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

If you've been waiting to feel motivated to do your creative work, you may be surprised to learn that you're actually doing things backwards. (If you haven't listened to the Pep Talk about "Five Minutes," I suggest you listen to it in conjunction with this one!)

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Learn more and register here.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. 

It’s no secret that a lot of creative people absolutely love doing their creative work, but seize up at the idea of selling it. I invited Annie P. Ruggles, also known simply as Annie P., to the podcast to share why selling doesn’t have to be evil, and how to get around our fears and worries involving selling creative work. Annie, a former theater kid, now runs the Non-Sleazy Sales Academy, which aims to help those of us who are marketing and sales averse get our work into the world in an ethical way we can feel good about. We talk about the myth that arts and humanities degrees are worthless, why selling—and buying—are things we all do all the time, how to price creative work, how to avoid falling into the trap of creating solely to make money, and more.

Episode breakdown:

00:00 Introduction and ethical selling.

06:01 Dad hated engineering, so choose passion instead.

08:21 Indecisive about practicality vs. passion for education.

10:53 Hosted quirky singing contests, now a marketing assistant.

16:39 Art and selling both aim to engage.

17:38 Ethical selling guides emotions for a purpose.

21:53 Challenges the idea of corruptible consumption.

26:17 Customer service, group calls, trading time. Avoiding negotiation and chaos.

30:04 Struggle to afford it, observe positive behaviors.

33:03 Set the price based on labor and creativity.

37:27 Curiosity about success beyond traditional careers persists.

40:47 Avenue Q song questions value of English degree.

42:36 Create for passion before seeking financial gain.

47:00 Some people don't like anime or cosplay.

50:24 Overcoming societal norms to pursue creative passions.

55:29 Having honest conversation, avoiding being manipulative.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about your relationship with money and creativity!

Want more? Check out this playlist with all my previous entrepreneurial guests!

Sign up for my FREE monthly Unconventional Inspiration Circle here: https://fycuriosity.meetfy.online/uic

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. 

Once you've wrangled with the truth, what do you DO with it? (Spoiler: don't ignore it.)

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when you listened to your wisdom! 

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Learn more and register here.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. 

Hillary Webb describes herself as a cultural anthropologist, author, and mixed-media storyteller with a focus on theater anthropology and cross-cultural perspectives on human consciousness. It’s a mix that covers a lot of territory, both literally and figuratively. Hillary has traveled the world for research on shamanism and consciousness, and has even managed to stumble into the world of stand-up comedy in Berlin. We talk about Western ideas of individualism and how they influence our ideas of being part of a group, how those dynamics function in a place like Peru, and how they all influence our senses of who we really are. We also explore the current cultural ideal of authenticity and how it intersects with enthusiasm—and come to a conclusion that might surprise you.

If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review, and in it, tell us something you're enthusiastic about, whether large or small.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Register here.

Need a dose of calm and wonder? Join me for Gratitude and Wonder! Register here.

Do you recognize and respect the truth? Or is your relationship with it a little different? Spoiler: It may not be what you think it is! 

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when you realized you were trying to outwit the truth! 

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Learn more and register here.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. 

[I'm on vacation this week, so I'm re-upping one of my favorite interviews from the last year. I'll be back with new episodes next week!]

Musician Paul Bessenbacher, known to his friends and fans as PB, lives a genuine optimism best summed up in his signature statement: “It’s gonna be great.” PB has followed the flow of that sentiment from an undergraduate degree that let him experiment with every genre he could find, to learning recording engineering on the fly, to forming a band—more of a collaboration—Opus Orange. Oh, and he also composes for film.

We talk about all that and particularly about how he navigates the flow, avoids being bogged down by worry, and why we should all embrace failure and give each other grace for being imperfect.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Learn more and register here.

Well, covid finally got to me, so this week's pep talk is a replay, and one that seemed fitting, considering. Please enjoy while I rest up, so I can be back with new episodes in September.

It's okay to rest! In fact, I highly encourage it. And I'm telling you why in under three minutes.

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when you let yourself rest, and how it made a difference!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Learn more and register here.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. 

Linda King caught the travel bug at an early age. She also grew up in a family of writers. After working in the travel and banking industries—and discovering that there was an appetite for her travel advice—she started The Smart Travelista: a website and series of travel books to help people travel wisely and save money doing it. Linda tells me more about that journey and about her more recent foray into creative nonfiction, and also offers some travel tips and a pep talk for anyone who needs a little motivation to give travel a try. We also talk about how travel influences your creative process.

If you enjoy this episode, please leave a review, and in it, tell us how travel has influenced your life.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Learn more and register here.

Sign up for my monthly Gratitude and Wonder session here.

A pep talk AND an invitation: How Parallel Universe Time can help you get past procrastination and get things done. If you're intrigued, you're invited to join us for scheduled PUT sessions that will help you make progress and energize your creative process.

Register here for the Zoom link and to be kept informed of new PUT session times.

Questions? Contact me at [email protected]

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

What if I told you your creative blocks are totally normal? There's nothing wrong with you. 

Please leave a review and in it, tell us about a time when you realized you were actually totally normal, and how that felt!

Want more tips? Check out this playlist with all my previous Creative Pep Talks!

Get stuff DONE at my free Creative Check-In/Parallel Universe Time session. Learn more and register here.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY.