We were lucky to catch up with Lindsey Plevyak recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lindsey , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I know there are many different perspectives when it comes to the term successful. I’m a definition girl. I want to know what the words mean I’m trying to connect to. The word “successful” by definition means “to accomplish an aim or purpose.” I think for each individual, how you choose to define that is going to look very different, because how you define what your aim or purpose is, will look different.

When it comes to showing up in the online space, or the creation world, maybe its starting a new business, or launching yourself as content creator, or writing a book, or releasing music. There’s going to be the industry standards of said thing. And then there will be personal standards. I think too often along the way, we’ll look for the industry standards for our success: amounts of downloads or followers, engagement… etc. We need these indicators for road marks when we’re trying to ask ourselves, “are we on the path to hitting the aim or purpose?”

But what I find too often, are creators discrediting the progress along the way. They set the bar so high for what “success” looks like and feels like, and if they don’t hit those metrics, they’re suddenly not successful. I see creators begin to discredit the wins that ARE happening, the progress that has been made. I believe that can be a MAJOR deterrent in creating a path to success.

All of those things I just mentioned are external. They’re outside of us. And no matter how hard we may try to resists this, there is no amount of external validation that fix an internal belief system you and whats available to you.

What do I think it takes to be successful? I think when its all said and done, I believe success can be boiled down simply trusting in yourself.

If there’s no inner grit and self trust, its going to be really hard to navigate the ever changing external standards of success. This took me for EVER to understand and reconcile.

For so long I chased the external praise and validations of success. Now I know that success is what I say it is. Success is found in the decisions I make. The ownership I take, and the ability to continue to own the fact that I consistently choose to trust myself.

This doesn’t always mean you have all the answers. Or there won’t be challenges along the way. Or that those external markers don’t matter. It means living above them, and not letting them define you, discourage you or derail you on your journey.

Success is a by product of how much you trust yourself, and your abilities on the road in accomplishing your aim and purpose.

Lindsey , 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?

My professional journey has absolutely been a lot of “falling into,” if you know what I mean. I went to school for studio art and psychology, I originally planned to be an art therapist. After getting my hands on a digital camera, I knew I wanted to pursue photo work beyond all else. I went on to photograph countless works for major artists, influencers and non profit organizations and have shot 2 New York Times Best Selling book covers. I had an incredible career on paper, but in the fall of 2017 I had just moved to Nashville TN and I was combatting some major burn out. I have always known that as capable as I was behind the camera, that I was supposed to be on other side, speaking to people and impacting the world forward facing.

So I went into a completely different direction of affiliate marketing and ended up partnering with an award winning beauty brand. Within the last 5 years I went from being an affiliate to an Executive Director in the organization, having built a massive customer base, incredibly large team, making an impact in multiple countries and earned over $1 million dollars in commissions. All of that I’m truly proud of as I had never done anything like this before, but this was the platform where I truly have been able to develop the skill of communicating, coaching and developing leaders, helping inspire and impact those around me, the thing I knew I always wanted to be able to do.

Within this process however, I navigated impossible seasons of hardship and trials, as every young entrepreneur and business owner does. I wanted to be able to share the real authentic process of what it takes to build something great. Less than 2 years ago, I started a podcast called “IN IT,” sharing the no bs honest heart to heart conversations in my journey of what I’ve learned over the last few years. IN IT has become a top 30 business show along with over hundreds of thousands of downloads. I’m so proud of that project and am preparing for a Season III.

No matter what I am working on and creating, I want people to feel a real person interacting with them. I am always going against the grain, doing the opposite of trends, all the while keeping my heart and honesty intact. I’ve played by my own rule book and have stayed committed to keeping it real. It’s gotten me pretty dang far, and for that I’m grateful.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me personally, the most rewarding aspect about being an artist and creative has been the ability to regenerate. When we can lean into that process as creators, we don’t have to live inside boxes that society wants us to get into. I’ve always struggled with the fact that I’m not the most consistent person. I remember taking my strength finders test, and while my top 10 empowered me, I remember looking at the bottom…. MY SECOND LOWEST strength was consistency.

I remember feeling in that moment like I was destined to fail to some capacity. My peers were far more consistent day to day then me. We always here consistency is king, and here I am staring at this being a disastrously low strength for me. I could have allowed that to define me, But I didn’t. I chose to redefine what it would mean for me. Sure I haven’t been the most consistent day to day, but I can say in confidence that I have consistently leaned into the gift that art gives me in create and recreating. I’ve consistently allowed myself to regenerate.

When we access the ability to regenerate, we’re like the energizer bunny. We just keep going banging our drum with our sunglasses on. Cool, calm and always moving ahead. It may not look like everyone’s journey, but its uniquely ours. Art has given me the gift of constantly recreating myself. If I don’t love this process, cool, I can tear down the canvas and start again. I can shift and alter my persona, I can rebrand 100x in attempts to find my voice and build upon the layers of experience.

As artists and creators, we are called to live outside of the systems. The times that I’ve felt pressured to fit myself inside of a system, I usually perform terribly. If I just trust my natural instincts, I perform well. The problem is, sometimes in doing s0, I feel like I’m an outcast, or outlier. I can struggle with feeling misunderstood, and theres that pull to want to be seen as “normal.”

But then guess what? I suffer, my work suffers. Because I’m not owning the fact that I’m set apart to be outside of the structure, It’s the only way I can truly do my best work. I need to be okay with influencing outside of what feels safe and whats understood. That’s how I reach and impact my world. That’s what I’m called to do.

And when it all feels like it gets to be too much, too hard, or it would be easier elsewhere doing anything else but making art, I can allow myself the ability to regenerate again, until I get where I’m trying to go. Your success as an artist is not defined by your output. It is defined by your ability to regenerate.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I think in this next season of creating I want to focus on helping creators experience freedom and inner peace. For so long I believe I prescribed to the narrative of the “tortured artist.” There were so many seasons within the last professional decade where I was in a lot of pain. I navigated both physical chronic pain for years, and deep intense emotional pain from my past.

Turns out pain is an incredible tool for creators. We can quite literally learn to channel pain into some of the most relatable experiences. and incredible art. After all, the break up song just hits a little different. Pain is something we all have in common. It’s a shared experience we can unite on and feel understood by. However I think I’ve walked through the personal toll that remaining in this space can cost you.

I spent the last few years combatting debilitating anxiety. I can openly admit that my pain made me an incredible artist and creator, but it took a toll on me as a human and a person.

This last year I’ve pursued healing and hope above all things. Even more than my professional work, which can feel really scary when we risk the possibility of losing a creative edge. I think that’s why I avoided healing for so long if I can be honest. I just didn’t want to sacrifice the work. However the cost was getting to high to pay for not caring for myself and it was taking a severe toll. Pain can’t be the only medium. There has to be creators in this world creating from a place of stability, hope, and healing.

Sure, it sounds a little soft around the edges, but what I’ve found is that so many creators out there are searching for what I think I’ve stepped into. It can’t always all be hard. If it’s all hard, then nothing truly is. I think if we want to be great creators, we need to challenge ourselves to creative from the entire human experience.

I got really really good at creating out of adversity and hardship.

Now I find myself up against the greatest challenge of my professional career: learning how to create powerful inspiring and compelling work from a place of security, rather than anxiety. Hope instead of heartbreak. Peace instead of perfectionism.

This is where I’m going to push myself this year. This feels like the biggest hurdle yet. I want to see where I can go from this place, and hopefully bring a lot of creators along the journey with me.

Contact Info:

• Website: lindseyplevyak.co
• Instagram: @lindseyplevyak
• Other: IN IT PODCAST by Lindsey Plevyak SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/show/2kLKhj1pzwrkJhqGSd1sxx APPLE: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/in-it/id1633525103

Image Credits
studio portrait by Jessica Steddom Outdoor Headshot by Alea Hunt