Sustaining Creativity Podcast
Sustaining Creativity Podcast
Fabulous Creativity with Paul Fabulous
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Creativity through the lens of someone who helps people find their voice,
"If I'm not creative things aren't flowing."
Paul Fabulous Gasztold is a popular life coach, vocal coach and spiritual mentor. People say his super power is helping people relax and fall in love with their voice.
He tends to fall in love with his clients' voices, and has been serving his many happy clients internationally around the world since 2004.
He loves spending time by the water in Toronto with his friendly golden doodle pup 'Freedom', and helping his clients in person and virtually across North America.
Welcome to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. I'm your host, Marty Reesford. 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 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 Paul Fabulous. Paul helps people find their voice. Please enjoy Paul Fabulous. Welcome to the Sustaining Creativity Podcast. Today I'm chatting with Paul Fabulous. Paul helps people find their voice. Welcome to the show.
SPEAKER_02Thank you. I've I got as soon as you said we're recording, we're live, I had an image of, you know, in the recording studios when you have this red light, the record lights on, and you're there in this cool studio and these cool vibes are going down. Um that's the kind of image I had. I thought that was fun.
MariNice. I love that. That's that is great to have that vibe. We're we're we're in it together here today. So I'm excited to dive into creativity, but why don't you let our listeners know briefly a little bit more about who you are and what it is you do?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, so I'll I'll kind of flip it a bit. I'll just kind of tune into the listeners because um that's what I am about, uh uh helping people. So, you know, folks listening, there's something going on in your life that's on your mind. There's things that are in your heart right now. There's things that you want to express to create. There's concerns and there's things that are going great. And I just want you to tune in as you're listening to what's going to help you and call that forth with Mari and I talking about it. This is about helping you. It's not about Paul. This is about what's going to help you in your life. So I'm just going to tune in and see, share you some stories of what's helped other people, uh, be creative in their life. And um, whether it's finding their voice or for singing or speaking or finding their career or healing a relationship. Um my intention is to tune in to see what's going to help you. So this is about you. Thanks for tuning in.
MariAbsolutely. I'm I really appreciate the the willingness to uh uh share what will be best in service or helpful to those listening to this conversation today. I'm curious, when you think of creativity, what does it mean to you to be creative?
SPEAKER_02Um well uh let me give an example, a story, because I think stories are helpful. Um so if if if I'm not if I'm not creative, things aren't flowing, things don't feel easy, I don't feel aligned with life. So I think I think I think um at least the people that are working with working with me, they're finding that if they're um open to the flow of life, life is flowing through them in a beautiful way. So things are easy, they are flowing, they feel uh free to create and and be uh authentic. Um I wonder one gentleman, um he uh what does it mean to be creative? So so he he came in for he wasn't even interested in his voice actually, but he was interested in in a spiritual mentoring and being like he's very beautifully tuned in. He's uh he's got a beautiful vibration, and he chants in a way that like when I listen to him, and you know, I've been helping people find their voice for many, many, many, many, many years, singers and speakers and people, just everyday people like myself, and he chants, and uh the vibration uh what he chants uh is uh as uh beautifully connected and opening and uh deeply profoundly meaningful as much as any singer I've heard anywhere anywhere. And and what's interesting is that he could never really sing, he was he was tone deaf, he that just kind of happened, like his vibration is beautiful, but the voice was never there. So what we were doing is we were removing inner inner blocks. Like we use the we call it Paul's fabulous three-step method to find the voice. Um, why do I call myself Paul Fabulous? It's not because I think I'm so fabulous, it's just that um it's easier. My birth name, Gashtold. I don't I'm spelling it half the time, people don't remember it. So I figured when they hear the word fabulous, they feel wonderful. So that's why it's there. So um, so anyway, that's why it's called the fabulous three-step method. So the first step that we did is we opened up the heart. Because if the heart's not open, you know, we just write a book that nobody's ever gonna ever gonna want to read because it doesn't come from anywhere that's real. If I'm you know proposing to somebody to marry me and the heart's not open, they're not gonna feel it, they're not gonna be able to say yes. So opening the heart is is number one. If that's not there, there's no point. And when the heart's open, things flow. So sometimes people don't even know techniques to be creative or live their life, but the heart's open and that carries them. And then the second step, once the heart's open, is we remove the blocks and obstacles that are there. So imagine that you're you're listening right now. There's this part of your life that you want to flow, but there's this beautiful bottle with liquid inside that wants to get out, like beautiful sparkly water, but there's a big cork in there. So that's not going anywhere. So you're feeling it like, where is this going? What's happening? Why isn't my book written? Why isn't my career flowing? So we we there's ways to dissolve, lots of different wonderful, wonderful, beautiful ways to dissolve that cork that's in the bottle. And when we allow it to fall away and dissolve, now things are flowing. This beautiful sparkly water can come out of the bottle, and your book gets written. You find your way into your career, you find your way into your relationship. So, with this gentleman who was never really interested in chanting and singing, we started removing noticing obstacles that were there, and they feel you feel them in a discomfort in your body. This feels like there's something uncomfortable. I feel afraid or feel anxious or I feel tight, I don't feel at peace. So, in that place, we allow that to dissolve using the the methods, the method, and so doing this over time, this voice came out of this gentleman that's feels to me like I'm listening to any spiritual or beautiful singer, and it's just like it just touches you and it moves through you, and you feel connected, and your mind stills and the heart's connected. It's like this is like, oh my gosh. And the thing is, everyone has that ability because when my inner blocks are not there, and we're human, we're gonna have blocks. It's all I have many, many, many, many more to release, and many, many have been released. The further I go with releasing them, the more I get open. So when we're on that path to releasing those in restrictions, our voice comes out, and um so in his community, he's expressing he's healing people in his work, with his work, uh, with his voice, with his presence, his chanting, is healing him, he's healing others around him and his environment. And this is just the first two steps of the method, opening the heart and removing obstacles. We haven't even got to the third step yet, which is technique. For example, singing technique or writing technique or how to write a song technique. We never got to that. So this work is a little different because most people start with technique. How do I how do I write a book? How do I sing? What scales do I sing? So we're working on the how, but as we as you know, Mari and um everyone listening, if a block is there and the heart's not open, you can have all the techniques in the world, and you're not gonna feel creative.
MariSure. Yeah. What brought you to this work? How did you find yourself in this space?
SPEAKER_02Accidentally.
MariI love when that happens.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Um I guess the mo the work that I needed to do the most uh because I had to do this myself, and I still do every day. Um people find it helpful. So um it was really by accident. Yeah. But so I'm sharing the story to give hope because um a lot of the times you don't have to get great skills at something. Like like this gentleman, he you wouldn't say he has vocal skills, sure, but because he's so in a such a pure place and there's such clarity and flow, and so many obstacles have been removed, he's channeling something that's exquisite. And and I find this in my favorite writers, I find this in my favorite songwriters and singers, and people that are leaders, or I find this, I find this tone, this vibration that's just pure and authentic and beautiful. And if you are touching that in yourself, then you're creating in such a way that on a level that's the same, you're touching the same place John Lennon got his songs. You're you're touching the place that Martin Luther King channeled his inspiration from. You're touching the place that the Buddha you know taught from. You're touching you're touching this eternal place that is that people can feel is so authentic and beautiful and rich that it goes beyond technique. So um that like uh for me and for this gentleman and people that that I work with, we find if we can really um find that authentic voice that's not in our personal voice, it becomes more of a spiritual voice, it's coming from a place that's including everything and everybody, it's not just us. That does a lot of our work for us, and we and we can just get out of the way. Absolutely and and it and it makes life easier, and as you know it in your own work, sure.
MariYeah, when you find when you're able to connect to that eternal place or your authentic voice. I I am coming back to your three-step method, opening the heart, removing blocks, and then technique. I can only imagine this three-step method. Yes, the fabulous three-step method. I can only imagine listeners maybe I guess I'm noticing in myself some uh apprehension, opening, opening the heart. That seems like such a for some a daunting experience to start with. And so how how how does one take the first step or what is that beginning offering or connection invitation?
SPEAKER_02Um probably um like the thing that I find helps the most. So I so I tell people, and you I bet you find this too, Mari, when you're when you're with somebody and you're helping. Um when somebody steps in the room or they're they're on a call, then you're you're working on something together. Um I would guess that most of the time you don't have any idea what's gonna happen or what's gonna help the person. And you have thoughts like, I don't have a clue what's gonna help this person. And you might even have a thought, what the heck am I doing here on this call? And I want to, you know, every singer, everyone on stage, every everybody that helps people, they all have those thoughts. They're we're just not believing them.
SPEAKER_01Right.
SPEAKER_02Um, but they're there and that's okay. So I don't know what's gonna help somebody until they enter the space where they're wanting, like genuinely wanting, because they don't work with everyone, just like you know, you don't work with everyone. I I only work with people that are really, really, really they're wanting this and they're ready, and then they're bringing this intention. It's beautiful. They're bringing this intention and a readiness into the space, and then my my I'm there to hold the space with them, and then something happens in the space, yeah, and it's infinitely creative because it's not it's not me, it's not them doing it. They see that there's something happening that comes alive in the space that's beyond their thinking, beyond them, way outside my brain. I'm not bringing the smarts to the table for sure. They're not even, it's coming out of them, but through this life, through life, let's call it life. Yeah, you know, non- non-denominational, but whatever resonates with you listening, life or spirit and or love, and this thing is guiding and coming through. So now in that space that we're holding together, you know, we're we're two or gathered, there I am. Their life is, and it's now, and then that we find the the block, the fear, the resistance. So you're talking about opening the heart, there's a fear with that, the resistance, yeah, which is there to protect you and keep you safe, and for all the beautiful reasons. Now there's a safety in the container between us. There's a safety because we're uh we're both two of us are holding a space for you, and we're just holding that block with a judgment with caring. We're just rocking it like a baby, and and and just in the holding of it, uh, we could watch our breath coming in and out, and we could find that start to dissolve. And um I don't know where it's gonna go, but just but holding the space tends to um, I mean, there's a whole methodology I have, and you have different methodologies, and but but um allowing a beautiful space to be there is the first step, and then um we find that we can be okay with that block being there, not without judgment, we're just holding it and then just witnessing it. And um, and it doesn't always happen in you know, one conversation over time. But I I I mean it was one lady, she she's in her in her 60s, and she called me and she said, I've never been in a relationship where a man really, really, really wants me. I've had lots of interest, I've been in relationships, but I never felt really adored and truly wanted. So we held the space for it, and and this was was finding her voice, finding her voice in relationship because she never had that, she really, really wanted it, and yeah, um allowing that to open up, and now she's with this guy that completely adores her, and it's it's funny, it it's like it's creativity, but it's like yeah, where's creativity not? It's in our relationship, it's in our how we feel, how we love, how we look in the mirror. I know that's where you're you go with your creativity, it's not just about writing a song, it's it's about life, right?
MariAbsolutely, it is it's a way of life, a way of living, a way of being. How does someone know they're ready, or how does someone feel readiness? I for me it's it it comes in like a little internal, it feels a little friction. There's some friction that's happening internally of the the wanting something or feeling ready and simultaneously feeling hesitant. So there that that point of friction internally for me, I think, is where that readiness comes alive and then it tips that edge of okay, I have to do something. The readiness is starts to overflow, and that's when that pull or that impulse to seek support or help or share something unravels. What is it for you?
SPEAKER_02Um, well, when you're talking, I I got this twitch in my right arm, and that when I get that, that's a green light because as you were saying that, you reminded me of uh somebody that about their readiness. And so I got this twitch in my arm, and that tells me that's the right chord or it's the right answer, or it's going in a good direction. Uh, even if it looks like it's bombing out. Yeah, eventually it leads somewhere.
MariSure. That takes so much trust to trust that we might go deep down before we go up, before we rise. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. Like, like I, if I'm right, I was gonna I want to tell you the story of this lady that about readiness, but um uh who's in California. Um California, she's working on her career, she's working with clients and families and um a family's her client, and then she found that she couldn't speak up. She was steamrolled, doing this work that was too too stressful, too tiring. She didn't know if she could sustain it. She loved helping them, but she didn't know if she could do it because um it was hard for her, and then they had all these demands, it was very, very difficult. So she had to find her voice. She couldn't really speak up for what she needed to be there for them and for herself. Yeah, so we worked together, we did a four-month uh program together. Call it phased one, and she felt that she was ready. Okay, so she was ready for a change. So we did this work together, and she brought a readiness to it. And so now she is voicing all her all her needs, what she sees, what's authentic for her. And they're relieved because now they can work with her in a way that's actually gonna be taking care of her so she can take care of them. And so she's in this beautiful place where now not only is she thriving, but other employees are saying, um, well, if this lady's not there, I'm not gonna go on, I'm not going with this company anymore. She's now the cornerstone of the staff.
SPEAKER_01Wow.
SPEAKER_02She's such a grounding space and and that came from her uh um starting to melt away the blocks and beliefs and finding her voice with a beautiful amount of heart, and so this has completed, so we've completed four months together, and now she's in a whole new place. Now the question is, what's she is she ready for the next step? Because I'm just telling her, phase two you found your individual voice, but phase two for you could look like and I don't know if she's ready for this. And um, it's not like I know what's best for her, I don't. I'm wrong a lot. This is just I'm telling her this is a possibility of what I think is next for her. Yeah, but life knows what's next for her, life knows what's best. So if I'm doing any good, I'm I'm mirroring some of what life wants, but I could be totally wrong. But this is it. Phase two, the next step is getting beyond the individual wishes of what she thinks she wants as a person, because she's at this point where she can start to remove uh many more of these quarks from the bottles and live in a way that life is actually um flowing through her. And I call it leapfrogging because when she's so in tune with life without the without the the corks in the bottles, the the limitations and the obstructions inside, life can actually skip steps. So she doesn't have to go from here to here to here to here. She doesn't have to go through those six songs, right? Life can actually bring the right one, the sixth one, right up the line to her now. And and um and learning how to spontaneously not just in sessions together, but spontaneously in the moment, have those corks dissolved as they come up throughout the day. It's like dominoes and she's feeling this lightness, this heart open. The obstacles are just getting transmuted, and life's just leapfrogging her into bringing things that are possible in her career and relationships and finances right here, right now. And I told her this is going to bring the things that you want in your life, but that's not gonna be the best part of it. The best part of it is the feeling that you have when you are so in tune with life, you're just buzzing with that, and you're feeling so full and present and peaceful. Um and then the things that change in your life, it won't be so much about which things you have in your life because you know whatever it is life brings is going to be amazing.
MariJust beautiful experience of trusting your voice, yourself, the moment your life. I I love the your use of spontaneous and the spontaneity and how that really in my world aligns with creativity, being open to it, being willing to be surprised or spontaneously have things shift for you.
SPEAKER_02I love it.
MariYeah.
SPEAKER_02Like like like like like something could be completely changed in our life and could be so much better than we have no idea that was even possible.
MariExactly. For for individuals just starting on this finding their voice journey, what would you sparks of inspiration or hope for people who are just starting this journey of finding their voice?
SPEAKER_02Uh it's a good question. I I I think I've I I believe that we're all all like we're all whenever we're opening and finding our voice, we're always opening at a new level. So we're always new at a new level. Probably um cultivating some stillness. Whatever it's gonna take for you to have some cultivate some presence and stillness. It's one of the uh I found that one of the things I had to have in the in the method is is is practices where um some of them are very Zen influence, where we're cultivating presence, learning how to be um have have times in our day when we're not rushing around, we're just sitting in there, we're being present with what's going on, even if it's a little bit uncomfortable in us, just to have all the space for ourselves. That's that's a great practice to have. It's for it's essential.
MariThe finding cultivating stillness, I think, is you know what a beautiful invitation for people in such a fast-paced, instant gratification world we live in today. Well, Paul, this has been a fabulous conversation. I have one last question for you. What does it feel like in your body to be creative?
SPEAKER_02More aligned with truth, because when I have that free flow, when that shifts, that cork dissolves, and now there's a free flow. Now life can be creative through me. Until I do that, I'm not, I can't be creative. I can't because I can't let life come through me. So where am I channeling? What's coming through? Just stuff in my head, because coming from fear, like that's that's just gonna go to the wastebasket. Whatever I create from that place is just gonna be undone anyway. So um, but I'm not saying I have to get away from the the heavier feelings in that, because part of it is being with those and so I can transmute them, so I can shift them.
MariNice. Well, wonderful. Thank you so much for taking the time to join me. If people want to learn about the work you have out in the world, the programs and things you offer, how could they do that and how could they get in touch with you?
SPEAKER_02Um, you can go to my website, paulfabulous.com. I I would go the simplistic way. If if you wanted to reach out and have a question or want to talk about what might help you um find your voice in some area of your life, you can go to paulfab.com, F-A-B, Paulfab.com. And then all you'll see there is a very brief description of the three-step method for opening your heart, clearing blocks, and then strategy techniques. And then there's a contact form with you can just write, I would love to have this happen. I'm having difficulty here. This is what I would love to have happen, and you can send that to me and um speak on the phone about it.
MariBeautiful. Well, I will put some limited links in show notes so people have access should they be inspired to reach out. And thank you again for taking the time to join me. I have thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.
SPEAKER_02Me too. Thanks for listening. You're a great listener.
MariThanks 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. 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 else, and then we're going to be able to