Kiara Schwartz on Pivoting & Trusting Your Passion
“No ego, no attachment is the key to ease and also creativity.”
Source: Instagram
Kiara Schwartz is the founder and Creative Director of Create Space Digital.
What was the Lightbulb Moment that inspired you to fully dive into what you do?
Creative expression is my passion. My career has been centered around that, and even though it has taken many twists and turns the anchor is always creativity and nourishing the need to express through creation. I learned my most valuable lessons through being able to identify what is not a good fit for me. I am an entrepreneur, so working for someone else has never felt natural or comfortable. As an employee I always had ideas on how to create more then what I was asked to do. I worked in the fashion wholesale industry right out of collage and just as Instagram was becoming a thing.
I could never help myself when it came to marketing through visual expression, even when it was not asked of me — sometimes even in my spare time. This is when I realized that maybe I could make this my career. Rather than creating a visual expansion for other companies in my spare time, I could do it for myself and take my pick of companies I wanted to work with.
At the time Los Angeles was the perfect place for me to take a chance on a digital career. I create from a place of knowing how to interpret someone's vision and put it into the world in a meaningful way. I never intended for my blog to be centered around myself: My first question when I started getting jobs was always how would the brand, hotel, or experience want me to share this. As a blogger that was not the recipe for success. People wanted to see my private life, but that was not aligned with my values and creative mission in this life — it never felt authentic to me.
The blogging landscape changed over time — as did I — and what was being asked of me in that world no longer aligned, but my next step was not as clear as it was the last time I faced change. Fast forward through a very lost year of trying to work for someone else again (fear-based career decisions never work out well) and finally I landed on creating a digital design agency. Overcoming impostor syndrome of not being a "real" photographer or graphic designer, I learned to trust and go with what I am most passionate about and that is interpreting visions and bringing them to life no matter what. If I see it in my head, I can learn how to create it. One year later, I have six clients and an incredible network of creatives. My career has not been linear! The key is to trust that what you are most passionate about continues to be your touchpoint in what you do. Allow yourself to identify when something you thought you were passionate about run its course and know that pivoting is scary but important. Trust your touch points in life.
What’s the most unexpected thing you’ve learned in your current career?
No ego, no attachment is the key to ease and also creativity.
What often sparks your creativity or gets you into the creative zone?
My brain, body, and soul needs nature. That usually looks like a walk in the forest, a bike ride, a skate, a surf. I’ve also learned I just need to move forward in a flowy motion. That makes me happy and in turn feeds my soul and lets me settle into a more healthy and productive work flow.
What is your unfiltered advice for anyone looking to break into your industry?
Leave your ego behind and try and not let imposter syndrome stop you. You are innately creative, you just need to find it within, turn it on, and trust that what comes out is your creativity and that is enough. You do not need to be any specific "thing" to create, just do it.
Oct 13, 2020
By Ashley Tibbits