The Rewrite

Nobody talks about how awkward it is to return. In this solo episode, Jamie gets real about something that's been sitting with her — coming back to Instagram after months away, and why it felt so much harder than it had any logical reason to. She knows how to make content. She helps other people with their content for a living. And yet there she was, staring at her phone for more days than she'd like to admit, completely stuck. If you've ever taken a break from something (social media, the gym, a creative project, a community) and found that the longer you stayed away, the more impossible it felt to return, this episode is going to make you feel a lot less alone. In this episode, we talk about: ✨ Why coming back always feels harder than it should, and what your brain is actually doing when a behaviour you used to do easily suddenly starts to feel unfamiliar and uncomfortable ✨ The spotlight effect — why we massively overestimate how much other people notice what we're doing, and how freeing it is when you finally realise nobody is keeping attendance ✨ Why the longer you stay away, the more pressure you accidentally put on whatever you post first, and how that pressure becomes its own form of avoidance ✨ The very specific reason recording Instagram stories with teenagers on the other side of the wall is an entirely different experience to recording a podcast behind a closed door ✨ The difference between a needed break and a comfortable hiding place, and how to be honest with yourself about which one you're actually in ✨ Why confidence is almost always built during the comeback, not before it, and why waiting to feel ready before you return means you might be waiting for a very long time ✨ What messy action actually means, and why it's a non-negotiable part of getting to where you want to go You don't need a grand comeback announcement. You don't owe anyone an explanation. Sometimes a rewrite just requires picking up your phone and pressing record. Connect with me on Instagram: @vandercreativeco and @itsjamievander

What happens when you move across the world for love, find yourself in a country where you don't speak the language, and decide that starting over at the bottom is simply not an option? In this episode, Jamie sits down with Colleen Florendo (messaging and thought leadership strategist, founder of Selfishly Expressed, part-time vegan, senior Swiftie, and chair dance enthusiast) for a conversation about identity, voice, and what it really means to build a business and a life that is unapologetically yours. Colleen moved from the Philippines to Stockholm, Sweden in the middle of a pandemic for love. And instead of restarting a corporate career in a language she didn't speak, she did something that turned out to be the most aligned decision she's ever made: she built something entirely her own. Her reason? Partly passion. Partly, as she'll tell you herself, pure selfishness, and she's not sorry about it. In this episode, we talk about: ✨ Why Colleen left a corporate marketing career behind to start a business from scratch in a country she'd never visited, and the two very specific reasons she did it that she calls her "selfish reasons" ✨ The moment a human design reading reframed everything she'd been told about being "too selfish", and how it became the foundation of her entire brand ✨ Why she stopped asking clients "who is your ideal client?" and started asking "what do you actually want to talk about?", and the dramatic difference it makes ✨ How she helped a fat loss coach escape the endless race to the bottom of competing on pounds, and land on a message that actually lit her up ✨ The identity she quietly left behind when she moved abroad, and why nobody talks about what it costs you when you can no longer be the version of yourself that the people who love you have always known ✨ Why she's been holding back on her Substack, and the conversation that might have just changed that ✨ What "selfishly expressed" actually means, and why choosing yourself first is one of the most selfless things you can do This one is for every woman who has been building a business based on what the market wants instead of what she actually wants to say. 🔗 Find Colleen on TikTok: @selfishlycolleen📩 Read her Substack: Selfishly Expressed🎁 Grab her free three-week email series: The Messaging Artist Is You — find the link at selfishlyexpressed.com Connect with me on Instagram: @vandercreativeco and @itsjamievander

What does it look like to build a career you didn't even know you were dreaming of — one red carpet, one business card printed at 2am, and one brave decision at a time? In this episode, Jamie sits down with Hillary Bautch (journalist, host, video producer, and podcast host of I'm Not Crazy, Right?) for a conversation that is equal parts career journey, honest self-reflection, and genuinely one of the most fun episodes The Rewrite has recorded yet. Hillary has spent years interviewing some of the biggest names in entertainment, from Christopher Nolan to Anne Hathaway to Tom Holland, and what she has learned along the way about showing up, putting yourself in the room, and giving yourself permission to take up space is something every woman needs to hear. In this episode, we talk about: ✨ How Hillary went from a small town in Wisconsin to the red carpets of LA, and why none of it would have happened without one impulsive decision to fly to New York City alone, to a conference she found on Twitter, in a city she had never been to before ✨ The midnight business cards she printed on Avery perforated paper at a stranger's apartment, and how that one move led directly to her Cosmo internship and a printed byline in the magazine ✨ What it's actually like to interview 75 celebrities in a single afternoon at an award show, and the chaos, the nerves, and the moments that make it all worth it ✨ The day she interviewed the entire cast of The Odyssey, stood next to Tom Holland looking at a 3,000-year-old page of the original poem, and realised her job is genuinely insane in the best possible way ✨ The epiphany she had while walking her dog that completely reframed a relationship, changed how she shows up at work, and eventually led to her launching her own podcast ✨ Why "it has nothing to do with you" can be one of the most liberating realisations a woman can have, and what happens when you stop making yourself smaller to make everyone else more comfortable ✨ The Schitt's Creek quote that sums it all up: nobody is thinking about you as much as you're thinking about you, and why that is the most freeing thing you'll ever realise This episode is a reminder that the life you're living right now (the one that feels normal and ordinary to you) might be exactly the thing that someone else would find completely extraordinary. Don't forget to notice it. 🎙️ Listen to Hillary's podcast: I'm Not Crazy, Right? - available wherever you listen to podcasts📲 Find Hillary on Instagram: @hillarybautch📲 Follow the podcast: @notcrazyrightpod Connect with me on Instagram: @vandercreativeco and @itsjamievander

What if the reason your wellness plan keeps failing has nothing to do with the plan, and everything to do with your identity? In this episode, Jamie sits down with Lynnette Astaire (longevity advisor, coach, and someone who has been quietly working with some of the most high-performing founders, creatives, and leaders on the planet) for a conversation that connects dots most people have never thought to connect. Lynnette's approach sits at the intersection of strategy, science, and spirit, and the result is one of the most grounded, thought-provoking conversations The Rewrite has had yet. From starting her first food business at age 11, to building a startup she eventually turned into a nonprofit, to coaching leaders on the edge of burnout, Lynnette has seen what happens when high-achievers optimise everything except the one thing that determines whether any of it actually sticks: their identity. In this episode, we talk about: ✨ Why your wellness plan, your fitness routine, and your financial goals keep failing and why it has nothing to do with discipline and everything to do with your internal thermostat ✨ The concept of minimum viable protocols and how Lynnette builds the smallest possible sustainable baseline for each client so that life's inevitable disruptions don't derail everything ✨ Why she spends the first session doing what she calls "psychic friends" work and why the mindset piece has to come before any protocol ✨ What the two levers of life actually are (budget and bandwidth) and how understanding them changes the way you approach every single day ✨ The gym story that stopped Jamie in her tracks: what Lynnette witnessed on a treadmill that perfectly illustrates how women quietly compromise their health, their goals, and their sovereignty in relationships ✨ Why affirmations alone don't work and the difference between affirmations and affirmative action ✨ The future journal practice Lynnette has been using to rest in the identity of who she is becoming and why writing from a year or two ahead changes everything This one is for the woman who has tried every plan, every protocol, and every 21-day challenge and still finds herself back where she started. The missing piece might not be more information. It might be a thermostat reset. 🔗 Connect with Lynnette on Instagram: @lynnette.astaire 🌐 Visit: lynnetteastaire.com 📅 Book a 15-minute discovery call at lynnetteastaire.com 📬 Sign up for her newsletter and join the monthly Leadership Longevity Hour - free, every month Connect with me on Instagram: @vandercreativeco and @itsjamievander

I finally had a free afternoon. Nothing was on fire. My team had everything covered. So naturally, I opened my laptop and started looking for work. In this solo episode, Jamie gets honest about a pattern she caught herself in - the uncomfortable realisation that she had become so used to busyness that her brain had started manufacturing reasons to stay busy. Not because anything needed her. Just because stillness had started to feel wrong. If you've ever found a quiet moment and immediately filled it with something you didn't actually need to do, this one is for you. In this episode, we talk about: ✨ Why so many of us aren't actually addicted to productivity (we're addicted to feeling useful) and why those are two very different things ✨ The neuroscience behind why your nervous system clings to busyness even when it's hurting you, and why familiar isn't always the same as healthy ✨ Why some of Jamie's best ideas have never happened while she was working, and the real science behind why slowing down is sometimes the most productive thing you can do ✨ How we've started using "busy" as a badge of honour, and the question Jamie now asks herself instead ✨ The rewrite Jamie is actively working on: separating her worth from her productivity, and what that actually looks like in practice on an ordinary Tuesday ✨ The simple awareness exercise to try the next time you find yourself with an hour of unexpected free time, and what your brain's response tells you about the patterns running quietly in the background Once you see a pattern, you get to decide whether you want to keep repeating it. That's what rewriting your life is actually about. Connect with me on Instagram: @vandercreativeco and @itsjamievander