Follow Your Curiosity

Invoking Joy with Vance Neudorf

Author, actor, and podcaster Vance Neudorf is a man of many talents. In addition to those three pursuits, he’s also a set designer and builder, and the executive director at the Badlands Amphitheatre, Canada’s largest outdoor theatre stage. Our conversation covers everything from his free-range childhood, his transformation into a voracious reader thanks to The Hobbit, how he stumbled—almost literally—into acting, the perks of releasing a novel-in-progress as a podcast, and a lot more. Vance has a lot to say about the benefits of saying yes to new, unexpected opportunities, and experimenting with what you’re doing.

Check out the show notes (including images of the hammer Vance made) at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Creative Pep Talk #27: Journaling

Journaling can be a fantastic tool both for personal exploration and for your creative process. If you're groaning at the idea of journaling, you're in good company: I used to feel that way about it, too. I'll tell you what changed my mind, some tips from my own journaling practice, and give you a prompt to get you started.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. https://bit.ly/CreativeTuneUp

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok.

Inspired Courage with Dawn Kotzer

If you’ve been listening for any length of time, you’ll know that I very firmly believe that anyone who’s breathing is creative. I recently came across a definition of creativity that really rankled me, because it seemed to be saying the exact opposite was true. I contacted my friend and fellow creativity coach Dawn Kotzer, who’s been on the show before, and asked her if she’d be interested in tackling the question of just what creativity really is. We batted that question around, looking at everything from the vital nature of failure to the power of constraints to the role of acceptance, humility, and even humiliation in the creative process. If that’s not enough, we also examined driving a stick-shift car as a metaphor for creativity. Did we reach any solid conclusions? I think we did, and I think you’ll get a lot out of listening in on our conversation.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Creative Pep Talk #26: Be on Your Own Side

If you're going to be courageous enough to follow your creative call, it helps to be on your own side. Here's why.

Want more help with your creative process? Check out my Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get unstuck TODAY. 

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok.

Storytelling and SEO with Alison ver Halen

Alison ver Halen always wanted to write, and act, but was told as a child that neither of those were possible careers. Nonetheless, she never gave up—she majored in English and psychology and minored in theater, which gave her the perfect background for content marketing, a field she stumbled into, starting as a part-time blogger. And she still writes fiction. In our conversation this week, she explains just what content marketing and search engine optimization are, how story works both in fiction and in content marketing, and how theater prepared her to branch into public speaking. She also shares her favorite piece of advice. 

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! You can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Creative Pep Talk #25: Keep It to Yourself

At the beginning of a project, you probably want to tell the entire universe about it. Here's why you might want to go against that instinct, at least for a while.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. 

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok.

The Importance of Fun with John Peel

Prolific author John Peel has written novels in universes from Doctor Who to Star Trek to James Bond. John started off writing fan fiction, and as you’ll hear, is an advocate for fan fiction as a training ground for fiction writing. He tells me how he made the leap to writing authorized fiction—novels set in existing tv and movie universes—and how he approaches writing assignments and his relationships with editors. We also talk about the unexpected lessons his good friend Terry Nation, the creator of Doctor Who’s Daleks, taught him about writing.

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Creative Pep Talk #24: Don’t Rush It

As a culture, we're addicted to cleverness and speed, but they may not be the best things for your life or your creative process.

Feeling stuck in your creative process? Or wondering how to start having a creative process at all? Check out my super-affordable Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get moving TODAY. 

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok.

Letting Your Light Shine with Fr. Michael Rossmann

My guest today is Father Michael Rossmann, Jesuit priest and creator of a video series offering perspectives and advice on life, many of which focus on creativity and aspects of the creative process. It’s easy to discount or just not even notice the spiritual side of creativity, but it’s there all the same. We talk about how he came to his interest in and advocacy for creative work, the pitfalls of perfectionism and the power of creative constraints, how creativity connects us to the divine (whatever you may conceive the divine to be), and the personal and spiritual benefits of creative practice. 

Check out the show notes at fycuriosity.com, and join the conversation on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok, and you can also listen on YouTube. And if you're feeling stuck in your own creative process, I made the Creative Tune-Up just for you!

Creative Pep Talk #23: Creating Happiness

We all want to be happy—and we usually want others to be, too. That second bit can get us in trouble, and we tend to ignore the first. So what do we do about it? Here's my suggestion.

Want more help with your creative process? Check out my Creative Tune-Up, which is full of my favorite coaching tools to help you get unstuck TODAY. 

I'd love to hear your feedback, questions, and experience with these ideas! Send me a note at fycuriosity.com, or contact me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter! I also post pretty regularly on TikTok.