Big Juicy Creative

Big Juicy Creative is the show which nurtures your busy creative soul, so you thrive personally and professionally. You could be in a ‘creative’ career, like marketing or the arts, or maybe you wish you did something more creative. This podcast will show you how, if you approach your life with creativity – a bit more openness, curiosity, self-expression, imagination - it will become bigger, juicier and more meaningful. Creativity is about way more than painting or poetry, and this show brings you inspirational tales from beyond the creative department, from farming to fractions. Your host, Suzy Bashford, is a freelance journalist, who writes about creativity among other things, a workshop facilitator and a speaker. As well as interviews, she’ll bring you shorter, solo podcasts where she sums up and test-drives the advice she’s given, reporting back to you with her trademark honesty. Suzy is a mum on a mission to unleash our collective creativity so we can solve the world’s big problems… and we need buckets of creativity for that, so please get listening! For more info: www.bigjuicycreative.co.uk IG: @bigjuicycreativeliving FB: @bigjuicycreative LI: Suzy Bashford

Ep 097: Be more dog, with coach and energy expert Michael Overlie, founder of Dogs and Men 07/01/2022

Ep 096: When the skin you're in doesn't feel right, including your gender; the colourful multi-creative career & story of Jo Sutherland 05/19/2022

Ep 096: When the skin you're in doesn't feel right, including your gender; the colourful multi-creative career & story of Jo Sutherland I've wanted to have a big juicy chat with someone who has transitioned gender for a while now. My two sons talk very openly about gender, and about people they know that don't feel right in their skin.... whereas this was never talked about when I was young. I wanted to talk to someone who would talk honestly about what this experience is like - and Jo Sutherland absolutely doesn't disappoint on this front. Jo first had surgery to transition from male to female in her early 20s – the story she tells of growing up as a boy is so insightful, so touching, so honest and, at times, heartbreaking. She takes pains to point out that self-acceptance doesn’t magically happen when you transition, even if it’s absolutely the right thing to do for you. And even if it isn’t totally botched up, as hers sadly was. As she says, we are all works in progress. In fact I soon realised that – while I wanted to learn about gender – talking to Jo ended up being so relevant to my own situation because it’s about being human… about seeking and finding and evolving your identity. It’s just a bit more challenging if that identity doesn’t feel right in the skin you’re born in. It helps that Jo is also an endlessly fascinating character who has constantly reinvented herself, from hairdresser to prison worker to engineer to lawyer to actor and back to hairdresser! She even wrote a script about her life in lockdown. If anyone can talk authoritatively about finding your voice and the roles we play, it's her. For more about Jo: Twitter Jo Sutherland @JoSutherland13 Organisations she supports: Mermaids,assisting gender divers children and families Awkward branch Productions: City Lit (she thoroughly recommends their range of creative courses): Royal Central School of Speech and Drama To follow Big Juicy Creative for loads of inspiration on living creatively, see: Instagram: Facebook LinkedIn: Twitter: contact Suzy: Big Juicy Creative podcast is available on all major platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or directly from my website: /episode/index/show/bigjuicycreative/id/23136470

Ep 095: Living the scarytale instead of the dream, and how to rewrite your story, with public speaking champ Verity Price 04/22/2022

Ep 094: How to be healthy & happy, with multi-creative GP Zain Kapasi 04/08/2022

Ep 093: Writing to heal everything, from everyday frustrations to trauma, with author & coach Jackee Holder 03/24/2022

Ep 092: Back from the brink: why I fell off a creative cliff into a very large black hole & how I got out of it again 03/04/2022

Ep 092: Back from the brink: why I fell off a creative cliff into a very large black hole & how I got out of it again You know that way when women are described as a 'hot mess' and it's meant to convey that, while chaotic, there is still something a bit sexy about them? Yeah? OK. Well, that is NOT me in this episode. I am just fully a mess, with sadly not the hot bit. I describe this mental state I was in recently - which led to my falling off a creative cliff - in its full brutality and ugliness, with no glamourising. Why??! I'm hoping that you will feel better about your own particular flavour of messiness - because all humans have some. All humans have ups and downs, too. It's just we choose not (usually) to reveal them to the world, even to our friends, and especially not on social media. I think that's toxic for all our mental health. So that's why I'm coming clean: because the shame that so many people feel when they have down periods, makes them much worse. And, as Brene Brown says, the way to stop the shame is to shine a light on it. Which is what I am trying to do here; channel my inner lighthouse. I also don't believe in the tortured, anxious artist archetype who is massively productive when their mind is having a mental health moment. I think our minds are most productive and creative when we look after them and they can access some stillness- and I describe the ways I do this in this episode. Most importantly is a sense of connection and community; I describe here the role of wild swimming with Cairngorms Wild Swimmers, martial arts at HMAC and Crossfit Cairngorms, in my recovery. So, remember folks, while this podcast is optimistically called Big Juicy Creative - there is actually no such thing as a big, juicy, creative life 24/7. And, in REAL life, the low times lead us to the high times - often higher BECAUSE of the low times. As you'll hear from this episode, I've learnt alot from this latest blip - and there are exciting big juicy creative adventures on the horizon because of it. Thanks for listening and for all the messages listeners sent me in my absence. Namaste 🙏 To follow Big Juicy Creative for loads of inspiration on living creatively, see: Instagram: @bigjuicycreativeliving Facebook @bigjuicycreativeliving LinkedIn: @suzybashford Twitter: @suzybashford contact Suzy: /episode/index/show/bigjuicycreative/id/22324172