How do you even podcast?! We’re officially releasing episodes and recording AT THE SAME TIME! Anna spirals (hello, self-awareness overload) but also shares how wild and powerful it’s been to listen to yourself learn in real time. It’s cringey! It’s growth! It’s both!

This week is packed with big, juicy questions:

🧠 Is understanding something intellectually different from understanding it emotionally?

🔥 Can you metabolize pain into energy? (Excuse us??)

🛠️ Is pain just your system screaming, “FIX THIS”?

We also get into the realness of studying art at school. Does it help? Does it mess you up? Can you grade creativity? Is imagination actually more important than knowledge?

Plus: what happens when your creative project becomes a product? What if your process is the most sacred part—and not the outcome?

And the kicker: what if the goals you create for your creative life should aim at your definition of success, not the world’s shiny, hollow version?

Big questions, lots of heart, zero clean answers—but we’re in it. Let’s go!!!

💛💜💛💜💛💜

References:

Get your hair dyed by Mia Bella

Balls Cabaret: Sundays 2-4pm at Strike Theater

824 18th Ave NE
​Minneapolis, MN 55418

Thank you so much to MPLSART.com for sponsoring this show! Exhibitions, writing, resources, and more from the Twin Cities visual arts scene: https://www.mplsart.com/

@yesmaampod

We love you!

It’s Week 7! This chapter hit us with a big one: “Art is not about thinking something up, it’s about getting something down.” Um… WHAT. You mean no straining? Just ease? Openness? Receptivity?!

Okay but… how do you actually do that? Is it a mindset? A lifestyle? Can you really just show up and make the thing, or are we all too tangled in our own perfectionism to even start?

This week, we wrestle with:

— Whether or not limits actually help

— If the universe cares and gives us what we need (???)

— The radical idea of actually expecting good things to happen

— And why making mistakes feels so impossible when perfectionism is running the show

Anna comes face to face with her “no mistakes allowed” policy, while Sarah gently reminds us (and herself) that doing your best doesn’t mean doing it perfectly—and maybe that is enough. She also admits her deep fear of looking stupid, and honestly? Same.

Do we have answers? Not really. But we do have questions. And messy progress. And a lot of trying. Because at the end of the day, you just have to do the thing.

Enjoy the episode!

💛💜💛💜💛💜

References:

Rick Rubin

Cathy Heller

Thank you so much to MPLSART.com for sponsoring this show! Exhibitions, writing, resources, and more from the Twin Cities visual arts scene: https://www.mplsart.com/

@yesmaampod

We love you!

Welcome to another week of Yes Ma’am Pod!

Surprise—there’s no chapter this week.

Instead, we bring you what we’re officially calling an interlude. You know, that moment when life completely takes over (hello, holidays) and your creative project gets sidelined by the chaos of being a human.

We could’ve kept this part of our journey creating this podcast quiet and pretended we were right on track, but we believe in honesty. And the truth is: every creative journey includes an interlude. It’s not a matter of if—it’s when.

So what exactly is an interlude, and how do you get through one without completely losing momentum? How do you come back to your work when it’s been dropped for a minute (or many)?

This is our most practical episode yet, full of tools, real talk, and gentle encouragement—so grab a notebook, give yourself some grace, and enjoy the show.

💛💜💛💜💛💜

References:

Martha Stewart Documentary Trailer

Thank you so much to MPLSART.com for sponsoring this show! Exhibitions, writing, resources, and more from the Twin Cities visual arts scene: https://www.mplsart.com/

@yesmaampod

We love you!