Today we’d like to introduce you to Allison Stewart Bishins.
Hi Allison, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m the kind of person who thrives when I have lots of different jobs. I started my small business journey selling vintage clothes on Etsy, and then started my handmade jewelry brand. That morphed into business consulting, social media marketing training, and hosting in-person workshops and markets. Now, I teach business online to teens, run a small digital art shop on Etsy with my kids, write (I recently published my first novel, Meet Me at the Ruins, under my pen name – Luna Westish), and dabble in headshot and product photography. In some ways, it would be easier if I focused on just one thing, but my brain really relishes getting to shift gears and be creative.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I like to think of challenges as learning experiences. I don’t really look back and see failures, even when something worked out. Every challenge has taught me something – about what I need, a lesson about business, or how to pivot. As someone who made most of their money through workshops and handmade markets, the pandemic was obviously a huge obstacle. I learned so much, though. I figured out how I work under pressure, whether I work well with little kids at home, how to successfully run online workshops, and whether I wanted to run online events after the pandemic. It was a challenge, for sure, but I wouldn’t be where I am today if not for those pivots.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’ve been writing non-fiction for my whole career. I started with scientific reports about climate change right out of graduate school. About 5 years ago, I started writing on Medium (@allisonbishins) about small business, social media marketing, and sustainability. I also started writing about my childhood trauma and cult upbringing, which was much more personal and took a lot more energy than writing about business. When I started writing my novel in 2022, I hadn’t done much creative writing since college. But I quickly fell into a writing practice – setting up at a coffee shop once or twice per week, for hours on end, headphones playing innocuous singer-songwriter tunes, drinking endless coffee. It was a wonderful to fall into it – I’d started writing again because my teen wanted to write a book, and asked me to set up writing “workshops” once per week. I didn’t realize how much I missed creative writing, and being creative in general.
What does success mean to you?
For me – and this is truer the older I get – success means doing exactly the kind of work I enjoy, and nothing more. Obviously I don’t always get to do things I love – I’m not a fan of sending emails or doing my taxes – but on the whole, I’ve crafted a work life that feels fulfilling, isn’t exhausting, and allows me to meet lots of interesting people. My success doesn’t look like the traditional version of “more and more money, more and more responsibility, more and more prestige.” Sometimes I fall back into thinking this way, but it doesn’t take me long to remember that those just aren’t my priorities any more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lunawestish.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lunawestish
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lunawestish
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonbishins/
- Other: https://www.allisonbishins.com
