Today we’d like to introduce you to Dion McInnis.
Hi Dion, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I was born at an early age. Badump-bump.
Truth be told, my story does have its roots in the earliest of my days. There is nothing that I have been or am becoming that does not come from where I grew up, the loving family that I was part of, and the interests that I developed very early in life.
At the age of six, I received from Santa a Kodak Fiesta camera. Photography has been part of my life ever since, including being a freelance photographer/writer and photography instructor. My first sale of an image came when I was 18 to a greeting card company. I had the pleasure of writing for a couple of national photography magazines. Photography still plays a key role in my life today, not just as a craft, but, more importantly, as a voice.
At the age of 12, I fell deeply in love with writing. Pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) have been essential to me ever since and has played important roles in my personal and professional lives; it has gotten me through tough times, given me voice when I felt mute, and been part of my professional assignments.
I have often said to my employees and/or students, “A camera and a pen can take you almost anywhere.” And so they have. They have also led me to publishing several books, developing a few workshops, and sharing in blogs.
I have worked as a freelance writer and photographer, fundraiser, university administrator, grant writer, consultant and public speaker; I have enjoyed volunteer roles as track coach, lay minister, chamber board member and various other roles. Photography and/or writing have been part of all of it. And what has held all the pieces together is what I learned about love in my family growing up. I hope that I am doing a good role of paying those lessons forward as father, husband and grandfather.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The scenic route is rarely without twist and turns, bumps and potholes.
Business successes and business failures; great jobs and less-than-great jobs; awesome bosses and awful bosses; plans achieved and plans abandoned. I’ve had them all. That’s life though, right? The key is what is done about it all. The simplest solution is “never surrender.” I say that so often that my sons may put that on my gravestone when I die!
I believe that one of the most important things to consider is that the struggles not only shape (strengthen, transform, focus and develop) us, but they allow for our goals to be viewed differently. I firmly believe that God helps deliver what we actually need, not necessarily what we think we want. In the struggles, we find that what we thought we wanted is better delivered as something that we really need. Move forward with joy, hope and love, and the struggles are merely shaping us for what it is to come. Life whittles us over time to be the perfect shape we need to be in order to fit into the role we were created to fill.
Sometimes the pieces come together in wonderful ways. My career in the fundraising/development world (for universities and nonprofits) has had joys and sorrows. I never imagined that one day it would blend with my most favorite role (being a dad), but by staying in the game, the process has led to me now helping the nonprofit that my middle son is the President/CEO of — TEXSAR (Texas Search and Rescue) — and it is an incredible experience.
There is no life that is without struggles and enumerating them too often can become a game of “Oh, yeah! I’ve had worse than you…” and that is not useful. Having a struggle, challenge or difficult time? Welcome to the human race. Never surrender.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I have tried throughout my career to bring the real me to whatever role I had. The real me is creative, expressive and poetic. I think I raised money poetically, photographed and wrote poetically, managed poetically…and so on. My photography website is POETvision.com.
Because of the creative/expressive side, I try to look at things differently. My photography website refers to me as having “a photographer’s eye, a poet’s heart.” My tag line in much of my work has been “See differently; change perspectives; grow authentically.” It applies to how I serve as dad, husband, manager, leader, fundraiser, consultant, teacher…and so on. When I coach others about fundraising, I don’t use insights from fundraising gurus, but from Benjamin Franklin and Walt Whitman. My approach to leadership and management does not look at “putting the right people on the bus,” but views an organization as a garden that, with appropriate insights and actions, can produce in all seasons with appropriate growth to be harvested. I guess I look for solutions through a creative/artistic lens, not a theoretical or academic one.
Life teaches. A life lived genuinely with plenty of listening along the way provides the best opportunity to gain wisdom along the way. I’m a poet at heart and that is how I lived my life for the most part, even when it took me to a variety of paths and career steps. My first book was “Listen to Life: Wisdom in Life’s Stories.” While interviewing for a job about 25 years ago, the interviewer said, “You really know yourself, don’t you?” I think so, but I also know I have a lot still to learn, and I hope to continue learning by listening and looking artistically for the rest of my days.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
Be humble.
People who know me well may laugh at that, including the executive admin for my first boss in higher education. She called me a “pompous ass” with all due affection. We still laugh about it and that was 35 years ago. I prefer to think that I was simply showing great confidence in my work, but others may have perceived it differently. So be it. No one else can know what is in our hearts.
Humility can be hard to come by, but it is worth the struggle. In eighth grade, a friend gave me a poster with the famous writing by Max Ehrmann titled “Desiderata.” I believe that I have held its message in my heart, even before I knew the writing existed. A very important line is: “If you compare yourself with other, you may become vain or bitter, for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.”
Pride is pernicious. Everyone battles it, so learning humility and maintaining it from day to day is a constant struggle, but like I said earlier, struggle shapes us for becoming our better selves.
Pricing:
- Coaching (fundraising, photography, writing) : by quote
- Inspirational public speaking: by quote
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dionmcinnis.com
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/dionmcinnis
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dionmcinnis
- Other: www.poetvision.com
Image Credits
Cheryl McInnis Dion McInnis
