We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kelly Cutchin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kelly below.

Hi Kelly, thanks for joining us today. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

I’ve never been happier with the work I do, the folks I work with, or the ways I’ve created for me to express myself out loud and on purpose since becoming a business owner. It’s allowed me to really unpack my relationship with my own self-worth and productivity, as well as bolster my relationship with my own creativity.

And:

I think about going back to a “regular” job at least a few times a week and I promise that every other entrepreneur I know does, too! It’s so easy to romanticize something that feels like an escape from whatever crisis you’re facing or whatever email you’re dreading sending. That nostalgia of all the jobs before this one is tricky because it tries to convince me that any time before was somehow better than this current, totally temporary moment of discomfort.

Last week was bananas-in-pajamas levels of absurd in terms of the sheer number of things happening in both my personal and professional lives, as well as the types of tasks I was managing. I mean, have you ever been awake at 3:35 am Googling the best place to buy a helium tank because your sleep-deprived brain was absolutely *convinced* that your workshop on reclaiming your voice had to include helium balloons and sucking the air out of them to play with the literal sound of everyone’s voices?
While you were doing that, was your dog also awake, pacing the living room rug because he knocked a bag of Cheetos off the counter & ate them all, so he’s all hyped up on sodium and bizarre food dyes like Yellow Lake 6?
And did you also need to jump on a call with your client in Denmark in an hour (they’re eight hours ahead of you), so you put on your business mullet outfit (professional shirt on top, sweatpants on the bottom) and widest rimmed glasses to hide the dark circles under your eyes and chug three shots of espresso just to keep yourself from open-mouth snoring into their faces?
Meanwhile my own writing was collecting two inches of dust in the corner and I couldn’t remember the last time I touched grass or ate a meal sitting down instead of hunched over the sink like a grimy swamp goblin.

All I kept thinking about was that one summer before grad school when I worked on the Flow Team at Target. We’d get to the store at 4:00 am and unload the truck, then restock each section of the store aisle by aisle. It was a bit physically demanding, but so elegant in its simplicity:
Read the label on the box.
Put the box in the corresponding aisle.
Open the box.
Put the item where it belonged on the shelf.
Repeat repeat repeat.

And I wasn’t in charge of anyone or anything but myself and my trusty rusty box cutter! What a concept!

In the middle of a midnight crisis, it’s so convenient for our brains to be all, “This is so hard! But it wasn’t always, remember? Why are you making things hard for us? DON’T YOU LOVE US?!” Bless our brains, they don’t tend to prioritize the rest of the picture of that “simple” job: The ridiculous hours, the low pay, the lack of control over your schedule and bosses and coworkers, the lack of any outlet for our creativity, the uniform, and the way we were totally replaceable. The idea that anything was “better” back then is just my brain checking in to make sure I’m making the right decisions for myself and I’m so glad that it does because I get regular reminders that I know what I’m doing, and that I’m the only one who can do it.

Kelly, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

People have described me as: -a human confetti cannon

-an ice cream sundae dressed as Miss Frizz

-the daughter of Leslie Knope, Bill Nye, and Linda Belcher

-an exclamation point dressed up like the Kool Aid man who’s Trojan horse-ing a metric ton of empathy and tenderness into the world

-a sassy possum covered in Cheeto dust belly flopping into a Diet Pepsi pool

And they’re all exactly correct.

So it may shock you to know that, in a former life, I was an English Professor.

For fifteen years, I taught English and Writing in middle schools, high schools, community colleges (my favorite), and four-year universities. This means I have two and a half degrees—the PhD is, like, really hard—and a metric ton of experience convincing reluctant 19 year-olds and middle-aged parents with full-time jobs to just hear me out: Writing is rad! Lemme show you how!

As a surprise to no one, I was really good at it. But I had a sneaking suspicion there was more I should be doing. As in, for me.

I’d been doing everything short of setting my hair on fire to get folks to fall in love with writing, but I hadn’t written…anything. I’d always wanted to write poetry + essays, but convinced myself I didn’t have the time or energy; even if I found some, who would want to read what my electrified bag of Skittles brain had to say?

No one was stopping me. But no one was coming to show me how to start.

I started taking all the advice I’d given to students, then I started taking writing workshops with folks I admired.

Now you can read my poems and thoughts all over the internet + Instagram!

I’m not saying it hasn’t been difficult and it was all just that simple.

But also? It can be.

I created Casual Magic Writing because I believe everyone deserves to use writing as a tool for self-expression.

Casual Magic Writing is a rad virtual clubhouse where folks express themselves in ALL CAPS

We offer Writing Sessions to play with words and have fun with our self-expression (remember fun?!), group workshops to get you out of your head & into your feels, 1:1 Coaching for folks who want to deep dive into their stories and craft their own unique voices, and copywriting for small businesses who want to do good & get loud.

For my 1:1 Coaching clients, we address just how much of the writing we do about ourselves—about who we are and why, which is VERY! BIG! AND! IMPORTANT!—gets treated like an afterthought. We give tidbits and Cliff’s Notes instead of opening a window into the good, the bad, and the “Oh, wow, that’s wild!” that we’re made of. And that’s just not good enough for the dazzling, chaotic, once-in-a-lifetime event of a human you are. I help folks express themselves fully, as they are, and show them how to take up MORE space and write MORE like themselves (and less like everyone else).

Our weekly writing sessions are the antidote to all the traps that keep us away from our creativity: the I Need the Perfect Pen trap, the I Don’t Have Enough Time trap, the But What Do I Even Writing About? trap, and the Am I Even Allowed to Call Myself a Writer? trap. We show up however we need to and write what needs writing in a safe, supportive container. With fresh new prompts every session and plenty of writing time + built-in support, it’s the Zoom equivalent of Cheers, where everybody knows your name and they’re always glad you came!

Our group workshops are the true definition of Casual Magic: each one focuses on a theme, like writing about our bodies, rage and desire, bringing out your inner weirdo, or reclaiming our wild. Each one is designed to be an immersive experience encouraging folks to get real, go deep, and reacquaint themselves with themselves and each other. I’ve created & facilitated these experiences for groups of five and groups of 50, for near strangers and BFFs alike, and every person leaves our time together with a renewed sense of who they are, what lights them up, and what they want MORE of in their lives.

Our copywriting services help small business owners get a clear picture of who they are + what they do, craft compelling brand stories that set them apart, and get busy telling the world to buckle up, baby, ‘cause here we come!

If you’re looking for somewhere to tell the truth, create something you can put your name on, and make a whole mess of new friends, then Casual Magic is the place for you!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Starting a business allows (sometimes forces) you to confront parts of yourself that you weren’t exactly on speaking terms with. Even though I’ve been in some form of therapy for years, I wasn’t fully prepared to meet up with and high five the version of myself that thought I always had to be “on” and “of service” to have a successful business. Most folks in coaching come to it because we want to help! We’re helpers! And while I love that for us, sometimes there’s a sneaky sinister side to that need to help. My sense of self-worth and almost my entire self-concept was tied to being Of Service and Always On. If I wasn’t actively helping someone, I felt useless; if I didn’t respond to someone’s request for support within a few hours, I felt like I’d failed them.

Very, very early in my first iteration of offering Writing Sessions, I learned just how lethal those beliefs could be. I’d been offering three to four writing sessions a week for free: that’s eight hours of intensive emotional and intellectual labor, plus the amount of time and energy it took for me to prepare and decompress. Folks tend to use writing as a tool for processing and expressing any range of emotions, so you can imagine the toll that holding that space took, especially without any sort of exchange. After six months of this sort of schedule without any real break, I had completely burnt myself out. I was answering DMs and emails at all hours with no regard for my capacity. I was failing to uphold any boundaries around my time and energy, personally and professionally. I was a wreck, and I’d done it to myself.

I had to investigate why I believed that it was my responsibility to be everyone’s everything, and what that necessarily meant about my relationship with myself and my worth. It took quite a bit of therapy and learning how to set clear, kind boundaries for me to understand that I am someone deserving of care, and that no one can care for me like I can.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Referrals are my primary source of business, hands down, and I’m beyond proud of that!

I love that folks find me organically through their own relationships and communities because that means they already know what I’m about, who I’m for, and what I love to do. I’m far from the first person to say that language is one of our most powerful tools, so I don’t work with folks who aren’t actively using language & their self-expression for good, or who don’t understand that language is always political and has to be used mindfully & with the intention to foster awareness & respect. I want everyone I work with to know that writing is a tool for self-expression that belongs to them; the more folks who want to use their words and voices, the better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.casualmagicwriting.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelly.m.cutchin/?hl=en