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 53: Creative Spark Series - Preparation vs. Spontaneity with Melinda Rothouse and Charlotte Gullick
In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we explore the delicate balance between preparation and spontaneity in our creative work. How do we invite structure and planning into our process, while also allowing for freshness, mystery, surprise, and improvisation? Maybe the thought of public speaking terrifies us, so we want to prepare meticulously. But no one wants to hear someone simply read from a prepared paper or script, so how do we prepare fully and then let go? 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 prepare fully for your next creative performance or presentation, and then let go and be in the moment as much as possible. Let us know how it goes!
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 20: The Syncreate Model of Play, Plan & Produce, Episode 24: Creative Planning, and Episode 41: Creative Practice, Process, and Product.
At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you’re not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org. Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We also offer resources, creative process tools, and coaching to help you bring your work to the world. You can find more information on our website, 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:
Amparo Garcia-Crow and The Living Room
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 create. Our goal is to demystify the process and expand the boundaries of what it means to be creative. We talk with visionaries and changemakers and everyday creatives working in a wide range of fields and mediums, from the arts to science, technology and business.
We aim to illuminate the creative process, from imagination to innovation and everything in between. I'm Melinda Rothouse and I help individuals and organizations bring their dreams and visions to life.
Charlotte: I'm Charlotte Gullick and I'm a writer, educator, and writing coach. We are the coauthors of a book on the creative process, also called Syncreate. At Syncreate, we're here to support your creative endeavors. If you have an idea for a project or a new venture, and you're not sure how to get it off the ground, find us at syncreate.org.
Our book, also called Syncreate, walks you through the stages of the creative process so you can take action on your creative goals. We offer resources, creative process tools and coaching to help you bring your work to the world.
Welcome everyone to the Syncreate podcast. We're doing another podcast spark or quickie, little pieces of wisdom that we wanted to share because we've been studying this creative thing for a while, and we are here to bring more joy and more empowerment to our listeners and readers. So what we want to talk about today is the difference between preparation and spontaneity.
And both have their merits and both have their disadvantages. And one of the things we wanted to share with you is how we prepare for these episodes. So, we've played with our structure a lot. Sometimes we've lined it out, very specifically. And, like, this is what I will say then. And then you'll say that. And we found that felt a little bit rigid.
Melinda: Yeah. Like we were, it was a little stiff or something. But we also, you know, we don't want to be completely flying by the seat of our pants, right? So it's like, what is that balance between having some structure and allowing spontaneity into the process?
Charlotte: So what we're working on is like we have a loose idea of what we're going to talk about, and then we see what pops up for us in the moment.
And I think that's where a lot of our fun and joy has come from. Like, oh, I didn't know Melinda was going to say that, or I didn't know that Charlotte was going to say that.
Melinda: Or we, you know, one of us says something and then it's like, oh, yeah, that reminds me of blah, blah, blah.
Charlotte: I also really appreciate the spontaneity around a focus or a theme, because we decide these things that, we get together because of our accountability partnership and we plan out the podcast quickies or an overview of what we want to do, but then we aren't the same people who come to the recording as the same people who made the outline.
Melinda: Right? Because in between we've had all these experiences and these new things that we could bring to the table.
Charlotte: And we think that's a lot like the creative process. And so you can provide yourself with structure. And, you know, I know I'm going to discuss these things loosely or I'm going to work on these things loosely, but having some generosity with yourself in terms of your plan, that there's some flexibility, there's some spontaneity. What's that fancy word? Extemporaneous.
Melinda: Yes. Yes. And some people, you know, are more comfortable. Like, I've just come from a conference, you know, some people are just kind of getting up and riffing. You know, you can see the range. Other people are like reading from a prepared paper. And then, you know, there's people who've clearly prepared the talk with their little jokes and their little things, you know.
And so it's important to know yourself. Right? And some of us just simply in order to maintain focus, we kind of have to have a pretty specific structure. Other people are able to be spontaneous, like, I've learned over the years, whenever I'm giving a presentation and I've got a PowerPoint or something, I don't write anything out, but everything I need to say is bulleted in the presentation, so I know what I want to touch on.
But I also know I can kind of riff on different things as they arise, you know? So it's finding that balance between being prepared. Preparation is important, right? But then kind of letting go. So there's a saying in Buddhism this relates to kind of mindfulness and meditation practice, but that one of his students came to the Buddha and said, “Well, how should I practice?”
And the student happened to be a musician. Right. And so, and the Buddha said, “Well, how do you tune your instrument?” And, and the person was like, “Well, not too tight, not too loose.” And that's how we should practice. Right? And I think this goes for preparing for any kind of presentation, performance, whatever it might be, and it might be that we need to like, memorize the whole thing.
And then once we feel confident, then we can let go and be spontaneous, you know? So it's going to be a little different for every person depending on how your mind works. If you're more of linear thinker or if you're more an associative thinker, but finding a way that works for you. Some people will practice in front of a mirror or in front of a trusted friend or spouse or whatever beforehand.
So whatever it is that works for you to find that balance. And, the psychiatrist Dan Siegel, who's written a lot about psychology, mindfulness and creativity, he talks about, you know, finding this balance literally in our nervous systems between chaos and rigidity. Right. We don't want to be too rigid, too tight, but we also don't want to be, like all over the place. Right? And so it's just finding that that sweet spot between the two.
Charlotte: [coughs] I'm sorry.
Melinda: No worries.
Charlotte: It just choked me up! No.
Melinda: [laughter].
Charlotte: So, Amparo Garcia-Crow, who is just a wonderful, amazing artist in the Austin community, does The Living Room, the storytelling for grownups. And I've done it a couple of times, and she's mentored me in that. And one of the things she says is you want to be present with those in the room. And so you want to know the general area or the topic that you're going to talk about, but you also want to remain open to what it is that arises when you're gathered with people in a place and a time that will never happen again.
So I think, and you know, with public speaking being such a huge fear for so many people, you know, really because one of the things the more you do it, the more comfortable you'll get with it. And you were talking about practicing with a partner in a mirror. A lot of people practice speeches with their pets.
Melinda: Yeah. [laughter]. And then the cat goes [makes funny face].
Charlotte: [mimics cat] Meh. Don’t care.
Melinda: [laughter]
Charlotte: And that's the cat. If you pass the cat test, that’s a good one.
Melinda: That’s right. Can you keep your cat engaged?
Charlotte: It's a tough, tough audience.
Melinda: Yeah. And but the good news is there's lots of resources out there. You know, Toastmasters is a great way to kind of learn and prepare for public speaking. Or take an improv class, right? Which can be scary, but it's actually, I can attest, really, really fun. And it can get you more comfortable with being in the moment and speaking off the cuff and saying yes to whatever arises.
Charlotte: I think it's a lot like the process to we might bring a lot of anxiety or uncertainty about what it is that we're going to do in our creativity.
So if we have a loose goal of, oh, I think this is what I'm going to do, and then it turns out, oh, that's not what you want to do. But you're motivated to do this other thing that, having a plan is often what gets us started, but it's not necessarily the thing that we have to stick to to keep our momentum.
Melinda: Yes. Yes, absolutely. So again, just kind of finding that balance. So our Pro Tip for today is to prepare, do whatever you need to do to prepare for your talk, your performance, whatever. And then let go. So if you have an event coming up, you know, put all your notes together, do your script, write it out. Whatever you need to do, do your research, feel prepared, and then maybe throw your notes away and let it flow naturally, or at least rehearse that way.
And then, you know, experiment with this and see. And of course, we're always learning from our experiences. So noting after the fact, okay, what worked well there? What can I improve upon? And then, you know, bringing that insight into your next one.
Charlotte: And I would add to that, that I think sometimes when we go, we prepare and then we let ourselves be spontaneous, is that we also humanize ourselves in the moment because we're not so polished and so, perfect.
We might stumble a little bit if we're spontaneous, if we're comfortable doing that. But that also is really helpful for an audience to see. So that, you know, the perfectionism, doesn't, it can keep us in boxes that aren't necessarily, helpful or joyful.
Melinda: Yeah. So true. Like, who would you rather listen to? Like somebody who's up there kind of, like, tense and just, like, reading from a paper or somebody who's, like, moving around and engaging with the audience and maybe bringing a little levity to it. So there's all this non-verbal communication, and everyone's got to find their own way with it and their own style. But, you know, you're transmitting a lot more to the audience than you realize just through your words. Right?
And there's this whole body language, and that can either make people very comfortable and engaged or, you know, it's like watching ice skating. I always, like, feel so tense because I don't want them to fall. Right? And it's like kind of nerve wracking. But like, you can tell the difference between, you know, an athlete who's, like, nervous about their performance or someone who's totally in the flow. So it goes across all kinds of genres.
Charlotte: I just want to say that Melinda has been quite radical in this episode.
Melinda: [laughter]
Charlotte: And she said to throw away your notes! Oh good gosh, that made me anxious. I would suggest don't look at your notes!
Melinda: [laugher] Okay! Maybe don't throw them away.
Charlotte: Whoosh. Throw ‘em out!
Melinda: Just depends how spontaneous you're feeling that day.
Charlotte: There's a range of options here. Okay.
Melinda: For sure. For sure. All right. Thanks so much everyone.
Charlotte: Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under Syncreate and we're now on Patreon as well. If you enjoyed the show please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And we're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin, with Charlotte joining in from the Hudson Valley. The podcast is produced and collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios. Thanks so much for being with us and see you next time.
