Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Macky Conlin. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Macky, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Is there a lesson you learned in school that’s stuck with you and has meaningfully impacted your journey?

The most important lesson from my college years is the one I’m still learning now as I navigate recently post grad life- and that’s the importance of community. As I write this, I’m sitting in the guest bedroom of my best friend’s house. I drove over three hours to spend a few days with her for her birthday tomorrow. Ever since I moved away, our visits have been few and far between, needing to bridge the distance with virtual hangouts and calling when we can. This is the first time in over three years that we’ve been able to celebrate either of our birthdays together on the day, which feels simultaneously extremely special and very saddening. I’ve known her for over seven years, we met during our high school’s production of “Heathers the Musical” where I was in the ensemble and she was part of the hair and makeup crew. After that, we were pretty much each other’s person. She’s helped me through some of the most difficults parts of life, just as I’ve been there through hers. It was such a huge shift- going from seeing each other at school everyday and living together our first year out of high school, to seeing one another once a year (twice if we were lucky). A huge chunk of my community was then missing from my life and it was like I suddenly found myself on constant uneven footing. She knows me so well. She knows my ticks and that my least favorite sensation is being itchy. She knows my favorite snack is white cheddar popcorn and that I love to rewatch my favorite cartoons from childhood when I’m stressed. She knows me, and I know her and there is no truer form of love than being intimately known by another person. Moving for school was a huge change for both of us, and I was suddenly a stranger to everyone around me. But that’s the thing about community; you can build it anywhere. I still missed my best friend every day while I was at university, but I also formed a new community. I found new hobbies, clubs, and passions that brought me some of the coolest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of knowing. Your community is as big and as open as you make it, so I’ve learned to make mine really big. Life is so much fuller that way.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Macky Conlin, I’m from Fargo, North Dakota and I am a writer and filmmaker currenly based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I originally fell in love with writing in Microsoft Word Docs on my mom’s work computer at around eight years old. I would sit there and write skits and stories for my neighborhood friends and I to act out to our parents in the living room or in our friends garage. Since then, my creative journey has been somewhat chaotic. I caved under the pressures of “middle school coolness” and quit most of my artistic practices in favor of sports. I didn’t really find that artistic spark again until my sophmore year of high school when my older brother convinced me to go out for the school musical. I loved dance (and still do) but singing was not my thing. But I tried out for it anyway and that got me into the Theatre community, which really ignited that creative spark for me again. I continued to love theatre throughout high school, but when I got to college I rediscovered my love for writing through an introductory creative writing class. This class also got me interested in the film industry where I then changed my degree to Video Production, Creative Writing, and Theatre (old habits die hard). Now I mostly write short stories, novels, and screenplays. I’ve made a few short films and I’m currently working on my first full length screenplay that I hope to finish by the end of this year. I’ve come very far in my creative journey and I’m most proud of the confidence I’ve begun to build in myself and my artistic skillset.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Oh boy. I’ve always had a very strong sense of self motivation and an intense work ethic. When I was fourteen, I lived on a lake in central Minnesota and I saw a flier in my middle school that the resort across the lake from where I lived was hiring housekeepers. I figured this was the perfect opportunity to start working and making my own money. When I submitted my application, I failed to consider that I didn’t have a driver’s license, let alone my own car. So I did what any fourteen year old with an insane desire to work would do and I got out my family’s kayak. Unfortunately, this lake was huge and I spent three days a week in the summer, trekking half an hour across the lake via kayak in order to get to work. Rain or shine, if I was on the schedule I was getting to work- one way or another. After working many different jobs, I’ve learned how to better utilize my strong self motivation into more effective ways that are less detrimental to my shoulder muscles. I’ve also found a career path to channel that motivation into. I fell in love with storytelling a long time ago, and once I commit to doing something there really isn’t anything that can stop me from trying.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The biggest thing I’ve had to unlearn is that I am not in fact, an imposter. Almost every writer I’ve ever known or spoken too has dealt with imposter syndrome. In my opinion, it’s the number one creativity killer. Nothing dampens my creative energy more than the thought that what I’m making actually doesn’t matter at all and that I don’t have anything near the qualifications to be considered “important” or “valuable” in the artistic world. And while I’m sure there are plenty of people who would read my work and say exactly the aforementioned opinion, I also know that the opposite is true. I see it everytime I watch my sister read her birthday card from me and, in an air of false anger, yells at me that I need to stop making her cry every year. I see the faint tears in her eyes and I know that what I wrote means something to her, just like it meant something to me when I wrote it. Words have impact. My words have impact. And even if it’s only my friends or family who find value in them, that’s enough for me.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @macky_conlin
• Facebook: @Macky-Conlin
• Linkedin: @mackyconlin
• Youtube: @mackyconlinvideography

Image Credits

Dexter Conlin