Storycrafted: Loud on the Inside is a weekly audio diary from an introverted independent creator who is betting on herself — one week at a time.After 15 years in tech, the last three as a Staff Content Designer working in data and AI, I was laid off on January 14th, 2025. According to Black Girls Code, Black women hold only 2% of tech roles in the U.S. I was one of them. Again.So I did something that scared me more than the layoff did.I bet on myself.Every week I show up here and tell the truth about what that actually looks like — the projects I&#39;m building, the risks I&#39;m taking, the days it feels like the right decision and the days it absolutely doesn&#39;t. No highlight reel. No hustle culture. Just the work, the doubt, and the voice that was always loudest when nobody else could hear it.This is that voice. Out loud. Finally.

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I have every tool. Every idea. A Google Drive full of half-started things.And for three weeks, I kept opening this episode... reading what I had... and closing it again.I have a word for that now: creatination. (cree-AY-tin-AY-shun) It&#39;s the specific paralysis that happens when nothing is actually missing — except the doing. It&#39;s not writer&#39;s block. It&#39;s not burnout. It&#39;s something in between that I&#39;ve never seen named, so I named it myself.This episode is about what I did about it — and what I found underneath it.In this episode:<ul><li>What creatination is (and why it&#39;s different from writer&#39;s block or burnout)</li><li>Write Week — the one-week creative sprint I gave myself, documented on Instagram, and why putting structure around focus actually worked</li><li>The video setup collecting dust in my office, and how Write Week finally made me turn it on</li><li>What came out of that week: two articles, a podcast script, a vertical series, a pilot, an Alpha 8 episode, and a slight pivot that I&#39;m counting anyway</li><li>The harder thing underneath all of it — fear, imposter syndrome, and what the steady paycheck was really giving me permission to do</li><li>AI in creative industries: where I sit in the gray area, and the questions I&#39;m still sitting with (voice cloning, AI-assisted editing, the abundance of AI slop — and whether responsible use changes anything)</li><li>A fascinating Audible experiment with screenwriter Scott Z. Burns that I won&#39;t spoil</li></ul> Mentioned in this episode:<ul><li><a href="https://tunedinaudio.com/" rel="nofollow">Tuned In</a> — my audio drama discovery app, built on Lovable</li><li>Descript / ElevenLabs — voice cloning tools</li><li>Submagic — AI video tool</li><li><a href="https://www.audible.com/pd/What-Could-Go-Wrong-Audiobook/B0F4GSVRGS?share_location=pdp&source_code=ASSGB149080119000H" rel="nofollow">What Could Go Wrong?</a> — the Audible/Plan B Entertainment experiment with Scott Z. Burns</li></ul>

Creatination

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This week, I did two scary things and survived both. I attended a Toastmasters open house, sent a podcast production proposal to a potential client, and processed a job rejection that had some nerve. Plus — a full confession about my gear hoarding problem, and a teaser for Write Week. Links Mentioned-<a href="https://bizzieliving.substack.com/p/equipped-for-everything-ready-for?r=5xe5" rel="nofollow"> Storycrafted Article — Equipped for Everything. Ready for Nothing.</a>-<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DNTF88WP?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_digi_asin_title_351" rel="nofollow"> Public Speaking from A-Z: The Speaker’s Handbook for Powerful Presentations</a> (the book by the Toastmasters speaker who kept saying my name) Connect with Storycrafted<ul><li>Newsletter — bizzieliving.substack.com</li><li>Instagram — @bizzieliving</li><li>Leave a comment or drop a question — I read everything</li></ul> Support Alpha 8Alpha 8 Season 2 scripts are complete, and we’re heading into production. If you want to help keep the lights on:<ul><li>Rate and review the show — it helps more than you know</li><li>Brand partnerships for Season 2 — reach out if you want to connect with an engaged sci-fi audience</li><li>Subscribe to Storycrafted for production updates and early access</li></ul> The superpower was never the gear. The superpower was doing it anyway.

Equipped for Everything. Ready for Nothing.

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This week felt less like a highlight reel and more like an honest look at the in-between — the LinkedIn doom scroll, a newly named app called Tuned In, a kid who just became an adult, and a week where The Lincoln Lawyer won. No tidy resolution. Just the real thing.📬 Read more on Substack: bizzieliving.substack.com📱 Follow along on Instagram: @bizzieliving

The In-Between

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Stephanie is cursed. Specifically, parking-cursed — a condition she has receipts for. But she showed up anyway to a vibe coding event hosted by Lovable for International Women&#39;s Day in Santa Monica, and somehow had a great time, fixed a bug in her podcasting CRM, and left with a community win.This week: Alpha 8 Season 2 scripts are complete-ish, The Last Uprising lands three LA WebFest nominations — Best Writing, Best Ensemble Cast, and Outstanding Comedy or Drama — and the nerd brain takes over the weekend to build a new app that matches your favorite TV shows to audio dramas. Plus: Conan O&#39;Brien, context switching survival tips, and why Thursday was magical.

Cursed, Complete, and Context-Switching

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On January 14th, 2025, Stephanie was laid off. According to Black Girls Code, Black women hold only 2% of tech roles in the U.S. She was one of them. Again.After 15 years in tech — the last three as a Staff Content Designer at a SaaS company working in data and AI — she spent 54 days scrambling. Updating her resume. Refreshing her portfolio. Taking another course just to prove she was still relevant. Carrying the strange combination of relief, anger, terror, and sadness that nobody tells you about. Telling herself she had time. Feeling like she had none.And then she decided to do something that scared her more than the layoff did.She bet on herself.In this first episode, Stephanie introduces Storycrafted: Loud on the Inside — a weekly audio diary about what betting on yourself actually looks like day to day, why an introvert who solves problems alone in closets decided to start a podcast, and what it really costs to be willing to be seen.Source: <a href="https://www.wearebgc.org/news/only-2-of-tech-jobs-are-held-by-black-women-cristina-mancini-knows-that-s-unacceptable" rel="nofollow">Black Girls Code — Only 2% of tech jobs are held by Black women</a>

Storycrafted: Loud on the Inside

Storycrafted: Loud on the Inside is a weekly audio diary from an introverted independent creator who is betting on herself — one week at a time.

After 15 years in tech, the last three as a Staff Content Designer working in data and AI, I was laid off on January 14th, 2025. According to Black Girls Code, Black women hold only 2% of tech roles in the U.S. I was one of them. Again.

So I did something that scared me more than the layoff did.

I bet on myself.

Every week I show up here and tell the truth about what that actually looks like — the projects I'm building, the risks I'm taking, the days it feels like the right decision and the days it absolutely doesn't. No highlight reel. No hustle culture. Just the work, the doubt, and the voice that was always loudest when nobody else could hear it.

This is that voice. Out loud. Finally.