When was the last time you felt truly moved by something you saw or heard?

It could be a piece of art or music, a line from a book or poem, being with someone you love, or even a perfect bite of food, but those moments that stop us in our tracks are more than fleeting pleasures.

These “glimmers” create space for our bodies to exhale so that we can experience wonder, awe, and joy.

Learning to recognize and lean into these moments isn’t just about respite from the hard things; they help us navigate challenging times by reminding us that humans need connection, creativity, and hope. 

Today’s guest is a multi-disciplinary artist whose work invites us into a world of creativity and intention. It is a testament to the necessity of nurturing creativity and wonder, and what’s possible when we follow their pull as allies in our journey to love and lead with boldness and integrity.

Amanda Jones is an artist, poet, and filmmaker living and working in the northern beaches of Sydney Australia. Amanda studied ‘Contemporary dance and choreography’ at the School of Creative Arts and ‘Styling and creative direction’ at Whitehouse Fashion Institute. She founded her film production company One Minute Film in 2015 working with clients such as The Iconic, Nimble Activewear, and Barre Body. In 2021 Amanda published her first book Diary of a Freelancer, its success shifted her work into her full-time art practice. 

 

 

Listen to the full episode to hear:

• How early experiences at the intersection of creativity and commerce shaped Amanda’s career trajectory
• How Amanda realized that some pieces of her journals were meant to be shared
• Why her journaling practice is vital to both her personal life and her work life
• How Amanda approached self-publishing her book to make it a piece of art and embrace its mistakes
• How balancing play and discipline as she takes on a new medium helps Amanda combat imposter syndrome
• How Amanda protects her creativity and imagination despite our challenging world

 

Learn more about Amanda Jones:

• Website
• Instagram: @amanda______jones
• Diary of a Freelancer

 

Learn more about Rebecca:

• rebeccaching.com
• Work With Rebecca
• Sign up for the weekly Unburdened Leader Email

 

Resources:

• Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead, Brené Brown
• The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron
• The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss
• Bleachers – Tiny Moves
• Drops of God
• Seinfeld

 

Transcript:

[Inspirational Intro Music]

Amanda Jones: It felt very playful. To me, it was this real connection between discipline and mastering a skill and play. It felt like, okay, if I was getting too stressed about getting it right, I couldn’t move forward. I needed to stay in the play space, in the zone of being playful in order to get this right.

Rebecca Ching: When was the last time you felt truly moved by something you saw or heard? You know, those moments that stop you in your tracks? Like a stunning piece of art, a haunting hook in a song, a line from a book or a poem that lingers and echoes in your soul, a warm embrace from someone you love, or even that perfect bite of food. These are more than fleeting pleasures; these experiences awaken our senses, pull us into awe and joy, and offer us a reprieve from the weight we carry with everything going on around us and in the world.

These moments (often called glimmers) are more than just brief respites. They are micro-moments that help our nervous system heal and expand our capacity to navigate life’s challenges. Glimmers are not a luxury. They are a vital source of reminding us to nourish the parts of us that yearn for connection, creativity, and hope. And as leaders and as humans, it’s essential to embrace these glimmers, not as distractions but as powerful allies in our journey to love and lead with boldness and integrity.

I’m Rebecca Ching, and you’re listening to The Unburdened Leader, the show that goes deep with humans who navigate life’s challenges and lead in their own ways. Our goal here on the show is to learn how they address the burdens they carry and how they learn from them and become better and more impactful leaders of themselves and others.

2:17

I love how something small, like a sunset or a riff in a song, a phrase in poetry, or even a line from one of my favorite Substack newsletters can stop me in my tracks, and these seemingly insignificant moments create a space where our bodies exhale, our jaws relax, and we fall into a little space of wonder and awe. This is such a gift when life feels heavy and overwhelming. Our bodies, our brains and nervous systems are designed to catch what Deb Dana calls glimmers.

Deb, a leading teacher of Polyvagal Theory and an upcoming guest here on the podcast, describes glimmers as micro-moments of regulation that foster feelings of wellbeing. They’re small cues like seeing a friendly face or hearing a soothing sound or noticing something beautiful in the environment that spark a sense of safety, connection, or hope. These moments accumulate, gently shifting us towards greater physical and psychological wellbeing. And Deb — and I’m with Deb on this — she reminds us that glimmers are not about toxic positivity or bypassing pain. They don’t erase triggers or neutralize suffering. Instead, they are evidence of the nervous system’s ability to hold both dysregulation and regulation. Glimmers remind us that even in the hardest of days our biology is wired for hope and connection, and the practice of noticing glimmers is essential.

As leaders, we often carry the weight of our own struggles along with the burdens of others’. Learning to recognize and nurture glimmers isn’t trivial. It’s a necessary salve for our overwhelmed hearts and systems. And that’s what happened to me when I first encountered the work of today’s guest, Amanda Jones.

4:15

Amanda is an authentic writer, painter, and videographer, and honestly, truly, a beautiful soul. And when I spoke with her, I kept having this repeat in my head: “It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna be okay.” She just has that impact on you and so does her art. It opens you up, and her book Confessions of a Freelancer and her art series Slow invites us into a world of creativity and tension. It’s just one big, huge permission slip to slow down and to pause. And after spending some time with Amanda’s work, I even felt a pull to create, myself. I found myself researching where I can find unstretched canvases, and I was so inspired by her process of painting on the floor with her hands, immersed in all kinds of color, it felt contagious, this longing to express myself even as parts of me protested, “I’m not a painter! I don’t have time! How much will this cost?” You know, all the objections.

And I ran into a dear family friend who’s an artist and faculty at a nearby university here, and he helped me move through these objections and gave me some wise advice and said, “Don’t overthink it. Just start.” His words felt reckless to parts of my system but, frankly, also liberating, like permission to play without a plan, which to be honest, is what I think many of us need right now, and I suspect you may agree too. And Amanda’s work brought me back to the research of Dr. Stewart Brown, and he describes the essence of play as having the qualities of losing track of time, feeling joy, letting go of self-consciousness. When we create, we allow our nervous systems to expand, holding both the beauty and the fear of the unknown.

6:14

Glimmers like play are vital for our wellbeing and they’re as essential as water, food, and love. And the challenge is, for those of us with a history of trauma, these moments of openness and joy can feel vulnerable and even threatening and intolerable.

Now, Brené Brown warns in Daring Greatly that unexpressed creativity doesn’t just disappear, it festers and becomes malignant, and that’s why nurturing creativity isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity to our wellbeing and impacts how we lead ourselves and others. Amanda really embodies this truth. She’s learned this at a much earlier season than me, [Laughs] than many of us.

Now, our conversation happened right before she embarked on a residency to Tasmania, where she just now launched a new series from that residency all centered on boredom. Yes, boredom, a concept I believe invites us to slow down and explore what emerges when we stop rushing and numbing and pushing through and move through that dis-ease of not doing and Jonesing for that next hit or fix of stimulation. Our relationship with boredom offers us a powerful tell on our capacity for discomfort too.

So as we approach the holiday season and face uncertainty in the year ahead, my invitation to you is this: find the glimmers. Pay attention to what sparks wonder in you. It’s medicine. It’s fuel. And maybe it’s getting your hands messy with paint or strumming a guitar. Perhaps, it’s something quieter like noticing the color of the sky or going for a walk and simply being present with someone you love.

8:08

Let me be clear, this isn’t about bypassing and sugar-coating things. I really want to repeat that and emphasize that. Finding glimmers is about building your nervous system’s capacity to hold discomfort and possibility in equal measure. It’s about creating space for hope and connection even in the face of uncertainty. I want to repeat this. I want to make sure that this is not connected to bypassing at all but expanding our capacity. And Amanda’s work is a testament to what’s possible when we follow that pull towards creativity. I hope our conversation inspires you to honor your own glimmers and lean into what makes you come alive. And in a time where global events and political shifts intensify collective uncertainty, Amanda Jones brings an inspiring reminder to slow down and reconnect, kind of the opposite of what it feels like we should be doing right now.

So let me tell you a little bit about Amanda. She’s an artist, a poet, a filmmaker. She’s living and working in the northern beaches of Sydney, Australia. Even though, fun tip, I learned that her husband is from San Diego, where I live now. Now, Amanda studied contemporary dance and choreography at The School of Creative Arts and styling and creative direction at Whitehouse Fashion Institute. I can’t wait for you to hear about her whole professional journey. I suspect you all might relate and be inspired too.

She founded her film production company, One Minute Film, in 2015 working with clients such as THE ICONIC, Nimble Activewear, and Barre Body. And in 2021, Amanda published her first book The Diary of a Freelancer, and its success shifted her work into full-time art practice, and I’m excited for you to hear how this book came to be too.

10:07

Okay, I have to tell you another fun fact, too, before I lead you into the show. So this is such a tell for me and my Gen X, eighties pop culture moment, but how many of you when you heard the name Amanda Jones kind of had a little, “Sounds familiar,” right? Well, Amanda Jones is one of the main title characters from a sleeper movie, a little bit of a sleeper eighties movie called Some Kind of Wonderful, and she’s such a cool — she had her crush on Eric Stoltz, and she kept it quiet. She was the tomboy. Anyways, this is a different Amanda Jones, but I had to give props out to one of my favorite movies of the eighties, of that genre.

All right, back to me teeing up the episode! Pay attention to when Amanda talks about her writing practice, basically her version of morning pages, and when she knew she had written a book through this practice. And notice when Amanda shares how she embraces not being an expert and how that helps her creativity and clarity expand. And listen for Amanda’s share on her initial jobs and career paths and how that sparked the path that she is on today. Now, please welcome Amanda Jones to The Unburdened Leader podcast!

Amanda Jones, welcome to The Unburdened Leader podcast! This is really an honor.

Amanda Jones: Hi! Thank you for having me!

Rebecca Ching: Ah, there is so much I want to talk about, and I want to start — I want to talk about your art and your writing and filmmaking and how you bring that all together. But I think there are some important things I want to share with the listeners too about just a little bit of your story of work. And I want to start off by taking you back to when you were fresh out of university. You were doing an internship that was toxic, and that stirred up a lot in you. I guess, if you could just talk a little bit about what was toxic about that job at the time?

12:15

Amanda Jones: Yes, oh, I love that. Okay, so we’re back in 2011, 2012 maybe. I think this internship was really the cherry on the cake of that world. The internship itself was not a corporation but with a stylist, so an individual. I was assisting her. She was a bit of a chaotic person. All the textbook sort of, like chaos, wrong ways to treat an intern, calling and yelling at me, and yeah, going through that internship was like the cherry.

So, first, straight out of high school I studied dance at a beautiful creative arts college, quite a small college. It was very nurturing, creatively. It was challenging in a certain way but very nurturing of creativity, and I left there sort of without any kind of clear career path. I really was drawn to the choreography side of dance. The creative director was growing in me, and I left that course really not — finding there was no career path. And so, I decided to go back to study, and this is where I was in this fashion school, quite a semi-prestigious fashion school. It’s Whitehouse Institute. It’s connected to the TV show Project Runway. It was a bit fancy, at least here in Australia. And it was the very sort of corporate and commercial sort of side of creative work, much more like the more traditional industry, I guess.

14:07

But being here in Sydney, Australia, there’s not a huge thriving creative industry here, so I think the culture is quite like a scarcity sort of culture, that if you are winning, I’m losing. “If you’re getting a job, I’m missing out.” Yeah, so I’d come through this course thinking, “Oh, this is going to help me,” because I needed a career. I needed to make money. I needed to make this my work. But I remember one day she — and it wasn’t a long internship. I was only with her for a few months. But I was out on a job returning clothes and jewelry to these fancy PR agencies, and she called me and yelled at me, and I was crying in the car, and I had to walk into this fancy office. And the receptionist there, like a young girl, had seen that I was crying, and she brought me a glass of water —

Rebecca Ching: Ah.

Amanda Jones: — which made me cry more because it was like this act of kindness in this harsh, scary environment. And then she pulled out — I’ll never forget. This was so many years ago, but she pulled out a pack of tissues with bunnies on it, and it was just so sweet. But the thing that struck me was she looked at me. She didn’t really say much. But she said — she had, like, a knowing look, and she was like, “I know. I know it can be hard,” or something like that. And I was like, “Oh, wow.” This is kind of accepted as normal in this world, that a boss would yell at an intern, and they’d be crying. She knew exactly. She didn’t know the story, but she knew. And that’s when I was like, okay, this is not good. This is not kind of the way I want to do things or the world I want to be a part of.

Rebecca Ching: So a few months into this job — you started off dancing, realizing, “Okay, this may not be something that I’ll be able to make a living at,” so you explored a different aspect of creativity in the fashion space, right?

Amanda Jones: Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca Ching: And went to university…

16:22

Amanda Jones: Yeah, the degree was not designing fashion, but it was a styling and creative direction degree.

Rebecca Ching: Got it.

Amanda Jones: So it was more of that — I was definitely drawn to this creative director thing, but it was in the fashion industry.

In hindsight, she was, yeah, a bit — it was actually pretty validating. I think a couple weeks after I finished up with her gracefully I was like, “Mm, not for me.” She called and she was like, “Ah, do you know where this piece of jewelry is, or this something?” And I was like, “No, sorry,” and she’s like, “Yeah, I’ve been blacklisted.” And I’m like, “Okay, great. Good luck with that. Sorry, can’t help.” [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: Oh.

Amanda Jones: Yeah.

Rebecca Ching: You don’t always hear those stories that there’s some level of accountability with that because it is — I mean, that’s kind of what I grew up on too. It’s just kind of, “You’ve got to suck it up, and you’ve got to earn your stripes.”

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Ching: So you made a shift, and instead of kind of following that career path you decided to go out on your own. I’m curious what was going through your mind when you finally said “enough” and quit that area of focus and started a new path.

Amanda Jones: Yeah, so I think after that I sort of floated around for a bit and got more into set design. So it was away from fashion because that felt the most toxic. And I was loving that and then found myself just taking job after job, which is essentially what freelancing is, ended up with a camera in my hands, which is kind of something I always wanted to do, filmmaking, and looking back it was always there. But I sort of found this little bubble, niche of small businesses who were incredibly lovely and founders who were very passionate about their businesses and also equally nice.

18:18

And coming from this sort of toxic industry, corporate, feeling like a machine, to working with what felt like real humans with real emotions and feeling like, “Oh, my gosh, you can actually be nice and make money, like work as a career.”

So that kind of was the moment of aha, sort of realizing, and where most of my writings and my work and my book came out of that, sort of the contrast over the years of the two cultures, the two sort of worlds. I really was craving this creative career. Looking back, that’s really what I wanted, to be creative, but also to make it my work and to make it something that would span my life rather than, yeah, just this dramatic creative youth. I wanted a long creative life and creative career. I wanted to make it work. [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: And you wanted to do — at least this is my sense from what you’re sharing and what I’ve read about you in preparing for this conversation was you didn’t want to lose yourself, your humanity, and your values, and your dignity. You didn’t want to lose your love for what you were doing and making and creating. Is that correct?

Amanda Jones: For sure, and I think I felt that if I was scared of getting in trouble all the time I know I wouldn’t last. I knew if I didn’t feel fulfilled and happy and safe, I knew I wouldn’t last. I would run away, quit, and I wanted to stick it out.

20:12

Rebecca Ching: You wanted to find something that was worthy of you — and safe isn’t the right word. I would say aligned and generative because, I mean, there are always risks in part of being human. But it wasn’t abusive, and it is just amazing —

Amanda Jones: For sure. Probably emotionally safe, yeah.

Rebecca Ching: There we go. I think for women, particularly, it’s like this spoken and unspoken you’ve got to take it. I’ll never forget I was working in advertising in New York, and there were a couple comments that were said to me. I remember waiting at the door of one of our print directors, and then she just swore at me. She was like, “Effing get in here! You’re being to effing nice and polite.” I got yelled at for that. [Laughs]

Amanda Jones: [Laughs] For being polite.

Rebecca Ching: For being polite.

Amanda Jones: [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: And then, this is a little bit crass, but there was this woman who went from being in kind of a high-powered, political consultant to go into this advertising space, so I knew who she was, and she’s been around for a while, and I said something, and she goes, “You just need to grow a pair,” and that was kind of a saying.

Amanda Jones: Mm.

Rebecca Ching: And I kind of jokingly, thinking I was funny, looked down, I’m like, “I did!” And she got so mad at me!

Amanda Jones: [Laughs] That is brilliant!

Rebecca Ching: [Laughs] Well, because I just was like, “Well, just different location!” And I told my counter — they’re like, “What did you do talking back to her?” I’m like, “Why would I — I want to be me,” you know? I was at that job for a year. [Laughs]

Amanda Jones: I think that is bloody brilliant. That is so brilliant. I’ve never heard that. You did. You have a pair. [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: I have a pair. It’s just not where you’re thinking. And she was so mad, and people, instead of appreciating, I was more — people were upset with me because I talked back. And that’s kind of what I —

Amanda Jones: Right.

Rebecca Ching: I think I’ve lost some of that hubris of my early twenties. Some of the things I look back on that I said to early bosses because I thought they were kind of being dumb. They were a little ridiculous.

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

22:09

Rebecca Ching: But now I’m like, oh, my gosh. [Laughs] So yeah, so I just think — but that was, you know, I thought she was being ridiculous, so I’d be ridiculous too. And yeah, like I said, I moved on. [Laughs] I decided this wasn’t — I’m like that’s now how I wanted to roll. I ended up switching careers too.

So you referenced a book, and I want to talk about this beautiful book of yours, which is based on your diary, your journal. And before we get into the book, I want you to share a bit about your journaling practice. When did you start journaling and how has that journaling practice evolved over the years? I ask because I’m just starting a whole new practice through The Artist’s Way kind of journey.

Amanda Jones: Oh, yeah! 

Rebecca Ching: And it’s blowing my mind, my life. It’s stirring up so much. It’s having me look at writing this way in a whole different way. So I’m excited to hear about your journaling practice.

Amanda Jones: Mm, yes. I love that book. I only read it or did sort of — it’s like a course, right? My husband Kristian and I did it sort of together-ish —

Rebecca Ching: Beautiful.

Amanda Jones: — a year or so ago, so recently. So I’ve been journaling long before I did this, but I felt like she just put so much —

Rebecca Ching: Exactly.

Amanda Jones: — language to these things, and she just puts it so well. The Morning Pages is just like life flow for me, and I was definitely doing something of that for a long time. Probably since I was little I think I’ve always journaled. I think I’ve had a journal since I could write, just a little notebook full of Amanda’s thoughts. [Laughs]

24:00

But journaling, definitely not something I would always publish. [Laughs] Usually it’s exactly like that Morning Pages practice, which is stream of consciousness and not filtering anything you’re saying or your thoughts or even making any sense. You don’t even read back over it. You don’t edit in any way. And for me it’s usually first thing in the morning. It’s ramblings. It’s nothings. It’s getting everything out of my busy mind.

The book, Diary of a Freelancer, that I published in 2021, it’s from my real journal, but these were, like, clicking moments, like aha moments, and as I was writing them, they felt like these are not just for me. These are sort of like two puzzle pieces just snapping into place, and very sort of, like, distilled and clean. Not all my journaling is like that. And I remember going to a friend and saying, “I think I have a book here,” and she had also been writing a book without — we hadn’t told each other.

So I went through the self-publishing journey with her, but the actual writings was in 2016. So it was much earlier from when I actually published it. It was definitely around this time that we were just talking about, which was me finding the ecosystem of small businesses that were lovely and kind. Not all of them, like there was the occasional founder, and founders are pretty passionate people in general.

Rebecca Ching: Mm-hmm.

Amanda Jones: So there’s the occasional founder. I was discovering, I think, in myself how I wanted to work and what I would accept and not accept in the work environment, in a client, or in a team member, and just that contrast between an environment where there was urgency and scarcity and fear was the driver, to finding that creativity could work, and we could have fun at the same time, and we could be relaxed and we could be friends.

26:25

We could write emails as friends, not just “dear sir or madam,” you know, this kind of thing. As a young creative, I’ve discovering all these things, and yeah, these writings just started pouring out of me.

Rebecca Ching: Mm, before we move — there are some things I want to talk about with the book, but real quick with your journaling practice, are you still writing in your diary? And how would you say your journaling practice impacts your creative practices and your business practices as you run your businesses?

Amanda Jones: It’s much more the sort of morning pages-style. I think it’s a way for me to — often I’ll think, “Oh, I have so many thoughts in my head. It’s so chaotic in there. I need to make a list.” And then I write it down and it’s, like, two things, maybe only one thing. But it’s circling, so it feels like it’s a hundred things, but it’s just one thing a hundred times.

Rebecca Ching: Totally.

Amanda Jones: So writing things down, [Laughs] is the greatest joy of my life. It’s like my saving grace. And yeah, so I’ll do it in the morning when I’m waking up just to help me sort of set my mind in a good rhythm. And yeah, if there’s something during the day that’s like I’m chewing on it and I can’t — I’m buzzing or whatever inside me, I will just go back to the journal and get it out.

Rebecca Ching: Love it. I love it.

Amanda Jones: Yeah.

Rebecca Ching: And this could be something creatively or even something that you’re wrestling with as a business owner too, is that correct, or is it mostly creative?

28:05

Amanda Jones: For sure. Yeah, no, for sure. It’s all very kind of intertwined for me, especially painting, which is what I’m doing predominantly at the moment. I don’t know, even sending an email. If you’re mad when you’re sending an email, it’s gonna come across. You need to be, I think, regulating these tiny, micro things in the background so that it’s not coming across in your work. So it might be just a conversation with someone. It might be totally unrelated to work. But for me, everything just bleeds in.

Rebecca Ching: That’s true though. We are one body, we are one nervous system, even though we have those different ways of engaging with the world and the people around us. So yeah, I’ve just found that externalization of what’s in our head, it helps us metabolize things, even that our insight parts of our brain don’t understand. It helps us metabolize, and goodness knows there’s a lot that we’re continually getting hit with just being a human on this planet these days, and there are a lot of risks and a lot of challenges and pressures just being a business owner. And sometimes I could see how those can intersect with being a creative too.

So just love that journaling is continually a part of that, and I love that your journaling practice birthed this beautiful book, Diary of a Freelancer. And I was really struck in reading about your decisions around this book. A lot of times we, you know, “Are you gonna self-publish? Are you gonna go for traditional publishing?” But for you, you took a different route and got very specific on how you wanted to put this book in the world. So I’d love for you to share how your approach to publishing was different than much of the conventional wisdom.

Amanda Jones: Yeah, I’ve already mentioned that I did it side by side with a friend who was publishing a poetry book. I don’t know if I would have been able to do it in this way without her guidance and camaraderie.

30:06

Also, I’ve realized there’s a pattern in my life of doing things sort of my own way, in unconventional ways. So I think it’s really suited me, and I had a vision for how I wanted it to look and feel, more so as, say, a coffee table book or something on your shelf that’s beautiful because it is not a novel or that sort of book. I guess you’d call it a poetry book. I wanted it to feel like a work of art as well, something beautiful that people would treasure and have on their shelf or their coffee table or somewhere visible. Even so much as the back cover, the drawing, you know, she’s winking. It’s a little bit sassy and cute. I wanted the back cover to be something that’d sit on the shelf and look cute. [Laughs] Even down to the paper.

So I worked quite closely with the printer to find a beautiful and slash expensive recycled paper that is quite thick, so it makes the book quite thick and weighty. But it’s so lovely, and the paper is so sort of not coated at all. So actually, even older copies, they start to fade and especially if they’re sitting in the sun, they actually change color, which I love. It’s just this alive thing.

Rebecca Ching: But you were even particular about the ink and how the book was assembled, the paper, all of it. And it didn’t have this — you know, I work with a lot of folks that have very specific visions and attention to detail and sometimes can border on perfectionism, but the energy I got from this was just an alignment. You wanted to put something together that wasn’t about forward-facing optics but something that felt true to you.

32:07

Amanda Jones: The writings themselves are pretty unfiltered. They’re straight scanned in from my actual diary, my scribbles. I intentionally left spelling errors and scribbled-out mistakes. I wanted it to feel very — well, it is very real. I wanted it to be very real, to connect with people and have that feeling. Even on the cover, the little scribble mistake, so that you immediately have that feel of this is something that’s been written in the middle of the journey. It’s someone’s figuring it out. It’s not, “I’ve finished the journey. I’ve got the answer. Here’s the solution,” is my book. [Laughs] This is something that is, like, someone who’s on the journey figuring it out, and she’s inviting you to come next to her and also be on the journey and figure it out with her. And that was quite intentional.

So for me, then, the creative aspects, on top of that, I wanted to be right, to make sure it didn’t totally look like — I didn’t want it to just look like a scrap piece of, I don’t know, something just half thought out. So thinking through and being intentional about the design was my way of presenting it as I’m intentionally in the process here.

Rebecca Ching: At least as I’m hearing it and taking this in, there’s such skill. You could have put together something that would have looked like an afterthought. You had reverence for this snapshot of where you’re at and wanted to show the authentic part of the journey. But that’s the art, the scribbles, the mistakes, the spelling errors, and how you elevated that, and again, it fits with this kind of interactive experience of the book. And so, that’s just making me love it even more, hearing you talk about that because yeah, you could have just whipped that together, and you’re like, “No I wanted –.” Elevated probably isn’t the right word. But there’s almost the sacredness.

34:16

Amanda Jones: I like it.

Rebecca Ching: You do? Okay.

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Ching: Because it’s just that sacred —

Amanda Jones: Thank you.

Rebecca Ching: There’s something that it’s not an afterthought, it’s not just the in between. The in between is what’s awesome and the process, not just the endgame, right?

Amanda Jones: Aww, thank you.

Rebecca Ching: Am I hearing this right?

Amanda Jones: Yes. Yes.

Rebecca Ching: Because that’s what I’m sensing as I’ve been just in the weeds with your work since I’ve been preparing for this conversation. And your book took off, and from what I’ve gathered, it was a bit of a surprise to the extent because as of this conversation, right, you’ve done three printings.

Amanda Jones: Yeah, we’re starting print four at the moment.

Rebecca Ching: What was going through your mind when you saw how quickly this book was being purchased and how it was being received? What went through your mind at that moment?

Amanda Jones: These have definitely been smaller print runs because I’m self-publishing. So I did a pre-sale, which set sort of the number for how many I would print. It’s a really lovely, sustainable way for someone, especially in your first book and you’re unsigned, to go about being realistic about numbers. But once I launched, it sold out that first print run in, like, two weeks, the first fortnight. So I was like, “Okay, I guess I’d better go again!”

[Inspirational Music]

Rebecca Ching: Leading is hard. Leading is also often controversial as you navigate staying aligned to your values, your mission, and your boundaries. This is gonna be stretched a lot for us in the days and weeks to come, right? Navigating the inevitable controversy can challenge your confidence, clarity, and calm. And I know you don’t mind making hard decisions, but sometimes the stakes seem higher and can bring up old echoes of doubts and insecurity during times when you need to feel rock solid on your plan and action.

36:14

Finding a coach who gets the nuances of your business and leading in our complex and polarized world can help you identify the blocks that keep you playing it safe and small. Leading today is not a fancy title or fluffy bragging rights. It is brave and bold work to stay the course when the future is so unknown and the doubts and pains of the past keep showing up to shake things up. Internal emotional practices and systemic strategies are needed to keep the protector of cynicism at bay and foster a hope that is actionable and aligned.

When the stakes are high and you don’t want to lose focus, when you want to navigate inevitable conflict between your ears and with those you lead, when time is of the essence and you want to make hard decisions with confidence and clarity, then Unburdened Leader Coaching is for you and where you deepen the capacity to tolerate the vulnerability of change, innovation, and doing things differently than you were taught. To start your Unburdened Leader Coaching process with me go to www.rebeccaching.com and book a free connection call. I can’t wait to hear from you!

[Inspirational Music]

Rebecca Ching: You had a one-year birthday party for your book.

Amanda Jones: Yes.

Rebecca Ching: Right? And at that birthday party, the creative that you are, you decided to have an art show. You took the quotes, some of the most popular quotes that people were kind of giving you feedback on, that were beloved, and you turned them into works of art. And then that weekend you almost sold out of all the art, and then you started selling art.

Amanda Jones: Yeah.

Rebecca Ching: And you woke up one day — I read that you woke up one day and there were a couple pieces, like one was in the UK, maybe one in Germany, something like that.

Amanda Jones: Yeah. Yeah.

38:00

Rebecca Ching: And you were like, “Oh, gosh.” But people really are resonating. But you said this quote, I can’t remember if it was an interview or something I read, that you said at that weekend when you started doing the art of your words, you said, “This is the space where you began your true art practice.”

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Ching: Can you say more of what you mean by that?

Amanda Jones: It was an even greater surprise to me that people bought artwork to the book. I just couldn’t — I still can’t really believe it. It was, yeah, that first night. I’d had the birthday party, I woke up the next morning, and I’d sold a piece in London and a piece in Canada, and I was like — and I think they’d paid — I hadn’t even set up the international shipping, so I think they paid, like, ten-dollar shipping because I just like —

Rebecca Ching: Oh, my gosh! [Laughs]

Amanda Jones: I didn’t even prepare. It didn’t even cross my mind that people internationally would see it and want it. That’s how unprepared I was. So yeah, I think at that point I was like, “Whoa, this is something here. There’s definitely something here.” So that’s when I really, truly felt like, okay, let’s try and figure out this art thing and do it well and get the material — you know, learn. I was an amateur. I was dabbling in art, and I wanted to — if I’m gonna do this right, I wanted to learn the practice, learn the materials, learn all the things.

Rebecca Ching: So much of what you do is self-taught, so what does that mean when you go about really learning? What does that mean to you?

Amanda Jones: It was actually really delightful because I’ve already done this self-taught journey thing into filmmaking. Back when I was freelancing the camera ended up in my hand, I was getting jobs in filmmaking, and I’d never been to film school, so I was learning on the job, and that imposter syndrome and the wobbly feeling of, like, “What am I doing? Everyone can tell I’m making this up,” which I was making it up.

40:08

Doing it this time around was so delightful because I had this, like, perspective of, “I’m new at this, and that’s great. How wonderful that I don’t know what I’m doing. Let’s go.” I could just power into this thing and go, “Okay, well, everyone had to learn how to stretch their first canvas at some point. So this is my first time, and I’m just gonna figure it out.” And it’s always a risk because you’re buying materials. It’s expensive, and you might not have bought the right materials or, you know, you might be wasting your money in one direction. but it felt very playful. It was, to me, this real connection between discipline and mastering a skill and play. It felt like, okay, if I was getting too stressed about getting it right, I couldn’t move forward. I needed to stay in the play space, in the zone of being playful in order to get this right. It was this, like, two sides of the same coin, and I would just sort of move between them like I’m playing but we’re gonna get this skill right. We’re gonna learn how to work with oil paints or prime a canvas. So yeah, very practical and very playful.

Rebecca Ching: And that the two can intersect.

Amanda Jones: And almost that they needed to intersect, like it was essential for them to intersect.

Rebecca Ching: What’s so magical, there’s so much about what you’re saying, I’m feeling it so deeply in my body, that we don’t have to be these binary, polarized beings and how to intersect. And your beautiful way of befriending the parts of you that were like, “Who do you think you are?” and the imposter experience, parts carrying that, you befriended them and said, “Isn’t this delightful? I’ve got this. We’ve got this.”

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Ching: And I am going to be embodying that as I do some more playful stuff with things that my soul is wanting to create, and I really hope listeners really hold to that. That’s absolutely beautiful and has so much wisdom in it.

I would love to share — I pulled some of my favorite quotes from your book, and I’d love for you to share a little bit more about each quote, maybe some context or what got to those quotes.

Amanda Jones: Cool.

42:29

Rebecca Ching: The first one that I can’t stop talking about, and it was like a drop-the-phone moment when I saw it on social. I was like, “Oh, my goodness!”

Amanda Jones: [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: And it was “ASAP,” but you went, “As slow as possible.”

Amanda Jones: Yes.

Rebecca Ching: I was like, “Oh, my goodness. Oh my goodness.” So tell me a little bit more about how that showed up in your diary and eventually your artwork.

Amanda Jones: I can’t remember the exact thing that sparked this one. But I imagine it was probably replying to emails. [Laughs] No. I love talking about them because the specific thing that sparked them is so niche but then they’ve become little aphorisms, little sayings themselves that can be applied to so many different things, and they genuinely do — I genuinely say them to myself still ‘til this day.

Rebecca Ching: They’re little mantras, yeah.

Amanda Jones: Literally, yeah.

Rebecca Ching: They’re little mantras.

Amanda Jones: Yeah, and my team will repeat them back to me or whatnot.

Rebecca Ching: I love it. It literally turns hustle culture and efficiency and urgency culture on its head. It’s just beautiful, the ASAP but your reframe: as slow as possible. It’s like, “What? What?” But then everyone I share that with is like, “That’s so awesome!”

Amanda Jones: [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: So another one I loved is: “Every growth spurt has come alongside a choice to be more me.”

Amanda Jones: Oh.

Rebecca Ching: Let me read that again. “Every growth spurt has come alongside a choice to be more me.” Can you say more about the genesis of that one?

Amanda Jones: I love that you chose this one. It was a journaling moment. I remember writing in my journal, “I want to be aggressively Amanda,” and aggressively, that’s a journaling world. I wouldn’t use that in a normal, like, say I want to be aggressive.

Rebecca Ching: Sure, sure.

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Amanda Jones: But it was a way of telling my soul to really just, “Be you! Be Amanda!” I think I heard somewhere someone talking about being almost like the cartoon version of themselves or something like this, this idea that you’re gonna personify the essence of what makes you unique. Is that making any sense?

Rebecca Ching: It is making so much sense.

Amanda Jones: Okay.

Rebecca Ching: It’s really beautiful. I love it. Another one that really was like a drop-the-phone moment for me was — and I say this to preface it in a world where people think not being focused and just being in our heads and in la la land is a sign of laziness or a sign of not being good at what you do. It’s  negative, and you wrote: “Don’t disregard your daydreams. Guard those sacred connections to your purest thoughts.” It was just such a validating statement. Tell me a little bit more about what led to that statement.

Amanda Jones: Yeah, that’s exactly what you’ve said there. It’s like you’ve nailed it. That’s exactly what my intention was in writing that one.

Rebecca Ching: Ah, I just thank you for putting the words into something that I want to share, especially with folks who are neurodivergent, folks who are healing from trauma, folks that are burnt out. It is such a beautiful way for our brains and our nervous systems to connect, to go to daydreams instead of trying to exile them. It’s a sacred connection to our purest thoughts. It’s just such a validating statement. So thank you!

Okay, this one, this one put words to something I had to make a commitment to a few years ago where my work and my family were gonna be on the same team. You wrote this phrase: “Kiss the things that slow you down.”

Amanda Jones: Yeah.

Rebecca Ching: It reminds me of that commitment where I’m not gonna have one be demonized by the other. Tell me more for you. “Kiss the things that slow you down,” what was behind that one?

Amanda Jones: It’s about family. You’ve nailed it. It’s about family. Me, it came when I was like, “Ugh, I have to go to this family thing.” [Laughs] And I was like, “Ugh, I really want to work,” or “I really want to paint,” or something.

Rebecca Ching: Mm.

46:30

Amanda Jones: I know it was way before painting. It was probably just something else. It was in a moment of acknowledging that sometimes family, whether it’s your immediate family or extended family or parents or whatever, can have a way of making things in your life take longer, but choosing that that’s the way that you’re gonna do things.

Rebecca Ching: Yeah, “Kiss the things that slow you down.” Yeah. Love it.

Okay, this one hit me over the head: “Patience is the cure for depletion.”

Amanda Jones: “Patience is the cure for depletion,” yes. This one is sometimes — I think I was depressed, and I realized I was just depleted. Feeling that, like, negative thoughts, and I realized I’d just given a lot to something, work or something. I was depleted. So if I was just patient, I would recover.

Rebecca Ching: Another one that I just think a lot of people resonate with, at least I know that I work with is: “Big ideas take a piece of your heart with them as they enter the world.”

Amanda Jones: This one was one I wrote later, and it was almost about writing the book. I wrote it — most of them were in this 2016 era, but as I was publishing, I added a few extra. This is one of them. And it was this idea that publishing this book was taking a very big piece of my heart and entering the world.

Rebecca Ching: That’s huge. This one also kind of gob smacked me too: “You’re never truly starting over.”

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Amanda Jones: I think in the book too it’s one of the ones that has the scribble and I’ve rewritten it. Literally, I started over this sentence. It’s just that thing of, ah, even the story I’ve just shared about going into my art practice, it’s a completely new thing. I’ve never painted in this way before. But I’m just benefiting from the wealth of learnings in the past decade of freelancing and other creative endeavors. You know, starting from scratch is — it’s all cycles and patents and repeating, and you just have this wealth of knowledge when you’re starting something again. I wrote it from a creative perspective, but I think it can be in life as well, yeah.

Rebecca Ching: When we’re starting something new, so many times I hear people say, and I know I’ve felt this too, that, “I’m starting from scratch,” you know?

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Ching: Or “I’ve lost everything I’ve learned.”

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Ching: And it’s like, no, you can’t unlearn or unexperience everything you already have with you while you do a new thing or just begin again.

This one’s from when I purchased from you. I got one of the little prints because my words for this year, for 2024, for those listening, depending on when you listen, are “rhythm” and “repetitions.” So “rhythm” and “reps” are my words of the year, really trying to dig into the rhythms, and when I saw this I’m like, “I have to have this!” You wrote: “Rhythm is found by starting to move.”

Amanda Jones: Mm.

Rebecca Ching: Action. Action! Yeah, I was like, “Oh, my gosh,” you know? “I’ve got to get out of my head!” And so, could you say a little bit more about, “Rhythm is found by starting to move”?

Amanda Jones: Have you seen the movie Strictly Ballroom?

Rebecca Ching: Of course I’ve seen — oh, my gosh!

Amanda Jones: Oh, okay! Okay.

Rebecca Ching: You’re bringing me back.

Amanda Jones: Yes.

Rebecca Ching: You’re bringing me back! That was so good! Oh, my gosh. You’re bringing some nineties juiciness.

50:00

Amanda Jones: I was raised on this. Yes, okay. So, I mean, Australian cinema, right?

Rebecca Ching: Right!

Amanda Jones: There’s this scene in the movie where, I think it’s the grandma, the character is teaching the main character about rhythm. You know, he’s been this professional dancer, and they’re trying to teach him about putting soul and rhythm into his craft. I don’t know, that’s how I’m taking it anyway. And this is like the image I see when I wrote this quote. It’s even like a dance metaphor: you can’t find rhythm by standing still. You actually have to move your body to find the rhythm.

Rebecca Ching: And what’s so profound is when I’m feeling stuck, I just have to move. Is it write? Is it dance? Is it lift weights? Is it go for a walk?

Amanda Jones: Right?

Rebecca Ching: Is it get in the water? You know, is it just even folding laundry but move, move, move. And things happen, and the neuroscience supports that. All my nerdy stuff notes that. But there’s sometimes this resistance and protection to moving, and it’s something I see with so many I work with and I’m realizing and facing in myself too. So I just love that one.

Of doing this series that you’re a part of where really exploring our imagination and moral imagination, imagining what a world could look like even when it’s on fire, and I found this quote. You said: “Your imagination is a power tool but a battery-powered one that needs to be recharged sometimes.” And I was like, “Oh, my gosh! We’re not just 24/7 grind machines.” So can you share what most, these days, fuels your imagination and also what stifles it?

Amanda Jones: Yeah, I’ve been thinking about this one a lot lately. It’s connected to my thoughts on boredom.

52:02

The recharging is the boredom. It’s almost like the “kiss the things that slow you down” as well, where I’m trying to see, “Doing the dishes, you know, it’s such an inconvenience. Like, why do I have to do it every day?” But I’m trying to see it as a mundane or boredom moment for my brain to have some space and reset and maybe process some things or just relax a little bit or whatever and see these mundane tasks and what can feel like inconveniences as spaces for recharging my imagination.

Rebecca Ching: Yes, so that is such a — well, it’s like to embrace those mundane tasks is a way to recharge, not as something to resent, not as something to see as a distraction but a part of the recharge and not to degenerate them as something that’s taking away.

Amanda Jones: Yeah, exactly.

Rebecca Ching: Oh, my gosh. Nailed it. So what stifles your imagination?

Amanda Jones: I think I can just feel when I’m pushing to — it’s that same depletion moment where I’m just going, going, going, going, and I haven’t rested properly. I can feel that there’s not that same inspiration driving me, or ideas aren’t flowing or I’m not seeing clearly, and things are just getting blurry and buzzy. Yeah, that’s how I see it as being stifled, just moving too fast.

Rebecca Ching: We’re coming back to some repetitive themes here, and it’s not rocket science, is it? It’s almost like we want to hack something and go, “I can push it longer. I can do it differently.” And no, our bodies will always win. Our systems are so wise.

Is there anything that you do to protect your ability — outside of doing the dishes, how do you protect your ability to imagine? I think this is a question I’ve been thinking about a lot lately for anyone, whether they’re an artist, whether they’re leading on the C-suite team to a helping professional to a teacher, you name it. What do you do to protect your ability to imagine with everything going on in the world especially?

54:22

Amanda Jones: When you say rhythm and repetitions, they’re like the words of my life. “As slowly as possible,” it comes back to that. It’s like if I’m moving too fast, I’m not doing it well. I think the work that I’m most proud of when I come out the other side of a project or a piece of work, a collection, and I feel really proud of it, I’ve given it enough space and time and moved through it without fear or urgency or stress or anything external. I think what you’re saying is great. It’s so important to protect and nurture your imagination.

Rebecca Ching: I was curious for you, as an artist, as a creative, what happens to you physically and emotionally when you have something that’s been brewing, right, you’ve got an image, you’ve got that itch, that feeling, and you don’t download it, you don’t express it, whether it’s through writing or film or painting an image, getting a thought down. What happens when you don’t make the time to download what’s stirring in you? What do you notice?

Amanda Jones: Wow, this is a really good question. This is my process. This is the way it works for me. It’s often a whisper of an idea, and it doesn’t go away. That’s how I know it’s worth pursuing because, you know, the idea comes quickly. The actual creation, the implementation and production of an idea is months, if not years. So to know what things to commit to is important because it’s gonna be a huge chunk of your time and resources.

56:06

So if an idea is not going away, that’s a sign for me but it is generally just a whisper. This is why the daydreaming thing, taking them seriously. If I don’t take that whisper seriously, it’s not that I miss the moment, but it will fade. It will go away. I think what it does within me, no one else really knows because it hasn’t been created, but within me I can feel that I wasn’t — there was something I missed or that I wasn’t —

Rebecca Ching: Almost a loss.

Amanda Jones: Almost a loss, like that I wasn’t true to a part of myself, or I didn’t honor something that was in there given to me.

Rebecca Ching: Oh.

Amanda Jones:  It’s almost like, you know, these things are given to us. Like the book, it was given to us. It’s the work to do is the gift. We don’t always have the work to do, and it’s our job just to kind of honor it and give it its best opportunity in life.

Rebecca Ching: I’m taking away I want to be a really good steward of my whispers and especially encourage those I work with to be a good steward of the gift of the whispers. And we’re in a world that honors the loudest, the fastest, the quickest, right? Saying, “Quick, quick, fast,” you know, the loudest and the boldest. But the folks that are whispering, “Hey, look over here! What about this?” we diminish them or dismiss them. And so, that’s a wonderful way to be countercultural but I think also very generative, and it’s also really important to our wellbeing.

In terms of success, I like to ask my clients this, how has your understanding of success changed since you first started this work, and what does it mean to you today?

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Amanda Jones: You know, when I was younger, it was like that flashy sort of successful life, you know, the showy things – money, status, all these things. But now it’s much more like that thing I was just talking about where I feel proud of the work. So when it comes through on the other side, I feel that I have been true to the work, true to myself, not led by fear, not letting that fear creep in or urgency or anything else. That’s when I feel that sense of pride and success like I’ve brought something into the world that’s good, whether or not I sell a lot of it or one person resonates with it, I feel proud of it. And so, to me, it’s successful.

Rebecca Ching: Thank you so much for that. I also ask my clients some quickfire questions before we go.

Amanda Jones: Okay.

Rebecca Ching: So are you ready for these?

Amanda Jones: I’m not always good under pressure but yeah, let’s give it a go!

Rebecca Ching: Well, let’s take away the pressure then.

Amanda Jones: Okay. [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: This is just something off the cuff. What are you reading right now?

Amanda Jones: I’m not really reading anything at the moment, but my husband Kristian who reads a lot actually started reading his favorite books to me before bed.

Rebecca Ching: Oh, my gosh.

Amanda Jones: It’s super wholesome. It’s adorable.

Rebecca Ching: So what’s he reading to you now?

Amanda Jones: We just — what’s the name of the novel? The Name of The Wind. We just finished The Name of The Wind.

Rebecca Ching: Oh, beautiful. What song are you playing on repeat?

Amanda Jones: A Bleachers song. The whole Bleachers album probably, but “Tiny Moves.”

Rebecca Ching: What is the best TV show or movie that you’ve seen recently?

Amanda Jones: There’s a show called Drops of God. It’s about wine.

Rebecca Ching: I haven’t seen it yet. Do you like it?

Amanda Jones: It was beautiful, yeah.

Rebecca Ching: Okay.

Amanda Jones: Really, really beautiful.

Rebecca Ching: Now, I’m dating myself but I’m a big eighties person. And so, if you’re not connected with the eighties whatever your favorite culture is. But what is your favorite eighties piece of pop culture or the decade that you love?

1:00:09

Amanda Jones: I was born in the eighties, so is Seinfeld eighties? No, it’s probably nineties.

Rebecca Ching: A little bit more nineties. Definitely early nineties, and we’ll take it.

Amanda Jones: Okay.

Rebecca Ching: We’ll take it!

Amanda Jones: We’ll take it? Final answer?

Rebecca Ching: Oh, for sure. Final answer. [Laughs]

Amanda Jones: But I only watched it recently. I didn’t watch it when I was young. I only watched it in the last few years, but I am just obsessed. It’s so good.

Rebecca Ching: Now, this is gonna be a hard one.

Amanda Jones: Okay.

Rebecca Ching: But what is your mantra right now? Of all of those pieces.

Amanda Jones: [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: Right now, what’s the one that goes to the top? [Laughs]

Amanda Jones: What’s the one that goes to the top? Well, all of them.

Rebecca Ching: [Laughs]

Amanda Jones: Yeah, “As slowly as possible.” It’s honestly always rebuking me. “Slower, Amanda. Slower.” Yeah, if there’s a season I’m feeling to sink into the ground that I’m in, like put down roots, sort of like — yeah.

Rebecca Ching: Mm. Beautiful. What’s an unpopular opinion that you hold?

Amanda Jones: Oh, gosh. Yeah, I have this thing that I think that technology is — and it’s so funny because we struggled to get this call right, but technology is not detached from the natural world and even the spiritual world. [Laughs] This sounds so woo woo, but we think of it as this cold, hard thing that just it should always work. But why does it sometimes not work? Sometimes it just doesn’t work, so I just have this thing that, yeah, it’s more sort of like tapped into the normal natural and spiritual worlds. [Laughs]

Rebecca Ching: I dig it.

Amanda Jones: Wow, I’ve never told anyone that, other than Kristian.

Rebecca Ching: Who or what inspires you to be a better leader and human?

Amanda Jones: Probably Kristian, my husband.

Rebecca Ching: Mm, how come?

Amanda Jones: I think I want to be a better human and wife for him.

1:02:05

Rebecca Ching: It’s awesome to have people around us that inspire us to want to be better in the best of ways, right?

Amanda Jones: Mm. Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca Ching: The better who we are.

Amanda Jones: Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Ching: Awesome. Amanda, where can people find you and your incredible work?

Amanda Jones: My website www.amandajones.art, and I’m on Instagram. It’s @amanda______jones with six underscores in between. You’ll find me!

Rebecca Ching: We’ll make sure to link all of that. Amanda, it’s truly been an honor to meet you and get to know you after raving about your work to so many and learning so much from you today. So thank you for your time and I’m just really excited for more people to get to know you and your heart.

Amanda Jones: Oh.

Rebecca Ching: And your work.

Amanda Jones: Thank you, Rebecca, and thank you so much for making space for this. This has been lovely. I’ve really enjoyed this.

[Inspirational Music]

Rebecca Ching: Before you go, I want to make sure you take away these key learnings from my Unburdened Leader conversation with Amanda Jones. Now, Amanda’s practice of slowing down and playing with the ordinary led her on a path of deep creativity and alignment. She still holds the tensions I think we all do in this world, but I love how her messy and imperfect practices encourages us to move towards being authentic in a world that loves filters and efficiency and perfection. Leading and living with intention requires to embrace moments of wonder and vulnerability even when they feel uncomfortable and unfamiliar. Amanda gave us a behind-the-scenes perspective on her process, and I’m grateful she so generously shared in this conversation and with the art she creates and how we can be better at embracing wonder and vulnerability in all areas of our life.

1:04:01

Now, I want to leave you with three questions to reflect on. What glimmers have you noticed lately, and how can you make space to savor them more fully? Is there a creative pursuit or activity calling you right now that you’ve been resisting? What would happen if you allowed yourself to explore it a little bit? And how can you incorporate practices that support both joy and a relational resilience into your daily routine as a leader?

And as you reflect on these questions, remember that tending to the glimmers in your life isn’t just about fleeting joy. It’s about sustaining your capacity to lead, love, and create with intention. These small moments of awe and connection can be the grounding forces that keep you resilient in the face of uncertainty and challenge, and this is the ongoing work of an Unburdened Leader.

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of The Unburdened Leader. If you found this episode meaningful to you, I’d be honored if you shared it with a friend and left a rating and a review. This helps us get the podcast out to more people. And you can find this episode, show notes, free Unburdened Leader resources, along with ways to work with me and sign up for my email list at www.rebeccaching.com. And this episode was produced by the wonderful team at Yellow House Media!

[Inspirational Music]