Mió Evanne | 10 Questions: 005
For our fifth interview candidate we wanted to find someone that works across a wide variety of industries, focusing on strong artistic enthusiasm. We searched for someone that represents the “hands on” creative. A person who is driven by a vivid imagination. Someone with an entrepreneurial and artistic mind that courageously follows his/her inner voice.
Where to start? In one of the creative capitals of the world? No, we actually thought the opposite, we wanted to talk to someone who wasn’t blessed with the huge and never ending cultural offering of a major city. We wanted to talk to someone that had unknowingly been starved of artistic influences from the outside.
This someone is Mió Evanne, born “at the end of the world” in northern Sweden. Mio is a serial entrepreneur, a multi artist, an actor, a father of 3 while happily married to his business partner husband, Sebastian.
Here Mió kindly gives us glimpse of his road to creative success.
Levé: When speaking to someoneʼs grandparents, how do you describe what you do?
Mió: I´m a hairdresser. And then I whisper, in despair: But actually I´m a multi-artist!
I´m also the boss at "Sax & Maskin", but we call it Creative Director because it sounds more fancy. My day-to-day mostly consists of designing hair, but I’m also responsible for about another trillion things. :)
Levé: Thinking about where you are now, and then connecting the dots backwards, where did it all start?
Mió: It all began in a little village called Tallberg, ten Swedish miles north-west of civilization. Pretty close to the end of the world. It’s place where artificial beauty had never been spotted, and then once upon a time a little friend of Dorothy was born - Mió Evanne.
Levé: Was there a defining moment?
Mió: Actually it was when my aunt Birgit opened Pandoras Box for me (it was her jewelry box) and I understood that I was kept in the dark by my strict christian parents. Beauty had been hidden from me and suddenly it was irreversibly revealed.
Levé: What was your pathway into the creative industry?
Mió: When I was thirteen my school sent me out to visit the reality for two weeks. I chose a divine hair salon called "Headline". There I found the meaning of life and all of a sudden I had a job outside school. There was a God and I felt that I was on the right track. That track has since lead me through many industries and events; all of a sudden I found my self writing a column in a newspaper here in Luleå, and miraculous I then got a job at Sweden’s largest weekly magazine doing the same thing. I soon also became a radio columnist for one of Sweden’s largest morning shows (P3 - Morgonpasset) and then, like a fairy tale, I did an audition and got the role in a movie called "Att göra en pudel" (English: White trash) playing the gay guy Simon. All these wonderful things surrounded me meanwhile I started the salon "Sax & Maskin" together with my husband. Oh I forgot, during this time I had three kids as well…
Levé: Is working in your industry a profession or a pursuit?
Mió: For me it’s a godsend, a true blessing.
Levé: What drives you?
Mió: My vivid imagination!
Levé: How do you switch off, if ever?
Mió: I really try to explore my inner self. I do yoga, I work out, I blog at: www.evanne.se and I read a lot. But I never switch of completely except when I return to my childhood home, Tallberg.
Levé: Deadlines are piling up, time is running out. How do you get yourself into “the zone” to be creative?
Mió: The thing is to analyze and choose your own path. Not to head over heels say YES to everything. Listen to your heart and be grateful for your selected missions.
The actual physical space is very important. To create beauty I have to be surrounded by it! Another very, very important thing is the people around you. Create your own family at your workplace, because you will spend so much time there. Employ people with great skills and big hearts. Socialize with friends that give as much as they take.
Levé: What are the most important lessons you can share with young people looking to establish themselves in a creative industry today?
Mió: Start the business small and expand slowly but surely. Travel a lot, let your self be influenced, AND, don´t smoke! My strategic advice is; Find the thing that makes you pop, what makes you feel luminous. Then: sparkle!!! It’s also important not to let anyone be mean to you. It can be a cruel and vicious industry.
Levé: What do you miss the most with being a teenager?
Mió: That there were no ending...
Levé: What do you look forward to the most when you retire?
Mió: Our apartment in south of France. The warm nights and the delicious red Bordeaux wines.
Levé: Lets assume that youʼre writing a book when you retire. What will the title of that book be, and what will it be about?
Mió: Well I have written two books so far "Gallimathias" (Balderdash) and "Kusinen från Landet" (The Country Cousin) so let me think… I think I shall call the next one "666 and other remarkable things I have survived"
Levé: If you could be THE best in the world at something, what would you want that to be?
Mió: To fly...
Many thanks Mió!
If you want to read his blog, you can go here: www.evanne.se
To follow him on Twitter: @monamimio
