Hey everyone. Welcome back to the screenwriting life. I'm Meg Lofov. And I'm Lori Ann McKenna. And today we're diving into something that comes up all the time on this show and in the lives of pretty much every creative person, imposter syndrome. Every artist has dealt with that nagging voice that whispers, you're not good enough, you don't belong here, all that worry that someone can figure out that you're a

fraud. It's a feeling that even the most accomplished creative struggle with, and it can quietly

sabotage our confidence, our process, and even our joy. To help us unpack why this happens and how to

work through it, we're joined today by Madeline Blow, a counselor, teacher, and healer based in Los Angeles.

Madeline's work blends modern counseling with time-honored healing traditions she's learned from

mentors across the Americas and Africa. For more than 40 years, she's helped individuals,

couples, and creative communities reconnect with their authentic selves, release old patterns,

and build lives that connect to their deepest creative self.

This will be a two-part conversation.

In the first part, we're going to explore where imposter syndrome comes from and how it impacts

our work and the deeper instinctual threads that lead us back to our creative selves.

We'll also hear from Joe Forte, Meg's writing partner, about the power of insight

in storytelling. Both parts of this conversation are rich and honest and go places we don't often

get to explore here on the show. So, Madeline, welcome to the show. Thank you. It's an honor to be here.

It's a very special episode for me. I've known Madeline for many years, and she's helped and supported and guided me personally in many, many ways.

So very special that she's here with us.

She has also agreed to participate in our weeks or what we like to call Adventures in Screenwriting.

So, Lorian, why don't you kick us out?

So this week for me started out really creatively strong. I was focused. And then I had to take a

break from my writing because a lot of family stuff, a lot of, you know, businessy stuff that

took a lot longer than I thought it would. But one of the things that came up was my daughter's in eighth grade, and so we are applying for high schools. We're looking at all our options, and one of them is this private school that she really wants to attend. And yesterday was the family interview. So, you know, my daughter's very nervous, and she and her little friends at Lut little friends, these gorgeous, amazing, beautiful spirits, these 13-year-old girls, are helping her practice or firing questions at her at lunch. So she comes really prepared. And right before we go in there, I'm like, remember, this is about you being you. Don't try to tell him what you think he wants to hear in the interview. And as she's going in to meet with him, I say, it's your interview too. You get to interview him. So she has her meeting. My husband and I go in and then he asked us

some questions and then he starts to tell us about her answers. And he said, one of the things I

...