Why is intensity often cast with a negative connotation? Today’s show highlights an intense and “extra” person who is finding success in the world of filmmaking, embracing intensity, and happy to take the risk to be a shining creative!

Marc Smolowitz is a multi-award-winning director, producer, and executive producer who has been significantly involved in over 50 successful independent films. He wears many hats across the film and entertainment industry, and the combined footprint of his work has touched 200 film festivals and markets on five continents, yielding substantial worldwide sales to theatrical, television, and VOD outlets. He’s experienced notable box office receipts, numerous awards, and nominations, and his long list of credits includes films that have screened at top-tier festivals. As a director/producer, his 2011 film, The Power of Two, premiered at the Tokyo International Film Festival and went on to screen at 35 festivals around the globe, winning major prizes, garnering theatrical release in the USA and Japan, and selling on Hulu in the USA and Netflix in Japan. Marc is currently in production on two feature documentaries. The G Word is a film about giftedness, intelligence, and neurodiversity, and is slated for 2020 completion. The Lonely Child is a film about the unexpected present-day footprint of a little-known Yiddish lullaby written during the Holocaust. This film has been developed with the Jewish Film Institute’s Competitive Filmmaker in Residence program in San Francisco.

Show Highlights:

• Marc’s passion: to work in the film process from the kernel of the idea to the production and marketing pieces
• Why Marc is passionate about art, activism, social change, LGBTQ issues, public health and community issues, diversity, and inclusionism
• Marc’s intensity as a kid and ever since---not the kind that alienates others, but he had to learn to modify his responses at times
• How Marc thrives on other people’s energy
• The deep resilience instilled by his parents
• Why Marc calls everyone “they” instead of using gender-specific pronouns
• How non-binary expression of identity opens up opportunities
• Why Marc tries to live without regrets, even when his intensity threatens to get out of control
• Marc’s battle with HIV, an illness with much shame, guilt, and stigma
• Why it’s NOT a small thing to be the child of Holocaust survivors
• How Marc uses his fire for good, actively looking forward and behind at the same time
• Why he can live comfortably in today’s technological world
• How Marc learned early in life that he couldn’t do things in ways that please everybody
• How we need to cultivate new ideas and standards for creativity and giftedness
• Why social and emotional challenges aren’t limited to any one demographic, and how we need to look through the lens that makes us relatable to one another
• How Marc has experienced mostly positive outcomes from embracing intensity, even though there is always a big risk when you completely express yourself

Resources:

Support The G Word Film Kickstarter

Join the Embracing Intensity Community

13th Gen   Learn more about Marc and his company

Follow Marc on Twitter: @MarcSmolowitz

The Gword Film  Find out about Marc’s film about giftedness

If you’re an intense person, then you’ve probably known feelings of being out of control,  unvalued in relationships, and being unable to set boundaries. My guest today has a wonderful story about how she came to a place of self-love, so she could then ask for what she wants and needs to be her best self in the world.

Melissa Snow is a certified life coach who specializes in helping women improve their lives by learning to like, love, and value themselves more. She understands firsthand what it’s like to feel out of place and “not good enough.” She also knows the dramatic effects this has on ALL aspects of your life. She loves helping women get from where they are to where they want to be, by increasing their self-esteem and recognizing their inherent worth. Melissa is the author of Ten Secrets to Having the Love You Want, and has recently been featured on The Inspired Women podcast with Megan Hall. She’s also frequently featured on Bustle and Mind-Body Green.

Show Highlights:

• How Melissa grew up as a gifted kid in the 1980s, going to an integrated school where she felt like she didn’t belong and wasn’t as good as others
• How her passion developed for helping women realize their value and harness their power
• How her intensity is manifested in her being overly emotional and sensitive to other people and to beauty in nature
• How she felt intensity when growing up, but not knowing how to harness it and what to do with it
• The effects of ADHD and giftedness as Melissa grew up
• Feeling like she didn’t belong and needed to be “fixed”
• How there weren’t opportunities and the level of understanding of giftedness that we see today
• How she felt like she had to tone herself down and tune herself out
• How we expect other people to like and love us when we don’t even like and love ourselves
• In early adulthood, Melissa’s self-worth was tied to whatever others thought
• When you don’t have self-esteem or self-worth, you don’t feel like you have the right to set boundaries, and you become a needy, desperate, jealous, and clingy person
• How Melissa got to the point where she felt at rock bottom, and there was absolutely nothing in her life that she liked
• How she got her intensity back under control, harnessing the power, and using it for good and not destruction
• How she harnessed the power of her intensity by becoming a life coach and learning to accept herself and her quirks
• How keeping “things” under control helps Melissa keep life under control
• Being her best self by learning to schedule downtime, using time-blocking techniques, and setting a routine to be grounded and at peace
• Not allowing negativity to infiltrate the rest of her life
• How Melissa helps others use their fire, by helping them in figuring who they are and who they want to be
• Your own thoughts and beliefs about yourself are usually the biggest obstacle in being who you want to be
• Why it’s NEVER too late to change your story

Resources:

Melissa Snow 

Embracing Intensity  Join our community!

Three upcoming events:  

April 1--Ignite Your Power: Self-Empathy

April 13--Guest call: Connecting with Nature

April 27--Quarterly Potluck in the Portland area

Do you ever have the feeling that you are "never enough"? This week, Aurora talks about how our ability to see the potential in everything, can actually get in the way of achieving it! 

In this episode, Aurora shares:

• Lessons learned from her colicky kid.
• How seeing potential in everything gets in our way.  
• Common barriers to meeting our visualized potential.
• 3 ways you can support yourself when you are feeling "not enough"

How good are you at speaking up for yourself? The problem in today’s society is that assertiveness is usually equated with aggressiveness---and that is not considered a favorable quality for most women to have. So, how do we find the balance between being too passive and not being too aggressive? Do we have to be unkind to speak up for ourselves? We’re answering these questions and so much more in today’s show!

Amy Smith is a Certified Confidence Coach, masterful speaker, personal empowerment expert, and the founder of thejoyjunkie.com. Amy uses her roles as coach, writer, podcaster, and speaker to move individuals to a place of radical personal empowerment and self-love. With a focus on helping people find their voice, Amy is highly sought after for her uncommon style of irreverence, wisdom, and humor. She’s been a featured expert on Fox Five San Diego and YourTango.com.

Show Highlights:

• Why Amy is passionate about emotional intelligence and everyone having the freedom to experience the breadth of human emotion
• The nucleus of Amy’s passion: people genuinely knowing that their voice matters and cultivating the skillset to speak up for themselves
• A pivotal moment in Amy’s life: her dad’s funeral and her mom’s condemnation of her life, due to the lack of affinity for the religion she was raised in
• Why you sometimes have to issue an ultimatum
• The realization that you can be extremely assertive AND do it with the utmost grace and kindness
• The differentiation between being assertive and being aggressive
• Amy’s intensity and sensitivity: “I genuinely believe my intensity to be my superpower, but growing up, that was not the case.”
• How Amy stabilized her ups and downs and managed her anxiety
• Why she watches what she eats, how she sleeps, and has eliminated caffeine from her diet
• How Amy was branded as a “bad kid” at her private school because of her outspokenness
• Toning herself down and tuning herself out, even when she and her husband would be around her family and have to guard against the disapproval
• The subconscious message that “You don’t matter” and “You’re not as important as ___________”
• How Amy’s intensity got out of control, when she had a panic attack last year, as she was putting new business ventures together that wasn’t in alignment with her values
• How she got back to a healthy place with her body
• Feeling fear when navigating her intuition
• “Walking my talk” and staying on the mission, to help people use their voice to speak up
• Why Amy doesn’t apologize for who she is
• Using progressive language as a tool with which to “get a handle” on how you speak to yourself
• The best advice Amy received, from her father: “The minute you get too big for your britches is the day you stop learning.” Another piece of advice was, “Make sure you live a life you can be proud of.”
• Maintaining healthy relationships---communication is the key to being seen and being vulnerable, which catapults us into intimacy
• The personal habits that help Amy to use her fire in a positive way: self-talk, being ritualized about sleep, hypnotherapy, and working with a coach
• Amy’s favorite books: Dare to Lead, White Fragility, and Becoming (see Resources below)
• How Amy helps others use their fire, but teaches them to pay attention to how they’ve been branded throughout life----and either infuse it into life or let it go
• Amy’s final words: “Be compassionate with yourself on your journey. It’s easy to compare yourself to others. Wherever you are, any step toward what you want is a step in the right direction. Be gentle with yourself.”

Resources:

The Joy Junkie

Find social media: The Joy Junkie

Find Amy’s podcast: The Joy Junkie

Dare to Lead by Brene’ Brown

White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

Becoming by Michelle Obama

How to Be an Adult by David Richo