Own Your Creativity

030 Memories, Memoirs & You with Elizabeth Johnston, Author, Professor, Podcaster

My name is Elizabeth, and I’m a writing coach for wonderful writers like you who don’t want to waste any more time. Through my coaching programs, I give you the tools, support and guidance you need to turn your idea into reality whether it’s a memoir or a screenplay.

Who Am I?

I didn’t know I was a writer. I had always written creatively, but it wasn’t until I went to university that the doors of my imagination were blown wide open.

I had found my calling!

I went on to take two degrees in writing then taught in the arts for over 20 years. Helping others own their creativity was (and is) very rewarding.

But over the years things began to change.

Even though while teaching I still wrote and published on a regular basis, I started feeling stressed at work and that eventually spilled over into my personal life. I was so caught up in the daily routine of teaching that I forgot about the importance of nurturing my creativity.

So, in 2013, I vowed to make my creativity a priority.

No longer would it be something I squeezed in here and there. The result? Not only did I accomplish more, I was less stressed at work and had an overall sense of well-being that had eluded me for years.

It was the best decision I had ever made.

From that moment on, I pledged to do all I could to help others own their creativity so they could lead happy, fulfilled lives and know, in their bones, that it truly is never too late to be who you were meant to be.

029 Sticking Your Neck Out with Kristen Joy, Author, Publisher, Book Ninja

Kristen Joy decided she was “unemployable” at the tender age of six when she started her first business making and selling pet rocks. She’s never been able to “hold down a real job…” ever. A serial entrepreneur, in 2003 she turned her life-long love of reading and writing into a full-time career she LOVES, teaching authors and entrepreneurs how to create books that bring them business and turning authors into successful authorpreneurs.

After discovering how to thrive through chronic illness, Kristen went on to write and publish 18 Kindle books in 18 weeks, start over 50 publishing companies for others, publish over 200 books and e-books, teach hundreds of webinars, coach thousands of authors from idea to published, build a livelihood from negative $300-a-month to a multi six-figure business, study martial arts, get her conceal-carry license and eat way too much chocolate.

She currently changes lives through her students… one published message at a time, encourages authors through free articles and videos at TheBookNinja.com, teaches a ton of courses and still studies martial arts, working toward her black belt in MMA karate… while maintaining a healthy daily dose of chocolate.

Besides on her website, she can also be found online at her second home in Facebookland and occasionally aimlessly roaming the Star Wars and pet supply aisles with her man at Target hunting down toys for themselves and their cat.

028 Going From Little to Large As A Writer with Elizabeth Johnston, Author, Professor, Writing Coach

Hello Everybody, and welcome to today’s show. I’m really excited to announce a new direction for the Own Your Creativity Podcast. Starting today, I’ll be alternating between solo episodes and interview episodes. Why am I doing this? Because there are a lot of things I want to share with you about creative writing, how to do it, why to do it, the science behind it, and how it can enrich your life and the world. I truly believe that art makes the world a better place, and I want to share my passion for writing directly with you.

So the title for today’s show is “Going From Little to Large as a Writer.” Specifically,  I’ll be talking about five ways that writing and reading can improve your life so that you own your creativity. I want you to feel empowered so that you go from hiding your light under a bushel to letting your voice ring out in the form of your books, poems, screenplays or whatever other type of writing that you do.

Today’s episode is for you if you want to write but haven’t started yet or if you are writing but haven’t since the results of which you know you’re capable or you’re already happily writing away but love all things related to discussion of the importance of writing.

The five things I’ll talk about today are

-       Chocolate for the brain

-       Making Lemonade

-       Living in the Stone Age

-       Trying on Different Shoes, and

-       Changing the world with your stories.

Afterwards, I’d love to hear from you which of the five topics resonated the most with you. 

ABOUT ELIZABETH JOHNSTON:

I'm a writing coach for people who have an important story to tell but don't have the right know-how to make it happen and aren’t sure how to make room in their busy lives.

I know how frustrating it can be to feel overwhelmed by work and family commitments, how there never seems to be time or energy left over for you to work on that story you’ve been dreaming about for years.

Truth be told, sometimes you secretly wonder if it's just not meant to be -- because you’ve spent countless hours reading books and trolling the Net, but that hasn’t taken you very far.

You’re at the point now where you don’t want to reinvent the wheel. You want concrete, efficient and professional guidance so that you can own your creativity and finally write that screenplay or memoir.

027 Destruction, Intention & Creation with Elizabeth Bryan-Jacobs, sculptor & painter

Elizabeth Bryan-Jacobs was born in Rockland County, New York. She is passionate about communicating the relationship of the human body and spirit to nature and the earth. She pioneered the field of Creative Behaviorism, a proprietary methodology that awakens the creative process in artists and non-artists alike in order to maximize their human and spiritual potential.  To apply these principles with individuals and groups, Bryan-Jacobs developed Creative Awakenings™, a program that integrates this methodology with various wellness modalities. Creative Awakenings has become a highly in-demand program that she teaches at exclusive resorts and spas. Her work resides in numerous private collections across the United States.

Bryan-Jacobs is also the co-author of bestselling Chicken Soup for the Soul: Count Your Blessings, and Soul Models: Transformative Stories of Courage and Compassion.

She also works closely with her husband, artist Bobby Jacobs, creating large-scale commission works for private and public collections, with a work most recently acquired by Dell Children’s Hospital in Austin, Texas, for The Dell Children’s Healing Garden. The couple live and work on their farm in upstate New York.

026 Creativity is My Yoga with Amanda Bernardo, philanthropist & author of Little Voice

Amanda Bernardo is the local author of the children’s book Little Voice, a story that encourages children and adults alike to be confident, creative and inspired to chase their dreams. While working full-time as a Policy Analyst with the Government of Canada, Amanda has taken her dream of publishing her own book and transformed it into a movement that has now made its way into thousands of homes across Canada. Amanda is a great example of someone who has taken her passion for writing and applied it not only in government but also creatively in Little Voice.

http://littlevoicethebook.com/

025 Creativity is the Simple Solution to a Complex Problem with Author Amar Vyas

Biography- Amar Vyas

I am a husband, Co-Founder of Kamakshi Media, host of MyKitaab Podcast, the creator of Baalgatha- Podcast of Classic Childrens’ stories, and author of the Amol Dixit series of books. I have lived in fifteen cities over the past twenty years, including the two years spent at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign as a graduate student. In 2010, I spent an year at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad for my MBA. These days I live in Bengaluru (Bangalore) in India.In my spare time, I like exploring offbeat places, learning Gujarati from my wife,and spending time with my dog, Buddy.

You can find more about me at www.amarvyas.in or about MyKitaab, THE

Podcast on Book Publishing in India at www.mykitaab.in

My Book NRI:Now, Returned to India is at www.smarturl.it/nrithebook
I am on Twitter @amarauthor @Mykitaabcast and on Instagram @Mykitaabcast

024 Creativity is Contagious with Business Coach Fred Rosensveig

Fred Rosenzveig, Business Coach
President of Mind Range in Montreal
www.mindrange.com

023 Creativity Is A Need with Fred Graham, Drummer & Percussionst with The Irish Rovers

FRED GRAHAM has 50 years of percussion experience in playing, teaching,and adjudicating competitions.  At the age of 14, he beganplaying the snare drum in the same Belfast accordion band as his father.It was this marching band that won the All-Ireland championship.

 

Fred’s love of percussion has found expression in manyways, including

• competing with Scottish Pipe bands in Ireland and here in Canada,
• playing in a Montreal Jazz band, a Scots ceilidh band, and being a percussionist with traditional Quebec folk dance troupes.

Currently, Fred Graham is touring and playing with "The Irish Rovers" band as their drummer and percussionist.

Fred has also appeared in the feature film, Brooklyn. He had a bit part wherehe played a drummer in a band during the dance hall scene.

Website: www.ardglen-bodhrans.com

Email: fred@ardglen-bodhrans.com

022 The Freedom to Make Mistakes with Cheryl Svensson, author, educator & professor

Cheryl Svensson has been involved in the field of aging since she graduated from the first Masters in Gerontology program at the University of Southern California (USC) in 1977 and later completed her Ph.D. at the University of Lund, Sweden. Cheryl has worked closely with Dr. James Birren, founding Dean of the Davis School of Gerontology at USC, and is the Director of the Birren Center for Autobiographical Studies (www.guidedautobiography.com). This is an organization dedicated to research and developing programs to help for older adults to write their life stories. She currently lives in southern California, teaches at USC and has taught Guided Autobiography at UCLA and several universities, libraries, and senior and assisted living centers. Since 2009 she has taught a live, interactive Internet webinar training course to teach students worldwide how to become Guided Autobiography instructors. She is the co-author with Richard Campbell of the book, Writing Your Legacy:  The step-by-step guide to crafting your life story (2015).

021 Embracing the Not Knowing with Poet Susan Stenson

Susan Stenson's work has appeared in several literary magazines, most recently, Fiddlehead, Geist, CV2 and sub-TERRAIN and anthologies including Threshold: six women six poets, Vintage '99 and 2000, and No Choice But to Trust. In 2004, she won first prize in the ARC Poem of the Year Contest, Lush Triumphant, sub-TERRAIN Magazine's Annual Writing Contest and the Rona Murray Prize for Poetry, sponsored by the Victoria Arts Council. She also won first prize in the Great Canadian Literary Hunt, This Magazine's Poetry Contest 2000, the League of Canadian Poets National Contest in 1999 and the Hawthorne Chapbook Award in 1997 for her manuscript, A Little Less Swing, A Little More Sway.

Her poems have been short listed several times for the CBC literary prize and are also featured on buses throughout British Columbia in the Poetry in Transit program. As a participant in the national literacy Random Acts of Poetry Weeks, 2004 and 2006, Susan has read poems to politicians, police officers, principals and pupils. Her work has also been commissioned for CBC radio's Out Front Program. Sono Nis Press published her first book of poems, Could Love a Man, spring 2001, to rave reviews in several magazines including Arc, Malahat Review, Boulevard, Monday, and Prairie Fire. She lives ecstatically in Victoria with her family where she co-publishes The Claremont Review, a literary magazine for writers aged 13 to 19 which was Write Magazine's choice for magazine of the year, 2001.

Susan teaches English and creative writing to high school students in Saanich School District, has taught at Kamhlaba United World College in Mbabane, Swaziland and for The Victoria School of Writing. She is a regular on the roster of literary festivals, most recently for Poetry Africa in Durban, South Africa, Words Aloud 3, in Durham, Ontario, and for Forest Fest, in Port Alberi, British Columbia.

http://bodytalkvictoria.com/susan-stenson/