We recently connected with Michael Stockert and have shared our conversation below.

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

Starting my small business as a creative has been one of the most meaningful projects I have ever done. Not only has it built up my confidence by being able start and maintain a successful business, but it has brought me a lot of joy to connect with and hear my customers stories.

I have always been comfortable in my past jobs knowing that I could perform the duties expected of me but there is something to be said when you start something successful without the backing or training from a company or boss. To create something that is admired by everyone that walks by it and to hear the way people talk about my craft, is just as rewarding as the income I receive from it. Knowing that I have created something that people want and that I have the abilities to maintain a business off my creations has boosted my confidence exponentially and given me a major edge in so many other areas of my life.

The other part of my business that has been so meaningful to me is the connections that I make with my customers and the stories that they share with me, all inspired by the creations I have made. Everyone has a story. Having a product that inspires people to approach you and share their story is amazing, considering with today’s environment, most people want to keep their head down, keep moving, and avoid interactions. The memories and emotions that surface when people see one my pieces reinforce why I started my business. I am helping people remember important memories in their lives and preserve those memories in a piece of art. I get just as much meaning out of my customers stories as they get out of my work.

Michael, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Preserved butterfly art is not something I ever thought I would get into. I grew up on a farm in South Dakota surrounded not by buildings or other people, but wide-open fields. Nature wasn’t something you went to visit on vacation or somewhere you went to go for a walk or a picnic, it is where you lived. I have always had an appreciation for all things natural because of this upbringing. Growing up in South Dakota was very limiting though. I had very little exposure to most of the rest of the world and of course my family never traveled anywhere. Once I grew up and left the farm, I finally had the opportunity to explore! Travel became and is still one of my most favorite things. Being able to experience new things and create new memories is core to who I am.

I have had the opportunity to explore so many cool things and am constantly adding to my list of new experiences I want to have. One of these experiences was the main trigger to me starting my business. In Florida, I visited a butterfly sanctuary and got to experience butterflies from all over the world fly around me. My appreciation for nature instantly kicked in, as I think it does for most everyone that sees a butterfly. The colors and patterns were so bright and incredible. It was like living art! After that visit, my creative juices started flowing and I began researching where I could purchase butterflies from to create a beautiful art piece for myself to help preserve that memory. I managed to find some distributers that had butterfly farms or nature sanctuaries of their own where they provided sustainably and ethically grown specimens. I purchased some of my favorites and created a couple of pieces. Quickly, I was getting recognition on social media and from friends that loved the pieces I created and wanted some of their own. My partner took a few pieces to his work to decorate his office and this triggered a rush of requests/orders from his co-workers and customers. All of a sudden, I was trying to source butterflies from other countries and build up an inventory of supplies sparking a business! Today, I work with several different suppliers, all of which provide me with specimens that have lived out full natural lives. The money they receive from my purchases goes back into building bigger butterfly populations and protecting butterfly habitats.

Having memories and stories to share with others is, I think, the best part of the human experience. I love listening to other people’s stories and experiences. Most people have emotions, feelings, loved ones, or spiritual connections related with their memories. Since starting my business, I have heard so many stories about how butterflies are special to someone because of memories from childhood, memories from a vacation with someone special, a spiritual connection to a passed loved one, or a symbol of transformation and growth out of a difficult time in their life. While the stories can differ widely, they always relate back to one thing, emotional lasting memories. Because of the special nature of these memories people want to preserve them and ensure they continue to live on. My pieces frequently spark these memories and are used to by my customers to commemorate the special people and moment in their lives. Creating something with so much meaning for so many different people brings and immense amount of fulfilment to my life and the work that I do.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I think EVERYONE is a creative and I think everyone has their own journey that they experience on their way to either discovering their creative side or expressing it. Being a creative is simply the extent to which we uniquely express ourselves whether that be in the form of creating something others enjoy or just simply doing something that we enjoy ourselves. While I use my creative abilities to make art pieces and decorative items that people enjoy and purchase, I also have other creative abilities, that came with their own journeys. For example, I play pay piano, and that is something that I simply enjoy myself primarily. I don’t write music for other people, or play for events anymore, but simply play for my own creative expression and enjoyment.

You can be a creative in your workplace by simple expressing creative solutions to different problems, or the way that you creatively organize your house. Everyone has some sort of creative ability, it is just discovering it and recognizing it as such that is the journey.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As someone who likes stability and the ability to control their life, recognizing a pivot as a positive opportunity and not the end of the world was a difficult lesson to learn. The need to pivot is usually caused by an abrupt ending to something in our life. It is hard to let go of something that has ended or been lost because we associate normalcy and stability with those things. However, my greatest moments of growth have come out of these such situations. In every situation where I have had to pivot, I have also ended up gaining more than I had previously. Without being presented with the need to pivot, my small business would have never come to be. Other outcomes from needing to pivot have also led to a broader, more diverse network of people in my life, an ability to gain new skills, and so much more. Each of these things have provided me with more stability each time something else has ended and I have been forced to pivot.

If you can, don’t wait to be forced into pivoting! Take advantage of choosing when and how you are going to pivot so that when the situation arises when you are forced to pivot, you already have all the experience to fall back on making the pivot much easier and far less scary.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whispering.wings/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelstockert/