EPISODE 024 | Linda Sivertsen: Gratitude, Grace, and the Creative Life

In this heartfelt and wise conversation, bestselling author and Beautiful Writers Podcast host Linda Sivertsen joins Lee to talk about creative consistency, social media as a modern writer’s playground, and finding meaning in the steady rhythm of a well-lived life. Together, they explore the courage it takes to stay visible, the humility that comes from aging in public, and the power of gratitude, regulation, and forgiveness. Linda’s reflections on creative purpose, loss, and legacy remind us that living fully means making peace with imperfection — and choosing joy anyway.

Key Topics Covered

• Staying visible and relevant as a writer at 60
• Balancing solitude and public life through creative expression
• The role of gratitude and meditation in emotional regulation
• Learning from conflict and misunderstanding with grace
• The impact of loss, lineage, and creative inheritance
• Living a life without regret and redefining success in later years
• Travel, curiosity, and the surprising gifts of getting older

Once you’ve listened to the episode, reflect on this: Where in your own life are you ready to shift from “grinding” to grateful? Reflect on one steady habit or practice that’s paid off over time — and one new trick you’re willing to learn, no matter your age. Share your reflection with @crone.rising.official on Instagram or Substack Notes.

Crone Rising is for every woman who’s done being quiet and done being small. We’re not here to fade. We’re here to rise — unapologetic, unmuted, and unmissable.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:15

Hello. Hi. How are you? So good. How are you, my friend? Good, good. Thank you so much for doing this. This is lovely. Welcome to Crone Rising. I love it. Yes. Who knew? Who knew when I was doing a writing retreat that I would be doing a podcast? So, how do you maintain your relevance in a world that wants you to be invisible?

SPEAKER_00 0:37

That's a really, really good question. I think I'm pretty consistent about putting myself out into the world. It's not always comfortable for me. I don't always like it. I don't always want to. I'm a total homebody, always have been. And, you know, like like I just said, I'm usually so casual. Um, that I'm not one of those people that really wants to be seen a lot, which is complicated for a writer, because we wanna we want to know that when we spend years on something, 10 years, I think, for this last book, we want people to read it. And one of the ways to get people to read it is to go out into the world and to do your tap dancing, right? To speak and to do media and all of those things. And I don't have a lot of drive to do those things. I like to be home. Um, and and I like supporting other writers, I love being behind the scenes. So one of the things that I force myself to do is I do a lot of social media. So I and what I love about social media is I have a very overactive sort of creative brain. And when I'm not writing a book, when like I haven't been writing a book since I released Beautiful Writers a couple of years ago, I have book two in the works, but I'm not actively working on it. But I still have that voice, that writer voice in my head all the time. And I still wake up with whole blog posts and magazine articles and chapters of books. They still flow in all the time. So I've gotten really pretty adept at creating quick media, social media graphics. Um, I love Canva. I love being able to be creative, I love writing blog posts. And so when I put those out into the world on a regular basis, I feel connected and I feel of value. And I and people tell me that the things that I'm sending out are helping them. And it just keeps feeding itself, right? The more you do it, the more fun it is, the more community you feel that you have. And so while I don't get the same attention in the world when I go out to dinner, I'm not getting cat calls. That doesn't, I don't care if I'm invisible that way now. Like, fuck, I'm 60 years old. I don't need to be, I don't need to be a sex symbol for anybody. But what I do love is that heart-to-heart connection that I have with other writers, and they're everywhere, right? So I just keep putting out the work and people keep finding it.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

That's awesome. Do you write on um a particular platform? Like, are you on Substack?

SPEAKER_00 3:35

Are you do you that's funny that you mentioned that? You know, I've always had a blog. I have had a blog forever. I feel like um I feel like I was one uh a very early adopter of a website, you know, way, way, way back in the day. I remember I used to hire the strangest people to make my websites because nobody could do it. And so I I've had a blog for so long that I haven't switched over yet. But the other day, one of my clients who's got a great Substack said to me, I love your newsletter, Linda. Can you can you let me help you take it over to Substack because there's so many writers in that, in that, in that venue? And she said, I really think that these dear book mama Q ⁇ A's that you're doing on social media and that you're doing on your blog should be on Substack. And I said, Okay, I know nothing. Let's do it. Let's take me over there. So next week I think we'll be doing that. Are you writing? Are you getting work done?

SPEAKER_01 4:40

I'm well, I'm writing, so I write five days a week on Substack.

SPEAKER_00 4:44

What?

SPEAKER_01 4:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

And I podcast, I have a minimum of four conversations a week. I do all of the editing and stuff by myself, so it's been a very, very steep learning curve. And I'm going to go back and redo the first couple.

SPEAKER_00 5:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Like, like kind of like remastered because now I know a little bit what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00 5:06

Oh, it's no joke. My podcast, I've I have a sound engineer. And and the reason I don't do that many shows, I did once a month for years since I think 2015. But now I don't do that many shows because I was spending 50 hours on every episode. Yeah. Full-time job for one for one episode. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

Yeah. Yeah. And uh I have to laugh because you know I was retired. For me, it's just this and travel.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Ah, lovely.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah. And you know, you work really, really hard for the life that you have. So it's time to enjoy it.

SPEAKER_00 5:51

Well, I just did that. My husband said to me when I turned 60, he said, What would you like? Would you like to go somewhere, do something? Or I said, I've never been to England, and I feel like if I die without having gone to England, I will be so sad. One of my best friends in college is an English lord, or was an he still is, but back in college. And I had been wanting to visit him and his abbey my entire adult life and never made it. I sent my sister there. He hosted my sister. He hosted my father before he died. He hosted my first publisher. He hosted one of my best friends and never me. That's part of why I just was like, I have to go to London. I have to go. And so I said that to my husband. I said, I said, I have to go and we have to see Lord Robin. And he said, Great, let's go. And it was so amazing because his daughter was running a marathon, the London Marathon. So we we centered around them so we could all be together. And we rode bikes all over London. And we saw my my English lord bestie, and we had the most magical trip of a lifetime. And I literally thought, okay, now I could die happy. And I've never been a traveler, not really. I mean, I'm a homebody. I travel all the time for work. I was in Carmel, you know, every six, eight weeks for 15 years. I don't know. I've always had to travel for work and my husband's work. But this was on another level. It was like, oh, international travel changes you. There's something so powerful about it. And I've always been too busy to give it much care. So I'm glad that I'm getting, now that I'm getting older, I'm starting to open to that. But I like what you're saying about this is why we work so hard, right? This is why I mean that the one thing at our age is that if you have worked hard enough and smart, because granted, a lot of people work hard and then don't still don't have the ability to travel. And who knows what's going to happen with the economy. I mean, I thank God started an IRA when I was young and contributed to it every year. And so I have a retirement and I can I can use it, right? I can use it to travel. And a lot of people aren't so blessed. A lot of people aren't in that situation, or they have the IRA, but it's tanked. So there's always a lot of considerations for these things. But I do I do think, you know, one of the sort of humbling things about getting older is uh noticing that it's not necessarily the big wins or the big risks that we took that are paying off now. It's that steady overtime, consistent uh contributions, if you will, to your habits, to your lifestyle, to your savings, that reap the biggest reward. That living within your means, if you can, not that I always did or do, but if you can well, I do now, but if you can live within your means and still be a dreamer and still shoot for the big things, but take care of those little things and set yourself up by the time you're 60, because you and I are we're both dragons, we're both the same year, 1964. By the time you're 60, well, you can go, well, hot damn, I did some of this right. Like, geez, it actually worked.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yeah, no one's more surprised than me.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

Same. I mean, same. Like, what a blessing. What I can actually slow down. I actually don't have to grind it all the time anymore. I don't have to stay up all night and try to find time for my own creativity at three in the morning because I have a bit a job during the day. Like, wow, who who would have thunk?

SPEAKER_01 10:04

The thing that has saved me the most is the fact that I'm so grateful for everything, even the bad things. Me too. Because you learn so many great lessons from negative experiences, which I know sounds weird, but it's not true. No, shit into sunshine. That's kind of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

But I saw that in the virtual retreat when you were talking about some of the stuff that had happened to you as a kid, and it was like, oh my god, and she's grateful for that. You had such a joyous perspective on the hardships that you had been through. And you turned it into humor. You always found a way to make it funny. And um, that helps that helps you not only to live a thriving life, but it helps the people who are watching you know that being a victim doesn't serve anybody.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

Getting into a bit of woo. It's just such a low vibration energy to get to have it like uh it's it's such a burden to carry it with you all the time. But and it's so not worth it.

SPEAKER_00 11:07

I had a client who got so mad at me over a misunderstanding. It was she accused me of something that never happened.

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Oh no.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

And I was absolutely devastated. I had I had written something a social media post, and I used a s a phrase that I've used in published books 20 years ago. I used a pretty common phrase, and she thought I had just taken it from one of her books I had read. She thought I plagiarized it. Now, in my world, plagiarism is the biggest possible devastation, right? And and I love this person, like it's all good. Like I'm not, I'm not mad, none of it. And I and I'll never say her name. But I say the story to say I was absolutely terrified and I went into victim at first. Like, this is a catastrophe. Like I catastrophized it, and then I got so grateful because most of my world people trust me. So it got me so grateful for the love that I experience all the time, and then it got me grateful to look at where I didn't foster trust with her. Like I maybe wasn't clear enough in ways I had given her feedback, or I wasn't loving enough, or I had been too rushed, or there was repair that I probably needed to do and didn't realize. I was kind of unaware. And then I thought, well, how can I be better for all of my clients? Like, what if I take it for granted? And you know, you and I have spent time together in person. So I'm a very casual person. I'm a very fun-loving, I'm casual, I swear. But because I'm casual, I tend to sometimes have a shorthand relationship with people. I assume they know my heart. I assume that things are clear. And that that experience taught me I'm not being professional enough. I'm not actually um taking enough good care to make sure that my people know, know what I'm doing for them, know how I care about them. I hadn't been doing enough of that. And so in the devastation of it, I got really, really grateful for the chance to see myself clearer and to see where I needed to get better. And I feel I have been so much happier in the last month because I've been much more present for people and much clearer and more professional and I'm doing a better job. And all of that came because I felt like a real big victim for about two days where I thought I was gonna die.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Well, I I'm glad you came through it.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

You know, when you watch these world leaders do their thing and they sling uh stuff at each other, and then that can really affect millions and millions of people. You think the I think the number one thing any of us can do is to try to stay regulated and to try to keep our own nervous systems from running amok. Because we we don't just uh influence ourselves, we're affecting a lot of other each person is affecting a lot of other people, and not to mention animals. I've got a couple of dogs right at my feet right here, and if I'm jacked up, their experience is not as good, right? Oh, absolutely. So so I love I love trying to um always keep things in perspective and keep charge of my own energy, and that again, this was a wonderful experience because this one rocked me so hard that I saw myself almost letting it slip.

SPEAKER_01 15:18

You know, so I'm I'm learning how to pause, right? And just sort of like, okay. Like the greatest thing I ever learned was how to meditate.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

Oh, I know. I make myself do it every morning, and I can't, I have no patience for it at all. Like I literally give myself eight minutes. I put an eight-minute timer, and that's all I'm gonna do. And some days I can't do eight, some days I do six, but I make myself do it, and then I I write my gratitudes. That's that's a non-negotiable, has to happen every morning because otherwise I'm just an engine, man. And I'm like off and running. But it does, it helps so much.

SPEAKER_01 15:59

Yeah, yeah. And for me, yeah, it's it's a really wonderful grounding practice just to get myself regulated to like start and end the day. So I do a bit between eight and twelve minutes at the beginning, eight and twelve minutes at the end. They don't always have a system that they can talk to old ladies.

SPEAKER_00 16:25

My mom, my mom died at 59. Her mother died at 49. Oh, I don't have any Crown women to go to. I did in Los Angeles. I had, I was very, very close to my neighbor who was 90. Um, but I can't walk down the street and see her anymore. I'm very close to my mother's best friends who I can call, but they're not physically nearby. And so I I agree. I think if I were young, I would be a huge fan of a show where you could listen to women that you could look up to and model after and who are showing you how to live you know 20, 30 years down the future. Because when you're 30, 60 sounds really old. When you're 60, it ain't old.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

And so it's led to a lot of really, really good conversations on you know, how do you want to show up in the world? Because 60 isn't old.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

No, better not be. You know, I'm gonna be here a while. I've got shit to do.

SPEAKER_01 17:33

You and me both.

SPEAKER_00 17:34

But at the same time, I did tell my son the other day and my sister, I said, hey, just so you know, just be just so it's clear, if something happens and I'm gone, I no regrets, like great life. Like I I did it all. I did everything I wanted to do. I was loved, I was loving, I'm proud of myself. I was creatively so fulfilled. And um, you know, my mom on her deathbed said she looked at me and she said, I wasted my life. Oh, that's heartbreaking. It was the most heartbreaking thing to hear because at her memorial there there were like 300 people, it was standing room only. She was deeply loved. And my father adored her, my sister and I adored her. I never once had a fight with my mom in my entire life. Never, not one, never. And so to hear her have that much regret was just beyond devastating. And it was really, it was it was that whole nobody regrets the job that they didn't do or whatever. Bullshit. For her, it was all about work. She she was a very creative person who was creatively unfulfilled on her deathbed because she thought she had more time. And um, and she was of that generation where you sacrifice for everybody else. So my sister and I have had very creatively fulfilled careers in great part because of what she did, because of who she was. So I just was like, oh boy, I gotta learn from that from that experience. And I don't ever want to be on my deathbed thinking that I wasted my life. And I think we all have to figure out what what we're doing here and bring the meaning to each experience. And so anyway, I learned a lot from my mom in that deathbed confession.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

Oh I love that, but I hate that at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

I know. Yeah, it was a great gift and really awful. I wonder what she would think now. She's probably swear to god, she's probably going, oh Linda, not that stupid story again. Because I've told it before and she's funny. She she was very like, oh, you gotta be kidding. I'm sure she's doing that, but it was a it was a good lesson.

SPEAKER_01 20:11

Well, uh on that note, I want to thank you so much for kicking me on. I'm kicking you off. Yeah, um, I just want to thank you so much for the time. I I've really, really enjoyed like uh getting to know you. Like you were you were one of the bucket list people that it was like, oh, so I can die happy, I have to go take a course with Linda Siverton and learn how to write.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

You know, we had so much fun, though it was so much fun.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

It was so much fun. It was so much fun. So, and I really appreciate your your doing this and um I love it.

SPEAKER_00 20:49

So it's I love it, and I love you.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

And I love you too.

SPEAKER_00 20:53

I'm excited to go find you on Substack.

SPEAKER_01 20:55

Yes, and I can't wait for you to move everything over. It's gonna be great, and it's an easy migration.

SPEAKER_00 21:00

Okay. So yeah. Okay, we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_01 21:03

Listen, if I can do it, honest to God.

SPEAKER_00 21:06

Dude, I'm up for an adventure. I'm I'm one of those people like old dogs to new tricks. Like, I'm gonna learn new tricks till the till I'm dead.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

There you go. Bring it.

SPEAKER_00 21:17

Bring it. Love you. Thank you. Thank you.