Create Out Loud With Jennifer Louden Jennifer Louden

Join the conversation with one of the most decorated American distance runner Lauren Fleshman as we discuss the mission that drove her to write her NYT's bestselling memoir Good for a Girl: A Woman Running in a Man's World. We talk about how to write when you have a big story to tell, how to write when depressed, and why it's okay to move on from something that has been your calling. Enjoy!
 
Episode resources: 
Find out how to work with me here.
I'd love you to join me on one of my Retreats or Writing Intensives.
My book, Why Bother: Discover the Desire for What’s Next, is a great resource for learning to create out loud. 
Your feedback is so important to me! You can leave a review on Apple podcasts, or email me at jen@jenniferlouden.com 

Jen recently shared in a solo episode that she's been working her way through burnout and in this episode, she shares her new project and how she approached it in a new way to refind her spark. Is it possible to change our patterns and create out loud without burnout? Let's find out.
 
Episode resources: 
Find out how to work with me here.
I'd love you to join me on one of my Retreats or Writing Intensives.
My book, Why Bother: Discover the Desire for What’s Next, is a great resource for learning to create out loud. 
Your feedback is so important to me! You can leave a review on Apple podcasts, or email me at jen@jenniferlouden.com 

In this bonus episode of Create out Loud, I interview a force of nature, Shannon Watts. In case you don't know Shannon, she founded Moms Demand Action, now the largest women’s volunteer organization in America. She's been called a “summoner of women’s audacity,” named a Time Magazine 100 Most Influential People, a Forbes 50 over 50 Changemaker, and a Glamour Woman of the Year. She writes a popular substack https://shannonwatts.substack.com/about
I'm working as a book coach with Shannon on her new book about helping you find your audacious spark and play with fire to change your world. I wanted to talk to Shannon about this transition she is in after 10 years leading Moms Demand Action, about writing, and about sparks.
If you wonder how someone like Shannon has accomplished her goals and how you can do it too, in your own wonderful unique way, you'll love this episode.
 
Episode resources: 
Find out how to work with me here.
I'd love you to join me on one of my Retreats or Writing Intensives.
My book, Why Bother: Discover the Desire for What’s Next, is a great resource for learning to create out loud. 
Your feedback is so important to me! You can leave a review on Apple podcasts, or email me at jen@jenniferlouden.com 

In this bonus episode of Create out Loud, I explore burnout, the power of quitting, and how your desires are allowed to change - in fact, they must be allowed to morph and grow with you or you will fall into Why Bother.
 
Many of us were raised to believe if you start a project, you have to finish it or you are a failure. But that isn't true! But how to know when to quit, when to change your focus?
 
I'll explore that and more in this short but juicy episode with lots of personal updates including what's happening with my creative life.
 
Episode resources: 
Find out how to work with me here.
I'd love you to join me on one of my Retreats or Writing Intensives.
My book, Why Bother: Discover the Desire for What’s Next, is a great resource for learning to create out loud. 
Your feedback is so important to me! You can leave a review on Apple podcasts, or email me at jen@jenniferlouden.com 

In this last episode of season 2 of Create Out Loud, I share with you some tips for creating out loud, making your thing, finding your desire to create, putting pen to paper (and brush to canvas)... 
 
Listen to the episode to learn: 
 
What it means to give yourself permission to be seen as a creator 
Why quantity over quality can help you produce better work 
My top tip for picking a project up again when it’s been forgotten 
How to be uncomfortable with uncertainty 
How to create a daily habit without becoming prisoner to it 
Why forgetting about talent is one of the best things you can do for your creative work
Why you are not your work and why you need to remember that 
 
This was one of my favorite solo episodes to record, because I got to share with you the tips for creating out loud that I usually only share during one-on-one coaching or on retreats. 
 
Episode resources: 
My book, Why Bother: Discover the Desire for What’s Next, is a great resource for learning to create out loud. 
Your feedback is so important to me! I’d love to bring back Create Out Loud for a third season, but I need your feedback about what you’d like to hear on the new season. You can leave a review on Apple podcasts, or email me at jen@jenniferlouden.com 

Does the thought of the climate crisis decimating our world fill you with thoughts of doom and gloom… 
Thoughts like: 
No matter what I do it doesn’t matter… 
Why bother with ANY of my desires if there won’t be a world to live in?... 
I’m powerless in the face of large corporations that continue to ignore their impact on the planet so they can profit… 
Take a deep breath. And another one. 
In this episode of Create Out Loud, I talk about one of the topics that moved me to write my book, Why Bother? Discover the Desire for What’s Next – climate change. Climate crisis. Climate emergency. 
Instead of stopping the conversation with “we’re doomed”, I’m challenging you in this episode to think about what you can do, as someone who creates.
How can you use your creativity, and your desire to amplify the message, provide support to climate scientists, and spread the message of hope. Because without hope, we give up, and if we give up on trying to solve this problem then we are 100% doomed. 
Do I know if hoping and creating will cause global change? 
No. But I know what the immense cost of doing nothing is. 
Listen to the episode to learn: 
Why you don’t need to be a climate scientist to talk about climate change 
How you can leverage your creativity to make a difference 
Why thinking about global impact will keep you stuck… instead, think about community impact 
Why we need to make the problem smaller and ourselves bigger 
 
Resources: 
A lot of my thinking about climate change is informed by A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety by Sarah Jacquette RayGet your copy here: Amazon | Bookshop

Check out the first chapter of my book, Why Bother: Discover the Desire for What’s Next right here