The Anxious Creative

For this episode, we’ve got the incredible Celene Dupuis, the owner of Revamp Salon , author of the Blonde Boss Blog, Redkin educator, and the co-host of Make Your Mark Class. 

Unsurprisingly, she credits her success to ADHD. Really, is there anything she doesn’t do?

I wanted to chat with Celene because we’re still in the middle of this super fun pandemic that has disrupted our industry and the whole world. We’re all going through collective trauma, and Celene knows trauma.

In 2001, Celene’s younger sister was killed by a drunk driver at just 16 years old. In 2006, her father passed away from brain cancer. Between those events, her mother experienced a heart attack and to top it all off, an ATV accident in 2016 left her husband in a wheelchair. Oh, and she’s gone through a divorce. (I know all about that one, and it sucks.)

So yeah, Celene has had to learn to deal with and grow through trauma, and she shared some amazing insights with me. We had an incredible conversation and I can’t wait for you to listen in!

Here’s what you’ll get in this episode: 

• What zombie movies teach us about trauma responses. 
• We can choose how to handle this crisis. We can get cynical and closed off or choose to lean in, open up, and help. 
• Why putting up walls can be more damaging than actually feeling your emotions
• We all deal with trauma differently, and we need to have grace for each other as we handle this in our own ways. 
• The story of her husband’s accident and how she was able to cope. 
• Navigating life with her husband in a wheelchair while creating a platform to educate others.
• How to educate people WITHOUT shaming them. (Seriously, so important!) 
• Dropping truth bombs for stylists who are afraid their clients will ditch them for home kits.

As much as this pandemic sucks, we still get to choose how we respond to this crisis. We can still choose to approach the world (and ourselves) with grace and kindness. 

And when it really comes down to it, there are more difficult things out there than staying home. Honor that it’s difficult for you, but keep your perspective and don’t lose sight of what matters right now: your ability to choose.  

For more Celene, check out at www.celenedupuis.com, join her Blonde Boss Facebook community, or give her a follow on Instagram @celenedupuis. 

Hang in there, Anxious Creatives! 

We’re in the middle of a global pandemic that’s just oodles of fun (*couch, sarcasm).

So today, I’m showing up in all my quarantine chic, bed-headed glory today to chat with Sarai, The Platinum Giraffe!

Sarai has been a stylist for about 15 years, but the first 10 or 11 were practice (according to Sarai). 4 years ago, Sarai got sober, turned her life around, stopped just talking about things, and started “being” about things. She invested in all the education she could get her hands on and went from a hairstylist with aspirations to actually living her aspirations.

In this episode, we talk about growing through sh*tty times, burnout and boundaries, and “sitting in our yuck,” aka really tough feelings we’re all dealing with right now.

Here’s what you’ll get in this episode:

- How getting sober prepared Sarai (accidentally) for this global pandemic.

- Why we shouldn’t push ourselves to be productive right now. (PSA: This is not a productivity challenge. It’s okay to feel heavy and down right now.)

- The futility of using substances or unhealthy mechanisms to escape...because those feelings come right back.

- The power of “sitting in our yuck” so we can grow and gain clarity.

- Sarai’s tips for keeping her mental health in a good place from day to day.

- Some really cool astrological insights about this time. (Any other astrology dorks out there?)

- Thoughts on how the world and our industry will change.

- Things we plan to change when we go back and what we’re learning from this reflective time.

- Accountability and how to use it to do LESS, not more.

- I loved this conversation so much because Sarai shares so many nuggets of wisdom that we can all use right now.

We’re all living through an incredibly (and incredibly sucky) time, and no one really knows how to handle it. The best we can do is take it a day at a time and learn to sit in our yuck, because that sh*t is going to help us grow.

For more Sarai, you can find her at home (quarantine joke, haha) or at platinumgiraffe.com!

...I don’t even know what to say right now.

If you’re reading this in real time, you’re probably freaking out about the Coronavirus (along with the rest of the world). This kind of thing can really do a number on anyone, ESPECIALLY us anxious creatives.

So I wanted to offer this light, uplifting moment today. I don’t have answers, I have no solutions, and this is not a pep talk, but I CAN offer you support, understanding, and empathy.

This is a shitty time. It freaking sucks, and we’re allowed to let it suck.

Links Mentioned:

www.dawnbradley.com/hpolfree
@themindgeek
@melanielaurene

This episode is so close to my heart, and I think we need to talk about this issue WAY more.

Today, I’m chatting with Laurel Guaderrama, a fellow hairstylist and business educator, about trichotillomania, which is the compulsive desire to pull out your hair, eyebrows, or eyelashes.

Yes, that’s a real disorder, and it’s actually way more common than you might think.

You’re gonna love this one!

In this episode, I chat with Meg Blatt about overcoming anxiety as a business owner, and wow, does she knows her sh*t!

Meg has been around the block with anxiety. She was diagnosed with panic disorder at age 5 and even became unable to leave her house.

I’m so excited for you to hear this solo Dawn episode because I’m talking about something we anxious creatives REALLY struggle with: decisions.

Decisions create massive anxiety for a lot of us because we get stuck in thoughts like “What if I make the wrong decision?” and “What if I miss out on something?” You know, a lot of thoughts that start with “what if”.

It’s so easy to feel paralyzed and end up not making a decision at all. (Spoiler alert: NOT deciding is actually a decision!)

My special guest and friend, Kristine Miguel, is an amazing accountant and educator and the first accountant I talked to that explained this stuff in a way that actually made sense to my creative brain! (Cue angels singing.)

If anxious creatives struggle with one thing, it’s saying no!

This used to be a MASSIVE problem for me in life and business, but I had to either learn to say “no” or lose my mind.

Saying no takes practice, but it’s so beneficial for your business and your mental health. So in this episode, I’m going to show you all my favourite tips for learning to say NO without sending your clients running away screaming!

Are you lazy AF? Do you feel like you have an endless to-do list and, though you feel like you’re working on tasks all day long, you look up and you realize you haven’t been productive at all?

I’ve been there too and I’m going to challenge you and say that you’re not actually lazy, you just don’t have systems in place to help you be more productive.

Now listen up, this doesn’t give you an out to say “oh so I’m not actually lazy? Cool!” and keep doing your thing. Nope, sorry... it’s not that easy.

Starting a business can be one of the most exciting things you can do in your life, but there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we absolutely HAVE to talk about.

Behind every business is blood (hopefully not too much though because if there’s a lot of blood you’re probably doing something wrong), sweat (so much sweat) and tears but so often we see businesses thriving and don’t see what happens behind the scenes.