The experience doesn’t matter. The expertise isn’t real.

For singer-songwriter Mindy Smith, the writing process is as mystical as ever, an elusive exercise that remains unpredictable despite her 15 year-plus run as a performing artist. Acclaimed albums. TV appearances. Endless tour dates. Film placements. Hit singles. None of it changes a thing.

For these reasons, the creative pursuit remains as vulnerable as ever, an imposing form of the Resistance at work in her world. But as Mindy explains in this episode of the podcast, the work requires thick skin. Criticism is inevitable, and the artist must let it roll time and again.

Fortitude and fragility are strange bedfellows, but Mindy says both are essential to her craft as a songwriter. It’s a mix to which we can all relate as we seek to do the work before us. To chase the dream, to bring about the imagined, to pin down the evasive—we must enter the fragility of the unknown and walk it out with an unfounded confidence.

VISIT: Mindy Smith

Photo Credit: Fairlight Hubbard