Girls Next Poor
Girls Next Poor is the podcast for every creative trying to make magic on a budget. Hosted by influencer Vanessa Symoné and comedian Mimi Hayes, we’re two 30-something women navigating the chaos of chasing dreams while also trying to pay bills, stay sane, and avoid comparing ourselves to everyone on Instagram.
Each week, we get real about the highs, lows, and hilarious in-betweens of being a creative in your 30s—money struggles, identity crises, burnout, big wins, plot twists, and all the messy art that happens along the way. If you’ve ever wondered how to build a creative life without losing your mind (or your wallet), you’re in the right place.
Girls Next Poor
EP23: Creative Distractions
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Ever have a dream so big you get so scared you have to binge an entire season of a comfort show? Or doom scroll on social media? Or go on a bunch of first dates? This, my friends, is what we’re calling a “Creative Distraction.” Or something you do to distract and self-soothe when your dreams feel too big and too scary. This week we come clean about what we do to wiggle out of our big dreams, and make a plan to get back on track.
Welcome back.
SPEAKER_02Welcome back, darling.
SPEAKER_01Darling, my name is Mimi Hay.
SPEAKER_02My name is Vanessa Simone.
SPEAKER_01We should do an episode fully in an accent. We should just do a full episode while we're really unhinged.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we also need to do like a drunken episode where we drink wine and just drinking episode. Go in go ham at it.
SPEAKER_00Go ham. Okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02No editing, and you know we don't edit it.
SPEAKER_00You know we don't edit this. Oh my god. Okay. It's so funny because every time we're about to hit record, we're laughing about something stupid.
SPEAKER_01And wait, wait, record it, record it, record it, record it. Get it out of the camera. She just looks at me and goes, Donald, what you doing? You doing? How you doing? Oh my god, what are we doing today?
SPEAKER_02Oh, we got a topic for you. We are talking about creative distractions.
SPEAKER_00Now, how did this come to pass? How did we decide that this was gonna be an episode?
SPEAKER_02Oh, I'm laughing because I kind of forgot.
SPEAKER_01Oh, so I was hoping you would say it. Okay.
SPEAKER_00I think I called you out on something. I said, Are you distracting yourself because you're scared? Because you don't want to do it. That's what it was. I can't remember what it was, though. I know. That's it. But you were saying, you were saying something like, Oh, okay, this is what it was.
SPEAKER_02So I'm trying to move to LA, California. It's daunting for me because it just is. You know, and I'm doing a whole career change, all of the things. And I noticed that I distract myself from doing the things that I needed to do when it comes to my creativity because I'm scared of how big this change is going to be. So I do a lot of Denver events, which I don't really is not the thing that I love doing right now. Or like, I'll go just go to an opening or go to this or go to that. And like it gets me distracted from what I should be doing in the moment that I'm trying to make this change for myself. And so that's when, yeah, that's what you were calling me out on.
SPEAKER_00And I was like, Yeah, you're a book club.
SPEAKER_02Yes, dear, okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so we're in the artist way book club, which we've been a bit distracted lately. We need to catch up on our reading.
SPEAKER_02The four of us, there's four of us, right?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's four of us need to get our ish together because um, but we were doing the artist way book club, and something came up, and you know, you were like, I really need to stop. Like, you called yourself on it too. You're like, I need to stop going to these, like, I don't want to go to a dive bar opening. I don't even like dive bars. Like, what am I? I'm just doing this because I'm a Denver influencer, but like I'm about to be an LA influencer. Like, I should be contacting LA bars, LA hotels, LA this, you know. Um, but I can totally relate to that because I do that all the time. I do it in a variety of ways. A, I probably have a little bit of a um spend some money on myself distraction where I'm like, oh, it's time to spend $300 at Sephora because I'm a sad sack.
SPEAKER_02Check out the last episode. You'll get in on the joke.
SPEAKER_00You'll see, you'll see. Um, or I will be on my phone. Social media is a big distraction for me.
SPEAKER_02Yes.
SPEAKER_00Um, and then I'll get caught up in like the minutiae of like a thing, like a task, or you know, during the day I will like take a depression nap instead of looking for jobs in LA, or instead of putting up a podcast episode, or sending an email to a literary agent. Like these are things I need to do them. Um, and they're things that I love. Like it's it's interesting too because you're like, I love doing this thing, yeah. But why am I so scared? Like, I'm so scared of it. So I like dis, I like back away like a you know, scared animal, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know why we do that, but now it's time for you to reflect on what are some of the things in your life that you're distracting yourself that you should be working on creatively, whether it's further furthering your life or your vision or your goals, but you're distracted and you might not realize that you've been using that as a distraction because I do the same thing as well. And it's so interesting because yesterday I had probably one of the most productive days I've had in a really long time. I didn't even wasn't even on social media, which that was nice too. Even though I didn't have any blockers, I just had so much creative things to do that I realized, girl, you don't even have time to be wasting time with how big your dreams are, you know. That really brought things to perspective because I think it was yeah, like 6 a.m. got to the gym, did my whole gym morning routine, then did all my creative emails, even sent out some stuff for LA and everything, and then did I did a bunch of stuff and then edited videos for YouTube, and I was thinking, oh my gosh, I went to bed at like 2 a.m. And so it's like when you're working on your dreams, you really don't have the time to be the distracted in a way. You don't have the luxury, you don't have the luxury because it yeah because your dreams are so big, when are they gonna get done? Yeah, when are they gonna get done? Like your every waking moment has to be toward it in some way, shape, or form.
SPEAKER_00You know, one of my biggest distractions is dating, it's online dating, and I, you know, God bless my old ass iPhone, which has like five gigs of storage ever, because I keep running out of storage space, so I keep deleting my apps, and so I was actually I think I was in I was doing my keynotes. I did a bunch of keynote addresses, and I needed to download this app so I could charge people's credit cards to buy my book, but I didn't have enough space, so I was like, bye-bye, dating apps, and I just took them off, and then I forgot about them. And give me a few more months, and the anxiety will hit me that we're trying to get to LA, and I will probably re-download them again. And that infuriates me because it is such a waste of time, it's such a waste of time, and it never produces what I want it to, which is the love of my life. He's not on a flippin' dating app, he's certainly not in Colorado, he's probably not even in the United States, so it's not worth it to me, but it's such a a good addiction because all you do is swipe and judge people, you just judge people and you just get you're fueled by this, it's just so addicting, and they make they make the phones, they make the apps addicting, they make them charge you money too.
SPEAKER_02Like, yeah, they make it's so second nature too because you just open it up and swipe, swipe, swipe, or me, I'm scroll, scroll, scroll. Because I I spent so many hours on TikTok last week, I was like, dear God. So, yeah, it is a major distraction, but I think it's means that once you can figure out your distraction, it's time to see the reasoning why, kind of to address these fears, right? You have to just do it freaking scared, you have to do it all of these, do it with whatever emotion that you have. But also, I think it's you have to remind yourself that, or at least I have to remind myself that I know I'm not living the life I want, but literally that is on the other side of the fear, of the other side. The life I want is on the other side of the fear that I'm feeling, the scaredness, the tiredness, the all of it, it is on the other side. And I I've actually been reading Emma Greed's book, and she talks about that because she says, you know, she's helped build out a bunch of fashion brands, and she says, you know, I do it terrified, but she says that whenever she knows that there's this sense of fear in her, this healthy fear, right? It's almost like you have to have discernment between the bad fear, like, oh, I'm being chased by an animal or you know, some creepy person, versus the fear that is good for you. Because she says, whenever I get that feeling, it means that there's something on the other side that I'm supposed to be exploring. And so that really has stuck with me since reading that two weeks, two days ago. Um, because we have those fears, but it's it's because it might be something that you're worth, you need to explore, right? And then the fear part is getting over, is just kind of getting over it. Because it all it never ends up as bad as we ever girl.
SPEAKER_00When I say when we moved to New York City, I I was like, I have six months to live. I was like so apocalyptic about it. I was like, I'm gonna get hit by a taxi, I'm gonna die, I'm gonna go bankrupt. And you know, I kind of did go bankrupt. That part is true. Like, I made terrible financial decisions, but like, you know, it wasn't that bad. I lasted three years. I got a book deal, I got, you know, into comedy festivals, I was performing, I headlined for my favorite comedian in the whole world. Like a lot of things I couldn't have even told myself were gonna happen. And I'm gonna believe I don't believe you. That's not true. You can't even conceptualize or wrap your head around the opportunities that are on the other side of that fear. You know, so when you distract yourself, you're doing yourself a disservice because if you could just say, listen, I know it's gonna scare the shit out of me, but I'm gonna spend five minutes sending those emails today, just five. Five minutes. That's how I start things. Yeah, just five minutes. Five minutes. That's all you have to commit to. And nine times out of ten, you blow past 2 a.m. You know, and you've been doing it for hours and you don't even get up to go to the bathroom. You're so committed to this task, you know. Please take care of your body. But like, you know, you know what I'm saying? You're in the flow, you're in a flow state. And so to access your flow state, you have to get over yourself and that fear that and the fear could be anything. It could be it could be I'm afraid of running out of money. That's my biggest fear, or I'm afraid I'm not good enough. I'm afraid it's too late. I'm afraid everyone else is better than me. Um, I'm afraid I'm a liar, you know, I I am not as talented as I think I am. Um really shout out, shout out right here to Noah Khan. Uh big, big Noah Khan. She's been talking about him all so we should reach out to him. It feels like, but the past five days, his his new album came out on Friday. And um a documentary about him also came out um around the same time. And so I listened to the album on loop and then I watched the documentary, and he's such a stereotypical artist. Like, one of his biggest fears is like not being relevant anymore. Um, and now this is a man who is the most like famous musician, had the quickest you know, rise to to celebrity status I've ever seen from 2020. Now we're in 2026, and he's got Netflix documentaries, second album, um, plays Fenway Park, Red Rocks, every single big venue, you know. And I actually I had a sad girl album when I was in New York City, and I made it, I was I would make albums on Spotify that were like my feelings, and he was on there in 2018 before Stixie. Before he blew up before he blew up. Um, and it sounds so different than him now because he's like matured as an artist, and anyway, he has all the same fears that I have. You know, he's just like, I'm not gonna be relevant, I'm not actually that good. Or my favorite was like, Can I actually create things if I'm not sad anymore?
SPEAKER_04That's a good fear.
SPEAKER_00Like, he has to go back to his like hometown and like be in a sad boy state to write this sad music that all of us relate to. And he's like, I live in Nashville and I have a nice house, and I have a fiance, and I have nice things, and two dogs, and like I'm successful, but like, can I still create if I'm like happy? You know, like I think about that.
SPEAKER_02Like, can I still impact as many people if I'm now happy? And that's I that's actually one of my fears, too. Is am I not do I not have enough struggle for me to have a good story? That's my fear, yeah.
SPEAKER_00That's interesting. Yeah, there's definitely something behind that that you can explore.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I don't know what it is because now that you say it, I'm like, my mind, yeah. But yeah, I need to explore that. But it's all that's therapy. Yeah, that's for therapy. I mean, yeah, you don't want to be my therapist. Um, but it's so interesting because we have all of these fears and all of these things that our brains gravitate toward keeping us safe, and keeping us safe is keeping us in that comfort zone. And so it's almost you have to build the capacity to allow your nervous system to experience those healthy fears over and over again. So the practicing of even the five minutes of sending emails, or even the taking a call with somebody who you know could lead to a new opportunity, or even sending out these pitch decks, or starting to write your book, or starting to write your screenplay, or whatever it is, and realizing that each and every one of these steps kind of helps build your capacity for the uncomfortable and for your tolerance for overcoming fear, pretty much. Because me too. I'm like in LA, I'm like, I'm gonna have to live in a dump. I'm gonna have to live on Skid Row. I'm gonna have to do this, like oh never done that, right? And you're here, you know, you're alive.
SPEAKER_01I didn't die, I lived off of Skid Row.
SPEAKER_02She's alive, y'all. And so it's like our brains tell us all these things, and then they end up not nearly as bad as we were expecting.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think sometimes because I'm so impulsive, I like I'm ignoring the fear. Yes, like I'm not confronting it and be like, you're scared, and it's okay to be scared, and like there's a reason why you're scared is because it's exciting, you know. Um, anxiety and excitement are similar in your brain makeup, they're similar parts of your brain. So when you're nervous, you could actually also be excited, right? I think someone told me that right before I got on stage for my TED talk. I was like, I'm so fucking anxious, and she's like, You're excited. I was like, okay, but really I'm anxious. You're like, okay. She's like, no, but you're excited. You're excited too, you know. So if you can make that shift in your head to be like, hey, this is exciting. This is something that's gonna be good for me, it's gonna be hard, but I'm gonna survive it and I'm gonna learn new things, and I'm gonna learn things the hard way, like getting my car towed two days in a row, because LA parking is no fucking joke.
SPEAKER_02No joke.
SPEAKER_00And the feeling of fear of like, where the hell is my car? Like, I parked it right there and now it's gone. Like, that's a real situation you may have to deal with. And guess what? You spend the money, you go get it from the parking garage, and you move on. And happens the next day, and you're like, god damn it, and then you move on again, and then you do it again, and you know, it just builds character, is what I'm trying to say.
SPEAKER_02And you know, and build stories because it builds your stories as an artist as well. Because anytime you've gone or overcome a fear of something, it adds to your story, adds to the depth of who you are, and it makes you a more interesting person when you've done those things too.
SPEAKER_00So um I want to talk about like when you wake up to the fact that you've been doing this behavior. Because I feel like a lot of people maybe don't even recognize or maybe affronted by this episode and be like, what are you talking about? I'm totally fine, nothing's wrong with me. Like, yes, I'm sure that's true, but also there may come a time when you actually wake up to the fact that you've been like almost intentionally screwing yourself over. And I feel like that moment for me came last fall. We're now in April, this probably happened in September. And it was just a simple conversation with a friend. I talked to my best friend all the time. Um shout out Krista. Shout out Krista for real. Um, but she says something like, you know, I don't think you're happy, or you don't seem happy, or you haven't been happy in a long time. It was something about that, and I just like started sobbing, and I was like, Yeah. Cause I'm not because I'm not, and I haven't even acknowledged that or been able to see that because I've been like defaulting. And when I say default, I mean I just like go with the flow. I just go with the motions of I let life happen to me, I take jobs, I do what's expected, I live at my parents' house, I just go with a flow instead of like making a plan, like following my dreams and my goals, and like or taking those little steps to get you out of that. Because I didn't have a path. I literally for three years didn't have a path. Um, and it's only been very recently that I'm like that this whole LA thing has even come to pass, is because you know, started to think about like what I actually want to do. But sometimes it takes a while to like be confronted with like what you actually want to do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um I spoke to someone the other day at a baby shower who I was like, oh yeah, like because she was um unemployed, she was she had left corporate nine to five, and I was like, Oh yeah, do you are you working on anything or do you have any goals? Or she's like, No, I don't know. I'm not really passionate about anything. And I was like, huh? And I was like, girl, now's the perfect time. Yeah, you just quit. Her husband was sit sitting right there and you know, standing right there, and I was like, you know, now is the time that you should be trying to find what you're passionate about. I said, take a pottery class, start crocheting super badly, watch a new TV show, you know, draw like color, like plant, garden. Like now's the time when you're unemployed. And she was kind of like of the opinion that she'll she'll just end back up in corporate. And I was like, no, no, I don't think so. And then it took me talking about my story being a teacher, and she was like, Maybe I uh maybe I could be a teacher, and I was like, see, you there is something there. There's something there, there's something that you're excited about that you don't even know you're excited about until you start talking with someone, and um, that's the importance of sharing vulnerably and telling stories because I was telling her, Yeah, I used to be a teacher and now I'm not, but like, you know, I still teach in a lot of ways and educate people. I've always been an educator, you know. Try as I might to get around it, that's just who I am. Um, and she was kind of like, huh. She was intrigued by that. Yeah, you know, so I was like, please don't go back to corporate, please go get it, you know, figure out what you want to do.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, now's your time to try any and everything. Um, yeah, I think for me, that moment was honestly when I was in Africa. I know I sound like, oh my god, she brings up Africa all the time.
unknownI love it.
SPEAKER_02Well, it was very life-changing because I was, I remember just staring into the eyes of this elephant, and it's really close to me. And I'm just sitting there after thinking all this, thinking about how simultaneously, while we're sitting here speaking, that elephant is just roaming Africa living, right? My elephant soulmate is just living. There's animals out there who are just roaming, living. There's literally lions, all of these things doing just their way of life. And I was like, everything we do is stupid. Everything we do is stupid, it's all stupid. And I was like, why do I care so much about the things that I care about that don't matter to me, right? Why am I caring? Why am I just settling in my life for a lot of these things that I'm just settling for? And that made me realize it's because I'm scared that I'm gonna be able to be successful on my own merit, on my own with get doing the things that I love doing. But then I realized too, I'm actually I suck at doing things I hate. Or I don't, if I don't care about them, I suck at it. There, I know there are so many people out there who are like, work hard, do this. I don't work hard unless I love it. I only I am only I came up with the realization I am very, very good at the things I love. If I love it, I will do the best at it, I will excel at it, I am incredible. But if I don't care about it, or if I don't think that it matters, I give it nothing. And so it's so funny because that was a huge realization for me, and now has been part of like this move too. Is like there's so much more to life than that you need to just go do, just go be. And really, it also made me realize that I need to take a chance on myself and take a chance on me being who I am to my core and allowing that to be my life. And I guess to elaborate on that, is I feel like in corporate, everybody is just faking it, it's a stupid simulation. Where everybody's pretending, right? But they can't be who they actually want to be in corporate because corporate is under the patriarchy. It makes you rigid, it makes you someone who you're not, and you're basically bullshitting your way of how you actually are. You can't express yourself the way you want to do, you can't do any of that. And I feel like I now need to take a chance on myself, first of all, finding who my true self is, and then being able to make a living off of that. And I think that that was what scares me. But as I'm sitting there in Africa and I'm like, it all doesn't matter anymore. So I feel like I don't care as much anymore, but I still do care. I don't know. That was no, it's a balance.
SPEAKER_00I think that's exactly it. Because like I feel like the harder I try for something, the least likely I am to get it because I care too much about it. I'm like, I really want it, I really want to do that. And then it's like nah, no, you can't have it. And I'm like, okay. But like when I throw something out, and I just kind of absently and like, oh, let's give it a try. I'll just throw out this podcast episode, just throw out this, just apply, just just put myself there.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, whatever.
SPEAKER_00It always yields better results. It always yields better results when I just take a chance on myself instead of like sitting there and you know, just oh just I really want it, you know. Just really, yeah. Um, you know, you you can't tell what the universe has in store for you, but you're right that nothing matters. Like nothing. We are floating, we're on a floating rock in space and our bodies are made of mostly water.
SPEAKER_02Like yeah, and watching Artemis from their photos of us from the universe made me realize what the hell are we doing? Like, I don't know. It it was kind of a midlife crisis or something in a way, because I'm looking at this picture of Earth that the astronauts have. I'm thinking about how all these things are simultaneously going on in the world, and I'm just like, it doesn't matter. So you might as well do your thing, do your art, do the thing that you want to do, and just do it because freaking doesn't matter. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Someone told me once, a friend of mine said there's someone out there who has half the talent that you have, a quarter, a quarter, an eighth, girl, a twelfth. Girl, they can't even you have more talent in your pinky finger than they do in their whole body. And you know what? They're moving forward and not you. Do you know why?
SPEAKER_02Because they have twice the courage or twice the drive, you know, twice the discipline or whatever it is to go be consistent and do the things, exactly, you know, and that scares me because I'm like, oh my god, you know, like because I know I'm talented, I know it to it, I know it.
SPEAKER_00Like when we talk about each other and we like to do it. You're a celebrity, you're a celebrity.
SPEAKER_02Exactly. We do that, and then but for some reason within us, we're not doing it, and so this is your sign to just go after what it is that you want.
SPEAKER_00Be your own hype girl, or if you can't, find someone who's gonna be your hype girl and hold let them hold you accountable, force them to hold you accountable to your dreams. Um, because there's nothing scarier than looking at your life and not recognizing it.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, you know, or being like, What? I didn't do anything for me. That scares me more than anything else. I think that's why I just I'm like, the things I just don't care about, I just don't care. But this, this I care about. The things I care about, I care about, and I do them. So yeah, because I think somebody had asked me, they're like, Vanessa, you do so many things. You work as this, you do that, and how do you do it? And I was like, I don't. The the what when you see me doing well on like social media or with my dreams, I suck at my job. When I do when I'm doing well in my job, I suck at following my dreams. Yeah, and so it's like there's no I don't. I I've come to admit, I just I'm not, I'm not doing it all. I'm doing what I feel is important in the moment, which is hard. And I want it to be fully more going after my dreams and my goals rather than things that I don't really care about. But like you need to care enough, right? Because of the world we live in.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and sometimes your things you care about change. Exactly. I thought I wanted to be a high school teacher my entire life. That was what I was gonna, I was gonna do it for 30 plus years. That was what I came into the world thinking.
SPEAKER_02I thought I wanted to be a mom.
SPEAKER_00And and you thought you and I did too.
SPEAKER_01Shit, I did too. I thought I'd have tons of kids.
SPEAKER_02I thought I'd have five kids and a husband. Oh that changed. Thank God.
SPEAKER_00And it's just not, it's not life. And you know, I think we live in a beautiful time where that is way more accepted than it was for our parents. For our parents, parents' parents. You know, you can be an artist, you can have multiple sources of income, you can travel the world, you can not have a home address, like you can be a digital nomad, you can rent out places and move every month, you know, and see the world. And the only thing that's truly stopping us is ourselves and how we think we're being perceived by others.
SPEAKER_02Exactly.
SPEAKER_00You know, are we gonna come off as crazy or they're gonna disagree?
SPEAKER_02Think that I'm a quitter, or think that I don't know, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_00It's all made up. It's all made up.
SPEAKER_02It doesn't matter what they do.
SPEAKER_00And most people are really only thinking about themselves anyway. We're all so wrapped up in our own lives that we can't step out of the matrix and look an elephant in the eye and be like, nothing matters. Like you need to have that experience so you can have like basically an ego death. Like I feel like it is an ego death because you're just like to the ego, nothing matters, like time to fuck shit up. Yeah, you just have to just let go and be like, now is the time. If not now, when if not who, if not me, who? Okay, I mess it up. I know what you mean. You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_02Say why not me?
SPEAKER_00Why not you? You know, and all these people you see in the world, artists, people you admire, celebrities, sports players, you know, they're just like you. They're just like you. And they just made a choice that you haven't been able to make for yourself yet, which is to go and do it, to go and try. And you're just never gonna know unless you try. You're never going to that's what scares me too, is like having regrets. I don't want to have regrets in this life. I don't want to grow older and wish I had done something that I was too scared to do, only to realize it's totally possible. There's no reason why you can't do it. Um and it's just a matter of focusing, understanding when you're distracting yourself because you're scared and you're trying to self-soothe because it's it's terrifying.
SPEAKER_02It's terrifying, so you're comforting yourself, like you said, self-soothing.
SPEAKER_00Sometimes it's eating, sometimes it's food, you know. Um, oh, this wasn't the artist way, actually. It totally was. And I laughed because she was like, Sometimes it's a sex addiction. I was like, not for me. Nobody in the DMs super dry up in here.
SPEAKER_02And I was like, I'm the opposite.
SPEAKER_00But you distract yourself with whatever is in front of you. That you make that scene important so that you can focus on that, and you don't have to pursue the big scary dream that could change your whole life and lead to the life that you actually want to live. You know?
SPEAKER_02I love that.
SPEAKER_00Love it. Oh. Oh, it's a hang.
SPEAKER_02She left me hanging, y'all.
SPEAKER_00I thought you were just like presenting me. You're like, oh, that is a queen. Thank you. You're welcome. Oh my god. Well, I really hope that you look at something you've been doing this week and ask yourself if it's a distraction and if there's something else you should be doing instead.
SPEAKER_02And that concludes this episode of The Girls Next War.
SPEAKER_00Bye.