In this gentle, honest, deeply encouraging conversation, Anna talks with Ilona Glastonbury, Instagram strategist, chronic illness survivor, and founder of the Quiet Creatives Academy — a space for sensitive and introverted creatives who want to grow on Instagram without burning out or becoming someone they’re not.

Ilona’s journey from potter to disabled creative to Instagram coach is rooted in lived experience: learning how to find visibility that honors her health, her energy, and her nervous system. Now she helps other Quiet Creatives do the same — creating simple, sustainable strategies for showing up online with integrity and ease.

In this episode, we explore:

• What a “Quiet Creative” actually is
• The unique challenges Quiet Creatives face on Instagram (and why typical marketing advice doesn’t work for them)
• Ilona’s personal experience with fear of visibility — and the practices that help her move through it
• Why authenticity performs better than performative content
• Why quiet voices are needed more than ever in online spaces
• How Ilona helps clients grow their reach and sell their work without betraying who they are
• What lights her up most when supporting her clients and groups
• How to build a relationship with Instagram that’s sustainable for sensitive, introverted, or chronically ill creatives

This episode is like a cup of tea and a permission slip — especially if you’ve ever wondered whether you can grow online without losing yourself.

Connect with Ilona

• Instagram: @quietcreativesacademy / @ottimade
• Free resources for Anna’s audience: https://www.thequietcreativesacademy.com/annah

Connect with Anna

Seen & SafeA supportive, intimate group for sensitive creatives, practitioners, and entrepreneurs who want to reconnect with themselves, work with fear instead of against it, and return to flow again and again.

• Enrollment open now through January 26
  👉 https://www.annaholtzman.com/seenandsafe

Free Workshop — Let Yourself Be SeenCurious about the work before committing? Join Anna for a replay of her free workshop where you’ll get a taste of the tools shared in Seen & Safe, including a gentle introduction to the Melt-Through Method.
👉 https://www.annaholtzman.com/beseen

Questions?
Sent me an email [email protected]

In this episode, Anna sits down with Chantelle Adams — professional speaker, story strategist, and “courage igniter” — to explore what it really takes to share your story out loud, even when fear is loud in your body.

Chantelle has delivered over 1,000 talks, built a six-figure speaking business, and helped countless women craft and share talks that feel like a homecoming to who they really are. But this work was born from loss, grief, and a wake-up call: realizing she was alive but not truly living — and that fear had been quietly running the show.

Now she helps other “rebels with a cause” get their brave on, find the message inside their lived experience, and turn that message into a movement.

In this episode, we explore:

• Why speaking your truth matters in a world where everyone technically “has a voice”
• How Chantelle went from living in quiet fear to writing her Fear List and crossing items off, one brave act at a time
• The deeper fears underneath “fear of public speaking” (it’s not just about the stage)
• The patterns Anna saw in herself while working with Chantelle — and why this work was so transformative for her
• How to move through fears like:
• “I’m not good enough”
• “Who am I to say this?”
• “What if I fail… or succeed?”
• “What will people think of me?”
• What Chantelle means by “channeling” when she speaks and does story work with clients (and how that’s different from memorizing a script)
• Simple ways you can begin to tap into your own channel — even if that word feels woo-woo or unfamiliar
• Why your story is not just content, but the spark for a revolution in how you and your people live, work, and lead

You’ll walk away with a more compassionate understanding of your fear, a clearer sense of how powerful your story already is, and some very grounded next steps for bringing your voice into the world.

Connect with Chantelle

• Website: https://chantelleadams.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chantellespeaks/
• Speaker Amplifier: https://speak.chantelleadams.com/the-speaking-amplifier

Connect with Anna

Seen & Safe
A supportive, intimate group for sensitive creatives, practitioners, and entrepreneurs who want to reconnect with themselves, work with fear instead of against it, and return to flow again and again.

• Enrollment open now through January 26
  👉 https://www.annaholtzman.com/seenandsafe

Free Live Workshop — Let Yourself Be Seen
Curious about the work before committing? Join Anna for a live, free workshop where you’ll get a taste of the tools shared in Seen & Safe, including a gentle introduction to the Melt-Through Method.

• Tuesday, January 20
• Live + replay available
• Register here:
  👉 https://www.annaholtzman.com/beseenLIVE

Questions? Send me an email [email protected]

What if your discomfort with leadership isn’t a confidence issue — but an old nervous-system story that’s never been updated?

In this solo episode, Anna explores the concept of a leadership wound: early experiences that quietly shape how safe (or unsafe) it feels to step into leadership later in life.

Drawing from a personal story from fourth grade — when stepping into a natural leadership role suddenly became fraught — Anna unpacks how childhood interpretations can linger beneath the surface, influencing our relationship with visibility, authority, and being seen.

You’ll hear:

• Why leadership can trigger fear even when it feels aligned
• How childhood experiences shape our nervous system’s response to leadership
• The difference between a visibility wound and a leadership wound
• How old stories can run quietly in the background until we name them
• Gentle ways to begin updating these stories with adult awareness and compassion

Anna also invites listeners to reflect on their own relationship with leadership — and offers journaling prompts to help process early experiences that may still be shaping how you show up today.

If you’re a sensitive creative, entrepreneur, or leader who feels a pull toward leadership and a simultaneous urge to shrink back, this episode offers a compassionate lens for understanding why — and a softer way forward.

Work With Anna

If you want to explore visibility, leadership, and nervous-system safety in community, Anna’s membership Seen & Safe is currently open for enrollment.

Seen & Safe is a twice-monthly group for sensitive creatives, entrepreneurs, and leaders who want to practice being seen without overriding their nervous system.

Learn more or join here:
👉 www.annaholtzman.com/seenandsafe

 Anna is also hosting a free live workshop, Let Yourself Be Seen, for those who want a taste of this work before committing: www.annaholtzman.com/beseen

In this inspiring conversation, Anna is joined by Stacey Brass-Russell—performer, yoga teacher, studio owner, master-level coach, and creator of the E.V.O.L.V.E. change system—to explore what it truly takes to reinvent yourself at any age.

Stacey shares her extraordinary path from Broadway to wellness to coaching, and how she learned to turn fear, uncertainty, and life upheaval into fuel for the next iteration of her purpose. Together, we examine how sensitive creatives can move through overwhelm, trust their desires, and build businesses that feel both aligned and abundant.

In this episode, we explore:

• How to get out of overwhelm and into clear, grounded, doable action
• Why so many people stay stuck in a chapter that no longer fits—and what it takes to choose evolution
• How Stacey helps clients shift limiting beliefs about money, self-worth, and the ethics of abundance
• The emotional and identity challenges of making a midlife career pivot
• Why reinvention is less about starting over and more about remembering who you’ve always been
• How to build a values-driven coaching or service-based business using clarity, alignment, and service instead of hustle

Connect with Stacey

• Website: https://www.staceybrassrussell.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/staceybrassrussell/
• Free resource: 7 actionable steps to shift your mindset, get in gear, and start making money right now www.staceybrassrussell.com/money-mindset-anna-podcast

Connect with Anna

• Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anna_holtzman/

In this short solo episode, Anna explores a gentle, nervous-system–informed approach to getting back into flow when things feel hard.

Instead of treating frustration, fear, or burnout as problems to fix, Anna offers a different framework: these states are signals of inner conflict — moments when parts of us want different things at the same time. And it’s that internal tug-of-war, not the emotions themselves, that drains our energy and pulls us out of flow.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to stop fighting yourself and start bringing your energy back onto one team.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why frustration, fear, and burnout aren’t the problem — and what actually is
• How inner conflict drains your energy (and how to gently resolve it)
• A simple practice for working with frustration instead of spiraling against it
• How to meet fear with care, curiosity, and reassurance — rather than self-criticism
• Why burnout is often a signal to rest intentionally, not push harder
• How choosing rest can actually bring creativity, motivation, and clarity back online
• Why practicing these tools in community can create an upward spiral of support and flow

Anna also shares how these practices are used inside Seen & Safe, her twice-monthly group for sensitive creatives, practitioners, and entrepreneurs who want to move forward without overriding their nervous system.

Work With Anna

Seen & SafeA supportive, intimate group for sensitive creatives, practitioners, and entrepreneurs who want to reconnect with themselves, work with fear instead of against it, and return to flow again and again.

• Enrollment reopens January 14
• Join the waitlist for early access:
  👉 https://www.annaholtzman.com/seenandsafe

Free Live Workshop — Let Yourself Be SeenCurious about the work before committing? Join Anna for a live, free workshop where you’ll get a taste of the tools shared in Seen & Safe, including a gentle introduction to the Melt-Through Method.

• Tuesday, January 20
• Live + replay available
• Register here:
  👉 https://www.annaholtzman.com/beseenLIVE

Questions?
Sent me an email [email protected]

If you’re a sensitive creative, healer, or entrepreneur, then whether you use the word “launch” or not—you’re always putting something out into the world. A new offer. A group program. A workshop. A book. An idea.

And let’s be honest: that visibility can feel vulnerable, overwhelming, and dysregulating.

But what if launching didn’t have to feel like forcing yourself into a mold? What if it could feel more grounded, intuitive—and actually energizing?

In this episode, I’m joined by Danielle Weil, copy and marketing strategist and creator of LaunchFlow®, a methodology that helps expert business owners launch in a way that builds momentum without burnout. Over the past two decades, Danielle has written dozens of 6- and 7-figure launches and generated over $170M in sales—but her approach centers flow, alignment, and ease (not hustle, urgency, or bro-marketing tactics).

We talk about:
✨ What “energy-aligned launching” really means (and why it matters)
✨ How to spot the sneaky signs that your strategy is out of sync with your natural rhythm
✨ Why resistance might not be a mindset issue—but a sign that something’s off
✨ Common traps sensitive entrepreneurs fall into when launching—and how to shift out of them
✨ Client transformation stories that show what’s possible when you launch from a place of flow
✨ Why having support to reflect your blind spots can help you come back into alignment
✨ Danielle’s “soapbox” message for anyone trying to find their way in business without selling out

Whether you're launching a product, a service, a program—or simply yourself—this conversation is here to remind you that you don’t have to sacrifice your energy, your well-being, or your truth to grow your business.

✨ Connect with Danielle:LaunchFlow Roadmap: www.dwcopy.com/roadmap
Podcast: Market Like a Parent
Instagram: @daniellekweil
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/danielleweil

✨ Connect with Anna:
Free workshop — Let Yourself Be Seen: www.annaholtzman.com/beseen
Instagram: @anna.holtzman
Email: [email protected]

This week, I’m bringing you inside a corner of my work that I don’t usually share publicly — my visibility membership, Seen & Safe.

Seen & Safe is where sensitive creatives, coaches, and entrepreneurs come when they want to be visible, but also want to feel safe while doing it. We meet twice a month for nervous-system-safe visibility coaching, and between sessions we stay connected inside a private Slack community.
It’s a space where people ask the honest questions, name the fears they usually hide, and practice being seen in real time.

In today’s episode, I’m sharing a handful of the voice notes I recently sent inside our Slack channel — anonymized, of course — paired with the questions that inspired them.

You’ll hear coaching around:

• How to find your authentic story when fear feels louder than your voice
• What motivates creativity when you’re no longer running on survival-mode urgency
• How to hold boundaries (like session time) from a place of care, not guilt
• What it means to “hold the vision” when life throws a curveball
• Why visibility aftercare is normal — and how to build capacity for it over time

These are the kinds of conversations that unfold inside Seen & Safe all the time — slow, real, compassionate, nuanced, and deeply human. My hope is that you hear something today that helps you feel less alone in your own visibility journey.

Seen & Safe opens for enrollment again in January.
If you want to be the first to know when doors open, join the waitlist here:
👉 annaholtzman.com/seenandsafe

Thanks for listening, and for being part of this work. If this episode resonates, share it with someone who might need it.

In this episode, Anna sits down with Laylee Emadi—educator, speaker, podcaster, and founder of the Creative Educator Conference—to talk about building a values-driven business rooted in authenticity, service, and real community.

A former high school teacher turned multi-passionate entrepreneur, Laylee shares how she transitioned into coaching creatives, and how her love for education continues to shape the way she supports others. Together, they explore how to lead with heart in a world that often pushes polish and performance.

Inside this conversation:

• Why community is central to Laylee’s work—and how it fuels connection and longevity in business

• How to break free from the “shoulds” and build a business that reflects your actual self
  
• The visibility blocks so many creatives face (like imposter syndrome and fear of taking up space)—and how to work through them

• Client transformation stories that show what’s possible when you lead with clarity, integrity, and courage

• Laylee’s powerful reminder that you’re allowed to do business differently—and that service is more powerful than ego

Whether you're building a business, stepping into leadership, or just trying to find your voice in a noisy world, this episode is a breath of fresh air and a call back to what really matters.

Connect with Laylee:
🔗 Website: https://layleeemadi.com
📸 Instagram: @laylee_emadi
🎧Podcast: The Laylee Emadi Podcast

Connect with Anna:
🔗 Website: https://www.annaholtzman.com
📸 Instagram: @anna_holtzman
📩 Email: [email protected]

What if your business didn’t have to be built on burnout?

In this heart-centered episode, I sit down with Molly Balint—business mentor, speaker, Instagram nerd, and founder of the SOFT Business Movement—to explore what it means to lead and grow from a place of gentleness, sustainability, and soul.

Molly’s journey into entrepreneurship began nearly 20 years ago as a blogger and photographer documenting life on a fixer-upper farmhouse with four young daughters. Since then, she’s worked as a social media strategist for a major global parenting brand, been featured in national magazines, and most importantly—built a mentorship practice helping women uncover their meaningful work without hardening themselves to do it.

If you’re a sensitive soul longing to turn your passion into a business—or scale the one you already have—this episode will remind you that soft is the new strong.

✨ In this episode, we explore:

• What a “SOFT business” really is—and how it supports your nervous system
• Why ambition doesn’t have to mean overexertion
• The most common struggles Molly sees in her clients—and how she helps them move through
• How Molly’s own business has evolved through the seasons of motherhood, creativity, and leadership
• Encouragement for sensitive creatives who feel called to something more but don’t know where to start

This conversation is a balm if you’re tired of being told to hustle harder. Molly brings a gentle, grounded presence—and shows us that impact doesn’t have to come at the cost of integrity or wellbeing.

🧡 Connect with Molly:

• Website: www.mollybalint.com
• Instagram: @molly.balint
• Join her Prep School community: https://www.skool.com/prepschool/about

🌿 Want to work with me?
Explore 1:1 coaching or join my newsletter for sensitive creatives, coaches, and entrepreneurs ready to take up space without selling their soul:
👉 www.annaholtzman.com
👉 @anna_holtzman on Instagram
📩 Email: [email protected]

The “messy middle” is the part most of us want to skip—after the rush of a new beginning and long before the satisfying finish. In this solo episode, I share why this season is not a mistake, how it shows up in creative work, business, and relationships, and what actually helps you stay with it instead of self-isolating or burning it all down.

I tell two behind-the-scenes stories:

• Subway Dreams: the indie documentary I stopped promoting after a harsh review—plus the counter-example of a director who kept iterating, resubmitting, and ultimately premiered at Tribeca.
• Marriage in real life: what it looked like to stay through a rocky, high-conflict period with my now-husband—and the specific supports that got us through.

You’ll hear:

• What the messy middle is (and why it feels like tangled spaghetti)
• Why the instinct to self-isolate makes it harder—and what to do instead
• How to use pacing, breaks, and co-regulation so you don’t crash and torch the project
• Why holding a clear vision and finding pleasure now keeps you moving
• The mindset reframe: care more about connection than “saving face”

Try this:

• Get support (coach or buddy up)
• Pace yourself and take real breaks
• Keep your vision close—and let yourself enjoy the process now
• When fear of “how it looks” spikes, return to connection (clients, audience, partner, community, self)

Work with me
If you’re in your own messy middle and want steady support—nervous-system-safe, compassionate, and practical—I offer 1:1 coaching and a small group space.

• Website: www.annaholtzman.com
• Email: [email protected]
• IG: @anna_holtzman

Thanks for listening—and for staying with your process. You’re not behind; you’re in it.