Ep #194: Revisiting the Vision and Reigniting the Fire

“There’s no way you can’t have the best business on this planet. No one is stopping you but you. That’s the only possibility,” Byron Katie. And, my friends, the same goes for your career as an artist, as a creative entrepreneur, a creative genius, a serial impossible dreams moonshot goal achiever.

I have some tough love, and also some high-octane inspiration for you packed into this brief episode today.

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. So, I am recording this for you early in the morning. And even at six o’clock this morning, our neighbors down the way – I mean, they are a good quarter mile or more away, the horse farm that’s right adjacent to our 40 acres, they must be doing some construction project because, again, as early as 6AM, they were going at it with the jackhammers.

So, I am not sure what’s going on over there, but some major renovation. And I’ve done some test recordings and I don’t think you can hear that. But if you do, that’s what’s going on.

It’s quite the contrast to our otherwise pretty idyllic prairie setting here, especially this time of year. It’s mid-July as I’m recording this and, oh my god, the prairie, the wildflowers, the grass, all the gardens that I’ve planted – I mean, we have more than 10,000 zinnias this year – everything is just bursting to life.

And these days seem to fleeting, which is also a great reason to double down on creating this space to enjoy it. But more in that in an upcoming episode.

In today’s episode, I want – I mean, the jackhammer is not a wrong metaphor. I kind of want to take a jackhammer to some of those places where maybe there’s concrete that is keeping whatever wants to bloom in you from rising and growing.

And one of the ways I can see that happening is that when you have been either in the thick of living working towards your creative dreams for a while, or you’ve just been thinking about it so long that you’re a little heart-weary and frustrated with yourself, you know, whichever way it is, the heart-weariness definitely can feel like it layers concrete and it seems like where you are and where you want to be are impossible worlds apart.

And then, on the flipside, when you have been in the thick of living and creating and doing the thing for a while, you can get so close to the work that you actually lose sight of it and the original vision.

What becomes more apparent to you, what our brains do is look to all the things that haven’t been working. And we also start to succumb to a version of reality that isn’t nearly as expansive, as alive, as full and vital and exuberant and soulful as that original vision.

And this is not a problem because grace can swoop in like a jackhammer sometimes and bust away those layers of concrete. And other times, grace can be like the water that wears down a stone over years and years and polishes it and also makes way for the water to flow.

Whatever it is, I wanted to bring to the forefront of your mind and drop into the well of your psyche, your soul, this reminder from Byron Katie that I included at the beginning of the podcast, “There is no way you can’t have the best business on this planet. No one is stopping you but you. That’s the only possibility.”

And I wrote this on Instagram and I went on to say that this is absolutely the same for your career as an artist, as a creative entrepreneur, a creative genius, and a serial impossible dreams moonshot goal achiever. Because that is what we are doing here in Art School land, living outside the box in order to create brand new worlds of our own design.

And I want to expand that here to say this also includes family, love, contribution, spiritual growth, lifestyle, travel. I mean, there’s no reason you can’t have the best family on the planet. There’s no reason you can’t have the best relationship, the best marriage.

And when I say best, I am not using it in the terms of competition or hierarchy or better than or less than. I’m pulling out of that. And to me, when I use the word best, it really is shorthand to my soul for, “What is the grandest vision that puts you on an entirely new plane?”

When I think about the Art School and I think back to my original vision for that, it was to have the hottest MFA program on the planet. That was the vision that my soul handed up to me. Not because I was meant to be put in scurry mode and start trying to compete with the Columbias, the Iowas, the you-name-it of the MFA world. I don’t think about that at all actually.

But instead, it did light a fire in my heart that then ignited my imagination, for what would that mean to me? And what it meant to me was that I would be creating what I longed for; this space, a supportive container in which not only would I learn how to do the creative work, whether that is writing, whether that is art.

But then I’d also learn how to be a highly affluent artist, I’d learn how to be very well-paid for my work. I would learn how to execute in integrity my creative vision. I would learn how to tap into my gifts. And I would learn the art of my own creativity, so that I could express my highest potential. And I would also flow that out into the world in a way where I would also have commercial success. I would also have all the money I wanted and more than I knew what to do with in order to support my values and also the further evolution of all things that I love in life, including writing and including art and being able to do that. But also including the kind of security and also fun and experience and adventure.

I also envisioned this hottest creative MFA in the world as being simultaneously a vehicle for the evolution of myself as a human being, the evolution and the growth of my soul.

I saw this as being an incubator for nurturing creative genius. And by creative genius, I mean that highest divine potential that exists in all humans and that I would be in community with other people who wanted to create anything they wanted for the highest good of all, and themselves in this way.

That, to me, is what the best, the hottest, those superlatives meant. It didn’t mean at all trying to become accredited and then beat something. If I were to play by the rules of accreditation, my heart wouldn’t be in it.

So, that brings me to another point for this podcast, the power of tapping into what it is that you really want. I talk about the power of potent goals versus impotent goals. I did a podcast on that probably a year ago. We’ll link to that in the show notes.

But the reason I wanted to do this particular episode today is that we are midway through the year as I record this, July 2022, and we are, again, on – I’m not even going to say the backend. We’ve been through a lot the last few years, my friends, and you can be world-weary, you can be soul-weary, and at the same time, I want to point out to you to look for all of the places you’ve been deepened and strengthened, to look for all of the places where you have grown, where we have grown, and to sense what it is that you want to create next.

All of this strengthening, all of this evolving has poised you to return to that original vision for your life. And for some of you, you’ll be like, “Wait, what, return? I don’t think I’ve ever been there.” Create the space to go there and stay in that space with these words from Byron Katie for a while, “There’s no way you can’t have the best business, whatever it is that you want on this planet, no one is stopping you but you. That’s the only possibility.”

So, do not stop yourself, my friends. And stopping yourself includes for not going for what you want, but settling for what you think you can get. And to those who feel objections rising within them that say, “Oh, but isn’t it selfish? Isn’t it egotistical to want so much, to want that kind of vision for my life?” I have this to say.

What you want, that sacred dream is sacred. And along with that comes a sacred twin intention. This sacred dream will absolutely be the invitation and the invocation of everything your soul is here to learn. And the more you follow that dream, the more your soul’s gifts will be free, unleashed, liberated, and amplified so that everything that you hold dear, everything that you wish for the rest of the world will be, in greater proportion, able to flow through you when you are not holding yourself back because you haven’t allowed yourself to consider this question that I’m going to ask you now in the coach with me.

So, this brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen to me. I want you to lean in and really work with me, coach with me. Don’t let this information just be passive entertainment going in one ear and out the other, briefly making you feel better, but in the long run not because you’re not acting on it.

Integrate it into your life. Let it change you. So, here is my simple question, but it is a depth charge to the soul. If you let it be. If you are willing to tell yourself the truth about your vision for life. And I say this from a place of no shame and no judgment. I definitely can understand how there can be layers and layers seemingly – or it feels like the energetically and physically – of concrete between what your heart wants, what your soul wants, and what you’re able to tap into and reconnect with within yourself, and definitely to express.

This is why I love coaching and this kind of work so much. Because there have been times where coaching has been the jackhammer I needed. And there are other times that this work has reminded me of what wants to grow up from underneath the concrete and has reminded me of the force and the power of that. It has reconnected me with a place in myself where I felt so alive and so powerful that I knew concrete don’t got nothing on me.

So, what I want to say is if you struggle with this coach with me prompt, don’t allow part of that struggle to be judging yourself for struggling. Struggle can also be you trying to reconnect with you. Struggle can also be like the butterfly when it first emerges from the cocoon.

It sits on the edge and struggles a little bit. That’s actually helping its wings to strengthen. There are definitely parts of life and the journey where struggle serves you, but a place where we create needless suffering is when we judge ourselves for that.

Also, if you are wanting more help with this or you feel like, “Yeah, I’ve got it. I just crave being in a high-vibe, elevated, supercharged environment where other people are doing this too, whether other people are going all out for this original vision of life, where other people are stepping outside of the boxes and structures that have been handed them and are instead aligning with their soul’s vision for their life and creating prolifically, affluently, amazingly, lovingly from that place, and also having so much fun doing it.

I was telling my Art School Mastermind about how my kids and my brother, their uncle Andy, did the Spartan race at Notre Dame with them. And they were reluctant to begin with, but then they got a taste of this moving through challenge and difficulty in a team-like atmosphere. And there’s nothing like that.

And I was telling my Art Schoolers this to remind them that this is what we’re doing together. We can mount obstacles and high-five one another and it is exhilarating. Or you can slog yourself along, punishing yourself the whole way, talking about the journey as a punishment.

There are worlds of difference between those lives and I also want to say in the results that you create. So, I am going to be offering opportunities for coaching, including free coaching. So, if you are not on my email list, you’ll want to receive my newsletter. You can sign up. There’ll be a link in the bio or you can sign up by going to my website.

I’ll be offering some very limited spaces for free coaching and then some limited spaces after that for highly discounted coaching. I don’t do much one-to-one work anymore. I really love working in the group scenario. And I do offer one-to-ones for those that are already in my mastermind.

But I wanted to open up the calendar and get to know more of you closely and help you work through some places that are stuck points, or maybe you don’t have stuck points. You just want our energies to high-five and you’re someone who is an energetic learner and values putting yourself in a space where you can learn and elevate and accelerate and amplify, supercharge what you’re already doing, so that will open up for you as well.

I had this idea actually, a friend of mine asked to borrow my You’re a Badass at Making Money book. She just assumed I would have a copy, which was a good assumption. She texted me because she was heading to the beach and the bookstores weren’t open and she wanted that to take along to read and journal.

So, of course I have one. So, I went downstairs to get it off my library shelf and I opened it up and I found a page where I had written down one of my intentions, which at the time I remember when I first had this book, that seemed like a whole different planet. It seemed like a moonshot goal. And now, it’s become my new normal.

And that was to get paid for being me, and I wanted that sum, that first sum that’s a demonstration of getting paid for being me, like I set a big moonshot goal at the time of $250,000 a year. And I stopped to take that in, in that moment, because I’ve done that. I have now done that.

I now have new moonshot goals which I’ve talked about extensively on this podcast, including in an episode. And it reminded me of the power of this work. It was a great reminder to turn to the original vision, and how, when you do that, new layers and new worlds open up, not only for your insight into the vision, but new worlds within yourself. That is one of my favorite things about this coaching work, is being with people as they discover worlds and realms and rooms within themselves, reservoirs of potential and gifts and energy that they’re like, “Whoa, I didn’t know that was in me.”

And yet, at the same time, they have a simultaneous experience of, “You know what? That is me. That’s been me all along, that presence, that essence has been with me all along.”

You know, you can meet people that absolutely change your life, where there is a before and after. And there’s nothing quite like the life-altering change though of meeting parts of yourself and it being you that changes your life, you being the life-altering influence.

So, that is a little bit of a tangent. But all to say, I have been craving lately bringing this work more closely to more people. So, if you’re on my newsletter list, you will hear – you’ll be the first to hear because they’ll go fast – about the free spots for coaching, about the highly discounted opportunities, and I’m also going to be doing a group workshop and call at the end of August, so make sure you are watching your inbox for the details on that.

And for now, let’s come back around to the coach with me prompt. When you hear the words, “There’s no way you can’t have the best business on the planet,” even if you don’t want a business, what does that spark for you? What is your version of the best creation in which you can pour your essence, your creative energy, and then also be open to experiencing a wealth of what the world has to offer to you as well?

Return to your original vision, your deep, true one, the one you had before you started to learn and succumb to the outside world’s version of reality or limitations or perhaps you started to feel, “Now I have a taste of what this actually requires and I can’t imagine working harder.”

But all of that to the side for a moment and go back and stay longer with the longings, and the “How does it come in?” for right now. We’ll talk about that more in the private coaching work. We’ll talk about that more in upcoming workshops and in the group call.

But remember this for now. Stay with the original vision, but don’t go into the how. That is like trying to edit and write your first draft of the manuscript at the same time.

Stay first with the energy. Tap into the frequency of what your version of the best business, the best creation on this planet looks like. What does that feel like energetically? What is that frequency? What is that vibration? What is that energy? What is that oracle field for you?

I find starting with a place where you don’t use words to begin with to be so powerful. Go to the energy first. Go to the energy of your heart so wide open and alive and you just flowing you in life, and in a place where the inner critic can’t reach you, you have moved beyond that and you’ve done that.

Try to connect with that energy of the original vision, stay there longer, stay with the longings of your heart and the words, the ideas, the visions, they’ll follow.

And remember these words too from Katie, “No one is stopping you but you. No one can stop you.” And that is the only possibility, my friends.

Thank you so much for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. I love knowing you are out there. I love meeting more and more of you in person and then also through your wonderful messages online.

If you want to connect, find me on Instagram. I’m @leahcb1. You can join our private and free Facebook group for the Art School. You don’t need to have ever enrolled or been a client of mine. It is open to the public. We just have very brief application questions so that I can make sure you are a real human and I can understand a little bit more about what brought you to the community and what your intentions, what your dreams and goals and desires are.

And then, of course, do make sure that you are signed up to receive my emails because that way you will be the first to know about these limited-time offers. And also, it’s a little bit more – well, it can be a week and weeks more – expediate and immediate than the podcast because I often record the podcast weeks in advance, and email is a great way just to have moment-to-moment contact and make sure you don’t miss a thing.

And if you are someone who wants to have the best business on this planet, whatever the best business looks like and means for you, then I highly encourage you to apply for the Art School Mastermind.

I can’t tell you how often I hear the members saying, “One of the greatest gifts of this group is having a container and a space in which it is safe to be someone who dreams that big,” and where it is not only safe, but it is encouraged. It is supported. It is nurtured. It is radically celebrated to be someone who declares, “No, no caps for me in this lifetime. My life is precious. It is sacred. I want to do everything I can to build within me everything I need to channel my highest potential into this world and I’m not going to hold back on what I think is possible for me. I’m going to go all for it, all out,” and then to be surrounded by this team of people who are rooting for you at the deepest level.

And then, there are these coaching tools and information and methods. And actually, for me, it’s an art and a craft, a high art and a craft, this method of coaching, in order to evoke your gift, to draw your genius out into the world so that you come to know yourself as that who you are meant to be, you come to experience your life as that which is always meant to be.

I can’t overemphasize the power of having a space like this, a space where you define you and you define who you get to be and what you get to create and experience in this lifetime.

It’s profound, it’s sacred, and it is so much fun. I just cannot imagine doing life any other way with any other people, except for those of you that I want to include that I haven’t met yet. So, again, I would love to read your application and you can find that link to apply in the show notes.

To close today, a little bit of a bonus coach with me. I want you to consider those places where you’ve toned the dream down, where you’ve pulled back and it’s okay again here to be completely honest because we are remembering to be so compassionate and to offer ourselves love, even though I’ve semi given up on this dream of having my novels published, of being a six-figure artist, even though I’m sad that I’ve kind of given up on the belief that I can have the marriage, the relationship, the love that I want.

I deeply and completely accept myself and love myself. So, that’s just a little teaser to also an Emotional Freedom Technique episode, the tapping solution many of you know about that I also want to do. But accepting these places where we realize we have been settling is an important part of this process.

It is the paradox of change, actually. If we don’t accept it, then we can’t change it. And accepting it and accepting it with compassion is not the same as endorsing it at all.

So, looking at places where you don’t believe you can actually have what you really, really want, and giving yourself so much love and compassion for that, so much forgiveness and grace, and then tuck away into your psyche this reminder, these words; there is no way you can’t have the best on this planet.

No one is stopping you but you, and that is the only possibility. I know I’ve said it so many times in this episode. I want it to reverberate through the entirety of your consciousness, all the fibers of your being to resonate with that truth. And I hope you have a beautiful week, everyone, the best week on the planet, and I look forward to talking with you next time.