The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Welcome to Syncreate, where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology, and spirituality. Our goal is to demystify the creative process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative.
Creativity. It’s a word we throw around all the time, but what does it really mean? On the Syncreate Podcast, we share stories of the creative journey. We talk to changemakers, visionaries and everyday creatives working in a wide array of fields and disciplines. Our goal is to explore creativity in all its facets, and to gain a better understanding of the creative process – from imagination to innovation and everything in between.
The Syncreate Podcast is hosted by Melinda Rothouse, PhD. She helps individuals and organizations bring their creative dreams and visions to life through coaching, consulting, workshops, retreats, and now, this podcast. She's written two books on creativity, including Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities (winner of a Silver Nautilus Award for Creativity and Innovation), with Charlotte Gullick. She's also a musician (singer-songwriter and bass player) and photographer based in Austin, Texas.
The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity
Episode 31: Creative Spark Series - The Power of Collaboration with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte discuss the power of collaboration. It’s in our name, Syncreate: synergy and co-creation. We can accomplish so much more through collaboration than we can on our own. We describe own experiences of collaboration, and how you can harness the power of collaboration in your own creative work. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, includes insights and prompts from our book, Syncreate: A Guide to Navigating the Creative Process for Individuals, Teams, and Communities.
For our Creativity Pro-Tip, we encourage you to go on a walk in nature, observe the world around you, and all the ways you draw inspiration from your surroundings, which is also a form of collaboration. Alternatively, find and connect with a collaborator who complements your strengths so that you’re each bringing something different to the table in a creative synergy.
Credits: The Syncreate podcast is created and hosted by Melinda Rothouse, and produced at Record ATX studios with in collaboration Michael Osborne and 14th Street Studios in Austin, Texas. Syncreate logo design by Dreux Carpenter.
If you enjoy this episode and want to learn more about the creative process, you might also like our conversations in Episode 7: The Syncreate Story, Episode 20: The Syncreate Model of Play, Plan & Produce, Episode 22: Creative Play, and Episode 29: Iteration.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors, so if you have an idea for a project or a new venture, please reach out to us for 1x1 coaching or join our Syncreate 2024 Coaching Group, starting in July. You can find more information on our website, syncreate.org, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on social media and YouTube under Syncreate, and we’re now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review!
Episode-specific hyperlinks:
Syncreate Podcast Episode 3: Creative Polymathy with Michael Walker
Syncreate Podcast Episode 30: Creative Mornings Austin
David Whyte Poem: Everything is Waiting for You
Show / permanent hyperlinks:
Melinda: Welcome to Syncreate, a show where we explore the intersections between creativity, psychology and spirituality. We believe everyone has the capacity to be creative, and our goal is to demystify the creative process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative.
I'm Melinda Rothouse, and I help individuals and organizations bring their creative dreams and visions to life.
Charlotte: And I'm Charlotte Gulick. I'm a writer, educator, and writing coach. We are the co-authors of a book on the creative process, also called Syncreate.
Melinda: Okay. Hey, everyone, it's Melinda and Charlotte here. We're back for another episode of our Creative Spark series. And today we're going to be talking about the power of collaboration. So there's many, many ways that Charlotte and I have collaborated over the years, including on this podcast project. And we have really found, and it's in our name, Syncreate, it's that energy of synergy and co-creation. This idea that with collaboration we can do more, so much more than we can individually, on our own. You know, there's just more ideas and more energy into the mix. And often we, we can find collaborators that complement our strengths. Or our weaknesses in some way, you know, so that, you know, we can create something much greater than we could have just working on our own.
So a recent collaboration that I've really enjoyed is a musical collaboration, a show called Colors of Love, that I put together with some other musicians and storytellers here in Austin. And what I loved about this particular collaboration is that basically, we're kind of frustrated with like the booking process, and trying to like get shows at clubs or whatever, where maybe like no one's even really paying that much attention. And we thought, well, let's create a show. Like, let's put together a curated experience that we can do as a house concert, or book out venues specifically, like we're bringing this whole show to the table and it's a curated event.
So basically, we just set ourselves a deadline, said, Okay, we're going to do it in February. And then we're all going to contribute something to it.” And we didn't know exactly what, maybe certain songs, or certain poems, or stories or whatever, and we got together without like a real clear idea, like, there was no one directing traffic. You know, there was no one saying, “Okay, this is what we're doing.” There was like no one in charge per se, but we all just contributed what we had to contribute, and then we just started, like, playing on each other's songs or like, yeah, this kind of goes with that. And what if we did this? And as a lead-in to this song, like this poem, or this story.
And It all came together so beautifully, and I think it amazed all of us, what we were able to accomplish and actually how fluid and organic it felt to do that. You know, and in the end, you know, we've performed it a couple times now. We've got some other performances coming up. And, you know, we made like a whole event out of it. And people came and they were so moved, you know, like they laughed, they cried. And it was just very special, very intimate, very purposeful experience that, you know, I think has been incredibly satisfying and fulfilling as a creative.
Charlotte: It also sounds so healthy to hear, in a society that values individual effort, and holds up the individual. Sometimes we don't know how to collaborate really well. Yeah, and it sounds like it was really meaningful. And like, you know, when your energy is exponentially expanded by collaborating with other people.
Melinda: Yes. Yes, exactly. So and I know you have some stories of collaboration as well.
Charlotte: So many of them. And the one I'd like to highlight right now is I have a writing partner, other than you and polyamorous artist and…
Melinda: [Laughter] How dare you!
Charlotte: But we talked about it before. And so my friend Vivé and I, she and I like once a month, we exchange pages, and I've mentioned it before, this collection of essays I'm working on. And she has given me critical feedback, and I mean critical in the sense of profound, deep impact. And this collection of essays, she's a part of every one of them, even though her name isn't, you know, she's not in the byline, but that I depend on her so much and likewise I do the same for her. So there's so many different ways we can collaborate.
And I think I'm getting more connected to like the earth, and just thinking about how we collaborate with the places where we are, by knowing that in the animals, knowing the plants, and that the potential for collaboration is almost everywhere.
Melinda: I love that you said that and this is sort of a slight non-sequitur, but I went to Creative Mornings this morning, and actually we have an episode coming up [Episode 30] with the Co-Founders of Creative Mornings Austin that we filmed earlier this week. But this morning’s speaker was our friend Michael Walker [Featured in Episode 3]. And the topic was “Native.” And he's a native of West Texas, and he was talking about how this just this idea of being connected to the land in that way, and developing an intimate relationship with the place that you live, or the place that you're from, and how profound that can be, so.
Charlotte: I think it's so also to overcome loneliness. You know, that it's, we are, when we are able to see them, we have a lot of opportunities to feel that we are part of something and not apart.
Melinda: Yes, yes. The poet David Whyte says, “To feel abandoned is to deny the intimacy of our surroundings.”
Charlotte: Mmm, yes, yes.
Melinda: Yes. So on the topic of collaboration, what's our Pro-Tip for today?
Charlotte: Well, I think I have two. One is that you could go for a walk and think about all the things that are with you on that walk. So that might be like, you're paying attention to trees, bodies of water, birds. While we've been talking, this red-tailed hawk has been circling. So I just know, thinking about how we how we can / might be able to see what's around us as part of our collaboration.
And then the other one i--it makes you think about us--because I rush things a lot, and you slow me down. And that's one of the reasons that we really work, ‘cause I’m like, “We're done.” And you're like, “Let's look at it one more time.” And awesome. And so I think for the Pro-Tip, it might be to map your strengths, what are you good at? And if you're really self-aware, maybe look at what your weaknesses are, and then maybe start a conversation with people around you, your creative circle. And maybe you can find what you map to your strength, and maybe I'm the person that takes a little more time with things and I would like to go a little faster. What if I connect with this person who does things quickly and maybe we can complement each other? So that's what I would suggest.
Melinda: That's great. And I also want to make sure that we do talk about your Acknowledgments page, because I think that's such a testament to collaboration.
Charlotte: Yeah. Thank you. So when my first book was published and I wrote my Acknowledgment page, my editor told me that I had the longest acknowledgment page of any author that he had worked with. And I look at books now and I think it's more of a not a trend, but an awareness that a book is not written wholly by one person, at all. So that it's it really is a community that sustains people.
Melinda: So at Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. So if you have an idea for a project or a new venture, please reach out to us for 1x1 coaching or join our Syncreate 2024 Coaching group starting in April [Now starting in July], and we're offering a 10% discount on the coaching series if you mention that you heard about it through the podcast, so just reach out to us through our website.
Charlotte: You can find more information on our website, syncreate.org, where you can also find all of our podcast episodes. Find and connect with us on YouTube, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok Syncreate. And we're now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And we're recording today at Record ATX studios in Austin, with Charlotte joining us from the Hudson Valley. The podcast is produced in collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios. Thanks so much for being with us and see you next time.
