168. How to Get Your Creative Dreams Off The Ground and Rock Forward with Pure Awesomeness with Musician, Songwriter
Jeff Leisawitz is Dr. Brad Miller’s guest on Episode 168 of “The Beyond Adversity Podcast.”
Jeff is an accomplished artist, musician, writer and has received many awards in his life in this area. Jeff is also a filmmaker and an in-demand coach for creators. He has a passion for helping empower to tap deeply into their creative hearts to live a richer and more fulfilling life.
In this episode, Jeff shares the creative process, what it means to be a creator, the importance of failure, and how to push through difficult challenges.
He talks about his experience in music and how he learned an experience from summer camp that led to his journey to becoming a musician.
Jeff’s dream was to become a rock star. But this became impossible as his parents didn’t want him to become a musician.
Jeff then talks about where our creativity lies and how our creativity is “our gift to the world.” He explains that creativity is a connection with ourselves and higher consciousness. And that creativity doesn’t happen immediately, especially with artists and other creators.
Jeff shares how we can get inspiration for our craft and trigger our passion with our creativity. He says that we can connect to people. Whatever kind of creator we are, we can share stories that resonate with people and lets them know that they are not alone in the world.
Lastly, Jeff says that vulnerability is a very powerful thing when it comes to being a creator. Putting vulnerability into a song, movie, a book, or whatever your craft is can create an impact on the world.
Learn more about Jeff Leisawitz on
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffleisawitz/
Website: https://jeffleisawitz.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorJeffLeisawitz
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nfajeff
Instagram: http://instagram.com/nfajeff
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYewSq3WO-mEy3JwcOuHedQ/
Transcript
How to Get your creative dreams off the ground and rock forward with pure awesomeness
Dr. Brad Miller:with award winning musician, producer and songwriter Jeff lizer Wits on episode number 168 of the beyond adversity podcast with Dr. Brad Miller.
Jeff Leisawitz:One of the things I believe is that at its best creativity is a way for us to be seen, expressed, healed and connected.
Joe Sanok:This is Joe Sanok, the author of Thursday is the new Friday, where I help you work fewer hours, make more money,
Joe Sanok:and spend time doing what you want. Dr. Brad Miller
Joe Sanok:is here with you on the beyond adversity podcast, helping you to crush adversity, and achieve peace, prosperity and purpose.
Dr. Brad Miller:Welcome to the beyond adversity podcast with Dr. Brad Miller,
Dr. Brad Miller:the show dedicated to helping you crush adversity and succeed in life. rad believes you deserve a life that is fulfilling and impactful.
Dr. Brad Miller:And this show is designed to help you navigate beyond adversity and achieve your life of peace, prosperity and purpose. Now here's Dr. Brad.
Dr. Brad Miller:Hello, good people. And welcome to the beyond adversity podcast with Dr. Brad beller.
Dr. Brad Miller:This is the podcast where we help you to grow through what you go through, head on over to Dr. Brad Miller calm for over 160 episodes of the podcast
Dr. Brad Miller:which will speak into your life and help you to have a life at peace, prosperity and purpose, we have a free gift for you there.
Dr. Brad Miller:Let me ask you something. Have you ever wanted to let your creative flag fly, and let whatever song is in your heart, whatever a book is in you, whatever artistic expression is in your life and let it come out.
Dr. Brad Miller:But you feel a bit suppressed by that or you just don't feel like you have the skills or the ability to do anything about it.
Dr. Brad Miller:We're gonna speak to that here today with our special guest, Jeff Lysa wits. He is an accomplished artist, a musician in many areas of life.
Dr. Brad Miller:And he has written plays, and he's a playwright, screenwriter, and songwriter. He has been awarded many awards in
Dr. Brad Miller:his life in this area. And he's also a filmmaker and an in demand coach for creating folks.
Dr. Brad Miller:That's what we're going to talk about here. Today, he has a personal passion to help empower people like you to tap deeply into your creative hearts,
Dr. Brad Miller:to live a richer, more fulfilling life. We're gonna learn a few things for the day, we're going to learn about the creative process,
Dr. Brad Miller:we're going to learn about what it means to be a writer, or an artist or a musician, and how it's important to fail with the fail fast.
Dr. Brad Miller:And to accomplish more that way. And how to push through difficult challenges and some of the step by step processes that you can do to accomplish great things.
Dr. Brad Miller:As an artist, you're going to learn those things. We're also going to talk about what it feels like for him.
Dr. Brad Miller:And he says he tells a story being a bit of a kind of what is he is as a self described weird kid who was kind of lonely,
Dr. Brad Miller:and how music and a musician helped draw him out and get him connected to the helped him to express himself in life
Dr. Brad Miller:and to become an accomplished musician in his own life in his own right. And how his own process now is going to help you
Dr. Brad Miller:to be inspired to do great things in the arts. When you come back on the other end of the interview, we're going to
Dr. Brad Miller:talk about what you absolutely can do the action points that you can take to accomplish this in your life.
Dr. Brad Miller:Our guests, they are beyond that diversity is Jeff linewidths. He blogs at Jeff Elijah woods.com.
Dr. Brad Miller:That's jeffleisawitz.com You can find him there.
Dr. Brad Miller:But right now you're going to find it right
Dr. Brad Miller:here with me and with you here on beyond adversity. Let's get into that conversation right now. Jeff, Welcome to Beyond Diversity
Jeff Leisawitz:Hello, and thank you and thanks for having me.
Dr. Brad Miller:It's awesome to have you here you've got quite a story
Dr. Brad Miller:to tell about what you've been involved with in your life,
Dr. Brad Miller:especially in the arts and how you're been
Dr. Brad Miller:an artist of various forms yourself, music and drama and so on. And you're helpful to other people.
Dr. Brad Miller:What we're about here is how we can use various, various processes to help people to navigate when bad things happen when they get stuck.
Dr. Brad Miller:I'd like to hear a little bit of your story perhaps about a time
Dr. Brad Miller:and maybe you were a little stuck or a little in
Dr. Brad Miller:a place where perhaps what you teach now, music and get into the arts is was helpful to you tell us a little bit about Jeff.
Jeff Leisawitz:Sure. This one goes back quite a long way for me. I was you might call what I might call myself a weird, friendless kid, you know, little
Jeff Leisawitz:kid growing up sort of in my own world making up, you know, sort of magical situations and stuff like this.
Jeff Leisawitz:When I was maybe seven or eight years old, I went to a summer camp in Pennsylvania where I grew up, and also had a tough time making friends.
Jeff Leisawitz:This was a sleepaway camp. Every night after dinner, there was what they would call free play, where the kids would just sort of run amok.
Jeff Leisawitz:And this particular summer, which was in the sort of late 70s, there was an empty cabin. And one of the counselors,
Jeff Leisawitz:you know, 20 year old or something like that, brought up a drum kit, and a 70, stereo, and a couple of boxes of records like milk crates of records.
Jeff Leisawitz:And as you know, in the 70s, that's when the really good music was happening, Led Zeppelin, and Bowie and Billy Joel, and all that great stuff.
Dr. Brad Miller:My wife says, I'm stuck in the 70s. But 1978 is kind of where I'm stuck. Sometimes.
Jeff Leisawitz:It's a good year to be stuck musically, I'll take it. There you go, man. So every night this guy would go to this empty cabin, and put on these records and play the drums.
Jeff Leisawitz:And I was a little kid and I didn't have any friends. So I would just sort of sit under this tree near this cabin.
Jeff Leisawitz:And you know, the sun was going down and the fireflies were coming up, and I'd listened to this guy play and I was just sort of mesmerized,
Jeff Leisawitz:like what was going on in there. You know, a little kid, what do I know about a drum kit, and rock music.
Jeff Leisawitz:And then one day, this guy comes out. And he sees me sitting there. And he's like, Hey, kid come ear.
Jeff Leisawitz:Like, well, he's like, Do you want to come in and check this out? Yeah. So I go into this little cabin.
Jeff Leisawitz:And all it is is a drum kit and a stereo and the two of us, and he puts on the who song won't get fooled again, which you may know from your, you know, classic rock archives.
Dr. Brad Miller:I actually went about three or three years ago. Yeah.
Jeff Leisawitz:Good, man. So he, he plays the drums to the song. And as you know, that ones are serious rocker, right? Absolutely. Bananas.
Jeff Leisawitz:And my heart, my whole experience, you know, consciousness has kind of just like, exploded. In that moment. I'm like, this is a big deal.
Jeff Leisawitz:So I go home, you know, at the end of the summer, I'm like, Mom, you know, I want to rock. So I didn't end up starting with drums.
Jeff Leisawitz:But I got a guitar and started playing guitar, and through music and through the community, that music opened up, I guess you would say, for me,
Jeff Leisawitz:I found lots of friends and lots of community, you know, other guitar players or other drummers, you know, we started these little bands in high school and played the cover songs.
Jeff Leisawitz:By now it was the 80s. And I was doing, you know, the new wave songs, and stuff like that.
Jeff Leisawitz:But it simply being into a thing being into creativity, or in this case, you know, music specifically, it opened up these doors of commonality,
Jeff Leisawitz:and really helped me sort of find my tribe, people who love the same things as passionately as I did.
Jeff Leisawitz:You know, whether it was just listening to records, which was a huge part, and then even more, s
Jeff Leisawitz:o let's let's sit here and, you know, write a song, or let's, you know, practice the songs that we love on the radio, or
Jeff Leisawitz:MTV, and then playing at the high school party. So that really kind of opened up my experience.
Jeff Leisawitz:And really, and really, since then, in my life has been a huge part. Almost all my friends are creative partners, or fans or something like that, in one way or another.
Dr. Brad Miller:In that cool out here that really that pivotal, transitional moment where someone had invite you in and introduced is something totally different.
Dr. Brad Miller:And got you involved with the arts and that changed everything.
Dr. Brad Miller:Did you ever think about or did you ever think why would track in your life if you hadn't had that moment? Wherever you go?
Jeff Leisawitz:That's a very Yeah, it's a very good question,
Jeff Leisawitz:because so much of my life has been around or threw up and with music that can go into my whole bio, but we don't have time for that.
Jeff Leisawitz:Yeah, I mean, who knows? I mean, I would sort of think that if it didn't happen in that moment, in another moment,
Jeff Leisawitz:I would have connected in a different kind of way. Sure. You know, I I had a babysitter as a little kid, and she would come over and she would
Jeff Leisawitz:play the classic rock radio. And I remember her saying, this is good for you, you know, listen to it. And I was like, yeah, you know, I get it.
Jeff Leisawitz:It was Rolling Stones. I'm like, Oh my god, what is this? Wow,
Dr. Brad Miller:that is awesome, man. That is awesome. So it sounds like then you not only had that moment where that changed for you,
Dr. Brad Miller:but then you did something about it. You know, a lot of people like music. You know, I like music most everybody likes music.
Dr. Brad Miller:But you did something about it. You took some actions to become a musician. And you get really involved with this process.
Dr. Brad Miller:So what were some of the actions that you took them to help you to then grow in this area? And to you know, have some sense of affirmation and success?
Jeff Leisawitz:Sure. Well, I mean, it was certainly certainly a ton of different steps. But it kind of started out as a teenager, I was, you know,
Jeff Leisawitz:wanting to play guitar. And you know, my mom was like, you need a hobby. You need a hobby. You're, you know, you're laying around watching
Jeff Leisawitz:TV all day and turn it into a delinquent type. I'm like, Okay, well, what do you want to do play guitar? And she's like, okay, so they got me this, this.
Jeff Leisawitz:They're actually there was an acoustic guitar laying around the house. And she got me this teacher, and it was terrible. It was just no good.
Jeff Leisawitz:And we actually went through probably several teachers in my, you know, tweens. I guess we'll even call it that then.
Jeff Leisawitz:And, by the time it was 14, or 15, I was like, Look, I really want to play this guitar, but I have to pick my own teacher. And I have to have an electric guitar. Okay. And, you know, they're like, Okay, fine.
Jeff Leisawitz:So they got me, you know, a piece of crap electric guitar, and I found this long haired rocker guy, teacher. And,
Jeff Leisawitz:and I said to this guy, look, I don't want to learn how to read music off the page. I don't want music theory, I just want to rock.
Jeff Leisawitz:Yeah, and this guy's like, Okay. And that's when it really turned on. Because he taught me in a way that's very different than most people learn music.
Jeff Leisawitz:And that, you know, that's, that's why I went to the, you know, went to the next level, and then just started playing in bands, and
Jeff Leisawitz:I got a four track tape recorder. Back in the 80s. Get back in the 80s in high school, which allowed allowed you to record you know,
Jeff Leisawitz:multitrack and make songs and stuff. Yeah, now it's computers and mighty right.
Dr. Brad Miller:So guitars, your main thing, then back then at least,
Jeff Leisawitz:back then it was Yeah. Then Then it got into bass, then synthesizers, now mo DL, I've written and recorded hundreds of songs.
Jeff Leisawitz:I teach songwriting in college, I've got 1000s of placements on film, and TV won an international award all kinds of stuff.
Dr. Brad Miller:So your action you took to get involved with music has made a huge difference with you, right?
Jeff Leisawitz:We want to say to your listeners, it has been a struggle there. It also has been a joy. But it has also been a struggle the whole time. Right?
Jeff Leisawitz:Once I got into it, my parents were like, yeah, this is a hobby. And I'm like, is this a new hobby? This is my heartbeat, right?
Jeff Leisawitz:And that did not go over? Well, because they were, you know, they don't want their kids to try to be a rock star.
Jeff Leisawitz:It's impossible, you know, and it was, so that was difficult. And then you know, I get into the biz, and yeah,
Jeff Leisawitz:I've had a lot of success. I've had, you know, 100 times more failures than successes, that's for sure. And that's
Dr. Brad Miller:part of the process. That's part of the process here with getting beyond adversity means you have to not only take action,
Dr. Brad Miller:but when something bad happens, you have to push through it, or find a strategy or methodology. And that's what
Dr. Brad Miller:some stuff we like to talk about here. Here, Jeff. And one of things I think, is important that I have never, you know,
Dr. Brad Miller:I've been blessed in my life to better I'm not a musician, myself, but I'm kind of the DJ, that's kind of my perspective,
Dr. Brad Miller:I was the record guy, you know, I played the, you know, the music, top 40 music back in the day, and all kinds of stuff.
Dr. Brad Miller:And I become from that perspective, but I've been around a lot of musicians, and almost every musician
Dr. Brad Miller:I've ever been around talks about what you just said a second ago, Jeff, it's my heartbeat. It is who you know who I am,
Dr. Brad Miller:resonates with me in it. And for many people, it's kind of I know, it's a deep, deep, deep, emotional, spiritual type of a thing.
Dr. Brad Miller:And I'd like for you to talk for a minute about about the importance of somehow making some sort of a spiritual or mindful connection,
Dr. Brad Miller:either through music or something else that can be transformational, that you connect with something greater than yourself.
Dr. Brad Miller:Is that part of your experience, first of all, and if so, just unpack that for me a little bit, please.
Jeff Leisawitz:I would agree 100% that at its best, that is what creativity is. It's it is a connection within yourself and to a higher consciousness or whatever you want to call that it doesn't happen all the time at that level.
Jeff Leisawitz:In fact, it, you know, rarely happens at the high like super flow state. But it does happen at different levels, you know,
Jeff Leisawitz:for different people with different times when you're writing a song and that melody or that lyric just comes to you,
Jeff Leisawitz:that is not something that you can, you know, you can learn, you can learn about writing lyrics can learn about chords,
Jeff Leisawitz:and playing and stuff. But the truth is, the big stuff always comes from a place outside of ourselves and kind of through us.
Jeff Leisawitz:And it is very interesting, I'm sure you've seen this, you can listen to 1000 interviews or read 1000 interviews with rock stars, and artists
Jeff Leisawitz:of all kinds painters and writers. And they'll all tell you exactly that, you know, a version of the same thing, which is, at its best,
Jeff Leisawitz:I kind of get out of the way, and let the music come through me. It's just it happens to be my fingers, or my voice or something like that.
Jeff Leisawitz:So yes, tapping into that is huge. You know, one of the things I believe is that at its best, creativity is a way for us to be seen, expressed, healed, and connected.
Jeff Leisawitz:So what do I really mean by that, to be seen out there in the world, we're really often not particularly seen when you're driving down the freeway on the internet,
Jeff Leisawitz:something like that, you know, you're not seeing law, then you have your closer people that it might be your acquaintances,
Jeff Leisawitz:maybe your people at work, you know, people that you kind of know, they kind of know you, but not really, then you've got your inner circle.
Jeff Leisawitz:And that's, you know, your good friends, kids, your wife, husband, you know, that kind of thing. Hopefully they know you and get
Jeff Leisawitz:you but often not that not not totally, that way.
Jeff Leisawitz:So that's that be expressed part is in my definition is simply moving from the potential to the actual, so think of a dancer who
Jeff Leisawitz:knows all the dance moves, but on Saturday night, she's sitting in the corner, well, the disco balls going and the beats thumping.
Jeff Leisawitz:In that moment, she's not expressed as a dancer, but when she gets on the dance floor, she is expressed just like a poet,
Jeff Leisawitz:with a pile of poems on on her desk. You know, she's expressed as a poet when she's writing poems. So you get to see and
Jeff Leisawitz:expressed what's healed? Well, when we create from an authentic and vulnerable place, there is some kind of catharsis,
Jeff Leisawitz:some kind of healing. And I think any artist who has been there or can get there or is willing to go there, understands this,
Jeff Leisawitz:through their art, we are healed in some kind of way. And maybe this is some kind of traumatic experience that we're healed from.
Jeff Leisawitz:But it doesn't have to be this big, dark thing, either. It can also be like, you know, what's the healing in a love song, the healing in a love song.
Jeff Leisawitz:It's like, Wow, thank goodness, all of the loneliness and isolation is over. And I assure you lusher. So, when we are seeing expressed
Jeff Leisawitz:and healed through our creativity, we give that gift of our creativity to the world. And by the world, I don't necessarily mean
Jeff Leisawitz:Madison Square Garden, in the top of the New York Times Book list, or whatever it can be to people shouldn't be just your small group, whatever.
Jeff Leisawitz:When you give your gift of creativity to the world,
Jeff Leisawitz:this is where it gets really cool. When you give your gift of creativity to the world, you become the gift, because you show others
Jeff Leisawitz:that they can be seen, expressed and healed. And that is what connects us all. And if there's something in the world that is severely missing,
Jeff Leisawitz:and screwed up at this point, it is the connection, deep connection between people, the empathy, and the understanding.
Jeff Leisawitz:And that's why arts are so powerful, whether it's your favorite song, or your favorite movie, the reason why it's your favorite is because it speaks to you in some important way.
Dr. Brad Miller:That nothing else really can add that connection you're speaking about their job is transformative, it makes you changes yourself
Dr. Brad Miller:and then when it's done well, it changes others, even if it's just, you know, humming a lullaby to my daughter or my granddaughter
Dr. Brad Miller:I have two granddaughters now and or just you know, the two of us or you know, speaking or singing for a stadium full of
Dr. Brad Miller:people that's transformative to other people. But I mentioned it now Jeff is a little bit of the How to limit of the disciplines the you
Dr. Brad Miller:know transformation what you're describing is exciting as he theory all it is, you know, we had a high right it's a it's a high when you
Dr. Brad Miller:have these moments, but you also mentioned how there's, you know, challenges and adversities to go through and that's just
Dr. Brad Miller:applying that process that's habits that's practice. You know, you don't get good at that guitar unless you practice. So tell us a little bit
Dr. Brad Miller:about your process. To help this to happen. You know, either you're a songwriter, I know when other things, what are some of the practices
Dr. Brad Miller:or disciplines or processes that you use to help yourself, and then maybe help others to gain some of this connection that you speak of the scene expressing connected.
Jeff Leisawitz:So the first part is always to understand the why, or the intention. It's, and by the way, this is not just for creativity, to understand
Jeff Leisawitz:why you are doing something will when you deeply and truly understand that will open up an energy flow within you. So that you
Jeff Leisawitz:are more aligned with what your truth is. And if you're not aligned with what your truth is, then you can align it, right. If you don't
Jeff Leisawitz:know why you're doing something, you know, you're probably on the wrong path, I would say. So, the first thing we want to do
Jeff Leisawitz:as a creative is understand why are we doing this? Right?
Jeff Leisawitz:Once you understand that for yourself deeply, then yes, it turns into this, you know, this process. So discipline, right, I'm going to work on music,
Jeff Leisawitz:you know, an hour a day, every day or all day Saturday, or
Jeff Leisawitz:whatever your deal is, it's a great idea to have a chart,
Jeff Leisawitz:like just, you know, write out what you want to do, and literally chart it, which sounds a little bit redundant, like
Dr. Brad Miller:a like a board or journal or something on paper or something like,
Jeff Leisawitz:Okay, I got something on paper where actually
Jeff Leisawitz:I've got mine right about here, you can kind of see those
Jeff Leisawitz:are the things that are happening and what are not happening in my world. By keeping this visible, and keeping it sort of in your face, it gives
Jeff Leisawitz:you automatic feedback. And humans are not that difficult to hack. When we get automatic and quick feedback, we respond to it, right?
Jeff Leisawitz:That's why like, when you're a little kid, and the teacher takes, you know, three weeks to grade your spelling test, you don't even care by the end of it,
Jeff Leisawitz:but the next day you care, right? So that's why we want to have this feedback. So you know, you can set that up, set up your priorities, look at
Jeff Leisawitz:your goals, it's always a good idea to look at, you know, start with the end in mind, which is something line from Stephen Covey, a guy who
Jeff Leisawitz:wrote, you know, habits of highly effective people
Jeff Leisawitz:just basically know where you're going and why you're
Jeff Leisawitz:going there. And really, if you can step into that, and commit to it,
Jeff Leisawitz:you will see progress, it's, you know, you're not going to finish your album in the first or your novel or something in the first five seconds.
Jeff Leisawitz:But if you do it every day, it will work, you know, eventually
Dr. Brad Miller:progress on it. And, and then there are changes
Dr. Brad Miller:then personally, and two others are incremental, but
Dr. Brad Miller:they are sustained then, but you got to have the little bond and the habits to do that, as you kind of ingrain those.
Dr. Brad Miller:And I love your tool there you talk about, you know, some some artistic types. And sometimes myself included when I do my writing,
it's kind of waiting for inspiration to strike. And
sometimes that spiration strikes when you have discipline yourself that for, you know, 30 minutes today I'm going to write in my journal or
I'm going to practice the guitar, whatever it is, even if you're not feeling it, so to speak. Sometimes it comes and does Is that a fair?
Is that a fair thing to say, Jeff, from your experience?
Jeff Leisawitz:Yes, waiting for inspiration to strike always sounds
very romantic, and all of this, but it's really not what a professional does write a professional you know, or someone who's got a
serious goal does the work and when the inspiration will happen while you're doing it. It's like you know, you want to take a cool picture
Okay, what should I take a picture of, well, why don't you walk around the city and see what's there. You know,
Dr. Brad Miller:if I could I was not going to walk into
your house and pitch in the face with a view like,
let's let's talk for a minute, you've already mentioned it
about how the art then impacts other people. I'd like you
to talk for a minute about kind of the emotional part
of it in terms of other people and how what's your art
Dr. Brad Miller:can not only serve yourself but can serve others or maybe the relationships that you have can be helpful in this whole process working with
a band for instance, or other things that you can have, tell
us about the importance of serving other people or
being served or the emotional element of relationships as it comes to, to the arts and you know, personal transformation of other people,
as you say, to be seen expressed and connected,
Jeff Leisawitz:right. So as an audience member I'll take it back
to a story or a thought my my screenwriting mentor,
I'm also a screenwriter. And I was fortunate to be mentored by the the top teacher at UCLA, one of the top guys really in the world.
And he's got this theory that, you know, stories kind of help us x experienced the world from a safe place. So if you go back, you know,
zillion years, you've got, you know, the caveman. And what do they do on this on the wall, they draw a picture of a bunch of guys with
spears, and here's a big beast over here, and they saw somehow communicate like, okay, we're gonna, you know, surround this thing
and we're all gonna get on, it's very safe to talk about that in the cave, there's no beast that's gonna, you know, eat your head off if you do
it wrong. So that's the beginning of storytelling. Now you can, you know, into the modern world, and let's just say, you know, a romantic
comedy movie. Okay, romantic comedy. The basic premise of these things is generally, you know, the woman has the choice between the
guy who really loves her, and he's kind of nerdy or something like that. And you know, the rich guy is a jerk. And of course, she goes back
and forth Shan's up, sheep's, you know, goes down the path, but the jerk guy, and comes around and finds true love, you know, at the
end. So we can learn as an audience member that, hey, you know what, maybe we should go for the substance in relationships, and
love and really, and all things. So we can we can transmit these kinds of ideas and connect to our, you know, our audiences, through our
Dr. Brad Miller:art. And so and then when that happens,
it's kind of magical, isn't it? When I really when those things happen, it's really,
Jeff Leisawitz:it absolutely is because, you know, as an
audience member, when you think about your favorite book, or your favorite movie, or story, or, you know, stand up comedian or
whatever, it communicates some, something
that makes us feel a little bit more like we're not so alone in the world. Right? Because although every human has a very different
experience in their life, you know, there's billions of people, none of them have the exact same path, the you know, it's everyone's different.
But the themes of our lives are very similar.
Everyone wants respect, everyone wants to have love.
Everyone wants to make a difference in the world. Everyone has challenges and traumas and things like this, right? They're all different,
but they're all kind of similar in a way too. So great art sort of has this intersection between what's general meaning you know, this story about
you like the, you know, the romantic comedy,
the story where it's, you know, this love story. And the specifics of how does this specifically relate to me like a great lyric from journey.
Don't stop believe in just a small town girl living in a lonely world, she took a midnight train going anywhere. So this speaks specifically
to a woman in a small town who needs to escape, right? So guess how many small town women need to escape a lot, right? And then
the next line, city boy in South Detroit also needs to escape on that midnight train. Well, now, now we're talking about people who live in
cities. Well, that's basically everybody else. And then the man that's basically everybody else there too. So in two lines, this guy Steve Perry,
has spoken to everyone who needs to get out by being both general and specific. Amazing.
Dr. Brad Miller:And of course and then you back that with the
power of a Steve Perry's voice and the band and everything comes together to give it residents to give it power, give it any energy and
and I take it that's what you want to do. You know, Jeff, is you want to help people do this, don't you? You want to help this to happen.
In fact, you say you want to inspire and teach writers, artists, songwriters, musicians, filmmakers, arts organizations, and anybody with
a heartbeat to amp up their vision, tapping their potential and shine in the world is you But you say your website. So how are you doing that?
I know you have a coaching program. And then I would love to hear an example of a person or a situation that has, you know, had
some transformation under your leadership and come out to accomplish something cool.
Jeff Leisawitz:Yes. When we create it If we can tap into our truth
and the vulnerability of our experience, and then have the skills to create some kind of art from that, whether it's writing a book or a story,
or a song or painting or whatever the thing is, that's the magic sauce. And by the way, it does not do not have to be particularly well skilled
on the craft. Okay? People think, Oh, I got to be a perfect guitar player, before I write a great song. Not true. You think of the Sex Pistols,
the punk band, right. And these guys could barely play, but they were so angry. And they put that anger into those songs.
And then they changed the world, everybody, you know, got that they're like, you don't need a great song, you need a melody and the
vibe, the feeling the emotion. So that is, you know, one of the many things that I coach people do is try to tap in to
what is really true for them, even if it hurts, even if it's joyful, whatever it is, and then like, funnel that through their skills as a writer, songwriter, singer, and create the best cake.
Dr. Brad Miller:Can you give us an example of a situation or person that you've seen kind of this transformation happened where all sudden,
they had this aha moment where they got it, and you were able to be a part of it in some form or another and something really amazing happen?
Jeff Leisawitz:Yeah. A couple years ago, I coached a woman
who had a stillbirth. very tragic. It like really master Andrea. And she, you know, a year or two later, she's like, I want to write about this.
And we went through this experience, and, you know, helping her tap into this helping her write about this. And I believe that through
this experience, she eventually let go of all of that heaviness, you know, that was holding her down and, you know, stopping
her from moving forward in her life. And yeah, I mean, it was awesome. It was pretty intense. You see life
Dr. Brad Miller:transformation happen, and you have any part to play in, at least from my perspective? Boy, there's nothing better. Nothing better
than Yeah. But tell us if people want to get a, you know, understand a piece of what you are about, Jeff, I know you got a coaching program,
you're accomplished artists in your own right, and how can people what would they find on your website, for instance, are what are they
going to find? What kind of process what kind of coaching? What's going to be involved with that? And where can they find you?
Jeff Leisawitz:Sure, well, you can find me on the website, jeffleisawitz.com, if you can get even close to spelling it, right, you'll get there. Hopefully, Brad,
you can put a link there somewhere in your show notes. And yeah, I'm happy to do you know, introductory coaching sessions with people
to see how I can help them and really, every client is there different in ways in similar ways. So you know, what we would do first is really just assess where you are, what might be stopping you, et cetera, et cetera.
And I sort of work on two levels. The one level is you know, sort of some of the stuff we talked about understanding your priorities,
what's your why, you know, getting some good habits together, you know, things like that. And then I also work on a level which I
call this sort of inner world, which is the psychological or subconscious aspects of ourselves which may be holding us back, right
we all have beliefs and identities that are subconscious we're not really thinking about them, but they affect everything in our lives.
So if you believe that you know, you're smart and good looking and capable, that's great. And you run everything in your life kind
of through that but if you have some kind of subconscious belief that's based on you know, the world's out to get me or I quit when
things get hard, eventually those things are gonna you know, get you so we go in and we do some guided meditations and some
various other techniques and things and sort of work both of these so that we can rock forward into pure
Dr. Brad Miller:rock forward into pure awesome that sounds
like a T shirt right there. rock forward Yeah, sure. Awesome. I love it well, it's been a pleasure to have you with us today on beyond
adversity you does you get Jeff you've given us some real cool processes of itself I'm really just, I'm just kind of an I'm an I'm another
by classic rock is really what I'm what I'm about and love that kind of stuff. But also just see how people can transform and music and
the arts. Certainly It touches people on a heart level as you as you have said, and appreciate what you do and we look forward
to hearing more from you. And we'll put connections to your website and everything else in our on our website at Dr. Brad miller.com.
so that people can come to you, Jeff, Liza Woodson's, how they can then be seen, expressed and connected to the world. Okay,
thanks so much to Jeff loayza width for being with us today on beyond adversity. I promise you, we're going to learn not only learn
from Jeff, we're going to feel his story, but we're
going to do something about it. We learned about how important it is to be a creative person and get it expressed. We also heard his
emotional story about the transformation that happened with him in some of his clients. Now, here's what you can do. You can be connected to
Jeff's process, to add to find creativity as a way to be seen, expressed and connected. And what Jeff is all about is helping you to do to take your potential and to actualize it. So you head on over to his website, Jeff linewidths.com, that's jefflesawitz.com. And he has a coaching program there. And he has a process
where he is able to utilize various guided meditations,
personalized exercises repattern of your mindset and other techniques to help you overcome creative blocks, which include the fear of
failure, the inner critic, the imposter syndrome, and other processes. It's a practical application to help you to get your creative dreams
off the ground. You've learned the process, you feel the emotion. Now you can do it. Here at beyond adversity. That's what we're all about
helping you find a process to help you to get
fruit through adverse impact adverse events in your life. We call it the process of helping you to grow through what you go through.
So I just invite you to head over to Dr. Brad miller.com, where we've got lots of great episodes for you there of the podcast and the teaching
that I do are going to be helpful to you in your life. We come to you every week. So we invite you to connect with us and to be a part of the
beyond adversity community. My name is Dr. Brad Miller, it is my pleasure and privileged to be with you. And do be helpful in your
process to achieve your life of peace, prosperity, and purpose. So next time until next time, friends until we join together next week. I just
encourage you to continue to do all the good that you can.
Thank you for listening to the beyond adversity
podcast with Dr. Brad Miller. You can find a
complete archive of all episodes at Dr. Brad miller.com.
That's DrBradmiller.com or
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