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Hi, and welcome to season two of

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How to Be Creative. This is your host,

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Kat O'Leary, and I am back after a

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roughly four year hiatus

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from this podcast. Um, for

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this episode, I'm just gonna do a quick little

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update. I actually didn't script anything,

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so hopefully it's not too

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meandering , um, or pointless.

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Um, but just wanted to kind of

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catch up on, you know, where

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I've been, where we've been as a society

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globally , um, over the past four

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years. Uh, I won't go into

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everything. I think most of you remember what we

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all collectively went through. Um,

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but just wanted to talk about a few things

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and I guess how

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they have affected , um,

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my creative life. So I

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think actually this story for me begins prior

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to the pandemic in the first week of

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January, 2020 , um,

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when my cousin Matt Dore

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, um, died quite suddenly , um,

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and unexpectedly , uh,

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he had had seizures his entire life.

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Um , I'm not gonna go into too much detail here,

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but I , I just don't like the idea of anyone filling

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in the blanks with, you know

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, um, a false interpretation

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of his death. Um , but ultimately

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, um, he ended up having a , a

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seizure and passing away. Um

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, Matt was someone who was very important

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to me. He was a huge cheerleader

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of mine, which , um, you

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know, as

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someone who maybe hasn't

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always felt supported by all members of

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my family in my creative endeavors , um,

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Matt was certainly someone who always showed up for me.

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And , um, he was an artist in his

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own right. He was a musician and a writer , um,

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and just someone who was, you

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know, very, very special to me and, and

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who I still think about every day . Um,

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and so that was kind of the frame of mind that I

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was in when we all entered

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the Pandemic in March of 2020

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here in the us . Uh, and

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so I can definitely say I do not recommend

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, um, heading

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into a global pandemic when you're already grieving

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a pretty terrible loss. Um,

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but I, you know, you don't get to choose. Um,

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and so I think that combined

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with the Pandemic really kind of stalled out

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my creative endeavors for quite a while,

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including this podcast. Um,

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so didn't really do much writing.

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Um, I'm sure that some of you who are listening to this

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have never listened to a podcast of mine before,

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don't know who I am, et cetera. So , um,

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you know, just to give some context

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for who I was pre pandemic , um, I

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was , uh, you know, kind of

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ramping things up creatively. So I had launched

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this podcast in the second

2:49

half of 2019. Um

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, had interviewed a bunch of people. Um

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, I'm actually gonna shift away from that format,

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which I'll talk about a little bit later on this episode,

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I guess. Um, had

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done some solo episodes , um,

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in addition to that, had a Hallmark

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Christmas movie podcast with my best friend Nicole,

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which I still have. Um , we just haven't

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been as good about keeping up with it. Um,

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I had done a Hallmark

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, uh, movie podcast , um,

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mini series for Valentine's

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Day, which is my favorite holiday. So doing a lot of podcasting.

3:25

Um, I used to write novels

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I shouldn't say used to. I, I'm still, you

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know, trying to , um, pick that

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back up, but I actually was doing it

3:34

before the pandemic and , um,

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the pandemic really made it hard for me to

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kind of sit down and do any kind of saint sustained

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creative work. Um, yeah.

3:48

Uh, so that's kind of where, where

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I've been over the past few years. Um,

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and I think only recently have

3:54

I kind of been moving

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towards some form of creative recovery. One

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thing I've been doing very intentionally to

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help that along has been , um,

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that I am almost

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to week nine of the Artist's Way, which is a

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12 week program from

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Julia Cameron. It's a book. Um,

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it's been around a long time. I think it's at either the

4:18

25th or 30th anniversary , um,

4:21

by now. But , um, it's

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described as a spiritual path to

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higher creativity. It's basically , um,

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you know, a course in discovering and recovering

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your creative self is another , uh, term

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that I'm definitely reading off the cover of the

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edition that I have, which is the 10th anniversary

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edition. So I've had this book in

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my possessions , um, among my

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possessions since probably

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2006. Um, and

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I, I first learned about it through Kimberly

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Wilson , um, who is

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this amazing creative , um, entrepreneur,

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multi-passionate, who I followed for years and years

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and years, who's now also become

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a friend of mine. Um, so

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sidebar that Kimberly's was the first podcast

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that I ever listened to. Um, it

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is called Tranquility du Jour . I actually

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was a guest on it a couple of years ago. Um,

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but I would say, you know, this

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is just one of the many, many tools around

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creativity , um, that I've

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learned about from Kimberly . I

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can't even tell you how many times in the

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past I've started this process of going

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through the artist's way. Um, this

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time I feel pretty confident that I'm actually

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going to complete it. Um , I begin

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week nine , um, on Sunday. I'm

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recording this on a Friday. Um , I

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think I can make it through, you know, the four more

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weeks than I have. Um , and

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, uh, simultaneously

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I'm just feeling more

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inspired by the world around me. Um,

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I think a big thing that's happening in the

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world right now, and apologies if you can hear the

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sirens , um, outside my window

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, um,

5:56

Here in Brooklyn, but , um,

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I have recently become

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very aware , um, of

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how many things I have to be grateful for , um,

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in a way that I, I think was kind of , um,

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you know, unreachable or

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untouchable for me in the past. So , um,

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gratitude for me has always been easily

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accessible from an intellectual

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standpoint. Obviously I know that I am

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very blessed. Um , you

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know , a lot of things in life have been easier

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for me than they are for a lot of other people,

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and I absolutely recognize that. Um,

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at the same time, it's only recently I think that

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I, I've kind of felt that viscerally in

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my body, and a lot

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of it has been just witnessing

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from far away , um, everything that's going

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on in the Middle East with

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the genocide in Palestine, and

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just really , um, kind

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of feeling in my bones in a , in a way that I haven't

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previously been able to access. Um,

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just this awareness of how

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lucky I am that, you

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know, truly by accident of birth, I

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was born into, you

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know, a safe country, city

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, um, family, et

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cetera . And I

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think this kind of awareness

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, um, has

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gotten me to a place where I

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feel really strongly like it's

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my responsibility to do something

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with all of the privileges that I've been given , um,

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you know, more so than I've felt

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in the past. Um, and

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, um, you

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know, I think there's been a part of me that has felt

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like I need to be doing more

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in terms of protesting

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or educating myself , um,

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around conflicts that are happening around the world. And

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it , it's not just Palestine that's going on right now.

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Um, there's also, you know, terrible, a

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terrible situation in Haiti and one in Sudan.

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And , um, I

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think, you know, previously

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it's been really easy to shame myself around

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not feeling like I'm doing enough to educate

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myself, to educate others, to use

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my voice. Um, and

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you know, while I, I do believe

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it's important to stay informed, I do believe

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that it is important for me to use my voice and

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make it clear, you know, which side of history

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I'm on. I also think

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that that's not the

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best use of my gifts necessarily, and

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that a

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way that I can, within

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the scope of what I'm actually skilled

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at, contribute meaningfully to the world

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and , and try to make the world a better place, is to

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try to inspire people to lead

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Lives that feel more fulfilling

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and authentic to them. Um, and

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so I think that's kind of where I'm at. Um,

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and what I'm trying to do more of , um,

9:09

while, you know, kind of trying to walk the

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line of just understanding

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, um, you know, how dark things are

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right now and, and how terrible they

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feel for a lot of people. And , um,

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I guess what I'm saying is that I feel

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a heightened sense of responsibility to use

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the gifts that I do have in whatever

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small way I can. So

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I'm going to make an awkward transition

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here , um, back to talking about this

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podcast specifically and

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how I envision the format changing

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slightly for this very delayed

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second season. Um, so

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the first thing is that I am no

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longer, at least for the time being going

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to be conducting interviews , um,

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I find that , um, you know, there

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are just significantly more work for

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me to edit than these , uh,

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episodes where I'm kind of by

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myself right now. I'm actually sitting on my

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bed cross-legged with my cat

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on my lap , um, which is probably

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not the right , um, you

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know, posture for speaking into a

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microphone, but , um, my

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voice coaches can take that up with me later. Um,

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so it's a big undertaking to edit those

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episodes that do involve an interview, but

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also , um, they just don't perform

10:30

as well. It feels like people are not quite

10:32

as interested in them , um, which

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is sort of surprising to me 'cause I've had a few

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guests on who are definitely

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better known than I am. I would've expected

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those names to pick up , um, you

10:43

know, more , uh, listeners

10:46

than me alone. Um, but

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that's not proving to be the case. So I think

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the , um, uh, horrible

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business term, the juice wasn't worth the squeeze, but

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that's where we are. So for the time being,

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I'm going to test out purely doing

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episodes that are me alone.

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Um, and we'll see how that goes. Um,

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I think also I am

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in a place right now where , um,

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yes, this is a podcast about creativity, but

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I am more aware

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now, I think even then I was a few years ago,

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that there is a lot of underlying

11:23

work that needs to be done before you

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can get to a place where , um,

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you're able to really let your

11:30

creative talents shine. And so I

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think there's a chance here that in this

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season I will veer off into

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some directions that may not be

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directly about creativity, but ultimately

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tie in with the goal of doing

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your best creative work and living a creative life.

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I think that's where I'm gonna end this episode. Um,

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but uh , if you have any questions or

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suggestions or feedback, you can always reach

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me at cat KAT

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at how to be creative.org.

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And I will see you for episode two.