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Olivia Suleimon, also known as Yemi Sul, has spent over a decade navigating the creative world. With a resume most would marvel at, her work spans music, film, performance and writing, with storytelling always at the centre.

Her presence and home carry a calm, familiar energy. The kind that makes you feel as though you have known her for years. For episode four of RISE Routines, we spend the morning together as she shares the practices that keep her anchored and the spaces that allow her to create.

In this conversation, we speak about identity, intuition and how routine can become its own kind of creative act.

Watch the episode below or read on for the full interview, including questions that didn’t make the final cut.

LIV: Definitely the ocean from Sydney. The city to ocean proximity. I don't think there's anywhere else in the world where you can do that. Go from 15 minutes beach to CBD.

London has this electricity. It's diverse. It's a moulting pot. It's this aliveness that I can't quite put my finger on exactly how to describe it, but that sensation of, I'm in this middle of the world or the centre of the world type thing.

New York, some of the grit and the tenacity, without overwhelming me.

LA, this feeling of, wow, million dollar movies you be making around you. Hollywood. That feeling of, I'm close to everything I've ever watched. I'm close to art in such a big way.

LIV: No, actually I had a lot of shame around that for a really long time. I just wanted to crack it at one thing, but that one thing would never open for me. I wanted to be a presenter and 2010, 2011, 2012, the only presenters were DJs, so I was like, okay, I'll become a DJ, because I was like, I'm going to be the girl that plays grime and UK rap because my family's from London and I have an affinity with that vibe.

Modelling became, I was scouted when I was 14. That kind of really had a moment when I was 27. I guess the world caught up because when I was 14 I was curvy and they didn't quite know what to do with me, and it was Sydney very blonde aesthetic. So then being 27 in London and just kind of being embraced for who I am, it was like, wow.

Then I kind of clung onto that and was like, I want to be a model, but you can't really do that with modelling. You don't get to pick if you are a successful model or not, which was really hard for me to comprehend that no matter how hard I worked at this, that it didn't matter actually. And it kind of added to me being chewed up and spat out.

When acting came to me was again, another kind of broken, sad moment in London where I was working the switchboard for a department store and just really reading a self hot book. Something's got to give, and then it was like, if nothing scares you, what would you do? And acting popped in my head and I was like, oh no, I don't want to pick up a new thing, acting, that's impossible. Then I went to a class and it was quite an intense technique called the Meisner Technique, and the class I was auditing, the girl must've been doing her activity or something and she stripped naked and was scream crying and it was like 2:00 PM in the middle of the day. I was like, I am so terrified. There's no way I can do that. But I feel I've never felt more alive than how I do right now. As I'm maturing, I'm really enjoying the writing as opposed to acting. I like to tell my own story. So maybe that's just a symptom of that.

Freckle TV is my way of doing that. I'm really into documentary filmmaking. That was one of my first dreams. That took me to LA and Freckle TV was a production company for me to turn a place for me to put my ideas into, actively work on them and logistically have the framework to make things happen.

LIV: I’d say it was the DJing. I threw a night with a few other friends and the night became quite successful. It was momentum.

DJing feels like it's my husband or something. It's always there. I'm a bit bored of it, but it's always there supporting me and being quite stable. I feel guilty to not be wearing this DJ thing with my chest, but it's who I am.

LIV: He's really supportive and he's kind of like a stoic tree. He gets me. He lights me up at times when I'm not expecting it. He puts up with all my whinging and my tantrums.

LIV: Drawing on, cause I'm biracial, my mom's Australian and my dad's Nigerian. I didn't grow up with him around, so music really informed my cultural identity. I spent hours trying to get as much gangster rap as I could consume. That was initially how I discovered my relationship with music. It reminds me who I am.

Sometimes I get sick of listening to music, being a dj, and I'll be like, no more music, gimme a podcast. But when it's time to draw back in, I find myself playing heavy dance hall or Afrobeat. That's a pallet cleanser for me.

LIV: Being an actor this year. I've only auditioned twice. I was a lead in a feature film last year, so you expect momentum. To have absolutely nothing felt nonsensical and stifling and frustrating. But it pushed me to write and produce and direct my own short film, which I am nourished that need now.

LIV: So I start my mornings, I get up from my bedroom and I go to my desk. I make myself an instant coffee and I come right over here. I set my timer for 35 minutes and I journal, prolific journal. Actually, my mom found my little girl diaries from 2002.

ELLY: Wait, would you read the first entry to us or is it private?

LIV: Yeah, no, I can, this is hilarious. To diary. My dream is to play an assembly with the junior school band. My favourite instrument would be the trombone.

So I do my journaling. It's three pages, very the artist's way, and then I do a fear inventory where I write one page of everything I'm afraid of and just kind of get all that grit up no matter how ridiculous it is. And then I do a gratitude list of everything I'm grateful for. And then I do a manifestation menu. I write thank you for as if it's already happened. And then I pull these Osho Zen cards.

LIV: Yeah, absolutely. So the artist's way, mine's covered in ink, very artistic. It's about unblocking your creativity through spirituality. It gives you a series of exercises like write a letter to your 8-year-old self and then write a letter to you now from your 8-year-old self. Just all these amazing tools to just unlock some blocks potentially, and also encourages you to go on an artist date and just take yourself somewhere random. Last week I took myself to the Women's Coogee baths and I read an Anis Nin. She's like an erotic novelist.

So I sat there topless by the open ocean. It was very Venus. It was honestly magical and I was so happy that I did that. It was probably the best day of my year.

LIV: Setting boundaries. Practising approval of myself and trusting myself. Something I'm trying to let go of is over pulling the tarot cards.

LIV: I will panic if I don't do that routine. It's pretty important.

LIV: I process things internally. I'm definitely a good ear. I love to help and listen to people's problems and stuff, but I think I am an introverted extrovert where I appear extroverted, but I'm actually deeply introverted. I don't know if I said it right. I'm also Scorpio Scorpio. So yeah, we really need to go deep and scurry away and figure things out on our own. Before DJ sets, I'll meditate for 20 minutes and have a bath and really try and decompress as much as I can.

LIV: It's pretty simple, but I absolutely love this Skin Kind face oil by Kit. I live by this, I wash my face and I put it on first thing in the morning. It doesn't feel right if I don't have it on. Sunscreen's actually really important to me. I freckle really easily and I like my freckles right now, but I do get concerned that it's going to get a lot. So 50+ Mecca sunscreen, you can't really go wrong. It just feels really nice. This stuff I love. It's Bobby Brown's vitamin Face Base. This, oh my God, it's like a primer moisturiser and I feel like I don't even need to put makeup on when I put it on. It just makes your skin look so alive.

ELLY: What are your top three makeup products?

LIV: Okay, so for makeup, I like a really thin foundation, really kind of sheer coverage. I found that this Hourglass Veil Foundation is amazing and it's taken me a really long time to get a good foundation. Two-faced bronzer. I wear Sun Bunny. I've been wearing for this for 15 years. I've tried to contour, but this is just me. This is all I need. And then a new addition is the Haus Lab's mascara. I'm honestly really impressed.

LIV: No, actually I'm going to say no. Maybe that's a blessing of mine that I don't feel that, but I do feel pretty free to express myself however I want.

LIV: Yeah, I think that's been a forever thing for me. People have always reacted and responded to the way that I've looked, so a lot of my self-worth has inherently been in the way that I look, and I actually can't even imagine an existence that I didn't have to ride off that in any way, shape, or form.

LIV: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Yemi, she's so kind of separate from Olivia, I feel like Olivia is kind of my soft tender heart and I like my friends to call me Liv or Olivia. If I'm dating someone, I never want to hear them say Yemi, she's kind of my protector and she's very forward. I know when she's there type thing, it's like a magic trick and suddenly it's Yemi. If I'm in a nightclub and I need to be able to protect myself or I need to ask for certain things in a certain way and I need to be very direct, I can easily do that as Yemi when I put on my outfits and I'm taking selfies and it's very ego forward.

Olivia, me, I'm very shy actually and so that was a good vehicle for me to express who I actually wanted to be. I watched a lot of Australia's next stop model and they'd always America's next Top model. They always changed the girls' names and I was like, if they changed my name, I'd want it to be Yemi Sul and want to chop my last name and use my Nigerian middle name.

ELLY: Speaking of your creative work, I would love to know where in your home all the magic begins, its creation.

LIV: Sure, follow me!

LIV: The kitchen would be an absolute bomb site. So would this, it'd have my clothes strewn everywhere. I live on my own so the entire place becomes my bedroom. My diary would be open, my laptop would be here with my hard drive, delicately balancing in it as well. I'd be doing my makeup and I'd have an amazing outfit sent here and I'd be struggling with the zipper on my own.

LIV: It's a light bulb moment. It'll be when I've finally given myself a break and a rest and I'll be like, oh, that's a story and I'll put it in my notes. I do a Pinterest board. I try and plot it out. ChatGPT has been amazing as an instant sounding board and fleshing things out and giving me creative prompts.

LIV: A lot of people are resistant to it, but it has absolutely excelled my creativity. I did an Ikigai, which is like a Japanese thing that figures out your purpose. It's a good creative tool. It's not great if you're trying to get it to write for you. It's boring and bland. But it's a good brain teaser if I want it to give me new original questions to dive deeper into character.

LIV: No, I'm pretty bad. I think I love documentary. I really do draw on real experiences. Everything's probably happened. My short film, which is an experimental horror on dating culture, I've teased out this one event and at first it was moment for moment what happened, but by the time we were shooting it, it's completely, it's actually not recognisable as the real event because locations and the actors have limited availability. All these logistical things, the story changes to what it's meant to be.

LIV: Hopefully soon. I'd love it to do a festival run. We shot it using anamorphic lenses and my DOP Jackie did an incredible job and it's like a high level thing. I invested a lot of money into it and I hope it does a festival run.

LIV: In front of the camera. Probably because I've been doing it since I was a kid and I can get really intimidated and have imposter syndrome behind the camera. I dunno the right words for things and this constant, I dunno what I'm doing.

LIV: It's looked like being made to feel like an idiot and still trying to say what I need but not thinking that I have the right language and being spoken down to or ignored.

LIV: Been in. Because I haven't had full creative control over it and it may not be to my taste.

LIV: Some stuff around my dad. He's an incredible character. I'd love to do something around my relationship with him. Also navigating the Sydney creative industry, it's such a small bubble, the same group of people again and again. Living in London and New York and seeing that same dynamic play out in every city. It's the same shit. Different toilet. Navigating creativity, love, sex.

LIV: I do think I compartmentalise them a lot, but I think by nature they absolutely do feed in. Doing the soundscape for the short, I was really specific and maniacal about the kind of music references that we were drawing from. When I DJ, I think a lot of people can see in my performance, I almost inhabit the song that I'm playing and it becomes like a karaoke.

LIV: I think I'd be, that's so hard and it's so interesting that it's hard. I think I'd be a writer. I really just romanticise the way that sounds. A successful writer that's has a country house and a beach house and they just write by nature and they bring these worlds to life.

LIV: Maybe like 50 plus. Not right now. I don't have a book in me right now. Too much. I could have a feature.

ELLY: Well thank you for having me in your lovely home today and I'll let you get on with your day.

LIV: Thanks for doing this.

ELLY: Of course.

LIV: Bye!

ELLY: Bye! :)