S5E4 - Creative Endeavor Revolution with Jim Kawski
===
Jim Kawski: [00:00:00] Creative expression, because creative expression, I think is something that's much more accessible to people. My definition of a vocation is the intersection of your skills. You know what you're good at, which you're passionate about, and what you can find abundance from. And so when we can find that in our lives, no matter what it is then life becomes wonderful and completely fulfilling.
Shawn Buttner: I'm curious, I guess to lean into the community aspect. Could you maybe talk a little bit about that in your discovery of this or this pursuit of finding your creative endeavors?
Jim Kawski: You think about creative expression and that it's just one dimensional and then it's just you and there, there's, there is value to that.
So creative expression comes in so many different forms and it can. Come in [00:01:00] the form of simply how you organize your living space and what it is that you bring into your living space that is a part of you.
Shawn Buttner: Hey everyone. Welcome to the Meaningful Revolution podcast. I'm your host and certified high performance coach, Shawn Buttner. This is the podcast where we hope to inspire you to lean into what you nerd out about, what you find passionate, what you find fulfilling to start your fulfilling transformation out in the world.
Now, today's guest is on a mission to. Throughout his career in the semiconductor industry, he's discovered the opportunities, what we have to elevate others to have the most impact. After 35 years of operating in various capacities from manufacturing, engineering to cfo, C E o, excuse me, he's lean, learned one thing about, or one thing with absolute clarity, our service to others is our greatest contribution.[00:02:00]
So today I'd love to introduce you to my good friend, Jim Kowski. Welcome to the podcast .
Jim Kawski: Thanks. Thanks Sean. It's real pleasure to be here. I've been looking forward to this and real excited to talk to you today. I've been looking forward to this also cuz we go way back early pandemic . Yeah, I also certified high performance coaches.
Shawn Buttner: Let me get this set up. Okay. Yeah so it's always a pleasure to get to talk with you and we always have so much to talk about. So today we're talking about the meaningful revolution. I'd love to know we're gonna be talking about art and creativity. If you could start a meaningful revolution for you that, that fulfilling transformation or that purposeful impact kind of giant umbrella that a lot of people have in life, what would you maybe [00:03:00] call it or what would it look like?
Jim Kawski: That's a great question. And the thing that pops into my mind, particular with regards to the topic at hand today is and I like to call this creative expression because creative expression, I think is something that's much. Accessible to people. Creative expression is actually an area that we coach our clients, and it's one of the modules is that, that are part of what are known as the charge sessions and create.
A lot of people have an aversion towards thinking about or talking about what creative expression is to them. Cause, oh, I've never drawn in my life, I don't have I'm not an artist or this and that. And my point here is that if you look at it from that perspective, I think that you're losing out on an important dimension on what [00:04:00] creative expression is.
Creative expression is really, can manifest itself in many different ways. And the if I were to call it something, I would say that creative expression is the fulcrum to a fulfilling life. And. When I talk about fulcrum you think about that the pivot point on a on a what we used to call back where I grew up, a teeter-totter or any type of lever, right?
Where you've got a point and you're and you're using that point as a, as leverage. That fulcrum of creative expression is something that really gives our lives a kind of meaning that's difficult to excess from other places. So yeah, creative expression as is a fulcrum to a fulfilling [00:05:00] life, I think is a great way to say it in as few words as possible.
Shawn Buttner: Oh, that's amazing. And I think doing a podcast, doing coaching people. Create things all the time. Every, yeah. At least three times a day people are creating a meal for themselves or for others. There's so many different areas that this touches in our lives and I completely agree that when you are creating, you tend to be feeling a lot more fulfilled or feeling a lot more on purpose than when you're like, consuming or not.
So I'm curious could you tell us a time when maybe before you had this realization that creative expression is the fault gro of fulfilling life, where you were, that decision point or that point of learning or discovery, and then what happened after that?
Jim Kawski: So yeah, it's great cuz I never really thought about it [00:06:00] from that perspective, but it, it happened when I was at.
Went to the Rochester Institute of Technology for my undergrad degree in electrical engineering. And it was during that, those, say four, first four years, a five year program. So the first three and a half or so years I was overwhelmed with the difficulty of the program. It was and I had always had a pretty, I had a pretty easy going through grade school and high school.
Things were, things came easy for me and and I really enjoyed studying and the work. But when I got to r it, I think part of it was I just didn't have a good sense of what engineering was all about and what I was in store for. I, I. Pointed in that direction by my guidance counselor father Ted Rogue, a very important mentor in my life, a wonderful man.[00:07:00]
And he he suggested I go in this direction. Anyways, when I got to r i t I was very one-dimensional. It was all just studying and school. It was very and some just social outlets. But I'd lost connection with the creative side of me. And I had a creative side prior to that in grade school and high school and grade school.
I had a variety of hobbies, things such as building these model rockets. Manufactured by this company called Estees. You buy these kits and you could build these rockets of all different shapes and sizes with you could put payloads in the rockets and you could send crickets and ants whatever you wanted put in and it was really fun and fascinating and it was in sixth grade at that same [00:08:00] time when I really got into science.
Cuz my sixth grade science tea teacher was amazing. And now that I think back of it, Mr. Curse, who I'm still in touch with this day, to this day, Mr. Kirst was a bit of a renaissance man. He was a fine artist, but he was also and he was a teacher and he was a scientist fascinating, wonderful man.
And but when I got it into our, it, I became very one dimensional and I didn't realize it at the time. And only now when you bring this out and it further emphasizes the importance of creative expression, only now do I connect with the fact that's one of the reasons why I had such difficulty those first couple of years is I didn't I wasn't fulfilled.
I didn't have a complete life because I was outside of those. So then when I left our it one of the first things I did. After moving to Cambridge, [00:09:00] Massachusetts one of the first things I did was I enrolled in a class at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education on furniture making. Now our IT interest, one of the interesting things about our, IT is, it's a great school for engineering.
It's a great school for computer science and the sciences, but it also has something known as the School for American Craftsmen. And so you can go to r it for four year programs in pottery or jewelry and metalwork or glass or furniture making and I just, I had friends that were furniture makers and I always envied what they were there to do, which was to create things with their hands.
And that was all about it. It was combining creative expression with. With the ability [00:10:00] to obtain abundance. And that's my definition of a vocation. A vocation is the intersection of your skills which you're good at, which you're passionate about, and what you can find abundance from.
And so when we can find that in our lives, no matter what it is then life becomes wonderful and completely fulfilling. Anyway so after I started taking that, Course on furniture making. I've built my first piece, which I still have in my living room today, which is an awesome coffee table that, that I still use.
And so that was the start of my reawakening and reconnecting with creative ex expression and the importance of it. And as I've progressed through my life, there have been periods, there have been lulls of creative expression. And it's only been within the last maybe four or five years where I've really hit the gas on it and [00:11:00] and come to realize its importance in providing for me a life that's fulfilling and much more enjoyable.
And when you get to that point, everything else, particularly what you're doing for abundance, for your career, regardless of what it is, everything else just benefits greatly when you have that, when you fill in those extra pieces
Shawn Buttner: right on. Yeah I know being an engineer too, I definitely relate to feeling like engineering is a creative endeavor in itself because you are creating documents that turn into machines, that turn into software, that turn into microchips and semiconductors and all that kind of stuff.
And that can be really fun. And it could also, when it's your job, also be dry. Like I started it in software as a hobby that turned into a career. And then it wasn't as awesome [00:12:00] in that particular way, but for me it was music. Like music. Oh yeah. Got me outta my shell in high school so I could make friends in college.
Music kept me engaged in community events there. Music when I moved to Arkansas was a way to connect with the community, becau and to meet people. It's, And it made everything that I was doing better. I was a better engineer because I was happier, I felt sometimes you just need to like break concentration and get away from that.
An analytical brain. Yeah. And so cooking music was super important. So I'm curious, like, how do you know when it's time to start a new thing or ha are you still making furniture? Has your path been one of focusing on one or two things or has it been as opportunities have come up? Or could you explain a little bit maybe your thinking
Jim Kawski: On that?[00:13:00]
No, great question. Yeah, it's it's really about accessibility for me and I. And it, the accessibility part is what, is, what gets you, gets it introduced into your life whatever creative endeavor or form of creative expression that you might be pursuing. And I've been really fortunate to have access to a variety of different opportunities to help propel the different dimensions of my creative expression.
Sometimes you make 'em for yourself, though. Like recently, one of, one of my outlets for creative expression has been to, to write. And so I, I made a commitment when I first started this coaching journey. I made the commitment that I was gonna write a blog post every week. And for three years I wrote a blog post for every week with a couple of exceptions due [00:14:00] to health related reasons.
But for the most part I nailed it. And now I've got hundreds of thousands of words of content that I can publish in different ways. And I've got really a kind of a a leg. It's a online journal. It's a legacy of where my mind was at the time and the things that I've thought about.
But it was an opportunity for me to express who I was, what my philosophies and beliefs were. And that was something that I just created. I didn't need anything to get that started. So there, there are those types of things. There's the furniture making thing, which a lot of times you don't have a workshop at your disposal.
When I was in Cambridge we were living in a small, tiny, little apartment. Nope. It was a tiny bedroom, one open floor pair, and a tiny little bathroom. And that was it. It probably 800 square feet. It's just teeny, teeny postage stand size. But we were living in Cambridge halfway between Central Square and [00:15:00] Harvard Square 10 minute walk from Harvard University and it's just, it was great.
Great. But having access to that workshop and the expertise in it, that was the thing that moved me in that direction. And I've had I've had the I've sought out and recognized those opportunities throughout my life. Some of them have been serendipitous, some of been things that I just went out and looked for.
My opportunities in music came from one of my best friends Vic Rinni, and Vic and I are fishing buddies. And Vic started playing the guitar and he said hey, Jimbo, I know you, you play the guitar. And I'm, I've started in with this Tuesday night workshop with this guy, EJ Willette.
And why don't you come and join me one Tuesday night? I think it'd [00:16:00] be a lot of fun. And I said, all so I went there and it was maybe 20 people sitting in a circle and EJ was, and they all had guitars and EJ would teach the group something and we'd all try to emulate it. And after the session, EJ pulled me aside and said, yeah you're probably a little bit more advanced for this.
Why don't you come to my Thursday night session where we actually work on song arrangements? And I'm like, Ooh, that sounds exciting. Let's do that. Cuz the thing about playing music it's fun to develop and do it on your own, but music is a kind of communication. And when you can communicate with other musicians, Through the music while playing your rel your different instruments.
It, there's magic there. And I think it was Phil Lesh from the bass player, the Grateful Dead who said this recently, I saw this in an interview, he said, yeah, when we play music, we're tapping into a higher cosmic level of consciousness. And [00:17:00] it's not that we're good or bad musicians, we're tapping into this consciousness and drawing it down and giving other people access to it all at the and we get access to it all at the same time and experience it at the same time.
So that kind of communal experience, you can't beat it. And that's why the creative expression dynamic of playing music with groups is just so powerful. So
Shawn Buttner: I'd love to add to that right there. Because. I can't agree with that even more. That's such an important point where and I think there's a metaphor for life where a lot of times there's a magic working with people towards a common goal.
But I, some of my favorite times playing music there's a lot of personal growth that came from it. But there are times with some folk singers from Arkansas sitting around a campfire when I live there, that are some of my most favorite and magical moments. Cuz you do feel the [00:18:00] sense of connection and community or the presence of a higher power even.
Yeah. It's very, I, it caught me off guard the first time I experienced it and I'm like, oh, more of this, please. That's right. More of this and maybe this all the time. I wouldn't mind. Yeah. No it's so true. It's so true. It's spot on, Sean. And what ended up happening was this I EJ invited me to the Thursday night sessions.
Jim Kawski: We sat around, we started ranging ta songs. I remember the first song that I brought to this group, A simple little two chord song called ico. Ico, which is first recorded by the Dixie Cups. It's a New Orleans Mardi Gra, a parade song. And a very real simple, it's has a bow diddly beat to it, but really this is a [00:19:00] very infectious little tune.
And I, I ntroduce that and we go around the horn, everybody would introduce, after doing it for a few months, I said we should put on a, we should perform somewhere. And I think we're that good this little yeah. Alright, fine. We've got five guitars, but we can figure that out later.
And this is when I was 40 years old. This is. 22 years ago, I was just it was just my birthday a few days ago. And it makes me
Shawn Buttner: realize happy birthday. Happy
Jim Kawski: birthday. Thanks, . Thank you. So when I was 40 years old, I, people were running who's gonna wanna book us as a band? We'll say, let's put on our own show.
So we put on a benefit concert for a cause that I was very close to at the time, and invited a bunch of other musicians. And we opened the night and then we all the other bands played after us. [00:20:00] And then we had a Beatles dance cover band that was made up of my friends that ended the night.
It was just this glorious, wonderful night of celebration of music. And it was my foray into live performance, which I still participate. Into this day. Last last Friday nights there's a local restaurant that sadly they decided to close their doors and we had just started playing gigs there once a month.
But they COVID just had too much of an impact then and now post Covid, they couldn't they couldn't increase their bottom line enough. They closed, but we played the last night that they were open and the place was packed and sang Christmas, some Christmas songs and a bunch of cover tunes, and it was just, it was great.
So to this day that, that, that's side of my creative life that still exists.
Shawn Buttner: On that's so cool. [00:21:00] And something I've heard, having a couple other folks on a podcast to talk about creating art, like writers or getting into whatever type of weird crafting or whatever is, there's this weird.
Sense of humans wanting to show, Hey, I created this. Let me show it to you. It's a very you see it in kids all the time, like it could be the most gnarly looking picture of the family, but it's cute and endearing. But that sense of pride of I created this here world, check it out. I think is so rewarding.
But it's al it's also weird cuz it's also community building, right? Yeah, like you said, like you, you played the last restaurant here. I'm sure you still talk, will talk with the owners or the people that you knew from that place. So I'm [00:22:00] curious, I guess to lean into the community aspect.
Could you maybe talk a little bit about that in your discovery of this or this pursuit of finding your creative endeavors? Yeah, the community aspect, I think is yeah, you think about creative expression and that it's just one dimensional and that it's just you and there, there's, there is value to that.
Jim Kawski: So creative expression comes in so many different forms, and it can come in the form of simply how you organize your living space and what it is that you bring into your living space that is a part of you. How does that help community? By creating spaces that people enjoy and feel comfortable in and then couple [00:23:00] that with maybe your desire to. Enter or you're enjoying enjoyment of entertaining and putting on events or parties or even just a a high tea bringing people into your home. This is, this, these elements of your creative es expression are building your community, your connections with others.
My partner Suki is she's an incredible event planner. She can pull off parties in our home that are incredibly complicated with huge menus, and she she pays attention to every detail in our home in preparation for this event. So when you're involved in something that, that is vocational in nature, that is, that really connects with your skills, [00:24:00] your passions, and can bring you abundance.
And that abundance can be monetary or abundance can be in the form of friends and community coming into your life. When you connect with those types of things, you're all, you're you think about them all the time. You obsess over them. And when you get into those modes of thinking and obsession, then you really can connect to the psychological flow states that people call it the zone, whatever you want, but as, yeah, as researched by Mihai Chick sent Mihai.
When we get into those states of flow, those autotelic experiences where we enjoy doing what we're doing simply for the act of doing it. When you can make your experience a flow experience then it then, The way that it makes you feel and your output you'll [00:25:00] get connected in a way that elevates both of them anyway.
So getting to, getting back to that whole idea about community. Yeah. So creative expression, I think in all dimensions, in all forums is a it's a kind of community building. It's a kind of service to others in providing them with your insight, your thoughts, your belief, your sense of style, your art, your philosophy, your words, all these different dimensions tend to bring us all together because we, it, they gen these things, different things generate discussion, they generate interest, they generate a sense of wanting to share even something as silly as getting together with my buddies to, to.
Tie trout flies sitting around a table drinking whiskey, tieing flies, getting ready to go fishing.[00:26:00] There some things you just can't beat that in terms of their value to how they fulfill your life. And I think you nailed it, John. Yo. Yeah. It's about community for sure.
My man. That's great. I love the idea that building that community, that space to be in service to others and share your humanity is how I'm tying it all up with the different ways that you describe it, your values, your philosophy, your sense of style, your sense personality I think is super, is a super cool way to think about, creative endeavors, right? Because cause. . Yeah. Like sometimes you create things cuz it feels good. Sometimes you create it for other people. I think when you can merge all of that together, , and then create a [00:27:00] space that's welcoming and promotes that, I think there is a certain sense of magic. To that, just to sum that up as I'm processing it and trying to take notes. So
no it's true. And it can be on a grand level like that benefit that I put on. Or it can be on on a much more intimate le level. But it it's all about sharing and all and sometimes we have to overcome our fears, our fear of rejection that all right, I'm gonna I'm gonna do this cause I like doing it, but I'm not, but I'm going to withhold it and not show it to anybody because I'm, I have a fear that I'm going to lose my My sense of pride because I'll feel ashamed at my output.
And so some people go through live like that and that [00:28:00] in and of itself is a shame. Cuz the fact is that, that while other people's opinions shouldn't matter what you present and how people react to it ultimately changes where you might go with it and where you might take it. And, but it also offers the opportunity to to really deeply connect with people.
One of the things that I did, that I've done in recent years that and this is getting back to the community side of it one of the things that I've done in recent years that, that from a creative standpoint is is something that I can look back on as a really a, a. Culmination of and and confluence of many different things to bring this one piece of art [00:29:00] to be.
And that was my son and my daughter. And at the time, my future son-in-law, Claire and Dylan were planning on getting married. And so I wanted to what do you buy your kid for their wedding? Do you just give them cash? I want, wanted something. And so I, two good friends of mine David and Michelle Bear live in Manchester, mass.
And Michelle is a stained glass artist. And whenever I would go over to their home, I was just, Blown away by both the volume of work of stained glass that, that she had around their home, but also just the beauty and the I've always loved stained glass. I've always looked at it in awe [00:30:00] when I've visited churches throughout the world.
If you ever go to to Barcelona Familia the Sacred Family is it's actually a cathedral that has been in construction for over 200 years. Oh yeah. Okay. And and you can get access to it and it's, but it's still being finished and I think it's gonna be finished sometime in the next couple of years anyway that has some amazing stained glass.
Sorry, my, my short stories tend to get long So I thought, yeah, I thought maybe stained glass. So I had an ambitious project. This was January. They were getting married in June. I had a concept where I wanted to create four, four plates. About, about yay big of stained glass. Each one represented something different.
One piece of stained glass would be re be representative of my daughter. Another piece would be representative of where they met on Cape [00:31:00] Ann. In, in here north of Boston. Another one would represent Dylan. And then the fourth side would be, would represent where they live now on Cloudland Road in Woodstock, Vermont.
And so for Claire, I created a fiddle cuz she plays violin. Dylan created a guitar. Then he plays guitar, and then I created an ocean scene, and then I created a pastoral scene in the mountains or in the hills outside Woodstock. And so these were stylized simple not too complicated, but it stained glass being what it is.
They looked great and, but I had to figure out what I was gonna do with these four plates. I just didn't wanna give them four pieces of stained glass. So I enlisted the help of my son, who he himself has become a very adept woodworker, and he has a c n C router that allows him to make high precision [00:32:00] products using mostly Baltic birch plywood.
Anyways, he created a wooden lantern. And the stained glass occupied each plate occupies one side of the lantern, and he put a light. Bulb inside, and it turned out to just be this incredible piece of art that my son and I collaborated on as a gift to my daughter and my son-in-law. And so it was just connecting me with him, with them and with the workshop with David and Michelle's friend Kai, who runs shards stained glass shop in Peabody, Massachusetts.
I spent time with Kai and they all thought that I was crazy, that I'm never gonna get this done. . But when you have performance necessity being what it is, this [00:33:00] particular project, I it connected with my identity, it connected with my obsession in wood and stained glass.
It connected with my with my sense of social duty to, to provide something that would ha may have a legacy. And it co and it aligned with urgency because I had a deadline. I was, it's one of those things when you get when you hit all four of those the four horsemen and performance necessity, and you've got all of them flying, you cannot fail at whatever it is that you're doing.
That's the lesson of that, that this particular thing. But anyway so yeah, that it turned out to be a wonderful project. It's getting a little bit dark here and I don't have very good lighting, but I can make some adjustments If if I start to get too dark for you, just let you, just let me know.
Okay.
Shawn Buttner: Yeah. So far that's fine. Like I said, it's a podcast, so most [00:34:00] Yeah. Most people will be hearing your
Jim Kawski: voice. Yeah. Sounds good. Let me just open the shade over here. That'll just shed a little bit of light on it. Okay. Little bit extra light. There we go.
Shawn Buttner: There that's, there you are. I see. Yeah, . Awesome. So on that topic, I love the idea of the, this ambitious project, learning something new, really connecting to it personally and socially doing it in service for others. Is that, A formula you use often? Is that just how that happened to hap or come about for that particular project and situation?
Are there other areas in your life where you tend to try to engage the, this performance necessity idea?
Jim Kawski: No I didn't really think about it [00:35:00] until today. Yeah. Yes. I, and performance necessity is front of mine because I was actually coaching a client on this today. I think if you, if I look back to all of these, particularly the major projects, but also my entree into them, it is multi-dimensional and really appeals to a broad range of elements that define performance necessity.
So I recently took up printmaking, which is a form of fine art, which I'd never done. Stain glass but , and I'm not an I don't draw. I can't draw worth a lick. But I've, I have a, I think I have a I have a sense of what I like graphically. [00:36:00] And so I can pull together pieces and cobble them together to make something that's unique in my own.
And but when I started printmaking, I had the vision of, all right, this is going to be my Christmas gift for this year. And it was when I started acting. It was, there was a an identified it connected with my identity because of the particular piece that we were working on was really cool and historical and unique.
I learned because of the team nature of theater, you tend to obsess over it because you're part of a team and you want the team to succeed and you also want to succeed. I obsessed over it. I studied my lines [00:37:00] religiously. There's definitely a social duty associated with that Because of what you're bringing to the community.
And there's obviously a sense of urgency you got opening night, so you better make sure you're ready to go or things the wheels are gonna fall off the cart pretty fast so yeah. I think, yeah if you can connect with performance and necessity and those four dimensions with whatever creative endeavor you're pursuing first of all, you're gonna put your best foot forward and deliver the best you can.
And sometimes it's just a matter of identifying with those things and connecting with them. And the more you think about what it is that you're doing the more you'll be able to connect with those four dimensions. That classic that classic video on YouTube by Earl Nightingale called the World's Strangest [00:38:00] Secret.
Have you ever seen that? I haven't. Yeah. Worth. The 25 minutes of your time. It was a recording that Earl Nightingale made in the 1950s, and at the time it was the highest selling spoken word long playing record lp. Okay. And he talks about the strangest secret. And and this is, it's timeless.
It's really just about the people that are the most successful are the ones that think about pursuing a worthy endeavor. Taking specific, focused action in the pursuit of a worthy endeavor is the definition, is his definition of success. And a lot of times that's just the you're, it's on your mind.
You're obsessing, you're thinking about it.[00:39:00] And so that becomes, yeah the ability to actually put out stuff that you're really proud of has a lot to do with being able to connect to that dimension. And and as we've touched upon it creative expression comes in many forms.
Creative expression comes in the way that you converse with people. What kind of energy you bring to the conversation, what kind of animation, what kind of vocal inflection do you employ, the kind of drama you know, that you might engage in when you're speaking with someone. All of these things are part and parcel of the creative elements of who you are and what you bring to the table.
And pro profession and pro [00:40:00] and professionally as well. I mean it's it's communication is part of everyone's profession. And that this whole creative expression thing with the exception of those poor unfortunate souls who are hermits and do not get out and and do not have the ability to interact with other people. God bless them, they're, that's tho those are, that those are terrible situations, but with the exception of those people, we all have the opportunity to express ourselves creatively many times during the day, all the time. So it's really, it's much bigger than just, yeah, I want to go to the local art school and create a painting.
No it's, so you have to think about it in much broader terms and when you connect that with what creative expression is that it is the. Expression of you, of your beliefs, of who you are, what you love, and what you're all about what you [00:41:00] hope for the future. Then it, as I had said you're really leveraging that as a fulcrum for a fulfilling life.
Shawn Buttner: Yeah. It's, yeah. I love all of that. So while you were talking, it reminded me of, let you know, my dad is a carpenter had always worked with his hands, and so helping him grow up this kind of like craftsman belief that you give whatever you're doing, you give a hundred percent of your attention.
You give a hundred percent of your effort, and if you're really bad at it, that's where you're at right now and that's fine, but something you will not ever do is half asset for to, to use his language. So I think a way of, another way of maybe expanding on the idea of creative expression is this idea of always [00:42:00] putting your best foot forward, your best effort forward, and seeing what happens.
In any of the projects you mentioned before, like creating stained glass, I have no idea how I could do it. And I, like you draw like a three-year-old, like I could do stick figures perfectly and that's fine. Maybe you're more advanced than that. I don't wanna I haven't seen any of your artwork, but when it comes to getting in the game and starting something and trying that's almost as important if you're fully engaged and putting forth that effort.
So with all that said, I'm curious, is there a belief you have about creative expression that other people don't or it is not popular or is the little contrarian.
Jim Kawski: And anybody who's a promoter of of the arts. This is it's not, this is not necessarily contrarian or the people that are the [00:43:00] promoters of art, but I think that it's that this concept is lost on people and maybe they just shake their hands and dismiss you when you say this to them.
And that is, yet we all have this capacity to express ourselves creatively. And it's and it's not so much that you can only, you can do anything if you put your mind to it. No, we I cannot become a starting forward for the Boston Celtics ever. , particularly now going forward. But.
Here's the contrarian perspective. Okay? We are products of our limitations. So understanding your limitations
Is where you can find real power, because it is in the,
it's in how, what [00:44:00] you do to get around the limitation, the fact that you're striving to get around the limitation and what you create as a result of taking that different path to get to the end point. That's where. You can find real magic. It's not the only place where you can find magic, but it's the place where you can find real magic.
So I'll show you. I've got, I'm just going to slide over here. I just wanna show you something real quick. Okay, cool. If I can just bounce off camera, I'll keep talking so that I'm still here. But so a product, here's a, here's an interesting, this is a product of a limitation.
And the limitation was, is that I had a a frame design for a stained glass piece that I was giving as a gift to my children. And [00:45:00] the, and I failed in terms of the design of the. It doesn't look like I failed, but trust me it's a failure in terms of its integrity and the type of wood that I used.
So I had this piece, this failure. I said what can I do with this is a, this is still a triangle. What can I do with this? And I took a, I took some scrap glass that was just gonna get discarded, and then I just I did this right. Just, it's got holes. Oh, cool. Yeah. It's it's not a proper piece of stained glass, but it's something that I created that is cool.
And this never would've happened if without my imperfection of designing and creating a frame the first time through. Yeah. I ended up com figuring out what I was, that I was doing wrong. And I came up with a better design for that triangle. But in the end[00:46:00] I came up with something that I never would've discovered, and because I embraced the limitations.
Here's a great story of a musician who is one of my idols, and this guy his name's,
Shawn Buttner: what's that? Before we jump, before I jump in on that story, I just wanna highlight the, there's so much gold in what you just shared, and I just wanna make sure we don't miss it in that . I think in life, there's so many times where we think we didn't get it right, we failed.
And to be able to identify that is oh, I just learned something. Like you said, you'd learned that's, there's a different way to design this, to make it stronger in the particular way that you wanted to. So there's that sense of forward momentum and growth there and okay, I did this thing didn't work out.
It's time to adjust. So that growth mindset. It is super [00:47:00] important whether it's crafting something, creating a piece of software, or trying to have a new conversation with your spouse, right? But I think there's so much of that seed of change and for improvement that was wrapped there.
I also like wanna highlight, like you showed this triangle that looked like a beautiful piece of art that was based on your mistakes. And when you think of music, and I know you have a music story, but you think of like jazz, you think of when you're playing with people, if you're playing with good musicians, in my particular opinion, they can help cover or enhance a mistake to make it seem like it never happened.
The piece of stage advice. Just keep playing cuz you are the only one that noticed. And you can get away with a lot of little errors or big errors too, if you just confidently[00:48:00] own it and move on. Yeah. Is super, super important. So I know you, you shared that in three sentences, but there I thought was a lot to unpack there and just life lessons,
Jim Kawski: Thank you. Thank you. That I love that. Yeah. It's funny you, if you, if when playing music if you make a, if you make a mistake once, it's called a Clem . If you make a mistake a second time, it's called Jazz
Shawn Buttner: That's a funny music joke.
Jim Kawski: Which it is a funny music. So this is two little side stories. So I'm I've been convalescing from an injury and watching some, I, I love film noir. Old black and black and white TV shows from the late fifties, early sixties. I've been getting into Alfred Hitchcock and Perry Mason, the Twilight Zone, and I discovered one called Peter [00:49:00] Gunn, g u n, Peter Gunn.
Have you ever heard of that? I have not. Check it out. You'll recognize there. Peter Gunn is actually a song that was I think Duane Eddie came out with it. And it's actually the theme mu music to this really cool half hour long private eye show. The who's the private eye's name is Peter Gunn.
And it's centered around this this bar. I think it might be in San Francisco, Cisco. It's called Mothers and it's a jazz club. And so each episode opens with some really hip jazz and jazz is they have jazz musicians and actual not lip syncing performances, but real recorded performances of a jazz ensemble.
At least one in episode. It's really, wow. Yeah. You can get it on Amazon Prime if you have that, it's called Peter Gunn, g u n n. So check it out. So the inspiration that I was gonna mention [00:50:00] is a musician by the name of Django Reinhardt. Have you ever heard of him? Yeah. So Django, when he was 18, I believe he's a proper gypsy, right?
So he lived in a caravan in France and he was a musician at the time, but their caravan. I don't know if it's a caravan or just his tent, but he he was bad, badly burned in a fire. And it was his fingering hand the hand that where he fingers on the fretboard of the guitar. And so he, his pinky and his ring finger were badly burned.
Couldn't use these anymore. Oh no. This one was terribly scarred and he could use it a little bit. So the, he just had his thumb and his pointer on his fingering hand. And that limitation forced him to create a style of music that is still considered a separate genre to this date known as gypsy jazz.[00:51:00]
Oh, wow. And there are a number of bands that employ gypsy jazz a contemporary band based out of Paris, who I've seen several times. Their name is Caravan Palace. And Yeah, they're, all of their videos are really cool. Their live performances are amazing. But you'll, if you go, if you listen to some Django Reinhardt live record recorded Django Reinhardt, it's de you can tell it was recorded in the forties.
It's it's that, it's got that, it's got that audio patina that you can only get from old recording equipment, but you can, you listen to that style, and then if you listen to a little bit of caravan palace you'll say, oh yeah, gypsy jazz. I dig it. I dig it. It's a, anyway, so that's a he's one of my favorite music musical heroes that shows the power of overcoming your [00:52:00] limitations.
That it can actually bring you something beautiful and unique and new and amazing. That, that is totally you. It's, you it's so I, I think that everybody, E Everyone is a, is can certainly lean into that and not only lean into it and create something amazing, but also not allowed to discourage.
You recognize that? In the overcoming of those shortcomings, you do something for your whole self that goes well beyond just the art.
Shawn Buttner: That's, yeah. I absolutely love that. There's a confidence to it. There's a confidence into, no matter what life throws at me, I can find the resources, the the, you could problem solve around anything. So you become unstoppable in a way. You become
Jim Kawski: [00:53:00] unstoppable. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great way to put it, dude.
I love it.
Shawn Buttner: Heck yeah. . I'm curious now if you were going to recommend someone that maybe hadn't, has not tapped into their creative expression as much in their life, whether they're starting just starting careers or they've been grinding away for a while without that connection to it, do you have two or three suggestions or pieces of advice for them to get started?
Yeah
Jim Kawski: Yeah, the, I think that the most important thing is is to connect with a community. But even before you get there, le let, fir first step is to connect with what interests you. And we've got such [00:54:00] amazing research resources to try to understand, hey, this is something that I'm really interested in.
And maybe it's the, maybe it's it's food. Maybe it's people maybe it's, no, I just want to be by myself in this creation. And so maybe it's writing just taking some time and journaling to find out what it is about you that is that is unique in terms of the medium by which you want to express yourself.
And. And so even before that you can ex express your cur self creatively, take the time to create an environment that is uniquely you. A lot of people forget just blow right past that. But that's the, that's a, that's the first thing that you can, that as accessible to everybody as soon as they [00:55:00] leave this podcast, look around your space, and is this space a sanctuary for me in my head, in my mind, and where I want to be?
And so then the next thing is to to connect with the things that interest you. Is it food, is it wood? The most forgiving medium is wood. Is it blacksmith because you know your uncle will worked on the railroad or. Or grandfather worked out, whatever. It's a study into your, in your, into yourself.
And the third thing is to be opportunistic. Sometimes you just gotta try something and so you wanna get involved with something that is gonna be easy for you to complete. And easy means convenient.[00:56:00] If you wanted, if you wanna take up woodworking the only place to go is the Bennett Street School in the north end, in Boston.
One, it's a it's a hour drive away from me and two I don't have the $15,000 tuition that you have to pay for the courses down there. So that's not convenient on two dimensions for me. It's not convenient. Yeah. But. Wait a minute. I've got Miramar Print Lab, less than a five minute drive from my home.
I'm gonna go and check those guys out. And because it's convenient and it's accessible and it's in your community too. So you get, you make the connection with the, with your community when you so that, that would be the third thing is to stand on the shoulders of others. Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
That's, [00:57:00] I'd say 85% of the time, that's not a, that's not a good strategy. The other 15% possibly those are those are Prodigy people who were completely designed to be a violin player, and that's the only thing that they're gonna do for the rest of their lives.
The rest of us. Po sls. No, that's not us. We're not prodigies and that's okay because you don't need to be able to get the fulfillment that you deserve from creative expression. Fantastic. That is super awesome and wise. So one thing that popped up too, if you're struggling with figuring out what you're interested in Adam Savage, who's one of the myth buster guys who I'm a big fan of as a giant nerd[00:58:00] I think I was watching something he was in or something he had written, and one of his messages that I really love is to create the things that you love in the world.
Shawn Buttner: So how he approaches making props cuz he's. You name it in Star Wars, like Mandalorian Armors, lightsabers he has the crafting skills to be able to make replicas that he then showcases in his home. Talking about what you're interested in, sometimes it's I really love chocolate chip cookies and that's gonna be my pandemic project, is figuring out how to crack that code.
Or I really love guitars. I'm gonna learn how to craft a guitar from start to finish using like an old oil drum and a broomstick. And like I had some friends, our Newsom people in Arkansas that had these makeshift. Instruments that they made themselves and then would go play, which is [00:59:00] pretty crazy and wild.
I thought I'd offer that extra bit of advice after some three solid points of connect with your interest, create your unique environment, and see the opportunity.
Jim Kawski: I love that. And you probably have heard of these guys, this guy before, I don't know what his name is but maybe you'll recognize what he's famous for.
I think this is maybe the fourth or fifth year that he, annually cr creates this product. It's known as the glitter bomb. Ah, yeah. Mark Roper.
Shawn Buttner: Yeah.
Jim Kawski: What's, sorry, . What is the thing that he connects with? Is it getting back at Porch Pirates? No, I think what basically what drives him is just this intense desire to refine a product.
And just continually add features to it. If you look at the, for those of you that don't know, it's this guy that, that [01:00:00] creates these these pranks for porch pirates, people that steal packages off your porch and so that when they open up the box and it's, it looks like a shrink wrapped box of with high-end headphones in it or something, whatever, right?
And when you take the box off, it explodes ultra fineing pound of ultra fineing glitter in your home and starts to spray, fart spray in in your home at the same time. So that and it's got cameras mounted that, that send off the images of what just transpired. So that you've got the benefit of seeing the perpetrators Punished,
Brilliant stuff. That, brilliant stuff. But anyway,
Shawn Buttner: yeah he's got that, he's got a whole series on trying to [01:01:00] outsmart squirrels in his backyard, which is really highly entertaining. Like the guy loves engineering, likes making things brings a sense of joy to Oh God, yeah, these problems and yeah.
Yeah, it's
Jim Kawski: fantastic if you're an engineer, he's inspirational in that regard because yes, he connects that the aspect of engineering with creative expression. Now, I'm not sure what he does in his day job and if he has that same level of passion but if he does, boy he's a hugely successful engineer, that's for sure.
Shawn Buttner: Yeah. I think he actually has a program now where he has a lab where he brings in kids to teach them engineering concepts and stuff, which is,
Jim Kawski: yeah I can't imagine. He's working for an. Yeah. . Yeah,
Shawn Buttner: not anymore, but, oh, not anymore. That's, that is fantastic. With that said I'd love to end or before we get how to follow up and contact you, is [01:02:00] there something you haven't shared in a piece of content or in a podcast interview before about creative expression that you could share with us today?
Kind of like an exclusive story or insight or thing you'd love to
Jim Kawski: share? Yeah, I, the thing that I'd like to leave everybody with that I've never really said this. I've said a few things out loud that I haven't said before today. So you've got I'm excited to go back through this and pull those out. Cause this conversation. Helps you to unearth new perspectives and things, and so I find this type of interaction really beneficial. This form of creative expression, what we've created today. But I think the thing is that no matter who you are, creative expression is accessible [01:03:00] to the same level that it is accessible to the world's greatest artists and I guess with the exception of those people that absolutely accessible to one thing or one thing only, but no, not, that's not my point.
My point is that the, what they have created and what you create, that it's no less valuable to you or your community. So if I can impart upon that concept upon people that what they. What they're capable of is far beyond what they currently imagine. And that that living beyond those expectations and living outside of your comfort zone of what you think is possible, and that's where the real action's at.
It's you and I, you'll learned this the last time we were together at the coaching summit, that un, [01:04:00] unless it's a good thing to have imposter syndrome, if you don't have imposter syndrome, there's something wrong. Having imposter syndrome is important and healthy because it means you're living outside of your comfort zone.
You're doing something that you've never done. And that's a real exciting place to be when you put it in the proper perspective. So yeah hopefully that works. I that's the first thing that comes to mind without spending too much time on it.
Shawn Buttner: No, that, that's beautiful. It's a great way to round out this fantastic hour of the podcast.
Jim, before. We sign off. What is the best way for folks to follow up to follow up with you, get involved
Jim Kawski: in your world? Yeah, absolutely. So if you go to www.hirearc.com, that's h i g h e r-arc.com, you can join my community [01:05:00] where we publish content regularly. We have programs, we have webinars.
We're gonna be. Live webinars on a biweekly basis in January. And these are gonna be sh relatively short programs, 30 minutes to an hour we'll see how that transpires. But those are gonna be coming up and and you can connect with me and my community and maybe participate in some of the programs that I offer.
So that's the best way. And my email is James dot Koski, k a w s k I hire h i g h e r dash arc, A i k a rrc.com. And yeah, you can find me that way. I'm also on LinkedIn. I'm the only James Koski out there, so
Shawn Buttner: That's awesome. I will have all those links down in the show notes, so if you didn't catch that while he was talking through, I got you covered.
[01:06:00] Awesome. Yes. With that, Jim I'm so thrilled to have had this really fun conversation about authentic expression, creative expression. I hope that you continue on doing all the crazy things that you do, all the new things. It's always good to hear these stories. Always great to.
And that we'll see you guys in the next episode of the Meaningful Revolution podcast. Jim, please come back soon. Yeah, I'd love to do this again. Let's do this again.
Jim Kawski: Yeah we've got lots of stuff we can talk about.
Shawn Buttner: Totally . I'll have to try to get all the musicians that come on what episode and see if we can figure out a way to play together that might be fun.
Jim Kawski: So that would be fun. Yeah. And yeah, it would be fun to do a panel discussion
Shawn Buttner: sometime too. Oh yeah, totally. Yeah. Before we get there, folks, we have to sign off Go out there live with more [01:07:00] joy, more growth more impact in your communities. And we'll see you in the next episode of the Meaningful Revolution podcast.
I hope you love this episode of the Meaningful Revolution Podcast. And if you did, please share this with three of your friends to get the word out and direct them to Apple Podcasts to subscribe and leave a comment, cuz that's what really helps us with the show. So you could also direct 'em to Spotify or Google.
So most major podcasting platforms you can find the Meaningful Revolution Podcast. But Apple helps us out the most. So please direct your folks to there if you would like to start your personal meaningful revolution. I have some exciting. This year we're starting the meaningful revolution challenge.
First one being the first week in January. So sign up in the link below in the show notes here to spend three days for free live with [01:08:00] me, where we'll go over defining and getting clarity on your personal meaningful revolution, that fulfilling transformation, that authentic self to show up in this next year will spend on the second day building your plan so that you know what you need to do to make.
Strides towards that personal meaningful revolution. And then thirdly, we'll talk about tips, tricks, and strategies to implement and to commit to your plan next year. So those are the three days. We'll have prizes. There'll be a chance to ask questions. There'll be a chance to get some coaching if you need some to, in your particular situation to get you in the game, to get you moving forward, to get you into that meaningful revolution, that fulfilling transformation.
Also, if you'd like some one-on-one time, there's two options, but also below here where you can sign up for a strategy session. In the free strategy session, I'll post on YouTube and as part [01:09:00] of a new series, full disclosure there. But during that call, you will get you'll fill out an application, it'll help you think about your life in a different way, get you primed for our one hour strategy session.
It gives me a chance to identify some areas to focus on so that you get the most bang up for your buck. During that call, we go, we build you a personalized strategy plan going forward with tools and tricks and habits and all that kind of great stuff, and it's all focused and customized to your life.
So definitely click on that. If you're like, Hey, I don't want this on YouTube. I'd like it a little bit private, it's $200 for that one hour call. Please make sure you sign up today because I only have so many slots each week. Where I can do these calls and they fill up quick. So don't miss your chance to get one-on-one coaching.
Get your strategy, plan your strategy session locked [01:10:00] in by clicking on those links below.
