She Painted a Phoenix at 30. No Plan. No Permission. Just Paint. | Michelle Therese Alles

Art was beaten out of her as a kid. At 30 — after a bad breakup, no roadmap, no plan — she sat in front of a teak almirah door and started painting. A month later there was a phoenix on it. Someone bought the almirah a month after that. She didn't even know she could paint until the moment she picked up the brush.That's who Michelle Therese Alles is. And this conversation is about what it actually costs to become who you were supposed to be.Michelle is a journalist at the Daily FT in Colombo, Sri Lanka — a radio presenter, communications specialist, brand voice developer, and model who walked into Roxanne Dias's class to get enrollment information for a friend and signed up herself. She left an eight-year airline career one promotion away from security because something told her it was time. It took three years to know she was right. She doesn't regret a single day of it.In this episode:Why creativity gets suppressed in childhood — and how it finds its way backLeaving a stable job when everyone says you're crazyHow she built a writing voice so distinct that editors identify her work without a bylineWhy your inner child doesn't always need comforting — sometimes she calls you outThe difference between being and doing — and why high-output creatives lose themselves in the doingVictim mode as a creative block — and what it takes to climb outWhy metrics can bury you and authenticity is the only strategy that compoundsWhat curiosity looks like when you're in your 40s and still goingThis is one of the most honest conversations we've had on The Creative Odyssey Podcast. Recorded at Hatch Works in Sri Lanka as part of Sheran's 20-episode Sri Lanka recording series.🎙️ Host: Sheran Ranasinghe 🎨 Guest: Michelle Therese Alles — Journalist, Radio Presenter, Communications Specialist | Daily FT, Colombo, Sri Lanka 📍 Recorded at: Hatch Works, Sri Lanka 🌐 https://medium.com/@michelletheresealles 📩 @myrunwayrecords Contact: [email protected] 📸 Instagram: @thecreativeodysseypodcast | @sheranstories | @thisluckymichelle Produced by Odyssey House MediaSend Us A Message! We'd love to hear your thoughts!Support the show