#139- Introduction To Substack —On Creative Career Pivots, Burnout and Building A Life On Your Own Terms - Claire Venus

Last Friday I published a post that felt cringey and shameless. I posted it anyway. Over 7,000 impressions, 130 likes and more warm connections than I could count later — I started thinking about what actually happens when you embrace the cringe. Before children I celebrated my self sufficiency. But motherhood is a completely different arena. Interdependence is the infrastructure. The village is everything. And there is so much joy in finding your people. In this episode: → Why motherhood killed my tolerance for pretending I have it all together → The shift from solo mindset to village — and why interdependence is the most powerful infrastructure there is → The call that happened at the right time with the right person → My 3 year old daughter — the absolute queen of asking — and what she has taught me about shamelessness → Why people are not thinking about you as much as you think they are For the mother who is craving connection but has not yet gone first. Go first. Your people are waiting.

She was demoted. She did not know it at the time but that moment would become the launchpad. Alice Ter Haar is the founder of Badass Unicorn, a TEDx speaker, a writer for The Times and someone who has spent years helping people unleash what she calls their Return on Individual — the one of a kind magic that makes each person formidably impressive. In this episode: → The Badass Unicorn philosophy — what unicorn companies can teach us about finding our gap in the market → The invisible load — why it is frustrating and why it so often goes unspoken → Difficult conversations in marriages that lead to better understanding → Shame dissolves in the light — on vulnerability, authenticity and genuine connection For the mother who has been overlooked, underestimated or pushed into a corner. The setback is not the end of the story. Alice is proof of that. And this conversation will remind you why.

Someone I know recently lost her 4 year old son. Loss and grief have a way of cutting through the noise and reminding us of something we already know but sometimes forget. Life is short. Are you deliberate about the one you are designing? This episode is not a sad one. It is an urgent one. I talk about grief as a clarifying force. And I talk about the trip I have been thinking about booking with my children. The moments that take your breath away rather than just the breaths you take. What I am willing to sacrifice to make those moments possible. In this episode: → The news that prompted this episode and why grief always brings me back to the same place → What it means to be anchored in the knowledge that life is short — not as anxiety but as clarity → Removing the noise — how limiting social media has given me my own thoughts back → The small financial sacrifices that make the bigger experiences possible → Designing a life around moments rather than things → Book the trip. Do the thing. Create the moment. Now. For the mother who has been meaning to do the thing.

I used to be quite a private person. Even when I was struggling. Because I was brought up to conduct yourself well regardless of what is happening on the inside. But I took that too far. And in certain chapters of my life I suffered in silence. Motherhood changed that. The guilt, the mental load, a tough year that brought me to my knees. All of it caused me to rethink what I thought I knew about strength. And to finally see vulnerability for what it actually is. In this episode: → The performance of perfection and what it actually costs you → Being raised to be stoic — where that serves you and where it quietly traps you → Brené Brown on shame, vulnerability and why truth and courage are never weakness → Why talking to other mothers is therapy → Why healing requires exposure — and there is no shame in asking for help For the mother who has been carrying things alone when she did not have to. Naming it is the beginning.

Ros is a former national award-winning teacher and someone who has reinvented herself more than once. Raising her daughters in Singapore she is acutely aware of the pressure the education system places on children — which is exactly why she is so deliberate about what she is building in them instead. In this episode: → Singapore's exam culture and what that level of academic pressure actually does to children → Beauty standards and the misconception that appearance is enough without substance to back it up → Two daughters with completely opposite personalities — and the challenge of honouring their differences. For the mother who wants to raise girls who know their value especially in a world where the pressure to perform, look a certain way and meet everyone else's definition of success starts earlier than it ever should.