139: The Creative Process & Feeding Your Creativity with Caroline Jestaz
Explicit content warning
02/03/20 • 100 min
Hello Couragemaker and welcome to a fabulous episode of The Couragemakers Podcast! This week I’m delighted to be chatting to the wonderful Caroline Jestaz.
Caroline is a fiction writer, language teacher and writing mentor. She was born and raised in Paris and has been living in the UK since 2003. She first went to England at the age of seven and fell in love with the language, the culture and the country. By the time she was thirteen, she spoke fluent English and went on to study Russian and Italian, then English Literature at university. She has twenty years of teaching experience at university, in language schools and giving private tuition face-to-face and online. Her love of books has led her to run an independent publishing company and to work for two high-profile educational publishers.
Writing is her vocation. Caroline has four novels under her belt. She likes to weave in different narratives and viewpoints and explore themes such as grief, loss, projection, manipulation and deceit. She’s also created an online writing course, runs creative writing workshops in Cambridge and mentors aspiring writers.
Caroline has just launched The Creativity for All Podcast, a bi-monthly show which explores and celebrates the many unseen and unrecognised forms of day-to-day creativity, with the hope of inspiring listeners to tap into their creative potential. She’s passionate about all things creative and endlessly curious about the creative process.
During this episode, we dive into Caroline’s love of languages and linguistics, how her creativity was nurtured as a child and how this plays out in her life today.
Caroline shares her philosophy on writing which doubles up as beautiful advice on life, her life as a self-taught woman and her journey to writing.
We dive into dealing with the critic inside your head, protecting your creativity and putting boundaries around it and the importance of space and freedom in your creative work. We also chat about the myth of the muse and the idea of being too early for something as opposed to not being able to do it.
If you love deep conversations about creativity, if you struggle with your inner critic or you need some creative inspiration, this is the perfect episode for you! Enjoy today’s show!
About Caroline
Caroline is a fiction writer, language teacher and writing mentor. She’s passionate about all things creative and endlessly curious about the creative process.
Caroline was born and raised in Paris and has been living in the UK since 2003. She first went to England at the age of seven and fell in love with the language, the culture and the country. By the time she was thirteen, she spoke fluent English and went on to study Russian and Italian, then English Literature at university in France, Scotland and Ireland. She has twenty years of teaching experience at university, in language schools and giving private tuition face-to-face and online. Her love of books has led her to run an independent publishing company and to work for two high-profile educational publishers.
Writing is her vocation. Caroline has four novels under her belt. Her stories are character-based and always include an element of mystery. She likes to weave in different narratives and viewpoints and explore themes such as grief, loss, projection, manipulation and deceit. She’s also created an online writing course, runs creative writing workshops in Cambridge and mentors aspiring writers. Caroline is passionate about her writing and teaching: ‘The reason I'm a teacher and writing mentor is that I love empowering my students with words and languages and give them the confidence they need to find their own voice.’
On January 27th 2020, she launched The Creativity for All Podcast, a bi-monthly show which explores and celebrates the many unseen and unrecognised forms of day-to-day creativity, with the hope of inspiring listeners to tap into their creative potential.
Website | Creativity For All Podcast | Facebook Page | Novel Writing Course Facebook Page | Instagram
Things We Talked About
- Caroline’s love of languages and linguistics and how her creativity was nurtured as a child
- Life as a self-taught woman
- Caroline’s journey to writing
- Dealing with the critic inside your head
- Protecting your creativity and putting boundaries around it
- The importance of space and freedom in our creative life and work
- Creating conversations about creativity and overcoming the loneliness
I’m Meg and I’m the host of Couragemakers and founder of Th...
Hello Couragemaker and welcome to a fabulous episode of The Couragemakers Podcast! This week I’m delighted to be chatting to the wonderful Caroline Jestaz.
Caroline is a fiction writer, language teacher and writing mentor. She was born and raised in Paris and has been living in the UK since 2003. She first went to England at the age of seven and fell in love with the language, the culture and the country. By the time she was thirteen, she spoke fluent English and went on to study Russian and Italian, then English Literature at university. She has twenty years of teaching experience at university, in language schools and giving private tuition face-to-face and online. Her love of books has led her to run an independent publishing company and to work for two high-profile educational publishers.
Writing is her vocation. Caroline has four novels under her belt. She likes to weave in different narratives and viewpoints and explore themes such as grief, loss, projection, manipulation and deceit. She’s also created an online writing course, runs creative writing workshops in Cambridge and mentors aspiring writers.
Caroline has just launched The Creativity for All Podcast, a bi-monthly show which explores and celebrates the many unseen and unrecognised forms of day-to-day creativity, with the hope of inspiring listeners to tap into their creative potential. She’s passionate about all things creative and endlessly curious about the creative process.
During this episode, we dive into Caroline’s love of languages and linguistics, how her creativity was nurtured as a child and how this plays out in her life today.
Caroline shares her philosophy on writing which doubles up as beautiful advice on life, her life as a self-taught woman and her journey to writing.
We dive into dealing with the critic inside your head, protecting your creativity and putting boundaries around it and the importance of space and freedom in your creative work. We also chat about the myth of the muse and the idea of being too early for something as opposed to not being able to do it.
If you love deep conversations about creativity, if you struggle with your inner critic or you need some creative inspiration, this is the perfect episode for you! Enjoy today’s show!
About Caroline
Caroline is a fiction writer, language teacher and writing mentor. She’s passionate about all things creative and endlessly curious about the creative process.
Caroline was born and raised in Paris and has been living in the UK since 2003. She first went to England at the age of seven and fell in love with the language, the culture and the country. By the time she was thirteen, she spoke fluent English and went on to study Russian and Italian, then English Literature at university in France, Scotland and Ireland. She has twenty years of teaching experience at university, in language schools and giving private tuition face-to-face and online. Her love of books has led her to run an independent publishing company and to work for two high-profile educational publishers.
Writing is her vocation. Caroline has four novels under her belt. Her stories are character-based and always include an element of mystery. She likes to weave in different narratives and viewpoints and explore themes such as grief, loss, projection, manipulation and deceit. She’s also created an online writing course, runs creative writing workshops in Cambridge and mentors aspiring writers. Caroline is passionate about her writing and teaching: ‘The reason I'm a teacher and writing mentor is that I love empowering my students with words and languages and give them the confidence they need to find their own voice.’
On January 27th 2020, she launched The Creativity for All Podcast, a bi-monthly show which explores and celebrates the many unseen and unrecognised forms of day-to-day creativity, with the hope of inspiring listeners to tap into their creative potential.
Website | Creativity For All Podcast | Facebook Page | Novel Writing Course Facebook Page | Instagram
Things We Talked About
- Caroline’s love of languages and linguistics and how her creativity was nurtured as a child
- Life as a self-taught woman
- Caroline’s journey to writing
- Dealing with the critic inside your head
- Protecting your creativity and putting boundaries around it
- The importance of space and freedom in our creative life and work
- Creating conversations about creativity and overcoming the loneliness
I’m Meg and I’m the host of Couragemakers and founder of Th...
Previous Episode
138: Building Fortitude and Cultivating Flow with Audrey Holst
Hello Couragemakers! This week I’m so excited to share my conversation with Audrey Holst!
Audrey Holst helps really smart people not fall apart by helping them heal and transform their burnout. She combines over a decade of experience teaching yoga and mindfulness with extensive training and work as a Certified Professional Coach. She is the author of an upcoming book that teaches readers that there is nothing wrong with them, that what they experience as burnout and disconnection makes sense, and that reconnecting to their body and healing their nervous system is the pathway to tap into their innate brilliance and their sense of self. Each month she leads the Standing Still Collective, a virtual gathering for people that want to achieve their goals in a body-centered and intuitive way with the backing of a community that nurtures their positive actions and changes. Audrey believes that everyone is deserving of a life that nourishes them and small and doable changes over time will eventually change the world.Audrey loves spending spending time with her husband and their adorable kitty Sweatpea as well as hiking, hiking, dancing, yoga and movement in general. I also love curling up under a warm blanket with a book and a cup of tea, which is my personal idea of bliss
In this week’s episode, we’re diving into everything burnout, connection and flow!
Audrey shares about her passion for teaching people how to connect with themselves and shares SO much fabulous wisdom!
She gives us a lesson in nervous system 101, shares her favourite practices to connect with yourselves as well as practices to help with chronic stress.
We have great discussions about perfectionism as a survival tactic, building a relationship with discomfort and keeping our sanity as ambitious women. We also talk how you can’t use the same tools to get out of burnout that got you there, and the problem with this idea of always living outside of your comfort zone
If you’ve ever burnt out, if you struggle with perfectionism or you want to connect with your body more, this is the perfect episode for you!
I loved learning more about our nervous systems and the things we can do to take back control and connect with ourselves today!
I know you’re absolutely going to love Audrey - she has a contagious energy and we cover SO much ground in this episode!
Enjoy today’s show!
About Audrey
Audrey Holst helps really smart people not fall apart by helping them heal and transform their burnout. She combines over a decade of experience teaching yoga and mindfulness with extensive training and work as a Certified Professional Coach. She is the author of an upcoming book that teaches readers that there is nothing wrong with them, that what they experience as burnout and disconnection makes sense, and that reconnecting to their body and healing their nervous system is the pathway to tap into their innate brilliance and their sense of self. Each month she leads the Standing Still Collective, a virtual gathering for people that want to achieve their goals in a body-centered and intuitive way with the backing of a community that nurtures their positive actions and changes. Audrey believes that everyone is deserving of a life that nourishes them and small and doable changes over time will eventually change the world.Audrey loves spending spending time with her husband and their adorable kitty Sweatpea as well as hiking, dancing, yoga and movement in general. She also love curling up under a warm blanket with a book and a cup of tea.
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Things we talked about
- building a relationship with discomfort
- nervous system 101
- burnout
- Audrey’s favourite practices to connect with yourself
- stress loops
- practices to help with chronic stress
- perfectionism as a survival technique
Resources
About Meg & The Couragemakers Podcast
I’m Meg and I’m the host of Couragemakers and founder of That Hummingbird Life. I’m a coach for creative and multipassionate women, a writer and INFJ creative and multi-passionate who has a bit of a notebook and post-it note obsession, loves foot-stomping country music and likes her hot chocolate with way too much chocolate.
I started Couragemakers because I wanted to create a platform for passionate and unconventional women to have honest conversations and to share their stories, struggles and dreams. The intention behind ...
Next Episode
140: The Middle Finger Project with Ash Ambirge
Hello Couragemakers and welcome to another episode of The Couragemaker’s Podcast!
Before we dive into today’s show, I have a very exciting announcement! On 29th February, I’m launching a brand new podcast, called The Daily Pep! (Don’t worry, Couragemakers isn’t going anywhere!)
I’ve spent the past six years building a creative life and I’ve got to spend it in the company with the wisest and most creative and wonderful women. And even though we’ve been on different paths, there’s been one thing in common: it takes a shitload of courage, a shitload of perseverance and a fuck load of energy to keep going every day.
I got to thinking about how we all need frequent encouragement and rebel-rousing to keep going, and going, and going. And reminders not to sacrifice yourself (or your values) along the way. And you know what they say about being the change you want to see, or building the thing you want to exist?! Well, The Daily Pep! Podcast was born.
Every weekday, I’ll be sharing short and snappy insights, reminders and stories to help you build a wholehearted creative life that feels good, is sustainable and joyful AND leaves the world a brighter place.
Each episode will be purposefully short and snappy, designed to fit in with your life and your routines. Listen with your morning coffee, while you walk the dog, on your commute, or while you’re trying to resist the snooze button.
So if you’re exhausted by the need to be all the things, want regular reminders that you’re on the right path and you matter, or you’re sick of being your very own personal dreamshitter, this is the podcast for you! It’s launching on 29th February I’ll going to be sharing more about it later this week. Ahhh!
Now, onto today’s show!
This week I’m seriously excited to share my conversation with Ash Ambirge. I have been a fan of Ash’s for YEARS, after stumbling across her blog The Middle Finger Project when I was just getting started in 2014. Since then I’ve really enjoyed watching her journey
Ash is an internet entrepreneur, creative writer, speaker, and advocate for women being brave and doing disobedient things with their careers and their lives. Her voice has been called, “the most memorable on the Internet,” “not safe for work at all,” and also, “really kinda sweary,” which is definitely her favorite description. She is the founder of The Middle Finger Project®, which is both the name of her hallmark lifestyle blog as well the title of her first book. It’s a call to action for “women who disobey” with the tools and mind-set to reject the world’s expectations of success and get on their own path to happiness, wealth, independence, and adventure. Ash splits her time between Philadelphia, PA, and traveling the world.
We dive into SO many good things in this episode. We talk about the importance of failing and getting up again, why Ash doesn’t believe in the myth of the starving artists, the things hardship and loss show us, self promotion as women and a great reframe on how to see money.
Ash shares her experience of writing her first book, how she felt pressing publish on her first ever blog post and the journey along the way. Ash has some fabulous advice about how to put yourself out there and becoming what she’s terms, unfuckwithable and I know you’re going to get SO much out of today’s show!
I know so many of you are already familiar with Ash’s work and The Middle Finger Project and I’m so delighted to share today’s episode with you! If you’re working on or need to work on putting yourself out there, your mindset around money - especially around being a starving artist - or you’re looking to do your own thing, this is the perfect episode for you!
Enjoy the show!
About Ash
Ash is an internet entrepreneur, creative writer, speaker, and advocate for women being brave and doing disobedient things with their careers and their lives. Her voice has been called, “the most memorable on the Internet,” “not safe for work at all,” and also, “really kinda sweary,” which is definitely her favorite description. She is the founder of The Middle Finger Project®, which is both the name of her hallmark lifestyle blog as well the title of her first book. It’s a call to action for “women who disobey” with the tools and mind-set to reject the world’s expectations of success and get on their own path to happiness, wealth, independence, and adventure. Ash splits her time between Philadelphia, PA, and traveling the world.
The Middle Finger Project | The book! | Instagram | Twitter
Things we talked about
- The things loss and hardship bring
- Putting yo...
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