Podcasts about creative mojo

Silvia Rossi is a modern-day Psychic-Medium with a loyal and ever-growing clientele and following both in the United States and Internationally. She experienced spirit communications as a toddler, and as a young teen, her gift filled her days with images and information about people she would meet. In her mid-twenties, a medium became her mentor and guide within the spiritual world, and it was then that Silvia began to understand that this life is only one phase in the eternal journey of the soul. Passionate about helping individuals and families understand their eternal connection to loved ones who have passed on, Silvia has maintained a working relationship with several psychologists in the tri-state area who refer her mediumship services to their patients to assist in the grieving process, she has worked alongside the families and support groups of victims of the 9/11 tragedy, and she has also worked with the police helping them solve cold cases and murder cases. Over the past 26 years, Silvia has hosted her own Radio Show, appeared on the Sally Jessy Rafael Show and she has been a guest and co-host on the radio podcast show Creative Mojo. You will love this interview with the authentic, riveting, and open-hearted Silvia Rossi!IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL HEAR ABOUT THINGS LIKE:How close to death Silvia was as an infant, and how she knows for sure that she is a “walk-in” soul.Sylvia's early years seeing Spirit and the things she somehow knew about as a teenager.Silvia's work with the police helping them solve cold cases and murder cases.How Silvia worked alongside the families and support groups of victims of the 9/11 tragedy.Silvia's ”moment of crisis” and what God revealed to her at that time.Silvia's “wake up call” for us and for our planet. SOME QUESTIONS IRENE ASKS SILVIA:How do you know that you are what is called a soul “walk-in?”How does Mediumship combined with therapy improve a person's ability to process and heal? What was your “moment of crisis,” and what did God reveal to you at that time? How do people heal on the Other Side? Are our deceased loved ones learning and healing along with us? Can an animal transition to a human life?

Hey there, lovely listeners! Kendra Beavis here, and oh boy, do I have an incredible episode for you today on Tribe of Unicorns. I'm joined by the amazing Matt Tuthill, and let me tell you, his creatively ambitious career path makes this a can't-miss episode. Not only is he the VP of Content and communications for the culinary legend Robert Irvine, but he's also an incredibly gifted writer, a screenwriter, and so much more. So why should you carve out some time to listen to this episode today? Because we're diving deep into a few critical areas that will unlock your potential in ways you didn't even know were possible. What You'll Learn: The Power of a Career Pivot:If you've ever contemplated making a significant career shift but felt too timid to leap, Matt's transition from sports journalism to writing in the culinary world offers all the inspiration you'll need. Following Your Passion Over Calculation:Overthinking your next big move? Learn from Matt how to ditch analysis paralysis and make choices that align with your deepest passions and joys. The Art of Effective Procrastination:Procrastination is a universal struggle, and Matt reveals his unique techniques for keeping focused and completing projects, no matter how big or small. Importance of Physical Activity in Creative Work:Craving a boost of creativity? Matt dishes on how integrating physical activity into your routine can ignite your most groundbreaking ideas. The Freedom in Letting Go of Perfection:If you're paralyzed by the quest for perfection, this part of our conversation will be your antidote. Learn why releasing your projects—even in their imperfect state—is not only okay but necessary. Venturing into New Creative Territories Without Impostor Syndrome:Matt talks about the courage it took to step into new creative arenas like screenwriting, and why you shouldn't let impostor syndrome hold you back. A Peek Into the Entertainment Industry:Curious about what's happening behind the scenes in entertainment? Matt gives us the lowdown on the current climate and even teases some of his future endeavors. So there you have it! This episode is a masterclass in designing a one-of-a-kind career path and elevating your creative prowess. Trust me, you won't want to miss it. Are you excited? Want to connect with Matt? You can find him over on "X" (fka - Twitter) @mctuthill or visit his website to read the screenplays and episodes he's written. matt-tuthill.com Thanks for listening! Please like, subscribe, download... all the things! --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tribeofunicorns/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tribeofunicorns/support

Photographers, listen up! I've got two questions for ya today... Question number 1: When's the last time you wanted to pursue an amazing & creative idea but never followed through because you felt like you never had enough time? Question number 2: How many hours a day do you spend scrolling social media? It kinda hurts when you think about these two questions side by side, doesn't it? It kinda hurts when we realize how much time we spend each day scrolling and looking at someone else's life, or creations, rather than living and creating our own. Now, I'm not telling you to throw away your phone ... HECK NO. Phones are a big part of our jobs as photographers. We need them to stay connected. What we don't need is for our phones to control us, and suck us in. We owe it to ourselves and to our ideas to create, to live, to step away from screens every once in a while and find that creative spark in ourselves again (even when it feels way easier to loaf on the couch and scroll). It reminds me of this quote from Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Big Magic: “The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to discover those jewels––that's creative living.” On the podcast this week I want to talk about finding your creativity again, finding that spark of magic inside you, that jewel buried deep and bringing it to life. SIGN UP FOR THE PHOTOGRAPHER'S PATH WAITLIST DOORS OPEN AUGUST 2023: https://www.horizonfound.com/path GRAB OUR FREE MANUAL MODE CHEAT SHEET: https://resources.horizonfound.com/ FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/horizonfound JOIN THE HORIZON FOUND COMMUNITY: https://www.facebook.com/groups/477523419716008/ WHAT'S YOUR SECRET PHOTOGRAPHY SUPERPOWER? TAKE THE QUIZ! https://horizonfound.com/quiz  

Do you feel like you lost your "creative mojo?". It's that time of year for a little bit of a reset and see if we need to make some changes. If your life is lacking creativity or you feel a little stuck in this area, Sara is going to help you find your creativity aka "creativie mojo" back with this three part podcast series. This week we talk about how take your long list of creative ideas and distill them down to one powerful idea and how to dive in and take action on making your creative dreams come true! Sponsored by: Sara's exciting 2023 Calendars! Enjoy 12 months of bright and colorful art by ordering one/some of Sara's 2023 Calendars. Calendars are 12" x 12", printed on heavy 100# stock, very colorful and wrapped individually. They are limited edition- so once they are gone they are gone!! Calendars also make great gifts for the upcoming holiday season. To purchase one of Sara's calendars go to her website: https://www.saraglupkerart.com/shop/p/saras-2023-calendar-pre-sale International shipping is available and for an additional charge, please reach out to Sara via her website to receive a quote. She is happy to ship her paintings anywhere.   Show Links/Mentions: Gorby Sunflowers on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gorbysunflowers/?hl=en  The Art Queens: https://www.theartqueens.com  Book: The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron Follow I Like Art Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilikeart.podcast  Find Sara here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saraglupker Website: https://www.saraglupkerart.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaraStrongGlupkerArtist

Do you feel like you lost your "creative mojo?". It's that time of year for a little bit of a reset and see if we need to make some changes. If your life is lacking creativity or you feel a little stuck in this area, Sara is going to help you find your creativity aka "creativie mojo" back with this three part podcast series. This week we talk about how to capture your beautiful ideas. Tune in next week for the final part of this series- Part 3!- Sponsored by: Sara's exciting 2023 Calendar Pre-Sale! Jump in and order one of Sara's calendars before Wednesday 9/28 to receive discounts on the calendars, shipping in the Us, receive a free notecard and be eligable to win one of three items! To pre-order / purchase one of Sara's calendars go to her website: https://www.saraglupkerart.com/shop/p/saras-2023-calendar-pre-sale International shipping is available and for an additional charge, please reach out to Sara via her website to receive a quote. She is happy to ship her paintings anywhere.   Show Links/Mentions: Celine Gabrielle: https://www.celinegabrielleart.com/  Gorby Sunflowers on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gorbysunflowers/?hl=en  The Art Queens: https://www.theartqueens.com  Follow I Like Art Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilikeart.podcast  Find Sara here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saraglupker Website: https://www.saraglupkerart.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaraStrongGlupkerArtist

Do you feel like you lost your "creative mojo?". It's that time of year for a little bit of a reset and see if we need to make some changes. If your life is lacking creativity or you feel a little stuck in this area, Sara is going to help you find your creativity aka "creativie mojo" back with this three part podcast series. This week we talk about rest and recharge. Sponsored by: Sara's original paintings. See and shop her latest paintings here on her website: https://www.saraglupkerart.com/shop. International shipping is available and for an additional charge, please reach out to Sara via her website to receive a quote. She is happy to ship her paintings anywhere. Free shipping within the United States with coupon code: ILOVEART  Show Links/Mentions: Spotify App- 90s Hits- Best of the 90s Book: The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks The Art Queens: https://www.theartqueens.com   I Like Art's New Instagram Page: https://www.instagram.com/ilikeart.podcast  Find Sara here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saraglupker Website: https://www.saraglupkerart.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SaraStrongGlupkerArtist

Tell me if you have experienced this. You sit down and stare at a blank screen…and you can't think of anything to design! It is so frustrating! Here are three ideas for getting your creative juices flowing.  __________ Download Carina's free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY  __________ About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.   Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.   Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com Check out her most popular program Design Bootcamp here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp  Watch this episode as a video at https://www.makeanddesign.com/

In this week's episode, I'm covering what to do if you lose your creative mojo? How do you spark creativity when life feels like too much? For me, creativity is as essential as breathing for any successful business owner or entrepreneur. But when, and how do you get inspired? Often it can happen when you least expect it, while you're trying to fall asleep, reading a book or taking a shower but forcing it never works.    Episode Highlights: (01:14) Creative blocks can arise for many different reasons (01:49) Walk it out (03:00) Walking in the great outdoors is the perfect combination to empty the mind, get inspired and come up with new creative ideas (03:50) Taking a walk can take the stress of the creative block away (05:07) Could a nature prescription really help your mental health? (05:26) Nature connection and creativity tips   Our next online course starts on September 23 - https://creatrixjourney.com/online-course-in-creative-writing/ To download our free creative writing guide: https://creatrixjourney.com/free-writing-guide/ To find out more about the Creatrix Journey UK walking and creative writing retreats in July and October go to https://creatrixjourney.com/walk-and-write-retreat/   Connect with Claire:  Email: claire@clairewinter.info    To find out about 1:1 content coaching go to:  www.clairewinter.info Free Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crackingcontent/ Website: https://clairewinter.info/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clairewinteruk   

What if your creative juices run low? Don't you just hate it when this happens? It's even worse than starting on a blank page.  As creatives, we tend to run into this dilemma more than once in our lifetime.  It is like your mind just ran out or you might feel that you are simply running on fumes.  In this episode, we'll talk about running low on creative juices and how George RR Martin humanizes success and the creative process. If you want to chat more about this topic, I would love to continue this conversation with you, over on the https://podcast-creators-society.circle.so/ (Podcast Creators Society Community) Support the show to continue to bring you quality content. https://www.buymeacoffee.com/PCSociety (Go Here.) Resources and links mentioned in this episode: Connect with Joy Karen on https://www.instagram.com/we_sparklewithin/ (Instagram) and https://www.facebook.com/joyKAntonio (Facebook ) Get your free https://kangaroofern.com/freebook (Harness the Power of Podcasting Ebook ) Join the https://www.podcastcreatorssociety.com/ (Podcast Creators Society Community ) to connect with other Podcasters and service providers and Get 30 % off for the first three months of Zencastr Professional Account. Promo code: podcastcreatorssoceity Are there hurdles stopping you from growing your podcast? Want to grow your audience through podcast guesting and booking guests but are too busy for this? We got you! We offer a concierge-level podcast guest management service. We've done all the heavy lifting so you don't have to. We are here to listen. https://my.captivate.fm/www.kangaroofern.com/booknow (Book a call with us ) The Companies who support us Please support the companies who support us: https://mikosantos.co/tools Support the Show❤️ If you find my content helpful, become a channel member - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/PCSociety (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/PCSociety) This podcast is powered by https://kangaroofern.com/ (Kangaroofern), Australia's Independent Podcast Management Company. Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe so you'll be notified when a new episode is posted on the Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, or via RSS. If you think others could benefit from listening, please share it on your social. If you found value in this episode, leave us an Apple Podcast review. Ratings and reviews from our listeners are precious to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts and expose our show to more awesome listeners like you.  If you have a minute, please leave an honest review of Apple Podcasts. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a note in the comment section below! *DISCLAIMER* This description includes affiliate links If you decide to make a purchase using them, we may receive a small kickback which helps to support the channel which allows us to make more videos like this. Thanks in advance!

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In this conversation Marcy is opened and honest about her personal  journey from the past to present. As an American woman living in U.K. comes with loads of emotions. Homesickness, lack of connections and the simplicity of familiarity.Marcy opens  up about her experience while being apart a religious organization for most her youth but after she started to question her own faith as a Jehovah Witness she made the decision to leave after feeling the sense of disconnection and conditional love. Throughout it all Marcy shares ways that she stays centered and positive , she embraces the  life she chose for herself, and inspirationally honors her ancestors and  finds her creative mojo in the most unexpected time. Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/IATCpodcast)

NEW MEETING TIME: We meet every other Thursday 5pm (PT). DM us @artrattheatre for the zoom link to join our town hall. What to know before inquiring: This town hall is for the advancement and well-being of indie radical racialized/marginalized artists and creatives. Can't make it? Leave us a voice message to answer at anchor.fm/artratgroupchat =) - - - Latest Art Rat Theatre News: + 2021 Artist Residencies CALLING FOR THEATRE ARTISTS: artrattheatre.net/season/fossil + Beta Testing is officially open for Studi0 (pronounced "Studio Zero) - a new private + free BIPOC-centered community for young adult actors. Become a beta member: artrattheatre.net/joinstudi0 - - - Art Rat Theatre: @artrattheatre / @artrattheatreschool Joré: @jo.herself Rose: @rosek1m New episodes every Sunday ♥ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/artratgroupchat/message

Meet Bentley Robles. Born in Los Angeles, CA to two Mexican parents, Bentley grew up in South Gate, CA and then moved to Rancho Cucamonga where he out grew it rather quickly. From California, he uprooted himself to New York to escape the cabin fever / cookie cutter life he had lived. Making that switch, he went to pursue something bigger than himself and find himself. Having moved to New York, he knew what he wanted to do, however the pressures of the big city (paying bills, living the day to day) got him sidetracked from his original plan. It wasn’t until recently that he started dedicating himself to his craft, found himself and is now THE Bentley Robles. Follow Bentley Robles on Instagram. © Uncensored Visionary

Hey Mamas! Today we are learning today how you can tap into your Creative MOJO…that's right! How you can craft content that is going to convert in your online business, but how to do it more simply and seamlessly you have to spend less time doing multiple pieces of content and instead create one piece of great content. that you then re-purpose on all the platforms instead of showing up in all the places…while. feeling scattered and overwhelmed. Doesn't it sound so much better and more simple to just repurpose?! So in today's episode you are going to learn my simple strategy for  repurposing your content and creating STELLAR content and how to stay on brand and ultimately creating more leads for your business! Okay! So are you excited because I know I am excited to share so lets dig in!   Today I share with you craft content that converts without losing your creative mojo. I also give you ideas for posting and remind you to constantly speak to your avatar when crafting content. And of course I teach you all my hacks for re purposing your content to save you time so you can work smarter not harder.   One of my fave tools is trello-check it out at www.trello.com this isn't an affiliate link I just love this free tool!   Also, this is such a fun topic and I truly enjoy training on creating content and getting your creative mojo flowing; which, means that I have multiple trainings in my group on content creation as well as how I use Trello for content creation as well….so after you listen and are loving this episode jump in my group MORE to Motherhood full mompreneurs just like yourself to get more juicy trainings and tips on creating stellar content! See you in the group! Click here to join!   Connect with me: Learn- MORE to Motherhood Method Connect - Moretomotherhood@gmail.com Community - MORE to Motherhood Community Work with Krystan - Moretomotherhood@gmail.com Instagram - @moretomotherhood

Podcast 023 | Creative Mojo with Tracy Verdugo2:43 “I had the experience of having a younger brother who was what I thought at the time anaturally gifted artist. It wasn't until years later that I realized he spent every minute of his sparetime drawing.” 3:24 “When my husband and I were traveling in Mexico, I suddenly realized there werecultures in the world where art was an integral part of their everyday life; it wasn't this separatething that was put on a pedestal.” 6:32 “I think it does each one of us a beautiful service to get into situations where we aregoing to be uncomfortable, we are going to be stretched.” 8:29 “[In Australia] I'm one block from the beach, so we get to walk across the street and justgo and walk on the beach…it's a very soul restoring place.” 11:07 “Especially these little towns along the coast tend to attract perhaps people who arewanting to get out of the city, people who are thinking maybe a little bit out of the box, they arecreative at their core…” 12:08 “This is something I still struggle with, finding the balance, especially between the socialmedia/online side of the business and then the time to myself to paint…” 14:05 “I do know for me there's four important things: enough sleep, enough water, exercise,and being in nature.” 16:35 “I was actually at an art retreat, Marco [my husband] called me and said ‘Honey, theywant you to have an ultrasound, but don't worry about it…'” 19:22 “Unbeknownst to me as we were painting, they were all painting little hearts, under theirdesks, and they strung them all together and they wrapped me in those hearts at the end of theweek.” 22:34 “Stress can come in a lot of different ways. I didn't even realize that my default statewas this elevated state of excitement…” 28:54 “‘Just go,' she said, ‘there's a black curtain, just walk backstage, what's the worst thatcan happen?” 29:44 “She said to me, you know ‘One day we should do a thing together.' And you knowwhen you just get the little spark, and that little seed is planted.” 32:55 “It's like you are these grown ups, now, that have found yourselves doing the thing thatall those other years were preparing you for.” 33:39 “As I'm creating the lessons I've got this buzz within myself, where I'm just like ‘This is areally good class.'” 36:50 “I was trying to figure out how to take the landscapes that are in my head, place thatwe've actually been, and to put them onto canvas and paper in a way that is not literal but notcompletely abstract.” 38:22 “I just feel like I've been on this journey trying to figure out how to take my experience and put it on the canvas in a way that feels right.”If Tracy Verdugo was given the opportunity to coin a term for a new art movement based around what she teaches she might call it “Curiosity and Wonderism” or maybe “Loosen-upism” or “Endless possibilitism”.When she is not hanging out with her family in their eclectic adobe home in a small village on the shores of Jervis Bay, Australia, or throwing paint around in her little purple studio in their backyard, you may find her painting beside thermal pools on an Italian island with an eager group of students, Aperol Spritz in one hand, paintbrush in the other, or sitting in a circle on St Pete Beach, Florida, listening intently as women share their stories of creative yearning.Tracy is an inspiration instigator, prolific painter, bestselling author and lover of the written word, smitten traveller and soaker up of all that is beauty-full. She teaches her Paint Mojo and other creative workshops all over this amazing planet and reminds her students of the wonder that already resides within them.Her works are vibrant and filled with joy, inspired both by global travels and the simple beauty of the focused moment. Since 2000 Tracy has held 18 successful solo exhibitions and her works are held in collections both in Australia and internationally.Mostly though, she is mama bear to two gorgeous, zest-filled daughters, Santana and Cece, and co-adventurer in life with her amor of 34 years, the talented and brilliant Marco.tracyverdugo.comhttps://facebook.com/TracyVerdugoArt/Instagram.com/tracyverdugo  Current $27 Jump Into Abstract Painting offerhttps://tracyverdugo.com/jump-into-abstract-painting/ Jeanne OliverTen Tips To Take Back The PeaceA free ebook if you are looking for some rest in your day-to-day like I was.Get your free resource Ten Tips HERE. Become the artist you dream to be. Creativity is Calling at jeanneoliver.com. You can connect with Jeanne on Instagram and Facebook.

Unlocking Your Creative Mojo with Carlie Wacker How do you keep your Mojo and rediscover your creativity when what you thought you were building has been completely turned upside down. This could be the exact creative gift you really need to get back to basics. On today's episode because I have one of my great… The post TMM118 Unlocking Your Creative Mojo with Carlie Wacker appeared first on Nikki Fogden-Moore The Mojo Maker.

Unlocking Your Creative Mojo with Carlie Wacker How do you keep your Mojo and rediscover your creativity when what you thought you were building has been completely turned upside down. This could be the exact creative gift you really need to get back to basics. On today's episode because I have one of my great… Read the full blog post TMM118 Unlocking Your Creative Mojo with Carlie Wacker

What can we do to rev our creative engines?  Listen for quick and easy tips to get more out of your crafty time.  Working in flow, you'll have more fun and generate projects you can be proud of.

Marielle Hare is a coach, workshop designer & facilitator and an artist. Marielle and I discuss her 30 Days Ecstatic Feast offerings, Creative Mojo (with a focus on PLAY) and her art series at The Flowjo, NASA creativity study by Dr. George Land and Beth Jarman, Emile Durkheim's Collective Effervescence and Quote by David Whtye Her websites & contact www.EcstaticFeast.com www.MarielleHare.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rachel6014/message

How good is it when your creativity flows? But why does it happen some days but not others? Recently, I had the most amazing soul-satisfying burst of painting. Four days of creative bliss. Talk about a confidence boost! It was so good that I didn’t want it to pass by without taking a deeper look at what on earth happened! Was it the new playlist I created? Or maybe it was because I was working a bit differently to how I usually do? Join me as I break it down and share my experiences and tips for tapping into your Creative Mojo! Find the show notes for this episode and this week's vlog at https://www.laurahornart.com/thepodcast/72. In the vlog, you can see what paintings I have been working on plus my original watercolours are back from the framers in their lovely hinge mounted mats. NOTE!!! This is the last podcast episode of 2019. Have a lovely Christmas and happy New Year! Richie and I will be back on the 15 January 2020 with more inspiration to get your creative year off to a flying start! Make sure you are signed up to the Laura Horn Art email newsletter for all the details.

Professional Photographer & Filmmaker Eric Eyo-Ita discusses how & what to do if you have lost your creative spark. We also hear his take on photography & Instagram topics if he were a hairdresser.  Find us on Instagram: www.instagram.com/salonrepublic/ www.instagram.com/loveerictaylor/ Subscribe to our Youtube channel! or THG vlog site! www.youtube.com/c/thehairgame www.salonrepublic.com/thehairgame/

We’re talking about our quilty MOJO—that desire and impulse to create. Where do we find it and how do we use it? Plus a special guest and a discussion around terminology used in the industry. https://www.quiltingcompany.com/ep-4-your-creative-mojo-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

All of us have been in dry spells creatively; here are four tips you can use to help you get out of a rut and feeling inspired again!

Have you lost your creativity? Try these roadmaps to help get you out of the funk! Join our Facebook group: bit.ly/zms1ffb Audio only, links below or search “Zack Miller Says” wherever you listen to podcasts iTunes: apple.co/2JkIoL7 Google Play: bit.ly/zmsgp Soundcloud: bit.ly/ZMSSC1 Stitcher: bit.ly/zmsstitch

Ep. 088 Don't let others step on your success!  Ignore the haters and keep your creative mojo churning! What do you do when one rotten person or one small encounter will try and break you and your work?  Listen up for this episode on the best way to fight back! Listener Lujan from Reno NV., writes in to ask how to not get discouraged from the haters who want to knock our walls down and how to fend off the trolls who prey on new artists.  Listen up for a good dose of tenacity and how to best deal with the situation.   NEW Motivational Freebie Download  Click here to get yours!   * I edited this episode on my own today, so please bear with me and enjoy :-)   HEY, IF YOU WANT TO GET MY FREE EXHIBITOR TOOLKIT GET IT NOW BEFORE IT GOES AWAY! Click here to get the toolkit! Check these episodes out on the website at http://rockstarmentor.com/podcasts/ Or whatever podcast player you prefer (ie., iTunes. Stitcher Radio, Google Play, TuneIn etc). For the full summary of the Rockstar Mentor show notes visit me at http://rockstarmentor.com/blog and http://rockstarmentor.com/podcasts Please visit our website to sign up to be on the front lines of amazing information and free downloads that I have prepared especially for you. http://rockstarmentor.com Visit me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/crushitmentor Visit me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/rockstarmentor NEW: Do you need an ecommerce solution that will help you get online bigger, better, faster, stronger?  Sign up for a free trial with Shopify, I can help you too!  Try Shopify for free!   NEW: Rockstar Mentor Channel Now on YouTube! Rockstar Mentor To support the show via Patreon, we would greatly appreciate it!  https://www.patreon.com/rockstarmentor Need art supplies? Shop on Amazon! (Affiliate link) To learn more about me, my art and colorful product line, visit Sonya Paz through my artist website, http://SonyaPaz.com Thanks to "The Brush Guys" they can be located at http://thebrushguys.com they offer the best in all things brushes for all mediums and amazing specials on art supplies. Save 5% on your online order, use promocode: ROCKSTAR    Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/rockstarmentor)

As the fourth guest in my Slow Making series, today's guest is Mark Lipinski of Pickle Road Studios. After a career in television production, including shows like Oprah, the View, Crossing Over and Sally Jesse Raphael, Mark decided to follow his creative passion and enter the quilting world. Never content to stay on the sidelines, Mark founded and edited Quilters Home magazine, was the co-host of Quilting Out Loud (a television show about quilting), hosted an internet radio station called Creative Mojo, formed the Slow Stitching Movement, while designing fabric and patterns. Through his laid back style and vast experience, Mark has entertained and inspired countless quilters. He is also a devoted father and supported by his life partner. After discovering Mark had a genetic kidney disease, he has changed his creative practice to support his refined sense of self and place. During our discussion, we talk about how the industry has changed since he became involved, how he balances his life as a "sewlebrity", why he started the slow stitching movement and more. I hope you enjoy this thoughtful interview.    Special thanks to Plum Deluxe, a Portland, Oregon based tea company who hand blends small batches of loose leaf tea, for sponsoring this episode. For more information about this episode (including show notes), please check out my website craftyplanner.com.

Hey there word nerds! Today I am delighted to have executive director of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) and cofounder of 100 Word Story, Grant Faulkner, on the show! His stories have appeared in dozens of literary magazines, like Tin House and The Southwest Review, plus his essays on creativity have been published in places like the New York Times and Writer’s Digest. Grant’s latest collection of essays, Pep Talks for Writers: 52 Insights and Actions to Boost Your Creative Mojo, is now available and none too soon with NaNoWriMo just around the corner. Listen in as we discuss Grant’s book and get some tips on how to push through your blocks to reach your writing goals using the NaNoWriMo philosophy. In this episode Grant and I discuss: NaNoWriMo: what it is, why you should take part, and how to rise to the challenge. Why you should adopt a “beginner” mindset no matter the stage of your writing career. Failing better, and how to bounce back when you stumble and fall. Why you need to avoid perfection to discover your creative process. What three of the biggest creative blocks are, and how to smash through them. Plus, Grant’s #1 tip for writers. For more info and show notes: DIYMFA.com/169

Finding Creative Mojo with Leslie Noland of Nolan Design I was wondering how my interview, finding creative mojo with Leslie Noland of Noland design was going to pan out. Let's say if someone tells me they can help me get my MOJO back working, I'm suspicious. Usually, the mention/thought of therapy or other methods to will get you back into the groove of being yourself comes to mind. Leslie has a different approach, being an artist of high emotional and spiritual intelligence, bringing alternate methods to the forefront to help people. What I did not expect was such a down to earth conversation about finding one's own center by tapping the creative power we all have available.  My sense of the world gives me the feeling we are emotional cerebral society. Humans justify emotional responses with cerebral logic. Basically, we live too much in our heads and forget the true message delivered by the heart. The cerebral mechanism seems to have has taken over our globe connection process, and the world needs people like Leslie to remind our consciousness there are alternate methods for connecting with the eternal self. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="404"] Creative Mojo[/caption] Leslie Nolan is an entrepreneur, visionary artist, motivational speaker and founder of Leslie Nolan Design. She works with creative entrepreneurs who have lost their mojo and inspirational vision. Helping entrepreneurs reclaim their power so they fronted the courage to create their Great Work. [caption id="attachment_1676" align="alignleft" width="206"] Leslie Noland Noland Design Finding creative Mojo[/caption] Leslie Noland's years of experience and success radiates when, she speaks on vision, mojo. She relates creativity and consciousness are made manifest through the inquiry of Intentional Creativity. She inspires pathways to problem-solving, creative break-through and fosters healing and clarity as inspired in the lecture, lab, studio, or workshop. Through the magic of painting, she helps clients uncover their true genius. Leslie's History A graduate of Pratt Institute. Leslie is seasoned graphic designer and marketer of Nolan Design, which is an award winning graphics studio for over thirty years. Her natural visionary talent and the ability to conceptualize has been a source in growing her own business, along with those of her clients. It sparks her intention to help other entrepreneurs navigate their personal power and inspirational vision. Mentorship She mentors and shares her knowledge, giving workshops, visiting schools and colleges. Teaching privately and assisting online educational programs to a worldwide audience is a passion of Leslie's. Her Intentional Creativity teaching has inspired adults and children.  The enrichment classes span the scope in healing centers. She works with the Spring Lake School system, International Consciousness Research Laboratory, Big Brother’s Big Sister’s of Monmouth / Middlesex County, as well as private mentorships. The Works Leslie is a Contemporary Symbolist, whose visionary paintings have been showcased at The United Nations World Conference for Women Against Violence. The Museum of Contemporary Art in New York City brought her group to participate in a collaborative art project for The Draftsmen's Congress with Pawel Althamer. Her work has been showcased at The Reiki Way Healing Center, Her Church in San Francisco, and Wetherholt Gallery in Washington D.C. and galleries throughout New Jersey. Leslie holds space for others to create. She dreams of building a retreat and workshop studio in her backyard-- The Sol Barn. Her intent is to harness solar-power energy and channel inspirational energy. She taps within courageous hearts to empowered creative entrepreneurs towards their great work. Leslie lives with her husband and their adopted son and works from her home studio at the Jersey Shore.   Leslie Nolan Design website https://mojo.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php Email: leslie@leslienolandesign.com

In this Sanity Session, Christina and I will update you on our business adventures.  We'll be discussing the creative process, where and when the process happens best, and we'll dive in and discuss what to do when that creative juice just stops flowing.  If you're struggling to keep ideas flowing in your business, listen to this episode to learn how to reinvigorate your business with new ideas and avoid the burnout and frustration that come with stagnation.    Show notes: http://www.dvpodcasts.com/inspired/23      

This episode Adele & Aaron chat about getting your creative mojo back. Many a helpful hint, plus a few tangents as always, on how to rediscover your creative mojo. Our suggestions in this episode for getting you creative juices flowing again are: make for enjoyment – it doesn’t matter if it doesn’t end up as … Continue reading "Episode 02 – Rediscovering Your Creative Mojo"

This Episode’s Focus on Strengths In this episode, Lisa has a fun conversation with Melissa Dinwiddie. Melissa is a multi-talented, creative person who lights up your day with her voice and enthusiasm! She helps her clients to use their strengths to get their mojo back when they feel like their innovation gene has left the building. You’ll find lots of ideas to spark your creative mojo in this episode. Plus, you’ll hear about her “Passion Pluralite” life, as she calls it, so listen in. You’ll walk away with a newly formed opinion of what’s possible for a multi-passionate person. It’s inspiring to see someone who wouldn’t settle for “one thing” or one activity driving her entire career path. As she’s working with her clients, Melissa always keeps in mind her Top 5 Talent Themes from the Clifton StrengthsFinder: Connectedness, Achiever, Input, Futuristic, and Positivity. You’ll hear why this combination of Talents makes Melissa one of the most knowledgeable, multi-talented, creative people you will ever meet.   What You’ll Learn Find your unique you. Melissa Dinwiddie is a multi-talented woman who has many different interests. She knows a lot about a lot of things. She always took for granted that she had so many interests, until she had a conversation with a client that led to a life-altering Ah Ha moment. In that moment, she realized that she had a unique gift, and that her Connectedness and Positivity Strengths made her a natural at consulting and collaborating with others. This led to her career working with clients to improve their creativity – which leads to innovation, increased profitability, and achievement. Use your Strengths. Connectedness and Positivity also enable her to look for meaning and connection all around her. She is always using that information to figure out how she can help her clients. Always say “Yes, and…” Improv class, which is one of Melissa’s newer hobbies, taught her to always say “Yes, and…” instead of “Yes, but…” because when you say it, you keep thing going and growing. This approach generates more new ideas, and allows for more creativity. Saying “but” is really just another way of saying no. It shuts down creativity. It leaves your team with more potential conflict and stifled creativity. Adding many ideas to the big mosh-pit brings forth more possibilities, and will empower your team members. When people are scared that they’re gonna be cut down, they become afraid to speak up (and you might be missing the best idea yet). Understand your Strengths…to overcome them. This might sound counter-intuitive, yet Melissa gives a great example when speaking about her Achiever Talent Theme. In the past, her need to achieve kept her stuck in self-perfection. By understanding how the Achiever Strength has the possibility to (counter intuitively) limit her ability to finish projects, she has developed self-compassion. She now considers herself to be a “recovering perfectionist”. So, if you tend to be a perfectionist at work, remember, everything doesn’t always have to be perfect; sometimes it just needs to get done. Give yourself a break! Lisa adds that the Achiever Talent Theme in its pure form is all about completing tasks and getting to the finish line. She hypothesizes that Melissa’s other StrengthsFinder Talents may be playing into her perfectionist tendencies too. While her Achiever wants to get things done, her Input will want to keep sponging up learning and insights that broaden her view of the project. Speaking of opening up possibilities, her Futuristic Talent will keep her in constant “what-if” mode. The fascination and vision of what can be can also keep you in rework mode. And her Connectedness Talent could have event played into her perfectionist tendencies because she sees connections and wants to share them with other people. Imagine when she’s creating courses and wants to keep tinkering so that every person with every perspective can get what they need. Ahhh, feeding your talents can be so energizing. And, sometimes, they can derail your progress if you’re not keeping an eye on the outcomes you set out to achieve. Schedule sandbox time every day. Our modern lives are super-busy, and often jam-packed with activities and projects every single day (even the weekends). Melissa suggests you spend 15 minutes every day relaxing, like you used to do as a kid. Play in the sandbox, doodle on paper, or go for a walk – whatever floats your boat. She’s proven that just that short amount of downtime can rejuvenate your creativity, and you will have a much easier time coming up with new ideas or finishing projects you’ve neglected. So schedule a short break time every day, and see what happens. Finding your “true passion” takes practice. People often ask career coaches and StrengthsFinder consultants how they can find their “true passions”. Melissa has an answer for them: Go out and try different things. She cites the example of learning to dance, another recent hobby. It took her 3 – 4 years of different types of dancing to figure out that she loves salsa and Argentine tango. In the work environment, you may be in a role you don’t love. Maybe you even hate your job. Look at the tasks your perform, and pay attention to what you actually do enjoy. Then find ways to get more of them added to your job responsibilities. If you stick with it, you’ll end up happier, more successful, and your business will be more profitable. Remember, knowing your Strengths and understanding them can have a huge impact on your personal and professional lives. So go out there and create.   Resources of the Episode To connect with Melissa and grab some creativity resources, check out her website. You can also connect with her on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Ready to live a full-color life? Melissa’s Live Creative Now podcast is filled with practical tips and inspiration on creativity and creative productivity. Feeding your creative hungers is one of the fastest ways to happiness, joy, and self-fulfillment. Not only will you feel more alive, it’s how you will change the world!   Subscribe To subscribe and review, here are your links for listening in iTunes and Stitcher Radio. You can also stream any episode right from the website. Subscribing is a great way to never miss an episode. Let the app notify you each week when the latest episode gets published.   StrengthsFinder Mini-Course For Managers If you’re a people-manager and you want to sharpen your strengths based support, come join our monthly mini-course. We don’t charge for this because we want to help you keep the StrengthsFinder momentum going. Teams who receive strengths feedback have 8.9% greater profitability. Yowza! Sounds like a great reason to join. Source:  Asplund, J., & Blacksmith, N. “Strengthening Your Company’s Performance.” Gallup Business Journal.   Go Live Your Talents Remember, using your strengths every day at work makes you a stronger performer. Go claim your talents and share them with the world! Read the full conversation: Lisa: Today, this show is all about using your natural talents to unleash your creative side at work. Your guest is so super interesting. She's actually dedicated her career to instigating creativity around the world. She works with teams to help them get their Mojo back when they feel like their innovation gene has left the building. She might even change your mind today about how very important play is at work. And speaking of play on the literal side, your guest plays the Ukulele and even brings that into her work world. So get ready. You're about to see how your creative expression can help you offer your value to the world. So Melissa Dinwiddie, welcome to the show. Melissa: Wow. Thanks Lisa. That was like the greatest intro ever. Lisa: It could have only been better if I had primed you for it so that you could have your Ukulele ready to play a little tune. Right. So, okay. You know, this show, it's all about exploring strengths from every angle. We're getting a unique angle of creativity today and we're bringing in strengths to that. So when you mentioned to me that when you first considered your top five StrengthsFinder talents that the one called Input was interesting to you because at first you didn't see that as something special and you. So tell us more about how that went down for you. In your mind, how did you open yourself up to the idea that it could actually be a superpower that you were overlooking? Melissa: I was doing a trade with a woman who was, at the time, my yoga teacher and she's also a life coach and so she was trading coaching. She was giving me some coaching and I was creating a website for her. It was maybe the third time that she had asked me about how to do something inside of a WordPress website, upload an image or create a new page or something, and I was showing her. And then she said, well, what if I want to do, you know, x, Y, z? And I said, oh, well there's three different plugins that I know of for that. And she looked at me and she said, how do you know all this stuff? And I said, I don’t know, I just, I made my own website a number of times so I know this stuff. And she's like, I think you don't appreciate how that, you knowing all this stuff, like that's not normal, that's normal in a really cool, really cool way. Melissa: Like you could, you could do consulting and you know, Blah Blah Blah. And it, it was that moment that made me realize, wow, this is something that's unusual about me in a good way. And it made me flash back to a moment, years earlier, this would have been back in the late 90’s, mid 90’s when I had started doing calligraphy, which became a huge passion of mine and that ultimately turned into a career. But at this point I was still a relatively new calligrapher and I was at a workshop and it was one of the first workshops I had been to with this calligraphy guild that I had joined. And somebody asked about a tool called an automatic pen. Well, what is an automatic pen and how is that different from, you know, this other kind of pen? Well, I, when I got into calligraphy, I had taken, like I'd ordered all the, there were two big stores that had, at the time, this was really before the Internet took off, so they had these paper catalogs. So of course I had ordered these paper catalogs and that was my bedtime reading. I would go to bed and pour through these catalogs and read all the details about every single tool and every single book. And so I just knew all this stuff. And so here I was, I'd been doing calligraphy for, you know, less than a year or something, and I was spouting off “well and automatic pen is its way and it works in this way and the way it's different from quick pan is blah blah”. And I remember the people looking at me like, are you an alien? Like they just didn't know you've been, I've been doing calligraphy for eight years and you just started, eight months ago, how do you know all this stuff? Melissa: And I, didn't realize that that was, I didn't have a word for it. I was just who I was. So I didn't realize that it was unique or unusual or a particular strength. And it just was this quirky thing about me that I didn't even realize was quirky. So yeah, that, was probably of my StrengthsFinder strengths. That was probably the first one that I went, oh yeah, that I can totally see as a strength because the things that I'm passionate about, I dive in and I learn everything that I can about them because that's what I do and then it nothing makes me happier than sharing that knowledge with other people, so it's a natural for consulting. Lisa: So cool. I love when I have clients with Input. It is so much fun to hear because they love going deep and gathering all the information and learning about a topic and then really directing it to what they're into, whether it's a hobby or work and then sharing it and it becomes such a collaboration strength too because you can add so much value because you realize, oh, not everyone does that. I mean, if I know if I got into calligraphy, I would flip through and look at the pretty pens and that's about it. I didn't know anything about any specs. Melissa: Right, right. Yeah, it, it definitely comes in really handy. The other one, I'm number five for me is Positivity and that one I recognized right away and people are always telling me, Oh my God, you have so much energy and you're such a cheerleader, you know, and that's just my personality. I hadn't really thought of that as a particular strength either, but I see it like I use that every day and the work that I do with clients and the groups that I lead that, that I am always essentially cheering people on. I mean not with like pompoms or something, but you know, I always have a positive spin on things and that it's not pollyannaish. It's just, it's just how I am. I think actually that's quite related to my top strength of Connectedness, which I mean I read that and when that's a strength, what? Lisa: That one always surprises people. They go, Huh, I would never think of that one. Melissa: Never would have thought of it. But I think that really ties in with my Positivity that this sort of outlook of always finding meaning and connection and you know, there's always this sense that everyone and everything is connected and I'm not like a religious person, but I'm it definitely infuses kind of everything I do Lisa: Well, knowing a little bit more about you and how you bring play into your work and how you’re an improviser, that's a high Positivity. It just makes complete sense because there's a fun-loving elements of it. It's finding the good times and things like if you're going to be here on the planet, go have a good time while you're at it, why not? And that tends to be one of the outlooks of people with high Positivity. So when I saw that and then knew that you were into play and Improv, I thought, oh well, it's just so perfect. Melissa: Yeah. And of course the sort of core piece of Improv is to say “yes, and”. Lisa: Yes, please say more about that. How that has shown up at work for you? Because most of the corporate people I work with are completely unfamiliar with Improv. Maybe you can talk about how that looks for people in a meeting or how that looks for people in either supporting each other's ideas versus squashing it if they gave it a “yeah, but.” Melissa: That got really clear for me when I think it was like my first Improv class, I've been doing improv for about three years now and although I've been improvising, interestingly enough, I've been drawn to improvisational creative forms for a really long time. For example, I got into salsa dancing and Argentine tango and those are purely improvisational dance forms. They are based on a vocabulary of movement and each social dance has its own vocabulary of movement, but within that vocabulary it is 100 percent improv and then when I got into music, the music that I was drawn to was jazz, which is an enormous umbrella that covers so many different styles of music within it, but the one thing that is a consistent among all of them is that there have improvisational elements, so it's really not that big of a surprise that I would end up doing improv. Melissa: Now I can connect that all together. My very first improv class, there was an exercise where a group of us were sitting up on the little stage area. We were supposed to pretend that we were in a meeting creating, we're talking about creating some, I don't know, some random object that we made up on the spot and about how to market it, I think. And so the first part of the exercise was that whenever anybody says something, let's, you know, let's throw a big party with confetti and invite the whole town or you know, whatever it was we were supposed to respond with, “yes, but,” and then add something. Right. So we did that for a while and then we stopped, and we replayed the same scene essentially. But this time whenever somebody gave an idea, the response was to be “yes, and”, and what was so interesting was when we did the “yes but” or “well, but” it would turn into just squashing, squashing just that: No, no, no, no, no. And it stopped everything where when the exercise was “yes, and” it became this like crazy mashup and it just kept growing and growing and growing and growing. And when you bring that “yes, and” to say a meeting where you're generating ideas or something and if you can respond to somebody else from that space of “yes, and” it opens up so many possibilities, you know, there's time later where you can refine things and cut things out and look at the, you know, the reality of our budget is limited to x or whatever. But to generate ideas, you have to be in that space of “yes, and”, and people don't like to put an idea out there if they know that there's a chance that it's going to be cut down. Right. Nobody likes that. That feels terrible. So that's a really important place to bring that Improv scale of “Yes, and”. Lisa: I love the example too, of how you used it and actually had the contrast of the “yes, but” or the “well, but” with the “yes, and in the same situation because right, it just stops all the momentum and turns everything. And it's kind of like the eeyore moment. Melissa: Totally. Yeah. And “yes, but” is really another way of saying “no” Lisa: it true. Another thing that you're getting me thinking about reflecting on a work day and how you can have these breakthroughs and also sparked me to think about something you mentioned about your Achiever talent, how when now when you look back on a work day, you can kind of see that when you're fueled up, it's because you've achieved something and felt productive and that you feel frustrated when you're not. What does that process look like for you? And just exploring them and seeing how they show up. Melissa: That one for me, in some ways it feels like as a liability as much as a strength only because, my history is being way too much of a perfectionist. I mean, I am now a card carrying him perfectionist, which means a recovering perfectionist. It's the same thing, which means basically that I treat myself with self-compassion. I was so stuck in perfectionism. I mean my Achiever strength was, you know, so blown out of proportion, there was no balance to it. There was nothing, nothing connected with the Achiever that you know, just sort of say it's okay. You get to be a human being, you get to be human. What ended up happening was, I mean, I call myself an artist. I had a career, a business. I still have a business and our business primarily making Jewish marriage contract. It's basically a side business these days. It used to be my main business and for about a decade while I was making my living from my art, I didn't create anything for myself purely for play, except once a year I would go on a retreat with my calligraphy guild and then I would do some things for myself, but the whole rest of the year, all the other 360 days of the year, the only art I ever created was to other people's specifications and partly or a big chunk of that was because I was so trapped in perfectionist paralysis that anything that I would create, I would think, well that's not good enough. That's crap. And so it became so painful to try to do anything that I just didn't do it. But I was in such denial about it that I told myself, you know, I bought into the story, I created this story that it was because I just didn't have time and it wasn't until February 1st 2011 when I was actually interviewing an artist for my first online course that I created called the thriving artists project and this particular artist mentors other artists who want to have fine art, you know, professional fine art gallery, exhibiting art careers. Melissa: And they get stuck in resistance as anybody else on the planet. Surprisingly enough. And so this artist that I was interviewing would tell her mentees, if you can't put 15 minutes a day into your art, you're making an excuse. And she was just talking about what she told her mentees. But in that moment, I was so nailed. She was, she was talking to me. She didn't realize she was talking to me, but she was saying to me, and by the time I got off that phone call first I got very defensive inside. But then I realized, oh my God, she is right. For the past decade I have been making an excuse because of fear, and so that day, and it was February 1st 2011, I committed to putting 15 minutes a day into making time for the joy of creative sandbox time that you talk about. Lisa: Is that your creative sandbox time? Melissa: Absolutely. That is. I didn't have that terminology at that point, but yeah, that's, that's my creative sandbox time. That is my playtime where in fact, in order to get myself into that head space where I could put even just 15 minutes into making art, I had to set up a bunch of sorts of ground rules for myself and it started off with maybe four or five. You know, it's all about the process. It's not the product let go of the outcome. When you get to the place where, you know, it's not done yet, it needs something, but you're not sure what and you're afraid to try anything because you might ruin it. One of my rules was go ahead and ruin it. And over a period of a two or three years that expanded into 10 rules for the creative sandbox. It's now what I call my creative sandbox manifesto. Melissa: And the sandbox image was because I realized at one point that I wasn't taking time to do art. I'd started making some art, but the art that I was making, I stopped after a while, a couple of weeks into it or something, I just wasn't getting to my art table anymore and I couldn't figure out why because I wanted so badly to get back to making art. And one day I was looking at the table and I realized, oh my God, the art that I'm making right now has nothing different from when I'm working for a client. So it feels like work to me. It was very meticulous. It was very design-y. There was nothing improvisational about, there was nothing playful about it. It was the opposite of play. And I realized it was like this light bulb went off over my head and that's when I thought I need to play. Melissa: I need to be like my little four-year-old nephew playing in a sandbox, making messes, thinking, oh, what would happen if I poured water on this? What would happen if I did this? That's the headspace that I needed to be in. And so that's, what I develop those, those rules to help me get into that headspace. Lisa: It's so cool. And the boy, I mean, you know that in the corporate world this is such a thing for people because you have this push-pull and your mind whether or not someone's specific talent is Achiever. People have a drive to get stuff done is push for the next thing, but then you know you need white space. You have to explicitly sometimes not manage yourself to a goal or you burn yourself out. And there's this internal fight thing and you even sparked for me a thought that takes it beyond the moment to moment push-pull, but even the overall career stress that people put themselves under when they think of finding their passion or finding their calling. Lisa: And I, think I remember you talking about callings as an elusive thing and that it's normal to resist them and refuse the call, that sort of thing. And I'd love to hear… you just got me sparked on that idea to what's your take on work as a calling and what do you do for those people who are beating themselves up over the fact that they feel like they don't have one? Melissa: Oh my God. So that makes me think about a conversation that I had a number of years ago with a woman in my synagogue and I was talking about this stuff was pretty new to me then I was like, wow, I'm discovering this new direction for my life or I'm helping people get connected to their creative side, which for most of us has been, you know, got quashed down pretty early, including me. Melissa: I mean a lot of people get quashed down at age five or six or something was like age 13 when I stopped making art. But for most of us that that gets really squashed and you know, so I was finding my passion again and our passion number 17 or whatever. So I figured out that I have a lot of them and this woman said, well, what do you do if you don't, if you don't have a passion. And I was stumped. I did not know how to answer her question. And it was only later when I was reading an article by somebody who I think she calls herself like the passion mentor or something, I can't remember, but she was writing about how, you know, passions, we have this idea that you're going to have this Eureka moment. You're going to open a door and boom. Melissa: Yeah, that's my passion, I found it. And the reality is, even though I spent, I can't tell you how many times I've told the story of various passions I've had in my life: dance, calligraphy, getting back to social dancing, writing, improv, music. So many different passions. And the story has always been, oh, you know, then I discovered this and that became my next passion. But that's not really what happened. Really, what happened was with dance, I was too scared to try dancing as a little kid. I had some movement classes when I was like four. And then I had friends who were in ballet, but I had this image of the mean ballet teacher with the big stick who would like hit you if you don't do things right or. So I never took any dance classes. And then in I think my freshman year in high school, some friends of mine, we got together, and we took a class at a community center. Melissa: We thought it was going to be, you know, mtv kind of how to dance to Madonna's material girl or something, you know, like the music video kind of dance. And it was actually, it was a modern dance class, which I didn't realize was much more classical style. And we were like, wow, this is lame. So I didn't, you know, I ended that class and forgot about it. So finally, you know, years later after, you know, first thinking about dance, I took a class at this local dance school and that's the moment where I went, oh my God, I want to do this every day. But it was, you know, three or four years of, tipping my toe into different kinds of dance before I discovered that dance school and Bingo had my Eureka moment. Every passionate I've ever had has been like that. Melissa: You have some kind of interest in something enough to try it. And you know, maybe the first time it doesn't do anything for you. But for some reason you go back to it at some point again and maybe the next time you find something new in that and eventually you know, you try it a little more and then it starts to develop a little more meaning for you. And then you dive in a little bit deeper and it's the sort of back and forth thing and it happens, you know, much more organically. It's much more like, you know, there are people out there in the world who feel like they had this instant, you know, love at first sight moment with their spouse or their partner. Right? But most people, it didn't actually happen that way with me, my husband, it took me two and a half years to see him as a contender and, he's like best match I could ever imagine for myself. Melissa: And that's what it's like with, with our passions for activities or pursuits. Lisa: What a good metaphor because it is like, I mean I can see the relationship metaphor so strongly that you meet somebody and then you think, hey, I actually enjoyed my time there, or I feel better when that person enters the room. Then when they leave the room and then you think, well, I'm going to hang out with that person some more, and it's the same with responsibilities and tasks in the work that you do. You can say, oh, that things kind of neat. I've never done it. I'm going to hang out with that thing a little bit more. And then you start exploring all the offshoots of it and it's so much like that at work and people for whatever reason, feel like there should be the Eureka moment you talked about and not the process of experimenting and going, okay, that thing's cool. I'm going to follow that path and all of the arms and legs that it has, and then you find that one thing that's super awesome and really fuels you up and I don't know why it's like that, but it does make me sad because a lot of people beat themselves up because they haven't found “the calling” or “the passion” and I know you use that term passion, plural light and looking at the plural like we have. We love a lot of things. Yeah, you have a lot of hobbies. You have a lot of interests, so let yourself feel that way about your work as well and go explore them. Maybe we can end with that exploration combined with how you explore your creative energy through your doodles because I think that's so fascinating and people will dig finding their own version of what you do with your doodling. Will you share about that? Melissa: Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So what I know about myself is that if I don't get a little bit, at least a little bit of time in the creative sandbox every day, my day doesn't go as well. It just, it makes me happy. It feeds me, it nourishes me. I also know that, uh, the thing I do first is the thing that gets done. So if I want to make sure that I get something into my day, it works best if I get it in first thing. I was not making, not making time for my creative play and realized I have to do it like before I even get out of bed. So I figured out, well, you know, I can bring a sketchbook and a pen, have it on my bedside table and then I can draw first thing in the morning. And so I set a timer for 15 or 20 minutes and I doodle first thing in the morning and I intentionally call it doodling because I want to be in that space of Improv. Melissa: That space of being in the creative sandbox like a four-year-old playing in the sand so that it's all about exploration and following my curiosity and not about trying to make something perfect or even good. And so it's just been an incredible self-growth experience to do this for the past, well, it's really since the start of the year, so it's been three months that I've been doing this. Every day I spend, you know, 15 or 20 minutes usually with a pen and some paper and a sketchbook, just doodling. It's like a spiritual, a spiritual practice because you learn so much about yourself. You know? Just today, there was a page where I had started something and I got really frustrated with it weeks back because I could see that it was going to require all this meticulous work that I just didn't want to invest in. It was going to drive me straight into that perfectionist place, which I don't like. I don't want to be in. And I came back to it today and thought, oh well I don't have to look at it that way I could come at it from a creative sandbox mindset and not worry about if these lines are perfectly rounded or whatever. And I was able to come back to that piece that I had totally rejected and really enjoy it and learn something and kind of expand my ability to break down those perfectionist walls from this one little doodle. So I highly recommended it. And it doesn't have to be pen and paper. I mean, you could do it with sound, you could do it with movement. You can do it with, you know, they're just so many ways that you can express yourself in, the equivalent of a doodle. Lisa: And I even do my white space. It's not quite my creative sandbox, but just my white space to clear my brain. My office is at home and in the woods and I take walks with the dogs and I just insert them in the middle of the day to give myself that moment. To not be distracted, to not be listening to shows. To not be learning, to not be in a meeting and it clears, it clears the space in a different way. And I'm the uber efficient. I mean I get so caught up that I'll listen to podcasts while I'm in the shower just because I want every moment to be so productive. And so it's that moment where I go, no, I'm just breathing, I'm listening to the wind listening to the birds and just let it rest for a minute. And then I get all these strokes of brilliance in that time and the sandbox time and the white space time. Lisa: I hope for everyone reading that this gives you some inspiration to bring that creativity back into your work day. To try yes, and if that's not something that's been part of your vocabulary, that you give that, some, just give that some air go, try that. It's easy to implement at work. Just show up and say “yes, and”, and your next set of meetings and don't squash an idea even if the squash comes to your mind, let it ride, let it ride and do that later. And let the ideas and the big breakthroughs happen. So thank you everyone for reading this Lead Through Strengths today. Melissa, this has been great. The readers are going to want to check you out. You have a show to tell them about, tell us how they can find you and your doodle delicious life. Melissa: Oh sure. Well, my website is Melissadinwitty.com.com, but that's hard to spell so you can also get to the exact same place livingacreativelife.com and my podcast is livecreativenow, which you can find there are. You can go to live creativenow.com, which will take you there as well. Lisa: Thank you. And we'll put all of that in the show notes so you guys can find it super easily and we'll get you her twitter and Instagram and Facebook links as well. So guys, remember using your strengths makes you a stronger performer at work. If you're always focused on fixing your weaknesses, always stuck in that perfectionist zone she's been talking about today then you're choosing the path of most resistance and you can choose instead to claim your talents and share them with the world.

Do you think of yourself as creative? Are you creating the life you live? Are you creating the life you desire? The answer to the first two questions yes. We all are competent creators and we really do create the life we live. We create every moment of everyday. In each moment we actually create how we perceive the moment and that creation in turn creates another experience and the cycle goes on and on. Most of us limit how we use this beautiful and extraordinary gift. If you are not living the life you desire, the life that brings you continuous joy, the life that empowers you to grow and expand, then you can create differently beginning right now. Listen in as we chat about “Getting Your Creative Mojo On.”