We recently connected with Lily Werthan and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Lily thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I would love to claim that I’ve always been committed to a creative path, but throughout college and the years after, I held a lot of anxiety about the need to be “successful” and to acquire a “stable job.” It may have looked from the outside that I was living in a way that was free and courageous – I chose a career in education rather than more lucrative options, I traveled solo through Latin America and even lived in Mexico for a year teaching with the Fulbright Program. But each of my choices was swayed by a heavy dose of fear and the looming threat of failure. I found myself in a job that offered so much joy and connection, but also left me perpetually depleted and quietly miserable inside an education system that felt fundamentally misaligned with my values. It was getting harder and harder to ignore a nagging feeling that this was not the right path for me. At the same time, I was flooded with ideas for a project that would allow me to explore new possibilities for life and connection.

It’s difficult to adequately describe the monumental shift that occurred in my life and values as I approached my late twenties. What had been a fear of failure gave way to an electric feeling of aliveness; a responsibility to myself to live in a way that made me glad to be alive and felt aligned to some deeper sense of why I am here.
My mom was nearing the end of her 10 year battle against terminal illness and I was looking hard at the beliefs and fears I had carried for too long. Why did I believe that a life of financial stability in a job that made me miserable was somehow better than a life spent pursuing the dreams and ideas that pulled at me? Why did I care if my title sounded good to other people if my life didn’t feel good to me? And if life was so fragile and unpredictable – as I was learning viscerally during a year of painful losses – didn’t I owe it to myself to live whatever time I have here at full force towards a life I love and work that comes from the deepest parts of me?

So I leapt.

As I finished my last year as a teacher, I spent free moments deep in dreaming and planning for the next season. I researched audio equipment and editing software, I bought cables and headphones and a web domain, and wrote and wrote and wrote about ideas and beliefs and ways of living that I want to explore. I reached out to the most audaciously free and inspiring people I could think of and laid the groundwork for what would become the Open Exploration podcast.

All the cliches about this path are showing themselves to be true: it takes more work than I could have fathomed; the road to success is slow and challenging; that pesky self doubt gets loud and aggressive at times. But I am living! On my own terms, at my own pace, following what pulls on my heart, in connection with people who inspire me, and in service of creative work that I am proud to put out into the world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I am a podcast host and producer based in Denver, Colorado. No matter what I’m doing – playing in the mountains, working on my van (in which I will soon be traveling to record conversations with inspiring people across the continent!), or spending time with my partner, our dog, and our chickens – I am always dreaming up my next moves as a podcaster and storyteller. In my work, I connect with people who are living vibrant lives on their own terms. I interview guests about the twists and turns and hurdles as well as the mindsets and values that have allowed them to forge their own path.

I am proud of how genuine and human the Open Exploration podcast is. This is a project born out of a deeply felt need to explore the possibilities for my own life and a belief that there are options outside of the well-paved path that offer greater freedom, connection, and expression. I am proud (and grateful) that I get to connect deeply with each of my guests, and that our conversations flow between joyful, laughter-filled banter and fearless exploration of the controversial, the personal, the vulnerably-shared elements of our stories and ourselves.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Hustle mentality!

We are taught in so many ways and from so many teachers (school, society, media, corporate culture) that it is both correct and necessary to move at full sprint with minimal rest or freedom until we “make it.”
I am working to replace this mentality with a new commitment to living in balance now; claiming my right to rest, play, connection AND meaningful work throughout the process, and honoring the ways that space and balance in my life allow for deeper creative work.

I like to ask myself “how can my life now reflect the balance, abundance, and connection that I am working for?” In other words – if I have a vision for what I want in my life, how can I begin to claim parts of that vision that are available to me along the path.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

In my previous career, I often felt like my time and energy flooded into things that didn’t matter in any lasting sense – checking boxes and fulfilling requirements that didn’t really serve anyone. The most rewarding part of my creative work is that everything I do (whether or not I inherently enjoy the task itself) is in service of creative expression that does feel deeply meaningful.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.openexploration.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/openexplorationpodcast
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/openexplorationpodcast

Image Credits
Vee Guereca Photography