Episode 7: How to find Creativity in Captivity
TOPICS:
Creativity, Design, Fashion, Sustainability, Visual Arts, Procrastination, Self doubt, Creative processes
LINKS
https://marionpipercreative.com/
https://www.instagram.com/marionpipercreative/
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT:
Welcome to the Fashion Unearthed podcast. If you need help navigating the fashion industry sustainably, you have come to the right place. I'm your host Belinda Humphrey and my hope is to simplify the fashion industry so that businesses can make the best decisions for people, planet and product.
BELINDA
Hello, and welcome to Episode Seven of Fashion Unearthed. Today I've got the absolute pleasure of welcoming my first guest onto the podcast, Dr. Marion Piper and she's here today to talk about Creativity in Captivity, and some of the ways that we can tap back into some inspiration and some true parts of ourselves.
We are both still in lockdown in Melbourne and much of Australia is still dealing with lockdowns. And I think just the cumulative effect of dealing with uncertainty over Gosh, nearly 18 months, I think is really starting to take its toll and particularly with creativity, it can be quite hard to remain inspired when you're in that state of problem solving. So after my session with Marion, on the weekend, I just felt so energised and I just really felt that shift in my mindset. So I thought it would be great for her to come on, and share some of those tips and inspiration and just her good energy with you today. And just reminder, if you're listening on the go, you can find a transcript of the whole episode on my website and there'll be some links there as well, where you can find Marion. So without any more faffing around, please welcome the gorgeous Dr. Marion Piper.
So hello, Marion Welcome to Fashion Unearthed you're my first guest, and I'm so excited to have you here.
MARION
I am absolutely honoured to pop that cherry for you. Great to be here.
BELINDA
Oh, good, it'll be good energy, you'll be a great guest and really add some value to everyone. So yeah, I guess like just a bit of a background, I think I worked with you on another project with some copywriting for my website, which come up amazing and I was so happy. But apart from that, like I just loved your energy and I just loved the way that you kind of really understood it all and you got that whole creative process. And I knew that you were kind of involved in that creative coaching space so when I came up against my own sort of little Roadblock, you're the first person that came to mind to give me some little tips. Yeah I guess we had a chat last week and it just really inspired me and I thought so much of what we talked about, could be really beneficial to a lot of people out there that are kind of struggling to kind of figure out how to get back to that creative mindset. Maybe to start with, we could just talk about a little bit about your background and kind of what led you to this place.
MARION
Oh, yes I always love this question, because there's just so many different entry points, because I don't know about you, but I feel like at this stage in our lives, I've definitely lived about 10 different lives. Yeah, I look back at the trajectory and I guess that's the beautiful thing about having a creative career as well, is that you have the opportunity to explore so many different ideas and avenues and expressions of you know what this thing called creativity is which one of the missions I'm on and the question that drives a lot of what I do is, "What does it mean to live a truly creative life?"
That's something that's been kind of my, I guess, North Star for a long time and it took me until my early 30s to identify that that's what that was it's only a couple years ago. I'm not that old, not that anyone's old, age is an illusion, time is an illusion. Yeah, we live in a quantum universe. Yeah, everything's a construct. But in terms of work, and how I've got to this point, I started my career in the visual arts and so did my undergrad in Fine Arts, I wanted to be a video artist, I had grand aspirations of being a video installation artist and I my work was pretty immersed in the artists run spaces community here in Melbourne, and I worked at an art gallery. At the same time, I also, I am a big nerd, so I went all the way through academia. I did all my honours year, I did a master's degree in writing, which is where I really started to hone that passion, and then I did my PhD with Southern Cross University, which I wrapped up in 2017 and then just for fun, because that's not enough, right, Is it ever enough? Yeah. I decided I'd also working creative agencies. So I worked at an ad agency. Well, I first worked at a boutique design agency here in Melbourne about 10 years ago and then I worked at an ad agency in San Diego, and another comms agency here, which I ran. So I feel as though I've touched a lot of the different or I guess, the predominant buckets of where creativity is usually used and sold. So we've got, you know, obviously, our arts industry, so our more visual arts, performative arts, then we've got the commercial writing sphere, and then we've got academia and these are the three buckets that I draw on now for the work that I'm starting to do, and starting to be less afraid to talk about which is the creativity coaching, because that's also part of it, right? There is a lot of fear around our creativity, and not because I don't think we're not worth it. But I do think there's a fear of success, that a lot of people and a fear of your own power as well, because being creative, like having that power is like probably the closest thing any of us will get to feeling like God. Because you can essentially, you know, you can we can do it, we can create whatever, whatever we want. And we can create, to support or we can create to destroy. So I think that in itself is something that I think about a lot is like how, how will I weild my power for good, and not for self gain or for destruction?
And so yeah, so you and I worked together, I got the opportunity to do your website copy. Right, when you were, you know, launching your own thing and stepping into that big scary realm of, oh, wow, I have this freedom. How do I, you know, how do I talk about what I'm most passionate about, in a way that other people will understand. And that's something that I'm, I guess, the most passionate about when it comes to copywriting, is the translation piece, like how do we pull what's happening in our heads out of our heads, and ground it down into something tangible that other people can buy into? Both literally, and also, you know, as an idea that they can buy into and understand?
BELINDA
Yeah, totally, I love that sort of comment around like the power of being able to use the creativity for good or for, for not good, because there is a lot of power.
MARION
Yeah, and I don't think a lot of people realise that, that as a creative, you know, we are, we are the guardians of culture. And culture is one of the most powerful things to exist because it defines who we are, how we relate to each other, what's important, what's not important, what's fair, what's equitable. And, you know, a lot of people think of the arts as this frivolous thing, you know, it's just for entertainment. It's just for this, but like, literally, every single thing in the world has been touched by creativity, because it's been something that's been made out of nothing. So that's why I get really, I get up on my soapbox, whenever I hear people say, "I'm not creative, like, I can't draw, I can't draw to save my life". And I'm like, well, that's okay. You don't have to, but you are creative. Spoiler alert.
BELINDA
Yeah, and just sort of going back to society too I'm always interested when sort of big world events, humanitarian crises, or, you know, natural disasters, it's often the creatives that kind of rally around and kind of pull everyone together for either like a, you know, a not for profit concert, or, you know, they'll share art or, and there is that, I guess the arts have that way of connecting people again, and bringing that emotion back into society.
MARION
Absolutely, and I mean, case in point is recently, there's that meme artist who raised I didn't even know he's still raising money to get people out of Afghanistan. So he basically was just like, okay, to his community of like millions of people, I'm going to open this GoFundMe because, you know, we can't rely, we can't always rely on our governments. No, to save us, you know, Celeste Barber talks about this a lot power to the people, you know, yeah, she's a great one. Yeah, yeah. You know, individually we feel like we might we can't do a lot but collectively we can we can, we literally can change the world. So yeah, there's it's an interesting and I think we're starting to see a shift in how we understand creativity and it's through it's because of technology that that's happening with this new creatives economy coming out you know, now anybody can probably overnight become you know, go viral on Tik Tok and there's people who are making millions of dollars by creating videos and that is for me, I'm just like, that is pure, unfiltered, unadulterated self expression at its finest. You know.
BELINDA
Without that link to commercialism too, often, people have that freedom to, yeah, just create without having to fulfil a brief necessarily or quantify or qualify what they're trying to say. It's just for the sake of it.
MARION
I go through phases in my own creative practice and in my own business, where I love briefs and I think that they are so powerful and incredibly useful, and then other times I find them the most restrictive, arcane, traditional. Yes. Yeah, like awful thing ever, you know? Yeah, I think we do need to make room for both.
BELINDA
Yeah, definitely. So I wanted to get you on today to sort of just talk about three maybe tips that someone could try if they're feeling a little bit stuck and overwhelmed just with where they're at and you and I are both sort of in Melbourne at the moment dealing with lockdowns, but particularly in Australia, there are many people dealing with lockdowns at the moment, and I just know that it's really tough to stay creative when your inputs are limited. So I thought it might be helpful, yeah, just to go through maybe three sort of tips on, on what you think people can do to tap back into that spark.
MARION
Hmm, oh, so good, before I say anything, I will put the caveat on this, that I struggle with my own creativity, almost on an hourly basis during these lock downs because like you just mentioned, we have, we're in a we're in a situation and I would even argue, if you even if you're not in lockdown, because the world is changing at a rate that our brains actually can't keep up with it, that there are so many other constraints at play now that just weren't even an option, even, you know, a year ago, six months ago. So I think the first thing is, you know, understanding that it's okay, if you're struggling, I think we've got to put a little caveat on everything, that it's normal, it's normal to struggle with inspiration, it's normal to struggle with energy and it's normal to not know what to do. So, first of all, let's take ourselves off that hook of feeling like we have to be in output mode 24/7. and the reason for that is because creativity itself is cyclical, it's not a linear process, it might feel linear, especially if you are working in the creative industries, and you have clients, and you are guiding them through a process that, you know, starts at one point with putting together a brief, you know, you move into doing the work, and then you deliver the work, you make some edits, and then you approve it. And it's done. And that very much is a very linear linear process. However, we do go back to the start of that. And a lot of people forget about this part of the circle. So closing the loop, closing the loop exactly, excellent plug there, that that creativity is cyclical, but it's also seasonal. So you know, we have our summer months where we are just in the flow, everything's going great, everything's bright and sunny, and there's, we're action taking and where we're making things and we're delivering the best work of our lives, you know, and then we come off that high into our autumn months, which is where things start to slow down, we might feel a little bit tired, the ideas don't come as readily, we might think, you know, the work itself might be taking a little bit longer than normal and then all of a sudden, we're in winter.
It's cold, nothing's happening. We feel as though creativity has abandoned us we are alone. Oh woe is me, the whole world, you know, that's really the season where things like procrastination, self doubt, imposter syndrome live, because it's actually the time when we should be creatively hibernating. Meaning we shouldn't be doing anything we shouldn't be taking in anything, we shouldn't be putting out anything, we do need a really, we need a lot more rest than we allow ourselves. But that's the thing, like the seasons don't last forever and we see that by the fact that every day, you know, the sun continues to rise and it sets, it rises, it sets, summer comes, winter goes, everything changes, right. So at some point, you will get those first buds of spring and it might be after you've you know, you've had a week, two weeks, three months, three years of just sitting in that space and wondering, did I make the right choice is this is this what I should be doing? And then almost like innocuously out of nowhere, that first bug will happen, it might be a conversation you have with someone, it might be a podcast you listen to and then all of a sudden, things start to open up again and you feel that almost like a bit of a flicker of a flame in the deep, you know, the deep part of your belly going, Oh, maybe I could do this, maybe I could do that. So and the thing is with these seasons is that you don't actually have to wait for them to come. You can actually create your own rituals, your own activities to mark each season, as it happens so, for example, at the moment, I've, I feel like I've just, I'm just coming out of a summer season where I've just created all of these things, I've created a course, I've created a podcast, I've created a journal prompt deck and I was like, Whoa, like, I was just like, I just couldn't keep up. I was like, okay, okay, feeling it come out of me and now that they're all done, and they're all begun, you know, the things that made, what I did was I had a moment yesterday where I sat down, and I actually was like, wow, I made these things. And you know, I put a post up on Instagram, that was like a celebratory post, it wasn't like, hey, come buy all my stuff, it was like, I just want to let you know that I'm really proud of myself and this is huge. That marks my the end of my summer months. And so as I go into autumn, I'm starting to slow down a little bit more and just focus on nourishing the earth, right. So nourishing the earth of these things that I have created. So I guess my tip here would be to look at how, how and when you do most of your creating is it early morning is it evening, and then creating little rituals, even on a micro level, whether that's lighting a candle, when you sit down to write or, you know, closing the door, at the end of the day, to signal that the work is over, I would invite you to take a look at your the way that you create and then to be really intentional about putting together some rituals around that just to demarcate those particular seasons.
BELINDA
Hmm, that was actually something that really struck a chord with me when we did our session, and I was feeling really stuck about a project and when we talked, I realised that there was a process that I had used when I worked for other people to to mark that start of a season or a process or, yeah, just a cycle of designing product that I hadn't integrated when I'd started working for myself. So I just even just that simple concept of setting aside one to two days to really get into that headspace of starting a new design season and just getting back to those sort of steps really kind of just helped me and I thought, Oh, actually, I know how to do this, I just have to remember, like, I'm just in a different spot, now.
MARION
I think we forget, right? You know, because life is so busy, and especially when you go out on your own. And I mean, I don't know about you, but when I started my business, it was very much as a rebellion to not wanting somebody else dictating my time how I did my work, I wanted the freedom. So it was like a threw the baby out with the bathwater. Like I've been using all of these skills and tools for so long, and they worked incredibly well. But then I kind of lumped them in with something that didn't work well with me. And I forgot. And it was only when I sort of looked back and went, Okay, when have I felt most inflow when have I felt most creative that I realised that Oh, hang on a minute. I already know this. It's like you're saying like you already know what you need. It's just a case of going okay, I need to find some evidence to remind myself.
BELINDA
Yeah. And just going back to your first sort of point, your caveat about being kind to yourself, like, I think we've been dealing with uncertainty for a long time, just in our lives and when your brains in that state, you just sometimes forget the simple things, because you're just constantly problem solving.
MARION
Absolutely, absolutely. So and this is where I think creativity can be really, really useful and helpful for us, especially during the Panini, which is what I'm calling the pandemic now. Especially during the Panini, cuz it makes it funny. In any way that we can give ourselves certainty and I find that if you know, your creative process, and you've mapped it out, you know, what it looks like, that's something that you can put any idea through, and, and bring it to life, right? So while the world might be burning around you, hate to use that phrase, but while it might be burning around you, you can still create some certainty for yourself in how you work and respond to your work rather than feel like you have to be in this state of constant reaction to what's happening around you. Hmm, definitely. And so speaking of this process, right thinking about creative process, oftentimes, and this is something that I spotted with you when we were talking is that often times we get we get and I spotted it because I've been there and I do it myself all the time. Often we get blocked by putting the cart before the horse. And what that means is that we we think we're further along in the process than we actually are. So that might come out and manifest as "Oh, you know, I want to make this digital product and I want it to be this much money and I want it to be for this kind of person." And then you're sitting there and you're trying to make it and you're going like why like why can I like why am I avoiding it? Why isn't it coming out the way I want it to and that's because you haven't actually "made the thing." Yeah. So So what I would say is if you're at a point right now where you're you're trying to make something maybe because you you know somebody told you it might be good for your business. Or you've seen somebody else that you admire do it, I would say, take maybe like three big steps backwards and think about, you know, what do I believe in? What problem Am I trying to solve? What am I most passionate about? And then sit down and allow yourself to make whatever it is that you want to make, let the idea just come come out of your process, and then worry about where you're going to put it.
BELINDA
Definitely. And I think that part around what do you love doing? Like, I think sometimes we get caught up in who is our audience? Where is their audience? Like, How will we communicate to them, and sort of go into that logical side of things and forget that we started our own business, because we want to do more of the things that we love. So I think that was really important, like how you sort of framed that.
MARION
Yeah, and it's so tempting to just be lured, and you know, seduced away from what you love to do most by, you know, what other people are having success with and just because somebody else has had success with an online course, or a digital product, it doesn't mean that it's right for you, because at the end of the day, you especially if you're a solopreneur, or if you're working in a small business, you're the one who is going to have to make the thing. So you want to make sure that you love it, and you love the process behind it. Because that energy also goes into whatever you're making, and it will help attract the people who are going to love it just as much as you are. Because, you know, I think creativity is often being a slave to business, under the name under the guise of innovation, you know, or productivity.
BELINDA
"Being productive" we don't have time for a day out to do just inspirational things.
MARION
Yeah, again, and you know, I think the danger is if you don't make time for your own creative passion, you know, whether that's within the realm of your business or not, you run the risk of just regurgitating anything and everything you see, because what happens, especially now with social media, and tik tok, and Instagram, and LinkedIn and blah blah blah, constantly, we are just taking in other people's opinions, thoughts, content, videos, gripes, complaints, perspectives that we lose sight, and we lose touch with what we actually believe. And you can't expect to have an original thought when all you're taking in other people's thoughts, you know, unless you take a conscious step back and go, Okay, this is this is what I'm hearing, this is also something else that I'm hearing, the creative moment then is what happens if I bring them together? You know, but there has to be some intentionality behind it. You know, you don't have to be argumentative for the sake of being argumentative. But you can go, okay, much like a chef does, you know, I have all these ingredients like, what's an interesting way I can put them together? And for me, that's the most exciting creative moment. It's not sitting there beating yourself up for not being able to come up with anything yet. But it's the moment you actually take a step back and look at everything or lay it all out in front of you and go, what is a way that excites me right now to bring these things together? What haven't I seen before? You know, and that's where I'm constantly banging on about the fact that creativity thrives in constraints. And constraints aren't rules, constraints aren't restrictions, but what constraints are is that they are decisions that you do not have to make about your project, or whatever you're doing. They are things that you've already said, it's not this, it's not this, it's not this, it's not this. So, what else is there? So if we make the thing, my tip for that is make the thing. Yeah, make the thing. Like, don't worry about where it's going, you know, you actually really don't even have to worry about who it's for. But it's about you know, I'm a big believer that purpose driven brands serve ideas, and the ideas serve people. So it's thinking about, you know, what ideas and concepts light you up the most? what things are you most passionate about? What do you believe in? And then make the thing, right? and so one of the problems, well it's a blessing and a curse, right? One of the greatest gifts of our current time, and the fact that you and I can sit here and have this conversation through technology, we could literally be anywhere in the world. So technology has been one of the biggest gifts and advancements of our lifetime. But the problem with technology is that everything is mediated. So we actually have lost touch with our creative energy, our creative spark, literally meaning like we often don't make anything or get messy with our hands anymore. It's like Click, click, tap, tap. And that's how things are made. So I guess the tip I have here is if you're feeling disconnected from your creativity, or you are trying to bring something to life and you've hit a bit of a wall, it's time to get tactile so you want to close the laptop down, get rid of all distractions and then get messy with your hands and play. Because, you know, I have at my desk at all times I have like, you know, paints pen sitting here I have, like little postcards that I like to just draw on. Yeah. When I when I'm feeling Yeah, when I'm feeling just a little uninspired. And you know, people laugh, but you know, it's one thing that keeps me engaged. Because the problem is at the moment, especially with the Panini, is that we are languishing, you know, there's this idea that we are, we just feel like we're kind of stuck in a holding pattern, things aren't moving the way we want them to move. And so what's the opposite of languishing? Its engagement. And how do we get engaged to be trying to get in that state of flow, which is often talked about with productivity, but I want to pull it away, and give it back to creativity, which is where it deserves to be. So anything that you can do to not take your creativity so seriously, is where the magic is. And I know that you and I were speaking in the DMs earlier about thinking about all the parents out there who have their kids at home with them now, who has homeschooled or who might be homeschooling. And you know, I'm a big fan of flipping the script, changing our perspective and so if you are feeling creatively blocked, look to your children for cues, they play naturally, they know exactly what to do. Their whole modus operandi right now, is play, like, they don't want to be adults, tied to a computer sitting there doing hours and hours of work on a screen. That's not what kids do.
So, and this is something that you can actually do with them, rather than something that you feel like you need to create space for that's separate. Unless, of course, you are craving that solo time, in which case, I definitely encourage you to have something for yourself, even if it's just a five minute watercolour postcard, you know, it doesn't have to be big. And I guess that's, that's something else that I think is a big is a myth about creativity. People often think about the Big C creativity. You know, it's the painting the the theatre, you know, the artistry of it, all, these huge creations, huge bodies of work work. But we often underestimate the power of the little C activity, which are those small moments, those daily bite sized things we can do to engage in a process that makes us think differently and taps into our imagination.
BELINDA
Yeah, definitely. And there's so much in there that I could just talk to as well, there's just the piece around that tactility. Like, for me, I know that part of my process was printing out things, and I just don't have a good printer. Like it was a really basic block. And I just Yeah, I just need to be able to print out things and lay them all on the ground and, and sort of just play I guess. And I guess that sense of all the senses really, tie into that, that process of ritualizing your process. So you know, the smell the touching, all the different senses.
MARION
Yeah, and often it's about what's the next logical step that I can take to find where I'm at in my process, because it is easy to get lost in your own, in your own creations. Because there's, while there is a roadmap, it's one that you've created, and it's one that will pull you along, once you're in the flow of it. I say this all the time is that probably 75 to 80% of my creative process happens in my head. And then it's that last 25% that is the action taking. And it's the moment that I put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard. And then the rest of it happens in flash, like almost overnight, a thing will happen. And my expression deck, which is the journal problem cards was case in point I've been thinking about a way to invite people to journaling that wasn't just me being didactic about it was I want something that's going to be an experience. And so I sat and I let it percolate I was like, you know, I don't have to, I don't have to action this right away. And then one day, it was like, Oh, I should just I like literally looked across the room. I saw a deck of affirmation cards, and I was like, hang on a minute, then it just clicked right. And so. But I didn't think that would have happened had I not have allowed myself the luxury of time to let the idea and to let my brain in the background, start connecting those dots. We have everything we need to create whatever we want. But oftentimes we spend too much time trying to control or predict the outcome. And then that's where we become blocked and where the process falls on its knees.
BELINDA
Yeah, definitely. I think sometimes we don't allow that time to diverge. Like we don't allow that space to really kind of spread out everything and explore different sort of tangents that we think of, before we start narrowing in to, I guess the right answer or a product.
MARION
I was actually listening to Rob Bell who has a great podcast, which is very philosophical and very heady and dreamy and spiritual. And he had an episode where he talked about tangents. And one of the things that he said about it was the tangent is the thing. You know how somebody will be like, Oh, yeah, I'm like an investment banker that, oh, let me show you this painting. I've been working on, oh, like, oh, sorry, this went like it's a bit of a tangent from what I normally do. Yeah. It's like, No, actually, the tangent is the thing. Oftentimes, our passions hide in tangents. Yes. So that could be something else to think about, is, you know, "in these times", and I use air quotes, there what are the things that you find yourself, like, following down or talking about without meaning to talk about or without meaning to do it, you know? And I'm not talking about the automatic things like bingeing hours of Netflix, but maybe, maybe you just can't stop talking about baking, or you can't stop talking about photography, or fashion, you know, maybe you can't stop talking about how much you're obsessed with XYZ fashion show, you know, but and you're just like, oh, sorry, I must be boring, you, you know, but chances are, like, whatever thing that keeps coming back to you, that idea that keeps circling around and is like, "Hey, remember me?" Yeah, totally. Oftentimes, that's the one that needs your attention. It's not the one that you've been trying to force out. Cuz if you're, you know, if you're trying to force something out, chances are, it's probably not the thing you should be doing.
BELINDA
It goes back to that sense of energy and recognising where energy is coming from.
MARION
Yeah, and creativity should be easy. Because it is something that we are, that is so innately within us as humans, that it shouldn't be something that you have to schedule time for, that you feel is separate, or something that you have to do when we take the pressure off ourselves and realise that everything that I do is a creative experience or a moment, we just open up a whole universe of possibilities for what creativity could mean. And it is so much more energising to think that everything I do is creative, rather than Oh, I've only got two hours on a Thursday night between six and eight, but I'm allowed to be creative. You'll avoid it, you will avoid it. If you schedule it, like you schedule work, you will avoid the shit out of it.
BELINDA
Yeah, totally. And just going back to the energy piece, like when I finished the session with you, I just felt like, I just felt so optimistic and, you know, I felt there was so much possibility in what I was doing, and I still believed in what I wanted to do, but I just remembered that, you know, it was important for me to enjoy the process and to remember that it's a 50/50 split between what I enjoy doing, and also what I think will help, you know, some other people out there. Yeah, I just, I just really felt like I'd kind of returned back to myself, like I kind of gotten out of this logical headspace and kind of settled back down into what I know, I like to do and what I think, yeah, just what I enjoy.
MARION
Yeah. And that's so and that is so like, that warms my heart to hear that. And like, it's all you this is the thing. All of that was was all you and what, I guess the main thing that I did was just hold the space for you to come to that realisation. And, and then obviously, like I can, we can all see in each other the things that we're looking for. But I think you've got to be paying attention and you have to, again, create the ritual around it. Right. Like had we not have had I just have sent that to you in like a DM, it probably wouldn't have landed in the same way you would have been like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay, I know, I need to do that. I know, I need to buy a printer or whatever. I'm not going to it's so expensive. Yeah. But, when we could, when we could talk about it and tease it out a little bit and especially when you're talking about this idea of coming home to yourself. I think that's that realignment piece, you know, because I feel and what you know, we spoke about this as this pendulum, right? We feel especially if you are in a creative career, and you are making money off your off your creative skills, there is this pendulum and at one end, sits you and at the other end, sits your client and I feel we constantly swing back and forth between these two things. Even if you're not a quote unquote, "creative" that could be between you and the business you work for, or it could be between you and your family. You know, we are constantly swinging between these two ways and we feel it when we go too far to ourselves because we get really self indulgent we might drop into that victim mentality. We might see everything as a threat we might get, or feel incredible amounts of resistance to any help. But if we go swing one way too far the other way, we forget that Oh, hang on a minute. The reason I'm doing this is because I love to do it. It really is that simple. And if you are doing something that you don't love to do, I would ask you why?, like, why do you keep beating your head against that brick wall? because let me tell you, it's gonna feel so good when you stop.
BELINDA
Yeah, definitely and so for people out there that are maybe struggling as well and feel like they might have lost their creative spark and, and maybe are looking for an opportunity to get back to who they are like, how can they get in touch with you and sort of learn more about you?
MARION
Yeah, yeah. So I have an internet presence. It might be small but it exists. I'm there. I'm on Instagram @marionpipercreative and that is also my website, Marionpipercreative.com. And I have actually speaking of massive amounts of creative output, I just kind of self launched this programme that I've been dreaming up for probably the last inadvertently, probably the last five years, called "Spiral Up". And it's my particular flavour of creativity coaching, which is using a framework of post traumatic growth to Yeah, I guess, I guess you said it right yourself to guide people back home, back home to themselves. And as a six week course, that I'm putting together it's on my website if you want to learn more. And I also have a podcast called What doesn't kill us, Which episodes will be coming out for that in the next week. So, and my DMs they are always open.
BELINDA
Yay, always open, I always pop in there. Yeah. And I love it. Oh, well thanks so much, Marion. I think so many people are gonna get a really, you know, a great amount of information and inspiration out of what you've said today. Yeah, thanks very much for your time today.
MARION
Thank you so much for having me.
BELINDA
I hope you really enjoyed that episode, and found something in there that might inspire you to tap back into something that you may have lost or not being able to access at the moment. As you know, this podcast is about sustainability and sometimes sustainability is just being able to sustain yourself and look after yourself and make sure you're doing more of the things that you love.
And if there was something that really hit home for you, or resonated, DM me on Instagram or email me at info@belindahumphrey.com. Again, you'll find the show notes and some links over at my website, belindahumphrey.com. and if you're liking the podcast, I would love it if you had some time to leave a quick review or if you're in a rush just hit the stars. It really helps the podcast get out there and help more people like yourself. Thanks so much for listening. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the fashion unearthed podcast. If you want to get in touch head over to belindahumphrey.com or you can find me on Instagram @belindahumphrey_