Ep #70: (Part 2) Blowing the Ceiling Off What’s Possible with Dana Wilson

Dana Wilson: In my diversity and training, I found people’s rules are going to conflict. For as many times as I took a casting workshop where somebody said, “Never wear this color, or never introduce yourself to the casting director. Don’t shake the casting director’s hand.”

Then I took a different workshop that said, “Walk in the room and introduce yourself right away. You want to make a lasting impression.” So, you find that in a creative life, there is no one way to do anything. Following the rules doesn’t help because everybody has got different rules.

Leah Badertscher: What do you find then does help? What do you follow now?

Dana Wilson: In The Art School, I found this idea that I am bright, and that I am the sun, and that the sun doesn’t care what the plants or animals think about it. The sun just goes out and shines. I’ve gotten more in touch with that idea.

Leah Badertscher: That is a clip of the conversation I had with Dana Wilson. This episode is a continuation of last week’s episode. So, hopefully, you caught that where you would have learned so much more about Dana and her background, but I’ll get you up to speed here, and then for sure go and listen to that episode, episode 69, first.

Dana is a brilliant content creator, choreographer and movement coach, dancer, master dance instructor, and a performer. She performs alongside pop industry mega stars, and then also her portfolio is too diverse and extensive to go into here, but I know you will appreciate the creative genius and the insights that she offers in both of these episodes, including that new rule that she’s following that she discovered through The Art School where she was a member of our fall 2019 masterclass.

A belief she is using as she navigates her way to blowing the ceiling off an already extraordinary creative career in the entertainment industry so that her rising star has no limits. What Dana shares in this episode is solid gold. So, I hope you listen in. Enjoy because it would be hard not to. She is a master performer, and true to that role, massively entertaining here. Take what she shares and implement it to fuel your own strength and success as a creative so that your star continues to rise.

No matter your medium, no matter your industry, no matter your goals, dreams, no matter the setbacks you’ve had, no matter who you may think is currently in control of your life and success other than you. This episode will inspire and empower you to know that you are the one in control of your creative destiny no matter what

Female Announcer: 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’s your host, master certified life coach, artist, and former lawyer, Leah Badertscher.

Leah Badertscher: Hello, everyone and welcome back. As you heard in the intro, this is the second part of a conversation, an interview I did, with Dana Wilson. Be sure to listen to episode 69 so you get the full background and bio of Dana, and you also do not miss that conversation. That episode was a masterclass in itself.

So, I’m recording this right back to back, although you’ll hear it two weeks apart, and doing this in between, a lot of fun things here, including we’re wrapping up the eight-week intensive that was a part of the massive magic retreat from Miraval. It’s been so fun to see what has transpired for people, and what they’ve been doing, and what they’ve been implementing after the retreat.

I think I may have to do an episode just on that because you can’t name something a massively magical experience and not have incredible things happen. So, I want to share some of the behind the scenes with you all. Until then, I have so much other goodness lined up for you in upcoming episodes, not the least of which is the second part of this conversation with Dana Wilson. Enjoy.

Dana Wilson: It’s so true what you can learn in a dance class, how applicable that is into other areas. It speaks to where I was getting to with how we use our time and how we use these diverse interests to funnel them all into the same bucket. They’re not separate.

Leah Badertscher: No way, because it’s all you. Right?

Dana Wilson: Yeah.

Leah Badertscher: It is all you. I loved that conversation with her. One of the things that she said that I had to stop the treadmill to take it in.

Dana Wilson: Did you really?

Leah Badertscher: When she said, “Do not allow other people to create your belief ceilings?”

Dana Wilson: I love it. Even the people that love you.

Leah Badertscher: Yes.

Dana Wilson: That is something that even subconsciously, for example, let’s say I went on tour with Justin Timberlake, and a lot of the feedback that I got is like, “You were made for this. This is what you were meant to be doing.” I know that to many listeners, that’s like, “Oh, my God. That’s so cool,” because that’s a really high level, but that also is a ceiling.

If I believed that dancing for JT was the sole thing I meant to do, it’s really unfortunate because I don’t think he’ll be touring forever. I think he’ll probably want to sit down, and have a family, and not be on the road all the time. So, what does that mean for me and my end game? Yeah, not letting other people set the ceiling for what you’re capable of is a huge, huge takeaway from that episode. I’m glad that that struck you. It’s a powerful point.

Leah Badertscher: Well, I’m glad you illuminated it with that example because I’d be like, “Yeah, she’s made it.” That was meant as great praise, right?

Dana Wilson: Yeah, absolutely.

Leah Badertscher: Then I think it’s too why we have to have these carve out, this time and space, and give our own attention to ourselves to say, “But who am I?” Because I can see if somebody thought, “Well, that’s what you are,” and they meant it as a compliment, but you’re like, “Why don’t they see that actually, I’m also.” There’s an also, and then there’s a more, and it’s so rich, and it’s growing. Again, taking the power back to define who you are.

So, that’s something that I wanted to ask for sure, as we talked a little bit before we started recording, about what do you do when you are on this journey of you are a creative powerhouse, and then you come into the mindset work, and the coaching work, and you’re like, “Oh, wow. Now, I have these tools. So, now, I am really taking full responsibility for my life, my creative life, being the ultimate creative authority in my life. I decide. I’m like the master of my destiny.”

Then you’re in the entertainment industry where the narrative is going to be, “Oh, sure. You can be the greatest choreographer, and movement master, dancer, and all other things, if I decide to give you the role.”

Dana Wilson: Right. You’re only as good as your resume, or your last job, or your credit on this project.

Leah Badertscher: There are gatekeepers, right?

Dana Wilson: Right.

Leah Badertscher: People that hold your destiny in their hands. How can you speak to that because I think you are particularly well situated to speak to that?

Dana Wilson: Thank you. Yes, that’s a very powerful prompt, and I am sitting squarely in the middle of working on that. I think the most important part of this work is redistributing the power and validation from being given from other people or permissed from other people to being mine. That takes daily practice. There’s a lot of training, not just in dance, but in all arts. We grew up seeking external validation.

That’s how you learned dance, is your teacher she poked your back of your knee to say lengthen, lengthen, or she’s yelling, “Shoulders down,” or I compete and I get a silver or I get a gold. There has been in my training always external validation. So, now, trying to rewire and assert value in my own work that’s independent from being hired for projects being made past for certain rounds of cuts, set auditions. It’s a challenge, and it takes work all the time.

One of the things that’s helped me lately is by thinking of the projects simply as being little buckets, and the real good stuff is what’s in the buckets. The buckets are just buckets. I’m interested in what’s inside of them. So, maybe, “Oh, I love thinking about texture.” It’s also how I explain certain performance qualities, but maybe in this one, it’s gold flakes, or in this one it’s champagne, and in this one it’s Gak like I used to play with when I was a kid. All sorts of different textures, and that’s good stuff.

I am way more interested in that stuff than in the container itself. I like to think about other projects as being simply people’s buckets. This film is somebody else’s bucket, and I’m going to fill it with my champagne, or gold flake, or whatever the good work is that I’m doing. But if that bucket went away, I would still need a place to put my gold flake, or champagne, or Gak.

So I might need to build a bucket, or I might need to find a bucket that’s empty to fill that with. I think just getting married to the idea that that project is me, I have to let that go. I am the contents of the bucket, not the bucket itself. It’s tough. It’s work, but that’s how I’m thinking of it right now.

Leah Badertscher: When I asked you, “Do you think of yourself as an entrepreneur?” Because I think one of the beauties of being an entrepreneur is being a maker of buckets. I don’t have a word for artist entrepreneur married together, and I know for some people in the arts, that’s blasphemy and that’s really distasteful, but I feel like it’s also freedom because then then I’m free to like, “I love the champagne.” Whatever your essence is, it wants to have a bucket, but if you’re like, “I’m also super creative. I’m going to figure out how to be a bucket maker.”

Dana Wilson: Yeah, that’s exactly what being an entrepreneur is. That’s the title of a new podcast, Bucket Making. Yeah, there’s another analogy, I’m going to get it wrong, but something like one match’s flame does not take away from the light of another. One matchstick can be bright, and this other matchstick will also be right. If I light a new match, the other one doesn’t get dimmer. So, I think let that project go on without you, let them not know that you would have been great for it, or maybe they know and they just couldn’t or whatever, but let that thing go and go light a match. Just go be bright somewhere else. That’s the goal.

Leah Badertscher: Oh, I love that. This might feed into, I sent you a couple of questions. Since you speak the language of coach and psychology thought work, the thoughts that you can identify that got you to a certain point in your career. Some of them you might have alluded to with you had to perform in order to learn how to dance. Maybe what those thoughts are that can get people through a first phase in their career, and then are those the thoughts that you’ll use for the second phase, or do you need to reevaluate?

Dana Wilson: Oh, my gosh. I love this question so much. I just reevaluated what got me here because last week, I got new head shots taken. I did a podcast about this too. Getting new head shots is a very emotional experience for me because there’s this unwritten priority. Actually, it is even written. People are like, “Head shots are so important. They have to be great.”

So, there is this crazy pressure about them being authentic, and natural, and you have to be all the things in your head shot. It’s really stressful. Anyways, so I had that experience last week, exactly a week ago, and on that day, I found my first head shots of this baby me. I was freshly 18 years old, 2005, just got to L.A.

My thoughts at that time, I can remember, was like, “Do it right. Don’t break the rules,” because I’d been taught from my teachers, and I’ve seen awful examples. You don’t sleep with the boss, you show up on time, you do your homework. There’s all these do’s and don’ts that a good dancer does all these things, and they don’t do those other things.

So, I shot head shots with the person that was the person to shoot with, and I let somebody else tell me what to wear, and I let somebody else do my hair, and I let somebody else do my makeup, and I was just trying to do it right. I think that there’s a lot to be said for that angle because like you mentioned before, that did serve me.

I didn’t sleep with the boss, I didn’t show up late, I didn’t do drugs, and that got me here, also pursuing the pursuit of excellence. I wanted to be right, I wanted to be good. Wound up with me being right and good, but then there’s a certain point where I think that follow the rules is not as interesting as break the rules, or make your own rules, or there are different thoughts now than, “Follow the rules, follow the rules.”

Follow the rules does not speak to me at all right now. If The Seaweed Sisters followed the rules, we wouldn’t exist. So, there’s that, but yeah, I was a good student, and good students follow the rules. That served me well up to a point, but in my diversity and training, I found people’s rules are going to conflict.

For as many times as I took a casting workshop where somebody said, “Never wear this color, or never introduce yourself to the casting director. Don’t shake the casting director’s hand.” Then I took a different workshop that said, “Walk in the room and introduce yourself right away. You want to make a lasting impression.” You find that in a creative life, there is no one way to do anything. So, following the rules doesn’t help because everybody has got different rules.

Leah Badertscher: What do you find then does help? What do you follow now?

Dana Wilson: In The Art School, I found this idea that I am bright, and that I am the sun, and that the sun doesn’t care what the plants or animals think about it. The sun just goes out and shines. So, I’ve gotten more in touch with that idea, and if something doesn’t feel bright, or if something feels like it’s dimming my light, then I take a look at why and either leave it right where it was and go on my way, or try to learn from it and maybe use it as voltage somehow.

I’ve shifted my thoughts from being about being right to being bright, and a lot of times, that means I need more information. How do I get more informed? How do I get more knowledge? If knowledge is power, then I want to come from a well-informed place. So, a lot of the times, it just means I’m doing more research.

Be bright is something that I’m focusing on, and be myself, just listening to when I feel in alignment with certain things or projects and when I’m not. I used to be very interested in people liking me, and doing right by everyone, and I’ve less interest in that now. It’s okay if people don’t get me. It’s okay if I’m not their favorite thing. It’s okay.

Leah Badertscher: I remember the conversation about the sun. I’m glad you brought that up.

Dana Wilson: That is some grade A coaching right there, my friend.

Leah Badertscher: Thank you.

Dana Wilson: Oh, my God. Yeah, huge breakthrough. Huge breakthrough.

Leah Badertscher: I’m glad you brought it up here too because I feel like this is a shift that’s available for so many people listening. The other image that came up in that conversation with you is if you’re the sun, and as a creative you can be like, “Well, I want the recognition, and I want the gatekeepers to say yes because I want the job right, and I want the income, and all of these things.” But it’s like you’ve given your permission to be the sun to those things, and the image that came up with you is that those things are like the sparkle, the glitter, on the water that the sun makes.

Dana Wilson: Yes.

Leah Badertscher: They don’t make a sun.

Dana Wilson: They’re the thoughts. They’re peripheral light. They’re the reflected light.

Leah Badertscher: Yeah, they happen because you’re the sun, so you’re the sun. People can like you are not like you, but what happens when the sun shines is that there are those days when it hits the water and it reflects refracts, and it looks like a thousand diamonds. So, maybe that looks like The New York Times favorable review. Maybe that looks like the prestigious award.

Dana Wilson: That analogy is solid gold.

Leah Badertscher: The Oscar, the big-time job, but it doesn’t change whether the fact that you are always the sun. I think to take all of our power back because if you’re a creative person, and you’re waiting for permission to be creative, then we just start to dim and die.

It’s another question I want to ask because I think it’s so important that we just keep being who you are meant to be and shining brightly. What are some things that have helped you or are really helping you? You put your heart into it, and sometimes there’s disappointment. Sometimes you miss your own mark. So, what helps you stay the course?

Dana Wilson: One of my favorite navigational tools is using the concept of future her, and it’s not just a navigational tool, it’s a physical fuel that I have. When I really see clearly who she is and how she feels, I can put that feeling in my body and operate in the world as her. It is really a powerful thing. So, that’s been tremendously helpful. Also, this was a one of my favorite little takeaways from The Artist’s Way, that 12-week Julia something.

Leah Badertscher: Cameron.

Dana Wilson: There you go. I was not a big fan really of the whole experience as a whole, but one of my favorite takeaways from it is the jealousy map or shadow work, as you as you say. Being able to look at the world, other people’s light bouncing off other people’s lakes. What is it about that thing that makes me want that, or makes me think I don’t already have it?

The jealousy map and the shadow work are tremendously helpful for me because in a visual medium like dance, and in an industry like entertainment, it’s almost impossible for me to not look at other people’s work. So, it will be there, and to get through my own, I can either use it as navigation, or I can either not use it and just focus on the future self that I have in mind for me, and start operating as her right now. Those are my favorite tools.

Leah Badertscher: It’s taking what you could use against yourself. You told me about the book, The Art of Learning by Josh Wozniak.

Dana Wilson: Waitzkin.

Leah Badertscher: Waitzkin, yes. Thank you.

Dana Wilson: Oh, my gosh. Yes, so good. Essential reading.

Leah Badertscher: Yeah, and that when he’s training to become and eventually, he’s a Tai Chi master. The whole concept of Tai Chi masters are able to use the energy that’s coming at them that could lay flat, that could knock you into a wall, and instead they use that, and redirect, and absorb.

Dana Wilson: Yes.

Leah Badertscher: That is the mind ninja work that you’re talking about with that future self.

Dana Wilson: Oh, roll with it. That was a huge guiding, one of the ideas or philosophies, in The Art of Learning. It’s a Tai Chi philosophy as well as this idea of a ball bearing in a socket. So, if an impact comes at you, it rolls off. In the book, Josh describes a blade of grass in a hurricane where other big trees, big beautiful trees, their branches might snap or they might get completely uprooted and fall. But even after a terrible storm, the grass is still there because it’s really flexible.

Leah Badertscher: Like seaweed.

Dana Wilson: Yeah, like seaweed, and close to the ground, and all these things. So, I have thought in those tough times or on set days even. Sets are not notorious for being cool, calm, and collected places. It gets windy. Thinking of myself as a blade of grass in a hurricane that can be flexible, and can roll with it, and can let that disastrous breeze blow by and not snap.

That’s another thing about the way I used to think. I had this idea about be right, follow the rules. When I was wrong, or when I did something that wasn’t good, or if I got cut, if I wasn’t the right thing, it would really wreck me. I got really down. It would take full days to recover from getting cut from auditions, and I got cut from a lot of auditions.

Leah Badertscher: The let it down days.

Dana Wilson: Yeah. Those are tremendously helpful ideas for me in continuing forward.

Leah Badertscher: Oh, I love the image. I’m so glad you brought the image of the grass to the forefront. I recorded a podcast earlier today, well, earlier the week of Valentine’s day, about love. The Gandhi quote, love being the greatest force in the world and also the humblest imaginable.

Dana Wilson: Oh, yes. I love this.

Leah Badertscher: That sounds so much in the spirit like when you come from a place that’s loving, it’s not that you’re like, “Oh, okay. Well, then I guess I won’t addition anymore.” Right?

Dana Wilson: Right.

Leah Badertscher: That’s not from an egotistic place of all day we’re just wrong, but it’s like that blade of grass where the storm can pass. You’re humble, and yet so powerful when you can find that place.

Dani Wilson: This is a bringing up a whole other concept, something that I have to do a podcast on eventually. Oh, that’s another one of my many interests, acting. Oh, it’s great. I love it. I found a teacher here in L.A., his name is Gary Imhoff, who changed my life. Acting in a big, big way changed my dancing. Gary has idea about being humble. If you go to the root word of humble, I think it’s humus or something like that, which means of the earth.

His attitude about that is like, “Yeah, sure. If you want to be the ground underneath everybody’s feet. If you want to be the thing that people walk on, go ahead and be humble.” He was all about wins. He’s all about celebrating, and that was what helped me reframe my mindset around failure. Yeah, actually in this business, you don’t want to be humble.

You don’t want to say, “Yeah, I’m okay, whatever.” You want to be like, “No, I am great, and that is not okay. You cannot step on me like that.” I don’t know. The ball in the socket will roll with the punches, but the person that is asserted in their talent and confident in their talent won’t budge if somebody is trying to walk on them. It was a hugely pivotal thought shift for me.

Leah Badertscher: I love that too because it goes to connecting to your future self no matter what. Right?

Dana Wilson: Yeah, huge.

Leah Badertscher: Well, I could talk to you for days.

Dana Wilson: Literally days, and this is another reason why the podcast is great, is because I can talk forever. So, let’s just go ahead and bank on that.

Leah Badertscher: Yeah, and we’ll schedule another one.

Dana Wilson: I love it. Follow ups is great.

Leah Badertscher: Also, for people that want to find out more about the work you’ve done, because you always are up to exciting things, and even in this last year, the last time you emailed me, you were like, “Yeah, I’m in New York doing another couple of music videos.” So, do you want to just talk briefly about that?

Dana Wilson: Oh, sure. Some recent projects include for five months out of 2019, I was living in New York, a part of the choreography team for In the Heights, the feature film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway hit, and it is going to be so good. I’m very excited about it, and I’m proud of that work, I’m proud of that team, proud of the relationships that sprang from it. That comes out in the spring, so be on the lookout for that.

Also, while I was in New York and a little bit while I was in L.A., this project actually spanned like nine months. For pre-production, I was the movement coach to the actor that will be playing Elvis in Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming. I don’t know if it has a name yet, but Baz is doing a biopic about Elvis, and I helped coach the actor, and he’s going to be phenomenal. I’m very excited about that. Very excited and proud.

Also been working with Anthony Ramos. I’ve choreographed to music videos for him now. He was the lead. He plays Usnavi in In the Heights production, but he also is so much more than actor in a musical. He makes incredible music. He’s tremendously thoughtful. Oh, he’s a good character study in humility and being grounded, by the way, because that guy is the salt of the earth, but he is also the spice of it, and he is a fascinating human.

He’s working on a second album, but the first album, the album that I did two videos for, is called the good and the bad. Excellent listening top to bottom. It’s one of those that truly you can listen to the whole thing through. I’m working now with an up and coming starlet. Her name is Olivia Ritchie, and she’s an actress, but she’s breaking into a recording career. Her voice is lovely. It’s like if Taylor Swift and Lana Del Ray had a baby.

That’s Live Ritchie, and we just choreographed a music video for her, and I’ll be part of the directing team for the next one, which I’m very excited about. Then all things Seaweed coming up. It’s going to be a big year for us. The month of April, we’ve set aside almost exclusively for Seaweed times. We’re going to be performing at Jacob’s Pillow in August at some point. I think that pretty much sums it up.

Leah Badertscher: Lots of thoughts.

Dana Wilson: Saying all those things out loud, that’s a lot.

Leah Badertscher: Isn’t that a really awesome bucket?

Dana Wilson: Good buckets.

Leah Badertscher: Good buckets. Yeah.

Dana Wilson: My new totem, power totem, is going to be a bucket. I’m going to run to Home Depot and get one of those big, bright orange painter buckets.

Leah Badertscher: Yeah, and I’m also a visual texture person. So, just the visual of the bucket there with the champagne and the one with the gold flakes.

Dana Wilson: Then slime and weird, awful dirt stuff or whatever. I don’t know, all of it. It’s all part of it. It’s all valid.

Leah Badertscher: All the buckets.

Dana Wilson: All the buckets.

Leah Badertscher: Well, again, thank you so much for being on.

Dana Wilson: Oh, it was a treat.

Leah Badertscher: I could just pick your beautiful, creative, genius brain for days. One thing, I didn’t tell you I was going to do this, but at the end of your podcast, and you have your little tagline at the end, and the first one you’re practicing, like you’re trying out tagline. So, I need her to say it too because I want you to do your standard one.

Dana Wilson: Okay, I’ll give it to you.

Leah Badertscher: The first time, I think we need a get up in the voice.

Dana Wilson: Get up. Get up. That’s my James Brown get up. I could not decide. What is it? Get moving, keep shaking. If I was not a dancer, I would probably be in marketing somehow because in school, I did take a marketing class in DECA. What does DECA stand for? I don’t even know. But very interested in that.

I love grocery stores. I love shopping because I’m just like, “Whoa, labels. Look at everything. Look at all the colors, and shapes, and mascots, and all the things.” Mascots? Is that what they’re called? Whatever. Yeah, I got really stressed out that I needed a tagline. I do think it is, “Keep it funky.” Darn it, I just gave it away.

Leah Badertscher: No, I’m going to have you say it again.

Dana Wilson: Really, I still don’t even know if that’s the best one because there’s so many possibilities. It’s daunting.

Leah Badertscher: I love it because it’s that energetic infusion. The only thing missing here is I really wish podcasting could be video because you’re a delight to watch as you speak.

Dana Wilson: Oh, thank you.

Leah Badertscher: You’re pulling out the master movements as you speak, but I love that energy and that, I’m going to try to say it in how you say it, James Brown get up.

Dana Wilson: Get up.

Leah Badertscher: Yeah.

Dana Wilson: It’s a vocal fry. That’s why I can do that.

Leah Badertscher: That’s a year of life coaching in those three words, the energy there, and I wanted you to send everybody out too.

Dana Wilson: On a real good one. All right, everybody I don’t know what you’re doing today. I don’t know if you’re going to keep it classy. I don’t know if you’re going to keep it simple, but you darn well better keep it funky. Yo, keep it funky. It is the one. I know it’s the one because I’m blushing right now. It makes me turn pink in the cheeks. Keep it funky, everybody. Oh, it’s good. I have to put it on all the merch.

Leah Badertscher: I need some of that merch.

Dana Wilson: Yes, you got it.

Leah Badertscher: Thanks, Dana.

Dana Wilson: Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Leah Badertscher: So, Dana is the bomb. I just love her, and I hope you enjoyed that conversation and took as much from it as I did. Like I said, I did the conversation. I was part of the conversation and I myself had to go back and take notes. There was so much there that I wanted to continue to think about for myself, for clients about creativity in general. So, I’m so grateful Dana came on to be a part of The Art School Podcast, and for sure it’s not the last time.

This brings me to the part of the podcast where I want you to do more than just listen. I want you to lean in, really work with me, coach with me. Dana mentioned having found that principle, that belief, in Art School that about being bright over being right, and that coming from this concept of being the sun.

So, I want you to explore beliefs or thoughts that have helped you create the level of success and fulfillment that have helped create the place where you currently are on your creative journey. Whether you like that or not, just objectively witness the thoughts and beliefs that have created that, and own your creative power in doing that.

Even if you don’t like them, acknowledging that you have created it is incredibly powerful because if you’ve created this, you can look at the thoughts that have created that, and then you can look at thoughts and beliefs that will create something entirely different. Again, part one, begin at looking at the thoughts and beliefs that have created where you are right now.

Now, go to that future self that Dana referenced being one of her favorite exercises. Ask her what are the thoughts and beliefs that have gotten her to that level. I want to point out something that was a theme, an undercurrent, in this part two conversation with Dana. That future her,

 

I know sometimes we can think she has no problems, but as Dana pointed out, the belief that’s really serving her is a belief that allows her to weather the storm. It’s not that your future self never has a storm, never has stormy moments, is never in stormy environments, but it’s finding a truth for you.

For Dana, it was being the sun. It was being bright over being right. It was letting go of rules and moving to, again, being bright over being right. Give yourself time to think about what that is for you. Now, if you have a coach, work it through with the coach. If you have a friend who is an excellent listener, talk it through with them. So much can come out in conversation. It’s hard to do this work only in your head, so write it out, journal it out, talk with a friend or coach.

Identify the beliefs that have created what you have so far, and ask your future self. Have a conversation with her. What are the beliefs that have carried her to living, thriving, and enjoying that life, even when it’s stormy to the place where she is now?

Thank you for listening to another episode of The Art School Podcast. If you have enjoyed this episode, if this podcast has been useful for you, the best thing you can do to pay it forward is to share, is to subscribe, is to spread the news far and wide. One way to do that, one excellent way to do that, is to go to iTunes and leave a review.

When you’re ready to take this work deeper, when you are ready to be the creative authority in your own life, whether that means you create the amount in your bank account, you create the ultimate destination for your career, you create the outcomes from your creative work. The best way to do that is to work with me, and there are two ways you can work with me this year.

There is The Art School. The next session of The Art School takes place the fall of 2020, but enrollment is limited, so you want to go to www.LeahCB.com and sign up for my mailing list so that you’re the first to know when enrollment opens. There are two classes for The Art School.

There is the open class, and there is the masterclass. The masterclass participants use both the open class, and then they have a mastermind experience on top of that. That includes private coaching with me and a smaller, more intimate group setting. The masterclass is by application only, but if you are on my mailing list, you will get all the information you need about that as well.

The second way to work with me this year is through private coaching. To learn more about private coaching or to be added to the wait list for private coaching, you can email support@leahcb.com and let us know. Private coaching is now also by application only. So, when you email us, we’ll take very good care of you, answer any questions you have, and respond with everything you need to get that process started.

As Dana and I talked about, as I mentioned throughout the conversation with her, I do think this such an incredible time to be an artist and to be creating as an entrepreneur whether you are an artist or not, or whether you want to make your living as a full-time working artist. The wave of the future is that the top artists are going to have the top coaches just as commonplace as it is in athletics. So will be the case for the art industry, for the entertainment industry.

I believe there is not only a need for it, I think there is a hunger there, and also a tremendous opportunity for anybody that wants to know what they’re truly capable of, that wants to know what it is to be a thriving, flourishing, successful, and fulfilled creative on their own terms. That’s what coaching, that’s what The Art School, that’s what private coaching can provide and facilitate.

Helping you cultivate an extraordinary way of being, it’s holistic, mind, body, and spirit, so that the extraordinary results you dream of are inevitable. To close today, I wanted to leave you with this gem from the conversation with Dana when she says, “Rather than do it right, do it bright.” May all of you go forth and do it bright this week. Have a beautiful, bright week, and I will talk to you next time.