In my first session of Art School and coaching with Leah, I finished a book I started nine years ago (yes, nine!). You can imagine how happy and empowered I’ve felt ever since — and that’s a big understatement. THEN I did a second round of working with Leah… and finished a book I started one and a half years ago!

The best news is that I didn’t accomplish these creative goals by forcing myself into a grim grind but rather while (and, according to Leah, “because”) I was living the way I want to live, feeling the way I want to feel. This “extraordinary way of being” that Leah helps clients cultivate is probably why I incidentally — without thinking about it — lost ten pounds, got happily addicted to super sweaty cardio workouts, lost an intense caffeine addiction, and developed some mental and spiritual habits that will serve me for the rest of my life. These are some of my most easily-measured milestones. What I can’t quite describe is how solidly good and free that extraordinary way of being feels.

Leah is exquisitely skilled as a coach because of her extensive training, experience, conscious effort, fundamental kindness and, for lack of a better word, intuition. When you’re working with her, the result feels exactly like magic. It’s remarkable. I can attest that working with Leah is worth every penny and way more.

In a year and a half, I toured more than I had in any previous year and I did it with less stress and heartache. I made more money in one year than I ever have and it felt easy for the first time. I reached my goals and exceeded my own expectations for how it’s possible to fall in love with life without really changing much of anything except for the story I tell and the throughs and emotions I chose.

Struggle and overwhelm, self-doubt and burn out? They’re gone! Gone, gone, gone. And that has made all the difference.

Before joining The Art School, I had been listening to Leah’s podcast for about a year, and doing some of her workshops. I always had profound take-aways from those experiences and content, even though it wasn’t tailored to me. So I knew I would have an incredible experience if I could have those experiences and content except tailored to me.

 I loved being coached by Leah, having her full brilliant light shined on me was life-giving and life-changing.

 I recall I was feeling a lot of doubt about whether my work was “marketable” and whether my prices were right, whether people wanted what I was offering for what I wanted to charge. I was going through a slow period, not a lot of inquiries. I felt pressure to change my business or pivot my services to fit a proven market need. If people weren’t pounding down my door then it was a sign that what I’m doing wasn’t needed or working. I also was having challenges feeling like I wasn’t financially contributing to my family – my husband was experiencing a lot of stress and I felt responsible for that, because I wasn’t raking in income. Leah helped me reorient my ideas about being marketable, and to treat my business more like a science experiment, and to give myself permission to make mistakes and try new things without it meaning anything about success or failure.

 I started just following my gut, trying things that occurred to me, and then documenting and learning from each experience. Some things didn’t work and some things did and regardless, I feel secure that I’m allowed to make mistakes and learn and then continue on. And some times I know I will have bad days filled with worry and anxiety. But on those bad days, I can remember that it’s temporary, and I can defer to my best self, who was making decisions that I can rely on. I don’t have to re-decide, re-think, re-analyze. I can trust in the decisions I already made. Even if I feel anxious and crummy, I can move forward and do the things I committed to when I was in a good headspace.  

I was attracted to The Art School because I felt I did not have the kind of support I needed to develop a creative backbone and pursue my work with consistency. I felt I could really benefit from coaching around my creative work. I loved Leah’s podcast, and felt a connection to her kind, wise, and courageous nature.

I loved the coaching calls on Tuesdays, and the forum was really SO helpful because I could revisit those posts. I’m also a writer, so being able to write out my experiences, and receive Leah’s responses on the forum was very helpful to me.

The Art School helped me stay focused through my crowdfund. It helped me clarify my goals (this is a work in progress). I’m still digesting so much of the amazing guidance I received during the program.

I’m so grateful that I was able to experience this! And I know I’ll work with Leah again.

I joined The Art School because at the time I was looking for courage, and looking for others who are fighting this same fight, which is to say, I wanted to be surrounded by other entrepreneurs who were also second-guessing their abilities and their business, but were pursuing their passion anyway.

I felt like the classes with Leah were some of the most valuable moments of the sessions, especially when it was surrounding a specific theme like “Awareness”.  One of the biggest conclusions was: You’re not alone. There are people all over the world struggling in the same way that you are, and there are ways to unlock your creative energy.

Just knowing that there are ways — when I’m feeling stressed or incapable, to sit down and be with myself and reflect on where my mind is going and redirect it towards positive thought — that was an enormous takeaway from the Art School. It’s almost like an injection of faith that all things are possible and they are made possible by attending to how you feel and what you feel is possible.

I hadn’t realized just how much judgement and heavy expectations I’d wrapped around my creative dreams. You nailed it when you said my creativity has come to feel like a burden and work. In fact, that’s exactly what I’ve been telling myself: that making art is really hard work. I sat with this over the past few days, and I found a few more thoughts wrapped up with that one, which you also so perfectly hit upon in your response. Not only have I been believing that making art is really hard work, but I also expect that no matter what I do — or how hard I work — I’ll never be any good at it, and nothing will ever come of my attempts. In fact, I realized that I expected my result to be… well, a whole lot of nothing!

After coaching in The Art School, my thoughts have shifted – I really loved the act of pushing paint around – I loved that color combination – Maybe this thing I made doesn’t totally suck (I find myself sneaking back into the studio and sneaking peeks at what I created) – I should do this more often…This whole experience has been so eye-opening. I can’t thank you enough!

Before working with Leah I was feeling very overwhelmed with all that needed to happen to be a professional sculptor.

I tried other on-line groups but felt they were too harsh and not supportive. My concerns before signing up were rather or not I would get enough individual attention to help me with my personal issues.

One of my biggest takeaways from working with Leah was realizing that confusion and overwhelm are just another state of mind that I have utilized to stay stuck and disempower myself. I know now that as Leah so eloquently pointed out during a coaching session, that when I interject the word BUT into a sentence it’s my warning that the big cover up is underway. “I am doing well BUT I’m still not sure what I’m suppose to be doing”. Being aware of this has helped me to move forward and not believe this false thinking.

I would highly recommend Leah to a friend. She is a perfect balance between sensitive yet direct. She has a very old, wise soul. She listens with her heart and her feedback is on target. I felt very seen and understood in spite of being part of a group. She spends allot of time on the written forum where allot of coaching takes place. I firmly believe you can get as much out of this class as your willing to put in. Being coached in a group setting can seem intimidating but the more I was willing to put myself out there the more I took away! And, Leah was the perfect coach to make it worth the effort!