21. Forging Resilience & Connection Through Deliberate Discomfort | Felicia Sullivan

In today’s episode, I’m joined by Felicia Sullivan.

A marketing executive and novelist, Felicia has been building brands and telling stories for decades. She's the author of The Sky Isn't Visible From Here (Algonquin Books/HarperCollins Publishers) and Follow Me Into The Dark (Feminist Press). Currently, she's roaming around California with her tabby cat, Felix — and that’s just one of many reasons I was so excited to talk with her today!

I first became familiar with Felicia’s work when I was applying for a new job several years ago, and found that she was one of the few women in a leadership role at the company. Though she left that job shortly before I started, I continued to follow her work with fascination and admiration.

Felicia is not only an incredible and prolific writer, she is an adept explorer of the human condition: finding ways to communicate her own experiences, transitions, and transformations in ways that both entertain and educate everyone who reads her work.

In today’s episode, we talked about why she decided to pack up her life in LA and spend a year traveling California (and what that experience has been like in the middle of a global pandemic), how she’s made a lot of radical changes in her life over the last few years (and what those transformations have taught her about resilience), and why it’s not a good thing that we tend to surround ourselves with people who are so similar to us — and what she does to combat that in her own life.

We also talk about:

How she’s been brave enough to show up as the truest expression of herself in every facet of her life Why she’s put herself through what she calls “the reckoning”: gleaning people from her life who were no longer healthy Why it’s so important to question and challenge what you believe, and how she does that regularly How to convey your truth as a writer, and why her writing has evolved over the years How to write (or create or do anything) without comparing yourself to everyone who seems better or further along than you . . . and so much more!

I have learned so much from Felicia over the years — first, as a follower of her work and later as a friend — and I continued to benefit from her wisdom and the breadth of her experience in this conversation. Whether you’re a writer, a traveler, or just a human hoping to become truer to yourself and your path, this episode will give you valuable insights to guide your way.

 

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CREDITS

Editing & Sound Engineering: Jordan Johansen

Music: “Kenton” by Dr Crosby (Licensed via Marmoset)