Episode 94: Celebrating with Grace and Gratitude

There's so much to be grateful for at this time of the year! It's our annual reflection of what we've accomplished that's beyond what we could've ever imagined. We're reminded of how much we grow and embrace our authenticity with each episode. 

Elizabeth Wilson celebrates the success of another round of the Memoir Master Plan Cohort with a group of amazing women. They found clarity with their core message and scene development for their memoirs.  
Stephanie Oswald shares about her new writing coaching for neurodivergent women. Offering support in the in-between stages of the writing process when you're spiraling with self-doubt or not sure how to keep showing up to the blank page. Or, traditional "rules" for writing don't fit your process. 

We're especially thankful for our viewers and listeners! We invite you to reach out and connect. Our writing community is very important to us and we believe so strongly in the benefit of finding your people. We're here to support you!

 Welcome to the Inspired Writer Collective podcast. If you've ever felt the pull to write your truth, to shape the chaos of real life into something meaningful and to share your journey with the world, you're in the right place. We're your hosts, Elizabeth and Stephanie, writers, coaches, and entrepreneurs who believe in you and know how important it is to find a writing community to guide you on your path to self-publishing.

You’re invited to connect with us by joining our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week. Whether you’re working on a memoir, a novel, or journaling for yourself, this is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.   

Join our Embodied Writing Experience where you’ll get a writer’s retreat directly to your inbox on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays each week. This is an invitation to slow down, tune in, and write with embodied intention.

Get on the waitlist for the Memoir Master Plan cohort here.

If you prefer to watch our conversations, you can find all of them on our YouTube channel.

You can find us on Instagram and Threads

Transcript

Elizabeth: 1:15

Welcome back listeners to this special episode of The Inspired Writer Collective. We are your co-host, Elizabeth and Stephanie, and this episode is special because this is our end of the season wrap up. So while we will still have some guest episodes coming to you throughout the month of December. This is where Stephanie and I take our break from recording the weekly episodes and we step back into the background. We work on big projects that we have lined up for next year for this business and the podcast. We also do a lot of guest recruiting and recording. And just all this stuff that takes a little bit of more focused time. That's what we use during these sort of seasonal downtimes that we take and honor ourselves with, both in December and then again in June. And I think that's also a great reminder for you as a writer, um, to, to give yourself those, those times away from maybe the active work or the, the, the putting out the front facing. And remember to take that time to do the deeper work that maybe takes a little bit more focus and allow yourself to step away from. You know, the social media or the spotlight or having to market something or having to even show up and write your book every day. Maybe you need a little bit of time to do some of that deeper dive. That's what we'll be doing in December. So this episode, we want to celebrate some major wins. This timeframe of the year marks our annual anniversary of starting the business and starting the podcast. And this time guys, we are two years in and it's incredible to think back to where we started and how uncertain we were. And now just how. I mean, how lost I would feel if we didn't have a podcast to sit and explore different topics and things like if we hadn't ever created this resource or hadn't gone through the struggles of like, recognizing our own shortcomings and growing through those and learning and developing as people. Um, it's, it's truly incredible. And we're right on. The precipice of putting out our a hundredth episode, which I guess if we release some extra episodes in December, that could come as early as January now. Um, so it's, it's just really exciting and we want to be able to celebrate all that with all of you as listeners for your support and the ways that you can send you to show up and find community here.

Stephanie: 4:00

Yeah, we really appreciate you, listener, and especially those of you who continue to show up every week and. Continue to follow us, and especially to those of you who have sent us messages and connected with us in different ways. We really appreciate that. And like Elizabeth said, I mean to think that we're two years into this is just amazing. And like any project, whether it's a writing project or anything, there are those times where you're wondering, oh, I don't know if I. start or I don't know if I'm smart enough to do this. Um, I recently heard the author Taylor Jenkins Reid say that about her most recent book that's gained so much attention, Atmosphere, and she said. I don't know if I was smart enough to write this, and and so those moments when I think back to when we started the podcast, I kept thinking, oh gosh, I don't wanna see myself on video for our YouTube things. I'm like, oh my goodness. And now, and now I don't even notice that we're on video. It's like we're just having a conversation I think about. My ability to put thoughts together in a more coherent fashion and just the little things that, at first I was so timid thinking I'm such an introvert. I'd rather just be hiding out. But. Just those feelings of such incredible accomplishment of looking back and being, saying, being able to say like, Hey, look, we have 90 plus episodes now and in the world of podcasting, not everybody can say that in the same way with writing a book or anything you write. Not everybody can say that they've written a book, even though people talk about it or they say, you know, I'd love to do that. Uh, but we've just really so much from. Doing this podcast and sharing our insights with you and connecting with guests and sharing their expertise, it's been amazing.

Elizabeth: 6:05

It really has, and I, I feel like it's been only in the last maybe six months to a year that we've actually gotten any. Feedback from strangers, from listeners who have reached out and told us, you know, versus our like family and friends who started listening in the beginning and, and gave us some positive feedback. But it's been so rewarding to actually hear reflections from people we have not yet met. Um, and that's just so cool to know that it's reaching you guys that you, it's impacting you. We always wanna make sure we're bringing. Not just quality to our conversations, but also authenticity because we need more of that these days. You know, like we wanna show up in a way that presents writing with all of its ups and downs. You know, the times that we'll sit here and we'll talk about how we're struggling. Or in the summer when we both weren't really working on our writing projects, or now when we're both making some progress and seeing, you know, some, making some headway, seeing some results. Um, I, I just, I'm so grateful to have everyone along for this ride with us as we, and I hope you'll let us, indulge ourselves as we highlight some of our wins today and celebrate the, some of those things with you guys, because it wouldn't have been possible without you. And yeah. All, all of the pushes to, to make adjustments, to make shifts, to grow, to lean into our strengths to. Holding up those weaknesses. Um, it's been, it's been quite a wild ride. It's amazing now to think about all the things that we have on offer. We've got a weekly email newsletter that we've rebranded as the Embodied Writing Experience. And I gotta be honest, that rebranding has been fantastic for me in order to channel what it is. I really wanna communicate to you guys as subscribers of those emails. And we've, we've streamlined our, our Monday email that goes out about the podcast. And then I really lean into memoir related content for Tuesday. And that's been so interesting'cause I do actually get replies from you guys telling me when something I've said is meaningful or asking follow up questions so I can provide additional resources. And I love being able to have those sorts of conversations with you all. Um, Stephanie, do you wanna talk about your Thursday email and how that's been impactful and the blog writing?

Stephanie: 8:34

Yeah, so the, the Thursday email that I've been sending out has kind of been a mix of both building your author platform. There was a chakra series that I did for writing, and now I'm really leaning into my focus on writing, coaching for neurodivergent women and. It is really amazing, as Elizabeth said, to have that focus, and I'm really excited about leaning into the emphasis on Neurodivergence because yes, it's talked a lot about, and it's become a big conversation, but I feel like especially for writers, it's such an important one to have because. There's so many rules around writing that we feel are out there, and there's just a space where sometimes that doesn't fit for those of us who identify as having a more neurodivergent brain. And so this is my Thursdays are going to become an opportunity for really supporting that and nurturing that for you. as we say in all of our emails, you have a choice as to what you can. Receive each week in your inbox. So if you lean more towards memoir and that's where you really want your focus, then maybe just the Tuesday email is for you. If you want all of it, then you can get all of it. Or maybe you just

Elizabeth: 9:55

Hmm.

Stephanie: 9:56

when our podcast is out and whatever resources we're sharing with that on Mondays. And so, that's the other nice thing too, is we, we really. it so that you have a choice around what's in your inbox. But we really loved this embodied writing experience because we do really believe in that sense of into your work. You know, connecting with yourself and telling your true story.

Elizabeth: 10:26

And I love that you're digging into this Neurodivergence piece. Um, we have both done our own individual assessments of ourselves. I've had mine verified by, um, my therapist, but have not sought like official diagnosis. But it's so interesting because there are so many, like writing rules, like you said, or best practices, quote unquote, that go against what I think someone with some neurodivergence, A DHD, autism. You know, may find helpful. One of those things that comes to mind is like where they tell you don't, don't spread yourself too thin with multiple writing projects, but you have shown through your own example, Stephanie, how much you benefit and how you actually stay more focused by having two writing projects simultaneously. How that helps you stay on track better than having just one project that you sometimes get bored with, and then you fall out of your writing habit because you're not wanting to work on that particular project. But by having a secondary project, you're keeping yourself interested. You're keeping your writing muscle sharp, you're keeping that consistency in showing up and putting, you know, words on the page. You are able to do that because you have a variety in projects you can work on, and so I love that hack. I love all the other things that you're sharing within that email, and I think that's gonna be very impactful. For those who find themselves struggling with some of the typical writing advice about how to navigate writer's block or um, how to settle into their writing. It's just so different. Our brains are where all of this is coming from and our brains are wired differently, so it makes sense that we would need a slightly different approach or a catered approach because all neurodivergence is also different. Like my neurodivergence. Different than yours. And so I love that you're leaning into that and helping people find where they fit, what practices may be useful for them, so that they can self-identify and self-select those, those things that will work for them.

Stephanie: 12:24

Exactly, and, and two, coming into the new year, I'm gonna be offering one-on-one coaching, and more specifically, eventually a small group program, much like you do with the memoir master plan cohort. That's specific to writers with neurodivergence and for. space to explore and discover what, what works uniquely for each individual. And I think this leads into celebrating for you the the memoir, master plan cohort, and how much it's grown as one of our offers.

Elizabeth: 13:00

It has been such a blast offering this program and seeing its development over the three different runnings of the program over the last two years, and it's certainly grown. I, I just got two more people filling out interest form, the interest form that lives on our website all the time. You can always fill out that interest form, um, and get your name on the, on the list to find out more information, but it's. It's been so cool to see how what I felt like was missing and in my own writing experience and the resources that I've pulled together has truly been impactful for other people. I hoped that it would be because it was the stuff that I felt like was missing from my own experience in education and trying to write memoir, but to actually see the impact that it's been having on the women who have. Opted into this program is phenomenal. Um, two of the women who just recently went through it, highlighted it specifically that how much clarity they gained around their memoir messaging, their memoir structure, exactly where they wanted to start and end their memoir. And those are key pieces to wrestle with and to settle on before. You know, sitting down to do some serious drafting. And so the fact that several people highlighted that point specifically that they gained a lot of clarity from it is amazing to me. Um, I will be offering the memoir master plan cohort. Part one, which is the messaging and outline portion. This is what the, what the traditional program has been. I'm expanding it to eight weeks and I'm offering it again in April and May of 2026. And because I know that there has been so much bonus content I've been putting into it, there's also a lot of stuff that. Is really best suited for once you're ready to start drafting your memoir, I am creating a part two, which is the drafting and feedback eight week session. So what that looks like, and we'll go into more details, you know, into 2026 when I start rolling that out, but basically that's a next step for those women who have gone through the memoir master plan cohort, or have already wrestled with their core message and outline on their own, and they're ready to start drafting. What that looks like is we'll have several different conversation topics and we will dig into something like tension and how to control the tension in a story. And then the following week we will give feedback. Everyone can submit a thousand words. We'll look through it specifically for that point, and give feedback on, you know. How, how they, well they did with that, where we could see some adjustments, that sort of thing. Because it's so helpful, especially early on in your writing, to get some of that feedback and to go ahead and get over that fear of sharing your work and, and hearing. You know, critiques on it. These would be very constructive, uplifting critiques. And a lot of times at that point in your writing, you just need someone to help you hold space for your story and to mirror for you how great of a start you're, you're getting and how ready you are to take the next steps. And so, um, I'm really excited to see. The way this whole cohort has fleshed out, because this is definitely the bigger vision that I always had, was that at some point it would be a a multi-part thing that writers could move through as they're ready for next steps. And the beauty of the programming that you're offering Stephanie, in conjunction with it, is that for those that opt into that coaching with you, they have some that of that accountability and, and, and. Advice and feedback while they're in between sessions. So if they've, you know, got their outline ready and, and they're ready to start drafting, you can help them walk through those steps of the weekly accountability and getting the writing done. And, and I, so I love the way that all of that is coming together.

Stephanie: 17:18

Yeah, it's an amazing way that everything has evolved and that's definitely one of the things that we remind ourselves to celebrate in our process and our journey, not just as podcasters, but as writers, as entrepreneurs. That, that there is this ebb and flow of the process and that eventually we. Land where we're meant to be. And that's what we've really discovered. And that's what's been so cool because especially watching where you've landed and then I've done some exploration and. Then now I've landed and there's this complimentary piece that really works. And I mean, we were just having a conversation a few weeks ago about how so lucky to have each other as business partners in this journey and writing partner, all these things, um, that go along with how well we work together. And that's also been really amazing because we both have our skill sets that compliment each other so well that we celebrate that

Elizabeth: 18:25

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: 18:26

That's a huge part of this too. And like Elizabeth said my coaching piece will allow for someone who's maybe not ready to jump into the next level after the first round of the cohort, to hold space

Elizabeth: 18:40

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: 18:41

where you're looking for support, but you're not quite at the stage where you're ready to draft because you're still figuring out your scenes, you're still figuring out what's gonna go into it. Or maybe you need that boost of confidence. You know, you're struggling with self-doubt. Working through that, or you haven't come up with a consistent routine. All of those pieces, the process pieces are where I'll be stepping in to create a space for that. And one of the things too that we really celebrate is building of community. Because I know from having joined in on the memoir, master plan cohort, uh, meetings and. And we have our newsletter, and then we also have had these virtual retreats that we started offering that we weren't sure what was gonna happen, but we're building community there and. space, uh, for writers to come together and write what they wanna write. We don't have any structure to it. It's simply time to show up and write. And the same we've started back into our own weekly writing sessions. Um, now that things have settled in two, we're finding. Writers who are showing up to that with us. And, and we can tell you listener, at the beginning it was just the two of us and

Elizabeth: 20:03

Just us.

Stephanie: 20:04

up.

Elizabeth: 20:04

Yeah.

Stephanie: 20:04

was just us. We'd still show up, but you know, now it's us. And then we're always excited to see, oh, who else is gonna join us today?

Elizabeth: 20:13

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: 20:14

and it's great because again, the feedback there is, you know, writers are saying, I wouldn't have normally. I've taken this time for myself, but knowing that you're gonna be there, you know, knowing that there's a place for me to go is so helpful.

Elizabeth: 20:28

That's what I literally said yesterday when we, when I started the Zoom meeting for those who wanted to show up. And again, if you anyone wants to join us, um, shoot us an email, we'll add you to the list. Uh, that gets that, those weekly Zoom links. Um, but yeah, I didn't wanna show up and write. Yesterday I'd had a rough day. I was done with the work week. I wanted to be done. I wanted to sit on the couch and get cozy'cause it was cold and rainy outside. But it's that accountability that keeps us going. And I, I love too that this is our free offering. Not only is our weekly email list free, but also these virtual writing retreats, or if you wanna join in on these weekly sessions. Again, the re weekly writing time is only offered at one particular time. So if that time doesn't work for you, like it's okay, it doesn't work. But those virtual writing retreats are usually held over a weekend with multiple writing times available and. That was how I jumpstarted myself back into my writing routine with my, with my memoir edits when we had the one in October, and we're gonna be having one in January as well. Um, maybe we'll interject at some future point, what that date was. I don't know if I have it written down yet, Stephanie.

Stephanie: 21:38

had, we hadn't set a date yet

Elizabeth: 21:41

Okay. Okay. So we'll, we'll have to, we'll put that in the email. It's important for you to be on our emails, um, for that reason. So we'll put out what our, our virtual writing weekend in January will be. And again, it's just a great time. Maybe you've made some New Year's resolutions and, and you're gonna spend more time with your writing, or you're, like so many of the writers I see on threads who are desperate for a sense of writing community, but also don't wanna pay a fortune to, you know, join into one of these like monthly paid programs where you have to pay money to be a part of it. This, the Virtual Writer's Retreat is a free offering. We're gonna be putting together a memoir specific day in March that is going to be another free offering to attend live. We want to make sure these resources are accessible for those who are willing to show up, um, and that if that's you, we welcome you. We invite you, and we are so honored to share that space with you. Stephanie, do you have any like data or stats or fun things to highlight for us for this kind of two year wrap up? I.

Stephanie: 22:51

Do, it's kind of, it's kind of fun to, uh, go in and look at, you know, some of, some of the data. So, as we mentioned, we have, you know, right now, as of this episode, we have, you know, this'll be episode 94, uh, published, and last November we, we were at 52. So it's just exciting to see that growth. You know, we could have stopped, we could have said, okay, we've done a year like. We're, we're good, but we've kept going. And that's what makes it really exciting. one of the things that was really exciting that I noted just yesterday was that this week over a seven day period, we had over 70 downloads of the podcast and. You know, some people, you know, you might listen to have that in, you know, a day, but for us that's exciting

Elizabeth: 23:42

Mm.

Stephanie: 23:42

we're small, we're growing, we're just, you know, continuing to consistently put out content. And so that was a huge leap and it's. Just made it even more exciting, like, oh, okay. And it's even more fun to see that it's across so many different episodes too. It's not just whatever the most recent episode was. I mean, it went all the way back to episode 11. And of course, you know, that's where there's that slight cringe of like, Ooh, episode 11. I mean, that was really early. Like, I don't know, but you know what? Whatever we showed up, like we did it, we've done the, the pieces, uh, you know, we've been downloaded in 39 countries and. 391 cities.

Elizabeth: 24:29

Mm-hmm.

Stephanie: 24:29

incredible. Like just, I mean, and that's one of the fun things I love with the stats behind the scenes of the podcast is like

Elizabeth: 24:36

Yeah.

Stephanie: 24:36

This, the new cities that appear, or the cities that are continually at the top, you know of. Of the list. And so, you know, we had Dallas, Texas skyrocketed to the top of the list at one point. So whoever's listening in Dallas, you pushed Dallas way up. Um,

Elizabeth: 24:56

And made our week that week. Yeah.

Stephanie: 24:59

I, I mean, that was exciting. And I mean, Salida, Colorado is at the top and that's, our base community. So, you know, definitely a big shout out to our community there. But, you know, Denver is up there, Washington, dc, Frankfurt, Germany. So, you know, we have strong listeners in Australia. But just as I said, we've been downloaded on every continent except for Antarctica. So, um, you know, that's, that's just exciting to see those, um, happen.

Elizabeth: 25:33

I love reading the feedback of the, the five star reviews too, that you guys leave on, you know, apple Podcasts or Spotify, like, uh. I don't check it very often, so like randomly I'll check it and I'll see that there's a new one or two and you're helping balance out the one guy that gave us the one star review.'cause everyone else has given five star reviews, so I'm just like, yes, another one. And I just love seeing that feedback about how meaningful it is to you and how much you resonate with what we share. Um, it really, it touches us. It really does. I, I can't emphasize enough how much that little moment that you take to either send us a reply or even just download a bunch of episodes and we see your city spike or, you know, leave a five star review. It means so much to us in that week. Like we are texting each other, like, did you see this? Did you see this? You know, someone commented on our YouTube video that I, they loved our channel, or we got like. A bunch of new subscribers this week or whatever, like it really means so much to us because we are still really small that like every single one of those moves the needle for us. I mean, literally any comments you make, any replies, any, any reviews, like it's, it's all impactful and we are so grateful.

Stephanie: 26:46

We, oh, we definitely are. And it's, and it's a small action to take to help, you know, a small business. And especially coming into the holidays now, um, you know, we, we love to see that and it truly is, you know, your gift to us when you take. The time to, to leave us a comment, reply to an email, any of those things.

Elizabeth: 27:09

Yeah.

Stephanie: 27:10

We love to see all of that. And like I said, it's just really exciting to look at some of our stats and, and on YouTube, uh, this past year we were doing a lot more with, a program called Opus Clip that was. Helping clip out our podcast, but we've decided to push that to the side and not rely on that because we didn't feel that it was really bringing out the authenticity that, that we believe really draws all of you into us. So, um, but all that aside, we still had, our channel had over 64,000 views over the course of the year. Um. Which was an eight, over 800% increase from the year before. So, you know, little things like that. Um, you know, we got 70 new subscribers on YouTube over the past year, which, you know, for some of you may not seem like a lot, but you know, we don't really spend a lot of time pushing the content out

Elizabeth: 28:09

Hmm.

Stephanie: 28:10

There for people to discover. So we love for those of you who are discovering it, yeah, it's just exciting. To see all of all of that happening and knowing that you're connecting and enjoying the content that we're sharing because. Again, you know, our podcast, our virtual writing retreats, our newsletter, are all the free offerings that we have to support you. And of course, we'd love for you to join our programs as well, because you'll get even more support and find yourself going further.

Elizabeth: 28:50

And listeners, we would just wanna leave you with the concept of. Make sure you take time to celebrate your own wins, to recognize your own growth, to push yourself to do things that you know you're not yet ready for. Because at some point in the process, you will become the kind of person who is ready, and it's important not to wait until you cross some predetermined finish line to celebrate those things. Sometimes just an annual anniversary, like what we're doing here is. You know, reason enough to celebrate or maybe you give yourself a monthly goal and you assess and celebrate at the end, um, what all you have done. And even in a recent workshop that Stephanie and I were attending together, we were talking about the concept of grace and gratitude. And Stephanie brought up how, you know, she gives herself grace when she doesn't meet her goals. And I said, what if we also give ourselves gratitude? Even when we don't reach our goals for showing up for the parts we could do and for recognizing when we needed to shift our goal or change our priorities because life happened. So as we go into this Thanksgiving and the holiday season, I hope that each of you will look at your own progress. We'll celebrate the ways that you are showing up for yourself, even if. That's simply by listening to writing inspired podcasts like this one in order to help you stay motivated and focused on your writing goals, and we wish you the best in this holiday season. Again, we'll have some guest episodes coming up throughout December. For your entertainment. Um, but we will be back in January with some mini episodes just like we did back in July and look forward to that hundredth episode guys.'cause we'll have to for sure celebrate in some major way. Happy listening and happy holidays.