Mind Over Medium
A Podcast for artists who want to make money doing what they love. Each week you will learn how to attract your ideal commissions, approach galleries for representation, have a great online launch of your work and how to do it all with less overwhelm and confusion. You will hear from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses. My hope is to create a space where artists and the creative curious can learn about one of the most important tools creative entrepreneurs need in their tool box, their mindset.
Mind Over Medium
Exploring Substack's Potential with Sarah Tasker
Unlock the secrets to genuine online storytelling as Sarah Tasker, the creative force behind the renowned Instagram account Me and Orla, joins us on Mind Over Medium! Sarah shares her inspiring journey from speech therapist to a digital storyteller, guiding us through the importance of authenticity and the bravery it takes to share creative work publicly. We delve deep into her journey and the evolution of her career, unveiling the critical steps to self-acceptance and how these have shaped her approach to content creation.
Discover why Substack may just be the game-changer you’ve been waiting for. We’ll compare it to Instagram, highlighting its potential to offer deeper engagement through long-form content that people are eager to pay for. From integrating photos, videos, and even podcasts into your Substack, the platform's flexibility is a boon for creatives. Hear firsthand how my experience with Substack has rejuvenated my creative process, allowing me to cultivate a more connected and monetized audience.
Navigating the unpredictable waters of Instagram’s algorithms can be daunting, but Substack provides a stable and reliable alternative. We'll explore strategies for transitioning your followers to Substack and the importance of maintaining a cohesive personal brand across all platforms. From solving creative challenges to the liberation of breaking societal norms, this episode is brimming with insights to fuel your artistic journey. Don’t miss out on valuable resources and coaching opportunities available on my website to help you launch and grow your online presence effectively!
Welcome to Mind Over Medium, a podcast for artists who want to make money doing what they love. When you tune in each week, you will learn how to attract your ideal commissions, approach galleries for representation, have a great online launch of your work, and how to do it all with less overwhelm and confusion. You will have the opportunity to hear from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses, from amazing artists who will share how they have built their successful creative businesses. My hope is to create a space where artists and the creative curious can gather to learn about one of the most important tools creative entrepreneurs need in their toolbox their mindset. Thanks so much for tuning in to Mind Over Medium podcast. Let's get started podcast. Let's get started. All right, I've got some news. Folks, I am moving my content over to Substack. I don't know if you hang out there much. I've been hanging out there for a while, honestly kind of lurking, seeing what it was about, seeing what the vibe was like, and I've decided I like it a lot and I hope you will too. It's a great place for us to connect and create community and there'll be a lot more details to come about how to connect with me there and maybe what you can find on some stack that resonates for you. But yeah, I just wanted to put that bug in your ear to let you know to be looking out for my content to be over there on Substack. Of course, the podcast and everything will be on all the regular podcast players, but its new home will be over there. So if you have any questions, just let me know.
Speaker 1:Hey everybody, today I am so happy to chat with Sarah Tasker. You may know her better from her very popular Instagram account called Me and Orla or many other things. She has a book called Hashtag Authentic so many cool things that she has created. This conversation is about all things Substack why we like it, what we think it has going on. She's really the expert here and I am very lucky to have her helping me with my own sub stack. I hope you learned something very cool. Maybe head over to sub stack, see what you think poke around. You can join her over there and me. I'd love to see you All right, hello everyone. Today I'm so happy to be chatting with Sarah Tasker. You may know her best from her Instagram as me and Orla, but I will let her introduce herself and tell you all the things that you need to know. But first I want to say thank you for being here. I'm so excited to chat.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. I've been looking forward to this.
Speaker 1:I know me too Well. Can you take a minute and introduce yourself? Just tell us who you are, what you do for very few people who may not know absolutely so.
Speaker 2:I help people to tell their story online, mainly with words and pictures, and the way I got into this work I used to work for the NHS, I was in speech therapy and I started to tell my story online when my daughter was born, hence the name Ian Orla. Orla is my daughter and I found that not only did I love it, but I also kind of had a really nerdy brain for all of the questions of what works, why does it work, how does it work? What are the best ways to put it all across? What are the best ways that we can connect through this barrier of the screen to put it all across? What are the best ways that we can connect through this barrier of the screen? So now that is what I do for my full-time job. I have a podcast, I wrote a best-selling Instagram book, I run classes and I do coaching and all of the things. But yeah, the heart of it is always just about how can we connect as humans with stories to tell in the digital age.
Speaker 1:You do a lovely job of all of those things and it's the way you tell a story, either through words or and or pictures. It's just very it feels very heart focused to me. Where you're probably catching me on a bad Instagram day, I'm like my whole feed is full of people trying to sell me stuff and I'm so tired of it. And then you come across certain accounts. You're like oh, this is why I'm here, this is how I want to connect, this is what I desire. So you're very good at creating that message, I guess, is the word I'm looking for.
Speaker 2:I think we're all craving it. We're craving genuine sense of connection with someone, and that doesn't have to mean I want to see everyone's dirty pots in their sink or the worst part of your day. It doesn't have to mean that the pictures I share are still very beautiful, stylized, the best parts of my day but we can still be who we are, and I think Instagram gave me permission to be who I am and in return, I try and extend that to everybody else as well can you say more about that, um, the permission to be who you are, because I know in my work with artists you know who want to sell their work.
Speaker 1:That's usually one of the toughest things is trying to. I feel like they think it takes a lot of bravery and a lot of vulnerability to share your work, but it seems like that barrier wasn't there for you. Or can you talk about that a?
Speaker 2:little bit. Yeah, I suppose I was fortunate in the sense that when I started to share on Instagram, I got a very strong reception straight away so.
Speaker 2:I had a strong posse of people cheering me on very quickly and I honestly don't know how I would ever have come to self-acceptance if that experience hadn't happened. Because I didn't believe I was entitled to take up space, I didn't believe I was entitled to call myself creative, but there was still a little voice inside of me that said, maybe right, because if I really truly believed that, why would I even have been sharing on a public platform?
Speaker 2:and I think that's true for so many artists and makers as well. There's this quiet spark inside of us. It's like I think I can do this, but there's also a lot of very loud voices inside of us saying who on earth do you think you are? How dare you? And it's learning to pay attention to that quiet spark and learning to trust that actually you do have discernment and you can take up space and people do want to hear from you.
Speaker 2:And so Instagram gave me that in the form of very fast growth and lots of opportunities and lots of just a really beautiful audience of people who are just so full of grace and love and like-mindedness. And I think until then I'd spent so much of my life looking for the people who saw the world like I did and loved things like I did, and they didn't't exist in my, in my daily life. I couldn't find them in my day job or the supermarket or wherever else. And then, on Instagram, I was exposed to this whole new world of creatives and artists and makers and dreamers, who are all made up of the same stuff as me.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's really well put and it's so funny. I don't know if you experienced this, but I feel like my life outside of the online part of what I do feels very separate, like I have a certain set of friends and colleagues that I only know online and you know, for someone like my husband or I have other friends who aren't in this world. They're like that seems strange, but it doesn't feel at all strange to me. Do you feel the difference?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, mine have increasingly blurred over the years and there are friends I made online who are now in real life friends and you know we could go and stay with each other, etc. But I do think there's this way that you connect with people online that can be very different to how we connect in person and especially on Instagram, like you get to know someone through these tiny static windows into their world, these photographs. It's not the full picture, it's not even the true picture, and we kind of know that from the outset, but you do still get to know the heart of a person through it.
Speaker 2:I find that fascinating. Fascinating it's the same for art, right like you can spend time with someone's art and you can know their soul before you know if they've got kids or like what tea they drink, all the small talk stuff that real life puts first and I kind of love that. I love that we jump straight to the knowing part and then when you meet people, meet up with those internet friends in real life, quite often they're exactly who you think they are Because, even if you had no idea what they look like, they're familiar to you because you know them through their art, their photography or just those snippets that they choose to share.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is true. Do you find that the more curated and algorithm-led feed you have, the more that does not ring true, or how do you combat that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, interestingly, I would say, the curation isn't as much of a barrier as you would think, and I don't know why, but I I would have expected it to be, but my experience has told me not. So I'll meet people and think, yeah, you're still who I thought you were. But maybe that's partly also just that, however tightly we try to curate how we're perceived, the truth leaks through in the cracks anyway. Um, but the algorithm side of it very much.
Speaker 2:I think the way social media has changed in even just the past couple of years, and this race for the algorithm's approval and optimization of absolutely everything to maximize visibility in the algorithm is a dangerous thing. That's pulling us away from true expression, from true art, from creating what we want to create or creating what other people truly want to consume, and we're just creating what hijacks people's brains as fast as possible, um, and that is a huge interruption to genuine connection for all of us. But it's also very financially lucrative for the platforms and for the individuals and I can very well understand why people kind of get captured by it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I think too it can get in my brain when I'm trying to create and then the work that I create, I don't think, really resonates as well. It's like this kind of constant, like little nudge in my brain like, oh, I should be filming or I should. It creates a lot of shoulds in my creative life and I sometimes have to just really step away from that to be able to kind of reset. And I don't know if other people have to do that or how other people manage that better.
Speaker 2:But yeah, it's noise right, it's additional noise, and I hear that so often from artists that you get into flow and it's just so far removed from your mind or you want it to stay removed from your mind. The last thing you want to do in the middle of that amazing state is to stop everything and set your phone up on a tripod and it falls over and like, oh my goodness, and then you're like conscious of your posture because you're filming and all of that stuff is just unhelpful. But at the same time we know it is helpful to be able to get our work out there and that I feel like we've never really had before in human history this exposure to people's immediate feedback, bearing in mind, of course, that social media is not really democratic. So just because something doesn't do well on social media doesn't mean it's actually not good or popular. But we kind of still think that, even though we all know that. We still kind of think it.
Speaker 2:So now we can put something out whether that's a video we tried harder or a piece of art, we tried harder and really get the information immediately on whether it performed well or not, and that sounds amazing. You're like, oh, that's market research, but I think as creatives we're supposed to do most of that process in a vacuum. We're supposed to do it with only our own discernment and taste and ideas and then bring it out to the world and it's either loved or not loved. But it stands then as its own thing in art and the danger is that we end up people pleasing with our art right from the start because we get too much information on what, how to do that.
Speaker 1:I could. I mean, you said that so well and I think I would add too I know, for me and work I really only need one person to love it, to want to take it home and experience it. But it's like balancing this, like wanting everyone to give feedback that feels positive or affirms something in me, versus just that one person that it might light them up for who knows why, and it's just it. It really interlaces with my brain, sarah yes, yeah, there's two.
Speaker 2:It's more information than we are designed to be able to understand, and I'm convinced. So true, and because you, literally you only need to sell one piece to one person, that's, that's the perfect match and a lot of the time, as artists, I think people don't necessarily want to be hugely popular, like that's not. For some people, that's the dream, and no shade on whatever your version of that dream is. But a lot of people see that as kind of selling out, almost, and they like the idea of being niche. But then when we go on social media that all that goes out the window and we think everyone has to like it. How do I make myself as palatable as possible? And that really means bland, doesn't it? Because the other thing we're afraid of is offending, saying anything that attracts criticism, anything that could be misconstrued. So then we stay in this very safe middle area where everything is beige, yes, and I'm not a huge fan of beige.
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:I get that well, people might think that this podcast is about Instagram, but really we're here to talk about yes we are yes kind of a perfect segue, segue, segue, perfect segue into edit that to make me sound like I know how to transition yeah, okay, the perfect transition into Substack, because, uh, substack is kind of the antidote to a lot of the problems we're seeing right now on social media, and that's very exciting.
Speaker 1:Well, in my mind you're kind of an internet spreadsheet tech ninja and I look to you to guide me, so this is why you and I are connected. How do you describe Substack versus Instagram? Just kind of do a what your version of a brain dump about those things, how they work together, how they're different.
Speaker 2:In case people aren't familiar, yeah, and a lot of people won't be, don't worry if you're listening, thinking, I don't even know what Substack is. It is at that point in its growth right now where I remember when people didn't know what Instagram was, and now that seems unthinkable.
Speaker 2:So Substack is kind of like the golden old days of blogging for anyone who remembers that pre-social media when people could have a blog and that was everything and there were blogs that went viral and were hugely popular. Except back then our blogs floated like individual islands out in the ocean and people had to find you. Now, on Substack, all of those blogs are sort of on the same continent. It's like the United States of blogs and because we're all connected within one network, there's lots of referral between. There's lots of discovery. There's lots of really organic discovery happening on substack, um, and so it's mainly long form content at the moment, mainly long form written posts that people put on substack, because that's where it started with its aims, but it's really rapidly evolving to also want to embrace other types of creativity.
Speaker 2:So there's amazing functionality for photos and galleries and videos and podcasts on there as well, and they really want to attract diverse range of creatives and the idea is that it's a place where you can dive a bit deeper.
Speaker 2:So if you think of instagram as the two second photo photo, the 15-second reel Minute scraps of people's attention. Substack is where people will go and will genuinely read a 15-minute long read blog post and not only will they read that, they might pay you to read that, and I don't think many people saw I't see this coming like the return of that demand. But I think it really speaks to how cheapened so much of what we consume everywhere else feels now like you can't. If you want to watch a YouTube video that just tells you how to open a bottle without a bottle opener, you've got to sit through like 10 minute prelude and then the adverts and like subscribe to my channel and and you're just like just tell me the thing yes um, even so, much of our press is, like now, about clicks and ads and they have to optimize everything for that.
Speaker 2:And subsec is one of the only places where people are writing and not having to play that game so much. And because it's a paid for model, it's paid very much. In the way I think of it as like the old-fashioned patron model, so not patreon, the platform, but like when you had a patron of the arts and they would maybe sponsor an artist and say I'm going to pay you for the next 10 years to make the work you make, and that's what we're seeing a lot of people on Substack attracting.
Speaker 2:So they have an audience of people who will pay them a nominative amount a month to either give them some extra content and or just to do their thing, and in return they put out this kind of more long form content when they have time yeah, and how long have you been on it? I have been as a reader uh three or four years as a writer myself. I think about 18 months Okay.
Speaker 1:And how are you seeing that impact, how you're creating content and how it impacts your business? Can you speak to that a little bit?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that is a good question For me. It's really re-energized me and it feels like it's given me permission to do things that I think I had cut myself off from. I used to love blogging back in the day, but it became a lot of time for fairly small rewards for most people, like no matter what I did, it would be. You know, three comments on the blog post was good going, whereas I could do an Instagram post and get 300 comments. So, of course, why would I put it on the blog when I could put it on Instagram? But Substack is kind of bridging that gap and it is a place where people comment. It is a place where people connect in the comments and because it's got that space to dive into things more deeply, if you want to um it just yeah, it opens up so many different facets of how we want to create and how we want to monetize our work.
Speaker 2:So I now make a chunk of my income from substack, from paid subscriptions, but it also functions almost as my newsletter. So when I talk about the blog posts that people are writing there, the way they are delivered is primarily to emails. So you sign up for someone's Substack by putting your email in the box and you get their updates as emails in your inbox. So in that sense, it's quite similar to a traditional email list and as a creator on subsec, you get to keep that email list. You can export them, just as you could from lchimp or wherever else, and take them to another platform.
Speaker 2:So you, by writing on Substack, I'm blogging, but I'm also keeping in touch with my email list all of the time, strengthening those relationships, building that, and it almost works as its own little lead magnet to grow that list as well, because whereas a newsletter is normally this gated thing that we can't preview, it's just a box on our website and maybe there's a freebie that people can get to tempt them, but they don't really know what they're signing up for. On Substack, you can read everything first and then go yeah, this is good, put it in my inbox and then sign up and yeah. So it's growing my list, it's growing my business, it's deepening relationships and it's opening me up creatively. So big fan of all of the facets of Substack me up creatively.
Speaker 1:So big fan of all of the, all of the facets of Substack. Well, and you also know how the back end works, how to make everything with what you have already in place, how it all talks to each other and all those things that, quite frankly, was a barrier to entry for me. So, um, I'm glad people like you exist in the world.
Speaker 2:I think for for a lot of people like we're very like, oh, not another platform. Please don't make me join another platform, and I get it, although I am like, oh, another platform. I know you are.
Speaker 1:You are a unicorn for me as far as that's concerned. How does it work with Instagram? Have you seen that change anything for you? Because I know a lot of people in my space and I assume yours too put a lot of energy in Instagram.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and Instagram has been like my bread and butter in my business for such a long time. It's been the main thing I teach, it's been the main place I hang out, but I've always been a big proponent of use Instagram as this discovery nurture tool. But then you need to take your people somewhere else whether that's an email list or to your shop, or to book a workshop with you or whatever the next thing is and so Substack becomes one of those things and I think it's more important than ever, as we've seen such turbulent times with the algorithms on Instagram and people's reaches all over the place. If you have somewhere that you know you can direct people and capture them more accessibly, more permanently, with that ownership right Because it's your list, you get to take it away. Then it just makes that effort you're putting into Instagram much more sustainable and secure and meaningful.
Speaker 2:I think, because now, if I follow you, there is literally like this is not me exaggerating it. It does not guarantee that I will see your posts just because I followed you. Instagram themselves say they might never show me one of your posts, whereas if I subscribe to your sub stack, you're going to be appearing in my inbox every time you write until further notice. So it's a different depth of relationship, but it's also much more reliable relationship, um, and so it can feel obviously like a huge burden in terms of content. If you're used to already putting all your energy into instagram, it definitely sounds like one thing too many. But what most of my clients do is we sort of switch a lot of that energy over to substack and pour it in there instead, but then take what we've created on substack and sort of repackage it for instagram so that instagram stays just as active but now so much of its content is still drawing people across to Substack, to the email list, to that deeper connection.
Speaker 1:And correct me if I'm wrong. It started out as a place for writers, correct?
Speaker 2:It did. That was their mission Journalists, yeah, to make writing pay for writers. And I think it was around that time. You know, buzzfeed had tons of of layoffs. All of the major publications did, and I think it was a response to that and people seeing that actually, if these writers had just built prestige under their own name and recognition for who they were, under their own name, they could have had an audience and be paid, paying their bills and not left in the lurch.
Speaker 1:So that's where it started, yeah and I mean I'm seeing I haven't been on it as long as you, but I've been lurking for a while, maybe a year, something like that and I'm just in that short amount of time. I'm really seeing the demographic over there change, still very creative, still very I don't know if the word is more meaningful. I'm not trying to be negative towards instagram, it just feels different, um, in a way that feels good for me and my, my nervous system yeah, and sub stack have spoken about this how, as it's got busier, they've had to introduce algorithms.
Speaker 2:Of course, because there's some small places within sub stack where they have to decide what to show you in what priority order, but they very much want to create algorithms that work with the best side of us. So if you think the traditional sort of facebook and now instagram algorithm is all about hijacking the most primitive part of our brain and making us go, I want to watch what is this? And it's got three different videos playing on the screen at the same time and like everything starts in the middle of the action and it stresses you out and it makes you leave rage comments and it works. It keeps you in the app, it makes money for everybody, but it doesn't really nourish us. It's not for the best version of ourselves. So subsec have said like, instead of that, they want to create algorithms instead that serve the more intentional part of us, the part of us that's like that, I think, used to have a space on instagram where it was.
Speaker 2:I followed this because I know I want to see it, so now it's in front of me, I'm going to spend a moment digesting it and it's kind of. You know, it's the difference between a piece of art that you need to stand back and really appreciate and really soak in, versus the thing that just grabs you quickly, straight away, like an advert, but it has no depth, it has nothing more um, and so, yeah, I'm interested to see how they tackle that as it goes forwards, because it's a it's an interesting concept yeah and um, you know I'm working with you on my sub stack and I've had to do a little bit of unwinding of how I think about what I'm doing as far as content is concerned and shifting my focus to get this going.
Speaker 1:Um, do you find that with other clients like kind of relearning how to be more than a bite-sized piece of information?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, we've got very good at boxing ourselves down into these tidy, very neat categories, and I would see this on instagram too. A lot of people will come to me with two or three Instagram accounts for each part of their work or part of themselves, because we've we've kind of started to think of ourselves in these really tight boxes and the first thing I always do is say, like what if it could just all live together? And the niche is you like, the niche is stuff I do and like under my name, and Substack is the place for that. And yeah it. It's like stretching your wings again when they've been strapped to your back for a long time, and it can feel unexpected, but it does also feel really good and you start to realize that people do want to connect with more than just the most grabby commercial parts of us, and a lot of people are craving it, really craving it, and seeking it out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and well, let's take me as a case study. So say you have someone that's not on Substack. They are more visually creative, because I think some people think that if you're not more written word, that it might not be a good space for you. How would you work them, how would you take them through the process, what the benefits are, what the challenges may be, if you don't mind doing that I think a good place to start is to find someone in a similar field to you who's using Substack to see what's possible.
Speaker 2:And there are some incredible artists on there of all the different disciplines, like Patti Smith's on there and Margaret Atwood writes on there, and there are so many artists and illustrators and someone who does like a doodle a day.
Speaker 2:So, looking around and kind of seeing what's possible and then also thinking about what's possible that no one's doing yet because it's such a young platform and I think the metaphor I use a lot in terms of the written content people feel very overwhelmed and expect themselves to have to write long form pieces all the time. But as a subscriber to many sub stacks, what tends to then start to happen is all those posts you get in your inbox in a day that forms like my magazine for the day, my mini magazine, things to read that I've chosen and curated by subscribing, and I don't want them all to be long, in-depth think pieces like that's not how my magazines are put together, right? You know, in a magazine there's going to be the letters page and there's going to be like little boxed five top tips and there's going to be a recipe and there's things you can dip into with different levels of attention and focus.
Speaker 2:And so crucial to that magazine is the imagery, so, so crucial, and yeah, there are lots of great writers on substack doing amazing writing, but I would say at the moment the visual side of it is underserved and there is so much space there for you to be the beautiful vision, vision, visual side of things that goes into people's inbox every day or however often, um, and, like I said, they're really leaning into that now.
Speaker 2:They're looking for that. So I think it's also a good opportunity to be supported by substack and to potentially be amplified by them by showing up with a focus in that direction. So that's exciting and there's no reason that you couldn't use sub stack, exactly like instagram, and just send out a photo and a short caption every day or once a month or whatever you wanted to do like. That would be amazing. I would follow that proper school someone taking a photo every day and sending it out. I want that.
Speaker 1:Do you feel like just the vibe is different, like I do?
Speaker 2:The vibe is very intentional and I think you see that. You see that at the start of platforms, quite often a sort of a lengthy period where the only people who are there are the ones who are really committed to the vibe and the mission.
Speaker 2:and you know, because you have to overcome barriers of it's a bit unfamiliar to use and sometimes the text's a bit clunky and the menu doesn't quite make sense and all those kind of things, and eventually, somewhere down the line, most platforms get to a critical mass where everyone is on it and it's diluted to the point where that's no longer true and then those first people who are very intentional jump ship and go somewhere else and I feel like maybe instagram's reached that where everyone and their mom and their neighbor is on it and Substack is not. Substack is, in fact, if you're on Instagram wondering where all your favorite people have gone, they're probably on Substack. It's tempting over the people who have been looking and craving for a space like this.
Speaker 1:Are you finding that it feels like a slower type of engagement, which you've kind of touched on, like I don't feel like I have to rush, I don't feel like it. Yeah, I don't know, it's hard to describe. It just feels different and I might be talking about this too much, but I think that was the main draw for me. One is a consumer of the content. I hope it's able to stay that way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, I think it's partially just due to the fact that it doesn't feel so urgent because we have the security of it being email based.
Speaker 2:So, on Instagram, you're only ever as good as your last post. You know that people are going to forget about you and it feels like a race. It feels like, oh no, I've not posted for three days and this hungry beast that we're constantly having to feed, whereas Substack you can, you kind of know that until you email people again, they're gonna stay, sit, sit on your list. They'd have to be very motivated to think wake up one morning and think, oh, decided, I've changed my mind about the animals. Yeah, I'm gonna figure out. So the pressure's very different and and I think we know that good content and I hate that word content, but you know good stuff worth reading or looking at or whatever, takes time and we've had the quick rapid fire and we didn't give us what we wanted.
Speaker 2:We didn't like it. So now, yeah, I think people are really craving this more. Um, intentional, thoughtful, gentle, slow space, and of course it is what you curate it. I'm sure it's possible to follow people on substack who do that differently and you know a much more type a about the whole thing, but that's definitely not the people that have been thrown into my path yeah, I'm kind of changing direction a little bit.
Speaker 1:I'm fascinated by your level of creativity, but then also you're like a tech ninja, like how do those two things exist in one brain?
Speaker 2:I think they're probably the same thing and I see the tech as just a creative challenge. Yes, I don't know. Yeah, or maybe I see the creativity as a technical challenge, some combination of the two. Um, yeah, my brain loves the puzzle of it. It's not that I, like, love the order of it, I'm. I really strongly do not connect with maths and that whole like mathematical world of like. Some people love that, don't they? Things are formulaic and make sense. That doesn't do it for me. What I love is the puzzle I love. I firmly believe that everything is possible, like with technology. I know that most things are possible and so I don't stop until I've figured out how. And I think I was just born that way um.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and this is the thing as well, Like I think we put such labels on our creativity, but of course, like posting to Instagram and making your Instagram beautiful could be a creative pursuit if you want to Sure, and making the perfect spreadsheet that really does track all the ideas that pop into your brain is a very creative pursuit, potentially.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I often say I think I was born without the rule book that a lot of people are given some somewhere in the womb every for so many years. It felt like everyone else was born with this inbuilt set of understanding of the rules and I'd be like I didn't know we couldn't do that, like we not. My neighbor caught me the other day here in France, um, and it was pouring with rain, and I was be like I didn't know we couldn't do that. My neighbor caught me the other day here in France and it was pouring with rain and I was gardening in the rain in a white sundress. She just was looking at me like I was insane and I was thinking this is one of those rules, isn't it? You shouldn't do this.
Speaker 1:No one gave me the handbook.
Speaker 2:I didn't know about that, but I think sometimes not having the rules is also a blessing, because you don't you're not held back by the conventions of what you're told is or isn't within your purview yeah, yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 1:You make lovely spreadsheets. I am. I benefit from them. Yes, it doesn't feel like intimidating when I'm on it because it's so pretty. I'm like, oh, I want to be in this spreadsheet right, that's the answer.
Speaker 2:I spend more time making them pretty instead of making them work well, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Well, what else I mean? Before we wrap up, I appreciate your time, I don't want to take it um. You're in france for a little bit longer I am.
Speaker 2:We have a house in france that we are renovating. Um, actually they say renovating. We've just spent the summer lying around and eating french food and swimming in the river. That sounds amazing, but it does need renovating at some point. Um, and then back to. I live in the uk, new yorkshire, the rest of the time, so back there how was the world?
Speaker 1:ah, yes, you and I bonded a little bit over massive draining, drainage issues in our homes. Did that get hand?
Speaker 2:um, we have a plan and we have a plan now. It involves a large ditch. So, like that's, our friends are coming at the end of the week. Internet friends, actually people I first met on Instagram and the husband is very like, very pro, diy, just very enthusiastic and wants to do everything. And my husband's a bit more like I don't know if I can do that. That sounds like it's going to go wrong, but when he's there he gets swept up with the enthusiasm. So I'm planning on making them dig a ditch. They don't know yet, but they're going to have a great time. Oh, it's going to be amazing.
Speaker 1:How's your?
Speaker 2:drainage. You know we got to dig Not to get too personal.
Speaker 1:We too had to dig a very large ditch. We did not do it ourselves, um, but we were admiring our big drainage ditch last night. My husband and I am picking weeds out of it and he's like I think if a body goes missing and anyone comes, we're going to be the first place they want to be. It's just like rocks. It's very. Yeah, the size is a little too on point. Maybe I watch too many mysteries or read too many mysteries.
Speaker 2:You could line them up in there, it's true. I'm very invested, though, in knowing if the ditch solves your drainage issue. It did.
Speaker 1:It has. I will actually I will send you a picture of all of it. Yes, please, I will. It's really quite beautiful too.
Speaker 2:And isn't this? I feel like this is such a great example of like, the stuff that people probably want from us that we don't think to share. Like, wouldn't that be compelling on social media to just be like, I need a ditch update, show me the ditch. And we just think, oh, who, no one wants to know. But actually this is the stuff of life and it's the way we connect and it's it's yeah, it's shared experiences and it's fun.
Speaker 1:So yes, yes, well, I will ditch blog. I know it's so true, it's so true, yes. Well, this has been so fun. I appreciate your time and your help and your expertise so much Like. Where can people find you if they would like to benefit from it as well?
Speaker 2:Sure, you can find me on Substack under Entre Nous, which means between us in French. Or if you look for me and Orla, you'll be taken to my Instagram, my website and all of those things, and my podcast is called Hashtag Authentic site and all of those things and my podcast is called hashtag authentic and all of that.
Speaker 1:Your podcast lives over on Substack now too, but you can find it on any podcast player and all of that.
Speaker 2:So yeah, but I host it now on Substack as well. So if you want to see what all that looks like, come over to my Substack page and kind of get a feel for it and you can subscribe there as well. And yeah, thank you so much for having me. As you know, I could talk about this stuff forever, so this has been so fun it's been great.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to Mind Over Medium podcast today. If you found the episode inspiring, please share it with a friend or post it on social media and tag me on Instagram at Leanne Slotkin, or head to my website, wwwleanneslotkincom. To book a discovery call to find out more about working with me one-on-one. You can also head to my website to get a great tool I've created for you to use when planning your own online launch of your artwork. It's an exercise I've taken many of my coaching clients through and it's been very helpful. It's my way of saying thank you and keep creating.