Toucan Talks
Toucan Talks is a podcast for Wilmington-area business owners and entrepreneurs who are eager to learn from those on a similar journey. Each week, we talk with an area business owner about their successes, challenges, and experiences in business. Don’t worry – we keep it fun as we bounce from topic to topic.
Toucan Talks
Creative Resets For A Calmer Year in 2026
The rush to reinvent everything on January 1 sounds exciting until the pressure spikes and the planner gathers dust. Let's take a different route: start with a pause, get your nervous system calm, and let simple, offline creativity make space for better choices. Instead of stacking goals, we strip back the noise and build from what actually feels good and true.
Kerry Mulhern, marketing consultant, social media manager, mom, and host of Reset with Kerry, joins us to unpack creative resets you can use anytime. We explore why “creativity” isn’t just painting or perfect output; it’s any small act that breaks routine and anchors attention. Think walks where you notice details, journaling without a plan, sewing a tiny project, or even trying a new restaurant. Those low-stakes, tactile moments switch off fight-or-flight, the same way great ideas pop in the shower. When the body feels safe, you can finally hear what you want, not what the feed tells you.
We also dig into strengths and personality insights to guide your experiments. If your strength is community and storytelling, you might volunteer in a creative setting or gather a small group to make something together. If curiosity drives you, test a class or sport you’ve never tried. Adults rarely let themselves be beginners, but that’s where joy and community often start. From there, we walk through a simple reset circle: notice the whisper that something needs to change, pause and calm your system, use a creative practice to hold the pause, audit what to keep or cut, anchor new beliefs and priorities, and only then move forward. Repeat this across the year so your goals stay aligned as life shifts.
Expect practical takeaways, a few laughs about our collective planner obsession, and permission to do less before you do more. If you’re craving clarity without the burnout, this conversation will help you reset with intention and design routines that feel human, not harsh. Listen, save it for later, and share it with someone who needs a gentler start. If it resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and tell us the one off-screen activity you’ll try this week.
Get more from Toucan Talks!
Watch on YouTube
Follow on Instagram
Subscribe to our email list
//
Meet your hosts and learn more about Kickstart Collective at kickstartcollective.co
Kickstart Collective is a creative marketing agency based in Wilmington, NC. We offer our clients a creative advantage through creative content and marketing strategies.
Welcome to Kickstart Your Week. We are back in January 2026. Full disclosure, we were recording this in the middle of December. So I know this time of year is crazy. So thank you for making time to come join us. I'm excited for today's topic because we're going to talk about resets, which will introduce all your stuff in a second. But you have a podcast on reset, which I think is just always a fun time in January to talk about it, whether that's for the year or, you know, as a lot of things on your episodes, more big life resets. So happy to have you share about that today. So this is Carrie Mulhorn. She is a marketing consultant, social media manager, podcaster, as we just mentioned, a mom, um book club member with me. We're in book club together. So anything I left out?
SPEAKER_00:Anything you need to add? I probably could go on and on, but that's my, you know, that's my ADHD and my hobby, my unlimited list of hobbies. We'll leave it at that.
SPEAKER_01:Cool. I love it. Um so yeah, what I wanted to talk about today. So I did Avenger Podcast, um, which I love. Oh, I didn't tell you this when we were doing a little pre-intro. Um, the one you did, and I'm it's the girl that does the paper cranes.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, yeah. I was listening to that. Sam, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, Sam. Um, I love all personality tests, and I am an INFJ. I'm the one perhaps. I was like, ooh, this is fun. Yeah. Um, so I did go follow her on Instagram. But anyways, that has really nothing to do with today. But I was like, I like this. Um, so, but yes, so I think what we were chatting about before was talking about creative resets and how obviously doing marketing and so much of our creativity is online. That how do we shift that to an off offline offline experience? Yeah. Um, and why we need to do that and get off screens and how all that impacts your creativity and your brain, and ultimately like resetting your creativity. Yeah. Um, so welcome again. Yeah, thanks. Um, so yeah, do you want to, I guess, just start off on why that kind of creative reset, or even maybe we can start bigger, like why resets and how that became like your thing.
SPEAKER_00:Let's start, let's start at the creative resets. Because I think this time of year is when everyone's like heavy on goal setting. Like, I feel like a lot of times people are putting like extra so much extra, like, how much more extra pressure can we put on ourselves at this time, right? Especially if you're a mom and a business owner. Um so I think going into 2026 and like reminding yourself that you don't need to have one million goals, you know, for the year. Um, one of the more important things to do is really just to pause and take inventory of where you are. And in order to do that, we really need to slow down. Yeah. And that's really hard for anyone right now, but especially moms and women who are a lot of times like the emotional support parent and managing, you know, just managing more of the day today and also working. And it's again, you I know we're technically January, but we're really in December, like managing all the Christmas stuff and the holiday stuff. Um it's hard to find time to pause and slow down. So what creativity does is it really gives our nervous system the break that it needs in order to like figure out what we want in life and think about who we are as ourselves and not moms and wives and you know, employees. Yeah. Um, so that creativity, again, and I people are, I think oftentimes people are also scared of what people are kind of people who are not creative are like, oh, well, I can't, you know, I can't go draw or paint or anything like that. But the thing is, it's not like creativity is not necessarily just that. It can be um, it could be like trying a new restaurant. I don't, you know what I mean? It could just be something out of your ordinary. Yeah. Um writing in a journal. It can be going for a walk and like really noticing like what you're seeing. Um, so again, like all the like leaning into creativity, it really gives your that your nervous system that break that it needs in order to, again, realign yourself, all the things that we want from 2026, right? Like who are we? What do we want out of life? Um, and I think a lot of people are like just adding more to that by adding more goals and all of that. But what we really need to do is strip everything away first, then to figure it out. So I really think, I really think creativity um helps with that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Um, yeah, I love that. I so I love a few things you said. One, I am not, I guess probably you are too, and our careers, it is more cur like creativity driven and obviously the statue, blah, blah, blah, all that good stuff. Um, but someone asked me recently, they're like, because I was like, Oh, I used to paint, like I used to do all these things. Now it's like if it's creating something, like it is digital, um, partially just because of my job. And then I'm like, where is the free time after you know all the things happen? Um, but they're like, Do you think you could do like one of the paint by number things? And I was like, No, because this is gonna sound very dramatic. Because I would be like, What is like what is the point? I'm like, I'm not, I don't feel like I'm being productive. And two, like, what am I gonna do with it afterwards? Which is terrible. But they're like, that's not the point. Like, the point is not to be productive, it's to like do something with your hands and like just let your brain chill. Cause if it's those, and they apparently are really cool, like fancy paint by number things these days, but it's like your brain doesn't have to overthink it. Like, you don't have to, like you're saying, like be creative. There's other ways to do it that aren't art and like res results driven. Yeah. Um, so yeah, no, I love that. Like trying a new restaurant, like going for a walk, just letting your brain like see what's happening. It doesn't have to be, you know, like art or you know, truly like a creation driven.
SPEAKER_00:And I think you you mentioned, well, we mentioned Sam earlier, and you mentioned like um uh oh gosh, like her um personality tests and thinking about that. And um one of the things that I came across not too long ago was oh, and I'm not gonna remember what it is. Um, it was a strength test. Have you ever done one of those?
SPEAKER_01:Um, I don't know. So I actually just did the disc assessment again today, which is it's more of like workplace, like yeah. So it's maybe similar.
SPEAKER_00:Is it like, is one of them like love and one of them creativity and one of them okay. No, it's very like this test. But so when I've talked to I've talked to a lot of women about resets and kind of the path that they've gone in order to kind of find themselves again. And one of the things that kept coming up was creativity being part of being part of it. And again, I think it really comes down to um whatever creativity that they fell into gave them that pause, gave them the space they needed in in order to start thinking about what they wanted in life and how to move forward. But I think there's also something to be said, like within that creativity, like leaning into what your strengths are. So for example, my strength was love and not like not like a romantic love, but like love like I like pouring my heart into others and uh community and storytelling, yeah, which makes total sense. Yeah. Um so I would I would recommend everyone to to take this personality test. I'll give you the information. We can put it in the show notes, right? Um because it just talked about leaning into your strengths is also um what brings you joy. Yeah, that's cool. And so it's not necessarily just creativity, but like, you know, for me, it would be going into going into a shelter and like doing a crap, like doing something um, you know, creative with the people that are there, or um, you know, going into a school and volunteering, you know, things like that. So I think it would be interesting to kind of tie whatever, tie some creativity, but also like leaning into your strengths at the same time. So taking taking that personality test and really trying to play around with what creativity you could obviously, you don't want to do paint by numbers, and that's totally fine.
SPEAKER_01:Um but I could find something else. I did pick up a sewing machine, pick up a sewing machine. I guess I did. I sewed some things recently and I was like, okay, yeah, I made I made my three-year-old some um, I let her pick out the fabric. It's hot pink wachetas, some white. And I was like, see, first off, they're hilariously adorable. But I was like, she can wear them. I felt like I produced something productive. But it was still fun, yeah. And you know, had to be a little creative. So um, but no, I think that's cool tying it back to like what your strengths are because I think not. I mean, you can I think we should, and I think I probably need to work on you can do something creative just for the heck of it. But if you can tie it back into like what yeah, your like strengths are probably those motivations, it probably in a some way is more fulfilling to you.
SPEAKER_00:Because I'm with you, like I there's a lot of things that I think that I want to do, and I'm like, what is like I'm not like same with you. Am I gonna like frame this? Am I gonna hang it up on my wall? But I really think it is. And another thing that I've chatted to other women about, it's um, you know, as adults, we we're always telling our kids to like try new sports and try new activities and try new things. And I feel like we get to adulthood and we kind of like like create this box for ourselves that we stay in. And I think it's kind maybe sometimes it's embarrassment of starting something new or like I don't know. We we don't we don't do that as much anymore. We don't play, like we don't like put ourselves into situations that we're like a little uncomfortable with in order to figure out if we like it, right? Like maybe maybe you would want to do volleyball in a you know, in like some league, and you would never know unless you tried to do it. And that's like you know, that's what I always encourage the girls to do. Like my oldest, she tried out for the flag football team. Like that's not um, that's something that she didn't even know if she would be interested in, and she loves it and she created this community of girls that she's a part of. That's cool. So it's also, you know, put yourself out there and you know, try new things that you may end up loving. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:No, I love that. Um, yeah. So I guess we kind of you touched on this already, but how do you like with the reset specifically with let's you know, do something, not not necessarily productive, not on a computer. Um, I know you talked a little bit about like the nervous system and like calming it down. Can you jump into that, dive into that little more?
SPEAKER_00:Uh again, I people are so quick to don't it's like putting a band-aid on things, right? Like setting more goals and trying to add on more to their plate in a way like for the purpose of trying to better themselves or control the situation around them. Um but you really can't make any solid changes unless you're unless you feel safe, like unless you're out of that fight or flight mode. Yeah. Like you cannot move forward um without your nervous system being. And if you do move forward without your nervous system being calm and feeling safe, you'll probably make some choices that are not right for you. Yeah. So really taking the time, and I know everyone talks about um meditation and things like that. Um, but this is where creativity can tie into like some repetitive, like even if you take up needle pointing or crocheting or knitting, like that's what I mean. Our grandmas have like wisdom. Like, let's take, let's take that wisdom from them and use it. Um and it's also why if you think about like all the people that talk that say like their best ideas came when they were like in the shower, like why is that? It's because their nervous system is at a calm state. Yeah. Um, so yeah, I think I think first and foremost, again, before people go into the new new year thinking that they, you know, need to set more goals and be on strict routines. And because I I've been there. Like I that has been like the majority of my early adulthood up until the last two years, really. It was going into 2026 with a new planner, which I this is literally the first year that I've not gone to Staples or Office Depot and bought like the prettiest new planner that had the weekly thing, and I was gonna write in it every day. And this is the first year that I have not done that. I'm not there yet. But I'm proud of you because I don't I don't use it. Yeah, I don't use it. It's just one more thing that it's just one more band aid that I think is gonna fix the next year for me.
SPEAKER_01:And if it's not, if it's pretty, you know, we're gonna use it more, right?
SPEAKER_00:I I mean the amount of office supplies that I have in my house, I do open. Maybe that actually, yeah. I'm starting a new goal for myself in 2026. Starting an office supply store. But um, but yeah, we just I before adding anything else to your plate for 2026, I feel like really slowing down and calming your nervous system. Yeah, like how much more amazing would that feel? Instead of, you know, you hear you hear about going into the gym on like January 1st, right? And seeing how full it is up until about like March. Yeah. And then everyone's gone. Yeah. And all the people who are regularly there are like they're saying, Thank goodness, yeah, got our space lab. Thank goodness. Yeah. Um, but that, you know, instead of like gung-ho January 1st, why don't we January 1st like take a breath? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean, it really is just another day in a month. Like it does January doesn't have to be your go-go go.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I'm all about goal. Like I am like so much about goal setting. But again, you can't you can't set your goals, you can't move forward without first pausing and really taking some inventory of who you are, what you not only want your life to look like on the outside, but what you want it to feel like. Yeah. Um, who's important in your life? Like, who do you want to invest your time in? Because we don't know how much time we have. Like, really, you know. Um, so yeah, again, slowing down. My whole thing these last few years is really slowing down long enough to figure out what you want and who you are as a person. Yeah. Because that changes. Yeah. Yeah, it does.
SPEAKER_01:I love it. Um, yeah, I mean, I think this is great advice, obviously, for January, the new year, but also just kind of looking throughout the year and life as a whole. Like put tying in, you know, these moments of pause regularly throughout the year, really for the other day or week. Um, but then just building some other habits that aren't necessarily, you know, go, go, go, but can allow you to kind of settle, reset, pause.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I ultimately make probably better decisions and goals and all that. So while your nervous system is calm.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. And we talk, yeah, I talk a lot about like big life resets, but honestly, like what you're saying, it's um, you know, these big major life resets that I talk about, it really do start with like a whisper of like what needs to change, and then a pause, yeah. Which often is accompanied by like the creativity in order to kind of um calm your nervous system. Yeah. And then doing an audit of you know, your life and what you want out of it, um, anchoring yourself to like those new beliefs that you have of yourself and like your new goals. Yeah. And then moving forward, you know. But again, you can't really, it's kind of a building blocker. Really, it's a circle. And then it's it's kind of what I've been saying like to myself. It's like it really is a reset circle that starts with you knowing something needs to change, um, pausing long enough and doing whatever you need to do, whether it's something creative to kind of create that safe space where you can think about what you want moving forward. Um, and then yeah, anchoring yourself in that in what you want for yourself and for your family and moving forward. So it's um yeah, 2026, January 1st would be a great time to to sit down and pause and do that. But it could just you could do it throughout the year. Yeah. Also, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Awesome. I love it. Um, well, this has been great. If you guys want more of these conversations, reset with Carrie is on all the platforms. I think yes, all the things. Um, but yeah, you have some great episodes up already um with women. There's again those big life reset stories, so definitely check that out. Um, we'll get that I was gonna say personality test, strengths test in the show notes because I'm definitely gonna do that because I will do any personality test who's in my way. Tell me what kind of dog I am. I don't care. Love them all. Um, but thank you so much. This was so fun. I think a good way to kind of kick off the new year and hopefully let us all kind of reset and yeah, build some new new habits and all that good stuff going into the year.