Audacity Works

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This episode is for anyone who's considering forming a nonprofit, I've brought on Sierra Nicholls of CSAW just in time for the energy following Giving Tuesday.

What you'll hear:

• Sweet Retreat:  the intermediate and advanced aerial hoop retreat I co-host with the great Jenny Tufts both have some spaces available, kicking off the last week of January and first week of February.  Details and application here!  1:00
• On Creatrix, my retreat on Edisto Island, SC for those of you in the overlapping Venn diagram between artists/creators and the witchery inclined.  1:30
  • I'll release this first to my Patrons in a couple of weeks, so if you KNOW you want in that's the place to be.
  • After one week if there's room, I'll release it to the waitlist.  I don't expect this to make it to the public, so if you're interested I'd recommend one of these courses of action.
• Changes to my usual No-Work December 2:50
• Introducing Sierra Nicholls!  Co-Founder of CSAW:  Connecting Circus Students Around the World 3:34
• What CSAW is and their mission 5:00
• Why create a non profit?  And the process of growing from the very beginning, and how long it took 6:50
• The 1023 EZ form
• On having a board and choosing the board members 11:00
• Problematic themes within the non profit world, and how CSAW chose to structure their board differently to avoid them 14:00
• In a giving mood?  You can contribute to CSAW's 2024 fundraising effort here. 16:49
• What the fundraiser is for:  the microgrants for BIPOC circus artists for the 2025 year 17:25
• Information and application for microgrants, open from the 1st to the 15th every month 23:30
  • Note:  December's microgrant is for youth BIPOC circus artists only
• Cannonball Black Circus Week information 
• Bookmark this page for the Cannonball Grant for 2025
• What to have prepared to apply 30:00
• My rude and burning question for anyone who founds a nonprofit (Are you able to pay yourself and how??) 33:30
• Sierra's contemporary circus company:  Full Out Formula 38:15
• When I asked Sierra what NOT to do if you want to start your own circus company 41:55
• Sierra's advice for anyone wanting to start a nonprofit 46:00

You can follow CSAW here
You can follow Sierra here
You can follow Full Out Formula here
Contribute to the 2025 fundraiser before December 31, 2024!

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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What you'll hear:

• Boooo Thanksgiving, yaaay Thanksgiving, both are true 
• 4:00 For those interested in Creatrix 2.0, here's the best places to learn about it:
  • Best place is the Patreon, they get first dibs
  • 2nd best place is the waitlist, here
• Full Circle Aerial Hoop retreat update, with me and Jenny Tufts 4:30
• This episode is about food, but not nutrition.  If you want nutrition content, I'd highly recommend giving episode 71 with Shannon Morse of The Green Door Life a listen. 7:00
• How our cultural relationship with food shapes our lives, as well as the microculture of a family/household 8:00
• How my family food story has structured my current daily life 9:15
• Forays into what were, to me, bizarre circumstances of family feeding 12:00
• Cultural escapades into food culture in Florence, Italy with one of my besties 15:45
• American food habits overseas 18:00
• Food friendships/relationships with other food people 20:00
• On appetite 21:00
• Visual and performance artist Gregg Deal, you can purchase these stickers and spread the message 24:15

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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This episode is by request from my friend Chloe, who asked, "I’m wondering if you have any advice for managing adrenaline spikes before during and after performance. I find the post performance crash quite intense, any tips would be awesome."

What you'll hear:

• Some post-election musings about staying in the room, and why it's important 2:00
• The original question 6:13
• Need an expert in nervous system regulation?  It's JPB of Brain Body Resilience. You can find a whole webinar of her wisdom right here. 6:45
• My approach involves witchcraft.  So what does that even mean? 7:27
• The witchcraft overlap 9:00
• Some grounding exercises for you, starting with the quickest version 9:28
• Graphic from my Instagram about the quick grounding exercise
• Click here for a guided 7 minute grounding meditation from me (no purchase required) 11:30
• Post from Patreon about my Muse 13:50
• Advice for dealing with the glittercrash 15:00
• If you want to learn more about witchcraft from me, Creatrix is the place to do that.  You can join the interest list for it here 

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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How ya doing?  Holding up ok?  I hope this episode finds you well and finding your feet in whatever method 

• The possibly helpful thing I wrote the day after the election, here for you if you need it.
• How the 2nd Charleston Artist's Salon went, and a few of the artists who presented 2:30
• A moment of exquisite synchronicity (I'll explain later on) 3:45
• My favorite hack #1 for actually getting a chunk of new work created (spoiler:  it a deadline that involves other people) 4:40
• Ticket link to Shadows at Bloom Movement Artistry, Dec 7th in Charlotte NC 4:48
• Why the synchronicity I mentioned earlier was so profound for me 7:23
• A Blessed Unrest by The Parlour Trick- unending gratitude to MeredithYayanos 8:15
• Habeas Corpus, bitch 10:10
• Listen to Episode 67: Art, Grief, and What Happens Next with Shannon McKenna 11:30
• Hack #2:  Destroy the blank canvas 12:15
• Hack #3  You're not stuck, you're scared.  Or depressed.  Or you're just a giant fig leaf and you need to try the 5 basic rude things  14:50
  • sunlight
  • water
  • food
  • rest
  • exercise.  SO rude.
• Do you live in SC or the surrounding areas and want to be apprised of future local happenings?  You can do that here.

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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My guest interview for November fell through at the last minute, so I decided to interview myself.  I put up an anonymous Question link on the gram, it was only up for around 18 hours so I didn't get many responses, but I am delightedly answering all of them here.

What you'll hear:

• I mention giving a tarot reading in the beginning, for shits and giggles, here is the link to book one if you're interested (patrons of the Queensguard and higher get one a year!) https://calendly.com/theaudacityproject/intuitive-tarot-reading
• My recommendation for getting the nitty gritty of American politics from a wise, neutral, caring source:  Sharon McMahon 4:00
• An easy, effective exercise for calming anxiety from the wonderful Dr. Brittni, who I got to meet at BossUp 5:45
• Q 1:  Any advice for someone who has gone through life believing they are not a creative person? I've recently accepted that there's no such thing but finding it hard to adjust  7:30
• Unpacking the cliche of "The Creative Person" and our subconscious expectations of what creativity looks like/how it presents 8:30
• One of the most transformative skills you can build if you're going to create anything 11:00
• Q 2:  What is the sty meat person you've helped unstick?  How?  (truly if you asked me this please clarify what you meant, but I ran with it) 13:00
• How I "help unstick" people (and why you are almost certainly not stuck...you're scared) 14:10
• The Audacity Project, cycle 28 waitlist.  This is the framework that I used to unstick people, and the next cycle will be March/April 2025.  18:30
• Q 3:  I am a shameless Rachel Strickland groupie.  You are so wise and funny.  I love your defence and bolstering of creativity especially women.  (this wasn't a question but I LOVED reading it, thank you so so much!)  19:50
• Q 4:  I'm going to my first ever aerial retreat  with Ais in 2 weeks.  Any advice?  Sincerely, a panicked person who doesn't feel qualified to be there.  21:00
• Me hoping to calm the fears of this lovely commentor 21:30
• A reminder that fear/anxiety is pleasure without permission 22:22
• My recommendation for SPF, I've been using this on my face daily for a decade 23:08

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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By request from wonderful Vix!  Thank you Vix!  On seasonality in strength training, favorite muggle gym exercises.

What you'll hear:

• On meatsuits and the muggle gym, Episode 18
• What I use the muggle gym for (spoiler, it's GLUTES) 2:15
• Balancing muggle gym strength training and aerial training 4:30
• Why I learned to love short workouts 8:00
• Shoutout to JillFit's program that made me realize ramping back up GENTLY is the only way to fly.  
• Strength training is RESILIENT 10:00
• My personal trainer Nelson's advice that finally got through my thick circus-skull that just wants to do as hard as I can all the time 11:00
• Favorite leg/ass/hamstring exercises- you don't need 30, you only need like...10.  Squats, kettlebell swings, walking lunges, and hip thrusts are my favorites and I do them each week on different days when possible.  13:00
• Favorite ab exercises:  Myotatic crunch with or without weight (start with 2lbs.) and hanging leg lifts 14:00
• Getting as much bang for your buck as you can for ab exercises so you're not just doing crunches for a billionty years 15:30
• The basic recipe I use every time I go to the muggle gym 16:24
• What I'm most proud of from my muggle gym time 18:00

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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What you'll hear:

• Come see me this weekend in Washington DC!  All workshop times and descriptions can be found here:  Monarca in Flight!
• These strategies are for entry-level instructors who have been teaching for a minute but want to get into teaching traveling workshops 5:40 
• How I got into it, and how I approached it in the beginning and why it's super beneficial/how you can grow from it professionally 6:15
• Best possible way to reach out to a studio owner 7:50
• What you need to have ready when you reach out 8:30
• How many offerings do you need to have to choose from before you reach out?  10:10
• Getting testimonials:  why you need them and how to get them 12:45
• Here's an example of a menu of offerings 
• How to price your workshops and the split with the studio 15:00
• Need a sample contract?  Sign up for my newsletter and get a contract template as well as lots of other templates and goodies.  17:30
• What about accommodation? 19:00
• The metric for success when traveling to teach workshops 20:53

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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What you'll hear:

• Workshop intensive weekend at Monarca in Flight October 26-27! 2:00
• It is apparently Infant Loss Awareness week, so in the spirit of not shoving this very common and very taboo human experience into the back of the closet, I make you and myself aware of it for approximately 2 minutes 2:30
• Episode 6:  Operating Under Active Grief
• The Tale of BossUp!  5:30  "All you can do is prepare."  
• A dumb TMI story about a silly thing I did involving a sleepless night and a THC gummy 6:30
• If you want to take a bath while watching a sunset over the marina, stay at the Shad Hotel in Redondo Beach 10:20
• How the talk actually went on the day of 12:04
• My beef with the response "you're not alone" when you share a challenge with someone and how this weekend put it to rest 16:30
• All my gratitude to these two heroes, the splendid Dr. Shante Cofield and Jill Coleman
• Getting to meet the other two amazing guest speakers 18:00:
  • Dr. Jennifer Hutton
  • Dr. Uchenna Ossai

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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What you'll hear:

• Acknowledging the grief associated with a loss of interest in your discipline 1:00
• My very unpopular advice for what to do if you find you are bored with your discipline 3:15
• Why teaching your discipline will not constitute the break that you might benefit from 5:43
• Wanna quit?  Try it.  Your practice is more resilient than you might think.  8:20
• Other ways you can disrupt your practice if you're bored with it 9:40
• The cultural story about "Passion" and why it's not helpful.  Here are some things that ARE reliable forms of fuel 10:00
• A lil story for you about the peace that can come when you are actually done with something, because you did it already.  13:15
• See you at BossUp?!  Come say hi if you're there!

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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Welcome to Audacity Works, for my next guest please enjoy while I share with you one of my favorite humans on earth, coven sibling, youthful dancing partner, and lifelong anam cara, Dr. Mel Hobart-Beaumari .  Dr. Mel (aka Dr HB) is a primary care physician who practices in Seattle Washington. They hold a naturopathic doctorate degree and did a teaching residency with a strong focus on community health. Their current practice has a little bit of everything, but a lot of women's health, gender affirming care, gut health, and pediatrics. They also continue to teach and lecture on a regular basis. Outside of medicine they are an avid rock climber and try to get outside as much as possible. Their route to medicine (and climbing) was circuitous and started with a short lived but precious semi-career as a modern dancer and some time spent homesteading in the mountains of North Carolina.

What you'll hear:

• Disaster relief for Western North Carolina:
  • Action Network Mutual Aid
• How we met (awww) 4:00
• Our career as dance partners in college and all the beautiful ridiculous things we made together 8:00
• Mel's pathway to medicine, and their stint homesteading in western North Carolina 13:00
• The myths surrounding naturopathic medicine 17:35
• Mel's favorite herbs for entering into a parasympathetic nervous state 21:59
  • skull cap, chamomile, tulsi, milky oats, passion flower, holy basil
  • adaptogen herbs are also helpful for this such as ashwagandha and rhodiola 
• Mel's favorite brands for quality botanicals 26:01
  • Wise Woman Herbals
  • Wish Garden Herbs
  • Herb Pharm
  • Gaia Herbs
• How Mel blew my mind about essential oils (and why she hates them) 27:55
• What is a daily "must-do"? 32:35
• Listen to Mel explode my brain about eye contact 34:30
• All the talk about hormones begins at 35:30
• Herbs you can take for hormonal regulation 39:54
• If you have ovaries, what are the signs that you might have increased testosterone and what might that be indicative of? 42:20
• How I learned about the magic of breastmilk from Mel after the birth of their son Kiran 44:40
• What would you recommend for someone starting a healing journey when they get the advice to trust your body, but you don't/can't? 47:56
• Me exploiting my access to Mel by asking them about drinking salted water cause I saw it on Instagram 56:28
• Advice for athletes!  Supplements and recovery suggestions for athletes 59:47
• Have you ever had to address barriers to care within GNC communities, especially in regards to hormonal or OB/GYN issues? 1:07:07
• A charming anecdote about how Mel taught me to make bread 1:11:22
• As an expat southerner, how are the ways you stay in connection to your sense of home? 1:13:01
• What advice would you give to yourself at the age of the anecdote about the bread? 1:16:15
• You can't follow Mel because they aren't on the socials, but you can find them if you need them.  Hit me up if you need their help finding resources and I'll connect you.

Don't go back to sleep.

xoRachel
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Support this podcast on Patreon