In The Company of Creatives

Episode #6
“A lot of us take our voice for granted. We only realise how powerful and important it is when we lose it. Which is why I try to get out as much as possible so people understand their voices."
Today, I’m speaking to Nicola Redman. Nic is a voice and accent coach who works with narrators, podcasters and actors – “voice users”, as she calls them – helping them reach their speaking, recording and performance goals.

On top of having recorded voiceovers, she has also taught at some of the top drama schools & theatres across the UK. Nic hosts the Voice Coach Podcast, co-hosts The Voice Over Social Podcast and she runs the Voice and Accent Hub on Facebook.

She’s originally from Northern Ireland and is now based in Cumbria.

I wanted to speak to Nic because as creatives, we’re often expected to talk about our work quite naturally – with ease and confidence. We should be able to stand up in public and just blurt something out. But for most of us, that’s not the way it is. Our voice won’t come out the way we’d like it to – it cracks, it doesn’t sound quite right or maybe our accent is off. We feel self-conscious and lose confidence.

Speaking with impact doesn’t come easily for most of us. So it’s helpful to understand how the vocal system works so we can learn to play our instrument more fluently. And today I’m speaking to someone who teaches just that.

She shared her thoughts on:

• How the vocal system works
• How to look after your voice
• How to find your authentic voice

Links mentioned in the episode:
Nic's website
Nic's Instagram Account
Nic's Facebook Group
The Voice Coach Podcast
The Voice Over Social Podcast
For more detailed episode notes, go to my website Curativity.me

Episode #5
“Visual brand designers can't create something unless we understand what it's meant to do, what it's meant to communicate and who it's meant to be for."
Today, I’m speaking to Meg Fenn, an American visual brand designer based in the UK. She has over 20 years of experience working across a variety of roles in graphic design. She studied Fine Art, worked as an internet designer and later specialised in brand design.

She is a fountain of knowledge on graphics and she mentors business owners, with a focus on diversity. I wanted to interview Meg because she has such a breadth of expertise and as creatives, we often need to learn quickly how to communicate about our work – build website, come up with social media strategies, etc. and this was the opportunity to ask her how to go about that.

She shared her thoughts on:

• Where to start when you're communicating about your work
• Who does what in the visual design space and in branding
• How to find the right kind of support
• How to find the best people to work with

Links mentioned in the episode:
Meg's website
Meg's Newsletter
Meg's Twitter Account
Meg's LinkedIn Profile
For more detailed episode notes, go to my website Curativity.me

Episode #4
“I’ve done two books from the ground up, and in both cases, [...] it was a question of finding the right container for a whole lot of things that I was already really interested in. [...] It needs to be the right washing line to hang the stuff off”
Today, I’m speaking to Oliver Burkeman, the author The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking and The Sunday Times Bestseller Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals. He wrote the weekly psychology column – This Column Will Change Your Life – for the Guardian for over 12 years. His work has also been published in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Psychologies and New Philosopher.
He shares his thoughts on:

• His passion for journalism
• Writing non-fiction
• Finding the right heading for his books
• Finding his topics
• His writing style
• The role of writing in his life
• How he uses Twitter

Links mentioned in the episode:
Oliver's website and newsletter
Oliver's books
Oliver's interview on This Jungian Life
For more detailed episode notes, go to my website Curativity.me

Episode #3
"The reality of what makes innovation is when people say “This is just how I do it and I’m doubling down on expressing myself in the way that I see the world”. And that’s where the risk and where the innovation always come from. [...] But that’s the most difficult thing in life – being your true self. "
Today, I’m speaking to Dr Trevor Weston.

Trevor is an American composer based in Brooklyn.

He’s currently a Professor of Music at Drew University, Madison in New Jersey and teaches in the MAP and pre-college programs at the Juilliard School.

In this episode, we discuss:

• How to find your voice
• The trappings of originality
• The importance of bringing your whole self to your art
• Tips for aspiring composers

Find Trevor's work here as well as some things we discussed:

• Dr Trevor Weston's website
• Ashes by Trevor Weston performed by the Choir of Trinity Wall Street
• Juba for String Quartet by Trevor Weston, performed by the American Symphony Orchestra
• Magnificat by Trevor Weston, performed by A & P Choir
• Trevor's channel on Spotify
• IRCAM website
• Miserere Mei by Allegri performed by King's College, Cambridge

For more detailed episode notes, go to my website Curativity.me

Episode #2

“The impulse I get to put pen to paper, is something that I think the readers may have not seen much of and that really tickled my fancy when I first saw it.”

Today, I’m speaking to Jessica Mudditt.
Jessica is an Australian journalist and author based in Sydney. Her articles have been published by the BBC, The Economist Intelligence Unit, GQ and Marie Claire, among others. She worked as a journalist in England, Bangladesh and Myanmar, before returning home in 2016.

She recently published “Our Home in Myanmar”, her debut memoir about her four years living in Yangon in Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

I asked her about her writing process and it was fascinating to hear how she managed to build a life as a foreigner and operate as a journalist in one of the most politically closed countries in the world, while her editor was in jail. We talked about how what started out as a light read about living in a country as it opened up, became more of a historic depiction of the few short years of democracy from 2012 to 2016.

In this interview, I ask Jessica about how she uses place for inspiration, how she grounds herself in foreign places and what it’s like to be living in her home country again.

She shared her thoughts on:

• How being away from home helps sharpen your lens
• How to frame rejection and look for the right home for your ideas
• How to find your creative path
• How to approach pitching as a freelance journalist
• How to learn from editors

You can find Jessica's work here, as well as the books she mentioned in the interview:

• Our Home in Myanmar by Jessica Mudditt
• Finding George Orwell in Burma: Amazon.co.uk: Larkin, Emma ...
• From the Land of Green Ghosts: A Burmese Odyssey by Pascal Khoo Thwe
• Jessica Mudditt's website
• Jessica's Twitter Account
• Jessica's Facebook Account
• Jessica's Instagram Account

For more detailed episode notes, go to my website Curativity.me