Lesson 81 - Cultivating Creativity: Finding Your Own Unique Voice and Style

This week on Creativity School, I’m talking to Esther Maloney, a multidisciplinary artist, educator and mama. She’s the creator of award winning films, an author, a visual artist, and the founding director of Illumine Media as well as a founding member of the Creative Sovereignty Lab. Esther also facilitates The Vitality Collective and Making Sessions, two 10-week, online workshops offered for those ready to make powerful shifts in their creative work. Esther’s work is rooted in the belief that our creative life is inseparable from our spiritual life, and she shares how to begin the process of developing trust in ourselves, our creative process, and the forces larger than us. We also discuss the inner voice beckoning creative people to listen, and how we can make space to hear it even when it can seem so hard to do this. Esther also speaks on the connection between nature and our creative practice and how our menstrual cycles and our creativity are deeply intertwined.     WORK WITH ME!⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING 🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING CONNECT WITH ESTHER: Instagram | The Making Sessions | The Vitality Collective CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

How can you grow your visibility and impact through authentically being you and embracing all parts of yourself and the work you create? This week on Creativity School, I have an inspiring conversation with Saeng Douangdara, a popular content creator and personal chef who specializes in Lao cuisine. Saeng shares his journey of how he was born in a refugee camp in Southeast Asia after his parents fled Laos, to eventually working as a college counselor, to now creating storytelling videos that advocate, uplift, and center Lao cuisine. With over 700K followers and millions of views on social media, his work has been featured in numerous publications such as Delish, Buzzfeed, and the New York Times. We talk about the resistance Saeng faced as his visibility and platform grew, how to be authentic as you create meaningful work, and how he protects his mental health as he creates and shares online. Saeng also lets us in on what his creative process looks like, and his best tips on how to get started on TikTok.     WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING CONNECT WITH SAENG: Instagram | YouTube | TikTok CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

I believe there is a very strong relationship between creativity and spirituality and I’m excited to share this BONUS episode with you this week! It’s a conversation I had with my dear friend Sylvia Beatriz, an intuition coach and psychic medium. This week we chat all about how to know if you’re psychic (psst - we all are!), how to start learning this language of sensing, feeling and knowing beyond our 5 physical senses, and how our intuitive abilities can lead us to our most expansive and aligned life.     WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH SYLVIA BEATRIZ: Instagram | Website CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

This week on Creativity School, we’re talking about triggers! While triggers are extremely uncomfortable and can leave us feeling deflated and paralyzed, they’re ACTUALLY here to pinpoint where you have stuck energy and where you have the capacity to expand into your highest self. Learn how to use the things that trigger you as a way to know exactly where your limiting beliefs are, and bring these subconscious thoughts to the surface so you can expand and grow into your fullest and most authentic, creative being.   WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

I believe there is a very strong relationship between creativity and spirituality and I’m excited to share this BONUS episode with you this week! It’s a conversation I had with my dear friend Sylvia Beatriz, an intuition coach and psychic medium, all about how working with spiritual guidance changed our lives. We talk about: -How to begin to start cultivating a relationship with our intuition. -Why it’s SO important to learn to integrate critical thinking and intuition for the world today. -The personal cost of ignoring the call to slow down and tune into what we need …and MORE. If you enjoyed this episode please let me know!   WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH SYLVIA BEATRIZ: Instagram | Website CONNECT WITH GRACE CHON: Instagram | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

Over the last 15 years of my career as a professional photographer, one of the compliments I’ve loved the most is when someone tells me they just *know* when a photo is mine.  It shows me that my work is recognizable and that I’ve been able to find my own unique voice as a creative. This week in our Cultivating Creativity Series, I’ll be sharing how to develop your own unique voice and style as a creator. Tune in for a deep dive on deconstructing the process of taking all your influences and inspirations, and turning them into something that is uniquely you (and WITHOUT copying others!)   WORK WITH ME! ⚡ 1:1 CREATIVE COACHING 🌟 AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH GRACE CHON: Instagram | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

Today’s episode is the first in a new series called Cultivating Creativity, where I’ll be sharing simple and practical tips on how to craft the way you think and ideate TO BE MORE CREATIVE! At the very foundation of cultivating creativity is a simple truth: know what you like and why. Tune in this week to learn about why it’s essential to: Get really clear on what you like. Embrace it wholeheartedly with bravado, and without shame or judgement. Allow this connection to yourself and to your own tastes to flow into your creative work.   WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

This week’s episode is all about HOW TO BE MORE CREATIVE! How to tap into it, how to follow the creative process, and how to feed your creative spirit by listening to your intuition. My guest today, Esther Loopstra, is a prolific artist and illustrator, specializing in food and travel, hand-lettering, and surface design. Her work has been used for print ads, editorials, books, stationery products, and textiles and her clients include Target, Frito Lay, Google, Jo Ann Fabrics, Eddie Bauer, and American Greetings. Esther’s insatiable curiosity drew her to learn as much as she could about the creative process, eventually leading her to teach people how to discover their innate creativity. She believes everyone is creative and is passionate about helping others find and express the creativity that resides inside of them. In this episode, she shares all about her insights as a creativity expert and teacher.   Mentioned in this episode: How Esther became an illustrator, burned out, and eventually discovered her intuition How creativity has a whole range of pathways and is something innate in all of us Exercises to develop our intuition, trust it, and act on it How to quiet your inner critic Why we need to feed our creative spirit Overcoming the fear of what people are going to think and the fear of sharing our work Giving ourselves the freedom to make mistakes How to find your passion using your intuition Open mode and closed mode - the two modes we need for the creative process The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron   WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH ESTHER: Instagram | Website | Courses   CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

Creativity is NOT math - there isn’t one defined, clear answer on what’s right or good. Everything is simply an opinion, completely subjective and in the eye of the beholder. I recently had a portfolio review and had the chance to share my latest photo series with top industry people from photo festivals and museums. This week on Creativity School, I share my top takeaways to remember when you have a disappointing response to your work. Here’s a gentle reminder: The point of creating what matters to us, isn’t so that it matters to everyone! Feeling like our work is ENOUGH is a key part of building confidence in this wildly subjective world of creativity, and I’m here to walk you through how to do it.      WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here

Here’s Part 2 of my conversation with Jess Keating, a scientist, bestselling author of 23 books, shamanic guide, and holistic money mentor. Jess bridges the gap between science and spirituality, guiding creatives and entrepreneurs to healing their deepest blocks so they share their medicine and message with the world. In the second part of our conversation, we discuss how to build a sustainable creative business through slower deeper moves, rather than the flashy stuff that sells on the internet. Jess shares the most common forms of self sabotage she sees with creatives, and how to build a business that actually feels good and is aligned with your creative spirit and soul in a way feels right for YOU.     WORK WITH ME! ⚡ BOOK 1:1 COACHING🌟 BOOK AN AKASHIC RECORD READING   CONNECT WITH CREATIVITY SCHOOL: Instagram | Twitter | Facebook Thank you so much for listening! Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online! If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here   CONNECT WITH JESS KEATING: Website | Instagram