49: Follow Your Passion with Nate Shearer

If you’ve ever wondered how you can make not just a living, but a life, this week’s episode is for you. Nate Shearer is a thoughtful, funny guy who doesn’t let work define him. His pursuit of play has led him to race bikes professionally, learn the welding trade, explore skate and surf culture, move out to the country and then return to the city - and the list goes on. He is also one of Washington, D.C.’s great hair stylists; he apprenticed under the world-renowned Orlando Pita. Tune in for inspiration on how to follow your passion and let the magic of curiosity unfold. 

“My primary focus in life is mostly, for lack of a better word, playing; I’ve always gravitated towards jobs that I could just take off whenever I wanted, jobs I didn’t take home with me.”

– Nate Shearer

“I feel like I work best when it’s approached like a collaboration.” – Nate Shearer

“That’s how you should try to form your life. You should just do these passion projects. If you are passionate enough about it and you just keep doing it, then people will be like, wow, what is this. Eventually, if you don’t allow other people to stifle your passion then that passion can actually become your profession.” -Nate Shearer

• People in Nate’s hood growing up included Spike Jones and Jeff Tremaine 
• Design Yourself episode 4 on the importance of taking breaks
• Jon Flannery of Cryptogram is the designer behind the Point Road brand that came up in Nate and Sharon’s conversation
  • You can also hear Jon on the podcast in Design Yourself episode 46 on the Designer’s Mindset
  • Interested in learning more about forms of poetry like the sestina and villanelle that Sharon referenced? The Making of a Poem is an awesome resource.
  • In Search of Captain Zero: A Surfer’s Road Trip Beyond the End of the Road
  • Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft
  • You too can marvel at the picture of my dear friend Aimee Rowe biking down the Mississippi River
    • If you did Aimee, you can learn more about an adventure she and I took in Spain on the podcast here and here.
• Grounded: A Down to Earth Journey Around the World
• I love this shot of Nate out in the woods

• Harrisonburg, VA
• Writer Lydia Davis
• Nate’s mentor in the hair industry, Orlando Pita

You can find Nate cutting hair at Calvary Salon (Washington, DC)

insta (professional): natetheshearer

insta (passion project): thejunkmilechronicles