Hi friend,

We have to tell you about this episode, because it went places we didn't see coming.

This week we're in Chapter 1 of The Artist's Way — Recovering a Sense of Safety — and the timing could not have been more perfectly, cosmically on the nose. Jess had just left her full-time job in tech. Literally days before we hit record. And there we were, opening a chapter about creative safety and the fear voices that tell us we're not allowed to be who we actually are.

We're glad it happened in front of you.

This episode goes deep. Jen shares a visualization from her past — one that conjured a future self who was drunk, on drugs, and homeless on a park bench — and what the reframe on the other side of that fear actually looked like. (We promise it gets better.) Jess talks about the quieter kind of creative loss: the early experiences that led her to stop claiming the things that brought her joy, one small step at a time.

We also get into shadow artists — the idea that you might be staying close to the creative life you actually want without fully stepping into it. Jess wrestles with whether editing other people's words has been her way of being near writing without the exposure. It's one of those questions that has a way of sitting with you long after the conversation wraps.

And Jen published a book at 24 with a Kickstarter. We talk about that too, and the long-game mindset that made it happen.

The throughline of all of it? Creating more is the antidote to perfectionism. Not less. More.

We'd love for you to listen, and we'd genuinely love to hear what's coming up for you in Week 1 — whether you're doing the book alongside us or just along for the ride.

We're really glad you're here.

— Jen & Jess