Marjorie Lord Artist – My coaching experience with Clare Louise and the Creating Creativity® programme
So here we are at the start of 2019 and as I reflect back and acknowledge the many things I am grateful for from 2018, a real stand out is having found Clare-Louise and her Clare-Louise Creating Creativity®, coaching programme. Since working with Clare-Louise, I have gained incredible insight of who the inner artist in me is, the one that has been lost for many years. Clare-Louise has helped me understand where, why and how my artistic growth has been stifled from the past preconditioned ways of being. She has had me literally kick the negative voices out of my life and only allow excitement and creativeness back into my space. I have developed a much greater clarity of who and what I am as an Artist and how I am going to show up to be at my most expressive and creative best.
Clare-Louise, this has been an artistic and life changing experience for me. Thank you.
Why did you choose Clare Louise’s Creating Creativity® coaching programme?
Since childhood I have always felt I was an Artist and throughout my entire married / working life kept my hand in being creative. However when the pressures of family businesses coupled with four children became much too hectic, the Artist Dream was always filed away for another day. Of course this was my choice to do so, and a choice many a mother / wife often makes to support her husband, children and the family business for our joint survival. So in my mid 50’s, with children grown and living lives of their own, I suddenly found myself saying, “This is my time to live my creative life as the Artist I have always wanted to be”. However I felt guilty about my dreams being a selfish act and I struggled with the feelings of lost identity and not knowing who Marjorie was anymore.
I had been searching for a creative mentor for a while but I was struggling to find a mentor that understood me as an ‘artist’ and not as a commercial photographer business model. Through much searching on the internet I finally stumbled upon the Clare Louise’s Creating Creativity® coaching programme website. After spending some time reading all the website material, testimonials and adoring the imagery, it just felt right. I knew intuitively that this is where I wanted and needed to be and I haven’t looked back since.
How long did you work with Clare Louise?
I have been working with Clare-Louise since early September 2018 ongoing and currently as I type 10/01/2019.
What about in between the sessions ?
In between the fortnightly sessions I have used this time for reflection, and redirection of how being a creative is going to work for me. Clare-Louise has also assigned homework flow tasks for me to complete which further explore our discussions, present new challenges, and help clarify what my creative business direction could look like.
When did you start to see the benefits?
I experienced benefits right from our first session where we explored the technique of visualisation. During this session I identified the various things that were holding me back from living my life as a fully expressed and authentic creative person. Clare-Louise was quick to identify my mental blocks of guilt, the fear of failure, low self-value, coupled with the heavy weight I carried from the opinions of others. This head chatter left me in a position of feeling underwhelmed, hopeless and a creative failure. Clare-Louise introduced me to the techniques of visualisation, breath work and physical movement. These techniques gave me the confidence to consciously kick each negative thing that was restraining me from fully immersing myself into my art, out of my life. Freed from these restraints, I was then able to embrace and commit to own my space from the place of creativity.
Clare-Louise’s first coaching session was a very powerful experience for me, it set me up to a new way of being and thinking. Her supportive guidance has helped bring clarity and self- awareness of who I am as a creative. I was able to give myself the much overdue permission to say, YES!, to my artistic dreams. Yes, to exploring my artistic journey as a ‘Self-full’ creative.
What else did you explore?
Clare-Louise has helped me explore who I am as a conscious creator and we have established that I am predominantly a project based artist. I like to tell meaningful stories that have a sense of purpose in my imagery and where symbolism plays a significant role in this storytelling process.
We have been exploring what my business model could look like, what merchandise would work well with getting the story imagery out to the larger public. We have explored who my audience is and how do I successfully reach them. We have worked on my pitch of which is an ongoing work in progress along with establishing my business Vision and Missions.
My last session was a powerful session as I was feeling de-energised, struggling and feeling great resistance with the thought of doing client commission work. I felt I would lose my artistic voice of the work being created along with fears of failure and getting too busy with commercial work that was not fulfilling me as an Artist. Clare-Louise has helped me explore these concerns and identify who my target clients might be. To understand that I am the one in control of the process and it is my choice to only take on work that I connect with. I am the one to set the boundaries of what I will do and don’t offer in my commissioned creative sessions. I have gained much clarity and confidence from working through this with Clare-Louise. I am now ready to move towards the next steps, getting clear on what I am offering, how I am offering it and preparing to take the next steps and action this.
What was the biggest value?
Clarity is the biggest value. As I move through the coaching process the more clarity I gain then the more positive and self-confident I am becoming. The more confident I become, the more self-expressed I am feeling. Clarity builds confidence and strong direction in my experience.
What was the biggest impact?
The biggest impact for me was having had the courage to send Clare-Louise an email and ask if she would consider taking me on as one of her clients to coach. The whole Clare- Louise coaching process has been an inspiration and a creative life changing discovery. So there is no one biggest impact but to say that the whole programme has been positively 100% impactful.
What would you tell others about Clare Louise’s Creating Creativity® coaching programme?
There are so many reasons why I would recommend the Clare Louise’s Creating Creativity® coaching programme to you. If you would like to understand more about your creative self or discover how to get the most out of your artistic being, or understand how your creative business model will operate, or work on your pitch, understand who your ideal clients are, or gain clarity on all of the above and more. Then I would highly recommend you contact and join Clare Louise’s Creating Creativity®, coaching programme, you will not be disappointed.
Since working with Clare-Louise my confidence levels, knowing who I am as a creative and self-worth as an artist have grown immensely. Clare-Louise is knowledgeable, insightful, supportive and inspiring to work with. She will guide you through your concerns and aspirations in a safe and caring space. She will get to the root of your blockages ever so quickly which enables you to process and get rid of them from your life. In turn this now allows you room to evolve positively into a new creative way of being.
My experience working with Clare-Louise has been nothing but a positive, caring, supportive and inspirational safe learning place. My fears and blocks have been identified and removed, however I am happy to report that my dreams, goals and confidence have increased and the creative me is energetic and glowing. I have learned to love myself, trust myself and own my space as an authentic Artist.