You Don’t Have to Be Good at Art Because Art Is Good for You with Marianne Gargour

Lyric Kinard (00:00.918) Hello, Marianne, it is so good to see you and I am so grateful that you're willing to come and talk to our people here on Creatives on Camera. Why don't you introduce yourself and what you do? Marianne Gargour (00:13.208) Thank you Lyric for having me. I'm Marianne. I'm a life coach with a creative approach and a professional artist. And I help people find well-being, find inspiration, and find the courage to express themselves by using art, mindfulness, and conversation. Lyric Kinard (00:35.124) What is your favorite medium? What do you do? Marianne Gargour (00:38.35) My personal artwork is I work primarily with oils, but over the past few years I've fallen in love with gouache because it's so easy for people to use and now I love it because it's not smelly and it's light. As you get older, like when I was younger, my canvases were huge and this five foot by five foot canvases and all that. Marianne Gargour (01:05.292) And you just can tell the energy change, the medium changes for me anyways. Lyric Kinard (01:11.338) We do it, we can, right? And now you have online coaching, online courses, and we met at a conference and talked about this whole journey that you've taken, and it was so fascinating. And I would love to hear how you went from being a fine artist, which you still are, just painting for yourself, for your clients, to turning around and serving the community in a different way. What was the catalyst for that journey? Marianne Gargour (01:48.49) That's a great question. And the story, I'll give it to you in a summarized way. But my story begins in that I was teaching from my studio while painting and showing in galleries. And I was giving people my skill sets at a high level. But what I noticed is that my students perpetually were dissatisfied with their work. No matter how good their work looked, they were unhappy. And one day a student left my studio crying. And I said to myself, hmm, I need to work on giving the mindset not just the skill sets to my students. And as life goes my answer came disguised as cancer. Marianne Gargour (02:28.43) And I found myself in a hospital and in my treatments. And one day on the way to the hospital, a friend of mine said, you know, we were talking about what causes cancer. And she says, you know, a lot of people now science is proving that our suppression of our emotional well-being, limiting beliefs can contribute, chronic stress can contribute to being ill. And it struck me like a lightning bolt that I had spent my whole life pushing pushing pushing to achieve and to what end. So fast forward and I'm in the hospital and I'm noticing that I'm happy even though I'm very ill. I'm noticing I'm inspired and that's when I understood, that's when my definition of art and creativity started to broaden because what I realized in that moment is I was inspired by being around people. I was inspired to inspire the nurse who wasn't, you know, appreciated by her family or I realized that I wanted to be with people 24/7 and that I was holding my creativity hostage in my studio and I realized that creativity is connecting to myself and to others. And what really made me sad at that moment was that I love people and I realized that I would not allow my love for people to be part of my life until I was done being practical and productive and making paintings and selling them. So fast forward, I jumped out of chemo, jumped into becoming a life coach. And now I have married this union because I understand that art is good for self-expression, it's good for our physiology, and it's good for our psychology in the sense that it helps us reset, be productive, find solutions. So that is the beautiful intersection that I'm at. it's because I got ill. Marianne Gargour (04:34.336) We all know that. Healing does not mean going back to the way things are or the back to the way things were. Lyric Kinard (04:39.977) Yeah, often growing into something new and different. And the idea that the act of creating can be healing to the soul instead of just, you know, I'm communicating a message and putting it out there in the world, which we also do, but that it can be physically healing because your spirit and your soul heals as well. That's such an interesting thing that you do. How did this become a business? How did you grow from this idea of I want to serve, I want to be a life coach, and also I want to do it through art? How did the practical part of your business develop and what does it look like now? Marianne Gargour (05:33.544) I just want to add one idea is that the art helps us at the physiological level in the chemicals in our brain. That I think is what is the most amazing thing that people are discovering is that they move from the left brain critic mode into the right brain creator mode, which you know all about. Marianne Gargour (05:54.316) What happened was, I think the favorite quote that I think helps me identify what happened is the Glennon Doyle quote that said, discontent is the sign that your imagination has not given up on you, right? Marianne Gargour (06:10.286) Isn't that beautiful? That your imagination is knocking from the inside out saying, please listen. So there I was, I was becoming a life coach, trained, talking with people, but I was kind of putting my art aside. And that's when I said, my art wants to come in. And that's when I started bringing art as a modality to helping people. find more joy, find more clarity, find their vision. So it was this, in internal sense, as we know as artists and as teachers, that it's this quiet voice that needs to be heard. And once again, I listen. And I think of us as business women and men. I think about it as a process of painting. How I paint is how I run my business. So I, when I was trying to figure out how to run my business, I said, I was a little daunted by the idea. And someone said, well, how do you paint? I said, well, I have a general idea where I want a couple lines, big idea. I want it to be a landscape with fields and I know how it wanted to feel. And I make a couple marks and then I step back and that's how I run my business. I get an idea. I implement some steps and then I step back and say, is this working? Lyric Kinard (07:34.186) Yeah, how does it look and where does it want to go from here? Did you start out teaching in person, face to face with people? Marianne Gargour (07:43.412) always. Most of my life was in person in the studio face to face, one on one coaching. And I even still do that I work in a hospital at UT Southwestern with cancer patients using art mindfulness and meditation. But as you know, we all hit those sandwich generation years and I demands on me in other parts of my life. And it's kind of like what you and I understand is how can we create our business by design? How can we meet the needs of our life with our work versus making our life fit into our work? Lyric Kinard (08:24.672) Right, and there comes a point when your ability to be in person with people becomes, you max it out. Either because the other parts of your life push out the time that you need from that, or you can't scale it any further. Marianne Gargour (08:45.974) Right. Yeah, I remember a day I was at the beach. And I had a client on the phone and I was sitting on the porch of a beach house and I could hear the ocean talking on the phone. said, this is a peak experience. This is what I want to be able to do. I want to be able to go and be everywhere, whether it's my parents that need me or travel to see my brother abroad and continue to scale, grow and impact more people. also, you know, life is short. I'm 56. Doesn't get longer. Let's live. I want to live and be able to help people and share what's happening. it's also I think it's really exciting. I think for most of us as business people learning new skills and shifting into the technology and all of it, it keeps me young and curious. Lyric Kinard (09:37.303) I love that attitude. So many people look at the technology part of it and see that as a barrier and something overwhelming and just like facing a blank canvas, right? Just like the beginning of the ideation and the design process. It can be a place that you approach with curiosity and wonder because there's so much out there that makes it so easy to achieve. Lyric Kinard (10:06.462) what we want to do, which ultimately is to reach and serve more people in a way that fits both of our lives. So how does your business, how is it structured right now? What do you deliver and what are the vehicles that you use to carry your message and coach your people? Marianne Gargour (10:31.662) Well, I love what you said. I just want to segue from that point is the idea that it is a bit overwhelming initially. You you just have so many options, so many ways to, you know, when it's brick and mortar, there's not as many options, right? But when you become a digital CEO, the challenges are what direction do I take? And I love this idea that we've learned is the idea that we build one bridge at a time. Marianne Gargour (10:58.2) So the one bridge, and I've heard that and it made an impact on me is the challenge as entrepreneurs, as creatives is actually to keep our blinders up. Lyric Kinard (11:11.19) You're talking to the worst person for that because yes, I want to see and do and experience all the things right now, right? Marianne Gargour (11:20.874) And I've really, that has been a consistent thing that changed for me this year. I said I'm going to build one bridge and the one bridge is my program is called Flip the Switch, Brighten Your Life with Art and Creativity. It's a webinar that leads into a four week workshop, that leads into a membership. Marianne Gargour (11:41.42) Right? And so my goal is I've created this workshop and I have a two day webinar and I offer that and then from there people sign up and I offer the online workshop and we do art, mindfulness and meditation. Lyric Kinard (11:59.251) Is it a live? So are these all via live zoom? Okay. Marianne Gargour (12:04.63) Yes, exactly. So I have the online, I have the online webinar and then I offer it as a replay. And then from there we meet every week and there's tentacles that go out. There's a Facebook group where people can keep interacting with prior students and current students. But I think that my father's a brain surgeon and he's a smart businessman. And he's always said to me, you know, Don't do it alone, don't do it alone. And I kept doing it alone. Because that was how I was trained to be alone in a studio. And I think that's the second part that I think is most important is one, to not go everywhere. Like I am working until this thing takes off. And I keep listening to the thing that needs to change. What do they say in the chat? What is the feedback I'm getting? Oh, get back into all the emails and change them to offer what people really want. That's the biggest, learning curve. It's like this loop. So just had a webinar and Couple people did not as many people as I wanted signed up and I I said don't don't get all emotional here Hundreds of people signed up to listen. So what did you say that they want and I asked them? What do you want? What do you and I saw the feedback and so the work was to change my emails to rerecord to change the message just enough to say I heard you and I'm going to reflect what you want versus this one-way tunnel Marianne Gargour (13:42.862) where we just create these ideas and don't check in. So I think that's so nimble. It's like I didn't print anything. It's not digital. You know, there's a fluidity. Lyric Kinard (13:51.948) Right, right. We get caught up in kind of expert syndrome, like we know the solution to the problems. We know how it works. We know what our students need. And then we forget to listen sometimes. So in order for our students to know that we are the guide that they need to solve their problem, we need to understand how they're thinking and how they're feeling and what their desires are, like what they want. What do they actually want? You know that it's what you have to offer, but the messaging that you use, they have to see themselves in that story. You're talking about emails that you send out to warm audiences or advertising that you send to cold audiences that bring people to that initial webinar. Is it pre-recorded or is it a live zoom webinar? Okay, live zoom, right. So, and your sales page and landing page, all of this messaging has to reflect the desires and the emotions and the pain and the desired solution of your students, or they're just going to look at you as like, yeah, she knows a thing, but it doesn't apply to me. Marianne Gargour It takes listening to recognize people want XYZ, but they really want this. So I'm going to lead with this. I'm not going to give it all to them in the first five minutes. So it's shifting gears like the people I serve at the hospital. It starts with trauma. I deal with trauma and then I use the art. Whereas the world of the online, they want the art first and underneath is the healing and the mindfulness and the deeper conversation. like recognizing, yeah, that's what they said. That's what they want. So that's where the nimble behavior happens, where I have to say, okay, the second point is I have an assistant and that has been a game changer in my life because I used to be the girl who did everything because I used to do web and I can, but I don't like it. And what I've realized is if I can get out of my way from doing the things I don't enjoy and really doing the things that only I can do, only I can write the copy or make the videos. But anybody can edit my videos. Anybody can implement my copy. And so that's what's really started getting the ball rolling is having somebody who can hear me and say, Hey, Karen, halt, stop all the emails. I'm rerecording all weekends. And I can hear her crying in the but I said to her one day we're gonna get that message but for now there's this back and forth and that's changed everything for me as a business owner to not feel alone. Lyric Kinard (16:55.863) It's really interesting to think about hiring an assistant. People feel like it's a huge catch-22 because when you're just starting out with a business, you feel like you can't afford to hire somebody else. So you have to do it all your own. one of the things I heard at one point was that you are doing things that are providing the huge part of the value, right? And are you an employee or are you that thing? An employee, are you an employee of your own business? Are you paying yourself minimum wage to do grant work when somebody else could take all that off your hands and give you more time to do the high value things? Like the communication, the... Lyric Kinard (17:50.486) I have tried in the past to pass off a lot of the writing and realize that that's probably not a great idea. Right? It does have to be our own. Marianne Gargour (17:57.71) It doesn't feel like a voice, right? When you... You know… I the thing that helped me a lot was when I heard about, let's say you say to yourself, how much do you want to make a year? And you divide it by, 2080 hours. And let's just say you come up with a number. say I'd be I'm satisfied. Let's just say a hundred dollars an hour just for the sake of this conversation. And what's really interesting is whenever I start to do jobs like Fadoodle on a logo or do things that I'm paying much less to someone else elsewhere, I can feel it in my body. I feel guilty. I feel stressed. I can feel myself saying that is not your role. don't I no longer see my faces on every part of the org chart. but except addressing how much are you planning on making for yourself and how much? Are you paying this person to do and are you doing that job versus doing the job that is your value? So it helped me a lot. Lyric Kinard (19:04.951) Right, so are you being a real business person and is your business worth the investment to help it actually get off the ground? You can do it all yourself, but it's going to be a slower climb and a slower process. And it is a risk. It is a risk to hire somebody and put this out there. You have to let go of control of a few things. Marianne Gargour (19:33.644) Most definitely. Isn't that amazing? Having an assistant, how much it forces, I've grown the most because of having an assistant. I need to meet once a week with her and have a list of things that are important. she does work on weekends at times because of the time difference, but. Lyric Kinard (19:50.02) business organization? Planning? Marianne Gargour (19:59.278) It's hard to get your content ready. And I think also, I think about a painting. When you think about it, when I think about a painting, I don't want to be democratic about how I paint. It's like a camera, right? There's one focus and then the rest is the depth of field, the fun. And what is that one thing that needs to happen? And then let's be clear about that with my assistant. Like what's our message? What's our goals? What? And having somebody else involved is good because I have to, we have to clarify versus I'm busy, so I must be running a business. Marianne Gargour (20:37.134) Are we doing 5 % that makes the difference? Lyric Kinard (20:42.497) That's such a simple and also often difficult question to ask yourself. It kind of can wake you up. Marianne Gargour (20:53.236) It really does. Yeah, it does. And then, then there's, there's that part of you that says it's not just about showing up to the meeting. There's that duality in business, like, hey, I've got the technology, I'm ready, my webinar is starting, my content is ready. But then it's who am I, you know, that Toni Morrison quote, it's not what you say, it's how you make them feel. Does the person you're working with feel heard? Are you really present to this moment that you're sharing? And I find that duality so interesting to meditate before I start my work, to really ground down and say, why am I doing this? What is my goal? What's the vision? And stay true to that versus just getting into a perpetual fight-or-flight state of frenzy. Because I don't want to be a frenetic person and I don't want other people to be frenetic because it's not good for our lives. so, yeah, it asks you to walk the walk, right? Lyric Kinard (22:04.076) Right. It's something we talk about in the Academy for Virtual Teaching all the time, being able to get ourselves out of our own way because we're here to serve our students. And I think we talk about that in the messaging and in the authentic connections that true marketing is instead of being salesy, right? But I love the idea. And I've started doing that. I need to remind other people to do it to take a moment and meditate and really get in your heart and mind before you film, before you teach live, no matter what, that what are you doing here? You are serving your people, so lose yourself and find that connection, that conduit between whatever it is that comes through you that can connect and help with your students. Marianne Gargour (23:02.83) Yeah, I mean when you were speaking, the vision I got was like a wheel with the hub of a wheel and the spokes coming out, you know? Like what is our main mission? What's our message? And how grounded are we so we can be right there in the middle and everything that we create, everything we share has that energy and that message to really help and to, and to, you know. My goal is to be a very self-empowered woman. In this generation, we've been offered the opportunity to be at the table of business and commerce. And while I wanna help and I wanna serve, I also wanna succeed. And to succeed asks me... Marianne Gargour (23:57.622) to not only learn all these new skills, but to let go of some of the behaviors that we've been taught as women. Lyric Kinard (24:06.284) Hmm, specifically what? Marianne Gargour (24:07.95) Just the idea of always putting other people first, serving everyone else and leaving nothing for ourselves. The concept of self-care is not selfish. That has changed my behavior to be able to present myself, to stand straight and say, I have something to share even if I don't have 20 out of 30 ideas on your resume. Like these habits as women that we've Marianne Gargour (24:37.954) we've served the world. That's been our job. That's how we've survived. But now we're at the table and something has to go. Something we have to let go of something in order to step onto the platform of our power and our capacity to share the world. Lyric Kinard (24:54.498) So that's an interesting corollary to let yourself go as you serve your students. But in order to do that, you have to be powerful and centered and confident, trying to think of the right word, but just whole enough in and of yourselves. mean, yes, we let ourselves go to be a conduit to serve each other. Lyric Kinard (25:23.448) to serve our students. But we have to be whole to begin with, to be able to do that. And in order to be whole, we have to take care of ourselves, basically is what you're saying. Marianne Gargour (25:37.902) that, that take care of ourselves. And also I think there's, think the biggest idea that kind of changed the game for me is as we're stepping into the, you know, couple of things. We have a vision, right? One day I want to be on the TED Talk stage, let's just say. Well, there is like 10 steps before I get to the TED Talk stage, right? Breaking down our vision and our horizon lines into small steps so that we can not overstretch and be at loss, right? Getting out of our comfort zone has become this motto, but how much do we get out of our comfort zone? It's taking steps that are comfortable, but stretching ourselves, right? Lyric Kinard (26:16.95) Yeah, grow, which is often uncomfortable, don't do it at the expense of, I mean, there's healthy growth, right? And then there's cancerous growth, literally, that you've experienced, right? or coming in a little bit of water, but don't let go throw yourself out into the depths just too fast. People step over what they're feeling, what they're thinking, right? There's one level, but the next level, think that has really changed the game for me was maintaining a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. So, you know, in the past I would have a meeting with you and I think we're in flow and then I would get into a puddle of shame. I talked too much. I shouldn't have said that. I forgot to say that. You know I would have dashed all my efforts into this pile of not good enough and now what I've learned to do is say so how did it go? Well it went well. I showed up great talk with my friend Lyric. We learned, we shared. Okay, what would you have done differently? I would have maybe done, I would have maybe asked her more questions or so that gentleness with ourselves as we're growing and recognizing what we are doing well versus what we're always doing not well. Couching it in that I feel that's why the end of the year sort of a tallying how much we've done helps us to assess, oh, I'm doing what I'm meant to do and I'm applauding myself and loving myself and nurturing myself and listening to what I need to grow but without making shame based meaning. Lyric Kinard (28:06.273) Yeah, constant process of analysis and from that analysis, learning and growing instead of shrinking and going, I'm not good enough. It's never going to be great kind of thing. That's that's beautiful. So right now you have is your webinar is free, right? And then you invite people from that webinar. People have experienced your Lyric Kinard (28:33.015) your soul, the things you have to offer. You've given them a taste of what it is they need and you invite them into a paid four week program that is live Zoom. Marianne Gargour (28:42.156) Yes. Yes. So it starts out at the top level, which is Facebook ads, create videos, and I follow those Facebook ads. And I look at which one is working. There might be three. And I look at which one is having the most success, and then I make it one. And then it offers the information for the live. Marianne Gargour (29:04.642) master class, which is one hour where people sign up. I keep track of who's signing up so they're my warm audience. And then we have a great conversation. And then I give them the opportunity to join right then and there and they get a bonus if they do. And if they don't, I will make sure that we follow up with them. Marianne Gargour (29:24.8) I follow up with people who attended and signed up. thank them, keep them happy. People who attended but didn't sign up, I give them more information and send them the replay. And people who signed up but didn't attend, and I try to reinvigorate their interest. And then from there, the workshop occurs and it's four weeks where we talk like this, just like this. One of you, there's many of you. And we have music, we have meditation, we have drawing. Marianne Gargour (29:54.704) we have conversation. Lyric Kinard (29:56.954) Lovely, lovely. And then after that limited time experience, because it's a full experience as well as a learning process and a course, then you invite people to stay with you on an ongoing basis with a membership. How does your membership work? How is it structured? Where do you offer it? What platform do you use? Marianne Gargour (30:21.454) Thank is the membership just joining the Facebook group called the Inspired Club. So after they do the workshop, they're part of this group where I keep feeding ideas and prompts. The membership is my vision. So I'm making it sound like it's already here, but it is because it's already in my head. So the goal would be to have a very low entry point where they pay a certain sum and every month we have a different topic and we have a recording where the conversation goes. Marianne Gargour (30:53.08) vision that I have is to have a VIP offer for those people who would like to either take coaching or art or art and coaching to another level at a privatized way with me. So you see how it's starting here and I let the time. Yeah I don't want to be stressed out. I don't enjoy being stressed out. The best work too I've realized right. Lyric Kinard (31:08.727) Right, and growing and growing a little bit at a time. Lyric Kinard (31:20.205) Right? Okay. And so, so far you have live web webinar via Zoom. You have your program via Zoom. You have the four week program course, Facebook group, and then planning on building at some point a membership. So you don't actually have to have a big online course platform because you're just using Zoom and Facebook right now. Marianne Gargour (31:52.469) What do you mean you don't need to have a large one? Lyric Kinard (31:55.214) You have a website, but you don't have a specific platform where you keep all of your recordings and okay. Marianne Gargour (32:02.704) I do. I do. Thank you for clarifying. Yeah. So first of all, I have a huge, not huge, but have a large like email list that I keep adding to. And I do social media to keep growing my audience, but I'm on go high level. Yeah. Marianne Gargour (32:20.974) I used to be on Squarespace and I loved Squarespace, but the new Squarespace model did not allow me to do the campaigns and everything in the way that I like. So my assistant recommended we do Go High Level, which is lovely because for the Go High Level, have my online site where I sell my artwork and I continue to post art. I have my landing pages are actually... Marianne Gargour (32:48.278) right there, shown or not shown. I can have a link to them or they can be right on my website. And then it has a very thorough, excuse me, a very thorough capacity for workflows. Lyric Kinard (33:05.975) automated emails. Marianne Gargour (33:07.354) emails, follow through, and I even recently, because I wasn't getting the follow through after people would sign up, I just added SMS texting capacity and add that within Go High Level. So it's just like the slow reveal that the software has, but and, and With my class, you get access to a dashboard, a membership dashboard where you can go on, you can re-watch the classes, you can watch the meditations, you can watch the art class, and I have a whole video tutorials of learn how to draw in 28 days so people can access the classes between the sessions. Lyric Kinard (33:51.724) Okay, so is your email list and your website all go high level with all of the other areas of video recordings and email workflows and automations? Marianne Gargour (34:05.23) Yeah, have my everything. All my contacts are segmented. I have a general email list, so I be gentle with them and not overpower them with follow throughs. This has been a big learning curve for me, you know, so everyone that's interested from Facebook becomes my new launch list. They said I'm interested in your workshop. The email list is an amalgam of people from my whole life, but all of my contacts sit and live in go high level. Marianne Gargour (34:35.184) So I can specifically email people who attended or specifically email people who attended my art show and so that I try to respect people's privacy and I don't want to over email if they're not interested. Does that answer your question? Lyric Kinard (34:50.425) Right, it does. I have not looked deeply into Go High Level, so now I'm really curious about that platform. Is there anything technical about the platform that has been difficult for you? Marianne Gargour (35:06.22) Yes, I think it's just, it's just a different language initially, you know, maybe people who are used to having workflow automations and how that works, and just getting to know, that's the automation or that's the site or that's the marketing. I, I've had to take long deep breaths and say, you know, I believe as a business owner, we need to know. Marianne Gargour (35:34.646) I know what I want, first level. I know that it can be done, second level. How to do it, I think is ideal, knowing how to do it, because I used to know how to do it. Marianne Gargour (35:45.678) But I've accepted that my assistant led the way on that one. I told her what I wanted. She created it. And now every week I say, can you please show me or give me a loom video? How did, how, like one day I was in my workshop and she couldn't be there to run my workshops. I had a different IT person and I had to tell them the link is different. And all of a sudden I didn't know the contact. I didn't know how to access all my contacts. Marianne Gargour (36:12.566) Luckily it was a small group so I could manually find them and write to them. So every time I learned something I said, I need to know how to write an email to all my contacts without your assistance. So I've accepted that my learning is going to be little at a time. And I have to breathe deeply when I start to do that work because I feel overwhelmed. Marianne Gargour (36:35.946) and say, you know, good for you. You're trying to learn something. Learn one thing from your assistant today. Lyric Kinard (36:42.496) And we do learn it. We do learn it. Marianne Gargour (36:44.92) What are you using, Lyrica? Lyric Kinard (36:47.29) Because of my business at the Academy and what I do, I have a lot of different platforms. I've tested out, I've been on three or four different on-demand course platforms. I also have my 20-year-old business that has pieced together with all different kinds of things. So parts of my business are all over the place. This year I am experimenting with Marianne Gargour (36:57.134) Yes. Lyric Kinard (37:16.718) consolidating everything from my original lyric art business where I just teach my stuff instead of teach other teachers into the Zenler platform. Because it does all of those things as well. And I've been working with it for a couple of years and we'll see how it goes. I have been using it for a lot of other things. And it does everything Lyric Kinard (37:45.541) beautifully, I also, I am still for both of my businesses, my community lives on the Mighty Networks platform. Yeah, it does community better than any other platform. Zendler has a new community feature, but it doesn't compare anywhere close yet. Maybe someday it will and I can have everything all on one platform, who knows? Marianne Gargour (37:54.03) yes, my network, right? Marianne Gargour (38:10.208) Right? TNFL has a community, more of a community thing. I don't use it a lot. I still use my Facebook community. But I felt like that's what I felt this I have. I sounded like what you sounding like a little bit. had, you know, Melchamp, I had Squarespace, I had different and I didn't like that feeling. And there was some woman called, I think, Calm Business. She's a German woman. Marianne Gargour (38:39.288) reading her, like watching her and she said, what do you want your digital world to feel like? Do you want them to feel welcoming into your home? And it really changed my perception. like, I want one home, one place where I can welcome people and serve them different pieces of food. And so I'm trying to do that. I'm trying to amplify because I, I don't. It does make a huge difference. Lyric Kinard I do not recommend having all these other platforms, but because I teach people other platforms, I experiment and play with them and want to know a little bit about all of them. Well, Marianne, I greatly appreciate the time that you've spent with us and your generosity with your information. And I think the things we've talked about have been deep and satisfying. And I appreciate that. Marianne Gargour (39:33.068) I have a question for you, before we close up. Do we have a second more? So I just really want to commend you, to acknowledge that the way you're having multiple avenues is a really cool creative thing. You you think about some people like to try a little thread here, a little paint here, and then slowly but surely it comes together, sort of like the textile. It's not all one. Lyric Kinard (39:35.639) Sure. Lyric Kinard (39:57.295) Hmm. Text cell artist here. Yeah, I get it. Marianne Gargour (40:01.43) Right, so there might be something in the way you're talking. feel like it's like try this, try that, and then watch it emerge and watch it come together. I acknowledge that most of us, that's how we are, right? There's disparate parts and we're trying to bring them to the center. But what is it, forgive me if I put you on the spot, what is it that... you have found from this conversation? know that we're just talking on the fly, but what is it that you found the most interesting about our dialogue today? Lyric Kinard (40:33.856) I love how what you're talking about, and this is the same conversation we have with almost all of the artists that are on here, right? All of the creatives. It's something of the same journey, but the way you have phrased it and spoken about it, it comes from the center and from within your soul. instead of coming from the outside and through. And both things are true, both things happen for all of us, but you've just phrased it in a way that makes the inward, outward process really clear. So I really appreciate that. Marianne Gargour (41:25.998) And the line I'll leave you with, which is exactly what you said, is you don't have to be good at art because art is good for you. That is not the process, not just the results. And so many people are looking at their life and their expectations on themselves and their art from the outside. And I'm saying, let's just make it. Let's just experiment. We don't have to be good in order for it to be good for us. So you can... Lyric Kinard (41:33.828) Mmm, I love it. Lyric Kinard (41:52.365) Yeah, well, and that's the core of my message when I'm teaching art and design to other creatives. Yeah, it is. It's all let's let's do it badly. Let's just play. Let's just learn because that's how you get good. High five to you, my friend. Yes. So one thing I love to ask, just throw out at the very end of every interview is can you describe the last thing you made? Marianne Gargour (41:58.402) Really? Yeah. Let's do this. And I thank you. Let's make ugly art. It's the best. Lyric Kinard (42:20.57) to us just for fun. I know we're talking to creatives and artists, but it doesn't have to be a painting. I mean, think broadly about. Marianne Gargour (42:30.786) My gosh, you put me on the spot. the last thing I made was a party. Yes, the last thing I made was a party for a bunch of neighbors that I don't know. That was the best. Lyric Kinard (42:46.97) what a beautiful way to build community. Marianne Gargour (42:50.528) and it's creativity, it's connectivity. I had no idea their names. They've been living across the street for like eight years and I went door to door and said, come for cocktails, let's get to know each other. And it opened up my spirit so much, they ended up staying for two and a half hours. that was daring. My husband's like, are you sure? The last time our neighbor did that 10 years ago, I'm like, she was. She was a much different person than we are. Let's go for it, you know, and put out the flowers, cook some food and invite new people. And I felt so exhilarated by opening the door like that. So that's Lyric Kinard (43:29.946) All right, so you said you made a party, but what you actually made was community and connections, a connected community, right? Marianne Gargour (43:39.822) in an unknown way. That's the part I thought was most exhilarating. I had no idea who these people were. It's like a blank canvas. I said, it's time to paint on this canvas. Let's open the doors. And now I feel like I know, now I feel like I have these threads to people and they're such cool people living across the street from me. Lyric Kinard (43:59.383) And who knew why did we take so long to do it? All right, everybody go knock on your neighbor's door and just say hello. You don't have to throw a party if you don't want to, but you know, make connections. Exactly. Right? Every aspect of our lives, we don't need to hold it hostage, just in our art form, because the more we live, the more it influences what we create physically. Lyric Kinard (44:24.164) Thank you so much, Marianne. It's been a delight and a pleasure to speak with you. Where can people find you? Marianne Gargour (44:31.22) Certainly. So you have some of the links. don't know if we can post them. But the most easiest way is my first initial and last name. So it's mgargour.com and you can see my name in the screen. So mgargour.com. Lyric Kinard (44:34.537) They will be in the show notes for sure. Lyric Kinard (44:46.586) G-A-R-G-O-U-R dot com. Go look at what Marianne has to offer. We'll have lots of links in the show notes. say hello and look after her example. Marianne Gargour (45:00.77) And thank you Lyric for, I felt so excited to be in community and communication with you today. I appreciate your time and your efforts. Lyric Kinard (45:22.629) Thank you, and we'll talk to each other again sometime, All right, take care. Marianne Gargour (45:26.38) Yes, see you very soon. Bye bye.