Follow along: @margaretlefton

You know that thing where every area of your life is happening all at once?

My grandmother passed away this week - a truly outrageous, rude, cold, creative, brilliant, deeply complicated woman who shaped so much of my artistic identity, and childhood. This week: childhood grief, nostalgia, and the strange experience of adult life continuing to move at full (fun, exciting) speed while something foundational shifts underneath you.

Today:

🕯️ Losing a grandparent
🃏 My Oracle deck is officially in production - seeing a physical product come to life for the first time!!
🎬 Apprenticing on a YouTube late-night show - stepping onto TV-level sets being built for the creator era
💡 Learning entertainment production from scratch - lighting, writers’ rooms, celebrity booking, creative collaboration, and set design

<3 Margaret

I got to direct a new YouTube series with The Casting Society (CSA)! Also: life is happening! Huzzah, complexities of being a 3d person 😂 (I live in LA in Venice so am I obligated to say 5d person? *sigh* )

Inside:

🍝 When throw spaghetti at the wall gets old - juggling exciting projects, paid work, portfolio builders, and bandwidth

🎬 Directing my first set - (WOOOOOO)

🎭 What I’m learning about casting - the hidden architects of what we see on screen

🧩 "What is a C-stand" - and how I'm continuing to navigate beginner mindset

📺 Podcast vs. YouTube

We out here ~ 💫

FOLLOWWWW ALONG: @margaretlefton

Coming off 48 hours with my phone off (my favorite reset ritual), long walks by the ocean, and falling down a rabbit hole of old films, I found myself thinking a lot about storytelling, visibility, and what it feels like to grow in public.

In this episode, I talk through:

✨ Phone's off ritual

🎬 What old films (and Audrey Hepburn) are teaching me about storytelling

🎥 Why YouTube feels like the next creative frontier

🧠 The “I started too late” trap

🌴 Living in LA and the very real imposter syndrome that comes with it

😵‍💫 “Visibility dysmorphia” (aka when your brain can’t process your own work)

🔥 Why growth in public hits your nervous system differently than anything else

<3 <3 LOVE Y'ALL

I’ve been thinking a lot about integration - the phase after expansion, where things stop feeling new and exciting… and start feeling repetitive, slower, and honestly a little bit boring.

We also get into YouTube and the tension between building something educational vs deeply vulnerable + artistic.

✨ In this episode:

• 🎢 Missing the emotional highs/lows (and wondering if something’s wrong)
• 🌱 Why growth isn’t always breakthroughs - sometimes it’s repetition

• 🎥 Falling in love with YouTube — and discovering a slower, more intentional creative space

• 📊 Sharing my actual podcast numbers — and why I’m still doing this anyway

• 🎭 The tension between educator vs artist — and trying to hold both

• 🔁 Consistency without perfection — experimenting with formats just to keep going

See you on campus 💫

This week is a bit of a cozy, Saturday night catch-up (slumber party?) - pajamas, couch, and random updates from the week.

Also if you weren't following the Artemis stuff: MOON JOY FOR LIFE (google it).

We get into life upgrades (internal vs external), a surprisingly deep improv lesson on embodiment, and a reminder to just have fun.

Lots of small shifts that are adding up in a big way.

✨ In this episode:

• 💎 Upgrading your life (inside and out) - from Invisalign to skincare, and how external changes impact confidence more than we admit

• 🧠 Why “surface-level” upgrades aren’t actually shallow - and how they feed your internal state

• 🎭 An improv exercise that changed how I think about identity

• 🍸 The lost art of just having fun - nights out, flower fields, and doing things that have nothing to do with productivity

• 🔁 Consistency > perfection — showing up weekly even when it’s messy, low energy, or “nothing to say”

The A > C Framework for Creativity (aka improv concepts for creative living)

I just got back from my UCB improv class, had my second on-set shoot as a YouTube host, and am in the middle of exploring new on-camera opportunities (including a TikTok Live role). So thisss week we’re connecting a lot of dots across improv, performance, and identity.

Inside:

🍍 The “A → C” improv rule - and how skipping your first idea can lead to more original thinking

🧠 Performance vs. prep - and why people experience your energy more than your résumé

🎬 My second shoot update (and why you can't skip being a beginner no matter how much you want to)

⚡ Building intuition through reps - and how things start to fade into the background as you improve

Love you guys. See you next week 💫

Iiiii just started improv for the first time - and it's magical, healing, and expansive as heck. (ALSO: MY NEW PODCAST STUDIO WOOT)

In this episode, I share what it’s actually like taking UCB’s Improv 101 class in LA, what surprised me, what terrified me, and why it’s become one of the most powerful tools for creativity, confidence, and learning how to be seen.

This week:

🎭 What Upright Citizen's Brigade Improv 101 is actually like

😂 Why improv feels like play therapy

🧠 The concept of a “creative trust fall” and co-creating in real time

💼 Rethinking career paths, money, and the pressure to be “impressive”

📺 Why I’m falling in love with YouTube and long-form storytelling

🪞 How my definition of authenticity is changing (and getting more specific)

I also talk about Homestar Runner (#TROGDOR), AI, storytelling, and what it feels like to be fully in the messy middle of building a creative life.

WOOO Love y'all bye 💫

This week I’m taking you inside something very new for me: my first ever acting class, 10 minutes after I got home from it 😂(The Commercial Class)

After booking a major YouTube hosting role and realizing just how different it is to perform on a full set versus filming alone in my living room, I knew I needed more reps. So I built myself a “semester” of skill building - commercial acting, improv, Toastmasters, and public speaking coaching.

In this episode I walk you through what these classes are actually like as a beginner, what surprised me the most, and why we should be exploring embarrassment more.

Inside this episode:

🎭 Commercial vs normal acting (they’re different? I have learned?)

🎬 What my first class at The Commercial Class in LA was really like

🎤 My experience trying Toastmasters for the first time (and why public speaking still terrifies me)

😂 Why improv is way more approachable than I expected

🧠 How embarrassment, adrenaline, and fear can become part of the learning process

I’m also sharing the broader “curriculum” I’m building for myself right now - from studying the history of film to learning entertainment law and negotiation - as I continue bridging the gap between the creator economy and the entertainment world.

If you’re stepping into a new skill set, challenging a fear, or letting yourself be a beginner again… this episode is for you.