Girl Gang Craft Podcast Episode #70 “How to Nourish Your Artistry and Embody Your Creative Spirit”

Phoebe Sherman interview with Kate Bone

INTRO
Phoebe Sherman:

Welcome to the Girl Gang Craft Podcast where we dive in deep to all things business, wellness, creativity, and activism for artists and entrepreneurs. We talk with impactful female driven companies and founders for an inside look at the entrepreneurial experience where you'll come away with tangible steps to elevate your business. Are you ready? I'm your host, Phoebe Sherman, founder of Girl Gang Craft artist and designer, and marketing obsessed. We're here to learn together how to expand our revenue, implement new organizational techniques, and cultivate best business practices as we work towards creating a life doing what we love. Let's get started.

Hello. Hello. Hi, creatives. Phoebe here today we are talking with Kate Bowen and we're going to hop into the episode, of course, and just a moment, but some announcements, event stuff is coming.

I think we've all started on our end and we will announce so soon. So keep an eye out if you're not. Subscribe to our newsletter. Make sure you subscribe. You can join right on our page or on our link in bio in our Instagram. Make sure you're on the newsletter so you get these first looks at our applications and opportunities for artists and new podcast episodes and all that good stuff. So newsletter is where it's at. Event apps is coming and we'll have apps out soon after we announce the dates and we are bringing back our Mother's Day gift guide as well for small business owners that have a product for mom. That's a good opportunity to get your work in front of new customers and what else? What else? They're having a sale on our site right now for our apparel. There is a deep discount on all our products. Go check it out. And we are slashing some of our inventory. Really. We're trying to get rid of some inventory, make some room for the new. So go check out our shop girlgangcraft.com/shop And I think that's it for now. Keeping that nice and short and sweet. We love you. Thanks for listening. Let's get to it.

00;02;15;15 - 00;02;24;17
Phoebe Sherman
Hello, creatives. Welcome back to Girl Gang Craft, the podcast. Today we have Kate Bone on the cast. Welcome, Kate. How's it going?

Kate Bone
Hi, I'm so good. I had my cup of tea. I'm just like, so stoked to be here in chat.

Phoebe Sherman
Yay! Thank you so much for joining us. Can you tell everyone who's listening a little bit about who you are and what you do?

00;02;37;07 - 00;03;03;03
Kate Bone
Hey, y'all. I'm Kate Bone. I'm an actor and a singer and a writer and the founder of Wonderwall Creative, an interdisciplinary creative studio and community focusing on the intersection of creativity and well-being. So I'm here for all things creative spark. I'm here for all things mindfulness, embodiment, really creating the things that we want to make and doing it in a way that feels really good to us.

Phoebe Sherman
You do a lot of things and you have done a lot of things. Can you tell us a little bit about that path to get here? Yeah, let's start with that. The path that got you here today.

Kate Bone
It's so funny that you're asked this question because literally at my wedding, my dad stood up to give a speech and he was like, If I had to describe Caitlyn in one word, it would be determined. And he goes on to talk about how I've been like working as an actor and a singer and a writer, like moved to L.A. to do the Hollywood Hustle. When I was 17, I started teaching yoga and meditation and how I have like a bunch of different jobs. And I just like peace. My life together. And literally in his wedding toast, to me and my husband, he's like, my one wish for Caitlyn is that she has one job. And I just thought that was so funny and so sweet. And I get that from the outside. It can definitely look like I do a lot of different things. But for me, it's all centered and embodied creative expression and evolution and liberation. So some days I'm working on set on a TV show, some days I am teaching meditation to companies, Some days I am doing a voiceover, some days I'm teaching or leading an event through my company. Wonder Well, sometimes I'm just like a computer gremlin and I'm making graphics behind the scenes. But yeah, I've really loved where my path has brought me. I started out really going for it as an actor and then quite soon realized that I needed a lot more tools to be able to sustain a life in this up and down and rigorous industry. So that's where the yoga and meditation tools came in. And for a while, until I was living two very separate lives, like I was doing my training and working in theater and auditioning for film and TV. And then I'm waking up at 7 a.m. to teach yoga and meditation classes, and I'm like living the split life. But really, in the last three years, all of these things have come home together into one job, which is my artistic career that's ongoing.
And I'm going to be going through cycles in waves for the rest of my life, but also through my company, Wonderwall and what we do in the creative studio.

00;05;25;01 - 00;05;50;13
Phoebe Sherman
I think a lot of people listening can identify. I certainly can. I also do a lot of things and somehow made it into one thing sort of ish. But yeah, I think this creative embodiment is really interesting and feel like very grounded in that. And I think a lot of people can get well. First of all, there's necessity to maybe do a lot of things right for financial reasons.
There's also this like creative thirst. If you are working with a lot of mediums and maybe you're someone who's just interested in a lot of things, like you want to feed all those parts of you like I certainly can. I a few years ago found like a list of all the things I want to be when I grow up, like in high school or something, and it's all over the place.
And somehow I'm sort of doing all of them and I have like created this like need to do all of them in this space. And I think it can actually be really rewarding if you can find a way to do it, sustain and be grounded and be embodied, and not let this outside chaos dictate what we should be doing. Like recently, I've been thinking a lot about this idea of like multitasking. And some of these folks are like, you do too many things. When I was younger, like going to theater or going to soccer or whatever, you know, all these sports and wow. But has that so served me now in this space to be flexible in learning new things, to diversify my revenue streams, to feed all these creative parts of me, I get back to this embodied thing.

What does embodiment mean to you?

00;07;08;20 - 00;07;28;10
Kate Bone
I love that question. It also sounds like we had very similar childhoods that were like did a bunch of different activities. I always joke that I had a very facilitated childhood where it was like I went to school and then I went to softball practice and then I came home and on Thursday nights I did horseback riding and like, my parents really came from a place of like, wanting me to try everything. And they knew pretty young that I had a thirst for, like being in the theater and singing and performing and things like that. But they were really cautious about steering me down a path and like, too soon, like going for one thing, too soon. So I love that for us that we have these, like diverse childhoods and then look at us doing all the things now and trying to stay sane while doing it. To answer your question about embodiment, my teacher actually just gave me the best definition that I'm just going to use, which is embodiment practices are things that we do that make us feel like ourselves.

Phoebe Sherman
Can you just say that one more time for us?

Kate Bone
Embodiment practices are things that we do that make us and help us to feel like ourselves. And I went to theater school for college and the majority of my day was spent like rolling around on the floor doing animal work, like pretending I was a crocodile, working with Western speech, opening up the 12 resonators in the human body, really just learning about the human instrument. And I loved it. That's why I wanted to study acting. I want to fully be in this body in this lifetime. And it made me so sad to look around my college campus. And I went to a very Type A school. I went to UCLA and the kids there, especially on the South campus, I was like, Are you guys okay? Like, you don't look well, Like you haven't seen the sun. You've been in a dungeon coding and learning how to access the instrument of the body was such a gateway to living a full life. And I just wanted more of that. I think that's why I went into yoga. And then the yoga has led to a million things.And like, I have this whole arsenal of teachers from all different modalities. Some things like if I told you that, you'd be like, What are you even talking about? I find these, like teachers all over the world that are teaching these specific practices to, like, wake up your subtle energies and regulate your nervous system.

Phoebe Sherman
I was a yoga teacher also, so I might know them

Kate Bone
We have the language. I don't know if you're familiar with that continuum of movement.

Phoebe Sherman
No.

Kate Bone
Okay. Yeah, it's very niche. Look into it. My teacher, Cass Phelps, is incredible, but it's basically like inchworm movement. You're like rolling around on the floor. I just think people need to be rolling around on the floor more like, that's my main soapbox.

Phoebe Sherman
I love that.

Kate Bone
And then like working with kids, you know, I managed a bunch in my early years after college to make ends meet and like just rolling around the floor with kids and helping them find their sound. It was so beautiful and so human. And I just love the work of like, waking up inside of ourselves, feeling more like we're able to authentically express ourselves. I just walk around and I see so many people like, trapped in their bodies and they're like living from the neck up. And that's why I really try to aim to work with a diverse spectrum of people. Like I don't just work with creatives, I work with like software engineers because we're all human and we all need this. And it's only recently that we started living from the neck up and it's having detrimental effects to mental health, physical wellbeing, chronic illness. And so I'm like, Y'all, we got to breathe, we got to move.

00;10;54;01 - 00;11;00;16
Phoebe Sherman
How has that integrated into your other work, as in your other creative practices?

Kate Bone
that's so interesting. It's so fun because the more that I learn in terms of embodiment, mindfulness meditation movement, the more I'm able to apply those things to different projects that I'm working on. So like if I'm working on a play that's a very rigorous thing to do in a human body. You are rehearsing for months leading up to this show and then you're doing five, six, seven, eight shows a week if you're on Broadway. And it's an athletic feat. Same thing with singing. When I'm in the booth and I'm like recording a song, it's all about breath capacity and breath control. I really try to tailor it to whatever it is that I'm working on. And because I have so many different creative outlets, believe me, I'm trying to limit them. Like I just went down like a deep wormhole of doing wheel pottery. I'm like, Girl, we got to get back on my leg. That was a nice season, but we need to get back to our main palate here. There's a season for everything. So I really just look in my arsenal and I think about what's needed for the particular projects that I'm working on. I mean, something very specific that I work with. A lot of my creative clients on is when I'm doing plays, there's a whole culture around theater where you do the show and then everybody goes to the bar and that's normal. However, for your instrument, it's not really great to be doing a show going through this major emotional arc that you're going through, living in the embodiment of this character. When you're doing theater, it's so real and it's so immersive. You're literally building a home on stage and you're living in it and you're living with these people and you're in that reality. And then you go to the bar and you're like, People are coming at you with all sorts of different things, like their opinions and what they loved or what they didn't get or like how they liked the other show you did, or they're coming at you with all sorts of things, then you're drinking alcohol and talking, talking, talking, talking, which wears on the voice. And I will never forget I had the opportunity to work with Anthony Hopkins when I was in my mid-twenties, and I was singing for a film that he was composing and working on and I was doing a play at the time and I was not having fun doing a play, which is like a red flag. This was a role I had been wanting my entire life. I was finally getting to play the engineer. Growing up, I played like Templeton the Rat in Charlotte's Web, like I would play these, like funky little comedic characters. I did a lot of drag as a child. They kept casting me as boys. I don't know what that was about, but I was here for it. I also played Oliver Twist Grandfather, so I'm finally getting to play the engineer and there's like so much pressure on me and by the way, I was eight years old when I played Oliver Twist Grandfather, which is just even better. I'm going to send you a photo about it just so you have that for your record. It's stunning. I'm like, in a suit and it's got me with ADHD. I digress. I'm finally in the orange and I'm doing bus stop by William. And this is a role that was originated by Marilyn Monroe. I'm in the sparkly dress. I've got my boobs out. It's such a vibe. I'm singing, I'm falling in love. There's stage kisses. It's like my dream. And I just so happened to get this gig where I'm working with Anthony Hopkins and I've recorded multiple things for them just on my own in my home studio. They had told me, like the Friday before, like the last day I was busy working on this. So like, actually, will you come into the studio and record this? And, by the way, Tony is going to be here. And I was like, Are you fucking kidding me? I'm like doing everything I have in my toolbox to, like, regulate my nervous system. Be cool. You're about to meet Sir Anthony Hopkins. Like, breathe. It's fine. This is normal. And I get there, and he's just so lovely and so kind and generous. And he's like, Call me Tony, call me down. And we start working and everything I did, he was just like, that's beautiful. do it again and just do whatever you want. And that's wonderful. You know, he just kept giving me such a baseline of encouragement and seeing me and hearing me. And he would pause and he would look back and he would like kind of had this twinkle in his eye. And he was quite good, you know, that, you know, just like, am I dreaming? Like, what is even happening? And so we record this music for a few hours and then he, like, stands up from the engineer desk is like, Shall we go for Chinese? Sure. So I get into the car with my friend who is the music supervisor and his driver and a Rolls-Royce or whatever the car we were in. We go around the corner and get Chinese food and he talks about this publicly, about how getting sober and really looking at his vices as an actor was a super important part for him in his career development. And I wrote down so many of things he told me that day, but I really opened up to him about where I was at with this play, and he just like looks me in the eye and he was like, You need to protect yourself as an artist. And I know I'm going on a long story about this, but that was sort of like a wake up call for me to really look at.

00;16;11;08 - 00;16;38;27
Kate Bone
I'm not sober. I still enjoy a glass of wine from time to time, and I feel very grateful that I can do that without going into a territory that's very harmful for myself. But he really had me look at like, Why are we going to the bar after every show, go home and do some nervous system regulating activities, go home and take a bath, go home and breathe and resource yourself and drink a cup of tea and say, No, I can't do that. I have to have a boundary here. No, I'm not going to be doing shots on a Saturday night. Before we go and do a matinee on Sunday. And that was a real wake up call for me. And he gave me so much advice that day. But the thing that I really came away with is that as performers, we need to take care of our instrument and we need to put up boundaries and say what we actually need because everybody wants to be fun and like the lead of the show, who then goes out and is super cool and can chit chat about whatever and stay up till two in the morning and then wake up and do great work the next day and not have cloudy eyes and not be hung over. But the fact is, if you're a performer, it's serious work. So yeah, that's when I got into the Continuum work and I really realized that I needed to steer away from more of the popular fitness trends and actually do what my body really needed. And that's when I really started getting serious about my embodiment practices, which includes yoga and Pilates and core work and walking uphill and lifting weights like it includes all types of different things that you would see and recognize. But there's this added layer of and what am I embodying? What am I doing? And there's a different way to work with these modalities when we're not just like getting the reps in and unconsciously zoning out or listening to things that are not building our mind, body and spirit. I started getting a lot more serious about what I was ingesting and how I was practicing. And the other main takeaway I got from my day was Tony, which hopefully will make it into my memoir that I write some day, is that most of the time, like once you get your training and you know what you're doing as an artist, all you really need is encouragement and resources. All you need is people to help build your confidence and people who are going to catch you in those moments, like Tony did for me, like, Hey, are you really taking care of yourself or are you partying super hard and not doing your best work because you only have one life and you only have six weeks, which is the run of the show? And is this how you want to show up for that? Is this how you want to integrate the pressure of being a performer, make a choice, and then stand behind it?

00;19;02;11 - 00;19;40;01
Phoebe Sherman
I think what's really interesting, because maybe some people can relate to the sober thing, maybe people can relate to the performing in a play. But I think what people can relate to the most out of our audience is like this idea of boundaries and like being in charge of your like day to day and your reality, which is terrifying because like as kids, we weren't in charge of our own reality and it's really taken, at least me personally, a long time to be like, I'm in charge of my day to day, which is perfect for someone who doesn't want anyone else to tell them what to do.
And also terrifying after whatever you're doing, are you taking care of your nervous system? Are you taking a bath? Are you moving? Are you hanging out with your dog or are you scrolling for a 6 hours? And I'm not saying one is necessarily better than the other, so forgive my tone, but these are choices that we make every day, and these are choices that we make every hour.
And like checking in with ourselves. Like, how are we structuring our day? How are we using our time? What are our goals here and what is helping us, what is hindering us? And it might change every second, and especially day to day, but I don't know. Can you talk a little bit about like how you currently structure your days and what that looks like and maybe how you help your clients structure your days and what that looks like?

00;20;28;24 - 00;20;59;13
Kate Bone
Yeah, absolutely. I love what you just said about making choices, and especially when these algorithms and when these tools are so addictive and designed to pull us. And we do need a lot of accountability and we need a lot of self witnessing and awareness. And I am like not perfect at it at all. Like normally I try to wake up like, so my day, normally I try to wake up and do my morning pages right away through pages, stream of consciousness. But sometimes I totally slip up and I'm human and I like scroll for 2 hours and then I wake up and I have a scrambled egg brain and I have to, like, get back online somehow and I have shorter tools that I can put together to get myself back in a state of mindfulness and productivity and consciousness around what I'm doing.
And yeah, I want to say also, it's been a long transition for my days to end up looking like this and my days change depending on what I'm working on creatively. But right now it feels so not accurate to talk about what my days look like right now because it's like, but there have been other seasons where like, music has been more forward or acting has been more forward, but like I'm on strike right now as an actor or theatrical contract is like needing to be negotiated.
So there aren't a lot of auditions. I had a commercial audition this morning that I had to knock out before we had this conversation, but basically every day is different. I get to start there, Every day is different. And before the pandemic, I was waking up at 5 a.m. doing my morning pages. I was teaching by 7 a.m..
I would teach four yoga classes back to back in person.

Phoebe Sherman
That's a lot.

Kate Bone
Yeah. Then I would eat lunch in my car, then I would go to an audition. Then I would do a yoga class at a hot yoga studio in Mid-City so that I could shower to then drive to North Hollywood to do play rehearsal. Even my car again from like 630 to 7, rehearse from 7 to 11, wake up the next day, do it all again.
I basically did that for ten years, equally building my creative career. And then there were also seasons where it was like three nights a week. I'm in acting class for 3 hours or 4 hours, and so I'm teaching in the morning and then doing class at night. I did maybe four years of that. Then during the pandemic, I started shifting to teaching online. I would have little appointments scheduled throughout the day of like, I'm teaching this client in the morning and then I'm going to do some admin and then I'll teach this client in the afternoon. And then I would have a weekly standing songwriting session where I built a recording studio on my back garage and my producer would come over and we'd like make a song start to finish from like 6 p.m. to midnight 2 a.m., depending on how long it took. Mostly it's just piecing it together and then like trying to remember my priorities of like, okay, these are like the bottom line things that need to get done. And then these are like the in-person appointments. What I'm trying to do now and the season that I'm in now because I'm in a real transitional space, is I'm using the mornings for computer work. I call it my like goblin hours where I'm like a little computer goblin. Generally. Like right now my day looks like I wake up, make a cup of coffee, take the dog out, sit down, write my morning pages, three pages, stream of consciousness I facilitator program called The Artist Way. And this is a foundational component of that. It's just a really great way for me to get my thoughts out on the page. Then I try to do something for my body. Sometimes it's quick and sometimes I have more time. Maybe it's just a walk around the block. Maybe I'm going to a place class, maybe I'm doing a yoga practice at home. But lately it's been so hard for me to focus to do a yoga practice at all. I'm like, Good luck. I got to leave the house and go somewhere and do something. Then I'll come back and I'll bang out like a deep work block for wonder. Well, where I'm like making graphics or creating fliers or doing email admin, and then I'll usually have a break in the afternoon where I can make lunch. And then I well, either lately it's been one or the other. It's either I'm on calls working one on one with clients that like my afternoons are more client facing so that way I can be like a computer gremlin in the morning with my giant sweatshirt and my ball cap on. And I'm just like, I'm not talking to anybody. And then I, like, have a moment to eat, lunch, shower, regroup, and then I'm either doing creative work or I am working with creative clients or facilitating my creative groups. And then I like really try to like, close everything down and then go hang out with my husband and like, vibe out and like, watch TV. And like lately it has just been the most mindless TV that's happening for me. I just like binge suits, which is not mindless. Like give me any legal drama, procedural comedy, love story. I'm like here for all seasons. I'm on season like eight right now, and I think there are nine. I don't know. I'm towards the end.

Phoebe Sherman
I think I had to stop after like four or five. I was like, I'm done, but this is good. I got it.

Kate Bone
But I think I went and sued Wormhole and it was all I could think about, all I could do. And so, yeah, we try to have some time in the evenings and then I try to mostly take weekends off, but to be honest, I'm like doing a little admin block on Saturday. A lot of times Sundays are my day where my husband and I are like kind of getting our house ready together and doing the grocery shopping and the meal planning for the week. And maybe I'm like calling a friend and doing some laundry. But it's also a time where I could like have a little bit more spaciousness where it's like, I don't have to be on calls, I don't have to be responding to emails today. So that's where I can do some like bigger dream work. That's where I can do either big dreamy or stuff in my creative space or in the wonder well space.

00;26;25;27 - 00;26;31;09
Phoebe Sherman
Can really back up a little bit. And I want to hear about how you started your wonder well

Kate Bone
Wonderwell ,Yeah.

Phoebe Sherman
Let's start with that. What are those beginning days of wonder What look like and what does it look like now?

Kate Bone
It's so sweet. Basically, like I told you, I had been living this double life where half of my days were committed to my creative work and career, and then half of my days were yoga and meditation really felt like I was living two separate lives. And then in 2019, I had been facilitating these Moon Circle events with my best friend.
And I feel like your audience would absolutely love this. Like we would gather on the new moons and the full moons and we would like handwrite out these like little pamphlets for people to, like, write their intention or like what's coming up for them. And then like a few prompts, like based on the lunar cycle or what was happening with the moon, we would pull Oracle cards, would eat snacks, drink tea.
I had a dome and like a little geodesic dome in my backyard where we all gathered with all these red pillows. And it was so fun and we did it for like two years or something. And in my personal life I had really been doing more seasonal ritual. My friend Suzy and I had started doing like serious summer solstice parties or making flower crowns.
And by the end of it we had like 80 people at my house and I was producing like a full festival with a P.A. system and like my friends were coming to sing and play for everybody. We cooked for everybody fresh and margaritas for everybody catered like amazing tacos from our favorite place in L.A. Tacos before shout out, I love you, I miss you.
And so I had already been like, stepping into these seasonal rhythms a little bit more coming into the seasonal, sort of like pagan holidays of the fall equinox and the winter solstice. The summer solstice and the spring equinox. And like, we were creating ritual around that, and then we were gathering on the new moons, and it was only for women.
We said it was like for highly adventurous and creative women. And we were like, set intentions on the new moon. And then we would come back on the next new moon and check in. How did it go? What are you going to do for this cycle? So we had already been doing that and then in 2019, we had been doing it for a while.
It's interesting when you create something, it usually comes from like a problem or a desire. And my problem was like, I don't want to just work with women. I really want to include men and non-binary folks in the work of connecting to the cycles of nature, coming together as communities, sharing meals, switching from this like grind, grind, grind all the time, perpetual summer mode to like embracing the seasons more.
And I wanted to shift the culture in that way and I was just doing it in my backyard and then in 2019, Suzi was on a trip home and she had picked up the artist way, which I was familiar with. I had done in a partial amount. I made it up to week eight, maybe like eight years prior to this, and she was like, you know, I was reading The Artist way and I think we should do it with our community.
And I was like, okay, sure. So, you know, I sent out an email to our little Moon Circle gang as well as I was able to open it up to all different folks. And I said, Hey, we're doing an Artist's Way group. It's $33 if you want to join, we're going to go through this 12 week process of recovering our creativity and engaging these tools like who wants to join?
And I sent that email to like 80 people. 20 people responded and said, I'm in, let's do it. So 20 people paid us $33 and we facilitated on Zoom in 2019 pre-pandemic. And it was the coolest thing ever. And it really bridged my creative life and my meditation yoga world. We started every artist they call with like a grounding meditation, and it really just opened up this whole new chapter where it's like, Wow, the last ten years I've been helping people move energy through their bodies and their yoga practice.
And like now I could help people move their energy through their creative cycle and help people discover their creative cycle. And like, what I found by doing the work was that by gathering and talking about our creative process, there was so much that we all thought, that we all felt that we were all going through that nobody was talking about.
There wasn't a sacred space for it. I mean, you see people at a coffee shop or at a show and you're like, how's it going? Like, what are you working on? And you're like, yeah, I'm writing something right now. It's going really good. I love to put it together. Everybody kind of does this posturing in L.A. and I was like, You know what I want to do?
Like the non Instagram non public release statement, non highlight reel conversation about what it's really like out here as independent creators going through this stuff. I became obsessed with the artist and then the pandemic hit and I lost a ton of work and couldn't work in person. And so I was like, Let's do a ton of artists like.
And so all my friends came and did it with me. My friends told their friends, their friends told their friends all completely word of mouth. And I was just doing it like as me as a person. And then after about a year, I was like, okay, this really is a thing. And then all that moon circle stuff started coming in where I started weaving in the seasons, and then I started really developing my own framework about what I think the creative cycle is.
And by working with so many people and listening to so many people, I was starting to see the different pitfalls that people could fall into. I was starting to see different ways that artists could nourish themselves and resource themselves. I was seeing ways that I could provide nourishment, resources, embodiment exercises, creative activity, guided journaling, guided inquiry, sacred containers for people to set their creative contract, say what they're committing to, and how are they going to do it with accountability, with checking in, I led those artists, made circles, and then it got to a point where at the end of the artist way, people were like, Hi, can we keep meeting? Like, This is really helpful. And I said, no for like three different cycles. So I basically said no for like a year. And then I finally was like, You know what, let's create something. I took a little business class on how to do online businesses. All right, let's go. And I was like, It has to be something I can get on board with.
It has to be something that I think is going to work that's going to be exciting. And I was just laying in the back yard. And Julia Cameron is the author of The Artist Way, has this framework that as artists, we can't just expect ourselves to create, create, create, create, create without any input. We need to fill the well.
We need to stock the pond. We need to constantly be putting ourselves in places of wonder and awe and openness and expansion and risk and trying things and taking leaps and messing around and making a mess and finding things that really light us up and saying yes to them, doing them, and scheduling them and putting on the calendar and creating boundaries around them and advocating for them.
When our dominant culture or the most prevalent culture really doesn't promote like, Hey, lay in the grass and look at the sky and daydreamed. Like when was the last time you saw an advertisement for that? It wasn't like really trying to sell you something. So I was laying on my back in my backyard looking at the sky, listening to a podcast about etymology and how words are spells.
And I was like, This is filling my well, right now I am obsessed with this. And then I was like, that's it. Wonder. Well, that's it. I want to help people wonder, Well, I want us to be able to wonder and create, but also do it from a place of well-being. And then I created the well, membership that is like a really sacred container for artists to come together.
It's a small group. There's less than 20 of us, but it's growing and expanding. And it's my heart and my pride and joy, and it's something I need as an artist every season. I need to come to the table and say, okay, what do I want to commit to? And then I need to go for it and know that other people have my back and we have lots of programing inside of there that helps us stay on track with our things or we share resources and inspiration.
And then, yeah, it was only natural that I started to record and sell my yoga and meditation practices because it was useful not only for my clients and the students that I was seeing in studio and in person before the pandemic. But it also really resource the creatives in my space. There is like traditional sort of fitness, yoga, meditation in the Wonder Body studio, which is our sort of fitness wellness platform space.
But then there's also for the well members, there's like more niche specific things for artists like vocal warmups and different artist embodiment, embodying different archetypes, working like that. It's really just been such a fertile ground and I feel so grateful because it feels like I'm working my ass off, but it's the most effortless thing I've ever done. And don't get me wrong, it's hard.
And I have a meltdown on cue every three months and I go to my husband. I'm like, Well, there's everywhere. It's like, da da da da da. Like, I love what I'm doing, but can I do more than break even? And but sure enough, little by little, we are growing and it's happening. And I was always more focused on like the service and the level of integrity of the practices rather than like the profit, because I know the profit will come if it's really helping people and it's doing a great service and we're building a community and we're shifting our culture, it will sustain and it will bring lots of abundance.
But I'm totally in the trenches right now. We're in like year three and it's no joke out here in the online business space Post pandemic, late stage capitalism. My hat goes off to all of you who are doing it right now.

00;36;27;02 - 00;36;48;18
Phoebe Sherman
You say, great into my next question about finances. And yeah I mean, what is the biggest point of contention you see with your clients and maybe yourself with like sort of matching creativity with finances? Because we need finances to survive in our life? I don't know. Could you speak to that?

Kate Bone
girl, I've had to do so much work. The energetics of money over my whole adult life, I would feel like I was allergic to the term entrepreneur. I was like, allergic to the idea of being a business owner. I did not want to do it. I just wanted to be a fairy floating around singing songs with people who would like, magically do my contracts for me and make sure that I'm getting all my residuals and pitching me for all the things that I'm perfect for and getting me in the room.
But the fact is, nobody is going to care about your creative work more than you, period. And nobody is going to come to your house and knock on your door and say, You're so talented, we want you so much. Please, we'll spend all the money and all the resources to pull you out of your shell and help you create the thing that you're meant to create.
Nobody's coming. The Calvary's not coming. It's you, babe. It's.

Phoebe Sherman
Nobody’s coming.

Kate Bone
Nobody's coming to save you. It's you. It's you and your inner heroine, your inner hero archetype that's going to save you. The struggle is real. And I'm pissed, actually, because when I came into the arts, so many people told me like, it's so hard. And I was about to say that it's so hard, you know, much saturation.
It's so difficult. Yeah, it's hard. But also they just did some report where like the arts and entertainment is a bigger financial industry than agriculture. We're spending more money on art than we're spending on food and art is not a limited market. And I love what you do to support artists with the markets and like helping them build their business because it's like, Amy, make me. I've inspired to write talks about this all the time. It's like there's a finite market for refrigerators. Maybe you have one refrigerator in your house, maybe you also have a refrigerator in your garage, but there is no limit to how much art you can have in your home. Everything the rug, the guitars, the paintings, the sculptures, the little figurines, the pictures on the wall.
We need art. Like the clothing, the jewelry. It's endless and it's all creative. First of all, I want to say that there is such an abundance and there is such a need for creative work. And if you're a creator out there being like, everyone's telling me that this can't work and I can't make a living doing this, fuck that you can.
You can. There is a need for it. We need your weird self. We need your weird, imperfect, funky, unique creations. We need it. That being said, it takes a long time to be able. It's taken me a long time. It might not take you a long time, but it's taken me a long time to, like, slowly make tiny shifts in service of myself as an artist and a creative and a freelance teacher, which is what I am.
And these shifts have been so subtle where it's like, okay, I go from teaching a public yoga class now I'm teaching for millionaires, companies and celebrities, and it's like, yeah, we had to like upper level get to a different clientele, charge people money where there is money to support the other things because I don't charge my creative clients the same things that I charge a CEO for, like a meditation session.
Because we have different resource portals, we have different resource availability. I think scaling your offer to meet different arenas, but then with that comes so much imposter syndrome. I'm like, What can I do to these CEOs? But you know what? I teach meditation to them and I help them get in their body and I help them get out of their head.
And they're like, You have no idea how much you're helping me in my business. And nobody in my space is talking about this stuff, that this is my secret weapon. There's just a lot of internal work around mindset and worthiness and like building your skill level to a place where you can really fully back yourself up and not getting in your own way, raising your prices when you need to. I'm about to have to go and raise my prices right now because of inflation in the market. And like two years ago I would choke and die before I would raise my prices because I just was like, but I can't. People can't pay. And, you know, it's like, no, girl, you have to ask for what you need and you have to have equal energetic exchange in what you're doing in order to survive.
As a business, as an artist, we all need to go home right now and raise our prices. Consider this your permission slip. Inflation is no joke, y'all. We got to do it yearly for your services, for your materials, in a way that makes sense. And scaling my offer has been huge. Being able to work with companies and folks who are really well resourced financially and not well resourced, mindfully embodiment wise, they're not well resourced in peace and calm and clarity.
Just understanding that you have something to bring to so many different sectors and scaling the offer so that you can meet your people and be of service.

00;41;55;19 - 00;42;07;11
Phoebe Sherman
I love it. Okay. A couple last minute lightning around and quick. These are like two or three words tops. Okay. What is your favorite way to stay organized?

Kate Bone
Dear God, help me. Post-it notes, my notes app, and like notion. Notion is happening.

Phoebe Sherman
And I love it. What's your favorite thing on the internet lately?

Kate Bone
I just love memes about the fall of capitalism. I follow a couple great accounts. We love it.

Phoebe Sherman
A song that makes you feel something lately.

Kate Bone
Everywhere. Fleetwood Mac, the song that played on my husband and I got married. We're not just husband and wife. We walk down the aisle.

Phoebe Sherman
What's your favorite way to not work?

Kate Bone
Honestly, scrolling my phone and chit chatting on the phone with my girlfriends.

Phoebe Sherman
Okay. And then what do you think is next for you and Wonderwell?

Kate Bone
We're just growing and it's streamlining. And I brought on an assistant these last few months and it's really helping a lot. And I'm having to step up into like new levels of leadership, but it's allowing me to be in my song a genius. More. We have upcoming artists circles. If you want to tap into your creativity. What I love about this is it's for everybody.
If you are like, I don't even think I have a creative bone in my body to like I'm a professional artist, but I'm so burnt out and I've lost my spark and I don't even know what I like anymore. There's a place for everybody in that artist Way By Julia Cameron. We run a program on our next one is starting very soon, so you can go on to the waitlist and you'll get an email about it when we have a new one coming out.
That's like the best way. If you want to get involved with us. If you're an artist and you're already in your groove and you're interested in this like seasonal timing, staff come into the well, come and like get focused on your seasonal goals and objectives. Be in an interdisciplinary community of creators with so much cool programing going on in there from like co-working sessions to like embodiment exercises to like chit chat and fun stuff, happy hours and things like that. And like creative tools, resources, community sharing, things like that. Come and join us in the well, I'd love to have you and support you in your creative process. I'm loving all the work that we have at the Wonder Body Studio. If you want to just like move and meditate with me or like I don't need the creative support, but we want to movimento come to the Wonder Body studio and move with us. I'll give you all the links and I'll even give you a goodie bag to put in the chat. So if people want some free stuff, they can have some free stuff and then we're going to start some creative services. I always wanted Wonder Wall to be a production company. I've produced multiple music videos by myself or just on my own for my artist projects and a few for other artists. We have some really cool creative services that we're building out. Maybe by the time this podcast goes live, they will be in like a beta round of them. But I'm so excited to get more into the tangible, practical aspects of what's needed from our community. And we have such an incredible arsenal of creatives in our space that we're building a really cool team to help you with your business or your creative career through lots of fun, cool creative services and production services coming soon.

Phoebe Sherman
Amazing. Okay, well, Kate, this has been so great. Thank you so much for joining us.

00;45;14;01 - 00;45;16;17
Kate Bone
Thank you for having me. This was so fun.

OUTRO

Phoebe Sherman
Thank you so much for listening to the Girl Gang Craft Podcast. Head to Girlgangcraft.com/podcast for shownotes and more. See you next time.