Isabelle Stillman /// Life has no mold, be bold /// Season5:E117

It’s only human to question our purpose.   

So often it seems impossible to pursue a life of purpose while we have bills piled up and food to eat. When we do pursue our purpose that choice doesn't always reflect our parent’s desire for our lives or societies life mold.  

Isabelle Stillman represents a balance between having jobs she's passionate about while contributing to society in a way that gives back more than she could ever receive in return. And she still lives life with passion and joy.  

Her pioneering mindset inspires us to do the same by redefining and challenging society's conceptual definition of success. Successively breaking the mold created for what life “should” be and instead being bold with our careers we feel passion toward.   

  

" Artists perceive reality differently" - Isabelle Stillman 
   

Isabelle Stillman, raised in Missouri, now living in L.A. as a guitarist, songwriter and singer began creating her album while working as a high school English teacher in Denver. Through a journey of self-realization, she would uproot herself to spend a year traveling on her first national tour, a momentum abruptly ended by the outbreak of the coronavirus. This massive change and the dismantling of her life as she knew it led Stillman to discover the beauty that comes from opening up, leading with heart, leaning into pain and confusion, and ultimately, letting go.  

Stillman  often attributes her groundedness to her strong family life. She craved music from an early age, always singing and growing up with her parents’ music as the soundtrack. Stillman was a teenager when she first picked up guitar; but, school remained her primary focus. Systematic learning satiated her — the definition of “success” so clearly defined. Raised in a community that valued structure, Stillman embraced it. And yet her creativity continued to flow. 

Her Latest album, Heartrender, speaks to the universal struggle of opening oneself to new possibilities and relationships — opening your heart to the full spectrum of life. It acknowledges the human condition as one of growth from tragedy, reinvention from discovery, and resilience from pain.  

Abandoning the path of traditional genre and ignoring any guidelines, Heartrender is a celebration of self-awareness and the strength in surrendering control to the unexpected turns of a life less planned, cracked open, and more beautiful for it. 

  

Topics we discuss: 

•  Art and boundary's  
• artifact from creation 
•  the journey- creative writing 
• the chateau, artist perceiving reality different, non-fiction 
• recreation of memory  
• creativity 
• creating amongst family 
•  The journey 
•  relationship with risk,  
•  taking the risk 
•  doing things big 
•  Current space 

•  talking to family 
•  rethinking success 

  

References: 

• Isabelle's website  
• Buy Her Album at Bandcamp 
• Ikigai 
• Gift Pod 

 

Credits:  

Lead editor + Producer: Ruf Holmes 

  

Music: 

Main Theme: "Eaze Does It" by Shye Eaze and DJ Rufbeats, a More In Common Podcast Exclusive. 

Guest theme:  "Party Dress" by Isabelle Stillman