Speaker #0Have you ever been creatively blocked or are you blocked right now? I actually am. And today I had a major breakthrough on how I can actually bust through the block. And it's not something I typically hear people talk about. So I'm going to share more about that, what I'm doing and how you can use it if you're blocked and or procrastinating on a major project in your life. Welcome to Unleash Your Inner Creative with Lauren LaGrasso. I'm Lauren LaGrasso, a three-time Webby Award-winning podcast host, producer, singer-songwriter, public speaker, and creative coach. And this show is meant to give you tools to love, trust, and know yourself enough to claim your birthright to creativity and pursue your wildest dreams. Today, we are talking about creative blocks. This is something that every creative goes through, every creative has questions about. And I originally had a plan to come on here and talk about stage presence because I've actually been watching a lot of live performances, both on TV and in real life. I still want to do that episode, but this felt so much more pertinent. I want to start dropping in more and just talking to you from where I'm at. And this is like a juicy topic in my life right now. Because baby, I've been blocked lately. Not with everything. Just with this one very specific thing that I have been meaning to do and putting off. It started off with, as you may know, if you've been listening, I'm pregnant. And in my first trimester, I really felt like shit. Like I wasn't sick all the time. I had evening sickness. So during the days I was okay. But during that time, I had low energy. I was just doing the bare minimum to get by. So completing the podcast each week, doing my producing job, serving my creative coaching and podcast consulting clients. And that was about all I could handle. I've been working with this amazing coach. Her name's Stacey Packer. And she has been encouraging me to make courses. And I know that that is a great idea for me, especially because I'm going into entrepreneurship full-time as of May. And I know I should be doing that because it's just low-hanging fruit. A lot of people want to work with me as a podcast coach or consultant, because if you didn't know, I've executive produced over 30 shows, including Glennon Doyle's We Can Do Hard Things, Brene Brown's Unlocking Us, all kinds of podcasts, amazing podcasts in the space, in addition to this one. And a lot of people want to work with me as a coach, but I just don't have the time or maybe they are not. at that price point where they can work one-on-one and this is a good intro offer. So I've been working on making an always on podcasting masterclass and podcasting course, but I've been supposed to have this done for like the last month. And I just can't get to the point where like I write out their curriculum, write out the script and actually film it so that it can actually live somewhere and be sold. And what I typically do when I'm in an issue like this, when it comes to a creative project that I know I need to get done, is I just keep putting it off, but beating myself up while I put it off. So I'll put it off and put it off and be like, oh gosh, what's wrong with me? Why don't I just do it? And instead of doing that for the first time today, I had to ask myself, why? Why is it that I don't want to do this? Because it's no longer the point where I have no energy. I'm like, you know. I almost have too much energy now that I'm in my second trimester where I'm like bopping around and like awake at 1230 a.m. It's no longer that. It's not that I don't know what to do because I do this kind of work every single day. It's something else. So I had to get real with myself about that. So if you are in a similar situation where you have a particular project or something you want to work on and you've been blocked, if you do this similar dance to what I do where you're going through it and being like, why don't I do this? What's wrong with me? and beating yourself up about it, but still not getting it done, the first step to take is to ask yourself why. So when I asked myself why, some very specific things came up. And by the way, I didn't ask myself this in isolation. This was in a conversation with my husband, Timmy. So it does help to either do this while you're journaling or in communication with somebody else. So maybe you go to a trusted friend, what Julia Cameron calls a believing mirror, and talk to them about the fact that you feel blocked in this way. and kind of talk it out with them and have them ask you why or you can start like, you know, riffing on why you feel like you are blocked. For me, there's a few things that came up. I don't know if you remember this, but years ago, maybe it was 2023 or maybe 2024. I don't even remember. I tried to do a podcasting course. Now it was a very different type of course. It wasn't an always on thing where people can do it at their own pace. It was supposed to be an in-person 12-week course with me as your guide and that involved live coaching. So it was a much heavier lift both for me and also for the person who was engaging with the course, which would have taken two hours out of every Saturday for 12 weeks. So that's a pretty big ask. It was a much higher investment. And I think the market at that time just wasn't interested in an offering like that, nor did I really... know how to or like have the courage to get out there and sell it. So it was just kind of a perfect storm. I did not succeed with that course. The course really, I mean, by all accounts failed. I had two people sign up for it. I would have needed like five at least to make it financially viable for me. And I ended up having to cancel it. And the people that did sign up, I ended up giving just individual coaching too. So that was a pretty hard blow on my ego because I have all this experience in the podcast space. I poured a lot of myself into it. I invested in getting this special page made for it and some marketing. And to have it fall flat just felt like such a slap in the face. And I was like, well, I'm not doing that again. So even though I'm doing this now in a different way, which is a much more economical way, because it won't be my time live week after week, it's going to be an always on thing, which means I can sell this in perpetuity. It's going to be a much lower price point, which means it's easier for people to convert to. I also, you know... That had a very short runway to when I could sell it. It was about a month. This has a runway of forever. It's something that can still be selling while I'm on maternity leave. There's a lot of reasons why this situation is different. And yet, it was bringing back an old trigger, a feeling of failure, a feeling of fear of investing time and money in something and it not coming to fruition. So I had to be real with myself about that and do a little healing and Just talking to myself and with Tim and my business advisor about why this is not the same as that piece, unwinding that version of myself that's still scared and is like, don't do this. It's a bad idea. And updating my software to tell me I'm in a different situation now. So that was really the main reason why I think I felt blocked in this situation. And the other part was I wasn't thinking about it as part of the bigger picture of my trajectory. So if you're not in business or you've kind of just been building your business intuitively, something that I've learned from my business coach is that you have to do things in ladder. So basically, you have free offerings. So an example of that would be this podcast. I'll probably have some sort of worksheet too on my website. Then you have lower offerings. The example would be for me, this masterclass, then the higher one, which would be this longer term class that is still self-paced. And then the highest one would be working with me one-on-one. So basically you want to have all these ladders. And when I was able to go through that with Tim and remind myself of that, I'm like, oh, this is a good idea because there are some people who either don't want to hire a coach or can't afford to. And this is such a great way to like when people reach out to me and say, how can I get into podcasting? I can just be like, okay, you can work with me in this way. Or if you want just an introductory thing, here is podcasting 101 for you. You have to remember the benefit of something too. So for me, in this instance, it was naming the fear, acknowledging that it's real, healing a little bit around it, reminding myself why this situation is different, and reminding myself of my why. And the other thing is not trying to do everything all at once. So let me focus on doing the masterclass first, then on doing this longer term self-paced course that's like a multi-week thing. And remembering to do it in small, actionable chunks versus overwhelming myself and telling myself I have to do it all at once. So that was my journey. After this recording, I'm going to go and start planning out the masterclass because I feel like I've done enough self-reflection. to know why I was stalling as much as I have been to at least start. So if you find yourself blocked right now, the first thing you want to do, like I said, is ask yourself, why? Why do I feel like I don't want to or can't do this creative thing? Typically, there's six reasons. For me, like I said, number one was fear and needing healing around a past version of myself that felt like I failed at this thing I'm attempting to do. And then bringing... an updated perspective about why it's different this time, if it feels like it is. But sometimes when we're blocked, there's wisdom there. Either we're not ready to do this thing, the people surrounding it aren't quite right, the situation isn't quite right. So asking yourself, is there any wisdom in why I'm stalling on this or blocked on this? And if so, what is that wisdom rather than just sitting there and being in the block, trying to really understand? why some part of you is protecting you from doing this. Sometimes you just need more inspiration. I talked about this on my episode with songwriter Monty Criswell. He said he doesn't believe in writer's block. And that's because when he is blocked, he realizes he just needs to take in more inspiration. So he'll read a book. He'll go outside for a walk and be inspired by everything around him. So you might be in a situation where you just need to take in more inspiration so you have something to reflect back out into the world. Sometimes you need more information. That's a little bit what's happening with me with this course too. I feel overwhelmed by not knowing how am I going to get it on my website? How will I actually, like what's the selling mechanism? Because I've switched to WordPress from Wix and it's a little bit more complicated. So I don't need to figure that out at the same time that I'm creating the actual course. But knowing that is part of my overwhelm and that is part of the blockage is not having enough information to complete this project. So you Just kind of putting a pin on that, validating whatever information you don't know. then when the time comes, seeking it out. So that doesn't continue to block you or keep you from moving forward. Sometimes you literally are burnt out and need rest. You know, people mistake a block for burnout. And you may not be blocked, you may just be burnt out. So if that comes up, either taking a walk, taking a nap, just resting yourself for a little bit, and then coming back to it a day later, a week later, a month later, if you have that luxury of time, and approaching it then once you feel rested. And sometimes you just need to make time. So like setting aside time to work on your creative project the same way you would if you were trying to make a plan with a friend to get lunch. So tonight I have on the calendar, I am going to work on my course for two hours. Sometimes that's what it requires, especially if you're encountering resistance is just to make the physical time and to stick with it the same way you would if you committed to somebody else. Most of us never even get to why when we're blocked. We just are like, oh, I hope this passes. But we don't actually ask why we're in it. So if you can at least ask why, you're more than 50% of the way there. And then if you can seek to answer it, you're like 75% of the way there. And then if you actually do something with that answer, you're golden. You're golden. So that would be the step. Ask why. Seek to answer it. Typically, it's either a fear, some wisdom, you need more inspiration, you need more information, you need to rest, or you need to make time for yourself to work on this thing. And then once you find the answer to why you're blocked, solve it. Go ahead and give yourself what you need in order to move forward. Thank you so much for listening. I hope you enjoyed this one. As somebody who's been blocked even just a few hours ago, I'm going to be using this information as I move forward and plan out the course. And stay tuned for when my course comes out. I would love to share it with you. Eventually, I'm going to have creativity courses and the whole lot, but we're going to start out with podcasting and go from there. If you do want to work with me on that one-on-one level, reach out lauren.lagrasso at gmail.com. I offer creativity coaching, podcast coaching, and consulting, and all kinds of things. Would love to support you. And that's it for today. Unleash Your Inner Creative is executive produced and hosted by me, Lauren Lagrasso. If you love this show, if you love this episode, tell a friend about it. Leave us a rating and review. It helps so much. I think taking that break last summer actually really pushed us down the algorithm. So. Please leave a rating and review, comment on Spotify, share it with a friend. All these things make a difference in getting the show out to more people. My wish for you this week is that you seek to get unblocked and you're very compassionate with yourself as you do so. No need to beat yourself up. I love you and I believe in you. Talk with you next week.
