Episode #105 – Write Unleashed with Jeanette LeBlanc
Do you find yourself making excuses for not writing? Today on Financial Fluency, I’m thrilled to have Jeanette LeBlanc with me. Jeanette is a writer and photographer who founded peace.love.free, a transformational writing workshop that helps writers find freedom in their words. On the show, we talk about Jeanette’s struggles, truth-telling, and making a mark with your words.
In November 2015, Jeanette was working in a corporate position specializing in content marketing. The marketing department made cuts during the holiday season and let Jeanette go. The layoff turned her life upside down and pushed her to pursue her creative passion—writing. She remembered there was a great sense of panic after getting laid off because she was a single mom raising two children.
About three weeks later, Jeanette realized she didn’t want another job, she wanted to go all in with her writing and created Wild Heart Workshop: 30 Questions To Bring You Closer To Your Wild Heart, which was a precursor to Unleashed. Jeanette tells me the idea was inspired by her own feelings of being lost. She was without a job, and coping with her failed relationship. So Jeanette decided to write a few prompts to help rediscover herself. She kept writing and 40,000 words later, Jeanette realized she had course content, and wanted to share it with others.
Jeanette believes writing can heal, make sense of our world, and understand what’s happened to us. All it takes is one person who understands or knows what you’ve experienced to help you feel like you are not alone.
When Jeanette wrote about coming out and leaving her then-husband, she had a friend who lost her son at 40 weeks. Her friend was able to talk to her without diminishing Jeanette’s grief, which brought them together. This interaction was the most profound lesson Jeanette learned, to use the power of language.
Jeanette Shares Her Message
“There’s a way to tell stories that invite other people into the narrative who haven’t experienced life the way you have. When someone sits down to explain their story in a way that allows me to access their experience, my compassion grows, and my understanding of the world grows. It’s a tremendous gift for the writer and anyone who comes across it.”
Unleashed is a 12-week journey with different themes each week; the final week explores universality in writing. Jeanette says this helps writers think past their own experience to connect and help someone else.
For more information about Jeanette visit her website peacelovefree.com or follow her on social media.
Remember you can highlight to share any text on this page, give it a whirl!
Resources
Sign up for the next Unleashed Workshop here. The workshop starts gathering on July 5th and officially begins on July 10th.
Jeanette LeBlanc helps writers, would be writers and ‘but-I’m-not-a-writers’ unleash their voice, tell their stories, and create compelling content that resonates. Jeanette is the creator of peace.love.free, a transformational writing workshop that aims to help writers unleash their courage to stand in their power. In addition to being a writing coach, Jeanette is a photographer, poet, and feminist. She currently lives in Phoenix, AZ with her two daughters.
Danielle Watson is a TEDx Speaker, Author, and host of the LIVE Danielle Daily Show where she provides her positive, inspiring, and powerful Notes to Self to people seeking freedom from self-critical thoughts. Her book, Dear Self, I Love You! Keep Going!: 365 Inspiring Notes from My Bittersweet Year of Heartbreak and Healing serves as a reminder to her global fan base that even when life feels painful or hard, you are stronger, braver, and more powerful than you think, and no matter what you have done or will do you are worthy of your own love.