These Three Things with Kate Ellen
Artist and Musician Kate Ellen shares three life lessons that have shaped her creative process.
Lisa Anderson Shaffer, LMFT Nov 16, 2025
I’m so glad you’re here! Today, I’m thrilled to share a special These Three Things guest feature with the brilliant Kate Ellen of Little Door. Kate is a a writer, musician, and creative conduit whose work is illuminated by cosmic humor, radical aliveness, and deep compassion. Her reflections invite us to loosen our grip, follow curiosity, and feel turned on by the beautiful mystery of being alive. After you read, I’d love to hear from you! Share your own three things in the comments below, I read and appreciate every single one.
Kate and I first met around 2016 through her exquisite jewelry store, Crown Nine, in Oakland. A space that carried my line, Zelma Rose, back when I was designing jewelry. Even then, she radiated this rare mix of grounded creative vision and joyful curiosity. She had a way of communicating beauty through her own designs and transforming her shop into a living reflection of artistry and heart.
Since then, Kate’s creative world has shifted in exciting new directions. She now writes and records music under the name Little Door and is currently recording her debut album! Alongside her music, Kate helps other artists manage business operations and branding with the same attention to curiosity, deep intention, and intimate narrative that she brings to her own work.
Kate’s creative life is a living experiment in curiosity, connection, and what she calls feeling “radically turned on by life.” One of her favorite reminders comes from poet Alok Vaid-Menon: “Love is a commitment to one another’s perpetual and perennial mystery.” That spirit of curiosity to mystery itself is woven through everything Kate creates.
You can find Kate on her website and of course, here on Substack.
These Three Things with Kate Ellen
1. Know your own energy. If you don’t know the difference between what is your energy and what is someone else’s energy, it is impossible to sort out your desires and motivations. First, know thyself. It’s a pretty fun game once you start practicing.
2. Georgia O’Keefe had it figured out: “I have already settled it for myself so flattery and criticism go down the same drain and I am quite free.” I have been running major experiments in expansion and visibility this past year, putting myself further and farther out than I ever have before and witnessing how my nervous system responds. There is what the mind thinks and wants, what the body can tolerate, and then the issue of relying on outside validation or criticism. These experiments have been incredibly fruitful, my hope is to end up where Georgia did, to make from a place a pure connection to source, as a clear channel and without thought of other people’s validation or invalidation. Down the drain, baby! Yeeeee!
3. I know people say this and it may seem trite, but I really do feel like it was a quantum paradigm shift when I finally felt that I belong here on earth, that I am loved and I belong here. That whole child of god, one with all beings, gotta love yourself kind of thing? Yeah. That. Spread me on some of that.
So now I ask you:
1. How do you recognize what’s truly yours? Your energy, desires, and motivations versus what your handling from others? What practices help you return to yourself when you begin to lose your space and everything starts to blur together?
2. Have you ever felt yourself expand beyond your comfort zone? Creatively, personally, or publicly? What did you notice about your own nervous system, and how do you find steadiness in the space between flattery and criticism?
3. What moments or practices help you remember that you belong without conditions? Where in your life do you feel most at home in your own skin?
If none of these prompts speak to you, feel free to share your These Three Things in the comments in any form that feels right. There are no rules here, just curiosity, reflection, presence, and space to begin again.
Feel free to take it to Notes! Tag me using
and I’ll give you a shoutout. Let’s see where this journey takes us when we all share what we’ve learned along the way.
Thank you so much for the inspiration this week, Kate.
And as always, thank all of you for being here.
xxx
Lisa
