The Power of Story in the Creative Process with Susan Mar

Things We Talk About In This Episode:

• Working with clients in the creative process and their reactions.
• How as humans we respond to visuals in a human way. Narratives that make it seem shallow to care about how things look. Like it’s superficial to care too much about the way you look and that this might mean you don’t have depth.
• Aesthetics are a luxury that comes after the essentials of survival and how you can still care about aesthetics, even if the first priority is survival.
• Creating worlds on Instagram for an escape, or for an imaginary world to exist in.
• Growing up in a third-world country and living without running water. Living and growing up in a country where safety isn’t guaranteed and that these things stay with you.
• That where we start is not always a reflection of where we’re going to end up.
• The importance of the client’s story, understanding and connecting with them.
• Taking lessons from pain. Looking for good and having empathy.
• Struggling with seeing our own magic and the stories we tell ourselves.
• Behind the scenes of Sell Your Sh*t, and how the coaching and lessons had an impact on Susan.
• Learning that our experiences of life are not always everyone else's experiences. That our normal isn’t everyone’s experience.
• How Susan joined Instagram as a way to communicate her journey. That starting to share and mingle with people helped her to feel it’s safe to share online.
• That Instagram gives us chance to take small baby steps into being seen or into vulnerability.
• How being in the spotlight can mean you lose the sense of freedom with your account.
• That Instagram can be like therapy, that the discoveries that come as a result of being in the spotlight can help you to understand what you want. It makes you confront a lot of the stuff that’s hiding under the surface.
• How people can reject your work but not reject you, and how we can get this confused, something that’s covered in Sell Your Sh*t.
• Starting a business on Instagram and running a product business.
• How preparing and getting ready is more about feeling ready, and how this is a process.
• Learning about yourself and how your messages connect with other people is something you can’t rush.
• Designing your brand from the inside out, so you can finally stop tweaking your brand. Challenging the there's one right way theory.

Links mentioned in this episode (and where to find Susan):

• Sell Your Sh*t
• Susan product line
• Susan youtube
• Join Susan’s Email list
• Why you need to join Substack with Farah Store

Where to find Susan:

• Susan's website: bysusanmar.com
• Susan on Instagram: by.susan.mar
• Susan on Youtube: by Susan Mar
• Susan's Email List & Freebies: choose-your-own-journey

Where to find Sara:

• Sara’s website: meandorla.co.uk
• Sara on Instagram: @me_and_orla
• Sara on Twitter: @meandorla
• Sara on Substack: meandorla.substack.com
• One to one business coaching with Sara
• Sell Your Sh*t - enroling now