Today on the show I have Elise Cripe, the creator of the Get to Work planner, the Elise Gets Grafty podcast and newest to her repertoire her ‘Encouraging creative kids e-course’. The epidsode is jam packed with good stuff. She gives us great tips for prioritizing creativity, productivity and shares many of her favorite books and podcast with us, all of which I had not heard of. Alrighty, Let’s dive in!

I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. Elise is such an amazing example of how a small business can grow and evolve. I absolutely love when she talks about how her business changed as she her interests changed. It ties into the idea of being true to yourself that I brought up a few weeks ago from that Ted talk I adore. It's this idea that your business or whatever it is that you spend your time on reflects what you are most curious about or what currently lights you up. So her business evolved and changed as she did, she didn’t start off with a course about raising creative kids but she has kids now. Her past business and  mom experience perfectly teed her up for this new venture. I love looking at the  paths we're on in this way - how have all these previous experiences - maybe some good, some bad, helped to get me right where I'm meant to be.

The end of the interview is another big favorite – actually scheduling out your creative time – you have to – otherwise it can fall through the cracks as it always does for me. I notice this with my work so much, the creative stuff is what I need to be doing but it’s so easy to get wrapped up in the little fires going on around me every day, day after day. I just listened to a fantastic Tim Ferriss episode (with Arianna Huffington, link here) and he said something along the lines of – your inbox is everyone else’s agenda for your time – how true is that. One way I’ve managed to keep creativity a priority is by holding myself to the somewhat crazy scheduling of producing this podcast weekly. I don’t really have the time for it but I care about it so much and it lights me up – I do consider it creative work. So by setting that weekly schedule, I am forcing myself to set time aside to have conversations and to think about the things that matter to me most right now. I love Elise's advice here and she has me thinking about other ways I can prioritize creative time in my life. 

Alrighty, to find out more about Elise, check out her blog here, her planner here and here, creative kids class here oh and her podcast here. Be sure to also follow her on instagram here. Lastly, here's a link to her good reads page too. A few pics of her, her family and work below!