Coffee Break Series (Episode 2) – Phil Hansen

Eagles Talent Speakers Bureau brings you an exclusive interview with internationally recognized multimedia artist, speaker, author, and innovator, Phil Hansen. Throughout the interview, Phil gives tips and tricks on how to stay motivated while working from home, rethinking how we do things in the current climate, personal successes, and limitations vs. self-limiting beliefs. We get a peek into Phil’s personal art studio and get a behind the scenes look at a project he is working on, a series of self-portraits titled “Expressions.”

Phil typically travels the world for work. He gives motivational keynotes and provides a one of a kind art experiences to a variety of audiences. This “new normal” we are all living due to COVID-19 has been a huge change to Phil’s work life, as it has been for millions of people worldwide. Phil has recently started to offer virtual keynotes, either live or pre-recorded, from his art studio. He explains that while it is cool for him to have the opportunity to show off his studio and various projects he is working on, he has faced challenges as well. He finds it more difficult to keep an audience engaged virtually and explains how he faced quite a few tech issues as well.

Phil often emphasizes the importance of being able to rethink how you do things and he explains that now is the perfect time to do just that. Phil brings up how important human connection is at this time and discusses the idea of having a creative buddy to work with. He explains that having a coworker that is your creative buddy when working from home is perfect to share and encourage different ideas and to help you push limits. Enthusiasm often sparks ideas and it is much easier to stay positive and enthusiastic about work when connecting with coworkers regularly, even if it’s just to chat.

Phil explains that having a creative buddy can also help your personal success. Success means different things for different people, but Phil points out that it is important to have different levels of success for yourself. Even small victories count! A small success for Phil motivates him and helps him to stay enthusiastic about his projects and ideas. A creative buddy can help you to achieve these different personal levels of success, no matter how large or small. It is very important during this time for people to focus on the now. Phil’s advice is to break all problems down into smaller parts. This is what he calls systematic creativity. It then becomes easier to solve and conquer those smaller problems, which will ultimately lead you to success.

In his keynotes, Phil often discusses the idea of limitations vs. self limiting beliefs. During the interview, Phil explains this idea using a diagram of an umbrella. He points out that the umbrella is your whole challenge, on one side is attention to the challenge, the other is the self-limiting belief. A limitation is what everyone runs into when facing the challenge, the self-limiting belief is what we as individuals decide to do with that limitation.

Phil Hansen personally has quite a bit of experience overcoming limitations, something we all have to do right now due to our current reality. When Phil was a young artist, he began to practice an art style called pointillism. The precision that was needed for this causes Phil to develop a tremor in his hand, something he thought would end his art career forever. After visiting a doctor who told Phil to learn to “embrace the shake.” He began to ask himself what he could do with this challenge. Phil explains during the interview that opening yourself up to a variety of options is when opportunity can hit you in the face full-force. Phil pushed his boundaries and found new and unconventional ways to create art and his art career has skyrocketed since! We are all up against the same limitation right now, the Coronavirus. We need to figure out how we can work through challenges to keep up our personal successes.

Interested in hearing more from Phil Hansen? Book him for a live virtual keynote today to learn more tips and tricks on how to achieve your personal success.