Episode 104: The BTS of Hosting a Summit with Deb Driscoll Founder of Big Life Magic
Podcast
Episode 104: The BTS of Hosting a Summit with Deb Driscoll Founder of Big Life Magic
"I get an inspired idea and I just start creating." —Deb Driscoll
This week’s episode is the first live Nourishing Creativity episode. I’m joined by repeat guest Deb Driscoll, an author, spiritual teacher, and energy guide. Her playful approach to intuition and the creative process is a joy!
In this episode, Deb shares how her priorities have shifted since her last podcast episode to focus on being an author with a business. She shares that was not giving herself the space to create, there was always another to-do!
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast platform while you cook, clean, or create.
What’s in This Episode:
Importance of Pausing and Breathing: Deb talks about the significance of stopping, pausing, and breathing to connect with your creativity and intuition.
Definition of Magic: Deb defines magic, “as the intentional direction of energy” and shares how it relates to creativity.
Current Relationship with Creativity: Deb shares her journey of prioritizing her writing and creative projects, she is an author with a business.
IN Your INTUITION Summit: Deb explains the purpose and structure of the summit, which aims to empower women to claim their intuitive wisdom, join the summit
Challenges and Creative Process: Deb discusses the challenges she has faced while organizing the summit and how she has incorporated rest and self-care into her process.
Listen to Deb’s previous podcast, Episode 96: Healing is a Creative Process with Deb Driscoll Founder of Big Life Magic here
I am excited to hear your thoughts! Let’s continue the conversation on IG. Tag me @chefcarlacontreras and @biglifemagic
Eat Well,
xo Chef Carla
PS: Are Substack curious? Listen to this podcast episode about building your new digital home on Substack. Our next workshop is Saturday 3/1.
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 Deb Driscoll
Debra supports women to claim their magic through energetic alignment and intuitive mastery.
Debra has practiced and taught spiritual development and healing practices for over twenty-five years. Using intuitive guidance, spiritual practice, and integrative energy tools, Debra supports women to tap into their magic so they can heal, transform, and expand. Debra invites women to BE HER, the woman who is active in seeking and building her big life and saying YES to the magic within.
The heart of BIG LIFE MAGIC is the virtual community, The Big Life Magic Makers. Inside the community, Debra teaches mastery classes, as well as offers community events that support you to align with what magic means to you.
In her 1:1 intuitive guidance work, Debra supports people on a loss to magic journey so they can alchemize their grief, losses, and life experiences. She also offers Elite Energy Alignment for women who identify as living their big life, and seeking energetic support to align and maintain the work they create in the world.
Debra works globally with women. She lives with her husband on the island of Tobago where they are building their own BIG LIFE MAGIC.
Debra is the author of A Series of Surrender ~ A Memoir of Grief and Host of the YOU ARE THE MAGIC Podcast.
Find + Work With Deb:
Full Transcript:
Carla Contreras (00:01):
Episode. Oh, it says, we've noticed it's your subscribers, episode 1 0 4. This is my first live podcast ever for Nourishing Creativity. We are hosting this on Substack. If you're new to Nourishing Creativity, this is a podcast where I talk to creatives and entrepreneurs. Oh, it says live right now. Did we go live before? Don't know. We're just going to roll with this. And this is the first episode again of Nourishing Creativity Live. I'm here with my friend Deb Driscoll, who has been on this podcast before. And if you don't know me, I'm Carla Contreras. I'm a content strategist and a food stylist. Deb, can you introduce yourself and how you serve your community for people that have not listened to your podcast episode?
Deb D (00:54):
Hi everybody. Hey, I'm Deborah Driscoll, but I'm Deb d. That's who I vibe at these days. And I'm the founder of Big Life Magic, which is a multiverse, which invites women to claim their intuitive wisdom or reclaim it. And I work with women in community one-on-one and also retreats here on my beautiful island home in Tobago.
Carla Contreras (01:23):
Deb, I normally ask, what was your last meal? But I'm going to invite you to share with us a way to pause.
Deb D (01:35):
So something that I say often when I'm like, I say it to myself, I say it in the community of women who I work with because I have a virtual global community called the Big Life Magic Makers, or just one-on-one when I'm doing some work with amazing women leaders. And it's a simple stop, pause, breathe to just, and the idea is that particularly as women, we're just go, go, go, go, go. And someone's always wanting our attention and sometimes we may stop, but we don't always stop to take the pause and the breathe, and this is what our bodies want, our creativity wants and what our intuition wants. So maybe we can all just take the biggest deepest breath we've taken all day in this moment, and I lovingly invite you to stop, pause, breathe.
Carla Contreras (02:35):
Such an energy shift. One breath.
Deb D (02:38):
Yeah. Yeah, that's it. It's like we are constantly breathing. Our breath is our companion. It's always there with us, but so many of us are living lives where we're breathing up into the upper chest, whereas our full expansiveness is down in the belly. And that's where when we invite this, the biggest, deepest breath I've taken all day, that's when we can get down to that belly where it's juicy. Yeah.
Carla Contreras (03:12):
Deb, I normally ask how do you define creativity as my big question, but you've answered this on the podcast before, I feel like, and I just listened to your podcast in the summit, which we will get into. But I would love for you to talk about magic in your definition and how creativity and magic are BFFs.
Deb D (03:39):
Yes, please. So because I am a spiritual teacher and an energy guide, and my business is called big life magic, I get asked often, what is magic? And I found myself in this answer so many times. I was like, I want a concise answer that I own, that I believe that aligns with me. And so I found it. I've created my own definition of magic, which is the intentional direction of energy,
Carla Contreras (04:10):
Which
Deb D (04:11):
Means we hold our own magic. We decide each day, where is my energy going? And when we are working with our magic or our energy or our creativity or our intuition, choose the word that feels good for you. Today, when we're working with it, when we're consciously working with it, we're intentionally directing. We're directing towards, I want to create more abundance or I'm directing towards, I want to really give space for my creativity because I'm writing book number two this year, and it's intentional direction of energy that is coming from us that we can create because we're creative beings, we're the great creations, but it's also coming from the universe. It's also coming from other people in our world. It's coming from the work that we create. So magic is going in intentional directions, ping ponging all over the place in this beautiful kaleidoscope of color and possibility and potential. But in my work, I remind women, you are the magic. Well, actually all people, but I say women because I work with women, you're the magic. You get to decide what direction is your energy going, in what direction is your creativity moving in.
Carla Contreras (05:30):
Yeah. And then that's my next question because I know that on our last podcast, the second book wasn't there.
Deb D (05:41):
Well, I remember actually. Yeah,
Carla Contreras (05:43):
Right. It wasn't there. So I want to ask you, what's your current relationship with creativity? And I want to have this open-ended of the book dropped in and you created this summit. So can you bring both of those into this conversation?
Deb D (06:01):
Yes, please. For those who haven't spent some time with Carla and myself, when I was on Nourishing Creativity, I did speak a lot about creativity and creative blocks, and there's really beautiful creative process I had in writing my first book, a series of surrenders, and then I spoke about my current relationship with creativity, which was months ago. Now, Carla, which months ago, it was months ago. And I was frustrated because I didn't feel like creativity had enough space. And so my current relationship with creativity is owning it. I'm a complete creative being. I love creating content for my community. I love just playfully being in creativity. I completely own it. But one of the big shifts that I made for myself, which is just work in a treat I must say, is I had this reflective process sometime late last year, and I was like, wow, the reason I'm not writing book number two is because I'm spending a lot of time in building my business,
Carla Contreras (07:12):
And
Deb D (07:13):
That is a worthy venture. Anyone who's built a business, it takes a little bit of effort and a whole lot of time and some money, and you're learning stuff, and whoa, it's a whole wonder, wonder world. And I was like, well, my business is actually at a point where I understand what I want to do and who I want to serve and how I'm going to rock and roll. So what I'm going to do moving forward is this. I'm not a business owner, I'm a writer who has a business. So I just shifted it. I put my desire at the top of the list because my desire kept getting pushed down. I want time to write, I want time to write. And I never found that time because my business, it's never going to stop demanding. That's what a business does when it wants to grow, when it's serving people, when it has its own inspiration, it's never going to stop demanding that list is never going to be complete. There's always going to be something to work on in the business. And I was like, you know what? You don't get to win anymore business. You are not on top of the list. Me being a writer is on top of the list because part of the reason I'm building the business is because I love teaching. I love sharing about spiritual practice. And my biggest dream is to be able to share that with the widest audience, which I believe books can do.
(08:34)
Another reason why I created this summit, big audience, I have a desire for reaching women all the way across the world. So I'm like, okay, I love working one-on-one with people. I love when people come here to the island for a retreat that's really special and beautiful work, and I want to reach thousands. Let's start creating summits. Let's start writing the book. And I had this really beautiful moment on my birthday, so this is less than two weeks ago. Happy birthday to me. Happy birthday. Thank you. Thank you very much. I'll receive, I woke up on the morning of my birthday as I do before dawn, which is my writing time. And normally it's like, it used to be my writing time of what am I working on in my business or how am I going in my relationships? A little bit of that journaling kind of time. And I've just had more intention about it recently. And I woke up on the morning of my birthday and book number two just started to flow. And I was like, wow. I got the present that I wanted, and I did the outline of the introduction and the first chapter. And all that I'm writing about in book number two is wrapped into the summit. It's wrapped into what I teach. It's wrapped into the global community. It's all become one. It's like these little creative fires have come together to create a bonfire.
Carla Contreras (10:02):
So for those that aren't familiar with the summit, can you tell us number one, what the summit is? Number two, who is part of it? All those little details that really is making this juicy magic with inside of this private community?
Deb D (10:23):
Yeah, it's happening right now. We're at day three of the summit. So we officially opened on Sunday the ninth, and then Monday through Friday, we have amazing interviews dropping by women across the world who are experts in their field, but are also experts in intuition to Carla being one of them. Carla's interview was featured yesterday, and so the summit is into your intuition summit and it's an audio summit, 30 minute interviews with amazing wise women and their relationship to intuition and how they use it in their work and why it matters. And the whole idea around the summit is to empower women to claim it, to claim their intuitive wisdom, because it is one of the powers that cannot be taken away from us. We get to claim it, and then we can have it as a navigation tool or a compass in our life.
(11:23)
It can enrich our lives. And a part of the reason why I have created this summit now is because late last year, our hearts were broken yet again. The world watched a woman almost take a seat of power and then get knocked off in the 11th hour. And I heard the hearts breaking all over again, and I was like, wow. As women, we are working really hard to claim we are working it. We have been working it for years, and we keep getting knocked back. And so I was like, we're not going to work for it anymore. We're just going to claim it. We're just going to claim our own leadership. We're going to claim our own sovereignty and woman by woman. The more that we claim it, the more we're going to own it and embody that. And then things will really start to shift because they'll shift within us.
Carla Contreras (12:28):
I want to take a pause so much to bring in, and also there was a massive amount of creation behind the scenes of creating this. And one of the questions that I asked on the podcast is moving through creative blocks, but I want to say that you've had challenges. This hasn't been easy peasy, but you've moved through in different ways and also have built in. We've texted, you've built in times of rest, you've built in ways to take care of yourself. Can you tell us about that?
Deb D (13:15):
Yeah. I'm the type of creative, whereas when I get an inspired idea, I just start creating and I make the plan up as I go along. It's a part of how I'm designed and how I create. And so when I was like, yeah, we're going to do a summit early next year for women to claim back their power and intuitive wisdom, and I connected to the 13 women and I started to do the interviews, which were all prerecorded. And that alone was a beautiful creative process. But when you get to the place where I was at, where I was like, okay, so I'm inviting hundreds of women from across the world into a secure online platform so we can feel free to express ourselves, to meet the speakers, have live popup events where the interviews are hosted. This is different type of creativity because this is where creativity meets tech and it's a different type of creativity.
(14:11)
And what I realize is that this is a learning edge for me. And one of the things I've been doing in this creative process is asking for help, saying yes to all support that comes. And I just keep reminding myself, this is your first time, Deb. You're not going to get everything, but you're going to give it a red hot go, which is what I've been doing because lots of things have gone wrong. And then the solution has been found. There has been a lot of frustration. But then there's also been so much delight, like Carla, the messages I'm getting from women this week as they're engaging in the community, as they're listening to these interviews, like we're changing, women are getting turned back on as creative beings and realizing I've got some choices here. And it's amazing. And the thing that supported me being the seed of support in the whole thing is I'm remembering why am I doing this? Why am I doing this? And I'm doing this because I believe in the power of women, and I believe in creating safe spaces for women so they can remember how freaking magical they're, but that's my job. That's my soul assignment. That's why I'm here working through frustrating tech. Why am I creating this big thing? Because this is what I'm here to do.
Carla Contreras (15:38):
And you're doing it so well, and you're leading by example. And I am so grateful that you came on and who knows how this podcast is going to turn out, and I can't wait to hear it. But you were my first podcast live Yay here on Substack, and I'm so incredibly grateful that we could do this together and share space. Deb, how can people work with you? How can they find you? How can they support you?
Deb D (16:11):
Yeah. Well, if you are listening live or in the next couple of days, the summit is still open. You are not too late. You can go to big life magic.com. You'll see a banner on the homepage that's going to direct you to How to Sign Up for the Summit. It's completely free. There's 13 amazing interviews that you can listen to at any time. There's no set times. And then we do have a community space with popup live events that you're welcome to join or not. You choose your own adventure. So if you are listening, what's today? Today's the 12th of February.
(16:45)
If you're listening within the next couple of days, hop on in because it is liquid gold and you are welcome to join us. And if you're catching this later, don't you worry there's more magic down the line. And I invite you to go to Big Life Magic, my website, because there's all the ways to play. Whether you want to connect with the women in the global community, whether you want to connect one-on-one with me, or maybe you want to come hang out at the beach with me and make some magic on the island of Togo, which is another way I work. But it's all found at big life magic com.
Carla Contreras (17:19):
Thank you, Deb. I'm so grateful for you. Thank you everybody for tuning in live and listening on the podcast, sending you all love. I'll talk to you soon.
Deb D (17:32):
Thank you. Love you.
Carla Contreras (17:34):
Love You. Bye.