Confidence, Creativity, and Identity

0:00 Do you have someone in your life that has seen you from the very beginning of your entrepreneurial journey? Today's guest Amy Isaman is that person for me. She's seen me from the very beginning. And in this episode, you'll learn how we met and how we've stayed connected and reconnected years later. 1:40 How Yong and Amy first connected 2:43 Amy pivot from High School and College English Teacher to Entrepreneur 5:49 How to tap into your creativity 8:16 Taking action, pivoting, and the fear Amy felt when she published her first blog post 10:21 The importance of claiming the identity of someone who does the thing you want to do 11:06 “Follow your joy. Take a baby step. Follow your joy and take a baby step and become and do the thing, do whatever it is” - Amy Isaman 12:11 Where society gets creativity wrong and Amy’s view of it “Creativity is really just looking at different pieces, looking at life, and creating something new out of what you've already got.” - Amy Isaman “Our thoughts are creative. You're thinking new thoughts every moment of every day.” 15:49 Ideas you can use to tap back into creativity daily 17:51 “Practice is huge! I mean, if you were to practice something every day for, 15-25-30 days, I can guarantee you, by the end of that time, you will be better at it.” 18:47 “You have to do the thing to be the thing.” - Amy Isaman 19:28 The significance of journaling for Amy. Finding your own version of “journaling” to quiet your mind and access your inner wisdom 22:36 How Amy helped Yong reframe her own journaling practice 23:41 “Find the practice that works for you and then practice your practice.” 26:10 Letting go of outcomes and being open to playing and doing what feels really good to us 27:46 How schools get the writing “process” wrong and how to unlearn it 32:29 Amy’s favorite “pre-writing” exercise that can help overcome writer’s block 34:08 How to form your own creative thinking partnerships. An episode from Amy’s podcast to help out 37:35 Connect with Amy Website Podcast: Dear Creativity Instagram Facebook 38:19 Amy book series and her live-and-learn self-publishing experience 40:09 If you need some help with writing your creativity or ideation and really figuring out which direction to go, reach out to Amy. Be sure to connect Amy inside the Arena of Awesome. Ask questions and view the video version of this interview. NEXT WEEK: Live Podcast Recording: Wednesday, May 12 @ 9:30 AM PST Where traditional content repurposing gets is wrong and why it’s costing you money Tool Talk [new series]Tuesday, May 11 @2:22 pm PST The AI copyrighting tool that's going to blow your mind 🤯 and change the way you create written content