Diana Baur went from a US corporate career in interior design to ceramics, painting, a bed and breakfast in the Italian wine hills and a life split between Germany and Italy. In this episode of Flying Under the Radar, Diana talks about the years of corporate burnout that finally pushed her out, the damaged-goods story she had to stop believing and the stray cat in an Italian café that had her husband saying, "the cat's living better than we are."

We also talk about creativity as the thing that hands your agency back, making work for yourself rather than for other people's approval, why she can't stand the word hobby, the panic that put her in the hospital the day she signed for the house, doing the work instead of thinking your way out of being stuck and the small notebook practice Diana still recommends to anyone who feels like their curiosity is trying to tell them something.

Learn more about and connect with Diana Baur:
Website: https://www.baurstudio.com/
Substack: https://baurstudio.substack.com/
Instagram: @baur.studio
TikTok: @restoring.italy

More from Andrea Maurer: https://transformativecreativity.net

Dawn Pier went from Arctic research and an unhappy marriage to surfing, conservation work, real estate and life by the ocean in Baja California Sur. In this episode of Flying Under the Radar, Dawn talks about the wake-up call that changed her life, the white picket fence story she had to stop believing and the wave that made her say, “I am going to learn to surf.”

We also talk about yoga, meditation, codependency, self-trust, building a life outside the expected script and the small practice Dawn still recommends to anyone who feels like something in them is trying to wake up.

Learn more about and connect with Dawn Pier: https://dawnpier.com/

This was supposed to be a guest episode. Then the guest came down with head to toe poison ivy, the first backup's internet in Italy quit on her, the next one stopped sleeping and, in turn, being able to put two sentences together, and the one after that turned out to be running a surfing competition in Cabo. So it's just me again, flying solo.

In baseball they call this a rain delay. The broadcasters don't pack up the booth and decide they're in the wrong line of work. They fill the air until the game resumes. That's what this episode is. I take the week that fell apart and run it through the Transformative Creativity framework in real time: locate, trace, desire, container, results. And I talk about the difference between treating a disruption as a verdict on who you are and treating it as weather.

There's some Teddy Roosevelt in here, some honesty about the Promised Land myth I lived in for most of my life, plus a reminder from my brother that the journey is the destination.

Your one doable thing is waiting at the end. The next time something doesn't go to plan, you get to decide what it means. I'll show you how I decided.

New episodes every two weeks. Subscribe so you don't miss the one where I actually have a guest.