Deborah, with her thirty years of being an ltrepreneur and creating over seven companies, knows exactly what it means to accept the mission. When you make that decision, when you accept the mission to become a solopreneur, to take yourself and your talents to market, then you embrace a life of not only unlimited possibilities, but also the unknown. It's an elixir of fear and bravery that only someone who's
taken the leap really understands. On our show, deb digs deep with her guests to highlight what you the listener wants to know the stories, the whys, and the hows to navigate the journey to success. Get ready to hear from some of the most incredible mission takers from Generation Z to boomers. So sit up, perk up, and get ready to be blown away. Now Here is your host, Deborah Drummond.
Hello, and welcome back to another exciting group show for you. It's like, you know, when you start talking to experts, the experts just rise to the top and guess what they know experts and they refer experts, And our show is a very abundant It is blossoming with the coolest people doing the coolest thing and this is great. We're
super excited. So, you know, Carmel works behind the scenes and we got creative and thought, who are some of the people that we want to highlight on the show this year, and we're like, we got to have some creatives in the house. I mean, most of the people that hang with us have a little bit of creativity, because if not, they would think we're kind of cray Cray. But there's people that own it and embody the whole concept of being creative. And we love hanging with those people.
You know them, you walk in the room, they have a vibe right You go to them, and you feel different when you walk away. You know what you feel. You feel like you have potential. You feel like the world's hopeful because creatives are never ending seeing vision and creativity and expansion and envision and they're just cool people
to hang out with. So if you don't have someone like that in your group, then you can just reach out to one of these ladies after the show and I'm sure they'll hang with you and inspire you and motivate you. But let's get to who's hanging out with us today, because you too, as an audience. I mean, thank you so much. I mean I look at the analytics of the show because I am creative, but I'm also very analytical. Got to make sure we're hitting the right spots. And we are from all over the world.
Right now, we are rocking the UK vibes. Thank you so much for those of you that are sharing this message. And that's what happens when you expand. Everything you do expand. So let's introduce you to these incredible ladies. Now, keep in mind, I know some of you are listening and some of you are viewing, and so I'm going to have just for those that are viewing, I'm going to get our creatives to kind of stick their hand up. They can do whatever they want, just to let you
know who it is that's speaking. So miss Susan Isaac, please let us know who you are in the show today. Awesome, I'm very cool. And Jill McCarthy, all right, there she is there, she's with a cool green background. And then we have Jen who we almost changed name pre show Jen for Forgie. Forgie. We were talking in different languages before the show having fun with her name. So luck ladies, I'm just going to ask you simply you are creatives. Share with us what kind of creative work would you do?
And I'm going to tie these two questions, So what do you do? And what was the moment that you knew that this is the direction that you wanted to go in?
What you know?
This was the like being being going from wherever you went to into the creative field. And maybe you were just born that way. So maybe share that a little bit with us, Susan, let's start.
With you him. I live in Souk, the west side of Vancouver Island, and I help people unlock their creativity and reconnect with their joy and other people through hands
on glassware and unforgettable culinary experiences. I'm a foodie as well as a glass artist, and I create glass so glassware and also this is a digital image of glass behind me and around my neck, and I create symbols of transformation butterfly wings for women to tell their story of transformation in glass and wear it close to their hearts.
Oh my goodness. So if you love to have that around you, cool and then if you want to learn, that's so great. And I've seen some of your really cool posts on social where you got the food and the glass and this hole going going on, and I mean, who needs an excuse to have food? It's super fun. I love that because it's a community as well, right, yeah,
And you know that's what we're big on here. This is a media community, but we're also you're part of the two sixty two Sisterhood and we like to call ourselves the sustainable Soul from our sisterhood. And it is a very cool community. And I know that you do that within your own craft. We've got lots of communities within our communities today. And Miss Jill McCarthy, so what do you do that's creative and what was your moment that made you go sure, sign me up.
Well, I'm a former elementary teacher about my father. It was within it, and then I went to women's retreats, and at my very first women's retreat, I used the verse about heart's desires. Now I've spent time with women's groups. I have a podcast, The Geeky Grandma within Encourage, I've been a speaker international and even now on stage. But I've spent the time telling those other women to follow
their heart's desire. And I've made twenty twenty five the year I start following my heart's desire and make sure that my desires don't go on touch. And I'm a digital artist and I'm going to read up the graphic novel that I started a few years ago. I'm now a plush and so I'm really picked this year to start those creative I get to refill my tank with the creative uses. And that's why I picked tick on on this one rather than your podcast one.
That is.
I love that, And you know what, I'm sure that we can all relate to having to take that time and retreat. You hear writers going on writers retreats are going solo, you know.
I know.
Right now me and Carmel, we're talking for the show and Ocean. My son is working on a twelve twelve picture, like a you know, doing twelve pieces of art for a you know, TV reality show. There's twelve episodes, that's what it is. And we were talking about how he's struggling with that last piece where it doesn't just flow because there's twelve do you know what I mean? Like he had Now he's at the twelfth line. And sometimes you have to retreat. Sometimes you have to go in.
Sometimes you have to go away. Sometimes you have to refuel. Sometimes you have to stop and do whatever it is that that creative needs to tap back in. Right, fill up the cup. I am excited for you. I'm so excited for you, Jill. And oh my gosh, I'm so excited. We have a new friend on the show today and that's Jen. So Jen, please share with us what you do, what you're about, and what was that moment.
Yeah.
So I'm an actor. I'm a professional actor, and I'm also a writer and a playwright.
And one of the.
Natural sort of progressions of my work is taking my creativity and I now create and I lead journaling workshops for personal and professional development and growth, but also for healing and for well being. So I have many different themes of journaling that I take to different groups. I'm going to be moving into grief journaling. I bring it to corporate. I'm actually heading to BC tomorrow to lead to be a part of a women in Leadership workshop
where I'll be bringing my journaling. And this is not your dear diary kind of journaling. This is this is creative, expressive journaling for knowing who we are, not just our dreams and our ideas, but our creativity. It's being in conversation with ourselves so we understand who we are, who we are in the world, expanding our perspectives. I just I love it the moment. I've always wanted to be
an actor. I've always I've always been a writer. Ever since I was a kid, I was writing and creating stories, and so it's just it's just unfolded. And I'm actually very passionate about healing and honoring our truths. So, like listening to both Susan and Jill, I'm like, yeah, taking time for ourselves, what are my desires, what is my path and bringing that to other people in a way that they become self reliant through their own trusting their own voice through writing.
Right on.
Wow, very incredible. Look, let's talk a little bit about the support because when we see people in creatives, it's interesting because in our books and on our stages, we're like, oh, we have actors and directors and people that are in their craft and artists and painters, and people see them as painters and artists and you know, actors and actresses, but they don't see them as entrepreneurs. They don't see them as entrepreneurs. It's not the first thing that pops
into the head. Oh, they don't walk up to, you know, a movie director and go So what's it like owning your own business? Very different than if in your other fields, right, But it's true you take that step out into owning your creative side now, depending on your culture, depending on the voices in your head, depending on what age those voices come from. Right, It's not always been a exciting Oh my gosh, I'm so excited my kid's going to make glass, you.
Know what I mean?
My aspiration for her was to make glass. I don't know, I'm just Susan. Isn't using example, Susan, But what was it around? Did you have support when you decided to make this your craft? You know what I mean? Like a lot of times people like see it as something they do on the side. So did you have support and what did that look like? Because many times we have to support ourselves, even the best of entrepreneurs, whether it's creative or not.
You know.
So, Susan, did you have support in stepping into this and if you didn't, what did you do to get yourself over that?
Hume?
Yeah, great, great question. First of all, I was born to be creative and artistic. And I listened to parental and society messages and put everything away and who I really am in a closet at age ten and I didn't take it out until four twenty seven. And I was terrified because I was told get serious about life, get you know, never get a job as an artist. You can't make a living. All of those messages. I
listened to authority. And I have a very loving husband of thirty two years who always saw himself as an artist right from childhood, as did his parents. And he loved me until I could love myself. And it's just a very special gift. And also friends and family who saw me saw the artistic, creative self. And yes, I had a very large bill for my clothing because I
was decorating myself as an okay outlet. But I had to The big lesson was I had to allow other people to love me until I loved myself, so I could get through that fear at forty seven and go forward and two with only two weekends of fuse glass workshops, I opened Shard's Glass Studio in nineteen ninety eight with only two lessons. My husband is going, what are you doing you you don't know enough about fuse glass to teach other people, And I said, yeah, but I know
more than them. But the thing is, I had been a dental hygiene teacher for decades. I set up if I set it up like a dental lab. I knew how to teach psychomotor skills. I just transferred it to art. And did I know enough about fuse glass. No, but I did it anyway, and through that love and support, I've been teaching glass workshops since nineteen ninety eight.
Right on, right on, I love it. Thank you so much for sharing that. And what about yourself, Jill, when you decided to go from you know, being a school teacher to gey grandma on camera? You know what I mean?
Well, I think my hairt wasn't in teaching. I'm able to teach, but I found that teaching the kids wasn't my niche that I loved working with adults. I found that through teaching an adult dead computer, of course, And I came out of there the first night and felt like Rocky.
It just was.
And then I again, my heart wasn't in it. So I started doing women's retreats while I still were I took the long path. I got through teaching and got my pension, and then I started my on the side business. But I think it's more like just listening. I call it to my guard here or to my body. First time I touched the keyboards, my hands knew what to do. First time I woke, I had a whole retreat laid out in my head. So I just listened to those voices and followed them.
That's great support. When the when the downloads come and you know it's a confirmation, then that's a strong that's just that's just, that's someone on that's a good boarder director to have. Right, we had directors and what about you, Jen?
I was not supported when I chose to go to university at Windsor for acting. My sister was supported, but the people I was looking to to support me, as we do our parents, it was not a viable way to make a living. But I went for it anyway, and uh, and then eventually I was acting, and then I got into a relationship and that person wanted me
to make more consistent income. I didn't have the confidence in myself, so over time I shut down on my creativity and really tucked that away and then similar to Susan, although my kind of rebirth came out of leaving my relationship twenty years later and then I returned. So it's just been it's been twelve years of that return and I am so grateful to say, yes, I'm back to owning my creativity and I do have support in my
life and people who are are beyond supportive. So it's I was ready for it, then I don't know that I could receive it if it was there before.
Right, fantastic, So I mean I listen from a different ear. I listened to like how our listeners are listening right now, and I think that that's super powerful, whether it's something in creative of whether it's an idea that you have. I mean, I believe that there is so much more support around for all sectors being creatives and actually turning them into businesses and having people understand that. You know, if you're a singer, there's a business attached. If you're
a painter, there's a singer attached. If you're an accountant, there's you know, there's a business attached. Sor is what I mean. So you know you all need to you all have kind of these roofs and you all kind of probably get hungry once in a while and need to feed yourself, and you.
Need money for that.
What are right? What are some of I love to teach on this show about something that you do that allows it to be easier, faster, smoother. I call that top performance. I'm a top performance trainer for the specific reason that you know, let's have more time to play, Let's have more time to be abundant with the resources of what our businesses, whether they're creative or not, bring in. What's something that you do, maybe in the background for your business that helps you do it a little quicker,
a little faster, a little smoother. I would call it top performance. You might just call it a strategy, Susan for yourself, What's something that you do that has been able to make this an easier journey as a business person.
Yeah, I think underneath all that is your belief about creativity itself. Because you said, and you're in the introduction, it's about having five new ideas every single day and you haven't even had breakfast yet. So keeping that imagination alive so that you do the piece that is truly your spirit inspired in spirit, and one of a kind, you know, in terms of how you might act or do a podcast and support a retreat or whatever it is. And it comes down to sometimes you're going to feel blocked,
like you said, debris. Sometimes you got to walk away. You need the rest. You're not in spirit or inspired at that moment. What do you believe about creativity? If you believe that you have to deserve it, you have to show up or it goes to someone else, or it disappears. Because you hear people say I'm blocked right now, I'm the most important thing to get back on track faster with more joy, or at least sit in the quiet with calm and confidence is know that creativity is
our birthright. You don't have to earn it. It doesn't go away. I don't care if you're away for twenty five years.
It is with us.
It's just being in alignment with where we came from in the universe and know that it is always there and if it's stuck or it's just blocked at that moment, it's yours and it's there. Just take the time back away if you need to, or go out and play with your girlfriends, go and do something that has nothing to do with your focus of your craft. For example, get away Esther Hicks is so good about saying that,
just go and play and don't think about it. But fundamentally, if you're afraid that it's a it's not a it's not something that's with you inside of you all the time, you're going to be driven by fear and that's going to take a lot longer to get back on track and a lot longer to get in alignment with your imagination on Wow.
Lots to digest there. Thank you so much. And Jill, what about for yourself? What about for yourself?
Well, you mentioned when I first came on you hadn't seen me in a while. And December twenty three, fifteen minutes before I was going on a Zoom meeting for speaking in Atlanta, our friend sent me a message and said, I'm having trouble on my Facebook. Would you help me? I said, she got fifteen minutes because I got an important meeting and my pink book crash with all my groups and my women's and all the visibility I'd worked.
And a day later, my brother's in the hospital emergency surgery for twenty inches of bio that I died and I melted down. And I had an old doctor who retired and a new young whipper snapper came in and he changed all my medications. And I spent last year getting my head back in order, and that took out a lot, and I had to regroup, and my business wasn't working and I had to come to that reality. And I'm getting my head back and the reality is right now. What I've learned about visits, I don't know
how to make it work. And I've taken classes, I've worked with people, but maybe it's my self worth and maybe it's my value. And so I've spent this year working on those things. And like I said, you know, I have to follow my heart's desires. I was doing an encouragement woman session with a woman and I said, you know, what did you like to do when you were ages five to seven and what lights you up?
And so that's my assignment to me this year. I passed to the seventieth birthday this last year, and I want to do it before my time's up. I want to do it at I don't care if I just write books for my grandkids. It's sad that I want to keep my visions I think the right thing will come up and pop up right now. I'm worth it and I'm going to do it, and I'm going to have fun doing it. And maybe you'll see a new book out in being published at some point. We'll see how it goes.
Wow.
Thank you so much for the transparency and sharing where you're at. And I think, just like Susan was sharing, it's you know, it's an inside journey, right, it's an inside journey. I mean you talk about it with your journal, and you talk about with your leadership. You talk about it when you get people to like put something into the glass and jil you talk about it on your show and yay you. That's like, you know, if I had a glass of champagne, my friend, I would cheers.
You welcome to the journey, and I'm looking forward to hearing how that unfolds. And you know, you've got a sisterhood of women that are ready to support you. We've loved you and we'll love you back. That's fantastic. Thank you. You're welcome, and jen for yourself.
On a practical level, scheduling is really important for top performance. I have so many ideas flying around that I need to create some order and prioritize. So that's a practical skill that I've had to develop and practice, but on
a regular, daily, sort of deeper level, it's journaling. There are some fundamental questions that I consider foundational that we as entrepreneurs, as creatives in anything that you are a part of, there's some fundamental questions that like such as why am I choosing this, Why am I pursuing this this business? Why am I pursuing this career whatever it might be, What does it mean to me? And why does that matter? Those questions I have found, whether it's
like why are you in my journal? What is it? Why did you choose this? What does it mean to you? Why does it matter? When we get into that foundational knowing why something matters to us, we are more resourced in a kind of I'll use the word again, foundational way, so that when we're challenged, when we have self doubt, when we have those days or we don't feel as skilled to lead in a business sense, like how do
I run a business? We go back to the why and the what, And for me, that is a regular set of questions that I will visit just to keep myself on that performance path and building of my work and why am I offering it? Why am I? Who am I serving all of those questions?
I love that And what I hear when you say it is clarity and I'm refueling. I mean, it's very inspiring and reinspiring to stay on top of your why. Yeah, you might be tired, you might be this, you might have you know, extended yourself emotionally or financially or whatever. But if your why is still alive and that's what you come back to, it within itself is a very powerful fuel, if within yourself. And one of the things I do to revive, Like I was just in New York.
I was sharing Jill a little bit maybe before show that I was in New York and I had to do a presentation that I've done many times, right, and it's about the two sixty two movement and this and talk about women. I mean, this is not difficult, right, but something told me to rewrite, and so I just rewrote what I was going to say and it reinspired me before I got to the presentation, Like, I felt refueled in a different way.
Right.
It's like when you try doing something different or use a different color when you're painting or whatever it is, and I felt refueled. It wasn't that I didn't have it. So I love that just checking in. I love that checking in.
I just want to add to that that it's you can't rely like I don't rely on motivation. It's so consistent. It's just it's not reliable. But when you know your go back to what is it that I want? Why am I here? Why does this matter? That will move you to the discipline? And I use that word lightly much more than motivation, which is, yeah, not reliable.
We're dependable right on, right on inspiration. Okay, look, ladies, we're coming to an end, and I want to talk about We've talked about business, We've talked about creativity, We've talked about support, we've talked about being inspired. We've talked about the things that we do and how we take ourselves to the world. And you know, we talk about on this show a lot about people being on the mission.
And some people have been on the mission for sixty days and some people have been on the mission for ten years. What keeps you on the mission? Well, I want to talk about risk, right, I want to talk about risk. We've talked about support. So we talk about risk in the sense of there's things that we do that we put ourselves up against the wall a little bit. We find ourselves uncomfortable. I always say, when you find
yourself uncomfortable, get really excited. There's probably a bigger paycheck coming. I mean, you know what I mean. It's like expanding yourself and those kind of things. So there's the risks that we take. I love you to share something that was kind of scary, you know, but I also want
you to share so in the same sentence. So we just you know, got a few minutes in the wrap up here share something that you know you were like, hmmm, I don't know, you know, maybe it was asking that guy to collaborate with you know, your your glass and your food.
I don't know.
But the other thing is share something cool, Like just share something cool and an unforeseen You did the business plan, your creatives probably not you know, you did. You did the strategic plan, and you did you know, you thought about what was your business? What was one of those surprises that came that you thought that is freaking cool. That would never have happened if you hadn't taken this venture. So Jen, I'm gonna start with you.
The biggest risk, I would say, in addition to honoring my my heart, I left a relationship that was I was very small in and following that, I left a six figure corporate job, and I mean that was significant. And I pursued my creative passions and that has been growing and growing since. And then what was the other question?
Nothing cool that's happened.
Maybe you met somebody or oh, you know, what's really cool is the women that I'm meeting who have told me how their lives have changed by learning how to be in relationship with themselves through journaling.
Like I didn't know the impact would be as massive as it as it has become and as it's becoming, including I have a woman with cancer who has a completely different perspective on her journey from what's come out of her journaling from the prompt. I didn't expect that. And I also wrote a play which is being supported by a theater company in Toronto. Theater past Marai and I have received awards and grants from my writing that also came out of me taking the risk to presume
I'm gonna cry my creative passions. So it's it's been hard, but it's been worth every every risk.
Wow, thank you so much, Jill. I mean, you've just shared like you are, you are in the you know you are taking a re risk this year, and you know with what you had just shared. So why don't we just go right to what is something cool? Since you started to venture on this journey of entrepreneurship, this journey of this create, this creative journey, what is something really cool that's happened.
One of the topics I've used in one of my speeches somewhere was about find my voice. And I had that creativity in me and I was getting those nudgets to do it. But I've learned more and more how to speak up for what's important to me. I always wanted to travel. We just bought a new camper. We're going to Colorado to spring. I always wanted to go to events and learn. This last year I went to Kaprala and listened to Tammack Cheeves, who I'd had in
my mind to go see for over five years. So I think my risk is getting it out of my mouth and finding it comes out better than I thought it would. That Okay, Sometimes I bumped up the ginna small or get rubbed a little, but it's nampening and I helping me to speak up more and about more important things as I go on.
Right on, Thank you so much, and Susan risk and something cool.
Yeah Risk, Well, I told you about opening charts glass studio with very little experience, but also that entrepreneur piece in and out of dental hygiene teaching and clinical I have techy terrors. I used to cry every day. Now I only cry about once every three months when it comes to technology. And I paid and used my profession like get serious about life. You can't make a living as an artist like the sixth figure corporate I've done
that too, and the academia. And I used my resources to hire web a wonderful web developer, to get me up and running with my art and so on and so for it. So that was a risk of using my resources and being really happy to go to that dental hygiene clinic where there were wonderful patients. But I went there with the joy of knowing that one day of wages was going to my web developer, who was also my mentor, and so I went with even more
joy because it was feeding my passion. And the other risk is that waiting piece that when we were talking about earlier. I do custom pendance for people where I actually download their story in the glass. I've had a number of authors and speakers and that have been my clients.
And one listened from Palm Spring since she was speaking in Seattle, known throughout North America for published book and her movement that she was part of and created, and I promised that her daughter would be part of the pendant. Her daughter passed away from drug addiction and her the daughter's spirit didn't come to me, So I walked away for three weeks. I closed the door of the studio
and I didn't go back. And I had to fast mail that pendant on a Saturday to her on the Friday to her sister in Seattle, because she was on stage in Seattle on Saturday morning, and I almost missed that deadline, but I stayed true to my commitment to myself and to make sure that her it was her story that was in that pendant and no one else's, and that her daughter showed up and that her daughter was in that pendant to the percentage that she specified
how much she wanted that daughter to her daughter to be in that pendant. So the risk was losing that contract, losing that deadline date, and I'm missing it because I and when it comes right down to the wire, what do you make of?
What do you believe?
And will you act on your beliefs or act to complete something? Because the end the you know you're trying to please someone or make the money or whatever. So that's was a risk. And I've done that twice now with another client as well, and it's wonderful because as you go through the journey of entrepreneur and creative, you find out what you're made of. And that's great and
the joy for me. The really cool thing is I've won many accolades and prizes as an academic nationally, and it took me till year seven to enter art pieces in a very prestigious juried art show. My first nine pieces for the first three years were rejected. The next year, year four, one piece was accepted. I was absolutely over
the moon. And the next year my piece won a jurors award and I'm sitting in this special place where all the winners were to go up and get their award and the biggest thing for me is I got one hundred dollars gift certickific from an art store. And I can't tell you how special that was for me. And this is a terrified forty seven year old That took two years of banks before I even owned that
I was an artist. It took a lot. And here I am sitting there receiving an award and standing in an art store picking out new pencils and heard and that was more thrilling to me in many many ways than the national accolades I had received earlier.
Right on, that is incredible, what a variety. This has been such a very fabulous show. I think all of you ladies for being so forthcoming in sharing. You're sharing your stories and your experience, says, I have no doubt the listeners feel like I was talking about in the beginning. When you're around creatives and you hear the story and you hear their process, there's just something really cleaning and clearing, almost uric, you know, where you just feel lighter, you
feel brighter, you feel hopeful, you feel inspired. And I'm very excited. This has been a fantastic show listeners. As you always know, we have all and everybody's information in the show notes. If something that you said resonated or something they said resonated and you want to lean in, please lean in, Please lean in and learn more. Go on to their socials follows, see what they're doing. That's
what this is all about. We're super excited, and of course, if you want to sit, if you want to take the risk and see the reward of sitting on the podcast, admission accepted, or you want to come into our stages or goodness, we just opened up the book for our final final revision before we take this book to the Emmy. Very excited. Maybe by the time you hear this, we probably would have been at the oscars. I mean, who would have known. This is the unforeseen, unforetold experience of
walking your journey. So if you'd like to be in the book, this is your last chance to come and share your stories and your words. We'd love to hear from you. Thank you for being such an incredible audience. Thank you for doing what you're doing, ladies, Thank you for sharing with us today. We're super excited, and as you know, I wish you well and I want you to stay gruby. So until we see you next time. Bye, for now go