Welcome to the Green Room! Come on in, have a seat…
The Green Room is a cozy backstage space where our favorite business performers come to kick off their shoes and dish. And we get to listen in.
(*A convoluted Clue reference, because we couldn’t help ourselves.)
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We’re so thrilled to have Heidi Fischbach of Aardvark Essentials join us today in the Green Room!
Heidi is a potion mixer, massage therapist, curiosity fan, mood detective, and writer down of things. She is prone to laugh at most inopportune moments and lives in Somerville, Massachusetts. An aardvark is her business partner. He keeps her calm and carrying on.
If you haven’t tried her yummy lotions and potions for mixed-up emotions you really must. And if we lived anywhere near Harvard Square, we’d be hauling ourselves over to her table for massage. Stat.
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Can you tell us a little bit about your process…what surprised you the most about the process of creating one of your products?
The relationship of it! It’s not so much me making a thing, but more that an idea and I have found each other. If it’s an idea that is to become a thing with me, then it’s going to call me and want to see me again. And I will be thinking of it, sending it starry-eyed text messages. Then we will start doing more and more things together.
The thing, ultimately, is and isn’t in my hands. It isn’t in the sense that whatever it is to become is its own thing already. Whoa! That always blows me away. It helps to think of time not as a straight beginning middle end line, but as a spirally thing where past present and future keep circling by and waving to each other. This means that somewhere, somehow, someplace my thing already is, and perfectly so.
Of course, in the practical, it is in my hands. I’m going to need to show up, to listen, and to roll up my sleeves and sweat. I’m quite sure I will cry over it too. But it sure is a relief that in the big sense I can trust IT to become whatever it needs to be.
It’s a subtle difference, but it’s huge. It’s the difference between feeling tight and rigid in my bodymind, thinking I need to make ___ happen (ugh! heavy! where’s my pint of Ben & Jerry’s?) and showing up, doing what’s next, ever curious about what it will become. What would you rather get out of bed for: to slave away making something happen or to get to know a thing you love?
What’s the hardest thing about the creative process for you? When you get stuck, is there a little trick or kung fu maneuver that helps get you merrily on your way again?
Sometimes you get to a point where you’ve been working hard and the thing is sorta maybe OK and done, but not really. That can be a moment of discouragement and much frustration. That’s when it’s time to put your hands in the air and step away from the car.
OK, maybe not so dramatic, but something like that. For goodness sake don’t go and shoot your idea or anything, but do get the heck out of the car and go do something else for a while.
Sassypants comes to mind. The idea of this potion had been kicking around for a while, inspired by a deep desire to do, say and write my own things, no matter how quirky, and to quit caring so much about what people, or you, or my brother, thought.
When my new website went up in February, Sassypants’ page was written and I loved her with my whole heart. But the potion/essential oil part? Meh. Not so much. The scent simply did not fit with who Sassypants was. Oh boo.
Sassypants wasn’t dead; she just wasn’t ready. So I let her be.
And then one day, months later, I’m at the library all la-de-da-ho-hum when a middle eastern cookbook caught my eye. It was called “Cardamom and Lime.” I was intrigued. I read the cookbook, made some recipes (including a fancy-shmancy rice dish I burned on the first meal I cooked for a guy I was dating), and rolled up my sleeves to play with droppers, bottles, essential oils and ideas.
And, holy pumpkin, there she was! Hello, Sassypants! (And yes, she’s got her father Cardamom’s nose and her momma Lime’s sparkly eyes.)
It’s so easy to get uberfocused on the end result – How do you make sure you enjoy the ride?
When I get to feeling tight and overwhelmed, that’s when it’s time for play.
Maybe it’ll look like a run at the park. Hopefully I’ll get to see the neighborhood kids run through the sprinkler-fountain.
Or a trip to the ocean. Actually, most any body of water.
Or to the library to read all the magazines I never ended up actually reading when I subscribed.
Or dork dancing. Or Shiva Nata dancing. Or getting kisstracted with the guy I burned the fancy rice on.
Or, my favorite thing for times of mucho stuck-o: taking a roadtrip. Something about the movement, the sound, the tunes, and the open road… it does for me what I imagine putting a cranky baby on top of the drier does. (Please tell me you’ve heard of this, yes?).
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve heard about creating and sharing your stuff?
My encouragement is to make what you need and want. Forget trying to get into the heads of people trying to figure out what they need, what they’ll buy. Besides, you’re probably in their heads a lot of the time already anyway. So come back to you.
What do you need? What do you love? What do you crave? All of my potions came from magics I wanted desperately for myself. Actually, the best things I’ve written and made have come out of my hardest stuff. There’s a lot of power in that. And too? You are never the only one. If you need something, I would guarantee that someone else needs and wants it too.
If you were gonna send us a postcard from anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?
In December of this year, I’d love to send you a postcard from the place where Leonard Cohen’s last concert will be on his world tour. I’m dying to go. I’m a hopeless fan.
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Thanks, Heidi!
Wisdom from Heidi that I want to fold up and keep in my back pocket:
- When you’re stuck, put your hands in the air and step away from the car.
- Overwhelmed? Time for play.
- If you need something, someone else needs it, too.
Heidi has agreed to hang around here in the Green Room for a while, so if you have any questions for her, feel free to ask in the comments!
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Want to jump-start your own product creation process? Book a Hopscotch Strategy Session. This is the last week for our introductory offer–the price goes up Friday!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
“… somewhere, somehow, someplace my thing already is, and perfectly so.”
[swooning] That was something I needed to hear today. As always, Heidi, you have such a lovely way of seeing and describing things. I enjoyed this interview beginning to end. (and thanks to the Distillery for bringing us these chats!)
Mmmm… I needed to be reminded of that again, too, Cairene! Yes. Thanks for stopping by
Heidi Fischbach´s last blog ..Things that are easier than listening
This was brilliant and inspiring. A message I already knew but needed to hear it said in this oh-so-delicious Heidi way. Thank you!
“When you’re stuck, put your hands in the air and step away from the car.”
I so needed to remember this today. Sometimes it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the creation of a thing, and the pressure of getting it out there now, that it’s hard to step away from it and let it develop on its own, in its own time. I think we all could use a little more play, and I love the idea of taking a roadtrip when you’re stuck. Thanks for the wisdom, Heidi, and thanks to the ladies at the Distillery as well!
I LOVE the way you think (and WRITE what you’re thinking), Heidi! You and the aardvark are clever, charming, insightful, and funny! I only wish I lived nearby so I could meet you (and the aardvark, of course!) in person. Thanks for sharing!
What Cairene said. And also the part about “It’s the difference between feeling tight and rigid in my bodymind, thinking I need to make ___ happen (ugh! heavy! where’s my pint of Ben & Jerry’s?) and showing up, doing what’s next, ever curious about what it will become.”
I’ve been in the first mode for awhile now, getting more and more frustrated by what I haven’t accomplished. Time to try the second way–I have the feeling things will flow much more easily that way.
Christine Myers´s last blog ..Blogging Meets My Dammit! List
Two things I needed to hear today:
“Of course, in the practical, it is in my hands. I’m going to need to show up, to listen, and to roll up my sleeves and sweat. I’m quite sure I will cry over it too. But it sure is a relief that in the big sense I can trust IT to become whatever it needs to be.”
And even more so, this…
“My encouragement is to make what you need and want. Forget trying to get into the heads of people trying to figure out what they need, what they’ll buy. Besides, you’re probably in their heads a lot of the time already anyway. So come back to you.
What do you need? What do you love? What do you crave? All of my potions came from magics I wanted desperately for myself. Actually, the best things I’ve written and made have come out of my hardest stuff. There’s a lot of power in that. And too? You are never the only one. If you need something, I would guarantee that someone else needs and wants it too.”
Thank you for the reassurance, and the encouragement!
I can go back to going forth now, and today, that is HUGE!.
Oh what company there is to be found here at the distillery! Thanks, all, for popping in with lovely words. I’m delighted to’ve tickled what you needed. And thanks to Eileen and Briana, the Distillery ladies, whom I picture as these sassy spicy supersmart broads who work their butts off and have The Best Time while doing so… in my mind’s eye they have white kitchen cloths tied (sexily, of course) around their waists and they walk around with heavy platters balanced in the air (check out the tone on those arms!), serving us the most potent and magical of spirits… they know exactly what drink each patron needs… that’s their superpower… (I think they call those drinks Strategy Sessions!)
Oh and Gail? For a massage, yes, you’d need to come to Boston, but for potions? The aardvark travels. He’s yet to turn down an order from anywhere in the world. Magics! (via USPS
Heidi Fischbach´s last blog ..C’mon over to the Green Room At the Hopscotch Distillery
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