Episode 88: Do You Create for Pleasure? Pivoting into Purpose with Life & Mindset Coach Melissa Hoffmann
Podcast
Episode 88: Do You Create for Pleasure? Pivoting into Purpose with Life & Mindset Coach Melissa Hoffmann
"It's about exploration, it's about play, and it's about having fun." — Melissa Hoffmann
This week’s episode is about finding pleasure in creative expression and the ability to pivot into purpose. I am joined by Melissa Hoffmann, an Intuitive Life and Mindset Coach for women who know they’re meant for more.
Get the Full Show Notes & Transcript here Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or on your favorite podcast platform.
What’s in This Episode:
Melissa shares her pivot from makeup artist to coach and how she has infused creativity in each step of her journey. We chat about making art simply for pleasure and to nourish yourself instead of seeking external validation.
She also talks about how to find balance when creativity is a big part of your work. We then discuss the creation of her newest offer, Soul Portraits, and how it builds on her other project, the Pivot Into Your Purpose podcast.
Melissa then highlights how creativity to come back to their path. Don’t miss Melissa sharing her favorite ways to use oracle cards and tools like EFT, hypnosis, and subliminals to bust through creative blocks!
Topics Covered:
Melissa shares that she finds nourishment in reading fiction and doing watercolor painting.
The difference between creating for pleasure versus creating for work, with Melissa explaining that creating for oneself is more fulfilling and less pressured.
How Melissa created her Soul Portraits offering: Being photographed is a powerful way to express your soul and feel empowered about being visible and being fully seen.
Melissa mentions that creativity plays a role in her coaching, as she helps her clients explore creative activities for their own pleasure and fulfillment.
Pivots and how to know when it’s time to make a change.
Melissa also shares her love for oracle cards and how they spark her creativity.
Melissa discusses the use of EFT, hypnosis, and subliminals in the creative process.
xo Chef Carla
Resources Mentioned:
Download Melissa’s free hypnosis class, Becoming Unapologetic and Bold I love relaxing and listening to this!
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About Melissa Hoffmann:
Hi I’m Melissa! I’m a Life & Mindset Coach for women who know they’re meant for more, and want to rediscover who they are, what they’re purpose is, and believe they can have it so that they can manifest the life they were meant for.
Growing up, I was always taught to be the “good girl”. I felt like I was always supposed to be nice, pleasing to others, never rock the boat, never make anyone mad, and follow the path that all good girls are supposed to follow.
For me this looked like getting good grades, going to college, getting a respectable job and never asking for too much.
I followed this path all the way to landing the job that everyone wanted- being a pharmaceutical sales rep. But inside I felt like I was playing a role. I had this rebellious side of me that was dying to come out, but I felt like I couldn’t because I didn’t want my parents to be disappointed in me, or to be judged by the people around me.
After 7 years in the pharmaceutical industry, I needed to get out. I was tired of keeping myself small and settling for what I was supposed to do and be, and I wanted to start being my unapologetic, authentic self.
I quit my job to pursue my passion of beauty and helping women look and feel more confident in themselves.
After building a successful makeup business, I realized that it wasn't what I thought it would be, and I was meant for more. After some deep soul searching, learning everything I could about photography to add being a boudoir photographer to my creative business, and a lot of personal development work, I became clear on my purpose and mission in life.
I knew I was meant to be a Life Coach and help other women who have felt as stuck as I’ve been. I signed up for a Life Coach training, and haven’t looked back since.
I’m a certified in Life and Transformation Coaching, Trauma Informed Intimacy Coaching, and in Human Design reading. I’m certified in the tools of NLP, EFT, and Somatic Techniques such as Neural Energetic Encoding and Hypnosis.
I work with intuition and energy, and the subconscious mind to re-pattern the thoughts and programs that have been running most of your life that are no longer serving you, so you can step into the woman who creates the life and business she dreams of.
I help you heal the long held stories of not being good enough, or being too much, and understanding who you truly are, so you can create a life that you love.
To learn more about Melissa Hoffmann
Website: www.melissahoffmann.com
Instagram: @melissahoffmann
Download Melissa’s free hypnosis class, Becoming Unapologetic and Bold I love relaxing and listening to this!
Full Transcript:
Chef Carla
(00:01):
Welcome to Nourishing Creativity. The cycle of the last few years has left you and me feeling mentally, physically, emotionally, and creatively drained, nourish your very full life through interviews with creatives and entrepreneurs about how they create and move through their creative blocks. If you don't know me, I'm Chef Carla Contreras, a food stylist and content strategist. You can find me, chef Carla Contreras, across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes.
(00:40)
Hi Melissa. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I would love for you to introduce yourself and how you serve the world. Hi, Carla. Thanks for having me. So I'm Melissa Hoffman and I'm an intuitive life and mindset coach for women who know their meant for more and who are looking to find their purpose and what they're meant to do so they can create lives that light them up and fulfill them and bring them joy. Amazing, amazing. I'm going to ask you about food. Okay. What was your last meal? Well, I love breakfast and I make a good breakfast every morning. And so this morning I had avocado toast with sunny side up eggs on top, and it was really yummy. That sounds delicious. It was. Let's talk about creativity. I know that well from being part of your community for so long, and especially the makeup side and photography side, and even through your coaching creativity weaves its way through.
(01:45)
So I would love to know, how do you nourish your creativity? Yeah, so I'm a very creative person and I think I forgot that when I was in my corporate job and then realized that when I knew I wanted to become a makeup artist. And so creativity has always been a big part of my work, and it still is even though I'm not an artist anymore or making a living as an artist. But I love to do creative things just for fun, just for my downtime, and I also encourage my clients to make creativity a big part of their lives so that they can have that balance and that nourishment, like you talked about, is just so important for us. And so one of the things that I do, actually, there's two things that I do a lot. One of it is reading fiction, which I consider creativity because it just gets your brain going and you are using your imagination as you're reading these stories.
(02:43)
I just love to dive into stories. That is a big part of my nourishment is reading just really juicy fiction. And then the other thing that I do is watercolor painting. And this is something that I picked up during the pandemic and I was encouraged by our good friend Melanie Kluger, who is now a watercolor artist as her profession. And I started doing these watercolor tutorials just for fun, and it just brought me back to when I was a kid and I loved to paint when I was a kid. And even in college, I had forgotten that I had taken this watercolor course and it was so much fun. And then after the course was over for some reason I think I just let life get in the way and I stopped doing it. But getting back into watercolor has just been so fun for me.
(03:34)
I get to be really creative and also there's no pressure because I have a tutorial that I'm following. So the woman that does these tutorials, it just makes it so easy to make beautiful paintings. And then I feel good about them because I've been led through it and I get to play and experiment. And then I love to give them as gifts. And so I painted a lot for my son's room and I've given them to family members. I made one for my son's teacher when she had a baby. And so it's just something that's really fun. And I do all kinds of different tutorials and probably the hardest, but also the most fun are the ones that are more abstract and don't have an outline to follow. And then sometimes I just do them like the same one over and over, but it's so fulfilling for me and just so relaxing.
(04:25)
And then I just feel so good after. That's amazing. Thank you. What is it like to create for pleasure versus create for work? It's so different. And so before I started working as a makeup artist, I loved doing my own makeup. That's how I got into it. And I would be really creative and I just would spend an hour on my makeup when I would go somewhere. And then as I started doing it for work, of course I still loved it, but it was different. It wasn't as pleasurable because I had to please somebody else or I was charging for it. So then I was worried are they going to like it? And I took a lot of their feedback to heart. It was very hard to just not be attached to how they felt about it. And so it was all about them and not about my own pleasure and fulfillment.
(05:23)
And still to this day, I don't even really do my own makeup that much. It's not as fun for me as it used to be, which I'm kind of working through that and trying to still get back into enjoying it just for the sake of myself and expression. But doing art just for my own pleasure is something that's totally different. It's so much more fulfilling and I get to play and have fun, and there's so much less pressure because the results or how I feel about it doesn't depend on someone else. I'm not looking to someone else for their validation, do you like this? I don't care. I'll show my husband. And if he doesn't like it, I'm too bad. I think it's great, or it just doesn't matter. And yeah, it's all about me. And I only pick projects that I think look fun or would look pretty, and if it just goes in a box, that's fine.
(06:22)
It's about the process and it's about playing and connecting to my inner child. I love this. Can we talk about your new photography offer? Yes. And the shift from branding brides, different things to the soul? Yeah. So I'm a manifesting generator, so I like to do lots of different things. I have lots of different passions and a lot of times they are part of my work. And so as a makeup artist, I wanted to learn photography because I wanted to do the whole thing for my clients. And so I was doing, my intention was to do boudoir photography because I love boudoir photography. I think it's so powerful, and as I put this offer out, a lot of women were coming to me for branding. They wanted personal branding, photography. And so I did it for them and it was fun, but it wasn't really what I wanted to do, what I felt creatively inspired to do, because a lot of times it was about their business.
(07:25)
And then even the boudoir photography that I did, it was more about it being a gift for someone. And so it was less about who the woman was and more about how she wanted to present herself either for her potential clients, her audience, or her partner, and less about her. And so I stopped doing photography because it just wasn't feeling as good anymore, but I missed doing it. And so I decided to create a new offer, which is all about the woman and who she is, and just really bringing that out and creating beautiful art that's only for her, that is an expression of who she is and that she can look at and just come back to whenever she has doubts about herself or feels lost, she can come back to these portraits and say, oh, there she is. That's who I am. And feel like she's seeing her soul through these portraits.
(08:24)
And so I call them soul portraits. And so they're not personal branding, they're not boudoir. They might have a sensual side if that's who she is, and they might not. It's all about how she wants to express herself. And what she does with them is totally up to her. Whether she wants to share them with others, put them on the internet, maybe she does want to use them in her business, but it's not about her business, it's about who she is. And so I'm really excited to be able to offer this type of photography, this type of photo shoot experience rather than what I was doing before. That's amazing. Can you tell me about the creative process that led you to that? Because I feel like there's an evolution or maybe a pivot. You have the Pivot to Purpose podcast. How has this pivot happen?
(09:11)
How did it transpire? Yeah, so I forgot to mention in my intro, I'm the host of the Pivot Into Your Purpose podcast, and I have pivoted multiple times, so many times in my adulthood, in my career. And so pivoting into photography was my way of having a deeper impact with my work, because the makeup that I was doing, it was all on the surface, but it did help women feel better about themselves, but often it was sometimes just for one day. And that was why I wanted to get into photography, is to create this deeper impact and to really guide them through this process of feeling comfortable and confident in their own skin being seen. A lot of women are afraid to be in front of the camera. And so I wanted to help them through that and to be able to look at their photos and feel like they loved them and that they loved seeing themselves being photographed.
(10:16)
Because that's the other thing, as women, a lot of times, not only are we afraid to be seen in front of the camera, but when we see our photos, we often will pick them apart. And so I love helping women shift the way they look at themselves in a photo and just realize how beautiful they are exactly in the photo without Photoshop and needing to lose the 10 pounds or whatever the hangups that we have, and just really appreciating the photo, capturing them in that moment. And so that was kind of wanting to have that deeper impact was how I pivoted into photography. And then as I was doing the photography, I realized I wanted to go even deeper than that, and that was where coaching came into play. And so I've shifted into being a life coach for women and that I put photography on the back burner because I had been a little frustrated about only people wanting personal branding, which I just did not want to do.
(11:23)
And so now that I've been doing the photo, I'm sorry, the coaching, it feels natural to bring the photography back, but have it be in a way that is not only I feel more impactful for the woman, but also for myself in a way that feels more fulfilling. And I get to be a different kind of creative director. It's like we're creating a different kind of art together, and it is a collaboration between me and the woman that is getting her taken. So I'm really excited about it. And you use creativity too because you're using creativity inside of your coaching with supporting other women in their creative process. Can you talk about that? Yeah. A lot of the clients that I'm working with, their high achieving women who have followed this path of what they're supposed to do and who they're supposed to be. And a lot of times they get lost along the way because they've been so focused on this end goal of creating this successful career and being seen as this successful career woman, and they've forgotten what makes them them.
(12:35)
And then often they're burnt out and they're not happy and fulfilled in their careers. And so part of my work is helping them figure out what their purpose is and what they're really meant to do and how they can pivot into that, but also how they can feel more balanced in their own life. And creativity is a big part of that. And so often we'll look at what kinds of creative things do they want to do that is purely for their own pleasure and fulfillment and nourishment, relaxation, and has nothing to do with, we're not trying to get them to turn it into a profit. It's not about creating a creative business unless that's what they truly want. But it's about exploration. It's about play. It's about just having fun and being willing to suck at something in the beginning and watching yourself get better and not putting that pressure on yourself.
(13:32)
And so with my clients, I'll encourage them to think about what kind of creative activity would feel fun for you. And a lot of times it's going back to our childhood and seeing what did we enjoy doing as a kid and how can we do that now? And so some of my clients, they'll do painting. They might do photography or drawing. Sometimes it's just coloring in an adult coloring book, which is super fun and very relaxing and meditative. And one of my clients, she felt inspired to start weaving, and she bought a weaving kit and is making just fun little projects. And it's just for fun and it's something better to do for yourself than numbing out on Netflix or I don't know, but something like that. So it's amazing what it does for you and your life and allowing you to be more present in your life and allowing those mental downloads to come in and just, it's so good for your mental health.
(14:39)
So it's been a huge part of my work with my coaching clients as well. That's amazing. Melissa, can you share with me, there is one more new thing. It's your tarot cards. Can you share about that? Because personally and I will share that I have received many readings from you. Can you share with us how that sparks your creativity? Yes. So I have loved Oracle cards. I use mostly Oracle cards, but I loved tarot as well. Just doing the whole spread with tarot is a little intimidating sometimes in remembering what the meanings are of all the cards. But I will often use them just for either inspiration or guidance. So if I'm feeling stuck in my own life, if I have a creative block or just like some kind of mental block, a lot of times I will go to the cards and ask a question or just be open to whatever wisdom the card has for me.
(15:36)
And it just always feels so spot on. It's something that I encourage my clients to do too. And I love to pull cards for my clients because when I can tap into their energy, it feels like I always pull whatever they need to hear in that moment. It's been a fun way for me to connect deeper with my own intuition and also to encourage them to connect with theirs and also for us to have deeper connection because I will often feel that I have this strong psychic connection with a lot of my clients. So it's just something that's really fun. That's beautiful. Thank you. And I feel like it answers my next question of what do you do when you're creatively blocked? Yeah, I take a break because the more you try to force it, the harder it is to figure it out. So if it's a nice day, I might go for a walk with my dog Daisy, or I'll read something, I'll just read something like fiction.
(16:38)
I try to get my brain to relax and not think about it. Almost like emptying out my thoughts, releasing the attachment to finding whatever it is I'm trying to do. And it always comes. And a lot of times I get, when I'm in the shower, I get so many creative ideas and I'm not even trying for them. Or if I'm in the car and I'm listening to a podcast or music, I will always get ideas and I have to try and do my Siri notes and stuff to remember all these downloads that I'm getting. But yeah, I take a break and I let my brain just relax because then once I can release that pressure, it always comes. And it might not be right away, it might be the next day or in a couple days, but it always comes back. And how do you encourage clients when they're creative blocks?
(17:31)
Yeah, I tell them the same thing. To be present, sometimes you have to change your environment, change, shake up what you're doing. So sometimes that's movement with your body, meditating, doing something completely different, just you got to shake it up and just relax your brain and let go of that need that hold to figure out what it is that you need to figure out or that you want to figure out. Just give yourself a break because you're probably pushing yourself too hard or trying too hard, holding on too hard, and it's just sometimes it's just not going to come. So take a break. Take a break. I love that one. So you also have EFT as part of what you do and hypnosis and subliminals. Are any of these practices, can you use them for the creative process? Oh, absolutely. EFT is so great for if you're having some doubts that's causing blocks to release those blocks and to reprogram in new beliefs, new thoughts, it's amazing for that.
(18:40)
Or just creating that belief in yourself or just more positive feelings. Hypnosis is really great for you to shift the way you see yourself or to release, again, releasing old limiting beliefs and reprogramming in new ones. So I think those are really great tools. Subliminals are really great for just while you're doing something on your, you could just be going about your day and having a subliminal talk directly to your subconscious mind and your conscious mind isn't even aware of it. And all it is is just reprogramming in new thoughts, new ways of being and seeing yourself. That's amazing. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I would love to know how we can find you and how we can support you. Thank you so much for having me. This was so much fun. So you can find me on Instagram. I'm mostly on Instagram as far as all the social media platforms go.
(19:37)
And I'm at Melissa M. Hoffman, and that's Hoffman with two Ns. And you can also find me on my website. It's melissa hoffman.com, and I have a free gift if you go on my website. I'm really big with my clients. We talk a lot about manifestation and how you can manifest the things that you want so you can live this life that's full of joy and fulfillment. And so I have my three-step manifestation guide, which is my own personal manifestation process that has worked for me, it works for my clients. And so I have this beautiful workbook that you can download for free and learn this process and also be able to journal around what it is that you're manifesting in your life. Thanks so much for tuning in to Nourishing Creativity. You can find me Chef Carla Contreras across all social media platforms and more information in today's show notes. While you have your phone out, please leave a review on iTunes or Spotify. This is how others find this show. I really appreciate your support sending you and yours so much love.