"My capacity to dream this big" (Liz Mosley bonus episode)

0:00Radim Malinic:Hey, welcome to this bonus episode of the Daring Creativity Podcast where I revisit the interview published earlier in the week. It is my opportunity to pick out a few standout moments and zoom in on them for extra value and meaning. I feel there's so much value in our conversations and I'm thankful to my guests for sharing their most vulnerable moments full of wisdom and knowledge. today i look back at my conversation with liz mosey a conversation has been super popular this week with lots of messages being received both by me and list from listeners like yourself so thank you for those so in today's bonus episode i want to revisit a few moments from this conversation and first one being this one this is just part of the creative process it's the same when when i'm designing branding i don't know if this happens to you radim But there's loads of memes about it online.

0:54But basically, there's always a part where I'm like, this is horrible. Like, I call it like the dark night of the soul. And it's almost like part of the process I have to go through. And I when it happens now, I know that means I've nearly got there. Like I'm nearly there because I'm like, oh, this is this is feeling hard.

1:14Radim Malinic:if you've listened to more than one or two episodes of my podcast you know how often this topic comes up the things that are got wrenchingly hard in the creative process how many times you feel creatively that nothing will ever work yet when you think about it from a different way when it feels horrible you feel alive you feel like you're getting somewhere because the easy part and i think i remember i was polemizing on this with the chapter called headwind is always guaranteed you can have it easy for yourself and free will down a hill but not get stronger or wiser or you can run up the hill in a headwind and it's going to make you stronger it's going to make you grow in this instance i quote demystifies that terrifying aspect of the creative process because the inevitable moment when everything feels wrong she named it the dark night of the soul it gives her the language for an experience that usually feels isolating personal horrible but more importantly she reframed it that this crisis is a positive indicator it's not a sign of a failure it's a part of a journey it's like getting lost halfway through on the way to somewhere really good.

2:38Radim Malinic:I believe, you know, what she said is that it represents the master level of understanding of creative cycles that most people never develop. It transforms what could be a career-ending moment, let's be honest, at least for a day as we see it. It transformed that career-ending moment into a milestone that signals approaching breakthrough because I must have mentioned a few times on this podcast, I'm a cyclist, and especially in my earlier years when i wasn't as experienced or strong i hated cycling up the hills i wanted to give up so many times only to realize that the summit is so much closer than you believe so i hope that this quote from liz offers hope to anyone who feels in their own creative darkness because we all go through it the same the second quote i would like to share is this one I think for me, it always comes back to what my purpose of my business is.

3:40And what my... So I think there's purpose, there's goals, and there's values. I think it's those three things that I use to make those decisions. Like I mentioned at the beginning, my purpose with my business is to help small businesses with their branding and marketing.

3:57Radim Malinic:I believe the power of this quote lies in its honest contradiction. Liz has a clear framework for decision making. and this is a question for you have you got the same because i liked it personally for a very long time but i loved how liz explained how she uses those three words purpose goals and values because even though she still makes mistakes it captures the messy reality of running a creative business where even the best systems don't always guarantee perfect outcomes Here we are again. It's never that easy. I believe it's refreshingly human and it removes the pressure to have everything figured out because the trinity of purpose, goals and values provides a practical compass for navigating opportunities while her admission of continued errors gives permission to learn through doing rather than paralysis through analysis.

4:52Radim Malinic:It's a wisdom paired with humility and rare combination in business advice. the next quote I would like to talk about is this one my processing time like the time it takes me to get over a rejection or get to that good place is so much shorter now so in the past maybe it would have taken me a month now it might take me a couple of days and then I can see oh okay I can see the positives here I can see that this wasn't the right opportunity for me or that actually there's something that I need to work on here I what's the right word to use enjoyed might seem a bit sadistic but I was pleased to hear how the period of time after rejection for Liz gets shorter and shorter and just like many things in life whatever we do as a practice the more we exercise a particular muscle the recovery is faster shorter and with liz's rejection she's verbalized it she's processed it she's thought about it so much that you can't stop yourself from being disappointing you can't stop yourself from having an emotional reaction to a situation but you can decide how you react to it you can actually think about it because in this instance she's talking about emotional resilience a skill that can be developed and in a way measured she's tracking her recovery time and she's healing from setbacks which is not just about feeling better but about building systematic emotional efficiency.

6:47Radim Malinic:It suggests how repeated exposure to rejection when processed healthily can create genuine psychological strength rather than just calluses and when you think about it the evidence in our relationships we've felt you can fundamentally change giving hope to anyone currently stuck in lengthy recovery cycles from creative disappointments. Her ways and findings can show how we can fundamentally change how we feel about rejection and giving us hope, especially to those who are currently stuck in lengthy recovery cycles from creative disappointments. Again, I've been doing this podcast for the last 73 weeks, and I might be repeating myself in certain ways, but you might have heard me talking about the fact that there's no such thing as end of problems we hope to have everything sorted and then just sail into the sunset unaided smiling with sunshine and ice cream but things do f up and therefore being very logical and pragmatical about rejection and how we deal with setbacks is one of the superpowers the last quote i would like to share is this one.

8:04Six years ago, I'd just come off my second maternity leave. My confidence was at an all-time low. And the Liz of six years ago didn't have the capacity to dream this big. And I think for me, what's been interesting is reflecting back on that Liz of six years ago, seeing how far I've come and acknowledging that I could not have dreamed this stuff. Now I can. And now my dreams are like wild and all over the place. But back then, just because of where I was in my life and what I'd just been through and everything, like I didn't have the capacity to dream.

8:42Radim Malinic:As you may have heard in the episode, I talked about the fact that I saw Liz's Instagram post when she said, I can't believe I'm here. in a certain way it's a negative language because we get to the point where we arrive and get there by hard work and as creative people we do it a zillion times a day we worked on a project we don't always think it's going that easily that well we can never be happy about it work comes together we say i can't believe it worked out well we just spent months or weeks or days and hours on this project of course it worked out because we worked on it and it can also be relevant to our careers i can't believe this is my life i can't believe that this is what i've achieved we need to celebrate it because i loved liz's response to my nudge suggestion generosity of thought when she said you know what i couldn't see myself six years ago doing this it was an honest acknowledgement that creativity per se doesn't exist in a vacuum and because she removed herself from the feeling that she didn't belong in the industry that's how she felt when she came back from maternity leave she realizes that she can build community around herself that will make her feel welcome like she fits and belongs so i like that after all these years now liz dreams big she doesn't struggle with any barriers and looks forward the title of the episode is dare to get rejected because most of the exciting things happen when people say no first thank you for joining me on this bonus episode and i'll see you next week