Windowsill Chats
Margo Tantau
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Top 10 Windowsill Chats Episodes
Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Windowsill Chats episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Windowsill Chats for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Windowsill Chats episode by adding your comments to the episode page.
A guide to living better.. to hitting your stride. Heath Brockwell on The New Maturity
Windowsill Chats
04/27/22 • 57 min
In this episode, Margo chats with art director, writer, and editor in chief of The New Maturity, Heath Brockwell. Heath’s work synthesizes motivational and accessible ideas on how to create a life you love sharing a range of ideas from making a great meal for your family to ways you can have a fantastic day. When Heath was young he was obsessed with magazines. He would devour them, tear them apart, and make giant collages on his bedroom walls. As a young undiagnosed dyslexic, he had a hard time with reading comprehension. However the images and words in magazines kept Heath engaged for hours. It was this passion that led him to a career art directing some of the top magazines of the late 90’s and early aughts. Then the internet killed the magazine star in 2008. With a quick pivot, a digital designer rose from the ashes. The solid design foundation heath had established back in his childhood bedroom was put to new use building tablet apps and websites.
Margo and Heath discuss:
- His creative path, how The New Maturity came to be, pros and cons of corporate clients versus self-employment
- How age has played a role in “the new maturity”
- Being multi-passionate and how he continues to advance his skillset
- Advice for creatives and artists who want to advance their own skill sets
- The importance of owning your time and how he manages his
- Why he considers his dyslexia a superpower
- Creating a live well lived
- And more
Heath shows you how kindness wins and takes you on a journey to discover simple ways to shift your point of view, improve your mood, make yourself a great meal, get better with age, and more. The New Maturity is a toolkit and a resource of ideas that excites him and he wants to share those resources with you. He takes most of the pictures, does the illustrations, concepts and writes the stories. Heath believes that together we can create a better world where people are kinder to each other.
Connect with Heath:
https://www.thenewmaturity.com
https://www.instagram.com/thenewmaturity
Download the free book: 10 Ways to Improve Your World
Margo is joined by her podcast producer and editor Katie Anderson. Katie is the founder behind HomeAway Studio - a creative studio dedicated to supporting business leaders, content creators, and impact driven entrepreneurs through branding, web design, and podcast production. Formerly known as Katie J VA, her business stemmed from the desire to have her own outlet while being able to support her hockey-playing partner in his career overseas. Through persistent curiosity and a never ending desire to learn new skills, she has enabled coaches and creatives to focus on growing and improving their own services by outsourcing time-consuming, digital marketing tasks.
Margo and Katie discuss:
- The path to launching her own business from Europe
- Leaving a career path she didn’t love but learned a lot from
- How she’s allowed her business to evolve over time
- Getting intentional, finding your why, and doing the work
- How living in other countries has helped her business
- Mixing the analytical, technical, and creative skills required for a business
- And more!
Born and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, before moving to Arizona for college in 2011, Katie now considers herself a part-time expat splitting her time between the U.S. and Europe. Outside of the U.S., she has lived in Norway, Finland, Austria, and Slovakia but her true home is wherever the Wi-Fi is. When she’s not busy supporting businesses behind the scenes, you can find her getting into nature, cooking, enjoying a glass of wine, or expanding her passport stamp collection.
Connect with Katie:
Margo is joined by stay at home mom (of nine children) turned licensed artist, creative author, and educator, Shannon Christensen. After being home with her children most of her early life, Shannon turned to creativity when grief struck which turned into a reinvention of herself and a creative career came along with it. Although her home base is in the U.S.A., she’s spent the past four years living abroad in Jordan, Sweden, and currently Montenegro accompanying her husband's career as a contractor. Shannon’s creative road trip has taken many twists (a BFA Illustration degree at 42, featured in Western Art Collector magazine spread, her studio as an inspo spot on HGTVs Rate My Space) – and turns (acrylic magazine illustration work to Fine Art oil painting in museums, private collections & juried exhibitions to licensing contemporary watercolorist). Shannon is now embarking to help others reach their creative potential with a Creative Roadmap for others to follow.
Margo and Shannon discuss:
- Her creative path and a long standing desire to be able to support her family outside of motherhood
- Grief, loss and finding joy again
- Why vulnerability is necessary when it comes to healing
- The feeling of home and how she finds it while living abroad
- The 8 Creative Power Habits
- Building confidence in your creations and changing your neural pathways
- Her approaches to finding fitting opportunities
- Outsourcing tasks and skills you’re not confident or comfortable in
- Her Build Your Body of Work Membership
- And more!
Connect with Shannon:
https://www.shannonsstudio.com
Jumpstart Your Creative Engine Book
http://www.shannonsportfolio.com
Build Your Body of Work Membership
Connect with Margo:
Join the In the Windowsill Patreon Channel
Envisioning vs. Embodying: Unlocking Your Creative Potential with a Success Mindset with Anna Huff
Windowsill Chats
06/28/23 • 67 min
Margo is joined by former teacher & blogger turned entrepreneur, and second time guest in the Windowsill, Anna Huff. As a business mindset coach, Anna works to empower women to pursue their passions and live in authentic alignment with who they were divinely designed to be. Through years of burnout and struggling to find alignment, Anna played small. Thinking that if she just did more, worked harder, learned more, and achieved more she would find what she was looking for. What she discovered was that nothing she could ever do, earn, or say would make her any more worthy of becoming who she was divinely designed to be. Through the process of fully discovering her purpose, she now helps others master their own mindset practice in order to live in alignment and acceptance of who they really are.
Margo and Anna discuss:
- Permission and acceptance to be multi passionate
- Human design and how it allows you to go deeper in self-discovery
- How to sit in the discomfort and feel your way through fear
- The mindset shift that made meditating easier for her
- What success mindset is and how to operate from it
- Detaching from the outcome
- Not letting fear have all the fun
- Vulnerability, openness, and growing awareness to one's thoughts
Connect with Anna:
Margo is joined by Brandi Kincaid for a chat on finding inspiration, the power of journaling, and the art of sending extravagant hope by mail. Brandy, a tiny treasure seeker and paper lover, shares her experiences as a designer, creator, and curator of monthly hope packages as they delve into the creative process behind these packages, the importance of personal connections, and the impact they have on both the sender and the recipient. Brandy's passion for journaling and her thoughtful, empathetic approach to her work shines through as she shares insights, tips, and glimpses into the art of finding meaning in the world.
Margo and Brandi discuss:
- Showing up unapologetically
- What it means to bring your tender self to the table
- Why she keeps a commonplace book and notebook with her everywhere she goes
- How she customizes her Extravagant Hope designs for what her community needs each month
- Gentle softness and quiet vs. motivation and a call to action
- What her journal pages reflect
- Her different art supply preferences
- Creating and sharing work as personal expression, not for validation or commercial purposes
- Why she still sends physical products instead of going 100% digital
- Her process of designing, making, packaging for Extravagant Hope package Her internal battles when it comes to marketing and promoting
- Sourcing inspiration
Mentioned in this episode:
Words in Air: The Complete Correspondence Between Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Lowell
The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor by Flannery O'Connor and Sally Fitzgerald
Connect with Brandi:
https://www.instagram.com/brandi_kincaid
Connect with Margo:
Colors of the Sun, Songs of the Moon: Melissa Lakey’s Artistic Insights, Gallery Success, and the Evolution of Creative Observations
Windowsill Chats
08/23/23 • 53 min
Margo is joined by contemporary visual artist and illustrator Melissa Lakey. Melissa is based in Joshua Tree, California, where the windows of her art studio look out into the Mojave Desert. Her colorful work celebrates the landscape and animals of the American Southwest and her love of cowboys, road trips, and summer vacations. Melissa shares on observing others and how it can inspire our own creative processes, the concept of using sketchbooks with specific themes and approaching journaling, overcoming creative obstacles and more.
Topics discussed:
[01:32] An introduction to Melissa
[05:12] Her unique art journey: finding passions and discovering new possibilities
[12:25] Exploring different techniques and materials in vibrant art
[13:13] Her love for art supplies and some of her favorite tools
[20:21] Her first residency experience and the inspiration and motivation she found in attending
[26:29] First show in Joshua Tree and the feedback she received
[35:39] Thoughts on self-identification and artistic work
[39:20] Her sketchbook practice and how it aids in her projects and bigger works
[42:42] The value she finds in exploring other artists methods
[47:59] Thoughts on teaching
Margo and Melissa also discuss why she took a break from creating and the fears that come up when taking a break, her number one tip for 100-day projects, why social media friends have been pivotal in her career and why she doesn’t live post her work but rather waits a month or so to post.
Mentioned in this episode:
Sarah Dyer (https://www.sarahdyer.com/)
Sou'wester Lodge Artist Residency (https://www.souwesterlodge.com/art/artist-residency/)
Hey There Projects (https://www.heythereprojects.com/)
Wyatt Hersey (https://www.wyatthersey.com/)
Emma Carslile (https://www.emmacarlisle.com/)
Natalie Lundeen (https://natlundeen.myportfolio.com/)
Connect with Melissa:
https://www.instagram.com/melissa.lakey
"Colors of the Sun, Songs of the Moon" in Taos, NM from August 19th - September 20th (https://www.instagram.com/lunojo_gallery/)
Sketchbook Workshop (https://inkygoodness.samcart.com/products/sketchbook-workshop-melissa-lakey/)
Connect with Margo:
Margo is joined by co-founder and creative director of El Extraordinario, Marcus Hurst. El Extraordinario is an award winning creative outfit specialized in audio fiction and podcasts making timeless long form content with high production values and a strong emphasis on sound design. Looking more to music record labels like XL Recordings as inspiration for creating podcasts rather than traditional podcasting, El Extraordinario is anything but traditional.
Marcus shares his experiences in the world of blogging, journalism, and now podcasting, and how he’s found success in being adaptable, assembling a solid team, brand partnerships, how he manages social media personally and professionally and much more.
Topics discussed:
[02:23] Blogging and its impact on journalism
[06:57] The monopolization of blogging
[11:49] Developing a different approach to journalism
[19:08] The importance of high production values and audio engineering with the types of content he produces
[23:16] Creating a successful sponsored brand podcast in partnership with Switzerland Tourism
[25:48] Coming up with new ideas and how to execute them. Exploring the freedom and risk-taking that comes into play at El Extraordinario
[33:13] Spanish elegance and politeness with ground rules.
[38:26] Benefits of having a small team and understanding each person's unique values
[39:45] Connections and creativity within the podcasting realm
[48:07] Spanish speaking markets versus English speaking markets
[50:03] Upcoming podcast projects
[54:22] People and things currently inspiring Marcus
Connect with Marcus:
Coming Home to Your True Self: Shelley Tantau on Liberation, Letting Go of 'Shoulds,' and Healing the Healers
Windowsill Chats
10/18/23 • 65 min
Margo is joined by Nurse Practitioner, mentor, guide and coach for midlife-ish women (and her sister!) Shelley Tantau. Shelley has a superpower for empowering others to see beyond their perceived boundaries in order to find healing, clarity, and incite positive change within their lives. Her journey through grief after the loss of a dear friend was the catalyst to challenging cultural and societal norms as well as the stories she told herself to find healing and joy within. Shelley believes that the world needs people that are living their most full and vibrant lives...not ones that are “just fine” and that your joy matters just as much as the person next to you.
Margo and Shelley discuss:
- Putting a stop to the glorification of busyness
- Fear around exposing ourselves to vulnerability
- Understanding trauma in order to heal from it
- Creativity and its relation to healing
- Liberation work and why it’s been so important in Shelley’s own journey
- Habits: the bad and the good, the learning and unlearning
- Finding joy after loss and grief
- Stepping into authenticity and finding one's true path
Connect with Shelley:
https://www.shelleytantau.com/
https://www.instagram.com/stantau
This week, Margo is joined by illustrator, artist, teacher, and all-around creative person, Lisa Bardot. With the iPad and Procreate as her medium of choice, she creates industry-leading digital brushes, tutorials, and art-making resources to help beginners and experienced artists alike find joy in creating. Her tutorials and classes have been viewed by millions, with high praise for her thorough, concise, and fun teaching style. Additionally, she runs Making Art Everyday, providing drawing prompts and challenges to help people overcome fears and develop an art-making practice, as well as Art Maker’s Club, a joy-filled creative community and learning hub for digital art-makers.
Margo and Lisa discuss:
- Lisa’s creative path and how she became involved with Procreate
- Discovering and creating new Photoshop brush styles
- Launching her daily art challenge
- The endless creativity and benefits of using procreate
- Procreate enhances art, replicates traditional techniques.
- The beauty of connection and collaboration when it comes to creating and how she nurtures her online communities
- Approachable techniques to improve artistic skills quickly.
- Drawing in Procreate and digitally versus pen to paper
- And her new book, Drawing Digital: The Complete Guide to Learning to Draw and Paint on Your iPad
Join Windowsill Chats Patreon for just $5 a month and receive early access to the Windowsill Chats Podcast, question submission for Q&A, replay's of monthly Q&A create-together sessions, a vibrant Facebook community, and more at www.patreon.com/inthewindowsill!
Connect with Lisa:
https://www.instagram.com/lisabardot/
https://www.artmakersclub.com/
https://www.instagram.com/artmakersclub
Order Drawing Digital: The Complete Guide for Learning to Draw and Paint on Your iPad
Connect with Margo:
This week Margo is sitting down with her lovely mother, Sally Tantau. Sally is a former interior designer and all around creative being and instilled so much of her talents in Margo as well as many others. Sally and Margo have a fun and lighthearted conversation around sourcing creativity, how she got her start in interior design, what it was like to be an interior designer during that era (sourcing wasn’t as easy and there wasn’t a home goods right around the corner!), and the many fabulous clients she was able to work with. Sally’s big dream mentality and ability to trust in her path is truly an inspiration.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Nature of Home: Creating Timeless Houses by Jeffrey Dungan
Connect with Sally:
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FAQ
How many episodes does Windowsill Chats have?
Windowsill Chats currently has 238 episodes available.
What topics does Windowsill Chats cover?
The podcast is about Artist, Art, Entrepreneurship, Design, Creative, Podcasts, Arts and Business.
What is the most popular episode on Windowsill Chats?
The episode title 'Follow your own instinct and interests and your story will write itself, beautifully. Creative insights with artist and agent Jehane Boden Spiers' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on Windowsill Chats?
The average episode length on Windowsill Chats is 60 minutes.
How often are episodes of Windowsill Chats released?
Episodes of Windowsill Chats are typically released every 7 days.
When was the first episode of Windowsill Chats?
The first episode of Windowsill Chats was released on Aug 30, 2020.
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