Meet Dion McInnis | Author, photographer, speaker, fundraiser, storyteller

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dion McInnis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dion, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
People are beautifully complicated, with a myriad of interests, skills, passions, fears and motivations, and those change over time. Finding the ONE career path that fulfills all those aspects is nearly impossible, truth be told. And one can’t forget that a career also must pay the bills and cover responsibilities. Some people opt for the money and let it pay for the life that provides opportunities for interests, skills development, etc. All that to say, be adaptable and listen to your heart and gut to find the various paths, trails, roads and highways that comprise a career journey. Enjoy the trek and grow from it. That dead end you might find is merely a re-direction, it is not the end of the road.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I consider words and images (writing and photography) as my art forms. I am most excited about how I have been able to blend the two as forms and forces throughout my life. I created a photography class titled “Words and Images” to teach others that words inspire visual images and images inspire stories and thoughts (words). Learning how to use them in complementary ways enriches them both.

I am with my art forms what I am in life: observer and listener. I don’t force things to fit a pre-conceived notion of what I want to create; I respond to what I see and hear. The results are stories, poetry, essays, photographs, image series, triptychs… Personally and artistically, I tend to take what life gives me and make the most of it, and I see all of it as opportunities for growth.

While those characteristics work for me personally and artistically, I don’t believe they serve entrepreneurism very well! I learned that I need good assistance with things like sales and marketing. I learned that early on and my artistic fields became more avocational than vocational, i.e., they are not my main sources of income, but I will never stop creating.

One of my challenges in business is scriptural. Matthew 8:10 reminds us “Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give.” I feel like my abilities are gifts that I am to share freely to bring benefits and joy to others. Good for my heart and soul, but tough on the checkbook! But, I’m good with that.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
A week? Wow, that would be quite an adventure!

The first day we’d hang out, get caught up on each other’s lives and talk. And laugh. That sort of connection/re-connection would set the stage for what was to follow, and it may change what I originally had in mind. Assuming that time of relaxation affirmed what I had in mind, the days that follow would be “out and about.”

Within a two-hour drive of Harris County, in any direction, there is access to rivers, hiking trails, fishing spots, lakes, beaches…a lot of great things that don’t include crowds. With a shared appreciation for Thoreau’s wisdom about the outdoors, we would have a lot to check out. Small, hole-in-the-wall diners would capture our attention when hunger hit. Backroads would be our preferred routes, rather than highways and tollways (both having been influenced by books such as Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck and Blue Highways by William Least Heat-Moon). We’d find red dirt roads, for sure. We would stop to walk, take photos, talk and laugh. Unsaid, but clearly known, would be the appreciation of friendship.

There is incredible history within the two-hour radius, much of which is found as personal history in graveyards in small towns, back roads and away from the big city. I’m sure we’d discuss the story vignettes that are the epitaphs on gravestones, realizing that at one time those people spent time with friends just as we were doing on the trip.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
To God; I am nothing without Him.
To my mom and dad (Dorothy and J. Russell): They provided me a lifetime of love for which I am eternally blessed and grateful; long gone, but always missed.
To my three sons: They are my heroes. The greatest role I’ve ever had is being their dad.
To my wife, Cheryl: Together we grow in love and faith, a beautiful way to spend these later years in life.

Website: https://www.DionMcInnis.com

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dionmcinnis

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/dionmcinnis

Other: https://www.poetvision.com

Image Credits
Dion McInnis, Justin McInnis