Episode 102: The Year I Hid (But Not Really) + Your 2025 Visibility Plan with Chef Carla Contreras
Podcast
Episode 102: The Year I Hid (But Not Really) + Your 2025 Visibility Plan with Chef Carla Contreras
“It’s okay to do it afraid.” —Chef Carla Contreras
As I close out 2024, I am getting honest with myself about the milestones I hit in this past year. I received awards and recognitions that I would have encouraged my clients to share across all social media platforms, but didn’t.
What I’ve learned this past year as a content creator is that even when you think you are hiding, your work is still visible especially, if you have the courage to press publish. This episode sparked an idea that's been simmering.
Press Publish Club is the space for you to be in community with fellow courageous creatives + entrepreneurs. Join us before Monday January 6th and get a bonus 30-minute Content Strategy Session (worth $150.00). Press Publish Club
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform while you cook, clean, or create. Get the full show notes & transcript below.
What’s in This Episode:
This episode is an invitation for you to get visible, for you to show up fully, as my previous podcast said.
I tell you about the behind the scenes of my own content creation and invite you to think about how you’ve been both visible and invisible in 2024.
Maybe you might feel the safety of hiding from the big audiences or staying off of social media when there’s an influx of comments to respond to.
But the work still has a life of its own in these digital spaces. And people see it, celebrate it, and feel inspired by it on the other side of the screen.
You’re invited to respond to the journal prompts below and if you need support join us inside Press Publish Club
What ways were you visible in 2024?
What ways were you invisible in 2024?
What ways do you want to be visible in 2025?
Do you need support in doing that? What is going to make you feel more confident in being visible?
Topics Covered:
Celebrating that being seen is PART of the creative process. Being witnessed and sharing your work is how your creativity reaches others
Sitting with the terrified feelings of being visible and how my coach, Christine Ajasafe, reminds me it’s okay to show up afraid, too
How my friend and grief coach, Tammy Faulds, unpacked the different layers hiding and landed on the metaphor of being inside the pillow-fort
The ways I was visible in 2024 and the ways I hid as well as my intentions for 2025.
What’s Your Visibility Plan for 2025? Leave a comment on Substack or send me a DM @chefcarlacontreras to share your visibility journey with me
xo Chef Carla
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Disclaimer: Always seek the counsel of a qualified medical practitioner or other healthcare provider for an individual consultation before making any significant changes to your health, lifestyle, or to answer questions about specific medical conditions. This podcast is for entertainment and information purposes only.
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About Carla Contreras
I am a content strategist, podcast host, and food stylist. I work with entrepreneurs, brands, and small businesses to grow their presence on and offline. My work has been featured in publications like Apartment Therapy and Well+Good.
I have worked on hundreds of photo shoots for well-known brands as a food stylist, photographer, recipe developer, art director, and digital content creator. For over 25 years, I've worked professionally in the food industry and have been featured on Chopped! on the Food Network.
I am the host of the Nourishing Creativity podcast. My endless curiosity for wellness and personal growth has led me to become a certified health coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and The Nutritious Life Studio. I am also a Master Reiki practitioner, meditation teacher, and mother of two.
When I am not working 1:1 with my clients, or recording an episode of the Show Up Fully Podcast. You can catch me: Going to the farmer’s market with my family, doing Pilates, or sipping Green Smoothie Soup
Find + Work With Carla:
Full Transcript:
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, episode 1 0 2. This is all about visibility. It's also about hiding. I am so curious of what you think about this episode. I'm going to start with a few deep breaths. And the reason I'm doing this is because visibility being seen can be triggering. I know for my own nervous system, even the thought of being visible, even though I've done tv, I have this podcast I'm seeing in all of these different places and spaces, I still get really nervous. So if it's safe, close your eyes and if not, leave them open or save this for another time. But we're going to take three deep breaths together, and you can do this sitting, standing, or lying down. Take a deep breath in your nose and out your nose or mouth in your nose, out your nose or mouth, and one more time in your nose and out your nose or mouth.
(02:05)
Part of the creative process is sharing those creative projects, is sharing your words, your photographs, your videos, your art in whatever way, shape or form. And we've talked about it on this podcast of so many different ways, but part of that creative act is being seen, is being witnessed now. Yes. Can you keep things to yourself? A hundred percent. I probably have, I don't know, 50,000 photos and maybe a thousand videos that have not been seen. And yes, I've created them for social media and I've kept them to myself. That is one of the ways that I stay hidden is that I don't share. But one of the ways that I am visible is creating content through brands, is supporting other people as a content strategist to create their content, to create their websites, social media, to create their substack, their podcasts, and to share their magic in the world.
(03:26)
I'm also seen as an industry leader, and as much as I want to hide from that, sometimes nourishing creativity is a top 5% podcast in the world. And that blows my mind that out of 95% of other podcasts, mine is in that 5%. This is because you tune in. This is because you listen and you listen to my art. You listen to my creativity, my stories, and the stories of creatives and entrepreneurs about their creative process and their creative blocks. And that was all born from a creative idea that I had to start nourishing creativity as a podcast and as a Substack newsletter. And what's interesting to me is that I was honored by the Institute for Integrative Nutrition as 20 24, 1 of them IN innovators. And this one really, it shocked me when I received the email. I was like, wait a minute. They have the wrong person.
(04:49)
How am I an innovator? And it's interesting because there sounds like there might be worth or worthiness or lack of deservingness, but it's none of those. It's really that I'm going to be seen in front of thousands of people and on an innate level to be seen by thousands of people. It is natural to be scared. It is natural to be afraid. I can stand in my worth, which by the way, you are innately worthy, but I also can be afraid and show up afraid. And I have a podcast that's coming up with Christine Ajasafe. She is a friend and a coach of mine. And we talk about this. We talk about that it's okay to do it afraid it's okay to do it when you are terrified. And I did put up a post on Instagram, and what's interesting to me is that I didn't respond to the comments.
(06:03)
I responded to some of them, but I was like, okay, I'm going to put this up and I'm terrified. And I've sat with this and I met with my friend who's coming on this podcast who is a grief coach. She's been on the podcast a number of times. Her name is Tammy Faulds. And she reminded me of the ways that I was hiding in our session. And I will share that it's kind of like when you were a child, and this may be true or not true for you, or maybe you've seen children do this, is build a pillow fort, or my kids love to do this with blankets. And when they're in that world, they're hidden, they're unseen. Of course I see them, I know that they're there. But this was the analogy that Tammy and I connected. We're like, okay, I may think that I'm in the pillow fort, but people are noticing my work. They're noticing what I create. They're noticing that I put in effort. And even though I may be afraid and literally afraid right now, I'm like, oh my goodness. I'm telling you the behind the scenes of hiding. There was another really big honor that I had this year. It was to be a woman to watch on Bobbi Brown.
(07:38)
And when this landed in my inbox, I was like, wait a minute. What? There are incredible women that are in this publication, and so many of them are famous. These people have done major things in the world. And here I am. I'm a chef by training. And if you didn't know, I cooked for Evolution 18 as a recipe developer and a food stylist. Bobby Brown had a supplement company before she launched Jones Road. And I got so much joy out of creating and cooking for her, cooking for the team, doing photo shoots. She captured all of that in a beautiful substack post. And when it landed, I shared it. I instantly shared it. But did I share it on Instagram, LinkedIn, like all the places? No. And this is where I call myself out. If I was my own client teaching myself content strategy, would it have gone out to LinkedIn, Instagram, would I have made an Instagram story?
(08:56)
There might've been a reel, maybe a carousel post. But here of all the ways as a visible person who can sometimes be invisible shows up in the world. And what I am doing by sharing this is number one, making this very real of the ways that I was visible and invisible in 2024. But also I'm inviting you to consider the same questions. These are two questions. Maybe you want to journal about them, maybe you want to think about them. Maybe you want to walk around the block and think about this. What ways were you visible and what ways were you invisible? And you get to define that. I don't get to tell you that if you didn't post on Instagram five reels every single week and 10 stories every single day that you failed, absolutely not. You get to determine the ways in which you were visible, you were invisible.
(10:09)
And I just told you the ways that I was invisible. I didn't answer the comments for the IN Innovator Award. I still haven't answered those comments, but I'm going to answer those comments. And number two, I did not share the woman to watch on any other platform besides substack and sharing it with my email list. Now, was that enough? Sure. Could I share it more widely? A hundred percent. Will I do that? Yes. Because we're here together and we're supporting each other. This is scary business for me as an introvert, as a projector in human design, as a mostly Pisces in my chart, which means that I'm behind the scenes. There are so many ways that I can be hidden. There are so many ways that I can try to hide myself, but everyone can see the pillow fort. And this is my intention for 2025, and I'm going to invite you to consider too, what ways do you want to be visible in 2025?
(11:28)
Is that finally launching your substack? Is that launching a podcast? Is that creating a website? Is that posting on social media? Is that doing in-person workshops? What are the ways that you want to be visible? What are the ways that you want to be seen? And the next question is, do you need support in doing that? Do you need to hire someone like me who does content strategy, website strategy, who supports people in launching their substack, who helps them with their Instagram bios, LinkedIn bios, and pulls the content strategy together? What is going to make you feel more confident in being visible? This episode is an invitation for you to get visible, for you to show up fully, as my previous podcast said, and for you to share it with me. I would love to hear your thoughts either on Substack, leave a comment or send me a DM on Instagram. 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.