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October 14, 2023 17 mins

084. Ever found yourself doubting your dreams, wondering if they are too trivial or too ambitious to pursue? What if I told you there's no such thing as an insignificant dream? In this episode, I reveal how I went from a potter to a children's books illustrator through years of sweat, grit, and small steps of faith. Learn from my journey as I share how I gave my dreams a tangible form and paved the way for them to become a reality.

Imagine leaving behind a legacy just from nurturing your dreams. This episode is all about validating those dreams and learning how to navigate them toward realization.

 We delve into the importance of an incubation period, where we stress test our dreams and ideas to gauge their worth. Listen in as we debunk myths around time, money, and naysayers standing in the way of your dreams.

No mountain is too high to climb if you trust in your ability to move it, one shovel full of dirt at a time. Whether it's a baby step or a leap of faith, every move counts in making your dream a reality. Let's embark on this journey of legacy creation together.

00:00:16 Intro 00:00:57 Your Dreams Matter 00:02:08 Your Dreams Leave Legacy 00:04:07 What are your Obstacles? 00:05:19 Recognized and Validate 00:06:44 On the Porch of the Farmhouse 00:09:23 Taking the First Simple Step 00:11:20 When Dreams and Skills Don't Match 00:12:42 A Sidenote About AI 00:13:46 Creative Fruit Takes Years 00:15:47 I Validate Your Dreams 00:16:41 Self-Love is Dream Pursuit 00:17:11 Closing

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Episode Transcript

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Marijanel (00:00):
I want to validate your dreams.
I want to say that they matterand that they're meant to come
into fruition, even if it feelslike it's taking a long time.
Now a little disclaimer I don'tthink every single dream and

(00:27):
idea needs to come to fruit.
I mean, if that was the case,my life would be even crazier
than it is, because I have likefive million dreams and ideas a
day.
But you know, there's sort ofthis process I call it stress
testing.
There's like this process ofbringing dreams and ideas
through an incubation time tosee what really ends up

(00:50):
mattering to you.
And I truly believe that youhave some dreams and ideas that
matter to you to the point thatthey're that thing you would
think about if you were on theoperating table.
I've shared this story beforehow I was having a pretty minor

(01:11):
but to me frightening routineprocedure at the hospital and
just out of protocol, they handyou that clipboard that says
sign your life away, likebasically, if we mess up, you
know he won't sue us, or youknow you sign all these scary
looking words away, that thatgive you a bit of a wake up call

(01:32):
, even if it's a minor procedure.
And I was doing just that andin the back of my mind, I was
thinking the words I don't wantto leave yet because I haven't
put out my kids book and it'sstill in my heart, it's still on
my iPad, still stuck on thecomputer and it's not out into
the world yet.

(01:52):
So this very book that I'mholding in my hands, having it
in material form, it's going topass on to my children and
perhaps, if they have childrenand future, future grandchildren
, all the way down the line,this book becomes a legacy in my
family history.
But now, all of you who've beenpurchasing it and leaving

(02:13):
reviews which thank you so much,by the way, if you buy this
book and leave me a review, thatmeans so much.
It helps the Amazon rankings.
That was a side note, but hereI'm saying legacy.
Your dreams can lead to leavinglegacy and I don't want you to
ever minimize your dream.
You know, I think sometimeswe've heard the word dreamer

(02:38):
said with this negative kind ofloose connotation, like oh,
she's a dreamer, okay, so here'sthe tone in my voice.
All right, because I've evenheard this about me Like she's a
dreamer.
When you say dreamer with thattone, it just almost sounds like
pie in the sky, crazy ideas.

(02:59):
You know, head in the cloudsand, yes, I can see how dreamers
and often creatives, artists,can come across that kind of pie
in the sky way.
We really can.
But we are also as creatives,the gifted people who can bring

(03:21):
dreams to life, who can makedreams become a real because we
find the tenacity, the, thegumption, the determination, the
push through to just keep goingwhen it doesn't seem possible.
And I believe that's you.
I believe you've been harboringdreams that either a you

(03:44):
thought are small and just like,keep them shoved away in a
closet because they're not worthpursuing, or, b you feel like
you have every obstacle in theway of pursuing the dream dream
either singular or plural.
But you have these dreams thatyou feel like there's obstacles

(04:05):
in the way.
That obstacle could be time,that obstacle could be money, it
could be people's opinions,like not feeling that you have
enough support to pursue thedream, it could be a myriad of
problems that stand in your wayof the dreams.
And then often we harboreddreams inside of us and either

(04:25):
we're not we're not pursuingthem because we think they're
small, or we have all of theseobstacles, or we simply Just if
we're not thinking they're small.
We just think they're too big.
You know, like we're, likethat's a mountain.
I'll never be able to move thatmountain.
And the smallest mustard seedof faith can move a mountain.

(04:49):
And you can move a mountain oneshovel full of dirt at a time.
You can move a mountain bytaking a foot in front of each
other.
Think of this Every time youtake a step up a mountain,
you're moving the mountainbecause it becomes farther
underneath you.
So I'm painting all thesepictures to say that if you can

(05:12):
recognize the dreams in you andbegin to see that they're valid
and important to bring out intowhat, into real existence,
that's just the beginning.
But that is such a massivestart Because so many of us
don't even recognize andvalidate the dreams.

(05:34):
So I would say, in pursuinganything of of legacy leaving
value in your life, you firsthave to recognize the dream and
understand within yourself thatthe idea is worth it, it's worth
at least investigating,investigating by, like knocking

(05:57):
on doors and seeing if there'sany possible way of bringing it,
if bringing your ideas to fruit.
So, rewinding all the way backfour to five years ago, when
this Children's Book weight,darling weight, first landed
into my heart, which I've alwayssaid it felt like kind of a
revelation from heaven that thislike little story came to me.

(06:19):
I was standing on the frontporch of our farmhouse and I've
told the stories of the farm andhow we bought it with a dream
of a quieter lifestyle.
We sold it, being totally wornout from that never ending or
cycle of living on a farm, andwe had a big story to tell right

(06:39):
then and there in the farm.
But I was standing on the porchof the farmhouse watering
flowers and we were in a seasonof waiting for the farm to sell
and in fact we tried to sell thefarm twice and I can't remember
at which point this story cameto me.
But I, like, I don't like theperiod of time that is.

(07:00):
I call it being in waiting,like when you're waiting for
test results or you're waitingfor word from the realtor on how
a showing went, or you'rewaiting for someone to get back
to you about something important, that that sense of just like
limbo and on the edge of likewhat is the answer?
Here I was waiting and I'mpretty sure I was waiting for

(07:24):
the realtor to get back to usand I just remember feeling like
I just couldn't wait any longer.
And that's when chicken Chickenin the book was like wait,
darling wait, something good isgoing to happen.

(07:44):
Okay, so great.
I had a story come to me, achicken said wait, darling wait.
I totally imagine a kid's book.
At the time I was illustrating,or shall I say I was really
learning how to illustrate.
I was very new.
And what happens?
What happens when you get thisidea and at the time I'm a

(08:06):
practicing potter I'm like whatdo I do with a kid's book idea?
Well, I took some baby steps tomake it something.
The baby steps were that I madesome very, very simple
illustrations and printed a verybasic little book through a

(08:26):
company called Blurb.
I'm not sponsored to say that,I'm just saying what I used as
far as tech.
But I found this company calledBlurb and they have little
booklet.
It's really like a, I think, aphoto printing service.
But I made this little book andI got a few copies and gave it
to a couple of friends and Ihave one stored away in my
illustration archive and I justkind of thought let's let it

(08:51):
wait.
I'm really happy I took thebaby steps with the idea because
it formed the idea intosomething, even if I never
pursued it farther.
And so one little word ofadvice that I give if you've
been harboring a dream or anidea, is what is the simplest
way you could give it its firstform of existence?

(09:13):
The most basic way if it's asong that you have, or maybe
you're wanna build a huge empire, but you're like what is the
simplest little form that thiscould take right now that I
could say I did the first babystep, and I'm so glad that I did

(09:33):
.
Even I call that book a dummybook.
It just paved the way andopened the door for me to see
this idea a reality.
Okay, and so then it sat foreven longer, but through the
sitting period of time I becamea better and better illustrator

(09:54):
and my pottery business ended upshutting down and I shifted
into a different realm of workand I had more illustrating time
.
And it dawned on me, perhapsabout a year and a half later,
that at that point I became agood enough illustrator that if
I refined that story I couldredo the story and actually have

(10:18):
something way better than thelittle dummy book I had tucked
away.
And so I really began tocontemplate that idea.
And then those of you whofollow the show will know that.
From there it's kind of historywhere I woke up in the year.
I woke up, I started the yearand by walking into a New Year's
party and when we were allsharing our New Year's

(10:41):
resolutions, I just like blurtedout very unexpectedly I'm gonna
make a children's book thisyear.
And then the rest becomeshistory, where I had a couple of
years of just like reallywrestling this, because once the
words came out of my mouth andI made it final that I'm doing
this, I was very determined notto let anything stop me from
doing it.

(11:01):
But when I had made myself andthe rest of the world that out
loud promise, I was so far fromthe skill level, not in
illustration, but in all therest of the tech and the
knowledge of making a children'spicture book.
I was so far from the skilllevel but I persisted and
pursued and have been learningeverything that I needed to know

(11:23):
.
So coming back to the dream andme validating your dream, I know
that your dream is gonna takeyou work and you're gonna have
to build skills and take risksaround that dream.
But the very first step isalways acknowledging the dream
and then taking the baby stepsto give it its first little form
of existence.

(11:44):
And then ask yourself how can Iimprove and build more and more
skill or create more and morecapacity within myself to mature
this baby step, to take itfurther?
And that is really essentiallyhow you're gonna move the
mountains of your dreams.

(12:04):
And I need to say this, I needto say it is not quick, it's not
fast, you're not going to beable to just instantly have your
dream come to fruit tomorrow.
And you know, I have beenbecoming aware of the children's
book industry and how thiswhole new burst of creating with

(12:27):
AI has affected everything.
And I'm watching these YouTubevideos where people are creating
AI generated children's books.
They're creating like 50 a day.
They're making illustrationsand rhymes and all of this in AI
and just like putting it outthere, generating these books.

(12:47):
And here's the thing I know mybook took me four to five years
to get out.
It is made by a human, createdthrough my heart, drawn by hand.
It is not 100%.
Nothing about it is AIgenerated.
And I'm not threatened by AI,because I believe that the kids

(13:08):
of the future are going to seethe difference.
I also believe that the storiesof the heart are human and that
humans are never going to becompeted with a machine.
But what the machine generatedmovement, what that movement is
showing me is we want fastresults, we want instant success

(13:29):
.
And I say this over and overthat every fiber of my being
goes against that kind ofcreation, because I know the
best things in life, the bestfruit from my creativity, is
what takes years of incubationand maturity, of coming into

(13:50):
this like, like, characterdriven story of resistance.
How can I better explain this?
And you know what tells thatstory, this chicken book.
Okay, the animals keep comingto the chicken.
Why are you just sitting there?
And the chicken responds wait,darling, wait.
As they try to, they just runaway.

(14:12):
They don't even hardly wait forthe answers.
Wait, darling, wait, somethinggood is going to happen and in
the end you can imagine whathappens.
But I do tell you to read thestory because there's a little
twist.
It's actually kind of funny.
And you know what?
I'm the chicken and I'm theanimals.
I've experienced both thefeeling of like anticipation.

(14:34):
I don't want to wait.
Why are you just sitting there?
Why is this dream taking solong?
I'm so anxious.
And then I've also taken theform of the chicken, and my
heart is quiet and still and I'mlike take a breath, something
good is going to happen, justwait.
And I've experienced both ofthese to such an extent that I'm

(14:54):
here to say that, whatever itis you're keeping in your heart
for a dream, I really want youto acknowledge it and let you
know.
It could become the next bigthing, it could become the next
legacy that you leave for yourlifetime and not to put down the

(15:21):
ideas and the inspirations thatare hidden in you, and that, if
there's even no one else inyour whole life, that's
validating your dreams.
I hear me this creative beingover here who's lived a zillion
different creative careers andentrepreneurially and reinvented

(15:44):
myself hundreds of times, andis now on the children's book
publishing route.
I say to you your ideas matter,your dreams matter, they're
worth taking a look at andthey're worth taking that baby
step into whatever form.
You can simply present them tothe world and say I dreamed this

(16:05):
, I made this and it's important.
So we talk about self love, wetalk about finding our worth,
and I truly see that one of thegreat ways to do it is by
recognizing and invalidatingyour dream, because your dreams
come from inside you and they'repart of you.
You generate like it came thereout of you, and so what better

(16:28):
way to show a little like selflove and worth to yourself by
saying my dream is worthpursuing, even if you can only
take a baby step.
So that's what I have for youtoday.
Thank you for tuning into theMarijanel Show.
All of my links are below.
You can order the book right onAmazon.

(16:49):
You'll see the link there.
I'd love it if you leave areview after you receive your
order.
That means so much.
You can find my website, blog,instagram and, yes, my art.
Instagram hacked and so@marijanelart is no longer in
existence but Marijanel@marijanel is me and you can
find me there on Instagram.

(17:11):
And as well, you can supportthe show through the buy me a
coffee link.
Until next time, live whole andcreative.
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