The Shift

Hello Reader, What stops us from evolving into our next creative venture? Maybe the question is, what blocks us from becoming the version of ourselves who creates something new? We’re constantly changing. Our cells regenerate on average every 7-10 years. A photo of myself in high school, teased AquaNet bangs, safety pins in my jeans, and plastic pink hoop earrings, shows me that. Yet, at some point, the ability to ride with change and uncertainty diminishes. Maybe because the spaces between...

Hello Reader, I woke up this morning with the urge to get going. Most mornings feel like this. I’m a Type A who doesn’t need an alarm. I pop up and out of bed like an Olympian pole vaulter. I hear the usual voice, the one that feels like parents in the 1990s scrambling for Cabbage Patch Dolls in the pre-Christmas FAO Schwarz mania in Manhattan (I did end up getting one). “Let’s fucking go.” A feeling of scarcity. If I don’t get started, then I won’t get whatever it is I might be after. God...

Hello Reader, I used to believe in perpetual summers like love in romcoms and LED face masks. Especially as entrepreneurs and creatives, we’re taught ideas are always in bloom and business grows exponentially, daisies running rampant in a field of dreams. That’s, of course, a myth. Life is cyclical. Seasons change. The moon wanes and waxes. Nothing in our world stays the same. So why would our business or art be any different? Since I’m notorious for manufacturing summers - UV light and...

Hello Reader, We’re in the dark recesses of COVID. I’m not sick, but the blue laptop hue makes me look unwell. Small faces stack like a weird Hollywood Squares episode, but instead of celebrities competing for charity, we’re a group of middle-aged (ish) women gathered together in a coaching certification course. Wiebke, our teacher, with her brown pixie cut and piercing blue eyes, loves cats and freedom (she changes homes frequently). Now, she’s live from Spain, her tabby making the...

Hello Reader, I had an epiphany this weekend: I’ll never get it all done. There will never come a time when I'm scot-free, task-less. That imagined state is like Narnia. It doesn't exist. I've been wrestling with this lately as my book, Welcome to the Creative Club – part memoir, part manifesto, part gentle rebellion – makes its way into the world. It's the first time I've truly stood for my work like this, a vulnerability that summons creativity vampires. What's blocking my creative flow? An...

Hello Reader, You're not going to feel like doing it all the time. Creating. Making. Writing. It won't always feel good either. Especially when we want it to be amazing right out of the gate. Genius to spill out of us like blood. An endless flow of brilliance. And when that doesn't happen, the channel can get blocked. Some days, it will feel like pulling out your own wisdom teeth. You'll have to squeeze in creating between meetings. Type ideas on your notes app and save them for later, when...

Hello Reader, It’s been a while since I introduced myself. A lot of new people are in the room. I see you lounging on a velvet chaise longue, laughing so hard your fillings are visible. And I’m walking over. Introductions can be awkward. Where do you start? It usually begins with, “So, what do you do?” But we’re so much more than what we do. Since this is a one-sided conversation, for now, I’ll go the more traditional route. Here’s a piña colada with a little fuchsia umbrella. I help people...

Hello Reader, What stops us from being creative? The grip of control. The fear of the messy unknown. The addiction of done. It feels so good to have a goal and then reach it. Tick. Closing loops or planning can feel like progress and productivity. But this isn't creating, it's completing. Attachment to a particular outcome is another creativity murderer. Wanting to create something mouth-droppingly good might choke you because when you start, it’s definitely not that. It’s a little bitter,...

Hello Reader, I’ve been slowing down. And it’s freaking me out. It’s been a steady deceleration at a time when the most obvious thing to do would be to floor it. My book was published in December and a launch can easily last a year. My business always needs love and attention - she’s high-maintenance in the best of ways. So, there’s a million and one things I could be doing. At least that’s what the ‘10 hacks to be more productive’ experts say. Yet. I am pulled into pregnant pauses and open...