Shawn Whitsell is an amazing playwright based in Nashville, TN. In this G.C. Denwiddie authorpreneur interview, he explains all about his #BossWriter status.
1. How did you know you were an artist?
I always knew that being an entertainer was in my blood and bones, even at really young age. I think I slowly started to realize I was an artist in high school. It wasn’t until adulthood that I fully realized my purpose and power as an artist.
2. What’s the best advice you’ve received about taking your business to the next level or a more sustainable level?
The best advice I’ve received has probably been to make sure I demand adequate pay for the work I do and not constantly do work for free.
3. What do you do to recover from artistic disappointment?
I’m an optimist so even after disappointment in any area of my life, I tend to find the blessing in that experience. It typically just pushes me to work harder and dream bigger. I’ve had a lot of artistic highs and a few lows as well. Thankfully, I’ve had way more highs than lows but even in disappointing times, I look for the success in the moment. If I wasn’t able to execute something quite the way I planned, I have to ask myself if people still laughed, or if they still cried or if they were still moved by the performance in any way. If so, then I count that as a success. However, I am still able to examine what I may have done wrong, learn from it and work at doing better next time.
4. Have your best dating experiences been with artists or with non-artists?
Next question! I’m joking. To be brutally honest, I am a super busy artist who is horrible at making time to date. I don’t date a lot but I will say that all the women I’ve dated have been supportive of my work as artist.
5. What’s the most important thing artrepreneurs should know before they start selling their art?
They should know that they shouldn’t sell themselves short. As artists, we get asked to do things for free all the time. That’s fine for a while, as you’re trying to establish yourself and it’s cool to do free things here and there for important causes or a friend or something but you have to demand pay at some point or people will continue to expect things for free. With that being said, you also have to create art that is worthy of someone’s hard-earned dollar.
Visit Shawn on LinkedIn here.
#BossWriter-In-Chief
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