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  Have you ever needed just a slight extension to get a creative project done? I have. I do right now, in fact. You can tell by the fact that I just said fracked when I wanted to say fact. I do indeed need a little bit more time to get out the episode I talked about with you last week. I kind of underestimated how much energy and time it would take to fully launch my business this week while traveling and visiting with family and trying to balance being a human. So I need one more day. And tomorrow you can come back for a special bonus episode where I tell you from the trenches of leaving my full-time corporate job into launching my business this week, where I'm at, my greatest lessons, the gratitude I'm feeling, some of the fears I'm experiencing, and a little self-coaching session that might help you if you too are in the middle of or wanting to make a big leap. But. But right now, what I'm going to do is share an episode with you that actually helped me and like a theory, not a theory, but like an idea that helped me really stir step up to what I'm doing today. This is a mini-sode I did back in 2024 where I talk about how tiny steps lead to giant leaps and why small actions can make your dreams come true. It is all about microdosing courage, microdosing creativity until you feel confident enough. to macrodose it. And I certainly did that. I started this business back in 2021. It has been an inch by inch operation to get to where I am today, where I felt confident enough to fully go into it. So check this out. It's a lot of the tactics I use to get here today. It is a solo episode and come back tomorrow, Friday, May 8th to hear my bonus episode on where I'm at with my business. And the greatest takeaways I've had so far, what I'm excited for, what I'm scared about, and what you can expect from me coming up. Thank you for your grace while I make this huge transition in my life. I promise it will all be worth it. It will be worth the wait. And enjoy this episode in the meantime. Talk soon, cutie. Hey, creative. It's Lauren. Do you feel like you don't have the time you need to pursue your creative passion? Like your days get swept away and at the end of the day you've got no time whatsoever left for yourself? But what if you started making time for your creativity little by little and then at the end of the week you started to see, dare I say, progress? Today I'm going to take you through why little steps create big action and give you five tips to start to incorporate your passion into your life today. Welcome to Unleash Your Inner Creative Minisodes. My name is Lauren LaGrasso. I'm a Webby Award-winning podcast host and creative coach. Today, I'm coming on the pod to give you a bite-size Unleash episode. It is a mini-sode, as I said, and each of these shows contains actionable advice about creativity, working toward your dreams, and self-development. It's going to be full of tools you can implement into your life immediately. So let's get to it. Today, I'm going to talk with you about how little steps can turn into giant leaps over time and why taking small actions today will lead toward your dream. So what got me thinking about this was belly dancing. Belly dancing is my new obsession. If you haven't tried it, I have to highly recommend you try it. And if you try it, do it with Belly Dancing by Lila. I love her. She is so great. She actually has been teaching me a lot about creativity and putting yourself out there because I just love that whenever she makes a mistake, she admits to it. But anyway, I digress. It has become my new obsession and my new favorite workout thing to do. And the way I have gotten myself to do it is by doing it in small chunks. And by the way, this is not sponsored. I'm just obsessed with her. I think she's the greatest. So what I love about her is that she has all different lengths of video. So she has ones that are like eight minutes long and she has ones that are 30 to 40 minutes long. And I did a few of the 30 to 40 minute long ones, but I found that it mentally exhausted me like thinking about having to just do this video for that. whole length of time. I like variety and I like things that I know are going to end quickly, even if I'm doing a bunch of them. One day I was really tired and I decided to start with a 10 minute workout. And after that workout, I was like, oh, that felt pretty good. I think I'm going to do another one. And so I did a 15 minute workout. And then after that one, I was like, I still have energy. And so I did a 12 minute workout. And before you knew it, I had done over 30 minutes. Now, if I had said at the beginning of that 10 minutes, I'm going to do a 30-minute workout. I wouldn't have done it because that sounded awful to me then. All I could imagine at the beginning of the 10 minutes was I can probably handle a 10 minute workout. But as I did it and layered it on and layered it on, it got easier and easier and easier and I got more and more excited. And so not only did I do way more than I thought I could, I did it in a way that was actually sustainable for me where it wasn't like, okay, I have to sit down and do 35 minutes. Well, I wouldn't be sitting down because I'm working out. Okay, more appropriately, I have to stand up and do a 35-minute workout. That wouldn't have worked for me, but I did it in a way that did, and I ended up doing the same thing. The same is true in life. If you too are a person where you're struggling to find time, try this method with your creativity. So if you find you often get to the end of the week and you haven't done anything for your creative life, what I want you to start to do is every day. Implement at least 10 to 15 minutes into your day working on your creativity. So if you're a writer, write for 10 to 15 minutes. If you're a songwriter, write for 10 to 15 minutes. If you're a painter, paint for 10 to 15 minutes. If you're a chef, do a recipe development for 10 to 15 minutes. So start out by looking at your calendar and assessing where you do have time, okay? Then you're going to schedule these small amounts of time. in throughout the day. And you can put anywhere between five to 30 minutes. I would start with 10 to 15. That seems doable for most of us. And you're going to put it on your calendar. The same way you would put a business meeting or a lunch with a friend. I want you to hold this on your calendar as a sacred time. Nobody's allowed to interrupt it. You're not allowed to like change your plans and decide you're going to watch Netflix. I mean, you can if you want, but like Try your best to keep this a sacred time the same way you would a business meeting, okay? Consider this your business meeting with yourself. And then at the end of the week, you're going to add up how much time you spent on your project or passion, and you're probably going to be a lot closer to it. And something interesting is probably going to happen the same way that it happened with me with my workout where I said, okay, I can commit to doing a 10-minute workout today. You might end up spending a lot longer on your creative project than you thought you would. So at the end of the week, you're probably going to have anywhere between 70 minutes and a few hours of time you've put into your creativity that otherwise you might have said, I don't have time for this. I know this seems simple. It's not exactly reinventing the wheel, but for some reason it took this belly dancing thing to really like sink it into my head that this is a method that we can all use to make sure we don't let our creativity get away from us. Because I will be honest with you, I'm in a songwriting phase of my life. As you know, I have a new song out, Genie in a Bottle. Stream it wherever you get your music. It's my cover of Genie in a Bottle. But especially like a few months ago, I was not spending a lot of time on music. And there would be weeks when I got to the end of the week and had done exactly zero hours of music. And that is heartbreaking because, as you know, music is like the purest part of my creative soul. So I really think that if you're in one of those phases where you're really kind of getting away from the creativity that means the most to you, it is really, really deeply important for you to be able to set this time aside, put it on the calendar, hold it sacred. And then at the end of the week to build up your creative self-esteem, look at how much time you actually put toward your career. And then I think the thing to do from there is to keep building. And maybe that looks like for you, like, okay I can't do an hour a day at the same time. But what I could do is like 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at lunch, and 30 minutes in the evening. And that still counts. And at the end of the week, you'll have had seven hours that you've put into your creativity. That is huge. So really think about this, how you can start to incorporate little pockets for creativity into your life. And when you're done with all this, I want you to give yourself a hug because you just got closer to your dreams. Small steps can create giant leaps over time. Do not underestimate the power of just taking little teeny tiny baby steps toward what you want to do and toward your creative soul. Do this, okay? Promise me. And let me know how it goes. I want to know how it helps you get closer to your dreams. I hope you loved today's episode. I love talking with you as always. This Unleash minisode was hosted and executive produced by me, Lauren LaGrasso. It was produced by Rachel Fulton and music is by Liz Full. For more information about me and the show, follow us at Lauren LaGrasso and at Unleash Your Inner Creative on social media. If you like what you heard today, especially if you like this minisode, leave us a rating and review so we know you liked it. And... If you have any specific thoughts about other mini-sodes you'd like to hear, topics, other guests you'd like to hear, you can put that into the review too. I do read everything and they mean so, so much to me. Please do go ahead and stream Genie in a Bottle. It is out now and it means so much to me. If you give me a follow on Spotify and Apple, stream the song, share it with a friend. As you know, I'm trying to get to 10,000 streams. It's a lofty goal, but it is doable. And I appreciate your support in helping me get there. Let me know how I can support you. I love you and I believe in you and I will talk with you next week.