7: Craftsmanship & Discovering Enough with Morgan Bricca (Part 2)

Adam Coelho: [00:00:00] I hope this finds you healthy and safe. And before we jump into today's show, I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you so much to everyone who's watched or listened to the podcast. So far, I've been really encouraged by the early response and by the feedback I've gotten on the episodes so far.

And so I just wanted to say thank you. And if you haven't already, please take a moment now to hit subscribe on the platform. You're listening to this or watching this on. This just lets the providers know that you're getting value from the show and you'd like to be here when we produce additional content.

And with that again, thank you so much for being here and I hope you enjoy today's show. Welcome to the mindful fire podcast, where we explore living mindfully on the path to financial independence and beyond on today's episode, I'm again joined by my friend, Morgan BRCA, a muralist meditator, author blogger and podcaster in the San Francisco Bay area.

If you haven't yet listened to our other episode, where we dive into her path to financial independence and her experience with mindfulness, I invite you to check that out on today's episode, Morgan and I explore the idea of craftsmanship, which I think of as simply pursuing. And getting better at something for its own sake in Morgan's case it's mural art.

But we explore today the idea of podcasting since I'm new to the podcasting world, and I've learned so much along the way. And Morgan has recently become a podcaster last year and did a 15 episode season in which she learned a ton. So we have a great conversation about craftsmanship. I'm blown away by Morgan's philosophy on investing money and time in developing her skills in the pursuit of craftsmanship.

And I'm forced to confront them. My own hangups about money that have prevented me from investing in skills and in help, that would fast track my development. And we explore the idea of what is enough and not just in the sense of money, but also in the sense of time, in the sense of effort being put into a particular task and how it's so important for us to ease up on ourselves sometimes, especially in these challenging and difficult times that we face with everything going on in our country and world.

Again, thank you so much for being here and I hope you enjoy today's show something I'd love to focus on is this idea of craftsmanship. Obviously, as an artist, you have to get better at producing art. So there's a craftsmanship element to it. And I noticed that in your bio, on your website, you mentioned craftsmanship, but I just really love this idea of just doing something for the sake of doing it and getting better at it for the love of doing it.

What I'm noticing is like you make investments in what you're working on. Like you got a podcast course. You got a writing course. You hired a copywriter to read it. You hired an editor and me I'm like, how can I do this without spending a cent? I know that, 

Morgan Bricca: [00:02:48] I know that when I'm in that one a lot.

I'm in that one a lot too, but here's the thing. Here's the thing with the craftsmanship. You want to get better in the long run and that's time and attention, but I'm focused on like in each neural. I couldn't have created what I create now in my first 10 years. Or for 15 years, even. So I w I wasn't capable and the capacity develops overdoing something so that you get really good at it a long time.

So there's no sense in undue stress on yourself or heart being so super hard on yourself, setting two highest standards in the short term. Cause you're always like I'm doing the best I can right now. And that shipping, ship the product, chef Seth, go number big fan of Seth Godin, and he's.

Good. There is a place for good enough, knowing that we're going for craftsmanship. And so when I set up the podcast, it was like, okay, I'm going to do 15 episodes for four years. And then I'm going to decide it's good enough if I like it, I have to do a bunch. I'm not going to do six and say, Oh, it sucks.

Nobody cares. I'm going to give up. That's just not going to get you. I dunno. It's just, that doesn't make sense. So it's like, how do I, how can I financially? And time-wise sustain. That many episodes, there were four years so that I actually can see if I can get better. I could afford a hundred dollars a month.

I was thinking it's taking 50 people listen to it, right off the bat. And so that's just taking a bunch of people to coffee. And you're building, it's just a 

Adam Coelho: [00:04:16] generosity about podcasting. This is a side thing, but I'm like loving what you're saying. And then I go to think about what I want to ask you an accident.

It's like everything you just said, I missed it somehow. It's so much 

Morgan Bricca: [00:04:27] easier. So this is the first time I've been on someone else's podcast and it's way easier. What I'm doing. Then what you're doing. And I have a L I w somebody will say a great something brilliant. And then I just have a brain fart and lose my thread.

And it's 

Adam Coelho: [00:04:42] a funny thing. I haven't really started. To share my story too much, hanging back a little bit, letting the guests, share their story a lot more. And I've thought about, I really liked your 15th episode where you were just like talking about the process and what you learned about something you've been doing for so long with mural artwork.

So yeah, just like exploring this from a place of curiosity, I'm really trying to cultivate curiosity in my life as the practice, like a mindset that I want to have. Oh, it's 

Morgan Bricca: [00:05:12] core. It's key. Yes, it's great. And the irony is the, actually, as of your experience, you're the best interviewer. Even if you know everything that somebody is going to say, both terrains and you can ask the right questions.

So I did the same thing with my podcast. Like I'm just trying to learn when I was writing the book, I'm taking a writing class and I'm like, Oh, make sure, you do all the research. And I realized all these podcasts that I'd done. Are the research, like I've talked for the city managers. Like I understand the public process.

Cause I learned about them. I didn't know I was doing research when I did the podcast. I didn't even have it in my head. And then the long tail you mentioned is huge. Like you don't have to, I didn't promote them. And then they're just finding, I don't know how, yeah. 

Adam Coelho: [00:05:55] You mentioned the long tail in your email and what does that mean?

Morgan Bricca: [00:05:58] Oh, it means that people it's not timely. It's not this month's podcast or this week. You can find a podcast that's two or three, three years old. That's super relevant. And actually what happens is when people find you, they're going to just, they're going to scroll through and you have, let's say 15 podcasts.

They're just going to pick the three that are most interested. They're most interested in at that time. And they're just going to deep dive and pick the titles and decide after two or three, if they want to continue with you or not. Yeah. It's not like the timeliness, like today's post like Instagram, then it gets buried and you never see it again.

That's 

Adam Coelho: [00:06:30] true. It's interesting. I've been finding that. Like I promote one, I just released one yesterday with another friend I met at a mindfulness related thing. Really crazy story there, but I'll spare you on that one. And I put that out. Like I just see the other ones start increasing in terms of the place.

Downloads. Yeah. 

Morgan Bricca: [00:06:49] And the other thing is, the reason I chose a podcast is because when I think about what am I really learning and changing from, and when I hear deep dive conversation, I'm hearing people think out loud. When I work, I listen to podcasts. I learn a lot. If I can scroll through Instagram and I can't, I'm like, Oh, that's pithy quote or that's but nothing sticks. And actually, yeah, it's the same, a lot of things, but actually I think human brain is just wired the cadence of a conversation. That's how we've always learned oration and conversation. And so I think it's the most. It's a slow, it's a little more slower and analog, but it's, if we actually want to change the world, if you want these ideas to be of service, I think a podcast is the best.

I agree 

Adam Coelho: [00:07:34] better than an essay. Yeah.  It's interesting because it's essay, you have to be sitting still, you can't be driving to when you're reading and just people's attention span. The Instagram thing, like everyone's attention span is as far as like the bottom of their screen to the top of the screen, but with podcasts, don't have to invest so much.

I feel like the difference between a podcast and an audio book is like in an audio book, if you miss something you're screwed in a podcast, it's Okay, that's fine. It's the whole thing is only a half hour. Exactly. Yeah. I like it a lot. 

Morgan Bricca: [00:08:05] And then just one more tip is I a really like Tim Ferriss podcast, even the super masculine, but he, I liked the idea that I learned there, which is, how could this be easy?

And so deciding when you start out under, you're going to make money. Stakes and just letting those be so that it can be easy and you can keep moving forward. Like I found that was really helpful for me. How could I make this podcast go? How could I make this easy so I can put it out there. And that's something about a book and an essay is, the expectation of wordsmithing is not easy.

I know this, I can cover the same ground 20 times and totally restructure it and be like, what was I thinking? 

You 

Adam Coelho: [00:08:43] know, that's how far in the process are you. With that 

Morgan Bricca: [00:08:46] I'm finished with the manuscript. So now it 

Adam Coelho: [00:08:48] goes just like the first draft and then you edit it from there. I 

Morgan Bricca: [00:08:52] had a copywriter go through and, paid someone to tear it apart and went through all of those and integrated all the feedback I've had.

Various people read it, integrate their feedback. So I think the manuscript poured over it at least three or four times, like the finished piece. I think it's pretty polished, but that piece of making a design that's compelling that you want to hold. All of that stuff is actually. Still half the battle and then the 

Adam Coelho: [00:09:15] design, like the cover.

Design cover 

Morgan Bricca: [00:09:18] the layout. Like how do you engage that physical item? You want to make that engaging? And whether I want to do it all on my own, I don't know I'm going to, I've just finished up my book proposal. So I'm going to be open to that, but I don't want to wait forever. So I think I'm going to give it if there's not a clear enthusiastic agent, then I will move forward to self-publishing kind of fun.

It's all new. I know, 

Adam Coelho: [00:09:42] I love that. I really do. And I really love that in your podcast. First of all, you just created a podcast because you want it to create a podcast. I'm sure the blog was the same thing before. And it's really cool to see you reinventing yourself in these different ways.

Exploring the same idea too, to a large extent, right? You're looking at your mural artwork. And you're an art and public art in general, from all these different aspects, in all these different mediums with different people. And you're probably learning a lot about the thing you care most about in this 

Morgan Bricca: [00:10:15] process.

Yeah. The core is the same, which is figuring out that making an impact of being of service or I didn't know this, but I've honed away. Like why do I do, like I'm exhausted at the end of the day covered in paint, like, why do I do this? And I'm like why am I so attracted to this?

This is hard work, and whatever. And it's  so understanding that like making an impact, like the dramatic impact. And then if you extrapolate that and you say am I really making, if that's such a high value to me, how could I leverage that? And so then, and what do you want to leverage?

So the podcast and the book were both intention set by if you really want to make an impact, is it just through painting? Are there other things you can do so that, 

Adam Coelho: [00:10:55] and so what is the impact that you want to make? Cause like making an impact, you can make an impact in a lot of ways, but sounds like you have a clear sense of what impact you want to make.

Morgan Bricca: [00:11:05] Yeah. There's two things and one is that I really believe that physical spaces matter even in our public spaces, in our homes. And I think Meryl halls are just so cool. So there's just that one, which is let's. Sometimes artists are don't operate. They have a bad reputation for their professionalism.

So if we could just clean that up a bit, and then there was more trust in the industry to trust artists and more people knew how to set up a good contract and how to make that all happen. Then more mural art would get made. Like schools are basically distrusting of artists, business owners, like building owners are distrustful of like, how's that gonna go?

So there's this. That needs to be mended a little bit. So that's that's been getting more made. And then the second piece is I had felt so blessed by this kind of work. And I think so many artists would poo being mural artists because they don't teach it in art school. Traditionally it's had a marginal reputation and so people have avoided a lot of artists.

Don't consider it a serious medium. So I feel like by saying, look. I work part-time I make six figures. I love it. Collaboration is not the worst thing in the world. You can make a really good job out of this. If I can help five or 10 artists find their footing, making a living, doing this with their, at home, in the afternoons, with their kids and they are taking off all the holidays, they want, it's a good fit, I think, for a lot of people.

So then it's like I could make an impact because then let's say those 10 mural artists. When I look the wake of all the murals and all the interactions and how sort of life affirming the whole process has been like, wow, I could 10 X that by, Helping a few people 

Adam Coelho: [00:12:44] along. That's amazing. Yeah, because it's not just that one person that you get going or support to get going with their mural practice.

It's all the murals that they'll make and all the people they'll inspire and all the things they'll learn and then pass on to the next five. It's really exponential to some degree. 

Morgan Bricca: [00:13:04] Yeah. And a mural has a long tail too. Speaking of long tails. If you paint one at a school that's 30 years, how many families, they drop off their kids at school.

How many kids run into kindergarten the first day and are just like, wow, this place is fun.  It's a small impact, but it goes for a long time. That's 

Adam Coelho: [00:13:21] really cool. I think that's something that came up on your podcast with Alex Cook was really this idea that the more he works, the more he works.

The idea that when he went out to LA and did a mural, now more people see that mural. I wonder who'd made that mural and then now he has more opportunity to do more murals. And so I feel there's really something to that in what you're doing as well with your work in various aspects, with the podcast, with the book, right? Like you're just putting yourself out there more and more. And have you found that, that. Is true. That brings more opportunity to you. Yeah.

I was like, where's this going? Maybe I missed the Mark

Morgan Bricca: [00:14:12] increasing the levels of fun, and the impact you can have. It is so awesome to be an artist. Sitting at the table with, the public art director for San Jose and talking about  what's the philosophy, what's your approach? And what do artists need to know? And I just think raising your hand and being willing to sit down and get curious is super exciting.

It's inherently cool. Just to be engaged. It's not so that I I guess when I paused the answer wasn't Oh, is that right? More lucrative or does that feel better for my eco or does that I'm trying, I was trying to figure out where that hit. It's great to step in to things that scare you and getting curious, as you mentioned earlier, excited, enthusiasm, excitement, fun.

Like all that comes to mind with that. I love it. Yeah. 

Adam Coelho: [00:15:04] Yeah. That's awesome. Not 

Morgan Bricca: [00:15:06] lucrative yet, but that's okay. 

Adam Coelho: [00:15:08] Yeah.  It's what you were saying, right? On the podcast you were saying, he's planted the seeds for 20 years and now some of those seeds are blossoming, right? You're building relationships with, art directors and people responsible for public art down the road.

When they need a mural, who are they gonna think of? They're going to think of that person that came to them 10 years ago to learn. And. You wanted nothing in return. And the coolest thing 

Morgan Bricca: [00:15:34] about that is trust. The hardest thing to build these days is the trust. So if you've worked with someone two or three times, they trust you.

So figuring out the right price or figuring out the design is you know what, we're going to, we're going to answer to Morgan. She knows what she's doing. We can trust her. So it's much more fun as an artist, you get a lot more support from a creative standpoint. The trust is something that I'm always trying to figure out how to get there as quickly as possible.

So we can just start making something awesome. Worry about it. 

Adam Coelho: [00:16:03] When you do your podcast, like how much editing do you have to do 

Morgan Bricca: [00:16:07] that? I let go of that is I hired someone through Upwork. To edit and I listened to them and sometimes I'm just, I let it go Oh, I think he might've dropped that, that might've been important.

Or I don't really love that. But for the most part, I try to let an outside person, like he doesn't know about murals per se, but if it's interesting to him, Sure. Put it on if it's not. So there's a little piece of me that just lets go with that. And that makes it possible for me to continue. So I try to not be a perfectionist.

I did the first few and I found I was spending a lot of hours on 

Adam Coelho: [00:16:41] them. Oh, it takes forever. Oh my God. It takes so long. I like this last one. I did. I split it into two halves just because I couldn't get through it. And I'm like, I just need to get some progress. I need some I need some hits on my Google analytics to keep me going,  just give me something.

Morgan Bricca: [00:16:57] I did the same thing. And I split an early podcast into two because I just couldn't get to it. And I think it was about the fourth that I think it's really important to learn all aspects of it. So you can produce it, the song where you know, what it takes so that you can, it's always good to know.

Yeah, I would say outsourcing that we negotiated like a long-term price of a hundred dollars a podcast, and I'm like, great. 

Adam Coelho: [00:17:20] It comes back to me often, is this idea of enough? What is enough? And it's what is enough money? What is enough time? What is enough effort? Like I spent so much time beating myself up about not editing the podcast rather than just editing the podcast.

And also just like when I'm not editing the podcast and I'm tired because I'm working full-time and parenting full-time and doing, numerous projects. It's okay to just chill. It's enough. 

Morgan Bricca: [00:17:50] I think we have the same gremlin inside of ourselves, Adam, 

Adam Coelho: [00:17:54] you and I 

Morgan Bricca: [00:17:57] find that little guy in fared him 

Adam Coelho: [00:17:58] out someday.

Yeah. When you were talking in your podcast about writing the book, oh, I need a new computer. Oh, I need to go on this trip. Oh, I need to do this and then I can do it and then I'll do it. Like I totally resonate with, I was like, that is what I'm doing,  Oh, I'll just take care of these things that are easier.

Okay. And it's just for me, it's like running away from something that's important. Like I like doing this, I don't love the editing. I'm hearing the conversation that I had and re and hearing it again, it learning it. And so why am I running away? 

Morgan Bricca: [00:18:27] So there was this moment where I was driving home from work and I always had to work late.

I was in it. So I worked on the wings. I worked early and I worked late. I was just overworking. One day I got off at five, which was like early for me. And I'm rushing down the highway and there's this clunker in front of me with a ladder on top. And I'm like, God. Why do people like that get in the middle lane?

It's going to going 55, so I'm going to go around him. And this guy is just chilled out and he side of his car said mural magic guy. And I was like, That's a silly thing to do for work, like who's that guy. But then I was like, gosh, he looks relaxed. Like it was like black and white, my energy and his energy.

I was rushing home to start enjoying my day, to really relax. I was rushing home anyway. He was just driving on the freeway. And that, that was interesting. It's interesting. I remember that. And I did end up, connecting with him many years later and like saying, Hey, I think you inspired me on the freeway.

One time. The point being that when I started painting murals, I continued to bring. My mindset of rush and worry are just like, it's like when you go on vacation and there you are. The thing is with the fire stuff, people are going to retire and then there they are. And the same person who's there today is going to be there.

And unless they really just do the work now. To unpeel, all that grasping and striving is huge. It's a huge onion that I have. I'm like, I should have, if I had a crown was, Hey striver right here,  and it's  no, that's not helping you. And being able to unwind that's where the mindfulness comes in and giving us that you're enough.

Right here. You don't have to do anything. And I think that's the psychological meeting ourselves right in the moment because I didn't change. I brought that same hustle, the same long work hours, the same stress out Morgan driving too fast. When I was five years into painting nails. And I knew it at the time.

I was like, I keep acting like this. Why am I doing this? I'm painting kids' rooms, listening to the classical music, like painting fairies on the wall. They have no, excuse I, no excuse. So the irony is just always there. And I still feel that, I can retire anytime. Everything is a choice right now. If I retire right now, my metrics are I'd have to sell the house.

So I'm working these years so that I could choose to stay in this house. And I'm not even sure that's a high priority for me, but the market  is here where I can make an impact, not just for selling, but for painting murals. If I was in a small town, there's a lot of reasons why I've decided this is a great place for me to be at service.

So I stay, but I forget all the time that Hey. He's up that's necessary. So my friends, yeah. We used to run around the track. We worked out together for a few years. I can't even name names cause I don't know. But she had somebody who was also top dog at Google and she said, Disney, no, he's already made it.

He doesn't need to work so hard. He can just start relaxing. Doesn't he understand that? And I'm like so yeah, I guess it happens at all salons. You can make it to the very top of the very top and you're still going to be in unhappy urgency if that's your mode. Also, the other thing to say is I live in Los Altos.

Lot of wealthy people, a lot of work. They don't love, they don't feel like they have the choices, but I will say no matter how much you have, you can always feel like you don't have enough. 

Adam Coelho: [00:21:47] Absolutely. Yeah. And so how did you in your life start easing up a little bit? It sounds like, of course it's going to still rear its head.

You've got 25, 30, 40 years of practice. Of doing that as do I, so like how did you start to ease up? 

Morgan Bricca: [00:22:08] Yeah, it is really, I've been focusing. A lot. The last five years, I have ease and joy every day. I try to find that in my body, during meditation, I try to find the points that I start to.

It's the, how I do everything. It's, that's the mindfulness practice. That's like the crux of it. How can I practice? Remind myself? Returned to that throughout the day and also embrace and forgive myself. So actually I'll just throw it out there. A book I read this last year that has really made an impact on me is I think it's a really ridiculously bane old title.

It's called self-compassion by Kristin Neff, but it's so much about showing up for yourself right in the present. And then you're not projecting and grasping and you can actually, all those things, like just caring for yourself right there, giving yourself that right in that moment and being tender on yourself, those principles I saw, like in the last two years, I've done workshops with her and read the book.

There's 

Adam Coelho: [00:23:09] that investment in yourself again, there it is. Again. That's awesome. Yeah.  It's ongoing, and it's, every time I, make some progress, then I forget about something else I learned. And then I relearn that lesson. It's like you were saying right. With the craftsmanship, right?

Like it's a lifelong pursuit. So what's the rush I'm like notorious for setting ridiculous goals. Like I'm going to work out five days a week. How many days do I currently work out? Zero. But I'm going to work out five for sure. And then I don't, then I miss one day and I'm like, I'm such a loser, man. Then I'm just like, feeling terrible about, of not doing this thing that no one's making me do.

It's the same thing with the podcast, right? Like I set this schedule like, Oh, I want to release every other week. I just made that up. Why am I feeling all this pressure on myself for something that's supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be for learning and growth. And then I'm like beating myself up for not doing it, which makes me feel bad.

And then I don't want to do it because I feel bad. It's like, why am I doing this to me? 

Morgan Bricca: [00:24:08] Yeah. But what happens is the amount of time that you spend in that space will shorten and it'll lessen. And so we continue to fall in, but you guys, you said you're retreading the same lessons when you stumble over the aha again, my 11th grader was telling me her study strategies last night. And I was like, Oh, every single point was exactly salient to the ways that I had tripped up that very day. She was like, starting small increments, don't expect too much don't be a perfectionist, combat perfectionism or don't try to, it was like everything.

I was like, Oh yeah, I know all those. And we forget. But also as we go along, we don't ha we can't get perspective on ourselves, the way that we have grown. And I'm pretty sure that at this point, you don't completely get identified with your thoughts or your fears, or, the we're laughing right now.

We're laughing at this person and the way we are, that's the first step to recognition. And we don't follow that all the way down to speeding 55 down the road and gripping and texting. And there's some people that can't get any space and spend longer in it and more intense. So that's the progress and we're probably just further along and it's great.

We can laugh at it. It's a 

Adam Coelho: [00:25:20] great point. Like it is really hard to see the progress because I'm in it. But when I think back to how. You know how I used to just spend hours and hours just ruminating, ruminating. I can't believe I said that. I can't believe I did that right now. It's just Oh, there it is.

Again. I'm ruminating. Okay. Like I can recognize it and then just okay, let me set it aside. It'll be back in five minutes, but let me for now I'm going to put it aside 

Morgan Bricca: [00:25:48] self-compassion piece. So for like me, I tend to be very future oriented. So I'm really a planner and I'll ruminate in the future. And so it's part of the reason probably I got why I got into F I stuff fire early on, but the self-compassion of going, Oh yeah.

That's. How your mind switched your mind state to make you feel safe? I understand that there's room for that to be okay. We're going to time it, 20 minutes every day. I'm going to let you just fly forward on your magic carpet and make plans and put it on place. And then we're going to close that and we're just going to be present again.

I understand, it's like managing yourself really with kindness and not getting down on yourself and the tools you learn through meditation. They're just, that's it. That'll take you all the way to unwinding everything. 

Adam Coelho: [00:26:32] Say a little more about that.  What tools specifically like, and maybe talk a little bit about what your practice looks like if you don't 

Morgan Bricca: [00:26:38] mind.

So I meditate 20 minutes a day, and then the last six years I've been part of an embodiment meditation group. We meet once a month and then have some workshops. I take workshops occasionally, and sometimes I meditate more, but I think it's more important. If you can start to integrate this. What you're working on throughout the day.

So I'm understanding that the meditation is a training for my ability to stay present and aware of. Emotions thoughts. There's so many layers to it. You can feel your own awareness. You can feel where things are in your body. You can work into intuition, but the thing is, so I think the thoughts anointing, the thoughts, that's like the level one.

And when you start meditating and when I want to start something new, like when I want to read the book, I want to write the podcast. You can't believe how mean these thoughts are, who are you and what do you think you're doing? You don't know anything. This is never gonna work, and it's to be able to look at those thoughts, set them aside and say, yeah, but are they true?

Are they useful? You can separate out. That's how you unwind truth, like what's actually going on in life versus what your brain is trying to keep you safe, just operating off of a default. And why did that, that unwinding goes all the way to the bottom. And then once the thoughts being layer one, as you can unwind that and create more space and like your train, your attention, that's when you can actually.

Experience a liveliness and joy as an inherent blooming within you. The thoughts is where we get trapped, but there's also just a training of steadiness and you can bring that steadiness into relating and bring us stickiness into the tasks, trusting myself as I paint, I show up to project all the time.

I have no idea how it's going to come up. I don't know what I'm going to paint today. And then I just trust myself. I trust, the experience and. It's like this dance, where you're in the present in life. That's the, where the goal is to spend more time in that space. Yeah.

Adam Coelho: [00:28:44] Definitely resonates with me. The is specifically the trusting in myself and in my experience, not experiences in like my resume, but what's actually happening right now. Yeah. I spent a lot of time thinking when I think in my head, I'm like, it's I'm trying to explain myself to somebody. I don't know if that makes sense, there's some right way of doing it.

And some nebulous judge is there and I'm trying to plead my case to this judge that I'm doing it. And it's just always there. It's just I keep coming back to what, who am I explaining myself to? 

Morgan Bricca: [00:29:18] So you know about this Enneagram stuff. Do you know the Enneagram?

Adam Coelho: [00:29:21] I'm familiar. I know of it. I don't know. I haven't dove into it. Russ 

Morgan Bricca: [00:29:26] Hudson has been a couple of the last wisdoms I've been like, trying to figure out when you said you really liked to be of service. And I think he's a two. And then when you said, there's this judge during these Oh, maybe he's a one, or maybe he's a one with a two wig, I don't want to get into it.

But the thing is we also have default personalities that we don't have a ton of control over. And the meditation gives you space to be like that's how I show up. There's other people in the personality chart that you're like, Oh, I know those people. And I'm glad I'm not like them. I feel safe where I am.

I feel safe knowing I'm. Earning my goodness or my merit, like that's, that makes sense to my world organization. And we can grow with on that, within that. But the meditation is that's part of Adam. That's probably not going to go away and just working skillfully with that. Just being humble around that.

 There's nothing wrong with that. It's crazy. I know that everyone has a crazy, that's just, maybe it's an Enneagram personality, maybe it's whatever, and it's not something to fight at all. 

Adam Coelho: [00:30:24] It's just noticing and being curious about it, right? What is this? Oh, there it is. Again, like for the longest time I didn't even notice that.

I noticed from meditating that there's a self-critic that's there. Okay. And then that kind of morphed into this like idea of there's some right way to be doing things. And I'm certainly not doing it that way, so I'm not good enough then that grew into this awareness of Oh yeah.

Like I'm always like explaining. Even in my own head, like I'm trying to be right. And explain that I'm right. To 

Morgan Bricca: [00:30:53] somebody you sound like me. I think we're both. I think we're both one. 

Adam Coelho: [00:30:58] Yeah. Is that right? Okay. I'll have to look up what that means. And 

Morgan Bricca: [00:31:01] here's the thing is every personality has enormous strengths.

So figuring out for you on the other side of that, wanting to be right. Things like integrity are really going to resonate with you. We have high ideals. If I said we like as if we're one, the kind of personality that beats himself up and is, has it hard internal critic is because that's because they want to fix themselves before they get anybody else finds out.

So it's like on the other side of that, we are very meticulous with our work and aspirational and driven, and there's a lot of idealism. That anyway. So with your personality structure, it's once you start to embrace it, you navigate it into the healthy zones. And when it gets unhealthy, you're like, that's okay.

That's part of the package. That's part of why I'm self-disciplined or why I'm, some other aspects. Yeah. That 

Adam Coelho: [00:31:54] makes sense. How can people find you online and find more about what you're working on? 

Morgan Bricca: [00:31:58] I would love to invite people. You said you've been reading my blog since you met me.

And I do put out a blog every month. It's about art. It's also about what I'm thinking about, and I think that's a great way for people to get to know me, get a little inspiration. It's only once a month. That's a great place to start. I'm also on Instagram at Morgan dot murals. That studios. That's a good place to DM me and just see visually the kind of walls I've been working on recently.

Yeah. And my book is coming out. So if you're subscribed to my blog or follow me on Instagram, you're going to get updates on them. 

Adam Coelho: [00:32:32] And you also have a podcast, right? 

Morgan Bricca: [00:32:34] Yes, I, so I have gotten more excited. I've been evolving in my career from residential to more and more public murals. And I see that there's.

Like gaps of information or like mural painting is like the wild West. It's a new fad actually. It's even in the last five years gained a lot of popularity with Instagram. Placemaking is now like the big word in public. Also now with the political grassroots movement, people really finding voice in their communities.

I put it on the wall. So I really feel like there is a lot of attention going towards mural art, but there's not. A lot of information about best practices, funding, approvals, those kinds of things. So the podcast was an attempt to bridge that. So I'm interviewing art advocates, like how did you get mural art into your community artists and how you do this?

That's those are interesting. And art commissioners, like the director of public art, so that. And so the book is actually. Along those lines also with helping artists learn to make a business out of it and best practices. So I think the blog and the podcast focuses on murals and it focuses on Bay area, but it's much broader than that too.

So it's called, if these walls could talk Stitcher, Apple, iTunes, whatever. 

Adam Coelho: [00:33:57] Awesome. I'll put links to your website, your Instagram, the podcast in the show notes for today's episode. Which you can find@mindfulfire.org. Thank you so much, Morgan. It's been wonderful chatting with you and I look forward to talking with 

Morgan Bricca: [00:34:12] you soon.

Oh, my gosh, I've loved this conversation. I could talk to you all day and it's really been a pleasure. Thanks for having me on. Thanks again 

Adam Coelho: [00:34:20] to Morgan for joining me on today's show. And if you've got value from today's show, please make sure to hit subscribe. If you haven't done so already, this just lets the providers know you're getting value from the show and you want to be here when we produce additional content.

If you're listening to this on Apple podcast, I'd really appreciate if you could leave a five star review, which helps more people find out about the podcast. And if you'd like to join my mailing list, please do so@mindfulflyer.org. Thank you again for joining me and I'll catch you next time.