Welcome to Visionaries Pursuit, a podcast where we explore what it takes to turn your bold and inspiring ideas into reality. I'm Carolina Zuleta. I'm a life and a business coach and your host for this podcast. I'm thrilled to have you here. Hello. Hello. Welcome to episode six of the Visionaries Pursuit podcast.
I am so happy to be with all of you today and this episode, I am dedicating it to all of you. who are creating from nothing, who are having the courage to stand in front of a white page and put there your ideas, your thoughts, what your imagination makes up, because that process is one of the process that requires the most courage.
And that's what I want us to talk about today. For 10 years, I wrote a weekly column for a newspaper. For over two years, I had a weekly podcast, but then in 2022, when my youngest daughter was going to be born, I decided to stop all of that and dedicate more time to being at home with my kids. And now this year, I felt the itch again of creating, of communicating with all of you.
And I decided to launch the Visionaries Pursuit Podcast. I love communicating with all of you. I love sharing ideas. But this time, I've been in my head a lot more than ever. I've had thoughts like, why create another podcast when there's so many of them? Is this topic that I'm going to talk about really relevant?
There's been books, podcasts, movies made about this topic. What else am I going to say about it? And yet, here I am. Overcoming that fear, overcoming those thoughts, and connecting with all of you. Reliving this experience, facing this fear, feeling paralyzed, has connected me more than ever to all of my clients who are having the courage of putting in words, in paper, in movies, in songs, their own ideas.
Because I know the act of creation It takes up a lot. This feeling of feeling the fear of creating, of being paralyzed, is really hard, but it also can be devastating. There is a book called The War of Art that talks specifically about this, about the resistance we all experience when we're gonna do something for the first time.
The author, Steven Pressfield, tells the story of how he wrote a novel when he was 21, and he got 99. 9 percent through it. But then he froze. He couldn't finish. And he got so depressed that he started acting out in all sorts of self destructive ways. Alcohol, drugs, sex. He says he destroyed his marriage.
His life was hell. for seven years and he was nearly suicidal. Then one day he decided to write and he wrote a few hundred words, not very good words, but he realized when he finished he felt happy. So he decided to keep writing because it made him happy and eventually he became the best selling author that we all know.
This challenge of creating something from nothing is also very common. I need to tell you this story because it's one of my favorite stories. In early 2018, I had the privilege of going to an early screening of Mary Poppins Returns. At the end of the screening, they invited the composer and the lyricist for this new movie and people from the audience got to ask them questions.
If you don't know who these two guys are, let me enlighten you because it's worth it. Mark Shaman is an American composer and lyricist for films, televisions, and theaters. You've probably He's seen some of the movies he's worked on, Sleepless in Seattle, Patch Adams, and the musical Hairspray. He has won two Emmys, two Grammys, a Tony Award, and has seven nominations for the Academy Awards.
He has two nominations for BAFTA Awards and two nominations for the Golden Globe Awards. You're seeing the caliber of guy this man is. The other guy is Scott Whitman, also an American director, lyricist, composer, and a writer for Broadway concerts and television. He composed for Hairspray, Smash, most recently Only Murders in the Building.
He also has an Emmy, a Grammy, and an Academy Award nomination. These are the cream of the crop in Hollywood. Someone from the audience asked them, how was it to be given the opportunity to write music for Mary Poppins Returns after the original Mary Poppins was such an incredible hit. By the way, I'll let you Google this, but just so you know, the composers of the original Mary Poppins, the Sherman brothers, won an Academy Award for the music they made for the original.
So this is what they were standing up against. So Scott and Mark started sharing that they were so scared. That they were so excited to be able to make the music for Mary Poppins Returns, but that they couldn't get out of their head the expectation everyone is going to have of them after seeing the original Mary Poppins.
So what they did for the first week was nothing. They couldn't create anything. A single note for the movie. And what they decided was to compose a song that was called Paralyzed by Fear. And they basically just spent an entire week singing, Paralyzed by Fear, Paralyzed by Fear, because that's the experience they were having.
And the reason why I love this story so much is because it's easy when we don't have all those accolades, we're not that important or so recognized to think that we are the only ones that get paralyzed by fear. But seeing their vulnerability on stage of sharing that experience helped me remember that this is a human experience.
And it also helped me remember that you can overcome it. I have clients who are artists, composers, film directors, entrepreneurs. And the first thing I do when they start Coaching with me is help them create a powerful vision as to where they want to go. What are the things they want to accomplish? What are the things they want to create?
What is that vision they have for their entire life? And that is the most fun part, because we get to imagine, we get to connect to our desires, and we really get to put on paper this vision for ourselves in the future. The hard part begins when we start working towards that vision. In coaching, we call this the river of misery.
Because it's easy to imagine that I'm going to have a successful podcast, that people are going to love that they're going to engage in coaching with me because I'm already delivering value in the podcast. But it's harder, way harder, to sit down every week and think, what am I going to say? And then say it, and then record it, and then release it to the world where you can get tons of criticism.
And I'm talking about a podcast that I know it's pretty small. The bigger the scale, the scarier it is. And that's why we call it the river of misery. So how do we navigate the river of misery? That's what coaching is the rest of the time, is navigating this river of misery. And we do it by a lot of the things I've shared in this podcast, managing our brain, managing our thoughts, focusing on what helps us move forward.
But one of my favorite tools to navigate this river of misery is to play, is to actually sit down and do the work, because we love doing the work, because we enjoy the process of doing the work, and putting on the side what other people might think, what we may achieve with it, what, if it would be good or not good.
And just sit in the moment and allow ourselves to be kids again and to play. For me, it's to sit here and talk with you as if we were sitting in the living room. And I was so excited to be sharing these messages with you. For my clients who are maybe a composer, it's to write music because of the love of music.
Because there is something magical that happens when we quiet our minds and we allow the inspiration to go through. Even if it's not the best inspiration at first, we can always make it better later. One of the things my husband has taught me is the meaning of the word innocence. In no sense. It means that whatever you're doing doesn't have to make sense.
You have to create it from a place of innocence, of wonder, of awe. And later on, you'll figure out how it makes sense. But in the moment of creation. Sit down and be in that place of innocence, of the unknown, of the childish playfulness. That's where creation happens. Earlier this year, Taylor Swift won the Grammy for Album of the Year for her album, Midnights.
And I was listening to her thank you speech. And one of the things she said is, and I'm, and I'm paraphrasing here, but she said something around the lines of, when you win a Grammy, everyone thinks this is the best moment. And I am, I'm so happy right now, but I'm equally as happy when I write a song, when I create the bridge, when I am able to crack on the lyrics.
Because doing this, writing music, showing my music, performing for others, it's what makes me the happiest. So, I loved hearing this because I feel like she's so prolific. She's done so many albums, so many songs. And I was thinking, of course, that is her secret. Her secret is to enjoy the process of what she's doing.
To allow herself to not think, is this going to get me a Grammy? What are other people going to think about this after I've created this amount of success? It's more about being in the present moment. And here's another thing I want to share with all of you, because I've been thinking about it. I love romantic comedies.
And I've noticed that lately, that's not the genre that you're creating most movies about or TV shows. Most of them are about true crime or fantasy, and I really crave some of the movies that I really loved in the past. In fact, I know there's incredible directors out there in the world, but my personal favorite director is Nancy Meyers.
You probably have heard of her because she made the movies The Parent Trap, It's Complicated, Something's Gotta Give, The Intern, The Holiday, all these romantic comedies that I just absolutely love. And I have noticed that I have visited her IMDb page often trying to see if she's going to create a new movie, because I really crave her.
what she would do. And it's made me so sad that she stopped directing films. So this experience of wanting someone to create art because I love it, made me think that for all of you, there is someone who loves your work, who is sitting there waiting for you to create it. Sometimes we can be so hard on ourselves.
Is it good enough? Is it different? Am I innovating? When the truth is that any creation you make is unique because it's yours. The more authentic it is, the more it honors the truth of who you are, the more unique it will be. And if you don't do it, all of us are going to miss out on it. I hope in some way Nancy Meyers could hear this message and make another movie just for the delight of watching a real well done romantic comedy.
So with this, I want to finish with a quote that I love from Martha Graham, who was a Contemporary dancer. There is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action. And there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium.
and be lost. The world will not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expressions. It is your business to keep it yours, clearly and directly, to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you.
Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a queer, divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and making us more alive than the others. So, I invite you to connect to your creativity, to your inner child, and to let your gifts come out to the world, because we all will benefit from them.
Here's my hope, after you heard all these stories, and quotes, and my own words, is that you allow yourselves to connect. To connect to your own inspiration and bring to life whatever is inside of you that wants to come out. And remember, when you get blocked, because probably you will, And just remember this one word, play.
Put aside all the judgments, all the preconceived notions of how your work should be, connect to your innocence and play. That's where your best creations are going to come from. See you next time. If you're currently pursuing a big, bold idea, I would love some support. In my coaching program, I'll teach you how to manage yourself, your own thoughts and emotions, as well as your team and your money.
So you can turn your beautiful idea into a reality. Go now to carozuleta. com slash consult. That is C A R O Z U L E T A dot com slash consult. And complete the form to book a complimentary call with me. See you there!
