No Time to be Timid

Bonus Episode: Eric Masterson Tells his Story of Hawks, Near-Death, and the Best of Humanity

During this season in the United States, we’re repeatedly told about how divided we are as a nation, so I thought it was important to tell a few stories about how wonderful people can be. To illustrate the point, I interviewed my husband, Eric Masterson, who is an expert birder, author, and survivor of a catastrophic hang gliding crash four years ago this week. That experience profoundly changed both of us for many reasons, one being the tidal wave of kindness we experienced. And this episode covers more than kindness. We talk about following passions, holding plans loosely, and taking risks. My husband is a lot of things, and timid is not one of them.

Learn more about Eric here.

Follow him on Facebook @ericmasterson and on Instagram @bellcurvebirding.

And check out the regional Emmy Award-winning documentary, Nightsongs.

I don't talk about politics on my show. I talk about creativity and I interview guests who can help all of us step into our creative selves. But then J.D. Vance started talking about "childless cat ladies," and as a woman without children, I have a problem with that. So I thought it was important to air a story I told on the StoryCollider stage some years ago about my ambivalence towards motherhood and my call to become an artist. The story is part of a larger piece I've been working on called "Be Fruitful and Multiply."  If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it. You can reach out to me at [email protected].

R. Eric Thomas is a creative powerhouse. First, he’s masterful on stage not only as a storyteller, but also as the long running host of The Moth StorySlams in Philadelphia. Second, he writes for every possible medium — he’s a television writer for shows airing on Apple TV and FX; an award-winning playwright; and the author of  several books, including the national bestsellers Here For It, or How to Save Your Soul in America and his latest book, Congratulations, The Best is Over!

Many people first learned about Eric from his daily humor column on Elle.com “Eric Reads the News.” And as of July 1, he’s writing the nationally syndicated advice column “Asking Eric.”

Here's the thing: Eric’s incredible career journey started with a Facebook post that went viral. But he's no overnight success. He was able to capitalize on that opportunity because he’d been preparing for years.

Takeaways

• Opportunities can come unexpectedly, so it's important to be prepared and be ready to seize them — something Eric knows about first hand
• Success usually comes from years of honing your craft.
• Perfection is rarely attainable, so grant yourself some grace.
• Libraries are places of endless discovery, no matter your age.
• And creativity is what brings us hope.

Resources

Learn more about Eric's work including his new advice column "Asking Eric," here.

Check out The Moth and maybe tell a story!

View Eric's Creative Mornings Philadelphia talk (you can see the Facebook post!)

My neighbors, the NYTimes bestselling author Sy Montgomery and acclaimed author Howard Mansfield, have been married for 37 years. In that time, they’ve built and sustained a writing life that’s produced about 40 books between them. And even though they’re a unit, they’ve dedicated their lives to separate creative interests. Sy writes on behalf of animals — she’s best known for her books The Good, Good Pig and The National Book Award Finalist, The Soul of an Octopus — and Howard writes about architecture, preservation, and history in his quest to understand the soul of American places.

And while they live in the same home, they usually don’t know what project the other one is working on.That’s because they give each other the space, support, and feedback that each other needs to do their best work. In a rare combined media appearance, Sy and Howard share how we can treat the artists in our lives and model how to pursue our own creative efforts.

Takeaways:

• Honor the artist in ourselves and in each other
• Create dedicated time for writing
• Provide useful feedback to fellow artists
• Repurpose work to find new ways to share stories, and
• Create connections through writing

Resources:

Check out their websites: Sy Montgomery and Howard Mansfield

Follow Sy on social media: Instagram @sytheauthor and Facebook @symontgomery

Follow Howard on social media: Instagram @howardmansfieldauthor and Facebook @howardmansfield

Learn more about composer Ben Cosgrove

View Howard and Ben’s short film: “A Journey to the White Mountains”

Listen to my conversation with Liz and Matt Meyer Bolton of the SALT project

You know the saying, "bloom where you're planted"? My guest, Nora Fiffer, embodies it. She’s an actor, director, and producer in both theater and film and like me, she lives in rural New Hampshire. She moved here from Chicago about eight years ago, and since she's arrived, she's co-founded the award-winning Firelight Theatre Workshop, which is now in its seventh season; produced two short films using local talent; and is set to release her first feature film, Another Happy Day, this fall.

Nora also embodies the eighth principle of the No Time to be Timid Manifesto, “Constraints are opportunities.” Like most of us, Nora has limited space, resources, and most of all time, because in her case, Nora's raising two children. Still, Nora brings big creative ideas to a small town. So fair warning, if you have any excuses for not stepping into your creative practice, Nora's probably going to shoot them down.

Take Aways

• Embracing constraints can lead to innovative and creative solutions.
• Having projects at different stages of the creative process allows for continuous flow of creativity.
• Taking risk and trusting the audience are key to artistic growth.
• And finally, balancing creativity and motherhood — or any kind of caregiving — requires patience, time management, and prioritizing your creative work.

Resources

Nora Fiffer

Firelight Theatre Workshop

Another Happy Day

Dinner Time

Dan Hurlin

Skylight, by David Hare

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Rain by Will Eno

The Pavilion, by Craig Wright

The 100 Best Small Art Towns in America

There are few individuals in the world who can convince people to get out of bed and start dancing at 6:00 am completely sober. Radha Agrawal, the co-founder, CEO and Chief Community architect of Daybreaker, the global morning sober dance and wellness movement, is one of them. And for the past 10 years, a half a million people across 33 cities and five continents have joined her. And here’s the thing. Radha — a social entrepreneur whose mission is to bring more joy and belonging to the world — started out as an investment banker. Believe it or not, there’s a much straighter line between where she started and where she is now than you might think. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of building an intentional community, Daybreak’s upcoming Purple Tour targeting the swing states, and her newest project, The Belong Center.
 

Takeaways

• the importance of knowing the numbers in developing a successful community or artistic enterprise
• the power of intentionally building our communities
• the strength of prioritizing community over career and romance
• that dance is a powerful way to combat loneliness and promote well-being
• the role of community in supporting our dreams.

Resources

• Learn more about Radha and her work.
• Find out when DayBreaker is coming to a town near you!
• And explore what the Belong Center offers to combat loneliness (and maybe sponsor a bench!)

At 84 years old, Laura Wilson could run circles around most of us. She throws herself into her creative projects — which often take years to complete — with high energy and optimism. She moves quickly, never dallying when pursuing her creative work (a missed opportunity to photograph John Updike still stings). And her work reveals the humanity and stories behind individuals, communities, and events that we rarely see -- cockfighting, cowboys, drug smuggling searches, debutantes, world-famous authors, and reclusive religious groups. In our conversation, we talk about working with famed photographer Richard Avedon, the keys to her decades-long career, and her induction into the National Cowgirl Hall of Fame (at age 79).

Takeaways

• Hardwork and discipline are as essential to the creative process as creativity and imagination.
• To complete a project, you must have a laser-like focus and obsession.
• If you have a creative idea, don’t dilly dally. You must move quickly and decisively or you may miss your opportunity.
• Pay attention and stay alert so you can capture creative moments.

Resources

Laura Wilson

Richard Avedon

The Amon Carter Museum of Art

The National Cowgirl Hall of Fame

Eudora Welty

Meadows Museum
 

Tim O’Brien

Tobias Wolf

Cormac McCarthy

Tom Stoppard

Carlos Fuentes

Marvin Israel

Get ready to be inspired (and possibly cry). Richard Casper, co-founder of Creativets, shares his journey from combat Marine to champion of the arts. A wounded veteran — Richard’s Humvee was blown up four times in Iraq and he watched his dear friend die — Richard credits art and songwriting with saving his life. To help other veterans heal as he did, Richard co-founded Creativets, an organization that uses art and music to help wounded veterans heal from Post Traumatic Stress and brain injuries. For his work, Richard was named one of Time Magazine’s Next Generation Leaders and a CNN Hero, among many other accolades. And his creativity expands beyond his nonprofit. He’s also an entrepreneur, most recently creating an app called We Should Write Some Time, which connects songwriters around the world. This is a powerful episode about how art not only heals but also saves lives -- repurposing devastating memories as good ones and remapping our experiences.

Takeaways:

• Dream big and stick with your dream, no matter how hard it gets because you have no idea the impact you’ll eventually make
• Ask for what you want — the worst thing that can happen is they will say no
• Art is an option for everyone

Resources:

Follow Creativets @creativets

Follow Richard @veteranart

Follow the songwriting app, We Should Write Sometime @weshouldwritesometime

Find out more about Creativets and donate!

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

The Intrepid Center

Mark Irwin

American Warrior Partnership

Camp Resilience

Big Machine Label Group

Singer/songwriter Lila Forde stands at a launch point in her career. She’s a self-sustaining, working musician, who’s been at it for years. And if you’re a fan of The Voice, you know that in Season 24 last fall, Lila earned a coveted 4-chair turn and went from a gigging girl in LA to one of the show’s top vocalists with adoring fans nationwide. Finishing among the five finalists, Lila continues to be compared to Joni Mitchell and her coach John Legend, describes her as magical. No doubt, she’s poised for a long and successful career. Listen to this episode and one day, you can look back and say, “I heard an interview with Lila when she was just taking off!”

Takeaways

• Stay true to yourself and your artistic vision, even in the face of external pressures
• Log as many hours as you can to develop your confidence and expertise in whatever medium you choose
• Respect yourself as an artist

Resources

Listen to Lila’s music on Spotify

Watch her perform on YouTube

Go to her website and sign up for her mailing list at lilaforde.com

Follow her on instagram @lilfody

Dava Whisenant, founder and president of Cactus Flower Films, is a master storyteller who has stories to tell, and she tells them with honesty and humor.  For more than 20 years, she’s worked in narrative and nonfiction film as an editor — from The Late Show with David Letterman to the Emmy-winning and Oscar- short-listed documentary short The Flagmakers — and now as a director. The award-winning documentary Bathtubs Over Broadway, was her directorial debut, for which she won Best Director at the Tribeca Film Festival and a Writer’s Guild Award for Best Documentary Screenplay. We talk about her creative process, the necessity of a team, the financial challenges of a creative life, the value of being scared, and the importance of inspirational mugs!
 

Takeaways

• Surrounding yourself with a team of good-hearted people, helps you get you through the hard times
• The creative process requires resilience —particularly with those big dreams that take a while to realize.
• It may not always be comfy, but sometimes it pays to keep your overhead low so you can take more creative chances.
• And the greatest rewards lie outside your comfort zones.

Resources:

Learn more about Dava:

www.cactusflowerfilms.com

Completed films:

Bathtubs Over Broadway

Take That Step (finale song in Bathtubs Over Broadway)

The Flagmakers

Two Trains Runnin’

Butterfly in the Sky

Diane Warren: Relentless

The subject of her work in progress:

Thomas Jackson

Learn more about her co-writer Steve Young

Steve Young

And listen to him on No Time to be Timid!

My attempt at a film short:

How to Dye Your Hair at Home  (During a Global Pandemic)

A useful book to discover where your gifts are:

The Genuis Zone by Gay Hendricks