Create out loud

with Jennifer Louden

Episodes

58 | Fulfilling a Calling with Lauren Fleshman

Join the conversation with one of the most decorated American distance runner Lauren Fleshman as we discuss the mission that drove her to write her NYT’s bestselling memoir Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man’s World. We talk about how to write when you have a big story to tell, how to write when depressed, and why it’s okay to move on from something that has been your calling. Enjoy!

57 | It’s Not Too Late

Jen recently shared in a solo episode that she’s been working her way through burnout and in this episode, she shares her new project and how she approached it in a new way to refind her spark. Is it possible to change our patterns and create out loud without burnout? Let’s find out.

56 | The Audacity to Nuture Your Spark

In this bonus episode of Create out Loud, I interview a force of nature, Shannon Watts. In case you don’t know Shannon, she founded Moms Demand Action, now the largest women’s volunteer organization in America. She’s been called a “summoner of women’s audacity,” named a Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People, a Forbes 50 over 50 Changemaker, and a Glamour Woman of the Year. She writes a popular substack https://shannonwatts.substack.com/about

55 | Recovering from Creative Burnout

In this bonus episode of Create out Loud, I explore burnout, the power of quitting, and how your desires are allowed to change – in fact, they must be allowed to morph and grow with you or you will fall into Why Bother.

Many of us were raised to believe if you start a project, you have to finish it or you are a failure. But that isn’t true! But how to know when to quit, when to change your focus?

I’ll explore that and more in this short but juicy episode with lots of personal updates including what’s happening with my creative life.

54 | 7 Best Tips for Creating Out Loud

In this last episode of season 2 of Create Out Loud, I share with you some tips for creating out loud, making your thing, finding your desire to create, putting pen to paper (and brush to canvas)… 

This was one of my favorite solo episodes to record, because I got to share with you the tips for creating out loud that I usually only share during one-on-one coaching or on retreats.

53 | Create + Climate + You = Hope & Action

In this episode of Create Out Loud, I talk about one of the topics that moved me to write my book, Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next – climate change. Climate crisis. Climate emergency. 

Instead of stopping the conversation with “we’re doomed”, I’m challenging you in this episode to think about what you can do, as someone who creates.

How can you use your creativity, and your desire to amplify the message, provide support to climate scientists, and spread the message of hope. Because without hope, we give up, and if we give up on trying to solve this problem then we are 100% doomed. 

Do I know if hoping and creating will cause global change?

52 | Embracing The Fallow That Follows A Creative Project w/ Andrea Scher

This episode is all about how seeking wonder can help you bother again and embracing the natural fallow period after you finish a big project.

I’m joined by Andrea Scher, author of Wonder Seeker: 52 Ways to Wake up Your Creativity and Find Your Joy, to talk about how to fill up your creative well when its run dry.. 

We talk about the power of mixing up your routines to try something new – going for a walk and finding a new plant, taking pictures, going to a new restaurant – as a way of sparking creativity and finding desire.

51 | Give Not Earning the Middle Finger with Ash Ambirge

I’m joined by the author of The Middle Finger Project and Meat and Hair, Ash Ambirge, to give a big ol’ middle finger to the idea that you can’t make money by being creative. 

We talk about how important it is to devote time to your happiness, how to manage multiple streams of creative income, and just how important it is to believe that you can make money by being creative. 

Ash Ambrige runs three businesses that she built herself, and is currently curating a fourth. How did she do it? Ash has ALWAYS had an entrepreneurial spirit, and in today’s episode, Jen and Ash discuss how being creative shares a lot in common with running a business.

50 | Solo Ecosystem Marketing

Do you spend thousands on marketing, or hours researching trendy new marketing strategies… and it doesn’t move the needle forward? 

Then this episode of Create Out Loud is for you. 

In this episode, Jen Louden talks about the importance of ecosystem marketing. 

It’s all about finding out where your people are, and communicating with them there. 

49 |  Step Into Your Power Creatively and Financially with Paco De Leon

We get remarkably uncomfortable discussing money, but what if we shifted our relationship with the topic by instead recognizing how money can facilitate freedom, power, and creative potential.

This is Paco’s mission. As a multi-hander creative, author, consultant, and coach, Paco is passionate about empowering people, particularly those who identify as women, to step into their power.

48 | Eve Rodsky On How to Find Your Creative Unicorn Space

Eve Rodsky has spent years researching the hours of unpaid and unrecognized labor that women are conditioned to do, and how it has affected our ability to be creative. Her book, Fairplay, outlines a new system for managing the household that divides labor fairly, and allows plenty of room for creativity and play. 

Her new book, Find Your Unicorn Space talks about reclaiming the space for curiosity, connection and completion needed to live creatively. 

Eve and Jen discuss how to engage in curiosity, the importance of connection in establishing a creative routine, and why completion doesn’t have to mean finishing the whole thing. 

47 | Susan Shapiro on Getting Published in Any Genre

Bestselling author Susan Shapiro joins Jen Louden in discussing what it takes to write what you’re passionate about AND get published in different genres. 

Susan Shapiro is the bestselling author/coauthor of 17 books across multiple genres. She has written novels, memoirs, poetry, and more recently – The Book Bible and Byline Bible, two books that guide writers on how to get their work published. 

Susan and Jen discuss how to balance your passion for writing with the practicalities of the publishing world, as well as some hard truths about what it takes to get paid for your writing. 

46 | How To Start When You’re Totally Blocked or Afraid

Starting a new project can be one of the hardest parts of the creative process. 

Some of the greatest writers of our generation have talked about the fear of writer’s block. Nobel prize winners like Toni Morrison believed every writer faces it. Emotions of dread and uncertainty at starting a new project can get in your way, and experiencing a creative block before you even start can often nip a project in the bud before it has the chance to come to fruition. 

Even in the depths of doubt and overwhelm, there are ALWAYS strategies to get back into it, and figure out how to start making progress on what you desire. 

In this solo episode, Jen talks about why starting a project can be scary, and how to implement small strategies to help you get started today.  

​45 | Creativity’s Biggest Gift: Helping us Unlock Our Deepest Desires with Sarah Flick

What are your deepest desires? What is the mystery between you and those desires? Who belongs with you exploring those desires? 

Even though she wrote and published as part of her career as a psychiatrist, Sarah Flick never considered herself a real writer. Even though she had wanted to write since she learnt how to read at three, a busy professional and personal life got in the way.

That is, until she attended a retreat with me! Sarah is my first long time student and client to be on the show and she’s a treasure. Sarah’s written a gorgeous book Desire, Mystery, and Belonging and we discuss its long beautiful evolution and much more.

44 | Practical Ways To Increase Your Creative Productivity with Sam Bennett

In addition to being an actress, improviser, and best-selling author, Sam Bennett is a highly respected creative coach whose business, The Organized Artist, has inspired thousands to channel their creative urges into RESULTS.  

Sam is the author of ‘Get it Done’ From Procrastination to Creative Genius in 15 minutes a day, a wonderful book for creatives on how to be more CREATIVE, CONSISTENT, SUSTAINABLE and SANE. 

The beauty of Sam’s work is that she’s her number one customer – as a wildly creative but easily-unmoored creative herself, Sam created this philosophy to help herself, and by extension, she’s helped so many.

43 | Find The Courage To Be Honest In Your Creativity with Heather Havrilesky

Has your work ever been greeted by a firestorm of furiously polarized tweets, both in fierce support and rampant opposition to what you have to say? In addition to being scathingly funny, bitingly honest, and sharply observant, author, essayist, and humorist Heather Havrilesky’s work has always been provocative. And her latest memoir, Foreverland: On the Divine Tedium of Marriage does not disappoint.

By writing honestly (and hilariously) about motherhood, marriage, and the contemporary female experience, Heather has amassed passionate supporters (Jen among them), in addition to nasty critics. But at the end of the day, shouldn’t that be our chief aim as artists? In this episode, Jen and Heather unpack HOW creatives can truly get to the root of honesty in our work, so we too can inspire our audience.

42 | Jen Louden: Easy Ways To Start, Stick With, and Finish Your Creative Projects

One of the questions I’m asked often is, ‘how do I stick with a project?’ followed closely by, ‘how do I know when a project is done?’ We want to see our creative endeavors through to completion, but it’s not always easy to do or be done.

This is particularly true if a project has hit the skids or we’ve lost our way in the mushy middle or it’s a big damn  project that takes a honking long time. Sit down, buckle up, and grab a journal, because this solo episode is brimming with tips to help you create out loud and know when you have.

41 | How Sue Monk Kidd Ritualizes Her Creative Process (And You Can Too)

Sue Monk Kidd is one of the world’s most beloved writers, occupying a rare intersection of critical and commercial success writers dream of.

Perhaps most recognized for her #1 New York Times Bestsellers, The Secret Life of Bees, which went on to become the basis for a blockbuster movie, and The Invention of Wings, her earlier works, When the Heart Waits, an autobiographical account of a spiritual awakening, and Dance of the Dissident Daughter, a memoir that explores feminist theology, were groundbreaking for millions of seekers too.

40 | Find And Hone Your Creative Voice w/ Lisa Congdon

Have you seen those beautiful, colorful bottles of Method Soap at Target? They’re most likely the work of today’s guest, Lisa Congdon, who is one of the world’s most recognizable graphic designers, a fine artist, and an illustrator who creates for clients such as Amazon, Comme des Garcons, Crate & Barrel, REI, and MoMA.

She’s also the author of ten books, including Art Inc: The Essential Guide to Building Your Career as an Artist, and Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic, the host of The Lisa Congdon Sessions podcast, and she teaches on the faculty of Northwest College of Art.

39 | Yes, You Can Make Your Creativity A Business w/Pamela Slim

Pamela Slim is a dynamic beloved thought leader and has been in the trenches with creative businesses for decades. Her breakout book Escape From Cubicle Nation hit the scene in 2009, and since then she’s launched many creative projects, including founding a beloved brick-and-mortar small business incubator, The Main Street Learning Lab at K’é, and two more books, Body of Work, and her latest The Widest Net.

If you want to connect with customers but the idea of building an empire makes you queasy, you will adore this episode. We cover so many practical ways to build a values-based creative business.

38 | Practical Ways To Get ”Unstuck” In Your Creativity w/Kim Hermanson

Creativity psychologist Kim Hermanson almost died in her 20s. After a brutal near-death, head-on collision, Kim was laid-out in the ICU when a nurse whispered for her to “imagine herself floating on a cloud,” and she immediately felt the pain and trauma of the horrific ordeal leave her body.

This completely shifted Kim’s understanding of the power of our brains and completely shifted her path.

37 | Navigating Rejection In Your Creativity w/ Devi Lockwood

Whether it’s on the page, on the canvas, or on the screen, the essence of creativity has always been storytelling. And if anyone understands the power of Storytelling, it’s Devi Lockwood, who travelled the world on her bike, documenting the stories of everyday people whose lives have been affected by the increasingly problematic issue of climate change.

That journey became a bestselling book: 1001 Voices on Climate Change. Learn how Devi fused her passions for social justice and creativity, “stumbled” upon her project, and learned to embrace the unknown in her quest for fulfillment. 

36 | Transform Your Work Into A Conversation Starter w/ Celeste Headlee

How many Opera singers/wellness experts/radio broadcaster/racial reconciliation thought leaders do you know? You’ll meet one today: the remarkable Celeste Headlee. Celeste is a 3-time bestselling author, including of her most recent book Speaking of Race: Why Everybody Needs to Talk About Racism — And How To Do It, who specializes in studying, articulating, and teaching about the complicated nuance of human conversation.

Whether that’s professionally, creatively, or even culturally, I promise that Celeste will fundamentally shift the way we view human communication. She will blow your mind.

35 | Practical Strategies For Knowing YOU Are Enough

e live in a world where we’re very aware of brilliant people doing brilliant things, which makes it easy to fall into the compare and despair cycle. Facing the intrinsic nature of creating means that we’ll never get an “enough” stamp on our forehead, whether it’s for a day’s work or for a lifetime of work.

So how do you know you’re enough as a creative? I dive into this question in this week’s solo episode.

34 | How To Honor The Classics But Forge A New Path In Our Creativity w/ Maria Tatar

One of the most important evolutions in creative history is the emergence of a female voice. Despite cultural sociologists of old focusing on men, Maria is among a number of important voices who can recognize that we can both acknowledge, even honor those historic works, but invite the female voice to break them apart.

Do you ever feel overly constricted by ancient, patriarchal models of storytelling? Then THIS is the episode for you.

33 | Giving Yourself Permission To Return To Old Projects

The pressure to have to create, to write everyday, to make our creativity a “job” is relentless. But what if we gave ourselves SPACE to pick up a project and put it back down?

What if we didn’t feel shame when because we have to take a break from our work. If you’ve been in the creative pressure cooker lately, THIS episode is for you.

32 | Infusing Our Life Experience (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly) Into Our Work w/ Ruth Ozeki

Though she’s now considered one of America’s most important novelists, Ruth Ozeki didn’t think of herself as a writer until her 30s. Before that, she had stumbled into a career editing schlocky, low-budget Japanese horror movies, struggling to find her way.

But wisely, she knew, even then, that the experience would serve her. Because ALL experiences end up serving us in the end, right?

31 | Marketing Strategies To Reach Your Audience Directly w/ Catherine Babb-Muguira

When we think of “self-help” we typically think of cheery, bohemian women talking about astrology and crystals, but what if we told you that Edgar Allen Poe – you know, the tragic alcoholic literary genius – was one of America’s most valuable self-help voices?

Today, we chat Catherine Babb-Muguira about her process of falling in love with Mr. Poe, and he pulled her out of her own dark hole. Drawing deeply on his works and life, she takes the familiar image of Poe in a new and surprising direction in this darkly inspiring self-help book.

30 | Giving Yourself Permission To “Do You” In Your Creativity

So often, we get caught up in the idea of who we should be as a creative. I should be a best selling author…I should be an award winning filmmaker…I should be giving my Nobel-prize winning speech.

But what about who we already ARE? Even the greats wrestle questions of creativity identity and imposter syndrome, but remember, at the end of the day, YOU are your own greatest create superhero. Learn how to embrace yourself fully as you dive into the creative pool.

29 | Navigating Creative Partnerships with Crystal Egli and Parker McMullen Bushman

Crystal and Parker are some of the most exciting voices in the world of female-founded tech startups, and their brilliance lies beyond their product. The two of them have sharply navigated the very white and very male world of tech by following their north star – business that focuses on diversity, ethics, and inclusivity.

Like their own business philosophy, their company Inclusive Journeys is focusing on inclusivity by developing a digital green book to rate business on their ability to accommodate people of all races, genders, orientations, and abilities.

28 | Fulfilling Our Personal Responsibility To Create w/ Beth Pickens

Beth Pickens is one of the most practical and grounded creative coaches working today. Though she herself doesn’t identify as particularly creative, Beth CHAMPIONS creative instincts and argues that when creative people don’t fulfill their inner-need to create, their health, well-being, and general productivity will suffer.

Need a boost? THIS is the episode for you.

27 | How To Avoid Toxic Comparison In Our Creative Life w/ Keri Smith

Though her work centers on wild, uninhibited creative acts, Keri Smith is a self-proclaimed introvert. The hugely popular bestselling author Wreck This Journal is the first to admit that our creative needs to be a sacred choice, an intentional process that we commit to, despite the voices around us (and in our head), telling us not to. 

Keri and Jen get vulnerable as they discuss the gap between their public and private personas, and the very real looming specter of burnout that challenges every creative.

Happy Thanksgiving From Create Out Loud!

If you’re looking to find more gratitude in your creative life, today’s episode is for you!

Visit jenniferlouden.com/podcastkit to get instant access to a collection of audios that will:

  • help you with some of the most common struggles we creatives have to manage including fear of choosing,
  • falling into compare and despair, managing the inner critic (s),
  • and feeling too exposed and vulnerable when you put yourself or your work into the world.

26 | How To Market Yourself As A Creative w/ Toya Gavin

For better or worse, so much of the creative life relies on marketing, which can feel icky. But for Toya Gavin, who has brilliantly built her life coaching business through her own ingenious marketing strategies, it doesn’t have to feel icky.

Instead, it can feel social, constructive, and even beneficial for those who deserve to hear about your endeavors. Though Jen and Toya might both struggle with that instinct to want to be the invisible creative, today’s creator economy just doesn’t support that, and instead, we should CREATE OUT LOUD!

25 | Laura Davis on How To Make Personal Experiences Universal For Your Audience

Laura’s new book and first memoir, The Burning Light of Two Stars, tells the story of her tumultuous relationship with her mother from the time of her birth until her mother’s death from a dramatic, intimate, and personal point of view. You can read the first five chapters here.

In the course of her long career as a creative entrepreneur, Laura has been a columnist, a talk show host, a radio news reporter, and she is a transformational writing teacher who hosts retreats around the world.

Chock-full of insights about tackling tough topics in your writing, being the writer in the family, changing directions when you’re already known for one thing, completing a creative project that will not let you put it down, taking control of your publishing and marketing, and much more, you won’t want to miss this.

24 | Why Bother To Create At All?

“Why Bother” was the central question of Jen’s last book, and so of course, it had to show up on the podcast!

But today we go deep: why bother to create, at all? If you’ve faced creative failure, despair, or you feel like you’re facing insurmountable cynicism, it may feel exhausting and impossible to create. Or even worse, it may feel pointless. And trust me, we get it.

BUT, there are still a million reasons why the beautiful act of creation is often our way out, and we discuss those reasons today.

23 | Optimizing Your Creativity By Creating A Safe Space

It’s hard enough to feel like “our best selves” when we’re creating, but in this solo episode, Jennifer Louden lets listeners in on a secret no one tells you: We won’t create unless we foster a safe space and sacred space around our work! What does that REALLY mean? Tune in to find out.

22 | Aimee Nezhukumatathil On The Essential Need For Wonder In Our Creativity

This episode is a conversation with Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of the New York Times best-selling collection of nature essays, Kirkus Prize finalist, and Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year, World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, & Other Astonishments (2020, Milkweed Editions), and four other poetry collections.

Aimee and I connect over our passion for the natural world and the unavoidable truth that the clock is ticking on that environment. But we also share a belief that creativity, open-heartedness, and WONDER provide a foundation of hope that holds the potential to truly change the way we see our own lives, and more importantly, the whole world.

21 | Oliver Burkeman On Accepting and Embracing Creative Limitations

Oliver Burkeman is an award-winning thought leader and the author of 4 bestselling books about time, happiness, and strategies for living our best lives. His new book, Four Thousand Weeks, is about making the most of our radically finite lives in a world of impossible demands, relentless distraction and political insanity (and ‘productivity techniques’ that mainly just make everyone feel busier).

On today’s show, Jen and Oliver connect over their complicated relationship with the term “self-help,” discuss how we can maximize our creative time, and explore how understanding our own limits can make us feel limitless in our creativity.

20 | Jen’s Biggest “A-Ha” Creativity Breakthroughs From Season 1

As much as YOU feel like you’ve learned a lot from season 1 of Create Out Loud, I promise you, Jen has learned JUST as much.

In this very special episode, Jen’s producer Jeff asks her some of HIS burning questions about Jen’s biggest creative breakthroughs, and we through it back to some amazing moments with Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Rissi Palmer, and Angeline Boulley.

19 | Poet Kate Baer On Using Your Critics To Fuel Your Art

Bestselling poet Kate Baer has a beautifully truthful relationship with motherhood, with social media, with internet trolls, and with being a woman. It’s wrestling with all of this that inspires her poetry, poetry women love (and some men are threatened by) because she tells the truth.

Listen to how Kate uses her life, and her critics, to know her truth and develop her craft. It’s incredibly brave.

18 | Ashley Sumner On Letting Roadblocks Fuel Rather Than Derail Your Creativity

Shedding identities has been at the center of Ashley Sumner’s creative journey and her company Quilt, and a good thing as she had to change her company’s entire mission at the start of the pandemic.

Ashley is the founder of a social media community Quilt dedicate to connection and self-care, creating a unique bridge between Jen’s early work and Ashley’s company Quilt. Jen and Ashley are both passionate about using story and connection to help women face the climate crisis without being crushed by despair.

17 | Poet Maggie Smith: How To Be Honest In Your Creativity

For bestselling poet and author Maggie Smith, sometimes the secret behind making her poetry interesting, unexpected, and surprising comes to “making it weirder.” Maggie’s unapologetic, unabashed approach to her work is the reason her work has been read by everyone from Meryl Streep to Dr. Jill Biden.

Maggie hits on something essential about successful creativity. How do we be truly honest in our work? Sometimes it means admitting that we DON’T want to write every day. Sometimes it means making sure you don’t miss that therapy appointment. Being honest with yourself is the only way you can be certain to be honest in your work.

16 | Novelist Laurie Frankel: Can you Love Putting your Work out As Much As Creating It?

Isn’t it wonderful to hear widely celebrated NYT’s best-selling novelists talk about shitty first drafts? Laurie’s acclaimed new bestseller One Two Three “wrote hard,” for her, and that’s OK! For Laurie, the joy comes in the process, whether it’s easy, hard, smooth, bumpy, or annoying – that complicated cocktail is what makes the creative process beautiful.

And Laurie gets candid about the other side: PUBLISHING. Sometimes “Creating Out Loud,” isn’t our first instinct, but it’s all apart of what we do as artists.

15 | Poet Tamkio Beyer On Creative Play And Freedom

Tamiko Beyer’s acclaimed poetry collection Last Days, was assembled from a collection of poetry written over the course of decade, which speaks to Tamiko’s sense of open-minded freedom and patience when it comes to work.

For Tamiko, the creative process is all about leaving space for play and imagination.  By relieving the pressure and intensity of “generating a product” when it comes to our work, we actually create more space to tell the truth and generate our best, most authentic work.

14 | Maggie Shipstead: The Creative Freedom To Get It Wrong… and Right!

Maggie Shipstead is an NYT-Bestselling author of three novels – Seating Arrangements, Astonish Me, and Great Circle (on many best-of lists for 2021) and her work has won a laundry list of awards. She’s also written essays and travel articles like her piece for Modern Love. And like all of us, Maggie has to begin again, face the blank page, and watch projects die.

Maggie’s newest novel “Great Circle” follows pilot Marian Graves who will take to the sky and circumnavigate the globe at all costs – and isn’t that so much like the creative process?

13 | Susan Piver: Open Your Heart To Your Creative Yearnings

All of us get caught up in the shoulds and I can’t of our creative life, but Susan Piver has learned, through decades of meditation and practice, to disregard these inner voices.

Susan regards all of her creative endeavors as art projects, a chance to get her hands in the clay of creativity and create something beautiful. Susan has learned to open her heart to the creative yearnings and she’s passionate about helping other creatives approach their own work with the same level of curiosity and generosity.

12 | Lisa Cron: Using Story To Elevate Your Creativity And Change The World

Lisa Cron is tired of staying quiet. As a bestselling author and widely celebrated story coach, Lisa has worked as a story consultant for decades with best-selling authors, major Hollywood studios, and taught at NYU and UCLA. And now, she’s raising her story voice to help us all.

Lisa’s philosophies around story are deeply researched truths. She knows that understanding the mechanics of storytelling will help us become the best creatives we can be, but will also help us change the world, by elevating our critical thinking and learning to decode the false stories that culture and the patriarchy try to snare us with.

11 | Annie Murphy Paul: Optimize Your Mind, Body, and Space for Peak Creativity

Annie Murphy Paul is one of the most interesting social scientists working today, and her most recent book, The Extended Mind, will fundamentally shift your relationship with your own creativity.

The book suggests that the things and the space around us have a profound effect on how we think, feel, and develop. There are profound cultural implications and socioeconomic implications that are essential for us to understand.

10 | Kirstin Neff: Why Fierce Self-Compassion Is Essential For Your Creative Life And Our World

How often do we sit down to face the blank page or canvas, only to get crippled by the paralyzing critic: “You can’t do this, you’re not good enough….WHY BOTHER?”

What if, instead, you told yourself, “keep going, you’ve got this, your voice matters.” This is the self-compassionate approach to creativity, and it’s essential to your success. But some days, you need more.

That’s where Kristen Neff’s work on fierce self-compassion comes in. Kristin Neff is the pioneer researcher of self-compassion and she has spent the last years studying how women can combine fierceness with self-compassion, which many of us have been in-cultured to reject.

9 | Grace Harry: Why Joy Is Essential For Creativity

From the outside, Grace Harry looked like she was living a dream life. A top executive at Def Jam records, married to Usher, hobnobbing with some of the world’s most powerful voices in arts and culture, Grace was a powerhouse of creative collaboration and making music happen.

But she wasn’t happy. Deep down, she wasn’t listening to her desires.

Grace reinvented her life, leaving behind much of what made her well-known and paid the bills, and she makes her living as a “Joy Strategist.” It may sound “woo-woo,” but after talking to Grace, you will see how creating intention around what brings us joy is essential.

8 | Elizabeth Hargrave: Turn Your Yearnings Into Creativity

Elizabeth Hargrave is one of the world’s most respected table top game designers, and the birth of her bestselling, award-winning board game “Wingspan” came out of a simple desire: she was tired of playing games that wasn’t about trolls, castles, and zombies. So guess what? She created her own, and it’s about ornithology. Yep, birds.

There is so much to learn about this act of defiance. If we yearn for something, chances are, MANY people do to. Elizabeth has since published three games all related to nature, and she’s built a beautiful community around those with a shared passion.

7 | Christa Couture: Transforming Trauma Into Creative Inspiration

Have you ever been told to “everything happens for a reason” or “things will get better in time” when something truly awful has happened to you?

Singer/songwriter and author of How to Lose Everything Christa Couture can relate. Christa has an advanced degree in loss: the loss of her leg to cancer as a child, the lost of two children in their infancy, the loss of a marriage, and temporarily, her voice to thyroid cancer. How she could possibly be creative after such life-shattering tragedy? That’s what we explore in this grace-filled conversation.

6 | Angeline Boulley: Finding Self-Trust In Your Creativity and Journey

Do you feel like it’s too late for your creative desires? For Angeline Boulley, her first major creative success came in her mid-50s, with her debut novel The Firekeeper’s Daughter. In addition to debuting at #1 on the New York Times, being optioned by the Obama’s for a Netflix TV adaptation, and being chosen for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, the novel is celebrated for its honest and multi-layered portrayal of modern indigenous life.

How did Angeline become such a literary lightning rod, especially at an age where many may given up? She trusted herself. She trusted her artistic voice, the long journey it took, and never let “time anxiety” get the best of her. Instead, she trusted herself to create the art that would be born when it was ready.

If you’re feeling stuck, or like it’s too late, or you are too old, or are anyway wondering “why bother?” this is the conversation for you!

5 | Morgan Harper Nichols On Knowing, Embracing, & Honoring Your Audience

Morgan Harper Nichols is many things – writer, musician, and celebrated print illustrator, but she has a beautiful, twisty road to get there. After struggling as a touring musician and freelancer for many years, Morgan channeled her frustrations into poetry and illustration, creating beautifully ornate online print graphics. Morgan quickly ammased a huge digital following for her heart which was CLEARLY resonating with many people. Even though it wasn’t her “immediate plan” for her creative life, she embraced it, and is now one of Instagram’s most popular illustrated creators.

Morgan’s work resonates deeply with adolescent girls – so why was her immidiate, knee jerk reaction to push away from that audience? Learn more in this episode!

4 | Pixar Story Experts On Saying Yes To Your Creative Calling

What would it take for you to turn down an interview to run JJ Abrams production company? Ask Meg LeFavue, the Oscar-nominated writer of Inside Out, who had to DO this after committing to her creative calling to become a writer. Meg LeFauve and her frequent writing partner and podcast co-host Lorien McKenna BOTH get extremely candid about the challenges and essential importance of committing to your artistic path and declaring it. The power of saying: “I’m a writer” can’t be overstated if you decide to take that leap.

In addition to the importance of declaring, we discuss questions around creative time management, balancing multiple creative projects, when and how to send out drafts of your work, how to take notes, and why failure is an essential part of the creative process. We hope you enjoy!

3 | Anne-Laure Le Cunff: Releasing Creative Anxiety

Anne-Laure Le Cunff is an entrepreneur, and an ex-Googler turned neuroscience student who is leading the conversation around creative anxiety, mental wellness in our modern age, the delicate balance between productivity and creativity, and how we can use technology to make the world better.

In today’s amazing conversation, we talk releasing ourselves from the pressure or time anxiety, how to align our creative desires with our professional goals, and yes, even how to make money as a creative.

2 | Rissi Palmer: Be Your Own Creative Gatekeeper & Save YOURSELF

If anyone understands “creative Rock Bottom,” it’s Award-winning singer-songwriter Rissi Palmer. After a top-charting, well-received debut album, Rissi entered a vicious court battle with her label, leading her to bankruptcy. After the heartbreak of seeing her own music video playing in the record store at the mall across from the retail store where she was working, Rissi knew it was time to take matters into her own hands. Rissi committed to creating out loud on her OWN terms.

Now Rissi is one of country music’s most important voices, not only with her music, but her activism in the community. Her partnership with Apple Music lifts BIPOC voices in the music community through her radio show “Color Me Country.” I hope Rissi will inspire you to choose yourself lie she did me.

1 | Anne Lamott: Prayers, Love and Generosity for Your Creativity

Anne Lamott is one of our most celebrated creative and spiritual leaders, and for good reason. With 9 bestselling fiction and non-fiction books, including Bird By Bird which many celebrated creatives consider the best book about writing ever written, Anne’s one of the wisest teachers about the creative life and definitely one of the funniest.

In this episode, Anne offers you prayer, honesty, and ideas on how to change the channel from the critic to the creator. She shares that creative expression is one of the most generous acts we can offer to both ourselves and the people around us. It’s not just valuable, it’s essential.

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Create what you want. Create it boldly. Create it the only way you can.

Create what you want.

Create it boldly.

Create it the only way you can.

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