Follow Your Curiosity: You didn’t lose your creative spark. You were taught to leave it behind.

By Nancy NorbeckEducation Arts

Follow Your Curiosity: You didn’t lose your creative spark. You were taught to leave it behind. episodes

October 28Why You Stop Yourself from Playing | Report from the Creative Closet #13
Have you ever thought, “That looks fun,” only to immediately tell yourself you’d look ridiculous, wouldn’t be any good, or have something more useful to do?
Welcome to Reports from the Creative Closet! In this dispatch, I explore play, the third area of practice in my Restorative Creativity Framework™—and my favorite. How did something that once came naturally become something we stop ourselves from doing?
If you’ve been missing the part of yourself that could experiment, be silly, or try something without needing to be good at it, this episode is an invitation to get curious about what happened—and what might still be possible.
In this episode, I discuss:
“I’d Look Ridiculous”: How do we learn to shut down our playful impulses before we give them a chance?
The People We Love to Watch Play: What draws us to Robin Williams and David Tennant—and what might we recognize in them?
Play and the Restorative Creativity Framework™: What could following a seemingly silly impulse help you discover about yourself?
Chapters:
0:00 - “That looks fun—but I’d look ridiculous”
3:19 - How we learn to hold ourselves back
9:38 - Perfection, productivity, and the myth of one right way
13:13 - Being willing to look foolish
18:53 - Bad poems, self-trust, and one playful impulse
I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor and creator of the Restorative Creativity Framework™. I specialize in using creativity to reconnect people with themselves, so you can make room for things that interest and delight you and feel like you’re actually alive again.
Get Your Takeaways and Join the Community:
Have a question for the Curiosity Clinic? Submit it here.
Grab your free printable Daily Credit Report and Bingo Card here.
Send your inner critic to summer camp for an hour: Join the Creativity Circle here.
Catch up on earlier Reports from the Creative Closet here.
26 min
October 21 From Doctor Who to Steve Irwin: Mark Strickson’s Real-Life Adventures
As an actor, Mark Strickson got to pretend to have adventures—but eventually, that wasn't enough. He wanted to experience the real thing.
Best known to Doctor Who fans as Turlough, Mark went on to study zoology in Australia and build a career in wildlife filmmaking, including making Steve Irwin’s first film. His earlier experiences—as a musician, actor, and member of a theatre company touring Britain by narrowboat—came along with him in unexpected ways.
In this conversation, Mark shares how knocking on an office door landed him his Doctor Who role, why talent and hard work don’t guarantee success, and how a camera off its tripod helped create a different kind of wildlife television.
We also talk about Turlough’s complicated loyalties, the importance of a good script, the satisfaction of making things with your hands, and finding purpose in work that encourages people to care.
In this episode:
• Growing up with music and theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon
• RADA, poverty, and the role of luck in an acting career
• Life aboard Mikron Theatre Company’s narrowboat
• Getting cast in Doctor Who and finding the person behind Turlough
• Storytelling, special effects, and monsters that couldn’t move
• Returning to study and becoming a zoologist
• Working with Steve Irwin and cameraman Jeff Goodman
• Real adventures, conservation, and making television with compassion
Chapters:
0:00 Welcome and introduction
1:30 A childhood of music and theatre
5:50 Why acting success isn’t just about talent
9:59 Touring Britain on a narrowboat
17:11 How Mark landed Doctor Who
22:37 Understanding Turlough
30:59 Why the story comes first
33:27 Kamelion, the Myrka, and ambitious television
37:18 From acting to zoology
42:45 Becoming a wildlife filmmaker
46:19 Steve Irwin’s first film
53:07 Wanting real adventures
55:08 Making television that encourages compassion
58:21 Life and work in New Zealand
Want more? Here are handy playlists with all my previous interviews with guests in theatre and Doctor Who.
Come play with us: the free Follow Your Curiosity Creativity Circle is an hour each month to stop overthinking, make something just because you want to, and enjoy some creative company.
Get your free Daily Credit Report and Bingo Card.
Follow Your Curiosity is created and hosted by creativity expert Nancy Norbeck, creator of the Restorative Creativity Framework™. Music by Joseph McDade.
Enjoyed the conversation? Share it with a friend, and leave a rating or review wherever you listen—or on Podchaser.
1 hr 4 min
October 14Other People Don’t Get to Define You | Report from the Creative Closet #11
Have you ever found yourself getting excited about a new topic, hobby, or idea, only for someone close to you to say, "That doesn't really sound like you"?
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity! In this dispatch from the Creative Closet, we are diving into integrity—the second area of practice in the Restorative Creativity framework.
We often think of integrity as living by our moral values, but true integrity is also about letting your inside and your outside match up. When you spend your life managing other people's expectations of who you "should" be, you lose the freedom to follow your own curiosity and surprise yourself.
In this episode, I share a personal story about flying across the country to a wine festival by myself, why I refused to bring my friends along, and how making choices without the weight of external expectations is the fastest path back to your real self.
In this episode, I discuss:
“That doesn’t sound like you”: What happens when someone else’s surprise makes you question something you’re excited about.
The freedom of going alone: Why I wanted to experience something new without carrying my friends’ expectations.
Integrity beyond moral values: Letting who you are and how you live match up, with room to discover something new about yourself.
Creativity as reconnection: How experimenting and making your own creative choices help you rediscover your preferences and build self-trust.
One small choice: Where are you fulfilling someone else’s expectations, and what could you choose for yourself today?
Chapters:
0:00 - Why "that doesn't sound like you" ruins your excitement
1:55 - The Oregon wine festival experiment (and why friends were shocked)
3:30 - Why saying NO was a choice to leave expectations behind
5:43 - What integrity really means in my Restorative Creativity Framework™
7:59 - The freedom of choosing who you are in the moment
10:17 - Why creativity is the fastest path back to yourself
14:03 - One small choice to reclaim your freedom today
I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor. I specialize in using creativity to reconnect people with themselves, so you can make room for things that interest and delight you and feel like you’re actually alive again. You do not need to become someone new. You just need to come back to life.
Free tools and community:
Claim your Daily Credit Report and Bingo Card.
Send your inner critic to summer camp for an hour: Join the Creativity Circle
Have a question for the Curiosity Clinic? Submit it here.
Catch up on earlier Reports from the Creative Closet here.
17 min
October 07Don't Assume a No: How to Pitch, Publish, and Beat Perfectionism with Tony Lee
Have you ever talked yourself out of asking for an opportunity because you decided in advance that the answer would be no?
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity! My guest this week is #1 New York Times bestselling writer Tony Lee. With nearly forty years of professional writing experience across comics, television, audio dramas, and novels, Tony has written for iconic franchises like Doctor Who, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Star Trek, and has sold over a million crime novels under his pen name Jack Gatland.
In this conversation, Tony and I explore what happens when you stop letting fear dictate your choices and start asking for what you want. We discuss how he landed meetings with both Marvel and DC Comics on the same afternoon, how he pivoted during the pandemic to write and publish 55 novels in five years, and why striving for perfection is the fastest way to keep your art trapped on your computer.
In this episode, we discuss:
The Power of Asking: Why assuming a no in advance is the only guaranteed way to fail, and how asking bold questions opens unexpected doors.
The Marvel and DC Hustle: How Tony leveraged a single afternoon in New York to kickstart his comic writing career.
The Publisher Mindset: Why viewing yourself as a "publisher who writes" gives you complete creative authority over your work.
The 25 Stages of Publishing: Why writing the text is only one step in a larger process, and how breaking it down removes perfectionist overwhelm.
Perfectionism vs. Momentum: Why readers care about relatable characters and good storytelling rather than pristine, five-star perfection.
Community over Competition: Why independent publishing is "the land of the Smurfs" and how finding your tribe makes all the difference.
Chapters:
0:00 - Storytelling on exam paper backs and camping trips
5:47 - From computer programming to game reviews and street performing
8:28 - Pitching Marvel and DC in a single New York afternoon
10:37 - Why you should never assume a no in advance
17:45 - The pandemic pivot: From comics to 55 novels as Jack Gatland
21:49 - Self-publishing as a publisher who happens to write
28:58 - Writing for Doctor Who, Star Trek, and Marvel
37:57 - The 25 stages of publishing a book (and why writing is only step 1)
48:05 - Why perfectionism kills books and what readers actually care about
53:08 - Why indie creative communities are the land of the Smurfs
56:40 - Finding your way into the room (and what to do when you get there)
I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor. I specialize in using creativity to reconnect people with themselves, so you can make room for things that interest and delight you and feel like you’re actually alive again.
Get Your Takeaways and Join the Community:
Have a question for the Curiosity Clinic? Submit it here.
Send your inner critic to summer camp for an hour: Join the Creativity Circle
Want more? Here's a handy playlist with all my previous interviews with guests in writing.
Check out the full show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join us for the Follow Your Curiosity Creativity Circle.
Please leave a review for this episode—it’s really easy and will only take a minute, and it really helps me reach new listeners. Thanks!
If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.
1 hr
September 30Why You Feel Like a Machine (And How to Feel Alive Again) | Report from the Creative Closet #11
Have you ever looked at your life and realized that while everything is functional on paper, you aren't actually present for it?
Welcome to Reports from the Creative Closet! In this dispatch, I'm sharing one of the biggest reasons we feel so drained: we've built a system that treats human beings like machines, and then we do it to ourselves all over again when we get home.
If you are tired of living on autopilot, running on a hamster wheel, and scrolling your evening away because you have nothing left in the tank, this episode is your invitation to step off the track and choose aliveness instead.
In this episode, I discuss:
The Hamster Wheel Trap: How selling our time for a paycheck can turn us into appliances on a hamster wheel and make us afraid to express agency.
How "Shoulds" Contaminate Your Life: What a wild animal can teach us about breaking free from guilt and reclaiming how you actually live.
The Efficiency Trap: Why fitting 20 pounds of tasks into a 1-pound bag is a great skill in moderation, but a disaster for your energy.
Metal, Glass, and Real Life: Why screens are a simulacrum of connection and how to get back to real human presence.
My Restorative Creativity Framework™: Why making messy, pointless things for the sheer joy of it is the fastest path back to feeling human.
The Liam Neeson Warning: How to use the Daily Credit Report and Bingo Card as reminders of what you've done, without letting your inner critic turn them into productivity weapons.
Chapters:
0:00 - Waking up feeling like a machine
3:26 - The hamster wheel and the carpet track
6:47 - How "shoulds" contaminate your life
9:18 - The efficiency trap: Fitting 20 pounds into a 1-pound bag
13:41 - Creativity as the fastest path back to feeling human
18:00 - The Credit Report, Bingo Cards, and the Liam Neeson rule
I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor. I specialize in using creativity to reconnect people with themselves, so you can make room for things that interest and delight you and feel like you’re actually alive again.
Get Your Takeaways and Join the Community:
Grab your free printable Daily Credit Report and Bingo Card here.
Have a question for the Curiosity Clinic? Submit it here.
Send your inner critic to summer camp for an hour: Join the Creativity Circle here.
Catch up on earlier Reports from the Creative Closet here.
24 min
September 23Enzo Silon Surin: Reclaiming Imagination, Poetry, and the Power of Bad Art
What if you didn't actually lose your childhood imagination, but simply stopped giving yourself permission to use it?
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity! In this episode, I'm joined by Haitian-born poet, educator, publisher, and cultural curator Enzo Silon Surin. Enzo is the author of American Scapegoat and When My Body Was a Clenched Fist, the founder of Central Square Press, and an instructor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design.
Together, we explore why adults tend to define their creativity away, how modern technology tricks us into consuming other people's lives instead of living our own, and how viewing the world through a "poetic lens" can transform the way we ask questions.
In this episode, we discuss:
The Dentist Chair Epiphany: Why adults do not lose their imagination, and how we confuse adult responsibility with a lack of creative spark.
Consuming vs. Creating: Why we spend hours watching people on screens when we could be having real-world experiences ourselves.
The Virtual World Shift: How algorithms and social media comment sections simulate connection while distancing us from reality.
Tricking the Inner Critic: Why intentionally making "bad art" bypasses perfectionism and opens the door to genuine play.
The Ultimate Reward: How sharing authentic, imperfect creative work helps others feel seen and understood.
Episode breakdown:
0:00 - Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity
1:41 - Making kites in Haiti and childhood creativity
3:45 - The dentist debate: Do adults really lose their imagination?
13:58 - Consuming vs. creating: Why we watch others on screens
26:03 - Is technology warping our sense of reality?
37:35 - Poetry as a lens to ask deeper questions
45:29 - Writing "bad" art to trick your inner critic
51:03 - The real reward of art: Helping people feel seen
I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor. I help people feel alive again through curiosity and play.
Get Your Takeaways and Join the Community:
Send your inner critic to summer camp for an hour: Join the Creativity Circle
Learn more about Enzo Silon Surin and his work in the show notes!
Want more? Here are handy playlists with all my previous interviews with guests in writing.
Check out the full show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join us for the Follow Your Curiosity Creativity Circle.
Please leave a review for this episode—it’s really easy and will only take a minute, and it really helps me reach new listeners. Thanks!
If you enjoyed our conversation, I hope you’ll share it with a friend.
1 hr 10 min
September 16Case File #2: The $1500 Curiosity That Changed My Life
What is the one decision, pitch, or ticket you’ve been putting off because you’re terrified of what might happen—or what might not?
Welcome to Curiosity Clinic: Proceed at Your Own Risk!
When I set up this series, it never occurred to me that anyone would ask a question about my life. But listener Michael sent in a big one: "What's one curiosity you followed that ended up changing the direction of your life?"
Telling this story turned out to be surprisingly hard. After attempts to write it down this summer, and to record it for the Clinic, ended up being a complete disaster, I decided to practice what I preach: I gave myself permission to do it badly, messy and imperfect.
It’s the story of how a curiosity that started in 2012 with actor Sam Neill’s Twitter account eventually led me to spend $1,500 on an event ticket for the chance to meet him—and from there to New Zealand, some unexpected Doctor Who convention encounters, and, eventually, the creation of Follow Your Curiosity. If you stay with me until the end, it might just give you the nudge you need to change your life, too.
This episode is an invitation to look at the risks you’ve been talking yourself out of and the tickets you haven't bought yet.
I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor. I help people feel alive again through curiosity and play.
Episode breakdown:
0:00 — Welcome to the Curiosity Clinic
0:16 — Michael asks a question I wasn’t expecting
5:32 — The $1,500 ticket and a ridiculous chance
8:17 — Why I decided to go alone
18:43 — The trip to New Zealand
25:58 — The shower thought that became a podcast
29:07 — Asking a completely ridiculous question
31:45 — When “no” became easier to hear
39:45 — Buy the ticket. Send the pitch. Don’t wait.
Get Your Clinic Takeaways:
Grab your free printable Credit Report and Bingo Card here.
Submit your own question to the Clinic.
43 min
September 09Case File #1: Housewarming Bingo, Subconscious Hacks, and Crosswalk Confessions | Curiosity Clinic
Have you ever stood in the middle of a room full of cardboard packing boxes, felt completely paralyzed by the sheer volume of stuff, and realized you needed a way to bypass the dread?

Welcome to the very first actual episode of the Curiosity Clinic: Proceed at Your Own Risk! This is a brand-new, low-pressure playground built for perfectionists who want to take a break from performative adulthood and embrace some nonsense and play.

First, a quick warning: I have absolutely zero scientific, behavioral, or traffic-safety credentials. I am a master creativity coach taking my very best human guesses at your questions, so please do not go betting anyone or testing these theories out on a busy street!
In this inaugural clinical dispatch, we diagnose two excellent inquiries from our first "patients":
Lin wants to know how to make the exhausting, daunting task of packing up, moving, and unpacking an entire house actually fun.
Suzanne wants to know why drivers refuse to stop for pedestrians in unmarked crosswalks when they’re headed toward a red light anyway.
For Lin's moving question, we look at how to bypass resistance and make a heavy chore feel lighter using some of my favorite creative coaching tools. For Suzanne's traffic question, I step back from professional coaching to offer my amateur, observational human guess on driver behavior.

Get Your Clinic Takeaways:
Grab your free printable Credit Report and Customizable Bingo Card here.
Submit your own weird, confusing, or absurd question to the clinic here.

I’m Nancy Norbeck, your Messy Muse Mentor. I help people feel alive again through curiosity and play.
15 min
September 02Are Artists Actually Cowards and Liars? | Report from the Creative Closet #10
Have you ever shared a creative project that you felt really good about, only to have someone else's casual criticism completely crush your joy and send you into a downward spiral?

In this week's Report from the Creative Closet, I’m sharing a heartbreaking online post that has been on my mind all week. It’s from a grown man who tried music production, had fun, and loved his first creation—until a friend's feedback convinced him he was terrible, leading him to believe that artists are "cowards and liars" who rely on genetic destiny rather than hard work.
We unpack this painful situation to look at how adult expectations act as a form of creative amputation, slicing us away from our own souls. I share why your creative practice requires you to protect your quiet "Jiminy Cricket" voice from the loudspeakers of external critics, why the Restorative Creativity Framework(TM) is designed to bring those dormant parts of you back to life, and why the Fifth Doctor’s "Brave heart" rule is the ultimate key to giving yourself permission to create badly.

I’m Nancy Norbeck, and I’m your Messy Muse Mentor. I help people feel alive again through curiosity and play.

In this episode, we discuss:
The Zombie Effect: Why society's rejection of adult play cuts us off from the external animal form of our souls.
Jiminy Cricket vs. The Loudspeaker: How to keep external critiques from overriding your personal data and enjoyment.
The Myth of Genetics: Why assuming creativity is a magical, effortless gift leads directly to despair, and how to embrace the slow process of learning.
The Toddler's Rage to Master: Why toddlers fall flat on their faces, laugh, and try again, and why adults lose the patience to do the same.
Mark Cuban's AI Mistake: Why iterating instantly with technology destroys the entire psychological benefit of the creative journey.
Ready to send your inner critic to summer camp for an hour? We get together once a month for a relaxed, co-working-style session where you can work on whatever you want—without any pressure to do it "right." Join the Creativity Circle.

Episode breakdown:

0:00 Welcome to the Creative Closet
0:07 The heartbreak of suppressed creativity
2:30 Creative Amputation (Are we zombies?)
5:21 When critics kill your joy
10:58 The "genetic" creative myth
12:50 How to fall and laugh like a toddler
19:34 Why Mark Cuban is wrong about AI
21:42 Reconnecting with your aliveness

Please note: The original Reddit post isn’t linked because I don’t want to direct traffic toward the person who wrote it or encourage anyone to contact or harass them. Please don’t try to track them down.
25 min
August 31 Introducing the Curiosity Clinic: Proceed at Your Own Risk!
Consider this your official invitation to exit performative adulthood for a few minutes and play in the sandbox of the unknown. This brand-new series is a low-pressure space for the weird, confusing, and delightfully trivial questions that pop into your head when you're supposed to be doing something else.

Episodes will release here and on YouTube as time and interest allow.

What’s your weirdest question? Send it my way and let's tackle it together!

Curiosity Clinic is entertainment and conversation, not professional medical, legal, financial, or other professional advice. I reserve the right to decide which questions I answer.
2 min

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Follow Your Curiosity: You didn’t lose your creative spark. You were taught to leave it behind.

Follow Your Curiosity: You didn’t lose your creative spark. You were taught to leave it behind. episodes

About Follow Your Curiosity: You didn’t lose your creative spark. You were taught to leave it behind.