Happy summer solstice (or winter solstice, if you’re in the Southern Hemisphere)!

Yes, I know it was actually yesterday, but I’m already going at a summer pace over here.

Summer is just built different.

I’ve got 2 teens whose lives utterly transformed a week or two ago when school let out. I teach art college, and summer is downtime. I’m a gardener, which means I’ve been extremely outdoors for the last several months, and now begin to get to enjoy the fruits of my labor.

Many years, I’ve fallen into trying to fight the tide. Cramming in big projects, trying to keep up a “normal” schedule. It’s usually futile and frustrating.

Not this year. I’ll be out of office for most of the next month, visiting friends and family, and my most significant efforts will be devoted to NOT working and recovering from a many-months long push.

I hope you’re also planning to take some time off to rest and reflect. In that spirit, I’ve put together this podcast playlist for you! You can find each pod individually or head to Spotify and play them all in a row! (Well, not the YouTube video! You’ll have to check that one out separately).

​Grab the whole podcast playlist on Spotify here!​

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Free Time with Jenny Blake: Traversing the Dark Forests of Creativity and Business with Jessica Abel​

This conversation with fellow-author Jenny Blake went both deep and wide. We grappled with the self-doubt that comes up in the midst of huge projects, and we talked real numbers: the shocking (to us!) truth about what it looks like on the inside to try to make a living as an author (behind the scenes when one of my most successful books, Out on the Wire, was taking off).

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The Autonomous Creative: Building a healthy relationship with your creative work, with Nicole Lewis-Keeber​

This is one of my favorite Autonomous Creative episodes. It’s so full of useful wisdom about how to acknowledge trauma and repair your relationship with your work, including highly actionable ideas for managing your relationship with your Inner Critic.

By the way, If you find this episode as valuable as I do, Nicole has a brand-new free resource you’ll want to check out: the Trauma & Entrepreneurship Connection Masterclass.

Learn more about embracing your inner critic here.

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Your Own Best Company: Improve Creative Focus​

One of the biggest problems creatives face is that we’ve got a ton of ideas. When new and shiny ideas constantly pop up, it’s challenging to stay on track and finish anything. In this episode, I talked with host Franklin Taggart about the secret to seeing projects through: how to make decisions that you trust, so that you can say no to everything else.

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​Jessica Abel: Making a living as a cartoonist | I Am a Creator - S1E6​

This mini-documentary by Henry Thong makes me feel SO fancy. Even though we filmed it mostly-masked in the winter of 2021. Henry is an amazing interviewer and filmmaker, and he managed to evoke so much about who I am and what I care about in just seven and a half minutes. Witchcraft!

No wonder this series has won multiple Telly Awards! And they’ve just launched the I Am a Creator vol. 3 book.

Can’t put this one in the Spotify list, but it’s worth a view!

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The Autonomous Creative: How to stop waiting for permission to be a professional creative, with filmmaker Henry Thong​

I was so intrigued by Henry’s story that I invited him to be a guest on the Autonomous Creative. His episode focuses on Courage Before Confidence: the immense value of taking action without having all duckies in a row. Check it out. (And that one IS in the playlist!)

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Creative on Purpose: "Self-compassion is your most powerful tool."​

In this short but high-powered conversation with host Scott Perry, we talked about the power of self-compassion to unlock your ability to continue engaging with your most valuable work, and getting things done. Well worth a listen!

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Hope you enjoy listening, and if they get you thinking, hit reply and let me know what your biggest takeaway is!

~ jessica :)

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P.S. We do have a few things planned for you over the next month that we’ve scheduled out ahead of time! Be on the lookout for…

→ Next week: An incredibly useful (and fun!) new Autonomous Creative Podcast with painter Sarah Marie Lacy that delves into finding high-value clients.

→ July 11: If something I’ve shared with you has gotten you thinking and wondering how to put it to use in your life, you’re in luck: I’ve got a brand-new monthly live event, the Simplify to Amplify Roundtable, where you can come and get your questions answered. Look for the invite at the beginning of July!