Creative Pep Talk #98: Be Brave

I’m just back from this year’s Gallifrey One Doctor Who convention, and it’s reminded me of the importance of being brave. How? Why? I’ll tell you in this short episode.

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Transcript: Be Brave

Please note: This is an unedited transcript, provided as a courtesy, and reflects the actual conversation as closely as possible. Please forgive any typographical or grammatical errors.

Nancy Norbeck [00:00:06]:
Welcome to Follow Your Curiosity. Ordinary people, extraordinary creativity. Here’s how to get unstuck. I’m your host, creativity coach, Nancy Norbeck. Let’s go. Hey, everybody. This is Nancy Norbeck with this week’s Creative Pep Talk, and I am just back from the Gallifrey One convention in Los Angeles, which is the biggest Doctor Who convention in the world. And I am a little bit bleary eyed from my red eye flight back yesterday. But I wanted to talk to you not about jet lag, but about being brave Because a fan convention is a really cool creative place with lots of people who do lots of really creative things, and one of them is being really brave.

Nancy Norbeck [00:01:02]:
Whether that is just having the nerve to go to a huge event where you probably don’t know a lot of people and, you know, seeing what that’s like for the first time, whether it is dressing up as your favorite characters, whether it is standing in line to meet the people who have made your favorite show, or whether it’s something else. It’s all being brave. And a lot of this is also a lot of fun. Being brave can be fun. Being brave can also be really scary. And there’s pretty much you know, every creative outlet involves some kind of bravery, some kind of courage. And, you know, for me, when I go to a convention, I do something that a lot of people would consider unbelievably brave. For me, it’s pretty normal at this point, and that’s part of why I wanted to talk about this, which is that I talk to people about being on my podcast.

Nancy Norbeck [00:02:04]:
If you’ve ever wondered where I come up with some of the people that I’ve talked to on this show, that’s where I go up to people at conventions and invite them to be on podcast. And some of them are lesser known people. Some of them are behind the scenes people. Some of them are writers and authors, and some of them are on screen people. I mean, that’s how Paul McGann and Peter Davison came to be on this podcast. I walked up and I asked them. And a lot of people would never dream of doing that. A lot of people get very nervous just standing in line to get an autograph.

Nancy Norbeck [00:02:39]:
And that is normal and understandable because we put famous people in a different level than we put ourselves. But my point is not to get into all of that, though I am very tempted to write about that at some point because I think that it’s important how we think of celebrity people versus ourselves. But my point is that, yeah, you know what? The first time I did that when I went up and talked to Paul McGann five years ago, was I nervous? Heck yeah. But you know what? I also knew that if I didn’t go up and talk to him, I would wonder what the rest for the rest of my life, what he would have said, and it would have driven me crazy. So I really didn’t have much choice. I mean, yes, you can say that I had a choice. I could have walked out of there, but that would have been the alternative. That would have been the result of that choice.

Nancy Norbeck [00:03:33]:
And for me, that wasn’t really a choice at all because that was the choice that would have made me crazy, and I wasn’t okay with that choice. So I had to go and do the brave thing in order to be able to live with myself for the rest of my life. It would have been better to hear “no” than to wonder and to kick myself. See what I mean? And so I did that, and he said yes. And there was a very long podcast interview that came out of that, and we’re still, I swear, working on the follow-up that we promised we would do. But the more I’ve done that, because having had success once, obviously, I said, hey. I could do this again. The more I’ve done that, the easier it’s been.

Nancy Norbeck [00:04:24]:
So now when I go to an event like this, the only thing that really makes me think twice about it is how long is the line I have to stand in to do it. It’s not, oh, they might say no. I know they might say no. And I also know that they might say yes, and that doesn’t guarantee that it’s actually going to happen. But saying yes means that there’s a possibility that it will happen. Not doing anything means that there’s no possibility at all. And so, you know, when you are feeling scared about whatever thing it is that you wanna do or wanna try, whether it’s pulling out that set of watercolors that’s been sitting in your closet calling to you for years, but you haven’t quite had the courage to try them, or whether it’s going up to Paul McGann to see if he wants to be on your podcast. Be brave.

Nancy Norbeck [00:05:21]:
Do the thing. And what you will find is that the more you do the thing, the less scary it gets because you will have learned that it’s okay to try. It’s okay to take that first step. And even if the answer is no, you had the courage to do it, which gives you more courage to do it the next time. So my message to you this week is just to be brave and to know that every time you take that little step, no matter how small it is toward being brave, you will get a little bit more courage for the next time. So whatever that thing is that you’ve been hesitating on, I hope that you will find that little bit of courage to give it a try this week. And then if it’s the kind of thing that you need to do more than once, to give it a try again and again and again, and to discover as I have that every time that you are brave, you will become a little bit more brave for the next time. So give it a whirl.

Nancy Norbeck [00:06:20]:
See what happens. Do let me know because I love to hear about it. And I will see you next time. If this episode resonated with you or if you’re feeling a little bit less than confident in your creative process right now, join me at the spark on Substack as we form a community that supports and celebrates each other’s creative courage. It’s free, and it’s also where I’ll be adding programs for subscribers and listeners. The link is in your podcast app, so sign up today. See you there, and see you next week. Follow Your Curiosity is produced by me, Nancy Norbeck, with music by Joseph McDade.

Nancy Norbeck [00:06:58]:
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