How to Build a Creative Career (and make great money) | Joy Sullivan
Apr 8, 2024
auto_awesome
Poet and author Joy Sullivan shares her journey from corporate career to full-time artist, debunking myths about creative pursuits. She emphasizes courage, commitment, and joy in the creative process. Topics include personal reinvention, nurturing gifts, and manifesting a purposeful life.
Transitioning into a creative career doesn't require suffering or financial struggle, but instead courage and commitment to your passion.
Embracing self-doubt and nurturing one's inner light can lead to a fulfilling life aligned with true creative aspirations.
The act of writing poetry can be a transformative catalyst, inspiring personal growth, new beginnings, and self-exploration.
Deep dives
Navigating the Primal Feeling of Joy and Grief
Experiencing happiness can sometimes trigger fear of losing it, leading to a mix of joy and grief. By prioritizing self-care and creative pursuits, individuals can navigate this emotional howling and find fulfillment.
Transitioning from Corporate Career to Creative Entrepreneurship
Joy Sullivan's journey from a marketing executive to a full-time poet highlights the myth of needing to be broke or suffering to be an artist. By gradually embracing her creative calling, Joy demonstrates how individuals can transition thoughtfully into a fulfilling career around their passion.
Overcoming Doubts and Nurturing Creativity
Joy's shift from corporate life to poetry emphasizes the importance of overcoming self-doubt and nurturing one's inner light. By embracing discomfort and cultivating a sense of knowing, individuals can manifest a life aligned with their true creative impulses and aspirations.
Embracing Uncomfortable Journeys and Transformation
Traveling alone for six weeks across the American West led to a transformation for the speaker, highlighted by the creation of a poem titled Instructions for Traveling West that encouraged embracing new beginnings. The act of writing and expressing oneself through poetry was a catalyst for significant life changes, including selling a house, leaving a relationship, and moving to a new place. The journey symbolized by traveling west resonated with many, inspiring reflections on personal growth and transformation.
Navigating Grief, Joy, and Longing Through Poetry
The poet explores the intricate connections between grief and joy, acknowledging the discomfort that comes with fully experiencing both emotions. Through poetry, the speaker delves into the complexity of belonging, shared grief, and collective healing. The poems in the book serve as mirrors for readers, inviting them to find their truths within the verses and encouraging an attentive and reverent engagement with life's simple joys amidst grief and change.
What does it take to leave behind the safety of a corporate career to wholeheartedly pursue your creative passions? In this inspiring conversation, poet Joy Sullivan pulls back the curtain on her journey from accomplished marketing professional to full-time artist and author of the new poetry collection Instructions for Traveling West.
She busts myths that you have to starve, suffer, or lose it all to follow your dreams, revealing how she built her portfolio career through courage, commitment and joyful reverence for the poetic process. Tune in to hear Joy’s unbelievable story of personal and professional reinvention, and uncover practical insights about nurturing your gifts, finding belonging, sharing your voice, and manifesting a life of meaning and purpose. You’ll walk away ready to take the next step toward creative fulfillment.
