Ep #141: (Part 2) Reimagining Your Life and Legacy with Sherry Frey

Sherry: I have to tell you; I am so grateful for the Art School. I learned so much. I learned so much, but I think two of my big a-has were, one…

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That was a clip from my recent conversation with Sherry Frey. Sherry is a legacy consultant, entrepreneur, speaker, and Art School and Mastermind alum. And yes, I’m intentionally being a tease with that short intro. So, listen in to this episode. Sherry continues to generously share her wisdom, her stories, as well as those two profound takeaways from her Art School experience.

You are listening to The Art School Podcast; a show for artists and creatives who want to become the next greatest version of themselves. Learn how to cultivate an extraordinary way of being and take the mystery out of making money, and the struggle out of making art. Here is your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Hello, everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Art School Podcast.  Am actually recording this in advance for you so that when I go to the lake with my family next week, I’m completely present and I’m off the grid and I know I’ve already sent my love. It’s in the mail to all of you. And it will be there for your walks, for your laundry, for your commutes, for your own studio time.

So, I’m excited to share the second part of this conversation about reimagining your life that Sherry and I had. And that’s the overall theme. We talk about it specifically. We also talk about money work and our relationship with money being a reflection of our relationship with ourself. Prosperity work.

She talks about legacy work, not only with women, but also with founders and with business owners. We talk about what it’s actually like to explore something bigger and create change in your life. And also adopting a new way of being, like playing, allowing yourself the freedom to do that and stepping into your role as a creator. Not just as an intellectual nice thought or theory, but what it takes to actually do that.

We talk about how the Art School was a part of Sherry’s evolution and unfolding, which to say I’m grateful for is a great understatement. It still blows me away and I do have to sit back and give myself some time to take it in. That’s quite an honor that this is part of my life’s work.

And I’m so fortunate and it is such a privilege and a joy to share this space with people like Sherry, from whom I learn so much and who brings so much to the community as well, and who is also passionate about creating a really positive social impact and is passionate about asking herself and others the greater questions.

It’s really extraordinary and I don’t take it for granted. And I also want it to be just more part of our common vernacular, these kinds of questions, these kinds of elevated conversations that we have in the Art School. This can flow out.

And I know it is. I know that that’s happening. This can flow out to be more a part of your everyday life as well. And I’m also delighted and happy to start the movement from within this community too. I think that’s important as well, to have safe places to go and practice these kinds of interactions and see that this kind of supercharged high-vibe creative, constructive place and that way of being and the way of being in community is totally possible. And also what it’s like to be a leader in this context.

Very different, as you will hear Sherry describe. It’s not the dominant hierarchical top-down approach. And Sherry is a living, breathing embodiment and example of that. So, without further ado, please enjoy part two of my conversation with Sherry Frey.

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Sherry: It started out work on prosperity. It started out kind of like this idea, let’s get your crap together, right? There’s a lot of women that aren’t thinking about how you treat your money. That’s just a reflection of how you treat yourself, how you love yourself.

And for me, it was an easy one to talk to women about because it was so tangible. It was easy for them to say, “You’re right. I’m ignoring money. You’re right, I don’t have a vision for money. I don’t have a plan. I’m not nurturing money at all,” really thinking about money from a relationship perspective. So, it was kind of an easy conversation.

And then, to talk about really the idea that money is just a way that you amplify who you are. It’s just a tool to be like, I’m going to be more me in the world. But you’ve got to have that loving of yourself. Before you’re just using money as a tool. And in that work then, I realized, it’s about legacy for me.

It’s about this conversation with women around is the world better because I was here. And not just women without children, and not just women actually. It’s kind of all people that are interested in this conversation of what is my legacy. Is the world better because I’m here?

And a lot of this has been, for me, because this was the stuff I’ve been doing, it’s been helping people take off their labels. And I think working with me in the Art School, you saw this. For me, it was a lot about my identity.

So, for a couple of years it was, “I’m not this corporate person anymore,” and I had the end of an 11-year relationship, so I’m not this person anymore. And so, kind of taking off all the labels and saying, who am I? Who am I if I’m not any of these things?

And what I really recognized and what’s been fun for me in this legacy work with people is a lot of times, we have these labels, they define us. And in some ways, they almost limit us. They almost become this box that we put ourselves in.

In fact, as a funny aside, I remember telling my employees once, we were doing this get-to-know-you and I remember saying to them once, you know, sometimes for me it’s hard because when I go into corporate meetings and business meetings – I’m getting off on a tangent here. But it’s hard for me because one of the common denominators for most people in corporate is they immediately start talking about their kids.

And for me, that’s not even a box I have. And I just remember so many of my employees afterwards being like, “Thank you.” Thank you for, A, voicing that and being vulnerable that that’s something that is awkward for you or just feels different, that you don’t get that box, like I don’t get to check that box of that conversation. I mean, it can be an immediate relationship-builder for people.

Anyway, I digress. But kind of giving people this chance to say, like, I’m going to take off all these labels. And this is what I did. I’m not these things. And especially for me, I’m not these achievements. I know we started our conversation talking about achievements. Like, I’m not these achievements. And what if I’m not these things that I say I am in a relationship to other people?

Just pulling those things off so you can get to the essence of who you are. And then for me, I think it’s been this conversation of so then when you put them back on, it’s more like they become a prism. Like, your light shines through them. If you put them back on, by the way also. You’ve got a lot of flexibility to not put them back on. So, I kind of went…

Leah: That was so beautiful. And I love the poetics of what you just said about those labels, the identities can be limitations. They can be more like a prison. And it’s something that I’ve talked about before. It would be like going to Niagara Falls and taking a Tupperware container and then scooping some water in and presenting the Tupperware container as like, “Here’s Niagara Falls.”

That could never be Niagara Falls, but sometimes that is how we try to go about being ourselves in the world. We are the essence that is that force of nature. We are natural and forces and these organic beings. And then we try to put ourselves in these containers or labels, or too-small identities and we know it’s not right.

I don’t mean like not right in a moral sense, but we can feel the rub and the difficulty that that brings for us. Whereas, as you said, if you dropped the labels, if you dropped the Tupperware containers and go back, then those things that could have been prisons instead can become prisms, like you said. That is just a stunning image. And I think too, it’s one of those images that is very instructive.

And so, there’s so many things that, when you were speaking, I was taking down notes about, “I want to ask her about that. I want to ask her about that.” So, you bridge the worlds with such grace, like worlds that sometimes – and I want to say I don’t think they’re necessarily separate worlds. But in our minds, we can create these artificial containers of, “Here’s spirituality and here’s somebody who can also thrive in the corporate world, and then here’s someone who can be a successful entrepreneur and is this powerful feminine leader force.”

And the way that you are vast enough, like allow yourself the vastness and that it all flows from you so seamlessly and without interruption and so gracefully is also stunning. And I think too a testament to that these don’t have to be different worlds. And I know for some people listening, that still might feel like, “No, but those are different worlds,” to be in corporate, to be spiritual, or to be an artist and to be somebody who’s allowed to reimagine your life. Aren’t those people also either the uber-wealthy trust-fund babies, or they’re really just okay and committed to living in the box under the bridge?

And so, in many ways, I don’t think so, your contradiction in terms, but I love that you are you and just you being you defies what a lot of society would say that you can be. That you are contradicting these things. Like when you said when you left your corporate career and you told friends that the universe will take care of you or support you, did you get a lot of side-glances?

Sherry: Oh yeah. And I will say too that I feel like I’m at a point where I’m finally embodying and embracing. But I will tell you actually, when I quit – and I think my corporate career, I loved what I did, but I was very head-down and focused. And I don’t think I was super spiritual. Then, when I quit, I will tell you, the pendulum went all the way over to the other side and I took the time off and I just went like I was drinking from a fire hose. It was like, I wanted to do everything and I wanted to learn every modality.

And I think what happened for me was I realized that – I love how you actually describe this. Because I realized, for me, it is like bringing all of this together. And I’m in the middle. And that’s actually where I have continued to evolve what I’m working on is I’ve really realized, I’ll be frank, I almost kind of poo-pooed corporate. You know what I mean?

I was almost like, that was so soul-sucking, you know, I’m never going back there. But I realized I wasn’t completely in this, like, “I’m not going to be a reiki instructor,” sort of person. You know, where am I? That was my exploration for the last couple of years of, like, what’s me? And being able to look at all of it and say, “What’s me?” And I’ve recognized, one of the big things that I actually am doing now is not just working with women, but also working with businesses.

Because I’ve recognized, if we’re really going to make an impact in the world, we can rethink business for social good. We can rethink capitalism. We can rethink being conscious, being conscious consumers and being conscious businesses in the workplace. And that, for me, has been – I know I mentioned to you, I felt like in the last couple of years there’s been a little bit of amnesia for me. But it was more of having to take the time to say, like, what is so powerful for me in the spiritual world? What is so powerful for me in the business world? And then how can we bring that together?

And then, what’s my language? What’s my work to be done? And what’s my language? And the reality is we can talk and we can behave in very spiritual ways without having to say words that might trigger someone, you know what I mean? And it really is kind of this coming together that we’re seeing collectively. And that’s one thing, for me and my meditations and my prayers, I’ve been praying for that.

This has to be bigger than us. I’ve spent a lot of time and money and energy investing in myself personally. Now it’s time for me to put my energy into collective healing. It’s time for me to find the collective partners so that we can just start healing ourselves and healing each other and healing our planet faster, exponentially.

Leah: So, who would some ideal collective partners be? Have you met some? Are you calling them in? Who would you love to ideally call in? Let’s just put the universe on notice. Not that you already have been in your meditations and prayers. We’ll send it out on another frequency here.

Sherry: Yeah, so part of it is going to be businesses. Businesses who are saying, yeah let’s do this differently, right? Let’s do business for profit, of course. Let’s continue to make a profit, but let’s do business in a way that we can start to bring our Earth back, that we can start to take care of each other, so that we can tackle big social issues, things like poverty, things like food insecurity, things like the fact we need to repair our oceans and we need to repair our farmland, you know, inequalities.

Businesses that are saying, “I’m ready. We’re ready to take a stand.” And because they know that the world is better for it, we’re better for it, and there is benefit to. Employees love to work for missions, where they feel like there’s a mission. Customers like it.

Also, I’ll tell you, I think a lot of the work that I’ve done on unwinding scarcity has been that I don’t think there’s any such thing as competition. And so, I’ve been calling in actual people that you would have thought normally they would be a competitor to what she wants to do, but to really collaborate and kind of collectively work with people across the board that believe in this mission that we can do more good together than we can if I’m just one single consultant in this space.

Leah: So, is there a size of business or a type of business that you’re most focused on? Or is it more just allowing the relationship that seems like the right fit?

Sherry: I mean, both. I believe it really is businesses that are probably under $50 million in revenue. But anywhere up to that that are founder-owned, because I think that’s an easier way for someone at the helm to say, “We’ve done great. We’ve been very successful. We’ve grown.” And they might even be saying a little bit of like, “I’m a little bored. I’ve been in business. Where does my next growth come from?” And at the same time, they’re asking themselves bigger questions about their legacy, “Well how is the world better because I was here?”

And those are the businesses I want to work with because they’re the ones that are open to say – as I’ve been talking to different founders, they’re the ones that can see that they could use their business for good, you know, that they could. And to be able to give them the how, I think that’s the part.

We all care. Businesses just in general are inherently good. And then, they all do charitable contributions, they do things, but if they could get a how that was more instructive according to who they are and their values, that they could make a bigger impact, I think that there’s just such an interest there. Everyone’s interested in leaving the world better. It’s just, how can we do it in the most effective way that matches what our business values are?

Leah: Well, and as you’re speaking and I’m hearing you talk about how the desire is there, and then really, if you think about the trend on a personal micro level, and also a macro level of this integration process, which you’ve even described, for your own life, this bringing in these different aspects of you, and the part about healing scarcity consciousness and returning to prosperity consciousness and how that allows you to access greater questions. Because you have the space.

And so, also giving companies, businesses a space, like a container, a sacred container for a reimagining both the collective reimagining or reimagining for what it looks like as a business, a reimagining for what it looks like as a business owner, but an individual. And it just gives me the chills to think about that’s a process that you have done personally and it’s a process that we do in the Art School.

I think of it as this sacred container for reimagining. And we just spent the last few weeks doing our prosperity consciousness lectures and workshops and talking about the full range of it, from money to also an abundance of knowing that you’re limitless, knowing that you’re divine, and therefore knowing that, you don’t have to entertain questions of like am I good enough? Am I smart enough? What do I have to prove?

Because if you’re no longer trying to prove and you’re not longer trying to get out of scarcity, but just allow yourself abundance, I think one of the most profound things that opens up is the space, the internal space but also you give yourself space in life to ask a greater question, to ask, what is my legacy?

Yes, I want to write this pilot. Yes, I want to write this book. Yes, I want to make these paintings beautiful, and to allow yourself the next question too of, “Who am I? and what is my place in this stream of humanity and on this planet?” And I really think that is one of the, I would say, gifts. But it’s something that you just realize happens from you organically when you’re in a prosperity consciousness place that’s hard to get to if you’re just trying to catch up and make ends meet or you’re overachieving.

Sherry: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, if you think about it exactly from a personal standpoint, we get so stuck. We get so stuck in who we are. I think that’s where we started our conversation, that you can’t even reimagine. You don’t even give yourself that space to say, “What if I could be different?” If I wanted to redefine my vision for my future and who I am, I would say too, it’s not easy.

Our society has, whether it’s for us as people or whether it’s businesses, we’ve almost created this competitive scarcity mindset, you know, you are what you are definition. And one of the things, very similar to the Art School, kind of reimagining, you know, for businesses, is to kind of even think about – typically what we would do is we would do a SWOT analysis, right, your strengths, your weaknesses, your opportunities, your threats. Well, think about, we do that also as people.

We’re constantly – we’re spending a lot of time on our weaknesses and our threats, you know, not as much on our strengths and opportunities. But we’re so almost like focused on the competition and what’s outside of us rather than what’s in us. And if we thought totally differently about this and said, you know, I’m not going to look at what my competitors are doing…

And I think about how you taught us in the Art School about this is what my competitors are doing, you know, from a business perspective, so therefore I’m going to compete on X, Y, or Z, or we’re going to innovate only in this space. The ability to say, “What if those are not our competitors.” What if we said we’re going to start first with our mission and our values and we were not fighting for this piece of a pie over here, but we’re literally saying we’re going to create our own ocean. We’re going to create our own space of who we are and what we represent.

I think that same thing can happen – you know, this happens individually. But it requires that we stop looking outside of ourselves, that we stop looking at other people. And I think the other piece is that we stop looking for templates.

And I think I spiraled for a while because I was, as I said, pendulum-ing between is it spiritual, is it corporate, where am I? And I was looking for a template that doesn’t exist. And if I keep looking, I’m only going to – if I happen to find a template, it’s probably going to limit me versus if I just said, “Let me just create this from what’s in me and it will be greater than anything I could have imagined had I been going according to a template.

Leah: Amen. I want to period pause there. That is too significant a point to rush on past. You’re been in the Art School, so I know you likely have hard this conversation with other people too, where the opening, the relief, the shedding of a burden, the freedom that comes when someone is like, “Wait, I don’t need a template?” Because no one’s doing what you have done.

And so, instead of making that wrong, like instead of making yourself wrong, like who am I? This spiritual person and this corporate person? To instead be like, oh that’s right, who am I? Who am I? Look at me go.

Because a template and a blueprint, that would just be somebody else’s Tupperware container. Not even your own. Just someone else’s. And it’s why I love this community where we’re coming from a place of creativity, which I think too is very different than a competitive place. It’s allowing an opening of your internal wealth spring and allowing a connection to something greater than yourself and allowing that to flow and trusting that not only is that enough, but we don’t even have to have conversations about – that’s the creative force.

And once you’re there, you realize, “Oh yeah, a template seems really kind of silly.” Like, that’s way too small potatoes for who I am and what I’m up to and yea, it’s such a generative place to be.

Sherry: Yeah, definitely.

Leah: So, do you have questions that you love to think about in terms of legacy to open people’s minds and hearts or businesses, like business-leaders’ hearts and minds around legacy, or do they usually come knowing what that might be?

Sherry: You know, it’s been interesting, as I talk with people. Because some people are like, “What?” You know, like you’re kind of hitting a nerve a little bit that I have never even thought about that, you know. But I think, in some ways, just that question of asking people, do you ever think about is the world better because you are here?

They may not have an answer today but that starts the scratch, the questioning of, let me think about that, let me ponder that, let me percolate on that. In particular, I have found actually when working with people, what really pisses you off? What makes you angry? What just is such an injustice to you in this world? And it’s fascinating to see.

Because really, that’s the sign. That’s a guidepost of something that is deep-seeded in them, that they really have a desire to change. For me, human trafficking has always been something that makes me teary just thinking about it now, the idea that someone would use someone else and use their body, it’s something that I know.

For me, once I realized that, and I did it in the Art School if you remember, then it’s like, I’ve got to do something about this. This is my passion. There’s something in here for me to do that m legacy is to help women, children, you know, frankly anyone that’s been in that situation, help them come back to a place of empowerment, help them come back to a place of seeing the world with all of the opportunities that it truly has, even though there’s been this instance.

So, for me, I kind of went on a tangent there on my personal, but asking people what really they feel passionate about. And I also am so passionate about our Earth, like regeneration. I’m excited to see big brands now. Like, you’re seeing Allbirds and Nike and Patagonia, you know, this conversation isn’t being had just at a farmer level or a local level. It’s being had by major corporations who are saying we’ve got to restore our Earth. We’ve got to change our practices. It starts with us.

And so, that’s the third piece I think, as I ask people, what inspires you? What are you seeing that you’re just like, “That’s pretty cool? How could I do that?” How is Nike doing that? What could I do on my local level that could do the same thing?

And then, I think the other part for the conversation has been, especially for businesses, Leah, is a lot of times, businesses are nervous about taking a stand. Like, we don’t want to help this group. We don’t want to come out this way because then that negates every other group that we would want to help.

And a lot of my guidance has been you go for the mist downtrodden. You go for the group that’s the furthest out because research shows everybody else gets pulled in, it gets that halo effect. But that’s scary. It’s scary to ask people to take a stand. It’s scary to ask businesses to take a stand. And that’s a big part of the conversation, is juts starting to find those pieces that they’re so passionate about that they are willing to take a stand for.

Leah: So, if people are interested in working with you, both for anyone listening who might be, and also because I’m curious, how do you connect? Because I think too, knowing you, this is one of your natural superpowers is connection and relationship building, and also travel. Because you’re in Omaha, which is home for you now and you go over to Western Nebraska to visit Katie and her family, and then you go to Chicago and then you’re in Colorado for a few weeks.

You move, it seems geographically, and then also in all of these different spaces, with just such ease. It’s just what I do. And so, I kind of want to poke around in your brain a little bit to pull out some of, like, what’s Sherry Frey’s mindset around this fluidity and fluency with which you move between worlds of business and, I feel like, networking is too smaller word.

You are so relationship oriented and community oriented. What is your mindset around relationship and navigating these worlds and moving also geographically?

Sherry: You know, it’s funny because I actually have come into that, of owing that, that I can be at home wherever I am. And I really do, you know, Katie, my sister and I, my other sister as well, my brother, I love to come stay at your house. I love to come cook for people. I love to just be with my family.

And for a while, I actually thought it was weird. Two years ago, I thought this is crazy, I’m 44 years old and I don’t have a permanent home. what’s wrong with me? That was my immediate. And then it was like, no wait, I’m so lucky. I’m so lucky that I can just live wherever.

And in fact, before COVID hit, my original plan had been that I was going to just do an Airbnb every three months in a different city and just learn new cities. I love food. I’m a total foodie, so I love to try restaurants and see things.

And then, when COVID hit I was kind of like, well maybe I’ll just have a base for a while. So, that’s not off the table, the idea that I might just every three months move somewhere and if you want to see me, come see me as well, you know. That is kind of going to be my mantra.

But it’s been part of my path to realize home isn’t here. Home is inside of me. And if that’s the case, then I don’t need a tangible space. I mean, I do like it. Don’t get me wrong. I love coming home. And you can see, I have all my books behind me. It’s a little hard for me to travel.

People laugh because it’s like I come and I’ve always got a box of books that I have to take with me. But I think the other part has been it’s really expanded my idea of what community is.

Leah: I love that.

Sherry: You know, I think if I were permanently in a spot, I would want to be involved locally and civically. But because I’m not, it just gives me new ways to think about how to give back, how to participate, how to be part of a bigger community and multiple types of community wherever I am.

Leah: I don’t want to put words in your mouth, but I feel like that home is inside of me is probably what also facilitates your ease with conversation with people too, feeling at home within yourself, being able to have, whether it’s with a potential client or with someone you’re collaborating with, just that you’re so easy to talk to.

Sherry: Thank you. You are too. I mean, I think it is more probably, you know, I’m a recovering people pleaser. So, part of it is I have found that I have learned how to settle into myself more and be present and just really speak form my heart. And for me, that’s been getting out of my head and not overthinking things, but just saying whatever – and sometimes I joke because I was talking to a stranger when I said what I really want to do is I want to work with businesses to help them for good.

And I was like, oh my god, I can’t believe that came out of my mouth. You know what I mean? Because that was in my heart. So, just trusting and not censoring. And that worrying if it doesn’t come out perfectly, I’m just here to really connect with you and be present. I mean, just even the fact that we’re talking, but really, we’re connecting on so many levels.

Leah: I agree. And I know you and I had the opportunity to talk yesterday on a monthly workshop call too about just that, how much energy we can have tied up. It’s like our second and third jobs on top of our first job. Second job being people pleasing, third job being going over and above, being overachievers and perfectionists at people pleasing, and what a relief and what liberation and also what power lies in settling back into yourself and allowing yourself to come as is and speaking from the heart.

Which yes, is vulnerable. But it is not nearly the energetic expense or I think the soul spirit, mental, emotional expense that comes with when you’re trying to overprotect and overdo and overcompensate. And when you let that go and come back to allowing yourself to come from that I am place in your heart and allowing yourself to flow as is from the heart, connection is actually possible and you say what’s yours to say, nothing more, nothing less. And what’s also amazing is that you have more energy then for what’s on your heart and in your heart.

Sherry: I mean, I think too, you kind of think sometimes, holy cow, how much energy it takes just to have multiple conversations going on in your head while you’re also having a conversation. If you can just let those guys be quiet and just be like, I’m just going to flow.

Because my gosh, I think back to when you’re having conversations and you’re worried, like, am I strategic enough or do I sound good? You know, I would have worried in the past of who’s going to listen and what are they going to think and oh my gosh, don’t say anything stupid. And that’s like, I am me. Here I am. If it’s stupid to you, I don’t care.

Leah: I’m like, why don’t we do this sooner? It’s so good. And then also, it allows really connecting with magnificent people like you. It’s such a joy and such a gift.

Sherry: I have to tell you, I am so grateful for the Art School. I learned so much. I learned so much, but I think two of my big a-has were one, you know, when you have us write the script, you know, to catch our saboteurs – because we talked a lot in the Art School about bringing the unconscious conscious. And the script that I found that I was saying, it was almost so entrenched that I couldn’t hear it anymore, so I had to really listen.

But I don’t know what I’m doing, that was my – and to be able to catch that and be like, oh, so you can catch it, here you are, no thank you, I’m not interested in that anymore. And the other piece that was so powerful for me was learning how to play and learning how to have spaciousness.

For me, my next chapter, this chapter is not about a grind and it’s not about a push. It’s about letting things flow. And that means I have got to give the space for that to happen. And it’s a rewiring of how we’re trained, how society tells us it’s supposed to be. And just for me, it’s been a very – I’m still working in doing this, but that was so powerful for me. We can go faster when we play and we have fun with this than we can when we grind it.

Leah: Yes, that power – we talked I thought about the playbox, maybe one virtual retreat that we did. And a phrase that has come up a lot in this last Art School has been move slow, arrive first. And that’s a fun one. Because to me, that’s such a spacious phrase, like allowing yourself – I’ve thought of myself in many ways, and sometimes this helps me, sometimes not, as a late bloomer.

And it’s kind of like, no, I’m just really enjoying my spaciousness. And then that arrival first too, not in a competitive way, but that you only end up in the only place that you could ever be too, you know, when you allow yourself, who am I really? When I stop playing the game of trying to compete or trying to find the template and then be the valedictorian at the template.

Like, of course you arrive. You’re already there. And I so appreciate your sharing in this podcast because I know, for a lot of people listening, it is to help facilitate a reimagining of, like, what’s possible. And so everything you shared about dropping the labels and including the two-year process where a lot of times we just want that to be done with, but how beautiful and important it was for you. And imagining a space that allows you to channel your gifts and create what’s on your heart in the world, and not from a grind. Not from a hustle and burnout.

I feel like the more we have conversations like this and normalize the extraordinary and normalize people talking about legacy and what do you want your contribution to be, the more spaciousness that allows for other people to come to the table and say, “I see myself in that. I hear myself in that. I resonated with how Sherry described that,” and it helps them to drop places where they have been not allowing themselves the freedom to do that. So, thank you so much for sharing.

Sherry: Yeah, thank you for inviting me. This was so fun.

Leah: I adore you and adore talking with you. And if people want to learn more about LYLOLE and also your legacy work, whether with individuals or businesses, what’s the best way to find you?

Sherry: You know, I think right now the best way is on LinkedIn because I am personally taking a little bit of a step back in terms of a marketing strategy around social media, just because I energetically want to make sure where I put my energy is in a place that’s good for everyone. So, LinkedIn is where I’m putting a lot of my professional energy. So, please, there or you can email me at sherry.frey@lylole.com. That as well.

Leah: I love that, honoring your spaciousness around the marketing as well. I heard an interview once with Laird Hamilton, the surfer. And he’s also a conservationist. And at the end of the podcast, the interviewer asked where they could find him and he said the Pacific Ocean.

Sherry: Well, because I’m such a migratory person, I’m not even sure I could give a good location.

Leah: Yeah, so yes, at least you’re not completely off the grid and we can still find you on LinkedIn, or through Katie if we really need to find you.

Sherry: Absolutely.

Leah: Thank you so much, Sherry.

Sherry: Thank you so much. Have a great day.

—

I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Sherry just as much as I did. This now brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me. Make sure that you are not just being a passive consumer but truly empowering yourself as a creator by taking this information, thinking on it, thinking about how it applies to your life, implementing it.

Because it’s that process by which we take information and apply it that makes it more than information. It makes it transformational. So, this is such a juice question. I wanted to ask this right away. But I saved it. I restrained myself and saved it for this part two.

And it’s a big question, and I also would invite you to get into the nitty gritty and the details too. We have been talking about reimagining your life. Does that speak to you? Is that something that is calling you? And if so, what would it be like for you to reimagine your life? How would you reimagine your life? In what areas? To what extent?

And truly, watch yourself in the ways you want to censor or hold back because of, well, I’m grateful for what I have. I know that. I know you’re grateful. But let me just give you additional creative license that you don’t need from me, permission that you don’t need from me. But as if this is the universe handing you, carte blanche, and saying go for it, girl, or guy, or they, anyone, everyone, are you at a stage where you are being called to reimagine your life?

I know I am. And so, I can speak from personal experience in saying it’s not coming from a place of lack. It’s, “I’m so grateful.” It’s not coming from a sense of some deep dissatisfaction or frustration. I for sure have areas of frustration and dissatisfaction in my life. But it’s more from this place of profound opportunity

And I’m particularly looking at this question in a whole new light after that week-long immersive meditation experience where something stuck me on a much deeper, higher, cellular level of how precious our attention is. And part of my takeaway from that is that I am in a period of great evolution and there is great potential for growth and also part of that is a profound simplification.

And that has my western brain spinning a little bit, which is precisely fine because I don’t think that’s the part of me that is going to lead me forward. So, I’m in the space of, “Oh, what might that look like? What could life be? Here, I’ve created all of this goodness and gained so much wisdom and enriched my life and I would hope the life of others and strengthened myself and created a contribution.”

And now, what else is possible? And in what ways is it possible? This is particularly a question, I was excited to ask it, share this topic and this conversation in the podcast. And oh my gosh, how awesome would it be to be having this conversation in person and to be having the real face to face heart to heart conversations? So, I wanted to offer that as an additional prompt. Not that I can meet everybody in person. Not right now anyway. Not that. But just consider that. That that might help open a new level of things.

If this were to be a conversation that you didn’t only take to your journal or the inside of your head or your own walk, but if you imagined having a conversation with me or someone else where you could really just wonder and be safe to wonder and safe to explore, what might that conversation be like? What might you find yourself saying and feeling that you might not otherwise?

Sometimes, that’s a really great prompt for me, if I imagine myself speaking through something with someone that I really trust and feel safe with and that I feel like is going to hold a big enough space for my vision and a safe enough space for where I am and any current flaws, any ongoing ones, imperfections, failures, shortcomings, all of it. And it’s just a safe space for my greater knowing to come through.

So, again, reimagining your life, what might that look like for you. And if it’s helpful for you to meditate, contemplate this, think it through by thinking of having a real-life conversation with me or someone else, try that out as well.

And I’d love to hear from you. These are the kinds of things I love to hear. What comes up for you when I ask you about reimagining your life? What would be different? What would stay the same? What new energies or possibilities come in?

If you’d like, you can even send us your answers at support@leahcb.com or you could make an Instagram post and share it with me on Instagram, like I said. And I’m @leahcb1.

Thank you for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. If you’d like to learn more about the Art School or any of my work or working with me, you can visit our website, www.leahcb.com. You can email us, support@leahcb.com. You can also connect with me, I’d love that, on Instagram, @leahcb1.

You know, when I was considering this conversation with Sherry and considering what quotes might be relevant and might tie in nicely, I kept thinking about the author, the teacher Lynne McTaggart. And this quote came to mind. I thought I remembered it, Googled it, I do think it’s on point and I think you’ll realize why I thought it was appropriate for this conversation, to go along with this conversation with Sherry.

“People cannot be separated from their environment. Living consciousness is not an isolated unit. Human consciousness is increasing the order of the rest of the world and has an incredible power to heal ourselves and the world. In a certain sense, we make the world as such, as we wish.”

I think you hear in that some echoes of Sherry’s beautiful, powerful mission. That human consciousness is increasing. We are contributing to that. You listening to this podcast, taking this work, implementing it in your own life, you are increasing that. You are evolving yourself and evolving the world.

And we have an incredible power to heal ourselves and the world. I think there’s so much more than hope. It’s truth in that. An incredible power to heal ourselves and the world, in a certain sense, we make the world as such, as we wish. And if that is not an apt description of a capital C Creative powerhouse, I don’t know what is.

Have an amazing, beautiful week, all of you creative powerhouses and geniuses out there listening, and I look forward to talking with you next time.