266: Brave Creative Humans: Perfection

To celebrate the launch of my first book, Brave Creative Human: Embrace Failure, Reframe Imposter Syndrome, and Be Unapologetically You I invited six previous Talk Paper Scissors guests to join me in conversation to discuss their thoughts and personal stories about concepts explored within the book. Topics include perfectionism, failure, comparison, how they’re “colouring outside of the lines” in their own creative pursuits, and what being a “brave creative human” means to them. I asked these specific six folks to be part of this series because they exemplify what it means to live one’s own brave creative humanity. What emerged in these conversations were different viewpoints, beautiful juxtapositions and multiplicity, as well as commonalities, overarching themes, and cohesive through lines. 

These six are truly Brave Creative Humans.

Let’s meet them now.

Allison MacKenzie

Allison MacKenzie is the Founder of Tinker: a creative community third space that hosts events and workshops for folks of all abilities and interests. In the last year, she’s hosted over 30 events and hundreds of creative humans. She’s a professional multidisciplinary artist with a passion for bringing people together and making magic happen. She is a creative strategist, a curious problem solver and a not-so-secret lover of musical theatre.

Kevin Shaw

Kevin Shaw is a visionary leader. As a trailblazing entrepreneur, media producer, and accessibility innovator, Kevin’s career has consistently set new standards in business, broadcasting, and inclusive design. Based in Toronto, Kevin has built a legacy of creating groundbreaking experiences, inspiring change, and proving that true innovation happens when creativity meets purpose. His work has empowered thousands, transforming how people consume media, build businesses, and engage with the world.

Vincent Wanga

Vincent Wanga is a dynamic international design thought leader, creative keynote speaker, award-winning creative and executive, author of "The Art of Direction," serial entrepreneur, and experienced brand consultant over a distinguished two-decade career. This includes his role as former vice president and head of creative for one of the fastest-growing technology startups in North America at the time, overseeing corporate brand strategy and creative during unprecedented company growth from pre-Series A to an over $1 billion "unicorn" valuation.

Meg Lewis

Meg Lewis is an artist, performer, and educator transforming the world through joy and playful design. Their bold designs burst with color, bringing an explosion of energy to brands like Dropbox, Meta, Target, and Pinterest. With a background in design, improv, clown, music, and stage combat, Meg creates uniquely playful experiences through workshops and talks that spark laughter and inspiration. Meg guides both corporations and individuals to reshape how they work and create, inspiring audiences to tackle life's biggest questions through joy, creative exploration, and career strategy.

Emad Saedi

Emad Saedi is a classically trained pianist, composer, and sound designer. He is passionate about storytelling with sound and music. Emad composes in various genres and his portfolio contains the soundtrack for podcast, film, video games, as well as classical, pop/rock, and electronic music.

Justine Abigail Yu

Justine Abigail Yu is the founder of Living Hyphen, a community and multimedia platform that explores what it means to live in between cultures as a hyphenated Canadian – that is, an individual who calls Canada home but who has roots elsewhere. 

Her award-winning work has been featured on national and local media outlets including the Globe & Mail, the Toronto Star, CTV National News, and the CBC. Justine Abigail is a fierce advocate for equity and anti-oppression. Her mission is to stir the conscience and spur social change. She was named a “Changemaker” by the Toronto Star in October 2021. 

This first episode is all about a big, touchy topic: perfectionism. Specifically, I asked our brave creative humans “What are your thoughts on perfectionism in creative work? Is perfect necessary or even possible?”.

Let’s listen in…

Perfection can feel achievable or not. It can be what fuels us or what constrains us. There may be more important things than perfection but it might be worth working towards anyway. There is no perfect way to view perfection and however it is that you see it, you are a brave creative human. 

Next time, Allison, Kevin, Vincent, Meg, Emad, and Justine Abigail explore failure, and more specifically how they sense failure, through sight, smell, touch, sound, and even taste.

Stay tuned…

---

Music:

Just Havin’ a Beatbox - John Bartmann licensed under a CC0 1.0 Universal License

Talk Paper Scissors Theme Music: Retro Quirky Upbeat Funk by Lewis Sound Production via Audio Jungle

Boat Origami Photo: Boat Origami Photo by Alex on Unsplash