Find Your Fire Again with Susie deVille
Season 9Episode 21

Find Your Fire Again with Susie deVille

July 21, 2026
rebelrebel podcastsusie devillecreativityentrepreneurshipinnovationmorning pagesjoie de vivreenergy managementcreative circadian rhythminspiration

In this episode, Michael Dargie welcomes Susie deVille — entrepreneur, coach, artist, and self-described "concrete chiseler in chief" — who joins from a mountain plateau at 4,118 feet in Highlands, North Carolina. Susie works with entrepreneurs, creators, and visionary leaders who feel stuck and riddled with self-doubt, helping them reconnect with their innate creativity and unlock who they truly are.

Her own path took a while to reveal itself. She studied anthropology, moved to Boston and then overseas for a career in publishing at HarperCollins, launched two nonprofits that are still running today, and became a real estate broker in 2001. It was during her master's studies that a class introduced her to the design firm IDEO, and, as she puts it, the top of her head came off. From that moment, all she wanted to do was understand innovation and creativity.

That curiosity became a lifeline. When the markets crashed, Susie's finances, her marriage, and her health all went "poof" at once — a stretch she calls her nuclear winter. Her instinct was to work harder, which only pulled her deeper into the quicksand. So she rebuilt everything from the studs up, leaning on a simple but radical idea borrowed from Paulo Coelho: inspiration means breathing in. Most of us, she says, have gold-medalled the exhale — the doing, the burning out, the gerbil wheel — while forgetting to take anything back in.

The conversation wanders happily from there. Susie explains her "creative circadian rhythm" and why she writes at three in the morning, when she can "take dictation from the divine." She shares the morning practices that bring her home to herself: Julia Cameron's morning pages, movement, inspired reading, and the one her clients resist most — making something with your hands, whether it's a quick sketch or a vat of gumbo. She and Michael also detour into Paris, flânerie, joie de vivre, and a plate of beef cheeks at Le Procope so good the entire waitstaff once gave her a round of applause.

Underneath the fun is a serious message about energy over productivity. We're brilliant at solving for time and discipline, Susie argues, and terrible at noticing the hidden energy loads behind every bold move, hard conversation, and new boundary. Heal and optimize your energy first, and the grand voyage becomes possible.

For the rebels in waiting, Susie offers a Joseph Campbell-flavoured reframe: the real work isn't the launch, it's the dragon of your becoming — your ability to tolerate uncertainty and keep going. Take good care of your energy and health, inspire yourself, keep a journal, and remember that your authentic, aligned self is the ultimate champion in any arena.

Key Takeaways

  • [00:44,000] What Susie Does | Helping stuck entrepreneurs and creators reconnect with their innate creativity.
  • [01:30,000] The Winding Path | Anthropology, publishing at HarperCollins, two nonprofits, and real estate.
  • [02:56,000] The Top of Her Head Comes Off | A grad-school class introduces her to IDEO and lights the fuse.
  • [04:03,000] Nuclear Winter | The crash takes her finances, marriage, and health all at once.
  • [05:00,000] Learning to Inhale | Inspiration means breathing in — not just the endless exhale.
  • [07:33,000] Not the Artistic One | Why she believed she "missed the art genes" — and why that's false.
  • [09:00,000] Cracking the Concrete | Sketching, watercolour, and mixed media start to reveal the authentic her.
  • [10:20,000] Concrete Chiseler in Chief | An archaeological dig of the self that's energizing and fun.
  • [11:38,000] Why Paris | Feeling instantly at home, joie de vivre, and artfully designed days.
  • [16:11,000] Getting Lost on Purpose | The French idea of the flâneur and surrendering to serendipity.
  • [18:32,000] The Art of Doing Nothing | Energy over productivity, and the hidden loads we never notice.
  • [21:28,000] Creative Circadian Rhythm | Finding the hours when your best thinking actually shows up.
  • [23:00,000] Morning Practices | Morning pages, movement, inspired learning, and making something.
  • [27:51,000] Beef Cheeks at Le Procope | The Paris dish that earned her a standing ovation.
  • [31:25,000] Advice for Rebels in Waiting | The dragon of your becoming and tolerating uncertainty.
Transcript
Michael Dargie (00:00.636) Welcome to the Rebel Rebel. I'm your host Michael Jargi and somewhere around the world we're going to find out where please welcome to the show Suzy DeVille. Suzy, how are you? Susie DeVille (00:10.047) am terrific. I'm so happy to be here. Michael Dargie (00:12.401) I'm so happy you're here too! Where are you in the world right now? Susie DeVille (00:15.826) I am in a beautiful mountain resort community called Highlands, the western part of the state of North Carolina. Michael Dargie (00:24.743) Wow! Do you have proper mountains down there? Susie DeVille (00:28.142) We do. I'm at 4,118 feet on top of a plateau. Michael Dargie (00:32.721) Wow. that's so nice. Right on. And so just sort of catch us up, Suzy, what is it that you do in the world? I mean, you do a lot of stuff. But I mean, what's what's your what's your thing? Susie DeVille (00:44.686) My thing is I love working with entrepreneurs, creators, visionary leaders who are stuck and perhaps riddled with self-doubt. And I help connect them to their innate creativity and also really home in on who they truly are and unlock all of their entrepreneurial potential. Michael Dargie (01:10.97) That is really cool. Entrepreneurs need that. Yeah, wow. Yeah, you won't be short of work. That's for sure. My goodness. So if we go back in time, like, did you always want to do this? Like, has this work been driving you since young Suzy? Susie DeVille (01:14.656) Indeed. haha Susie DeVille (01:30.598) No, young Susie loved to play school. So I've always loved teaching and always loved books, always wanted to write a book. So my path went from college undergrad studying anthropology to moving to Boston from this beautiful little part of North Carolina. Michael Dargie (01:38.341) Okay. Michael Dargie (01:56.368) Okay. Susie DeVille (01:58.806) to get into the publishing industry and moving overseas and worked in publishing there as well at Harper Collins and traveled around the world, looked for a place that I thought was prettier than Highlands and didn't find it. So I came back. And when I came back, I ended up launching two different nonprofit organizations and I was the executive director of both of those. Michael Dargie (02:08.432) Wow. Michael Dargie (02:15.255) Susie DeVille (02:27.47) didn't know anything about nonprofit management and just figured it out on the fly. And those two organizations, first was born in 93, the second born in 95. Both of those are still going strong today. So I'm very proud of that. Then got into real estate, became a broker in 2001 and I'm still Michael Dargie (02:34.218) my God. Michael Dargie (02:45.496) Wow, congratulations! Susie DeVille (02:56.494) a broker still occasionally will do a deal for investors. But I found the world of innovation and creativity when I was getting my master's degree 2005, 2006. And we had this incredible class where we were introduced to a design firm called IDEO out in Palo Alto. And the top of my head came off. Michael Dargie (03:00.335) huh. Michael Dargie (03:11.814) Wow. Susie DeVille (03:26.088) And from literally that moment, all I wanted to do was learn about innovation and creativity. So I started studying it and it wasn't until a couple of years later when I entered my nuclear winter phase that I was really happy to have a foundation to find a place to put my feet when everything around me was imploding. Michael Dargie (03:44.348) you Michael Dargie (03:55.9) Okay. All right. Tell me about this implosion. Susie DeVille (03:58.561) You Susie DeVille (04:03.362) So, you know, the markets crashed and I was in real estate. My then husband was a contractor. So our household finances went poof and the marriage went poof and also my health. So it was truly this kind of epic moment of Michael Dargie (04:09.177) Yeah. Michael Dargie (04:16.253) Ugh. Susie DeVille (04:32.406) I don't know what in the world to do. And so my default move was to do what I always did, which was, okay, I'll just work harder. That surely will be the thing that's gonna get me out of this. And of course, all I did was sort of end up deeper in the abyss of quicksand. And that's when I realized, I'm gonna have to change my entire way of living and being. Michael Dargie (04:32.422) Yeah. Michael Dargie (04:43.002) That's going to work. Michael Dargie (04:51.749) Yeah. Susie DeVille (05:00.492) I'm going to have to recreate everything and start over. And I looked around in different baskets of experience, innovation and creativity, coaching work, consulting work, leaning into what I knew as a nonprofit leader, as an entrepreneur, and started to understand the relationship to what Paolo Quello, the author of The Alchemist would talk about is inspiration. What the heck is that? Why do we care about inspiration? Because isn't that the light bulb over the head kind of moment? And no, it's literally breathing in, inspiring ourselves with what brings us alive. And that was a novel concept to me because I was just great at the exhale. Michael Dargie (05:32.262) Right. Michael Dargie (05:41.233) Yeah. Susie DeVille (05:57.25) which is what most of us really gold medal, right? We're great at the doing, we're great at the burning out, we're great at the gerbil wheel, but we're horrible at play. We won't take our vacations, we won't spend time in the woods, we won't do what brings us alive or what we love. And then we wonder why we're these little hollow husks of a human and we don't have anything from which Michael Dargie (06:01.659) Right. you Susie DeVille (06:26.542) to draw upon that delivers intuition and soul into our lives and into our work. So this put me on this path to figuring out, okay, what is it that inspires me and how does creating art play into that? And so I went on and you'll love the terminology, what I call a creative rebels voyage. and learned art and learned how to take the principles of making something into making a great new life. Michael Dargie (07:08.324) Wow. OK, so that seems like a huge leap to just decide to suddenly start doing art. Like, I think for some people. I've always arted. Yeah. So tell me a little bit more about that journey. did you just decide one day you're going to be a painter? Like, did you? What happened? Susie DeVille (07:20.43) for all of us. Susie DeVille (07:33.602) Well, it kind of was like that. However, I had always been intrigued by all of the arts, but I never considered myself an artist. I grew up in a household with a father who was an engineer, artist, entrepreneur, and a mother who was a teacher and insanely intuitive. And yet I was like, oh, well, I didn't get any of the art genes. And that really kind of speaks to how our cultural training shapes our thinking because we think there are only a couple of people in the world are artists and the rest of us just didn't Didn't get the goodie When the jeans were being handed out and that's completely false Every single person is an artist and I can prove that to you If I have three minutes with you in a piece of paper, I can prove it to you. So Michael Dargie (08:12.369) Yeah. Susie DeVille (08:25.662) What's interesting to me is that my whole life was such a left brain, linear, logical, rational, focused world. And that did get me success in the kind of hoop jumping part of life. I was great at that. But when it came to leaning into intuition, imagination, ideation, making something, that world felt a lot Michael Dargie (08:43.665) Right. Susie DeVille (08:55.822) further away, impossible even. And so I started to kind of get this interesting notion that there was another part of my brain that I could tap into and I could do that, I thought, if I could immerse myself in the world of art. So I started to take some private lessons to sketch and to learn watercolor and something started. Michael Dargie (08:58.64) Mmm. Susie DeVille (09:25.058) to unlock. And then I started abstract lessons and acrylics and mixed media, photography. And more and more, what felt like were giant chunks of concrete were just kind of cracking and fissuring and falling away. And what was left was the authentic me. Michael Dargie (09:43.932) Okay. Very cool. And so you help people figure that out. You help them get out of the concrete. That's such a great metaphor. Susie DeVille (09:55.49) Yes, yes, I am the concrete chiseler in chief. And it's interesting going on, you know, I sort of take this anthropology background, taking people on an archaeological dig of the self and but doing it in a way that's so much fun. And it's insanely energizing. Michael Dargie (10:17.863) Yeah. Susie DeVille (10:20.768) So anybody who's on any kind of a gurney, like I was on multiple gurneys during my nuclear winter period, but regardless of where you are, if you're burned out, if you've had a ceiling with your income, if all the color has drained out of your life, or if you're stuck in your business, I have a framework to pull you out, but also marry that with a strategy so that regardless of what your goals are, beyond getting your life back, we can then level your business up to whatever and wherever you want it to be. Michael Dargie (10:58.523) love it. is so, where can people find out about that? Susie DeVille (11:02.584) So my website is innovationandcreativityinstitute.com. Yep. It's easy. But you can connect with me. I have a fabulous free toolkit there, which I highly recommend. I put all of my goodies in there for you in case you are signaling SOS. And it's an easy way to get started. Michael Dargie (11:07.281) Love it. It says everything it needs to say. Michael Dargie (11:17.789) That's right. Michael Dargie (11:30.949) Outstanding. That's great. Okay, go there. We'll put the links in the show notes. What's your favorite place to travel to? Susie DeVille (11:34.392) You Susie DeVille (11:38.734) Paris, Paris and I'm heading there in a month and I cannot wait. I go a couple of times a year and I also put another European destination on the agenda. So this trip is Paris and Lisbon. Michael Dargie (11:40.923) okay. Really? Michael Dargie (11:50.043) Awesome. Michael Dargie (11:55.484) Yeah. Michael Dargie (11:59.037) Amazing. Yeah, I've never been to either of those places. Yeah, I keep threatening. Since the COVID put a crimp in our travel plans, we were supposed to go to Bavaria actually that Christmas. And yeah, we haven't got our travel legs back under us yet, but soon. What do you love about Paris besides it being Paris? Susie DeVille (12:03.438) Well, we'll have to remedy that. Susie DeVille (12:15.938) Yeah. Susie DeVille (12:24.824) Definitely. Susie DeVille (12:29.358) Paris is a place that I landed in fresh out of graduating from college. So was 21 years old, walked around and I've always had a very strong challenge with spatial relations and directions. The minute I got to Paris, I just intuitively knew how to traverse the city. I automatically felt at home. Everything about the culture. Michael Dargie (12:47.517) you Susie DeVille (12:59.074) The focus is on joie de vivre, living your best life and artfully designing every experience of your day. So it doesn't matter if you are getting your first coffee of the day at the cafe or you are purchasing something from a vendor just down the street. Everything is so beautifully presented, designed, packaged. intentionally curated and it is such a dreamy experience. And then of course there's art and there's beautiful music and the city itself is so easily traversed. It's very cozy. Boston feels like that to me. You you can walk the city and it's just warm. Everybody says, the Parisians are so stuck up in a loop. And that's so not the case. Michael Dargie (13:56.912) Yeah Susie DeVille (13:57.762) But if you go into a store and you don't say bonjour, madame, you know, they're gonna not, they're gonna be a little frosty because it's rude to not say bonjour. So you get the energy back that you put out as it always is the case. The food, sublime. The special events that go on. So. Michael Dargie (14:07.557) Yeah. Michael Dargie (14:14.493) That's awesome. Susie DeVille (14:24.824) There's a huge new show at the Louis Vuitton Art Center, which is north of the center of the city. And it's Gerhard Richter, who is one of my favorite artists. get to, so it's just one delicious adventure after another. Michael Dargie (14:43.869) Okay, sold. Why Lisbon this trip? Susie DeVille (14:45.23) You Susie DeVille (14:52.078) I have been to Portugal, so I was in southern Portugal, but I've never been to Lisbon. And I was just pulled there again through art. I kept seeing, here's an art, an interesting artist who's based in Lisbon or here's an interesting mosaic workshop or here's and I just was, why are all arrows pointing to Lisbon? And I know enough. that when that happens, I have to just say yes to the universe and book it because there's something there that I meant to experience. Michael Dargie (15:27.069) Awesome. Yeah. Michael Dargie (15:32.195) How important do you think it is for people to travel the world? Susie DeVille (15:36.48) It's the most important. I cannot, I think for us to be able to learn other cultures and have greater appreciation for our own and to understand the nuances of how people move in the world and how they think and what they love. And it's different everywhere. Michael Dargie (16:03.687) Yeah. Yeah. Susie DeVille (16:05.996) And it's fascinating to me, and that's the anthropologist in me, but it's also the explorer in me. Because as we, love, there's a beautiful term in French, is flaneur, which is to get lost, kind of, it means stroll typically, kind of classically, but it means to me getting lost on purpose, where you just take off and go and see what you discover and. Michael Dargie (16:11.953) Right. Susie DeVille (16:31.874) Let go of the maps and the itineraries and, you know, going see the biggest ball yarn or whatever it is that's on your agenda and traveling the world, which if you're doing it well, you know enough to understand the culture before you arrive and then you let it unfold to you without you coming with your Michael Dargie (16:37.38) You Susie DeVille (17:01.376) expectations and your sort of requirements to the place and to the people. And that's wonderful training for being a wonderful human being and a great citizen when you get home. But this ability to surrender into a moment when it's not all planned out, you're going to let some serendipity have a chance. Michael Dargie (17:06.673) Right. Michael Dargie (17:14.802) Yeah. Michael Dargie (17:29.885) I love that. Yeah. Susie DeVille (17:31.328) It's incredible what happens. It's incredible. The people you meet, I have been adopted at cafes and restaurants because I travel alone quite a lot and people will, hey, come have, you know, you meet the most amazing people you have. mean, it's safe. It's fun. You're completely, I mean, it's the inspiration phase on steroids, really. It's you're literally breathing in art, beauty, nature and what brings you a lot. Michael Dargie (17:40.882) Yeah. Michael Dargie (17:48.721) Yeah. Susie DeVille (18:01.422) 24 hours a day. Michael Dargie (18:02.973) Amazing. love it. Let's, okay. So you just got your first coffee of the morning. Maybe you got a croissant and you're meandering through the streets of gay Paris and you're thinking to yourself, ah, Susie, I just wish the world knew this one thing. And that was more Italian than French. So what is the one thing that you wish the world knew? Susie DeVille (18:12.078) You Susie DeVille (18:19.661) Yes. Susie DeVille (18:32.908) wish I could remember the Italian phrase dolce far niente or something like that, which is the art of doing nothing. And that's kind of what my advice is. But it's more refined than that. I know you're relieved to hear but what I want people to really focus on is that and be aware of is that our culture is so great at teaching us how to Michael Dargie (18:52.253) Yeah. Susie DeVille (19:03.38) solve for time and productivity and discipline. We are aces at that. And what's more important is to have an awareness of how to heal and optimize our energy. We are not aware, typically, consciously, of all of the hidden energy loads on the great things that we want to do. Any kind of big change. Any kind of new habit. A lot of energy. Anytime we want to take bold action, a lot of energy. Anytime we want to create or innovate, have a hard conversation, create and hold a new boundary. Lots and lots of energy. And we are routinely exhausted and depleted. And we think that the reason why we're not getting success is because we don't know enough. We're not working hard enough. Back at Suzy in nuclear winter, right? So instead, when we get great at inspiring ourselves and doing a few daily practices to bring ourselves home to ourselves, that is the setting off point. Michael Dargie (20:09.095) Right. Susie DeVille (20:28.546) That's the time we leave the pier and we get to go on that grand voyage, that great adventure. But we're not going to even feel like getting up and putting the sneakers on to even walk down the pier because we're completely burned out or overwhelmed or exhausted. Michael Dargie (20:46.853) Yeah, wow, that's deep, thank you. That's awesome. What do you do to recharge your batteries? What's your thing? Susie DeVille (20:58.584) So I have now I will preface this. have been working on this for a while. So I have a pretty interesting morning ritual and my morning starts very early, but that's all by design. Some people are not morning people. If you're not a morning person, this is this. This is a different solution for you. It would happen later in the day for you. Michael Dargie (21:11.396) Yeah Michael Dargie (21:15.857) Okay. Michael Dargie (21:25.254) Right. Susie DeVille (21:28.344) But I have a thing called, a term called creative circadian rhythm. It works just like your biological circadian rhythm, only it's where your creativity and your focus and your clarity, your best thinking. So I happen to fall into knowing, learning that my circadian, my creative circadian rhythm happened a lot earlier than I had thought. And I learned because I had to get up earlier when I was writing my book. Michael Dargie (21:52.103) Mmm. Susie DeVille (21:57.59) I had to get pages to my editor. So I thought, okay, I'll just get up an hour earlier. Well, I used to get up at five and I could write just beautifully at five. But I noticed that when I got up at four, I could write like the wind. And I was like, what's up with that? So let me try three. I'm just curious because then I started hearing about all of these stories of all of these deeply creative people who have had... Michael Dargie (21:59.825) Right. Michael Dargie (22:15.399) Yeah. Susie DeVille (22:25.526) almost nearly mystical experiences between three and five. So, okay, let's see what three o'clock's all about. Three o'clock, I could take dictation from the divine. It was coming, the sort of channeling, sort of classic, like if you think of the cartoon person, the typewriter, I mean, it was crazy. So I then changed my schedule so that I could Michael Dargie (22:46.941) You Susie DeVille (22:55.104) stop work at a certain time, ramp down and get away from the digital drip and sleep and then be able to get up fully rested. And that really changed my entire creative output. And then I had already been doing the morning practices that I advocate for in my book. So morning pages, Julia Cameron's Brainchild. which is three pages of long handwriting in a journal. You're really just getting all the junk out of your brain onto a page. A time where you get out and you move so it can be a walk, swimming, Pilates, whatever it is, meditation, moments of inspired learning. And for me, that's listening to poetry or reading something out of a book. Or my favorite, which is to find an inspirational quote and I keep it in a five-year journal so that I have this running list of all this wonderful juju from these brilliant minds from throughout time. And that has become a surprising source of content because those quotes talk to each other and talk to me. so it's every time I touch that book, which is every day, there's a new ignition cycle, a new series of neurons firing. And then the last one, which is the one that all my clients fight me on, is the making something one. And that can be a quick sketch, a quick collage. I could paint something. I could go to the kitchen and whip up a vat of gumbo or make a great French sauce. But it's moving your hands, your Michael Dargie (24:35.06) Susie DeVille (24:51.98) You're not in the digital world, you're in the world of analog and you've crossed the threshold into this place of not being at the departure, but you haven't arrived. You're in this interim place where it's uncertain, it's the unknown and you lose your identity there. Even it's five minutes. And what happens when you're not at the wheel, and the soul gets to have a chance at the mic, your thoughts change, your central nervous system recalibrates, your creativity is just completely fired up. And so even five minutes of morning pages and five minutes making something is a fantastic way to start. Michael Dargie (25:42.499) love it. Well, that's inspiring. Damn it. Three o'clock, hey? Okay. Susie DeVille (25:46.702) Hahaha Susie DeVille (25:50.35) But you know, okay, so there are some people who have a window from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., right? That's your time. Some people have two. I'm a one, I'm an early morning gal. My brain is on fire. If you ask me a complicated question at 4 p.m., you're gonna get, you know, some blinking and that's about it. Michael Dargie (25:56.317) Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Michael Dargie (26:15.645) That's amazing. I've noticed lately that I hit a wall around four. Like I'm just done. It's like nothing else is going to happen unless I end up at the theater in the evening. Boy, what is your comfort food? What's the thing that you just Susie DeVille (26:26.85) Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yep. Michael Dargie (26:43.089) you go to to, if you have one. I mean, I find most people do. Susie DeVille (26:47.387) gosh, I mean, how long do we have? Michael Dargie (26:50.471) Okay. Yeah. Susie DeVille (26:52.716) Well, if we're in Paris, it would be Pane aux chocolat. There is an amazing pastry called a quignette, which looks like a little escargot. Like, I mean, it looks it has a little snail shape. It is it's all butter and flaky pastry. And then some of them are sweet and some of them are savory. Michael Dargie (27:10.075) Yeah. Michael Dargie (27:19.623) Mm. Susie DeVille (27:21.686) I can't even begin to tell you what that's all about. But then there are other things that are specialty dishes at certain bistros and certain brasseries that are brought out. Like, okay, the oldest cafe in Paris is called Le Procope and it's in the Six Orondes Montes. Take notes because you will want to eat this dish. It is Michael Dargie (27:47.997) you Susie DeVille (27:51.242) It is beef cheeks in the most sublime sauce you can think of and there's pasta on the top, big rigatoni and then this melted parmesan and some other kind of cheese. Okay, so it comes out in a copper pot like you're on a movie set. Okay, and first of all, this place is where Michael Dargie (28:11.986) Okay. Susie DeVille (28:18.666) If you look up the history of all the famous people who have dined at this place, and it is stunning, stunning. When I get off the plane and I'm calibrating how long it's going to take me to get into the city compared to see what the traffic's like, I'm making my reservation in the back of the cab for Loprechaun. I literally check into my hotel, dump my bag and bolt down like several blocks to this place. That's the first thing I do. Michael Dargie (28:33.446) Yeah. Michael Dargie (28:36.943) Okay. Michael Dargie (28:46.809) my god. Susie DeVille (28:48.37) And it was the first thing I did several years ago. when I'm sitting there and they bring out the pot and there are like four or five waiters who, and they're just racing around everybody because it's so packed and busy. And there was a gentleman there. He was pouring water and wine. And so he was there for a minute and I had already started scooping out of this big vat. Michael Dargie (29:02.363) Yeah. Michael Dargie (29:14.865) Yeah. Susie DeVille (29:15.68) and putting it onto my plate and I put it in my mouth and I looked at him and I like my head just like everything went blank and my eyes rolled in the back of my head and I leaned back in the back bankette and I was just in true ecstasy. The entire waitstaff, all of these beautifully coiffed men and women with their tidy aprons. Michael Dargie (29:27.197) you Susie DeVille (29:44.654) came and circled around me and gave me a round of applause. They were thrilled because, that's what being in France is so fabulous, because they love it when you love what they have made. They love it when you are living your life and you're having fun. so every time I go back there, ah, mademoiselle, la la, I mean, they're just so, they just come wheeling out with everything. Michael Dargie (30:07.984) You Susie DeVille (30:12.354) And I'm, it's, you can't not be delighted at everything. It's just so much fun. That dish though, will be forever seared into your memory. It's kind of like a braised short ribby kind of that level of flavor and texture and then all those other things that go on top. Michael Dargie (30:12.581) Ugh. Michael Dargie (30:18.108) you Michael Dargie (30:36.167) Mm-hmm. Susie DeVille (30:41.87) It's amazing. Michael Dargie (30:42.141) I'm so hungry right now. Alright, where's my credit card? I'm go book a flight type. Susie DeVille (30:47.726) I'm trying to remember the French. It's, jus de boeuf, beef cheeks, jus de boeuf. Yeah. Michael Dargie (30:52.189) Okay. Awesome. Amazing. Thank you so much. okay. I have a new place to go. Good Lord. There's these people in the world, Susie, I call them rebels in waiting. And these are maybe they're just starting their own little rebellion. Maybe it's a big rebellion. Maybe they're part way through and they aren't sure how they're going to get to the next step. What advice do you have for these humans? that are embarking on this journey. Susie DeVille (31:25.102) I would say first of all, congratulations on your bravery. note that what you are embarking on is more about the sort of Joseph Campbell-esque dragon that you're going to meet in the individual caves that you enter. So you may be thinking that you're trying to figure out the launch, but really, it's a dragon of your becoming. It's your ability to tolerate uncertainty and still take action and still keep getting up and still keep trying. and still keep failing and still walk around on your hands and knees in the dark. And so it's so easy to get hung up on thinking that all the answers and geniuses are the, it's all out there. And there are geniuses out there and there's all kinds of wonderful information. But don't forget what you bring to the table. That's just you. Michael Dargie (32:34.663) Yeah. Susie DeVille (32:42.144) Your unique genius, the authentic aligned version of you is the ultimate champion in any arena. So do what you need to do, i.e. take very good care of your energy, take very good care of your health and your rest, but also be very intentional about inspiring yourself, playing, having fun connecting with people because that will come will take you back home going back to that archaeological dig of the self you're going to discover all kinds of things about yourself on this journey and so make a record of that literally keep a journal and and track what's happening you can create the nautical chart that takes you straight to the islands of your highest and best desires. Every morning you can recraft and recalibrate that nautical chart. So hang in there. It is not easy for anybody. Anybody who says they have it all figured out is completely lying. But it's fun. Let yourself enjoy the fun and the magic and the mystery of it. Michael Dargie (34:02.558) Yeah Susie DeVille (34:11.158) and surround yourself with people who are going for it too because you can collectively cheer each other on and support each other. Michael Dargie (34:21.305) I love it. Suzy, tell us again where people can find you. Susie DeVille (34:25.571) My website is innovationandcreativityinstitute.com. Michael Dargie (34:30.133) Love it. This has been so much fun. I'm so inspired not just to, you know, maybe do some more painting and maybe do some art, break out the Copic markers and stuff like that, but to travel again and to, you know, go have this delightful dish in Paris. I mean, why not? Let's stop and... Yeah. This has been delightful, Suzy. Thank you so much for being with us. Susie DeVille (34:42.742) Yes! Susie DeVille (34:47.95) Wow, I mean it's a total must. Susie DeVille (34:54.648) Thank you. Michael Dargie (34:57.639) Bam, just like that. That's how we do it. That was outstanding. What a great episode. Thank you. Susie DeVille (35:00.952) Just like that! Susie DeVille (35:06.606) Thank you. Thank you so much. Of course I did. You asked wonderful questions. You are a jolly, fond soul with a capacious heart, I may add. So yeah, totally. Michael Dargie (35:09.543) Did you have fun? Michael Dargie (35:18.296) Thank you. Amazing. Thank you. I'm going to get a capacious heart. love it. I'm going to hit the stop button.

About the Author: Michael Dargie

Michael Dargie

Michael Dargie is a creative strategist, entrepreneur, and the voice behind the RebelRebel Podcast. He founded Make More Creative, a creative agency helping brands stand out in a noisy world, and authored BrandJitsu™: Move Your Brand From 'Meh' To Memorable. A motorcycle rider, scuba diver, octopus whisperer, artist, writer, director, and adventurer — Michael brings a deep curiosity and genuine warmth to every conversation. He believes the best stories come from people who dare to do things differently, and he has spent nine seasons proving it.