Interview
How Writing Helped an Author Work Through Problems
Writer Spotlight: An Interview with Jack Heimbigner
As a publication on Medium, we have grown to over 55 writers in a few short months. We are excited to see what God is doing to get His Word out there.
Through this interview series, we want to share with you a little snapshot into the lives of our writers.
Jack Heimbigner joined Koinonia in February 2019. You’re invited to join us in learning a little bit about Jack and what makes him tick.
When did you join Medium? What influenced your decision to join?
I joined Medium in the summer of 2017 but didn’t really do anything serious with it until November 2017 when I joined the partner program. I had a blog well before this and was trying to set a regular habit of blogging first. And then I kept hearing about Medium and decided it was time to jump into it.
When did you join Koinonia? What attracted you to this publication?
I joined Koinonia almost right away. I knew both Kimberley and Janis from writing groups and knew their hearts to share their faith in their writing and felt this would be a good place for me to be able to do the same. While I don’t write predominantly about my faith, I have always been looking for a place to be able to share what I am learning with like-minded people.
How long have you been writing and how did you come to it?
I started blogging years ago, 2009 or so, when I worked for a Campus Crusade for Christ. I was on a regional operations team and always tried to share with my support team what was happening in our region and in the city I was living in at the time. When I ended up changing jobs to my current company in 2014, I stopped blogging because my new job was very taxing and I didn’t really know what to do with my writing. And then in 2017, through some self-discovery and a few prophetic words, I picked it back up. And have been working hard at writing ever since.
Who are some of the people who most influenced your decision to write?
My boss at Cru told me I had a gift for writing and that I should use it regularly, which I did for a long time. Though it was really a combination of my wife and a pastor at our church who shared prophetic words about my life and my desires which really gave me the fire to get started. And then I have been really influenced by most of Jeff Goins writings as well.
Where do you get your ideas? What inspires you?
Most of what I write about comes from my day job, daily living, and my personal desire to continually live intentionally and have a growth mindset. Thanks to these inspirations, I never seem to run out of content. Especially, when it comes to my personal life lessons in chasing my dreams and living the life I desire.
What do you like most / least about writing?
The things I like MOST about writing are how people can really bond over the shared experience. When we write, and more specifically online, we have the opportunity to connect with people all over the world. And we get to live and learn together.
What I like LEAST about writing: editing. I am a miserable self-editor. And while I know this is one of the most important parts of writing, it is my least favorite aspect.
How do you balance professional time with personal time?
I balance personal and professional time by creating specific habits and systems to keep each thing where it belongs. However, this can still be difficult. My professional writing time happens during my lunchtimes at work and my early mornings before my family wakes up. The rest of the time is for my day job or my family. And I never want my family to ever feel like I am neglecting them because of my work.
What publications/writers are you currently following?
A few publications I am really enjoying right now are of course Koinonia. However, I really enjoy what I am seeing on The Start Up, The Ascent, and Publishous. I have enjoyed sharing on The Authorpreneur too. A few writers I am really enjoying right now are Anthony Moore, August Bush, and Brian Rowe.
What are some of your favorite things? What makes you unique?
I am a dream chaser. Over the last ten years, I have been chasing one dream after another. And I love seeing them actualized. Recently, my family and I moved to eastern Washington state to a little five-acre farm, and I love it! It is beautiful, there are plenty of things to do with my hands, and it has slowed down the pace of our lives. I am also incredibly addicted to home remodels. In our old house, I replaced every floor, painted every wall, and remodeled two bathrooms. And the projects continue in our new house too.
How is your faith reflected in your writing?
While I do not write primarily on faith, I believe we are creatures made of spirit, soul, and body. And everything we do impacts those three parts of ourselves. When I write about productivity, I share how we are both physical and spiritual beings and how our productivity can be affected by this reality. My faith impacts the way I see the world and I share it when it fits well into helping others see how it all works together.
What are some things you learned from your own writing? From others?
I have learned how to breakdown problems, create plans, and take action from my writing. This is a basic template for so many blog posts, however, for a long time, I would write like this for other people and then not apply it very well to my life. This has drastically changed how I work through problems and difficult situations in my own life. And had it not been for my writing, it may have taken me a lot longer to figure it out.
What is your ultimate writing goal?
I want to make this a full-time reality. My hope is in the near future I can turn my writing from side hustle to a day job. And I am taking steps to do this with my first book which is coming out June 4, and with working on creating other revenue streams to make it happen.
What advice do you have for a newbie on Medium?
Enjoy the anonymity. When you first start out and don’t have a huge following, you are free to experiment and figure things out. Enjoy it. As things begin to grow, we tend to focus our voice and message in and the moment we go away from this focused message, people get weird about it. Also, you get fewer people giving you a hard time about the wrong use of “there/their/they’re.”
Where else can we find you on the Internet?
You can find me all over the place, here are a few major ones:
Thanks, Jack Heimbigner for sharing a little bit of yourself with us today!
Stay tuned as we will be continuing our writer spotlight series with interviews of each of our other writers on Koinonia.
We are grateful for the fantastic writers we have and invite you to follow each of them: Mary Hood, Salau Shinamide Samuel, Sue-ellen Howe, Noemi McElearney, Mukkove Johnson, Marye Sierra Moir, Ida Adams, Karen Toews, Jack Heimbigner, Connie Mae Inglis, Barbara Radisavljevic, Bett Harris, Terry Palmer, Dr. Kevin Osborne, Callie Quinones, Steph Beth Nickel, Writing River, Kristen Power, Helen Olivier, M.M. O’Keefe, Violet Escalera, Ruth Ann Holloway-Adams, Gloria Lynn, Marcia Laycock, Jessica Archuleta, Phyllis Romero, Diane Tatum, Andrew Garofalo, Donnell King, Dihanne Moore, Susan Elizabeth Henson, Ron Mahler, Wordsmith Haven, Jim Wolstenholm, Ally Holland, Jacqueline Fazal, Glen Mitchell, Aletia Xerri, Corinne Mordaunt, Tracy Gerhardt-Cooper, Ed Elliott, tiala kichu, Carole Tansley, Mary Gallagher, Lin Cochran Burgin, Trip Kimball, Nancy Varner, Brandon Abbott, Valentine Nnebe, Linda Fode, Paul Phillips, Gordon Mc Farland, Linda Jo Martin, Colin Pearce, Mishael Witty, Janis Cox and Kimberley Payne.
This story is published in Koinonia — stories by Christians to encourage, entertain, and empower you in your faith, food, fitness, family and fun.
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