:07:00] and over again. What we need to. exercising and not just our body, but our mind and our spirit, our connections with each other, and oh my goodness, the creative juice, you gotta keep using it or you're gonna lose it.

[00:07:19] So where am I right now in this moment? Let's start with the present. We wanna see it all unfold, and over the course of this podcast, there's gonna be a lot to unfold. My intention is to be able to share with you behind the scenes of the business, the process of creativity and all its raw. Energy and beautiful truth that it exposes of the inside of your soul when you actually tap in to the creativity that you've been given.

[00:07:56] The connections that we make with each other. [00:08:00] Purpose and reason and things unknown, and maybe even some things that turn me off or turn me on, inspire you to do your best. I got a lot of ideas, but what I do know is that together we will unfold and we're gonna have some great discussions. So let's catch up with what's current with business, with creativity, with life.

[00:08:30] Where are we right at this moment? Walking into our third year of a global pandemic, but we're not sweating about it. Nope. We've been doing our best. I think that the cool thing was is that I was perfectly poised for being online and being ready to serve people with creativity, with art. I am really grateful that I was in a place where I already had my business set up and had art courses ready to go.

[00:08:59] The [00:09:00] interesting thing, however, was the model that I was running True Colors art program. Uh, it was a membership. It started it in 2018, and it was my first foray really in building a profitable business. I enjoyed it. In a lot of ways, being able to connect with the people and show up and serve. But it also was a big challenge for me because it was like running a 24 7, all you can eat buffet.

[00:09:28] And I wasn't prepared for it. I really wasn't to be able to serve continuously and everyone wanting a little bit different out of what that meal was. And I didn't have the right tools or skills yet to really fulfill the vision that I had in my mind. And of course when I was. Above and beyond expectations.

[00:09:49] Without having the right support, without having a team in place, that was, uh, that I was able to lead and was capable of supporting [00:10:00] what I needed in order to make the membership work smoothly. I hit a huge wall in 2020, and this is something that I really do plan on coming back to discussing with you in the future, burnout and how to recover.

[00:10:15] because it was a really big, pivotal moment in not just my business, but in my own personal journey. Business will do that for you. It'll take you on a journey of self understanding that you've never experienced in any other way. It's very unique running a business and putting your art out into the world and connecting.

[00:10:38] Customers and clients in teaching how to make art. It was very much teaching me how to be a better human. And so after that burnout in 2020, when I needed to shut the membership down, I needed to really reassess everything. One of the best choices I made at that moment though was to [00:11:00] hire a coach, somebody who was really well equipped to do operations and really get the structure of what I was doing under control with me and help me record information and my systems and and processes and keep track of data and.

[00:11:18] More importantly than E ever, she was helping me really get my mind clear and make goals that I could accomplish and bite size pieces really to tell you the truth. And it kept me on track. And all through the rest of 2020 and into 2021, I had this kind of guidance and, and I was able to hire the right virtual assistant.

[00:11:39] And you'll probably hear me talk about Lisa a million times over because she's really. The keystone to my business at this moment, being able to give me the support and encouragement that I need, and I'm really grateful for that. And here I am able to take an entire year of 2021. [00:12:00] Oh, it's just passed, and it was my year of finishing.

[00:12:03] It was a really important year in getting things straight. What's crazy is it was also my most profitable year. So while I wasn't building anything new, I was still growing as a business and as a person. I took all of the content that I had that I really felt like I was always chasing my tail to complete, and took the year of 2021 as my year of finishing so that I could finish the courses, finish the ideas, finish the projects.

[00:12:33] Sometimes I, you have to even finish relationships and things that you thought that you had to do and say goodbye and, and it was a really transformative year in that sense that I needed to really reassess what was essential. in my life, what was essential in my relationship with my husband and my children.

[00:12:52] What was most important for my own personal wellbeing so that I wasn't anxious anymore, so that I didn't have the kind of [00:13:00] stress that I had been living under, that I had put myself under and be able to move forward in a much, much lighter. With my business and my hopes and my dreams and my creativity, and being able to serve in a way that really feels aligned.

[00:13:17] So I'd love to come back to this topic of finishing, and I'm going to do an entire episode about what the year of finishing really meant to me, how I executed it, and to give you a few ideas of your own, if this is something that you wanna take as a challenge for yourself. But I'm gonna tell you this, it.

[00:13:37] Easy in the sense that a creative brain wants to do all the things. And I really did. I had a million ideas all last year. They just flooded me and flooded me, and so to have the perseverance, to have the discipline to come back and say, no, my plan was to finish. And so I did. I finished artwork. [00:14:00] I actually.

[00:14:01] Decided also to abandon projects and call them complete without actually finishing 'em, which was also very freeing and allowed more expansion. And as I speak of expansion, I'm moving into the new year and that is my word of the year expansion because by finishing so much, it's really left me feeling so light and free that I feel like there's all of this room to grow and I'm gonna do it at a.

[00:14:30] Reasonable pace because that's one thing that I know for sure after having burnt out, is that you don't have to do all the things all at once. I promise you, you don't. You are such a creative, being filled with ideas and channeling them from the muses. It's never gonna end. Put them in the parking lot.

[00:14:52] Pin them on the pin board. Write them in your notebook, in your journal. Save those ideas. One day they may be valid. [00:15:00] One day you may fulfill 'em and maybe they'll just sit there as a nice reminder that you are such a creative person that you're filled with so much. So that was my little reminder there.

[00:15:13] They really have to move forward and take each idea lightly and not pursue every little sparkly thing that comes my way. Really focus a little bit for each quarter of the year. To have its own energy and have its own purpose so that I'm not overwhelmed or distracted. And starting off the first quarter of 2022, I can't believe I'm saying those words, but yes, the first quarter of 2022, I'm really looking at building this podcast.

[00:15:47] and starting my new newsletter, which I'm really excited about because it's my chance to open up and be real with you. So I have the artist dispatch. Now, I'd love for you to join. You can go to kelly wins [00:16:00] studios.com/dispatch and join the newsletter. It's really about a dispatch, I have to tell you is meant to be a.

[00:16:11] An imperfect message. You know, just send it out, get it out there, get the information, dispatch it quickly, and that's my goal is to not overthink and not be overly perfect about anything. So they can show up real, tell you what's on my mind, share tidbits of ideas and information, maybe a little bit of truth bombs coming in, or maybe a few F bombs too.

[00:16:34] I warn you, I am going to be all of. . And so between the podcast of Unfold and the Artist Dispatch, uh, that I can share with you in ways that are not on social media, , not that I don't love my Instagram, but. I really wanna be able to transition to other ways of connecting. And in addition to that, I'm opening up a new section, new [00:17:00] new idea of my business, which is the art brand catalyst.

[00:17:06] And I'm super, super, super thrilled about it. Some people might be turned off by business or the word brand, and that's okay. Maybe you're not the right person. I'm not the right person for you. You might not be ready for business. And that's. , but I'm really, really passionate about this idea because I've seen the power of how running a creative business has transformed my life and the life of the people I live with, and the people that I serve, and the people that I work with.

[00:17:34] And it's been one of the most, uh, Amazing things that I've been able to accomplish in my lifetime, and I know that I have something to offer for you as well. I'm giving it my all. So with Art Brand Catalyst, my intention is to start giving you the tools that you need to show up and be able to market and sell your creative talent, your expertise in [00:18:00] courses, coaching, creative programs, and even how to market and sell your artwork because.

[00:18:06] There's one thing I know, and showing up and using your voice and sharing what's in your heart is gonna be the fastest way for you to connect with your customer, and I wanna be able to connect with you in that same way. So Art Brand Catalyst is gonna have a few components to it. Uh, I have some workshops, it'll be weekend workshops that will run live and I have a mastermind, the Catalyst Mastermind that I'm working on now, and that's a really intimate small group where I'm helping guide.

[00:18:38] Bit by bit through the process of building a business, and I've started with my first beta series now with four really perfect, wonderful artists, and I am excited to dig deep and build something beautiful and magnificent and remarkable with them. And I will for sure [00:19:00] share with you how that all unfolds here on this podcast.

[00:19:04] Don't worry. All my artist friends, I haven't stopped teaching art. I have an entire library of courses and I'm not gonna give up bringing new art education to you, but I wanna do it in a more powerful way. I want to be able to, Create for you less about the details of here's a brush, here's your paint, here's how you make a mark, and more how to tap into your inner self and your soul and that beautiful, raw, creative energy and start making artwork that matters.

[00:19:41] And so you will see as we move into quarter two and three and four in this year. All kinds of really cool things happening, and honestly, you're gonna need to listen to Prolog number three, where I dish out all the juicy details on what's gonna unfold in the future. But for now, I'm gonna wrap it up and just [00:20:00] say thank you so much for joining me.

[00:20:02] If you find the podcast meaningful already, leave a comment, make a review. Just tap right there. Five star rating. Please share with the world and let them know you're listening to unfold with Kellee Wynne, and if you share it on social, Make sure you tag me at Kellee Wynne Studios. That's K E L L E E W Y N N E studios, and if you share, I'll be happy to share your share in my stories.

[00:20:36] That's how it works, you guys. We, we become connected that way. Thank you so much, and I'll unfold with you again in the near future.

If you'd like to listen to or learn more about the podcast visit  https://www.maderemarkable.com/blog for our show notes and links to the main players.