Hello, and welcome to The Creatives' Coffee Club! The Creatives' Coffee Club is a podcast for anyone who is curious about their creativity. For those who want to rediscover their creative side, to those that already have a creative practice but want a bit of support in the process. From big conversations with people who have ditched the 9 - 5 to pursue a creative career, to discussing big road blocks like fear, imposter syndrome and self doubt, to sharing practical tips about how to navigate your creative journey - you will hopefully leave each episode inspired, supported and ready to dive in.
My name is Charlie India and I am your host here at The Creatives' Coffee Club. Oh what a ride it has been over the last 6 months bringing this podcast into being...
I would like to share with you a bit about me and how The Creatives' Coffee Club came into being.
So, I am a lawyer living and working in London and I've felt in my adult years like something was missing - I tried all the different sports and exercise regimes out there, made various online profiles about healthy living and meditation, tried and failed to care about becoming a foodie, and oh so many other side projects that you definitely do not need to hear about. Lucky for me, in January 2021 my grandmother (who is a watercolourist) and my mother suggested that we have what we called Art Attack. A zoom each week, where we would hang out and talk about art. Honestly, we were amidst the third national lockdown in the UK due to coronavirus and so I thought why not - the last time I picked up a paint brush was at school, but I thought it would be great to learn a new skill and spend time with my nearest and dearest in the process...
Little did I know that that moment would spark the rediscovery of my personal identity through creativity. The 'thing' that had been missing for so long was in fact my creativity - supressed by years of training by society to work my way up the career ladder, do everything I could do to be 'successful', with little or no time between work, the gym, friends and family to spare for my personal passions. Sound familiar? I don't think I'm alone in this, and the longer time goes on the easier it becomes to forget the unique creativity we each have inside of us that when accessed truly make us feel alive.
In fact, I remember saying to my partner Andrew at one point "maybe I'm not meant to make anything, maybe I am a consumer of creativity - put here to consume others' creations and support them in the process". And I actually believed that!
So you might be thinking how did you get from family Art Attack to a podcast about the power of creativity? Well... The second unexpected but life changing moment came when I signed up for an Instagram account. I didn't know what to expect, because I don't really use Instagram in my personal life, but I thought it would be a useful place to document my art journey alongside Art Attack. So, I started posting about my creative journey - opening up about feeling like an imposter after so many years of denying my creativity. And I quickly realised that I was not alone. Creatives from all over the world were messaging me saying 'oh thank goodness, I feel that way too'. And in that connection sparked an idea - what if there was a community where we could inspire people to prioritise their creativity, talk openly about the ups and downs of their creative journeys and support each other in the process?
And so began The Creatives' Coffee Club. I started by having conversations with other creatives, recording them on zoom and uploading them straight to IGTV. In the back of my mind I knew I wanted to turn those conversations into a podcast, but I didn't quite believe in myself yet. Fast forward, slowly but surely, with the support of the members of The Creatives' Coffee Club, our creative beans as I like to call you, I woke up one day and had the guts. The moment had come, and I intuitively felt that it was time. So here we are; I'm nervous, I'm unknowing, but most of all I feel alive. I feel inspired. And I am so very very excited to connect with you through this podcast.
If you enjoy the conversations we have here, I welcome you to check out our website www.thecreativescoffeeclub.com for ways to get involved with this cosy community. Obviously we still have a thriving community on Instagram too! If you would like to support this podcast you can buy me a coffee via the link in my bio that we can sip on throughout the coming episodes. And to all of you that have contributed to this community so far, THANK YOU, truly, you are the caffeine to my coffee!
Without further ado, enjoy The Creatives' Coffee Club and stay creative!