slow inside

Emma Louise Sophia is a writer, photographer, and teacher. Emma did not have an easy time of it growing up. She battled eating disorders, depression, and anxiety. But then she met and fell in love with her future husband and got pregnant and that changed everything. Emma sobered up, pulled what had come apart back together, and settled into a whole new life as a mom, an artist, and an entrepreneur. Today she lives in Marrakech, Morocco with her husband and three kids teaching personal development through personal discovery to thousands of men and women around the world.

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Multi-disciplinary artist, Liz Tran, makes joy for a living. Her art is big and colorful and full of play. It is about extroversion and experimentation and all the things that look like happiness. Art is where Liz escaped from anxiety and depression and found safety and freedom. Today Liz's work is all over the world. From Toronto to Miami, San Francisco to Iceland, her paintings and sculptures hang in galleries, museums, and the homes of private collectors.

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May it inspire you to make your thing and change your world.

Sheila Pree Bright is a photographer using the camera to change how we see the world. Her work has won numerous awards, she was a runner-up for the million dollar TED prize, her photographs have appeared in galleries and museums around the world and she lectures all over the country. Her images break down old beliefs, shake up stereotypes, and help us all see the “other” for what they truly are: people. Sheila's photography is more than art, it's activism, change, and love.

Some of what we talk about:

May it inspire you to make your thing and change your world.

Mati was 18 months old when her father died in a car accident. He was an artist, a woodcarver.

As Mati got older, she made a lot of art but making art was hard because it reminded her of death. And then when Mati was 29, she went to art school and she gave her life to art. Mati got an agent. She wrote and illustrated children’s books. She started a blog and built an online following.

Today, Mati leads workshops all over the world, her books include Daring Adventures in Paint and Painting the Sacred Within, she has over ten online courses, and her original art can be found in private collections around the world.

Art is no longer about death for Mati. Art is what makes Mati come fully alive.

heads up: this conversation was recorded in Thailand. There is a clicking sound in the background. That is a gecko.

Gabrielle Tesfaye has been making art forever. When she was little she knew she would be an artist. When she went to art school and people asked her what she planned to do with the rest of her life she simply replied, "make art." And that's what she does. All the time. Gabrielle has figured out how to devote one's life to doing exactly what one wants. In this conversation we talk about:

Amber is an illustrator who makes images of women all shapes and sizes. Hairy and big. Short and wide. Arms too long, legs too short. Women who are beautiful simply because they are women.

Amber's work has appeared on the cover of numerous publications including The New York Times Magazine, she's partnered with big names like Conde Nast, Man Repeller and Gucci and she sells her art all over the world.

All from taking a stand for what she believed in, resisting what she didn’t, and making art that is honest to who she is.

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Harper Watters is a soloist with the Houston Ballet - the fourth largest dance company in the United States.

Harper has stood out his whole life. His parents are white. He's gay. He's a ballet dancer. He doesn't fit.

When Harper was growing up, not fitting in was hard. People stared at him. He was scared of being bullied. But as cliché as it sounds, it was when Harper learned to use his differences, to embrace them, that he found serious success as a dancer. And as a person.

Some things we talk about:

May it inspire you to make your thing and change your world.

Satsuki Shibuya had it all: her own graphic design business, great clients, money in the bank and then she got sick. So sick she couldn’t get out of bed, read a book or talk on the phone. And she stayed sick for a year and a half. During that time she lost everything: her business, her clients, her reputation. But she found something bigger: painting.

Now she’s a watercolorist with 33,600 Instagram followers, work that often sells out within hours, and a Kickstarter campaign that was 133% funded. In this interview, we talk about what it means to lose everything, finding you're true calling, and starting and growing a full-time art business.

Melissa Dinwiddie is an amazing talent. It’s like everything she touches becomes beautiful. At 12 she was in adult-drawing classes. At 19 she was a dancer at Juliard. When she was 27 she was in galleries for her paper cut art and by 29 she had her own business making commissioned calligraphy and papercut art for clients all over the country.

Now Melissa runs the Creative Sandbox. It's a community, a consulting agency, retreats, and playdays. But most of all it's a way of life where art is just art and creativity is (almost) always fun.

Her work has been featured in The Huffington Post, Tiny Buddha, The Abundant Artist, Creative Pro, and Life Hack.

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Murphy Funkhouser Capps has lived many, many lives. She’s been a military preacher’s daughter. A theater geek. A bible college dropout. Lived in a car. A party girl. A six-figure earner and then broke. A single mom. A married mom. A playwright. An entrepreneur. A branding specialist. Unemployed. Fired. A CEO. A storyteller. And, above all, a survivor.

This is Murphy’s story. Much of it anyway. From the child to the woman, through the dark and into the light. It’s all here. A gloriously beautiful, totally messed up, well-traveled life.

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