Byte: Miriam Schulman ~ How Life Can Change On A Dime!

Miriam talks about the revelation she had when she witnessed the Twin Towers fall. One of those buildings was the one she worked in, but she wasn't there that day. What happened then changed everything for her, and made her realize that she had to live out her dreams!

Transcript

Greetings,

Everyone,

And welcome back to the pod.

No matter where you are in the United States or the world,

I hope you're staying cool.

Unless,

Of course,

You're in the Southern Hemisphere,

And I suspect it's already cool enough for you down there.

But here in the States,

Especially in New Mexico,

It has been hot.

So that's why I bring up the temperature and summer.

And while there are a lot of things that I love about summer,

There are some that I could maybe do less of,

Like maybe 75 degrees,

80 degrees.

I figure some of you know what I'm talking about.

Well,

This time on the podcast,

I'm introducing you to Miriam Shulman.

And I have to say that this conversation with her was a needed reminder about what we value in our lives,

Or maybe what we should value in our lives.

What we must value,

Because we feel like we can't live without it.

And that's living an authentic life full of integrity,

And one that brings beauty to the world.

You'll hear more about what I'm talking about later on in the latter half of the podcast.

But right now,

I want to introduce you to Miriam.

And Miriam is kind of one of those people who does it all.

She's an artist.

She's an author.

She's a founder of the popular podcast called Inspiration Place Podcast,

Which is listened to by thousands of artists around the world.

But it was really her story about how she got into living her artistic life,

Living a life of integrity that really captured me.

And we talk about that.

That was one of her miracles later on in the episode.

But basically,

She left a very lucrative hedge fund job to focus full-time on her art.

And I don't know many people who would do that,

Walk away from that kind of money to.

.

.

It's almost like jumping off a cliff,

And you don't know where you're going to land.

But Miriam did it.

And so truly,

She's an inspiration for all of us who are looking for a better and more fulfilling way to live,

Just in general,

In this life.

Miriam's story and her art have been featured in Forbes,

The New York Times,

What Women Create,

Art of Man,

Professional Artist Magazine,

And Art Journaling Magazine.

And her art has also been featured on NBC's Parenthood and the Amazon series Hunters with Al Pacino.

I mean,

Basically,

If you're out in the world looking at anything creative or anything beautiful,

You know that Miriam's been there already.

And that's what I love about her.

She's funny.

We laugh a lot.

And she's honest.

And each of those attributes,

I give five stars for.

So here's my interview with the incredible Miriam Shulman.

What happened was I was on an extended maternity leave when 9-11 happened,

And I watched my building go down in flames.

And I took that as a sign from the universe not to go back.

But also,

The other story,

Which I talk about in the book,

Is I was at the World Trade Center in 1993 when it was bombed.

And everybody was still working at their desks.

Okay,

So,

You know,

There's so many things I can choose,

Like,

You know,

Is it the 9-11 story?

Is it this story?

But there's one story I haven't shared publicly that I just feel called to share.

And this happened when I was in the fourth grade.

So this is long after my own father died.

I was thinking about my father's father,

Who I wasn't close to.

And I started to get very sad.

I was like,

Wow,

If you know,

If he what if he just died,

You know,

And I didn't have this relationship with him.

And the next day,

We got a phone call that he had had a heart attack and he had died in this freak accident,

Like he died at the wheel of his car.

And it was very impactful,

Probably in a negative way,

Not just because he died,

Because it wasn't that it was,

I was very frightened by the fact that I had this premonition.

And so that was something that the negative part is that I for many years,

I shut that down.

And now that I'm older,

I,

I'm opening that channel up more to and allow those types of things to come in,

Because for a long time,

I it was like,

As a little kid,

You kind of think you caused it in a backwards way,

You know,

That's because I thought it was going to happen and happen.

I'm so I had shut it down,

Because it was scary to have access to those thoughts.

And now I allow.

That's amazing.

I think,

You know,

When things like that happen,

When we're kids,

We just don't have the language or the capacity to even comprehend,

I had a guest once that came on,

That had an experience a little bit similar to that.

And,

You know,

For many decades,

She carried kind of the guilt or the idea that she'd caused it,

Because she'd thought about it before she caused it.

And she had to reconcile that or had been recently reconciled when we had our conversation.

I'm curious.

Now,

I am always intrigued being an artist myself and also growing up in a house where artist wasn't a legitimate kind of vocation.

You know,

I run I won some writing competitions when I was a kid.

And my fifth grade teacher,

Quote unquote,

Hired me to do some art for the classroom and everything.

But I'm always intrigued by,

You know,

I never followed up artist.

I didn't follow that up until I went to seminary and I did this 700 questionnaire thing.

And the guy came back and said,

OK,

So you're first you're an artist.

And I was like,

What?

And that was when I was 45.

And I just thought I,

You know,

I have a lot of ideas,

But I never act on them.

But that result of being told who I was kind of opened the floodgates and gave me permission to be who I am.

It really changed everything.

But I'm intrigued because I love these stories.

I love that you inhabit your artist's kind of view of the world or kind of working with the muses,

Shall we say,

To bring gorgeousness into the world.

How did you switch from Wall Street to being an artist?

I have to know because I just can't even that is just so it's like I don't know.

I don't know what what to call it.

It's just first of all,

I'm excited for you and I'm so happy for you that you did that because it feels like such an authentic expression and stepping into who you are with so much conviction.

And that is exciting.

Whenever anybody can do that,

That's exciting.

But,

You know,

Based on my own kind of struggle,

Denying myself for so long,

I kind of want to know,

How did you decide to take this path?

OK,

So so many things about what you said.

So first of all,

In my book,

Art Preneur,

I do tell the story about being in the fourth grade,

But I also give the reader permission to choose to believe.

So to write your own permission slip,

To choose to believe who you are and tell that new story.

And then in the next chapter,

I talk about the golden handcuffs,

Which is like the Wall Street.

I went to Wall Street because I was told I couldn't make money as an artist.

And where are they going to make money?

Well,

I guess Wall Street.

OK,

That's where they make money.

And what happened was I was on an extended maternity leave when 9-11 happened.

And I watched my building go down in flames.

And I took that as a sign from the universe not to go back.

But also the other story,

Which I talk about in the book,

Is I was at the World Trade Center in 1993 when the when it was bombed and everybody was still working at their desks,

Literally with looking out your window because,

You know,

It was a wall.

These buildings are built with a wall of windows.

We could see the World Trade Center in this is 1993,

Not 9-11,

Where they had broken the windows.

Smoke was coming out of the towers.

There were helicopters circling the building.

Why are they still working when right there they can see there's a terrorist attack happening?

So when 9-11 happened,

There was this delay between when the first tower was hit.

And the second tower was hit and they hadn't evacuated the nearby buildings,

Right,

They could have evacuated that second tower and they did not.

So I wasn't working at the World Trade Center in 9-11,

But I knew that if I had been.

That I was in that culture and I understood the culture that you work no matter what.

And I did not want to be a part of that anymore.

So that's when I made the decision.

I would not go back to Wall Street.

I would not go back to that world.

That was a sign from the universe I was not going to ignore.

I did not know how I was going to do it.

I didn't know what I was going to do.

I didn't even believe I was going to make a living as an artist at that time,

But I knew I wasn't going to go back to Wall Street.

So that was the first decision and I didn't know what to do.

So at first I was just painting on the side and I took a job as applied instructor.

And when I was being taught how to sell personal training packages,

I was like,

Oh,

Wait a minute,

I can use these same strategies to sell my art.

So that's when I made the commitment to be an artist.

All right,

My loves,

That's a wrap on another episode of the podcast and my conversation with Miriam Shulman,

Who,

By the way,

Is a rock star and a gem and an all around fabulous gal.

I really enjoyed my conversation with her.

And what I love the most was laughing with her and and,

Of course,

Talking books.

But,

You know,

Laughter in books.

You got me.

I'll be happy for days.

And so I really need to thank Miriam for agreeing to be on the show.

She is a big cheese in this world and she's creating so much beauty.

I just love that she's here and she's alive when I am so I can just look at her and be inspired.

I need to thank everyone who listens.

And,

Of course,

I would so appreciate it if you would consider leaving a rating or writing a review wherever you find the podcast.

You have no idea how much those ratings and reviews help us and help other people find the podcast.

Thank you for listening.

And here's my one request.

Be like Miriam.

I mean,

Take the leap.

I have a feeling that some of you knew what I was going to say.

Of course,

Take the leap.

I mean,

Miriam had no idea what was going to happen when she decided to step away from this job that made her oodles of money.

But she had faith and she had tenacity and she had the universe's blessing.

But I'm pretty sure she worked very,

Very hard to get herself out there,

To get her art scene,

To make people notice that she was in the room.

So be brave,

My lovelies.

Jump off the cliff and then be brave after that and go into rooms or spaces that might terrify you.

Be brave and put yourself out there.

Put what you want to create out there,

Because I know that you can do it.

I know you can do it.

I have faith in you and I believe in you.

And I just know that there are so many people out here waiting for the kind of beauty that you are absolutely going to bring.

The world needs it.

Reviews

Thank you very much. A perfect uplifting start to any day. Lovely to hear and ponder upon.