I’m switching things up. No more intro or outros.

Just straight into the good stuff — the conversations.

Because honestly? The production side was slowing me down.

And I’ve got too many amazing people to talk to.

This new format means:

• Faster episode releases.
• More creative stories.
• Easier to share on YouTube.

Over the summer, I’ve been deep in three big projects:

• Moving to Costa Rica — adjusting to new rhythms and finding inspiration in everyday life.
• The Creativity Summit — bringing together creative minds from around the world.
• The Global Zine Project — a beautiful collaboration with artists everywhere.

I’ll be sharing conversations with some of the folks behind those projects soon.

Plus, I’ve started a new series called Standout Authors Unbound — interviewing 100 authors through Substack Lives and written Q&As. It’s all about spotlighting writers whose voices deserve to be heard.

And somewhere in between it all, I’ve been thinking…

Maybe my move story wants to become something more — a book, a play, a TV script? Who knows.

So yeah — things are changing.

More curiosity, more conversations, and way more creativity.

Hey, all.

Welcome back to the standout creatives.

And today I just wanted to do a little bit of an update episode.

And the first thing I'm going to talk about is a big shift in the way that I'm going to be formatting these podcasts from now on.

I'm going to be dropping the intro and the outro little pieces, because each of those takes a little bit of time and effort to put together.

And I think that's one of the things that has kept me from consistently posting.

So we'll go straight into the conversations because these are really the meat and potatoes of what is happening in the podcast, so you'll be able to listen to those much more quickly.

They're just slowing me down a little bit.

So hopefully I'll be able to get a lot more stuff out there once I strip all that down to the essentials.

This way I can also get these episodes onto YouTube because one of the things that was preventing me from doing that was the idea that I need to have this whole intro and outro ready to go for each episode and need to be unique and all that.

But I think what everyone is really interested in is all the great ideas coming from these conversations with amazing creative people.

So hopefully once I get to that, I'll be able to streamline things and get to the episodes much quicker and you'll be able to hear all the amazing people I've been talking to.

There are also a couple of other creative things that I went through throughout the summer, starting in June and ending sometime around August that took up a lot of my time.

And I don't want to make excuses, but these were huge creative endeavors that really got to all my time and attention, rightfully so.

And the first one is my move to Costa Rica in the beginning of June.

I did talk about that a little bit in a previous episode.

Along with that, I also did something called the Creativity Summit, where a bunch of different creative people got together.

We had a few presentations on how you can live and embody a more creative life.

There are some storytelling elements to all of that, and one of the things I do regret is not talking more about that here on the podcast, but hopefully there'll be some more of those in the future.

I did that with two very amazing creative people and Mark and Nikki, and hopefully you'll get to meet them soon and we'll talk about that in an episode of its own, because that was something that was really mind blowing for all of us to really have done that and put that together.

And the last one is the Global Zine Project, which was a collaboration of a bunch of different artists online, mostly through Substack and.

And we compiled this PDF of all of these different entries from across the world into one Global Zine.

And I will talk about that with the link in a little bit.

And I'd also like to shout out Steven and Tess for helping to get that project together because they were very instrumental, especially Slart Stephen, who was the originator of this idea.

So it would not have been possible without them.

And I did also want to announce a new series that I am trying to put together called Standout Authors Unbound.

And the idea here is to interview 100 authors through Substack Lives, YouTube Lives and written Q&As with whatever format feels best for authors.

And really it's about getting their voices out there, amplifying voices that have been suppressed.

I want to talk to marginalized communities, anyone that really has a story that hasn't been able to get them out there.

And I want to show you that you can shine as an author, you can stand out, and it's possible, you know.

And another thing that I mentioned previously with my creative journey to Costa Rica, and the story that I've.

I'm still writing to this day is about my journey in Florida, why we decided to leave, how we let go, saying goodbye to all those things in Florida that we had and loved and really starting anew in Costa Rica, including the day of the flight, our journey here, the first couple of weeks, and really getting accustomed to a new life here.

And through that, I also want to do a little bit of creative work myself with turning into something like a book, a play or a TV script and see where it goes.

That doesn't mean it's going to make its way out into the world, but it is something that I have been thinking a lot about because it's been really fun to write and I love for you to really check that out.

And that's just a reminder that we need to follow our curiosity in all the things that we're doing, especially on the creative front, because if you don't do that, what are we really doing with our creativity?

We really need to be using it to the best of our abilities.

And just a few other things.

I know there's a lot on my plate already, but a lot of things that have been sticking into my mind from before were creativity parties.

I did talk a little bit about that, and at this point I think it's going to be a more virtual thing.

And that's really a spin on the summit where it'd be a single day where creative business owners would get together, we would work on our things, we would break through barriers, we would help each other, keep each other accountable and all that kinds of stuff.

And I'd love to start running those with all of you.

And that's really it for this update.

I am going to be moving most of my operations over to Substack, so if you want to follow me there, that is standout creativebusiness.substack.com and that's where I'll be writing all about my journey.

I'm still doing that.

You can read about all of those things.

You can check out the podcast episodes which I'll be releasing there, as well as on your favorite podcast players.

And if you wanted to check out the Global Zine project, it is globalzine.substack.com and there you can find the latest post which has a link to where you can download the Global Zine and see for yourself all the amazing things that people contributed to that because it was such an amazing and beautiful project.

Yeah, I just wanted to keep you up to date on this new direction that I'm taking, and it's all about making it easier for me to share, connect and experiment with all of you.

And I'd love to continue talking to you, sharing with you, experimenting with you, and just having a really fun time standing out as creatives, because I know that's what we're all trying to do in this world, really.

So visit my substack, look out for more episodes, and I'll see you soon.

Okay, bye.