Creative Hope with Lisa Parda

Creativity through the lens of a Real Estate Broker, Radio Host and Author 

"How we live our lives is an extension of our creativity."

For more than twenty years, Lisa Parda has helped people buy, sell, and reimagine properties in New Hampshire. As the Owner of RealtyScape Brokerage, LLC, she doesn’t just work in residential real estate — she’s also an income-producing, value-add agent with experience fixing up and revitalizing commercial and multifamily properties. That passion for creating spaces that serve people and communities threads through all her work.

Today, she’s just as likely to be found behind a microphone as she is at a closing table. As co-host of Lisa and Robyn on the Mic, a live weekly radio show, Lisa has spent the past two years hosting two-hour conversations that meander the way real life does. Listeners tune in for honesty, laughter, and the kind of exchanges that feel like pulling up a chair at the kitchen table.

Food has become her latest way of exploring connection. Her forthcoming cookbook, My Love Language Is Food (Fall 2025), isn’t about flawless recipes — it’s about survival, joy, and the small rituals that keep people going. Lisa draws from her own seasons of struggle: long work hours, the ups and downs of body image, and the lessons of using food both as comfort and as medicine. She’s candid about nights when dinner comes from a box, but she also knows the pride of making one dish exactly the way you like it.

At 53, Lisa is choosing to let her real estate career take a smaller footprint so she can make space for projects that leave her energized — conversations on radio, a cookbook rooted in lived experience, and opportunities to speak and travel. Her story is about pivoting in midlife without burning down the past, and about building sturdier foundations — whether in homes, meals, or communities.

What drives Lisa is simple: connection. Whether through a property, a meal, or a two-hour conversation, she believes in meeting people where they are, without gloss. As a podcast guest, she brings humor, candor, and the kind of energy that makes audiences lean in and feel seen.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-parda-a0125532b/

https://www.youtube.com/@LisaandRobynOnthemic

https://www.instagram.com/lisaandrobynonthemic/#

https://starsatnightpublishing.com/

Transcript

Mari 0:20

Welcome to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. I'm your host, Mari Reisberg. Over the past several years, I've combined my degrees in acting and somatic psychology to share my sustaining creativity techniques with performers. And now I've decided to share it with a bigger audience that includes you. I believe we are all creative, and this podcast is all about that. I'll be interviewing people from all backgrounds, ages, and creativity experiences to share just how creative we all are. Today I'll be chatting with Lisa Parda, real estate broker, radio host, and published author. Please enjoy Lisa Parda. Welcome to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. Today I'm chatting with Lisa Parda, real estate broker, radio host, and published author. Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_00 1:15

Thank you so much, and I appreciate you having me on.

Mari 1:18

I am thrilled to chat with you about creativity. You have so many different things going on, and I can only imagine the amount of creativity that shows up for you. But before we get there, why don't you let our listeners know a little bit more about who you are and what you do?

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Sure. I'm an award-winning real estate broker. I've been doing that for about 24 years now. I help people buy and sell properties. I also have a heavy hand in the investment world. So if people want to use real estate for a passive investment, about 70% of my business comes from that, which is far less creative than you would think. Um, because once you kind of get a formula for how to turn around a property, you know, you kind of always make that cookie. Yeah, so to speak. And three years ago, I started a radio show with my best friend Robin. It's called Lisa and Robin on the mic. And that is where we sort of delve into all of our curiosities as we're meeting great people. We have them on, as we learn about things in our community, we talk about them. So that has been a great creative outlet. And then I just finished publishing a cookbook called My Love Language is Food. And it is 128 recipes that you can, you probably don't have these recipes on your shelves because I am a cookbook uh consumer as well. So I wanted to make sure you had some new recipes that weren't repeats. Um, but they're recipes that people have loved and always asked for. And I thought that this would be a perfect um introduction into the publishing world because I eventually do want to publish and write more books.

Mari 2:52

That is wonderful. I love all of the the different avenues that you have your hands in and very, it sounds like successfully have your hands in and navigating all of that. Well, for the world of creativity, what does it mean to you to be creative?

SPEAKER_00 3:13

So I think how we live our lives is an extension of our creativity. So I am someone who doesn't like to be, you know, completely wear the label. You know, I don't want to be put in a box. Um, I do believe we can express ourselves creatively through what we wear, how our houses are organized or decorated, what artwork we choose for them, what books we're curating to read, what we're looking at on social media, like all of that curation is sort of artfully and creatively how we are living our lives. And when I first got into real estate, I was amazed at how people would love one home, which was the same exact floor plan as another, just because it had a few more plants and a couple of pieces of artwork somewhere. And people would, you know, argue with me that it was different square footage or something like that. So when I first got into real estate, I really understood how something was presented, how artfully it was presented, really changed people's people's receptivity to something, how valuable something was seen. So I really like delved into feng shui and interior design and all of that fun stuff and married it with an economical um approach since we did everything, you know, so many of my clients did it through the lens of trying to make money with a property. So but I did feel like once I kind of dialed that in, I wasn't expressing myself as creatively as creatively as I wanted to, because we were sort of doing the same thing over and over again. So that's really when I started to try to like put my feet, you know, in different waters. But I always try to dress or you know, the way I conduct myself, I always try to do it a little creatively.

Mari 5:00

Nice. I I really appreciate just talking about once you have maybe a foundation for something and it can it is repeatable, how do you keep the creativity fresh or alive, even if it's something that you've done before? So, what are those pieces for you? Uh you said, you know, how you dress, how you get to show up, but for someone else who's kind of doing something that is repeatable, what would you suggest they how how how could they bring more of that creative life into something that they've done a hundred times?

SPEAKER_00 5:41

Yeah, so I think I'm a big reader. So I always go to books as my main method of like reading something new or reading how someone else does it, even if it's cooking. If you cook the same things all the time, try to learn French cooking, try to learn T cooking, try to learn Asian cooking or Chinese cooking or something where you're infusing different flavors. I mean, it's all meat, you know, it's all protein, starch, vegetable. It's it can feel, and I know, you know, so many people think, like, what am I gonna make for dinner again? I make the same 10 things. I definitely get that, and that's why I wanted the cookbook to be the antidote to that. But we talk about on the radio all the time like, what are you making? And it's what are you in the mood for, right? And you kind of draw out, you know, sort of pull out these questions. And I think the key to any creativity is asking better questions and exploring different answers. I think as humans, we want to know, we want certainty, but life is so uncertain. Yeah, it's a terrifying place to live. But if you use it more as exploration and curiosity, it's less terrifying to be to acknowledge the uncertainty. And so I think, you know, the same thing with the repeatable for the real estate, you know, everyone would say, Okay, we're gonna do gray this and gray that. I'm like, can we do gray? Can we do blue? Like, what goes well with gray? Can we, you know, just because I was sick of doing the same projects over and over again. And so many of my clients just trust me at this point. Like, well, whatever she says, do pick the paint colors. You know, I just someone with a commercial project, and they said, There's so many decisions. I said, Can I make them? And they said, Yes. And so I said, Okay, are we doing modern? Are we doing minimalist? Like, I just gave them three things to choose from from when they picked what style I gave them three things to choose from. But, you know, for me it was a whole new project, right? Right, yeah. So, um, and I was trying to do it from a mid-century modern reenactment of this brick build. Like, I was trying to like, what does this building want to look like now? What are the rugs they want? You know, who is inside it? Who is going to be visiting there? I really tried to just play with that.

Mari 8:01

Yeah. Oh, I love that piece of being given permission to play and take, well, if this building were this or it wanted to be this or this character, how would it? What carpets would it have if in that? You you spoke to something about decision making. And I wonder if you have ever experienced kind of decision fatigue and what that is like, or if you're someone who's like, I love to make decisions, give me all the decisions and I'll make them.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

So I'm I knew I was a bossy person from a younger age because when we would go into group settings in this classroom and no one knew what to do, it'd be like, I'll take over. Got it. We'll get an A. Everyone, shut up. I'm doing it, you know. But I do have that part to my personality. Yeah. Um, but I do think we are in a world where there are so many choices that it is exhausting. Right. To make decisions all the time. I don't want to choose any more passwords. I don't want to any more logins. I don't, you know, that all is sort of stealing and leeching joy from the everyday. Like, I wanted to go buy something, and it's like, well, you have to make a new login. I'm like, well, I'm not buying it. Right. I can't just check out as a guest. I want to participate. So I do think we're all there, there are so many choices, but so many of them stink. Yeah. So yeah, so I think we all are in decision fatigue. I think there's too many choices, but so many of the choices aren't really choices, anyways. So, you know, there might be a hundred new sweaters, but 50% of them are gonna be ta horrible quality. Another 25% of them are gonna be toily made and cheap. So now you've got 25%. Now you've got to pick some color. You know, like I really do believe we need to actually have the decision-making skill to ignore everything that doesn't pertain and really just kind of pull it back down. Because if the reason why that person got so decision fatigued when he was picking lighting fixtures was because he got a book this thick from the lighting store. Oh, yeah. Right? But 90% of those are not gonna go in a brick building from 1900 or 1828 or you know, what we're we're gonna kind of be like, okay, so we can remove all of this, you know, and and kind of get into here, and then from here, what do we like? And then sort of yeah, and I think I'm really good at parsing out noise because a lot of it is just noise.

Mari 10:47

Yeah. For people who may not be good at parsing out noise, what are the ways that I mean, it sounds like you have some very clear visions and some very clear, like with a particular building that was built before 1900, you're not gonna put a very modern, or maybe you are if that's the aesthetic, but um, you know, figuring those pieces out for people, like say with cooking. Yes. Since you just wrote a cookbook, how what is the when people are like, I just don't know what to make, and you go to Pinterest or Google and you're looking up and trying to put in pieces of a recipe or items to to make something cohesive. What are the ways that you kind of weed out the noise for for that?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

So for me, I'm not someone who goes to the internet for recipes. I like tested, you know, I have a that's why I have a ton of cookbooks. Yeah. I want to know that someone just didn't copy this from someone else's page and change two things that I don't know if they really work. So I'm one of those people. So I often look through the pictures of a cookbook and find out like what I'm in the mood for, or I go into my refrigerator and see what I already have. You know, so it's like their stir fries um are a great one where no matter what kind of vegetable you put in there, you're you can make something out of it. Yeah. Um, salads, you can do that. You know, so I think it's looking for what do I want to do? Do I want to use up what I have in my fridge for economical purposes or something's going bad, I have to use the cauliflower today, and then kind of go into you can do cauliflower with pasta, you can do cauliflower with breakfast. You know, I'm a big component, like I believe breakfast for dinner is a huge component in my life. When I can't think of anything, it's just breakfast food. But I can make frittadas with anything in them. You know, I can make a quiche with anything in it. Yeah. So I think that's what allows me to continue it. But I mean, there's some days where I'm just not in the mood for anything either.

Mari 13:10

I I know those days well.

SPEAKER_00 13:13

But but I do think one of the reasons why when I was choosing the recipes consciously in my book, I wanted it to be ones that you picked my book because everything else sort of you had done everything that you were gonna use in those ones. You had cooked those, and now you were looking for something slightly different. Like when I buy an ingredient, I try to use it up. So, you know, I have pork katsu sauce, which I had to use mirin. Well, I tried mirin in a noodle salad, and I like it so much better than soy sauce. So it's a slightly different flavor, it's sweeter, it uses up the ingredients that I have. Right. So and I think that's why people, you know, people see something on Google, they buy all these ingredients, then they throw all these ingredients away, and then they're disillusioned from cooking again. And I think, you know, if you know that when you're buying certain things, buying fruits, raspberries go first, right? Blueberries and blackberries go last, strawberries will go next. So once you get into the rhythm, you know, like I have to make this today or tomorrow. We only can eat avocados when they decide they're ready. They're not deciding when you're ready.

Mari 14:24

Right, sure. Absolutely. I mean, this idea of using using up what you have or kind of that zero waste almost idea in terms is does that transfer into other areas of your life, or is that just kind of in the kitchen?

SPEAKER_00 14:46

No, that I'm I'm always conscious of it. So when we renovate buildings and when I go with clients to buy their home, for example, you know, just because the kitchen isn't from 2026, you know, people think we throw away a kitchen and it's like these are beautiful, solid, mahogany cabinets that change the, you know, like there's a lot of waste in our lives. You know, there's a lot of disposable, you know, disposable culture. Right. And I am I look to repurpose artwork in different rooms of my house. I will move furniture around to different rooms of my house because it does get stale and boring. And I try to choose like major players of like a couch that's never gonna go out of style. And if I need to change something, I can change pillows or I can change the drapes for a season or something. But I try it just because of the industry I'm in on now across actually a couple where I'm in real estate and also now in this food world, it's like, yeah, we're we're spending a lot of money on these things. How do we really get the most value out of them?

Mari 15:55

Yeah, that I I kind of am equating this to creativity of like an artist who's using up paint or material to make something that they weren't expecting to, but maybe it it works in in some way, and and how how to allow that creative voice to come through to use up what you have versus the newest, the flashiest, getting buying new things, which sometimes that's what we do, and it doesn't have to be all the time. So I'm really appreciating just this kind of connection to how it's not even repurposing, it's just utilizing in a new way. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

So for artists, I think of like old jewelry that people don't want anymore, or right, you know, I I'm I'm selling a woman's house, she's lived there 41 years. Wow, she's raised her family there, yeah. And she's going around like nobody wants this, nobody wants this, nobody wants this. And so it you know, you feel like you're throwing your life away for her at the end of the day. But you know, I think of an artist, imagine getting all of that jewelry and just you know, breaking it apart and playing it into something that you're working on, or putting it into making something buttons on the top of a shirt. I mean, there's some people are really, really creative, they're constantly taking making something from nothing. Sure. The rest of us need a starting point, right?

Mari 17:34

Yeah, leaping off. Yes, absolutely, to have to have that. As in your life growing up, has this always been kind of no? Okay, what's your earliest memory of creativity?

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Okay, so my mother was uh okay, we've made a nice room now, no one sit in it, it's been vacuumed, get outside.

Mari 18:02

Got it.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

Okay, you know, and this stuff is expensive. We bought it and it's gonna stay here until we give it to somebody else. You know, you know, and my grandmother was from World War II. Yeah, you know, she saved aluminum foil and all of our wrapping paper because she came from a different world. Right. So, um, and it's not that we didn't I w my creativity wasn't encouraged because my family thought, well, not gonna leave you with any money, so you're gonna have to go out and make money, and artists are starving, so go and get a job.

unknown 18:35

That's right.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

Got it. Because I was selling my paintings at the bus stop. I was making little books with yarn, three whole punches, and like this is a book, you should buy it. Like I always understood the financial piece, I was always somehow trying to make the crap I was making, like, you should give me five cents for that or 25 cents. Yeah. It had a value. That was I was trying to add value somewhere, but I it wasn't encouraged, and I understand why it wasn't, but I think because it was almost that effort of trying to strangle it out, it you know, wanted to be freed, and now it holds no like there's no bar. Yeah, because I but I understand exactly where they came from.

Mari 19:21

Sure. Yeah, you know makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 19:24

My father didn't even get to finish high school because he had to go and work, right? The idea of like, I remember when I was going to college and um in my degree, it's like I could take photojournalism or public debate. And I'm like, I think I'm gonna take photojournalism. And my family was like, You are not getting a camera. You're just gonna run off taking pictures somewhere. We don't trust you. You're not trusting your creativity, you can't be trusted with it. You're gonna take that public debate one, you'll be arguing with people later, you know. But like that's how much my family was like, Yeah, no. I'm like, but it is a class for my degree. And they're like, no, no.

Mari 20:03

So interesting. Just kind of how you, despite the no's that your family was giving you, said, Okay, we're gonna make something of it, whatever it is, and put your stamp on it. And it sounds like regardless of what you had to take for your major or the next job, you were able to add in a little zest of creativity into it because it's hard.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

I mean, you probably have 10,000 unread emails across my emails between, you know, it's hard to live in that space when the world is shoving what it wants at us. Absolutely. You know, I remember I worked for a telecommunications company before the internet was like in everyone's home. And they said, This is so amazing because it's free. It's free, it's free information. You know, they're doing their sales pitch. And I'm like, well, then how do we make money if it's free? Because we have this office, we have the other offices, we have eight other offices. And they're like, Don't let her raise her hand in meetings, you know. And I didn't uh speak anymore at that job for a while. But you know, it and it's funny because everyone says, Oh, it's the new thing, it's the latest thing. It's just advertising, it's just another way to bring information to us so that we can make better educated decisions to consume stuff, really. Right, you know, but I'm not, you know, and now AI is the new thing and everyone's losing their mind over AI, and I'm still significantly not impressed. Uh uh. And I will tell you that the radio show host, uh the radio show owner was like, I'm making promotional materials for you guys. Send me pictures of you. Oh so I sent a picture. My co host sent a picture. What got we got back? Was so not our faces. Oh my goodness. That it took me like several days because normally AI makes you look better, right? Take away the wrinkles, take away and AI made me worse. And I think it's I trash talk it on the radio. It knows I'm not impressed. And it's like, oh yeah? Well, take that mullet with you. Oh my goodness. So again, like I think everything is a tool, but I really still believe in us as the curator or to make it something worthwhile and useful and beautiful. I agree. And functional. Have a heart in it too.

Mari 22:46

Exactly. Well, I'm curious, how did you get into radio hosts? Because that I don't know how it doesn't seem like it was a clear path from real estate into radio, but maybe it was.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

No, it wasn't. So I was at the bank. So I started a publishing company to start because I knew enough about the publishing world that no one's going to take a chance on me. By the time I shop an agent and do all of that, I can just have it out in the world. And I'm a business person, so I'm like, I'll I'll figure it out as another creative outlet, right? Learning a new industry. And so the ladies at the bank would always ask me how everything was going. And I was in the branch when the owner of the radio show, uh, radio um station owner came in and said, Talk radio is so boring. We're in the middle of a political cycle and everyone's just arguing on their side. No one's listening. You know, people are tuning out, everyone's had enough. I need a show to bring people together. I need a show about something cooking. You know, people would tune in for that. So the branch manager said she should have that he should have me on the show. So I went on, and then he found out that I was in real what I did really was real estate. Like that's how I'm paying my bills. So he had me on to talk about real estate. We talked a little bit about cooking, and then he's like, Well, you can probably talk about whatever you want. You're well read. You have an you know, a number of different things that you're interested in. So I had my show for about six weeks, and I thought just talking and not knowing how I was landing because I couldn't see facial expressions or hear if people laughed at my joke, or so I started to bring on guests, and when I brought on my friend, he was like, This is really what the show is is the two of your your friendship and the two of you communicating about things, and so that's how that transpired.

Mari 24:38

That's amazing. It that kind of enough people knew things that you do where you live that they they promoted you for you. Yes, I love when that happens, yes, and so how long have you been doing this radio show with your best friend? In April, it was three years. Ah, amazing! That's incredible. And where do people is this just a local radio show or is it? So you can listen to it locally, you can listen to it locally.

SPEAKER_00 25:08

It c it goes up after the hours are done. Recording, they go up on Spotify, but YouTube Live, it's on YouTube Live. Nice. So and then WSMN. Okay. The call letters, so you can watch it live while we're doing it because we do have cameras, you know, into the studio. So from from that angle, it's been a lot of fun. It's not scripted. You know, we will, you know, have our 10 things to talk about. Sometimes we talk about one, sometimes we talk about 10, sometimes we talk about none. Yeah. Sure. You know, when you have two friends together, you know, absolutely. Absolutely. But we do our intention is to make it inclusive, to make it fun, and to promote more community, you know, more positive things that happen within the community. You know, I think we have enough. Like, even I have a bookstagram page where I say what books I like to read. And I never talk about a book I don't like. Like no one needs this person doesn't need my shade. Yeah, I didn't like that book, or I didn't like like they don't. You know, they put something out into the world. It may not be my cup of tea, but I don't need to trash talk it. Sure. You know, so I I I am trying to it's also gone with I'm trying not to complain as a person as much, which feels impossible.

Mari 26:32

Oh man, I might that's that's a tough one. And I'm I would be so curious, like the little researcher in me is like, how is your life changed by not complaining? I talk a lot less.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

Oh, so despite the fact that I have a radio show and I'm gabbing for two hours straight and doing these podcasts, in general, it's like, well, if I have nothing to say that isn't a complaint, then I don't have to say it at all. You know, it's like wow, I'm actually speaking must much less.

Mari 27:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:05

But it doesn't mean I don't have my days where I'm not losing my mind. Sure. But I realize that when I complain, then it gives other people permission to complain, and then we're all just complaining. Right. And then I le I usually leave feeling a little worse than I started.

unknown 27:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

So my if we are complaining, I hope it's with the goal to provide a solution to fix something. Okay. I think there is um usefulness in it. Sure. If it's really um concentrated and purposeful. But just the flap in every minute of every day about how everything's not going correctly. I mean, we could all do it. Oh, yes, at all times. Right. You know, so I've been trying, that's been a huge thing for me. Yeah. Over the last few years.

Mari 27:59

That sounds like kind of just like a mindfulness practice almost.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

It is. And then it makes me, well, if I have to talk about something interesting, I have to have better questions to ask people that aren't a complaint eliciting question. Unless it unless it does elicit a complaint legitimately, like how's business going, or what have you know, I mean, we all need to talk about real things. I'm not opposed to that.

Mari 28:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

But just, you know, complaining about life all the time is exhausting. And it encourages other people to do the same.

Mari 28:34

And and then you're in that little competition of who has the worst thing to share.

SPEAKER_00 28:41

Yes. Or like the one upping, you have a knee, your knee surgery, and a knee replacement. I have both my knees replaced. If you think that's bad, my sister gave birth, she was in there for 49 hours. Like, if you've ever seen a pregnant person and see people talk to them, all they do is bring them all the horrible birth stories. It's like, what is our impetus to do that? Let's terrify this woman into the scariest day of her life. Valid point. Yeah. So that does elicit like a creative practice of what would we talk about? Oh, I have this great new book, or oh, did you hear this thing, or trying to share things that you like? Yeah. So it has been a practice for sure.

Mari 29:21

Yeah. Oh, it sounds like something that that can, I imagine, change a mindset and the outlook on life in pretty meaningful and big ways to open it up to what if I looked at this differently then?

SPEAKER_00 29:45

Oh, totally. So I was always a glass half full. So if someone had a huge problem, I would always try to find the one thing that could possibly be positive about it. Because I could throw myself into a depression at any moment. Like don't be fooled. If it's gray three days in a row outside, we've had rain for like a week. I'm like, I might kill myself on Thursday. I don't think I'm gonna take any more of that. But I do have depression in my family, I do have depressive tendencies. So if you know, I read Nietzsche, and if like I'm not going anywhere. Philosophical debate of that there's nothing. I need to believe that there's something, I need hope. So if I need this, yeah, probably other people need it too. And one of a family member asked me recently, because we had some bad news about something, and of course, I throw out the one good thing. And uh I said, I am aggressively lately, aggressively trying to find the positive. You know, I'm almost aggressive about it. And she said, But how do you deal with the disappointment? I'm like, everything's always disappointing. It happens whether we plan for it or not. Right. So is there really a need to just expect it and be ready for it so we can complain about it, or can we just find the one thing not to complain about in it?

Mari 31:05

Right. Make some meaning, find some meaning in the hard.

SPEAKER_00 31:09

Or or just if, you know, if you find like I'm not a big fan of um, you know, when it's really gray outside, or you know, but you know, sometimes, you know, everyone needs a break, you know. Sure. We need the rain. We you know, like even when you just try to say, like, for me to say, hey, we need the rain, the plants need the rain, the flowers, you know, and just give yourself something so that you're not just miserable in that moment, absolutely. You like say if you lose a job, try to find the one thing that you needed time to do, and do it. I understand you don't have money because now you don't have a job, but can you somehow manage to get a piece of that for yourself? Because you're like, once I start working, I'm never gonna have the time again to do this. And try, you know, even though you know, I just had recently a knee problem. Well, I'm gonna be off my feet for a little while. I get to do some deep diving into some books that I wanted to read, or this, you know, gives me time with my cat.

Mari 32:13

Right. Oh my goodness. I'm curious, uh you strike me as someone who has a lot. I mean, you have so much going on, so many different things. Uh, do each of the things you do inspire the other pieces in your life, or where do you find inspiration? Who or what is inspiring you?

SPEAKER_00 32:33

I I find inspiration everywhere. So when I started writing this book, which is now fiction, I bought another notebook that said it's the shiny penny notebook. And it is for everything that is more interesting than the thing I'm doing. Oh, I love that. Because every time you start something, you're so excited. Okay, it's full of possibility. It's you know, but when you have to tamp it down to no longer be everything but be one thing, it becomes so like you know, it it becomes the meat and potatoes of the reality of something. It takes it from a fantasy or a daydream into the reality, and that's a hard transition. I think anyone who does things creatively knows that middle that I'm talking about.

Mari 33:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 33:18

Whether you're painting or writing or making a film or a video or something, you're in that, like this, you know, the messy middle. The messy middles, right? Well, those are the transitions, I think. And transitions are difficult because you have to make a decision, right? And then we don't trust our decisions and all of that. So I think being okay with it not being perfect is a hard one to swallow for a lot of people because they only want to do things that are perfect.

Mari 33:53

Right.

SPEAKER_00 33:54

But you know, I look out, you know, at my garden, which if you ever want to have no control over anything, plant a garden every day. You're like, why aren't you staying alive? You know. But like you will have this perfectly trimmed bush, and then some weird snowstorm comes and it breaks off half piece, and now you're looking like at a holy sign. It's still less beautiful of a bush, you know, it's still gonna flower, it's gonna fill in, it's gonna be fine. But I think when we try to make everything too perfect and our lives too perfect, I don't think we really get to enjoy them as much as we should. And I'm saying that as a person who wouldn't do things because I would want them to be perfect.

Mari 34:35

Yeah. Wow. No, I I agree that piece of if we hold on to that idea of something needing to be perfect, we miss out on the experience of something by choosing not to do it or having a reaction to it if it isn't what we envisioned or imagined it would be in our mind.

SPEAKER_00 34:59

And sometimes I think the we are all imperfect. And what we are searching for is proof we are okay. So it's in seeing the not perfect and in everything else that gives us permission to also be okay with our imperfection.

Mari 35:15

I love that. We do need permission to step into that and and be human because perfection is uh overrated.

SPEAKER_00 35:27

Yeah, and the same thing with the diet. Like everyone's like, what kind of diet is this? And it's like, well, this is an all-protein time period, and you've got carbohydrates in here, and it's like, you know, we're never gonna live a perfect diet. Right. What is the perfect diet? I believe everyone has to explore for themselves to what makes you feel good, what makes it so that your genes fit most of the time? What makes it that you can stomach eating it repeatedly day after day, yeah, that you can fit it into your life so that when you go over a family's birthday party, you're not lugging 45 differ dishes because you can't eat anything they're providing. Like, how do we fit this into our lifestyle? And we are bombarded with so much information that we're not good enough. We you like not you, but they'll say, You need to do this, you need to buy this, you need more of this, you know. And it's like, well, how you know? I I look at my parents and I think, well, I'm amazed they're alive at all. They smoke cigarettes every day and didn't like vegetables. All right, well, there we go. And they're still here. Neither one of them are, but that's not the reason why. That surprisingly is not the reason why. And when I went into the hospital for some like a heart problem, I remember thinking, this is just unfair. I have spent a lot of money and a lot of energy on this body.

Mari 36:50

Yes, yeah, it is, it's an interesting reality to find ourselves in, to be to know. And we've moved away from trusting ourselves to believing and trusting other people that we've never met, that we don't know personally, that and that's a that is a really hard, I think, shift to come back to trusting ourselves. This this body that we've lived with for however many years we've been alive.

SPEAKER_00 37:24

So yeah, and not to and not to betray that. I think sure you know, we the the authority, you know, we want answers. We're answer-seeking creatures. Right. If you give me a book and in the first chapter, who killed Bob? I have to read about who killed Bob. Like, I can't have this question living in my head now. We are, you know, we are looking for answers, and so that's something I'm working on in my creative practice is you know, not knowing. Yeah. Or it it changing. Right. And tolerating to change, yeah, and tolerating change, which is really hard for so many, especially as you get older because you're like, ah, like, you know, I don't want things to move as fast because I don't want to have to relearn how to use my phone because it comes out with different software, and I'm like, okay, right, right, right, right. There's so much to that, you know, and wanting to spend the latter half of my year really exploring creatively what life looks like. You know, and that's so that's something. So I appreciate you know, podcasts like yours and your dedication to trying to bring this out to the forefront because we consume so much, it's hard to create against that.

Mari 38:50

Absolutely. And to to really acknowledge that creating, we can do it every day. We are. We're creating the day that we're participating in, how we choose to do that, we have so much control, even though there is so much unknown.

SPEAKER_00 39:08

Yes, because we can at least control ourselves, like we can control the conversations we have, we can control the energy we bring to a space, like we can control the intention, what we put in our bodies, what we wear on our bodies, you know, who we spend time with. If you don't like someone on Instagram that's always making you feel bad about their better butt videos, block them. Yeah, unfollow them. It's okay. Unfollow them, and the algorithm will still be giving them to you. Say non-interested, not interested, non-interested.

Mari 39:37

Right. I love it. Well, this has been such a treat getting to chat with you. I have one last question. What does it feel like in your body to be creative?

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Free. No constraints. It feels very freeing.

Mari 39:54

I love it. Well, Lisa, thank you so much for taking the time to join me. If people want to learn more about the work you have, your cookbook, your radio show, how can they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_00 40:05

Okay, so for the cookbook, you can find um my love languages and food at any bookstore. You can also find it at Amazon. And I have a website called stars at nightpublishing.com. That will bring you to basically a one page with a QR code. And then um Lisa and Robin on the mic. Um, Robin's name is R-O-B-Y-N on the mic, M-I-C. So you can find us on Spotify, YouTube. We're gonna be doing some cooking lives where we cook live and you're invited to cook with us and more of like a conversational. So we're trying some different things this year. We're taking Lisa and Robin out of the studio and doing some more real life things so you'll be able to catch up with us there as well.

Mari 40:52

I will put all those links in show notes so people have easy access. And thank you again so much for taking the time to join me. I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.

SPEAKER_00 41:00

Thank you. I have too.

Mari 41:01

It's a long time coming. Thank you. Thanks for listening to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. We'd love to keep in touch, so follow us on Facebook and Instagram. We are at Sustaining Creativity. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. Tag your friends and family so they can listen too. We love to hear from you, so leave your reviews, comments, and questions. Check out our website, sustainingcreativity.com, for upcoming offerings and creativity coaching. Tune in Tuesdays for our next episode. And remember, with creativity, anything's possible.