Finding the Throughline with Kate Hanley

In part 2 of my interview with Chelsey Goodan, author of Underestimated: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls, we really break down the inner parts of writing, including how to be OK with the fact that people may misunderstand you.(If this sounds familiar, it’s because this week’s episodes are replays–I figured, since it’s back to school season re-airing an interview with an author who extols the power of teenage girls made a lot of sense!)Other things we cover:- The mistake most well-intentioned parents make- How Chelsey deals with her biggest fear about her work–being misunderstood- Dealing with a perfectionistic inner critic- Chelsey’s “intense” relationship to time- The one cultural belief Chesley would like to vaporize- The truth that Chelsey’s had to model for the teen girls in her life- The book and online personality assessment Chelsey swears by (and uses with the teens in her life, too)For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I’m talking with Chelsey Goodan, keynote speaker, screenwriter, and author of Underestimated: The Wisdom and Power of Teenage Girls. As the mom of a 16-year-old girl, I just didn’t even think twice about inviting Chelsey on to Finding the Throughline. I literally read the title of her book and was like YES.This week’s episodes are replays–I’m airing them again now because my kids are back to school this week and a) I need a little bit more time in my schedule to shift into this different schedule and b) it just seemed timely given the subject of Chelsey’s book.In this first part of our interview, we unpack:- The seeds of self-doubt, impostor syndrome, and people pleasing that are sown during the teenage years- Chelsey’s recipe for connecting with teenage girls- The difference between being truthful and being blunt- What helps teens (giving them space to feel their feelings) and what doesn’t (trying to fix)- How Chelsey makes meditation doable, even delightful- How to listen for inspiration- How to keep track of those inspirations so they don’t fly awayFor full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

By the end of this final installment of my interview with Kimothy Joy, author of “Extraordinary Wing Women: True Stories of Life-Altering, World-Changing Sisterhood,” “Focus Pocus: A 90-Day Guided Journal,” and “That's What She Said: Wise Words from Influential Women,” my cheeks were hurting from smiling. So many exciting ideas in here!We talked about:- Why Kimothy is absorbing everything she can about AI right now, and the very cool ideas about how we might be able to use it and why women and moms need to be involved in its development (this part of our conversation gave me the good kind of goosebumps and I am really resistant to the idea of AI)- Letting the example of the women Kimothy writes about (women like Maya Angelou and Coco Chanel) inspire her to be open to reinventing herself- The podcast that’s inspiring her right now (aside from this one, naturally)- Prepping for her 50s, 60s, and 70s even though she’s only (about to be) 40- Sensing that you are in a ‘completion phase’ and that a whole new iteration is headed your way- The show she can’t stop thinking about- Why she puts butter in her morning cup of coffee- The band she just say at Red Rocks whose songs she belts out when she needs a lift- How she’s planning to celebrate her 40th birthday in SeptemberVisit Kimothy at kimothyjoy.com.Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this second part of my interview with Kimothy Joy, author of “Extraordinary Wing Women: True Stories of Life-Altering, World-Changing Sisterhood,” “Focus Pocus: A 90-Day Guided Journal,” and “That's What She Said: Wise Words from Influential Women,” I asked about the mindset side of writing and how Kimothy’s thoughts and beliefs impact her work and her life.(By the way, if you are ever needing a hit of inspiration, either from others or from within, I can't recommend these books highly enough. They're not only helpful and inspiring and informative, but they're also beautiful because they're filled with Kimothy’s illustrations.)We talked about:- Finding the right balance of working to promote your work and detaching from outcomes and not burning yourself out- The difference between promoting your work and sharing your work and finding a way to do it without feeling like you’re being pushy- Using your Instagram stories like a blog- How publishing a book is like having a child leave the nest- Using journaling and self-mothering as a way to understand and get past the inner critic- Repatterning beliefs that have come in through society and culture- The two major doubts she repeatedly has- Talking yourself like a loving mother would talk to you–or like Glinda the good witch- Getting past the expectation that you should be able to do all the things and have all the things all the time- Unraveling the beliefs that, as a woman, it’s your job to make sure everyone else is cared for and comfortable, and that the world isn’t as safe for you as it is for menVisit Kimothy at kimothyjoy.com.Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week I am talking with Kimothy Joy, the author of “Extraordinary Wing Women: True Stories of Life-Altering, World-Changing Sisterhood,” “Focus Pocus: A 90-Day Guided Journal,” and “That's What She Said: Wise Words from Influential Women.” A Denver-based artist and author who combines watercolor and hand lettering to create artwork that uplifts and inspires women worldwide, Kimothy has collaborated with the Women's March on Washington, the US Women's National Soccer Team, Gucci and Melinda Gates, just to name a few.We covered:- How following her curiosity into painting watercolors in her journal went took her from “just a person painting my feeling” to “a career”- How motherhood impacted her creative process- How her creativity ebbs and flows, and how she learned to accept those ebbs and flows because “the more I resist, the more painful it is”- Learning how to untie her sense of self-worth from how much she was producing on any given day- How time spent outside sparks both mindfulness and creativity- The inspiration for her Focus Pocus 90-day journal- The concept of creative hygiene- The tools she uses to catch her creative ideas when they comeBig thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this final installment of my talk with Lisa See–bestselling author of so! many! beloved books, including “Lady Tan's Circle of Women” and “The Island of Sea Women’’--we find out what Lisa is currently working on bringing into existence and what she knows at this moment about where her personal through line is leading her next. Plus my final fast five questions.- How being at the Aspen Music Festival is helping her deal with the upset of writing her characters through a massively disastrous event- The superstars who inspire Lisa by their example of “effortless and imperfect perfection”- The daily habit she picked up from her mother (I totally want to steal this)- The change she and her husband are in the process of making- A really cool vantage on seeking to create generational memories as a grandparent- The book that made her get out of bed and go to another room so she could finish it- Paging all tea lovers! Lisa gave an awesome mini class on pu er, her favorite kind of tea- A peek at some of the albums (current and vintage) that she plays on her turntable- The meal she’s currently cravingBig thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the second part of my conversation with hugely successful and popular (and oh my God, did this really happen??) Lisa See, author of Lady Tan's Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, and more, we talked about the interior side of writing–things like dealing with your inner critic and dealing with the parts you would really rather not do, thank you very much, including:- The fascinating tidbit of information her research taught her about Los Angeles- How the Chinese public discourse about protection against smallpox epidemics 500 years ago are eerily similar to the controversy over Covid vaccines we recently experienced- The predictable emotional rollercoaster she rides each time during the revision process- Why writers should start celebrating good sentences the way Olympians celebrate an important point- The ninja trick of agreeing with your inner critic- A potential peril of becoming an internationally bestselling author- How the inevitable losses we experience with age can deepen your writing- The things she says no to now that she’s the age that she is- Some of the beliefs and attitudes passed down through the Chinese side of her family she really had to work to cast off (and how her mother, who is not Chinese, helped)- Why reading fiction is her go-to personal development toolBig thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

I'm talking with Lisa See, the New York Times bestselling author of so many beloved books, including Lady Tan's Circle of Women, The Island of Sea Women, Snow Flower and the Secret Ban, Shanghai Girls, and Dreams of Joy. Lisa's books often center the experience of women across time and cultures, particularly stories that have been lost, forgotten, or deliberately covered up.Lisa talked with me while she was on vacation and I'm so thankful that she carved out some time for us.We covered:- How her mother and grandfather were both writers, so she, naturally, vowed never to become one… and how that all changed when she was bumming around Europe on $5 a day after college- The atrocious 1970s TV miniseries that was so poorly written, it inspired her to try writing fiction (under the pen name Monica Highland)- How she started researching the Chinese side of her family thinking that she’d include a short letter about it in that year’s holiday card, and how that grew into “On Gold Mountain,” her first book written under her own name, as well as a national bestseller and New York Times notable book- What’s been easy and what’s been hard about her work as a novelist- A peek into her (fascinating) research process- The routine she follows every morning routine (that involves waiting for her husband to get done exercising)- Why she doesn’t worry about keeping her tea hotBig thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast!For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

(Note, this episode is a replay that originally aired in February.)In this final installment of my talk with author and essayist Minda Honey, we cover:* The insights–on double consciousness, omniscience, and overlapping timelines–she got at a recent conference* How Andre 3000’s new flute album is cracking open possibilities in her mind* The concept of a braided essay, and how it’s like making a charcuterie board* The book Minda could not put down (and that made her cry)For full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In part 2 of my interview with essayist and author of the memoir "The Heartbreak Years," Minda Honey, we really break down the inner parts of writing, including how to stay focused on the impact your work is having when all some people want to do is complain.(Note, this episode is a replay that originally aired in February.)Other things we cover:* How an earlier school of personal essays bordered into too personal, or what Minda referred to as “self-exploitation”, and how to make sure you’re not doing that in your own personal writing* How even when you tell people what your book is about with a very clear title, some people are going to be upset by what you include in your book* How people are dismissive of women writing truthfully about all parts of their lives–and how she deals with the haters* Why doing the art that speaks to your soul is the only way to go* Her genius approach to dealing with the inner critic (preview: she proves it’s a liar)* Why not every day is a day for writing* Why Minda had to start doing her own taxes at age 17* Learning to cry* How Minda uses tools like human design and tarot in work and lifeFor full show notes with links to everything we discuss, plus bonus photos!, visit katehanley.substack.com.Big thanks to our sponsor, AquaTru.com. Use promo code KATE to save 20% off a reverse osmosis water filter and support this podcast! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices