In Episode 3, Jessica parses real confidence from fake confidence, even when sometimes they can appear almost the same on the surface. Moving past ego, “aw, shucks, I’m not that good” humility, and needing validation, we arrive at a place where we can sit in our genius, simply radiate it out, and use it to make something great to gift to the world.

:30 True confidence vs. fake confidence

1:07 Timothy Chalamet & lack of ego at the top

3:08 "Aw, shucks" false humility

4:22 Fake confidence & living from the outside in

6:24 Georgia O’Keefe, the OG subtle art of not giving a fuck

8:00 Getting in your zone of genius

8:52 Devotion

9:23 Why 10,000 hours isn’t enough to be a master

9:56 The magic triumvirate for inner confidence

10:56 Being the gift vs. the prize

Quotes:

"The confidence that needs to peacock and preen, that needs to announce itself, that is not real confidence. It’s fake confidence. It’s needing to be seen as the prize. True confidence? It just IS. It’s matter of fact.”

"I think there is also a place you can get to internally where you kind of don’t give that much of a fuck anymore whether there’s flattery or criticism of you, because you like who you are more. You like who you’re being so much that that is more important to you than what people think or anything you could get from the outside world."

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In Season 2 Episode 2, Jessica recounts the surprising social media occurrence around a video posted about her grandma and reflects on the universal threads of nostalgia and the need to create meaningful things that so many of us lack in our modern lives.

:44 The unexpected viral grandma reel

2:50 Nostalgia & the need to create

5:27 Pushing (digital) papers instead of really making things

8:15 The little red coat: “Specially Fashioned by Helen”

9:34 The magic thread of love (and sewing)

Quotes:

"I think so many of us have gotten away from really creating from our hands, from our hearts, from our core, in our jobs. It’s like we’re spinning a lot of time and a lot of doing, but are we actually creating anything? Are we creating something or putting something out into the world that, ultimately, we’re proud of? A lot of people aren’t. And there’s something sort depressingly inhuman and dissatisfying about that.”

“There's this satisfaction that happens when we take a little piece of ourself—our gifts, our essence, what we love, what we’re good at, what delights us—and we make something from it and put it out into the world. There’s something primal about it, to me. I think there is a human need for that. And I think a lot of people are starving for it.”

You can find more of Jessica’s writing @jessica.ann.wilbert and her vintage creations @frim.fram.frocks on Instagram.

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After a lil’ break, the Creative Misfit Club podcast is back for Season 2!

In Episode 1, Jessica “goes there” (after navigating a depressive episode herself) and talks about how we navigate those periods of life where we might be “north of suicidal but south of ok”— both when they happen to us, and how to better support people in our lives who might be struggling.

2:04 What happened that time I “lost” joy

4:00 The problem with meds

6:00 Hiding when we’re struggling, and the problem with the “just reach out” prescription

8:00 The art of learning to just be in the muck

9:04 Connecting to our reasons to keep going

10:33 Do we really know how to answer “How are you?” And do we know what to do with an honest response?

Quotes:

“It’s still incredibly vulnerable to open up and share or ask for support when you're going through depressive episodes. It’s doubly hard when you’re in the midst of it and under those heavy clouds. It’s hard to let people see you in a dark or weak or messy place. We are so conditioned in this world to just show the glossy, Insta-ready sides of ourselves.”

"I think we would do well to better learn how to let it be more ok to not be ok. To be more open about it. To learn how to better mine for the roots underneath our 'not-ok-ness' and what they might be trying to tell us. And I think we could do a lot better at learning how to support people in our lives when they struggle, of weaving a better fabric of love and support around the people in our lives."

More writings & musings from Jessica @jessica.ann.wilbert on IG and at jessicaannwilbert.com

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This week’s episode is... story time! Jessica shares one page from an exceptional book—and some thoughts on how one woman’s recipe for creative making and happiness can inspire creative misfits everywhere. The book is An American in Provence, by Jamie Beck, and the “story time” page shared is entitled, “A Feeling.” It describes one artist’s process of how she follows her feeling and gut to create in a way that’s authentic for her, leading to more confidence in her work and a happier life, inside and outside of that work.

Jessica reflects on the profound wisdoms in the story: creating from flow state, how we remain open to inspiration, feeling the dark feelings as well as nice ones, working in solitude, and trusting your own inner navigation instead of that from outside.

Go support Jamie Beck at @jamiebeck.co on social, or jamiebeck.co to purchase her art. Her NYT best-selling book, An American in Provence, is available at all major retailers.

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Happy New Year! Episode 15 is a short and sweet New Year's introduction—why the Creative Misfits Club podcast exists, and how it got started. To all the creative misfits out there—to anyone who feels a sense of dissatisfaction with the old ways we’re told we have to live and work, and anyone who is building or would like to build new ways—welcome. May this conversation continue to expand and connect like-minded misfits everywhere this year.

1:50 Being oneself on the internet

5:35 Aligning with like-minded community

7:26 Wishes for 2023

Quote:

"The reason why I want I wanted to start this podcast is because I know that there are other people like me out there, people who simply don’t want to do work and life in the ways we’re told to, or even just people who are doing it the old ways but are dissatisfied and unhappy and feel this sense of dis-ease, and would like something different, are maybe hungry for something different. And for myself, one of my goals in 2023 is more, better aligned, more meaningful community in my life. And maybe opening up my own conversation about this very thing might find some like-minded souls.”

Say hello @jessica.ann.wilbert

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In Episode 14, Jessica riffs on eight qualities she personally wants to embrace, but which the creaky, old paradigm culture would say you should NOT be. A list of perhaps creative, perhaps misfit, and often misunderstood things to actually embrace being:

1:26 Silly

2:52 Lazy

5:17 Alone

6:58 Granny

7:46 Fierce

9:36 Sensitive

12:06 Slow

13:05 Pacing with Nature

Quote:

"At the end of the day, I don’t really care if you’re granny or you're hipster or you like living on a boat or if you want to wear all pink and live in a pink house. What I am advocating for is that you figure out what’s really you, what makes you happy, and you be that, rather than be things because the conditioning told you it would make you good, or nice, or likable, or palatable, or hire-able, or desirable. At the end of the day, it takes a lot of work to figure out who we really and truly are. It takes a lot of untangling not to care so much what others think that you let it dictate how you live. It takes a lot of courage to live or work in ways very different from the status quo.”

Happy Holidays to all!

~Jessica

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In Episode 13, Jessica examines the AI portrait trend in the context of a collective move towards virtual realities and advancing artificial technologies, and decides she remains decidedly on the analog side of the tracks. Also featured: the magnificent woods analogy, the childlike “But why?” approach to NFTs, disconnection, distraction, the misapplication of human genius—and why analog might be the best, most magical, medicine.

Topic: An analog vs. artificial approach to life

1:30 The analogy of the “magnificent woods”

3:15 Google’s telling questions about the Metaverse

3:56 The trouble with convoluted and overly complex new technologies

6:50 Analog over AI

8:05 A list of analog magic

10:13 Technological advancement + human distraction = loss of power

14:05 Analog medicine

Quotes:

“When someone is touting something that is so convoluted and complex that to simply explain or understand it, such that people with advanced degrees struggle to explain it clearly and people with advanced degrees have to go searching and digging to understand it clearly… then I think we still have some work to do.”

"The thing is, it’s so incredibly simple and yet so incredibly difficult to truly be right here, fully present in the now, in this analog world, that most of us cannot do it."

"I think the more we head down a road that is more artificial, that is disconnected from the present, from the physical moment and physical body and physical experience, without a really conscious examination of why and how and where we’re headed, it just has this trap of being, I think, a real distraction at best, and a dangerous path, at worst.”

More writings & musings from Jessica @jessica.ann.wilbert

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Have we, as women, essentially been sold a lie?

In episode 12, Jessica ponders the path for women, feminism, and “having it all” of the last 70 or so years—and supposes that we might actually be crippled by and losing out because of our expectations of having the perfect career, relationship, kids, home, social life, etc.

Listen on for a surprising take on feminism, the mathematical impossibilities of the myth of the modern successful woman, and the radical notion of a successful life of NOT having it all.

Topic: The lie of "having it all" for women

00:30 The feminism disclaimer

2:38 Have we been sold a lie?

4:35 From Stepford to the other extreme

5:30 The myth of single parenthood

7:07 The masculine work world

8:26 A mathematical impossibility

9:38 “Less & well" instead of “all”

10:50 Intentionally choosing

Quotes:

“Is it possible that we as women have essentially been sold a lie? So what I’m talking about here is this notion that I think we’ve been fed that we are supposed to have and do it all—I’m speaking about having a high-powered career, or at least a successful full-time one, and a family, and be the perfect mom, and have a partner and the perfect relationship, and the perfect social life, and be fit and beautiful and travel and have a house that looks like it walked off the pages of House & Garden."

“My sinking suspicion here is that we progressed from an imbalanced dynamic where women couldn’t pursue what they desired, and didn’t have agency to make decisions, to a place where I feel like we might actually be crippled by our expectation of taking on all of it, or having it all and succeeding at all of it.”

"Could we envision a world where it is just as lauded to choose to devote our attention to one, or two, or three of these major life areas—work, home, partner, children, spiritual growth, and even self—and have that be enough? Could we consider it successful to NOT have it all? Maybe that’s the 'having it all' that I want us to have—to intentionally choose what we prioritize and value in our lives, no matter how it's perceived or what anyone else thinks or how unusual or dichotomous it might be, but to really know our time and energy and attention are precious and finite resources, and resource them mindfully, intentionally, authentically, fully, richly.”

More writings & musings from Jessica @jessica.ann.wilbert

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