Meet The Team: Whitney Stockstill
Our Business Operations Manager, Whitney Stockstill, is a brilliant example of a true Texas woman. She faces life as she faces her work – with great intrepidity, adventure, and a heaping portion of humor. As a self-described hodgepodge, Whitney is the perfect Southern sweetheart when she needs to be, but is Texas tough and can hold her own in any situation.
At work, Whitney reigns as the RFP Queen of Mixed Media Creations. When not working on 100-page requests for proposal, she’s a paper and printing nerd, gathering samples of new or unique examples of what the newest printers can do. Her close work with our wildly imaginative designers allows MMC to provide our clients with truly unique, beautiful, custom pieces that set brands on fire.
After graduating from Texas Christian University (TCU), Whitney spent time with various non-profits, including work with the Fort Worth Zoo membership events team and as a graphic designer for the Dallas Arboretum. Her passion for her work and learning new skills allowed her to expand her knowledge into various roles – in fact, she’s grateful for those first jobs for allowing her to grow and explore what she loved to do.
Whitney came to MMC due to a combination of luck, and being in the right place at the right time. She and her husband had just moved to Lewisville, and wanted to find somewhere to work that matched her personality and was closer to home. One of her contacts in the area knew that MMC was looking to hire someone with the exact set of skills Whitney had. She interviewed, and one week later, accepted a position with the team. She hasn’t looked back since.
In her spare time, Whitney and her husband, Jon, visit restaurants to test out their beer selections and soak up time with their son, Bradley. Whitney also loves working in her garden, experimenting with seed saving, root regeneration and root compounding, and homesteading. In the next couple years, (while still working at MMC) Whitney and her family will be making the move to their land in Aubrey, Gimle Farms. She’s excited for this new adventure, and can’t wait to see what the future holds.
What do you love about Mixed Media Creations?
I love the general culture – especially the people. The company just runs like a well-oiled machine. We don’t take ourselves too seriously.
What are you passionate about in the design industry?
What I really love is more about our team in particular. I love seeing what they create with just a couple of words. They take that, visualize it and put it on paper.
We had MMC design the logo for our farm in Aubrey (Gimle Farms), and they nailed it on round one. It was one of the most well thought out pieces I’ve seen. They used a rune in the design that my husband wears meaning fruitfulness, or the ability to achieve a goal.
The way they express their creative talents. I guess that it’s more of a fascination than a passion.
What is your favorite book?
I have to give props to The Stand. I also love Gone Girl
The Stand actually got you interested in becoming a doomsday prepper, if I remember correctly. What happened?
I read it while I was pregnant and it really just got to me that anything could happen. There are all these real situations, and I just thought about how I would prepare for them.
There are some people who have really specific situations that they prepare for, like a category 5 hurricane in Washington D.C., or the zombie apocalypse. I just want to make sure we could survive, because realistically, anything can happen.
What are some of your favorite movies?
Interstellar and The Martian. The Martian is perfect because I really love space and gardening. Actually, in Interstellar it was blight that ruined the crops, which is something people don’t take into account in those scenarios.
Why are you drawn to those movies in particular?
I’m a big astronomy nerd. I’m super fascinated with astrophysics. My 2nd cousin, Robert Irion, actually wrote a book on astrophysics with Neil de Grasse Tyson and Charles Liu (called One Universe: At Home in the Cosmos). I think nerd-ery runs in my family.
I am really interested in seeing how each director visualizes those worlds. Both Interstellar and The Martian come from different places, but build something amazing.
What else inspires you?
My family. My husband is my rock. He’s my best friend. We’re so connected – he is my soul mate.
My garden inspires me as well. I’ve always wanted a house with a garden. We hired some landscapers to build the base of the raised garden bed. When I went outside, I saw a date printed on the wood – 7/18/13. That was our first son, Wesley’s birthdate. In that moment, I knew that Wesley was with us in spirit.
I’m so lucky that I got to bring our second son, Bradley, with me to work for the first several months and spend all that time with him.
What do you look forward to coming into work every day?
I’m a printing and paper nerd, and I love putting together RFPs – bringing everything together to see how we can help a client is awesome. I like to chase that high.
Everyone at work is super cool and I love seeing the new things that we create. I also look forward to my email because it’s exciting to see what the day is going to hold. Is that super weird?
What do you think will happen in 2020?
Wow. That is really soon.
I hope that the human race gets along better and isn’t so divided. They should say, “To each their own,” and work together rather than against each other.
I hope people go back to their roots a little more, whether it’s cultural, with foods, or just taking care of themselves and their families.
What would you like to leave our readers with?
Trust your crazy ideas and be nice to each other.