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

Amber Petty attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, taught musical improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade, and starred in an off-Broadway show based on the 50 Shades books. She also discovered that the life she’d imagined and the one she was living weren’t the same, and shifted into writing. She also helps ordinary people build confidence about singing at SingADifferentTune.com. We talk about the realities of life as an actor; dealing with rejection (and whether that’s harder as an actor or a writer), how “overnight success” really works, why singing is such a vulnerable act, and more.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Amber Petty attended the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York, taught musical improv at the Upright Citizens Brigade, and starred in an off-Broadway show based on the 50 Shades books. She also discovered that the life she’d imagined and the one she was living weren’t the same, and shifted into writing. She also helps ordinary people build confidence about singing at SingADifferentTune.com. We talk about the realities of life as an actor; dealing with rejection (and whether that’s harder as an actor or a writer), how “overnight success” really works, why singing is such a vulnerable act, and more.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

David Spencer is the creative force behind the Mischief Factory, where he seeks to create fun and adventure through art and illustration. He recently illustrated a new children's book, The Epic Adventures of Huggie and Stick, and also draws his own clever characters as well as commissioned and fandom-based art.

Dave embodies the ideas of mischief and fun, and has more creative energy than almost anyone I've ever met. We talk about how he got started in illustration, as well as impostor syndrome, how he fits his art into his busy schedule, and how he interacts with kids, both to fuel his own work and to encourage theirs. (Dave is basically a big kid himself, which helps!)

Visit fycuriosity.com for full show notes and links for this episode, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

David Spencer is the creative force behind the Mischief Factory, where he seeks to create fun and adventure through art and illustration. He recently illustrated a new children's book, The Epic Adventures of Huggie and Stick, and also draws his own clever characters as well as commissioned and fandom-based art.

Dave embodies the ideas of mischief and fun, and has more creative energy than almost anyone I've ever met. We talk about how he got started in illustration, as well as impostor syndrome, how he fits his art into his busy schedule, and how he interacts with kids, both to fuel his own work and to encourage theirs. (Dave is basically a big kid himself, which helps!)

Visit fycuriosity.com for full show notes and links for this episode, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Lela Rohrer Stech is an artist based in New York. Lela’s work is playful and fun, and so is she. (You’ll hear us talk about one painting I could see in the background, from a distance, and I’ve included a photo of that painting in the show notes at fycuriosity.com so you can see it, too.) In addition to her art, we talk about what she learned from living abroad, and how everything we learn somehow manages to come together in a useful way over time.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Lela Rohrer Stech is an artist based in New York. Lela’s work is playful and fun, and so is she. (You’ll hear us talk about one painting I could see in the background, from a distance, and I’ve included a photo of that painting in the show notes at fycuriosity.com so you can see it, too.) In addition to her art, we talk about what she learned from living abroad, and how everything we learn somehow manages to come together in a useful way over time.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Adam Dietz grew up in small-town Pennsylvania, went to Westminster Choir College in New Jersey, and then moved to New York to seek his fortune on the Broadway stage. Things didn't go quite the way he'd planned. Adam and I talk about what it's like to audition in New York, how to survive even without your creative dream coming true—and the effects of making that sacrifice—and how you actually can come home again and find work that fulfills your dream, even if home is a rural area rather than the big city.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Adam Dietz grew up in small-town Pennsylvania, went to Westminster Choir College in New Jersey, and then moved to New York to seek his fortune on the Broadway stage. Things didn't go quite the way he'd planned. Adam and I talk about what it's like to audition in New York, how to survive even without your creative dream coming true—and the effects of making that sacrifice—and how you actually can come home again and find work that fulfills your dream, even if home is a rural area rather than the big city.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Nina Hart is a writer, dancer, stand-up comedian, and improv artist who is also a fellow Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach. Her first collection of surreal short fictions called Somewhere in a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere was selected as a Short Stories (Adult Fiction) category finalist in Foreword Reviews' 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. Nina was also an original member of the experimental dance troupe Contraband, in San Francisco and, playing a purple electric bass, has recorded and performed with numerous bands. 

Nina joined me to talk about everything from stage fright and vulnerability to how we teach vs. how we should teach to the inner critic and just what "good" means, if anything. (Spoiler: We're not convinced it means much!) Like my interview with Dawn Kotzer, there's a lot to take in here.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!

Nina Hart is a writer, dancer, stand-up comedian, and improv artist who is also a fellow Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coach. Her first collection of surreal short fictions called Somewhere in a Town You Never Knew Existed Somewhere was selected as a Short Stories (Adult Fiction) category finalist in Foreword Reviews' 2014 IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. Nina was also an original member of the experimental dance troupe Contraband, in San Francisco and, playing a purple electric bass, has recorded and performed with numerous bands. 

Nina joined me to talk about everything from stage fright and vulnerability to how we teach vs. how we should teach to the inner critic and just what "good" means, if anything. (Spoiler: We're not convinced it means much!) Like my interview with Dawn Kotzer, there's a lot to take in here.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook and Instagram! You can rate and review the show here. Thanks!