The Power of Side Projects and Eccentric Aunts

The Power of Side Projects and Eccentric Aunts is the title of a talk I gave at FOWD New York in November of 2011. The talk is mostly about lessons I want to teach my kids, hoping that one day, they will be at a place in their lives where they are happy with the decisions they’ve made and most of all, love what they do.

If you’re interested in attending and upcoming event by the same folks of FOWD, you might want to look into Future InSights Live happening in Las Vegas in the end of April. They have some mighty fine speakers lined up. If you’re quick, you might be able to take advantage of the early bird special.

30 Comments leave a comment below

  1. Love this. Thanks :)

  2. Out of curiosity, how do you spell your aunt’s nickname? Hookie? Hoogie?

  3. Wonderful talk, I’m inspired! Hatters gonna hate, creatives gonna create. :)

  4. Thanks George and Erin.

    @Ben: It’s Hugi (short for Hugentobler, her last name)

  5. Made me feel all warm & fuzzy, and optimistic inside. I’m excited to make more goodies :)

  6. Tina, you are an inspiration to me!!!! Thank you for your words, thank you for Swiss Miss, thak you for giving all this amount of good vibes to people! You rock! Now I am just going to by myself a tattly:D

  7. This just makes me excited and itching to get home and start ‘another’ side project :D

    Love the hates comment. 100% no time for haters is a good stance to take!

  8. This is one of the best talks I’ve heard in a long time. Surrounding yourself with amazing people is so important. Thanks for sharing your insight, as always, Tina.

  9. You are one of my biggest inspirations in the design world. Everytime I question my ambitions, your words/work re-energizie(s) my motivation. Thank you!

  10. You are such an inspiration, really. And I watched this talk just when I’m starting on my first side project. Great timing!

  11. I’m inspired! Thank you, Tina

  12. Really inspiring talk. Thank you for that.

  13. This is what I needed! Inspiring talk. I’m inspired too!

  14. That’s just what I needed to watch. I have moved to a new country and am struggling to find my creative place here…. Really great advice.

  15. Just wonderful. Continue to inspire, Tina.

  16. It made me smile and even laugh at some point, I am full of positive energy and thoughts. Thanks !

  17. Thank you SO much for this very inspiring talk! :)

  18. Wow! Such a great talk Tina! You continue to inspire me and open my eyes to what is often right in front of me.
    I love how you said ‘Follow your intuition’. I find that too often people do things because their life or mind has been set on a track for so long, and therefore it is so very hard to derail it, even though it might be right.

  19. As an eccentric Aunt and Mother, this topic struck a deep rooted chord. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and ideas. I am once again going to revisit all those side projects that have been on the back burner.

  20. Amazing talk, Tina. Now, I’d like to be an eccentric aunt to somebody else’s kids.

  21. Thanks for the kind words everyone. *blushing*

  22. Thank you for your talk and all you do Aunt Tina! So glad to be part of your digital community.

  23. That was absolutly incredible…started my monday morning with (self confessed) complaining attitude and not knowing how to fix it. I now finish my monday afternoon full of purpose!

    best quote for me “dont complain-make things”

    Thanks again!

  24. Insipring, refreshing and encouraging, Tina! Thanks for sharing!

  25. Very inspiring, thank you!

  26. This is so inspiring & exactly what I needed today. I was sitting on the couch and pulled out a side project goal of mine that’s been around for 2 years now partly done. I got to thinking about how I need to learn to treat these side projects like a client one and how to be more organized about it. Oddly enough I remembered your to-do app roughly and came to read more about it and maybe try it out & came to the blog first. Next thing you know I find this post. It came full circle in the matter of 30 minutes. The best part was I’ve been trying to figure out how to get myself to a conference here in SF (costs, time,etc) and got to hear how Creative Mornings started! Coincidences or the universe telling me to make more time to play with my own ideas in full, either way thank you for this talk & post. I’ve always been naturally an idea person that shys off at times & started to wonder since my shoe co. adventure turned back to where Zi am now if it was nuts that I’m always spinning experiences to things into projects or business ideas. My mom laughs at me.I feel motivated by your rules to take it to the next step. As soon as I cross a major thing off my to-do (my new site!) Cheers!

  27. Dear Aunty Tina,
    Happy New Year! Thank you so much for making me a new year’s pep talk video. I love that your list of rules is eight long instead of five or ten… it’ll remind me that I can start something on a Wednesday or after tea in the evening.
    Aunty, I make stuff and at the end of the day I’m my own worst hater — what gives?! Jeez. Message received. I’ll make no time for that nonsense.
    And another thing: why do I keep putting my “someday” teux deux bits in my “today” column? It’s just madness! Overwhelming for no reason.
    Alrighty then, cheerio. And thanks.
    xo your un-Swiss neice (say it like un-sweece neice so it rhymes), Shannon

  28. I love this talk Tina. And, I like so much that it centers around helping your kids find the things they love to do.