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Leap in with Bold Innocence: Stumbling Toward Genius

In this first episode of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius, find out how I started my coaching business 20 years ago. It was without a clue, with a lot of brio and with a lot of help from my friends.

Listen to the entire episode here:

In this episode:

  • You’ll hear the strategies I used to get the word out about my coaching
  • The income streams that floated me while I built my coaching client roster
  • How I coped with feeling incompetent at the beginning
  • Today’s creative competency: the power of bold innocence.

Leave a comment below to share your experience with the assignment, or any other thoughts you have about this episode. 

Download this week’s assignment and keep building your creative competencies.

Email me with your experience with this week’s assignment. 

Links to things and people mentioned in the show

Co-Active Coaching 

Original Impulse 

Goodreads

The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron

Conscious incompetence to unconscious competence. 

Stumbling Toward Genius is written and produced by Cynthia Morris and Original Impulse. Engineering by Jason Camps of Just Launch Media. Show music by Evan MacDonald.

I’d be so grateful for your help with a review of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius on iTunes. 

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Stumbling Toward Genius podcast launches

We’ve never had more resources to bring our creative ideas to life. Yet we still get stuck and often abandon our dreams for our books, art or businesses. Maybe it’s not because you are incompetent or not talented enough.

What if the creative process just inherently has hurdles that we all have to overcome? What if knowing those obstacles are there to grow you helped you actually finish things you care about?

 

Welcome to Stumbling Toward Genius. I’m your host Cynthia Morris. I’ve been coaching creatives for twenty years at my company, Original Impulse.

What I’ve seen is that you already have all the tools you need. But, even so, you still stumble and often give up. I love helping people discover their own unique genius for sticking with it to get their creative work done. This podcast celebrates 20 years of diving deeply into the creative process.

I’m not just a coach and speaker. I do the creative work I challenge my clients to do. In weekly episodes of Stumbling Toward Genius, you’ll hear stories of the things I have made and how they’ve made me.

If you’re like me, you’re probably not a genius. But you’d like to be. When you get the thrill of a new idea, you feel alive and buoyant and capable of anything.

Then the initial inspiration fades, leaving you with the real work of taking that great idea and pulling it down into form. The obstacles can’t be avoided. But I believe conquering them helps us become our truest selves.

Stumbling Toward Genius is the storytelling creativity podcast where we shine a light on the challenges we all face while making things. You’ll learn how to access the key competencies everyone needs to focus, follow through and finish the projects that matter.

You’ll find a different creative competency in each of the weekly 20 episodes. Download the assignments to develop your own creative genius.

Tune in wherever you listen to podcasts. Welcome to the ranks of people who are not letting the daunting work of making things stifle their genius.

Cynthia Morris podcast iTunes apple podcast arts creativity writing

Cynthia Morris podcast arts writing creativity Spotify Cynthia Morris podcast creativity arts writing stitcher

I’d be so grateful for your help with a review of the podcast Stumbling Toward Genius on iTunes.  While you’re there, be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss any of the 20 weekly episodes.

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Change Your World Through Writing on Productive Flourishing Podcast

My friend, colleague and former coach Charlie Gilkey is a wiz at all things productivity. We had a blast talking about what it takes to write a book and why doing so is great for your business.

Also, Charlie’s new book, Start Finishing, was just released this week. Get your hands on a copy now if you struggle getting things over the finish line.

Listen in here. 

  • Why writing a book can help you to reclaim your power, especially for women who are typically expected to run the household while having a job or running a business
  • What the three biggest challenges are when faced with writing a book, and how crucial it is to create the physical, emotional, and mental space to write
  • How facing certain difficult projects can be a mirror into things we may not want to face in life
  • What the difference is between explanatory and exploratory writing

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Finishing Your Book on This Epic Life Podcast

It was a delight to be a guest on Kristoffer Carter’s This Epic Life podcast. Here are highlights from the show:

  • We uncover the many correlations between a writing practice, and meditation practice. This was a powerful discovery for us both, because we probably met in this life to share those gifts with one another.
  • How so many creatives and entrepreneurs get stuck in a loop of their own creativity versus the work it takes to finish something.
  • The secrets and best-practices Cynthia puts to work in her own writing practice (which resulted in her latest book)
  • The power of an “insertion point” in creating momentum.
  • Some powerful reflections on staying on integrity with ourselves, and honoring our commitments.
  • Lots of laughs about many random, funny things. lol.

Listen in on our conversation here. 

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Building a Living Around Your Creative Soul – Interview on Good Life Project

You never forget where you were when you ‘get the call’.

I was sitting in Black Eye Coffee in Denver, having my afternoon coffee/writing/art making ritual. I like to take myself to cafes even in my city, because it makes me feel like a traveler.

In between sketches, I checked my email. There was a note from Jonathan Fields, my mentor, ally and Good Life Project boss, asking about my upcoming New York trip. Turns out he wanted to invite me to come on his podcast for Good Life Project.

When this kind of opportunity shows up, it’s a full-body experience. The kind that makes you want to jump up and shout and dance and cry and scream. But I’m in a hip, trendy Denver cafe and everyone’s keeping their cool under wraps. So I go into the bathroom and dance and make noises of joy.
I’d dreamed about this, and hoped for it. For me, this is like being asked to be on Oprah. But I would never had thought I was ready to be a guest. I figured that was years away, when I was famous and accomplished. 🙂

I say this because this is one of my favorite podcasts. I listen every week and I can honestly say that my life has been changed from listening to these conversations.
My interview with Jonathan on Good Life Project went live this week, and as of the time of this writing, has been shared over 400 times on Facebook. I’m shocked and thrilled that this interview inspired creative people to feel good about their talents. It’s my work to help creative dynamos to get their work out there in ways that work for them, and if this interview helps, I am delighted.

Lucky for me, that same night I got the call, I was scheduled to have dinner with my artist friend Lisa Call at Root Down. I was bursting with excitement, and the staff noticed. They brought celebratory drinks to us and congratulated me, not even knowing what I was celebrating. This kind of service goes beyond service – it’s the kind of world I want to live in, where even strangers celebrate each other’s wins.

Backstory about the interview day

If you’re like me, you enjoy the story around the story, so read on if you want to hear what it was like for me to do the interview.
I was in New York in March to have fun with friends. I’d added the trip on to a visit to my family in Pennsylvania. On the day of my meeting with Jonathan, I decided to brave the bike rental system. I love biking in cities, but still, New York is kind of intimidating. YIKES!

I am nothing if not daring, so I paid my fee and jumped on a bike. Cycling through the Village was easy and fun and surprisingly mellow. I went straight to an art supply store. (Of course.) Then I biked to the recording studio for the interview.

I was nervous, but because I know Jonathan, it was easier to relax. He’s also a very chill guy so his calm made me calm. Still, by the end of the interview, I had no idea what I had said.

I thanked Jonathan and the recording guy and left the building. I was halfway down the block, floating on a cloud, before I realized where I was. This was a street lined with flower vendors. Flowers, one of my favorite things, lining the streets. I took it as a sign of love and beauty and gratitude and floated to the subway, where I promptly got lost.

It was truly a golden day. I went off to a museum to treat myself to more art and beauty.

Big thanks to Jonathan for the fun interview, big thanks to everyone who listened, and even bigger bow of gratitude for everyone who shared.