Connecting childhood passions with adult purpose 🌈✨

What I’ve learned lately and how it’s steering my creative work

Hi Friends,

Thanks for all the birthday love last week! I’m still riding the high and feeling much healthier about aging than I have in years past. It almost feels as though I turned a year younger.

I’m generally a reserved sort of person. Definitely not a woo-girl. So I can’t help but take note when I’m hit with an unexpected surge of energy — the kind that makes you want to run, frolic, and spin in circles. If you’re picturing Julie Andrews in the opening of The Sound of Music, it’s very much that.

The vibes are so high that my creative cup is spilling over, the ideas flowing with a force that cannot be stopped. I’m bouncing somewhere between the top three sections of the energy vibrational scale — a precious place to be. It’s in this state that we make decisions that bring us the most joy, and I want to make sure I’m using that energy to the fullest!

So, how did I get here, with all this extra zest for life? Was it all the birthday cake? Extra champagne? They may have helped, but I think it has a lot more to do with how I’ve been spending my working hours, which have been much more like play.

A creative kid, since forever 🌈✨

This past month, my podcast partner, Steve, and I released a new project called Play Me a Memory, which has allowed me to time-travel back to the '90s. It’s kicking up so many callbacks to simpler times: juice boxes and mismatched clothes, paperbacks, swimming, magazines, dreaming, friendship bracelets, and cassette tapes. To have a platform where I can recount all those best things in conversation is such a gift.

Meanwhile, my sister Laura and I have been recording and releasing new episodes of our podcast Film to Table — this season, focused on movie musicals. It’s been beyond delightful to revisit some of our favorite films and dress up as the characters for our recordings. I can’t tell you how many happy tears I’ve shed in the past few weeks while doubled over in laughter.

I haven’t only been indulging in old, familiar things, but also using the skills that have always come most naturally to me to bring our shows to life. I often think of the holiday break in my junior year of college, soon after I got my first MacBook Pro. I spent the weeks leading up to Christmas tucked away in my childhood bedroom, converting our family’s home videos to digital and using iMovie to create a “best-of” movie to gift to my parents.

I was in my element editing that video, and I recognize that same surge of energy returning with every episode of Film to Table, and now, Play Me a Memory!

In our La La Land episode of Film to Table, we revisited a beautiful example of how our childhood inclinations can lead us to the best places. (Spoilers ahead), we see Emma Stone’s character, Mia, struggle to break into movies with one failed audition after another. It’s not until she performs in her one-woman show — cultivated in the same spirit she had when putting on performances as a child — that the right person spots her talent and gives her the opportunity she’s been dreaming of.

I clocked the same thing earlier this week while watching the documentary Call Her Alex. It reveals how one of the most popular and lucrative podcasts came to be — and it all started with a creative kid, making silly videos in her basement.

But, Michelle, you may be thinking… what? You just expect us to play for a living?

Haha! I’m still figuring that part out. My podcasts have never been revenue-generating for me, and I’ve always leaned on freelancing, my Etsy shop, and blogging to pay the bills. But for the first time, I’m entertaining the idea that my shows can both be fun and a job.

I often joke (lament 🫠) that in my 10+ years of sharing content online in many different forms, I’ve never once had something “go viral.” I’m confident that it’s not a reflection of my care or the quality of my work, so I have to assume something else is at play. Have I been self-sabotaging? Or perhaps not believing the things I make are worthy of attention?

But this week, a breakthrough! One of our Film to Table Reels/Shorts/TikToks caught fire, giving us a little boost in all the places. I can’t help but think it’s all connected to this energy shift and the belief that maybe I’m on the right track.

I don’t have it all figured out. All I know is, everything I’ve been working on lately feels right — whether it becomes a new source of income, or remains a passion project. My energy is such that I feel confident enough to experiment and stay curious

The big magic part of all of this is a propeller, but I want to be practical too. A new-to-me podcast floated my way this week from Suzy Welch, a professor at NYU. She is not woo-woo at all, but shares in my belief that we do our best work when we are using our unique gifts and talents.

I look forward to diving into her book soon and will report back with more.

In the meantime, I hope I’ve given you something to ponder. See this week’s creative prompts for more!

✍️ Creative Exercises/Journal Prompts

1. What were your favorite activities as a kid?

2. When you’re in your happiest, high-vibe state, who are you with and what are you doing?

3. What’s a low-lift way you can indulge in one of those childlike activities?

☀️ Five good things

When we can recognize the things that bring us the most joy, we invite more of them into our lives. Here are five things that made me happy this week. Share yours below!

Five good things that happened this week:

1. In what felt like symbolic timing with my birthday, the laptop I’ve been using for the last seven years finally died, and there’s a new MacBook Pro in town. How liberating it feels to be working at lightning-fast speeds!

2. Friday was the 50th anniversary of the movie JAWS, and it was fun to celebrate with a pizza + movie night at home. We also released some new clips from our JAWS Film to Table episode that we recorded a couple of years ago.

3. I flew through the audiobook of Glynnis MacNicol’s memoir, I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself, about a single, mid-40s woman summering in Paris. I also binged the series Adults on Hulu/FX, a very fun, hilarious friend-group show that feels like an R-rated How I Met Your Mother, but with Gen Z kids.

4. My parents and in-laws gifted me birthday money, which I promptly used to purchase a new workout set and a gorgeous bouquet of flowers.

5. We celebrated the Summer Solstice with a slow and dreamy Saturday, filled with all my favorite things: a coffee shop work session, antique shopping, dinner at the bar, and a sunset walk.

💬 Share your intention

Whether it’s a giant leap, a tiny to-do list item, a habit change, or something else, there is power in accountability, and this is a safe space to share your aim. Some weeks, we’ll fail, others we’ll soar, but with support, we’ll always keep going together.

Until next week, get out there and make something beautiful.

Michelle

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