Diary of a Creative

WE'RE REBRANDING FOLKS

Follow the journey: @margaretlefton

repost of my recent YouTube video - follow me over there I'm now YouTube first :)

follow along ze journey: @margaretlefton

Order the Inner Seasons Oracle Deck: a tool for creatives, artists, and entrepreneurs to unlock their biggest life

Follow ye journey: @margaretlefton

This week I’m sharing a life update on what I’ve been building behind the scenes - from launching my Inner Seasons oracle deck to producing YouTube’s first late-night show, growing into my hosting work with Shopify, and why I think YouTube is becoming my favorite creative platform.

I’m also talking about ideas abundance vs execution scarcity. Ie that thing where you have 80000 ideas and struggle to actually bring them to life ~oops~

✨ In this episode:

🎥 Why YouTube is the platform for multipassionates

📦 Launching and hand-shipping my Inner Seasons Oracle Deck

🎭 Behind the scenes of Good Night with Ben Gleib, TSMA Studios, and Shopify

💡 The challenge of having endless creative ideas - and actually choosing one

Keep creating. Keep building. Keep dreaming.

Never have I ever podcast'd drunk but y'know, when inspiration hits.

ANYWAYS, this week:

AHHH the tradeoffs of committing your life to art.

Reflecting on the homesickness of missing family events and shifts while across the country, learning to rest, nostalgia waves, and finally launching my YouTube.

We also chat about dreams, old memories , my first YouTube project for Skidmore College, launching my Inner Seasons oracle deck, and why following your dreams sometimes comes with complicated tradeoffs.

🌊 Navigating grief, homesickness & missing family

🎬 Creating my first YouTube projects

📚 Why I want to build a creative library, not participate in a casino

52 episodes. 18 months. One LinkedIn Easy Apply that somehow led to a major breakthrough.

A bow on this chapter of Multi-Hyphenate University. Tbh guys I wanted this to be more structured with clear takeaways and learnings, and ended up being, as is tradition, more of a live rant lol. I'll save it for the YT video - follow me as I start journeying over there: @margaretlefton

TODAYYY:

🎙️ Why "just be yourself" is the simplest, yet hardest advice in creative work😳 What happened the first time I published something real 📖 How showing up consistently as a creative entrepreneur rewired how I see myself✨ Why making your art matters even when the numbers don't

Follow Along: @margaretlefton

Check out the new YT show I'm producing: @goodnight on YT

What to expect this week:

🎬 What producing the first late night show for YT is like🌀 The concept of creative center of gravity - and why LA makes it uniquely hard to stay in your own orbit (aka work/art balance)

Follow along: @margaretlefton

You know that thing where every area of your life is happening all at once?

My grandmother passed away this week - a truly outrageous, rude, cold, creative, brilliant, deeply complicated woman who shaped so much of my artistic identity, and childhood. This week: childhood grief, nostalgia, and the strange experience of adult life continuing to move at full (fun, exciting) speed while something foundational shifts underneath you.

Today:

🕯️ Losing a grandparent
🃏 My Oracle deck is officially in production - seeing a physical product come to life for the first time!!
🎬 Apprenticing on a YouTube late-night show - stepping onto TV-level sets being built for the creator era
💡 Learning entertainment production from scratch - lighting, writers’ rooms, celebrity booking, creative collaboration, and set design

<3 Margaret

I got to direct a new YouTube series with The Casting Society (CSA)! Also: life is happening! Huzzah, complexities of being a 3d person 😂 (I live in LA in Venice so am I obligated to say 5d person? *sigh* )

Inside:

🍝 When throw spaghetti at the wall gets old - juggling exciting projects, paid work, portfolio builders, and bandwidth

🎬 Directing my first set - (WOOOOOO)

🎭 What I’m learning about casting - the hidden architects of what we see on screen

🧩 "What is a C-stand" - and how I'm continuing to navigate beginner mindset

📺 Podcast vs. YouTube

We out here ~ 💫

FOLLOWWWW ALONG: @margaretlefton

Coming off 48 hours with my phone off (my favorite reset ritual), long walks by the ocean, and falling down a rabbit hole of old films, I found myself thinking a lot about storytelling, visibility, and what it feels like to grow in public.

In this episode, I talk through:

✨ Phone's off ritual

🎬 What old films (and Audrey Hepburn) are teaching me about storytelling

🎥 Why YouTube feels like the next creative frontier

🧠 The “I started too late” trap

🌴 Living in LA and the very real imposter syndrome that comes with it

😵‍💫 “Visibility dysmorphia” (aka when your brain can’t process your own work)

🔥 Why growth in public hits your nervous system differently than anything else

<3 <3 LOVE Y'ALL

I’ve been thinking a lot about integration - the phase after expansion, where things stop feeling new and exciting… and start feeling repetitive, slower, and honestly a little bit boring.

We also get into YouTube and the tension between building something educational vs deeply vulnerable + artistic.

✨ In this episode:

• 🎢 Missing the emotional highs/lows (and wondering if something’s wrong)
• 🌱 Why growth isn’t always breakthroughs - sometimes it’s repetition

• 🎥 Falling in love with YouTube — and discovering a slower, more intentional creative space

• 📊 Sharing my actual podcast numbers — and why I’m still doing this anyway

• 🎭 The tension between educator vs artist — and trying to hold both

• 🔁 Consistency without perfection — experimenting with formats just to keep going

See you on campus 💫