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 59: Creative Spark Series - How Creativity Opens Doors with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
In this installment of our Creative Spark mini-episodes, we discuss how creativity opens doors, and how saying yes to our creativity also helps to build connection and community. We each share our own experiences of creative connection, and how expressing our creativity has led to new experiences and relationships. 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 reflect on how creativity has opened doors in your own life, and to take concrete action toward opening a new door, such as attending a book reading, an open mic, a gallery opening, and so on.
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 31: The Power of Collaboration, Episode 37: Giving Back to the Community, and Episode 57: Accountability Partnerships.
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:
Charlotte Gullick’s Website
Book: The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop by Felicia Rose Chavez
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: Hi, 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 are 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. We're offering a monthly coaching group starting in January 2025, and we'd love for you to join us.
Welcome to the Syncreate podcast, everyone.
Melinda: It’s so good to be here with you in person!
Charlotte: I know it's kind of crazy, in this official podcasting space.
Melinda: I know we're usually virtual for these creative spark sessions. So, so happy to be here. And the reason we're here together is also because we recorded our audio book over the weekend.
Charlotte: It was fantastic.
Melinda: It was so fun.
Charlotte: It was a great process to sit in my imperfect self, have a great time, and still believe in what we were doing.
Melinda: Totally and reread the book and go, wow, this is actually pretty good.
Charlotte: I like our book a lot.
Melinda: I do too.
Charlotte: I mean, I don't wanna be like, so self-congratulatory… We are so great. [Laughter] But like, no, there's a lot of really good pieces of information.
Melinda: It was like reading it with an impartial eye, you know, you're like, wow, this is actually pretty helpful.
Charlotte: And like, for me, the vision of the book was to help people feel empowered. And I feel like that intention is really embedded in the whole thing. It's great.
Melina: Yeah. For sure. Yeah.
Charlotte: Which leads us to today's podcast quickie, is, we're focusing on the idea of how creativity opens doors that we didn't imagine it would open. And this is in alignment with our goal to have people have more joy and a greater sense of empowerment with creativity.
And I think related to that is divesting ourself from being solely interested in product. So we want to like, so it's not just process that we want to celebrate and illuminate and bring to the forefront so people feel more empowered. And, because we're so surrounded by product. But there's this other aspect we want to focus on today, is like, what has happened in your life since you've said yes to your creativity?
So, for me, I think about my younger self who was an aspiring writer with such a different, different background from the mainstream world. And ‘would I ever break in?’ and that was solely focused on a product. And then like, developing a reflecting practice or reflective practice of like, hey, what's creative done for me? I feel like I do a lot for creativity. So I'm not just doing it like a one-way street.
Melinda: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
Charlotte: But it has opened so many doors and that's what we're going to talk about today. So in your life as a creative, can you think of 1 or 2 ways or things or people or experiences that creativity has, that you never imagined would be part of your life?
Melinda: Yeah. Well, so for almost as long as I can remember, you know, I started out my creative journey as a singer. And so I, you know, I did perform, you know, as a soloist, but always also in choirs and different musical groups and with theater and a capella and bands.
Charlotte: You were singing out the wazoo it sounds like!
Melinda: [Laughter] Yeah, over the years. Right? And so that, that is, community is inherent in that. And I think especially when you're singing with other people, there's this blending of voices that happens that's completely magical.
Charlotte: Sounds wonderful.
Melinda: You know, and it leads to really deep connections. So like a lot of my, you know, close friends in college were, other singers, people who I sang with in a capella or in, you know, opera workshops or other things like that. And, you know, many of, of my longest friendships are people that I met through creativity in some form or fashion.
Charlotte: Awesome.
Melinda: Yeah. How about you? And I'm curious, as a writer. So, you know, we've talked about writing being kind of a solitary activity by nature, but yeah. So as a writer in your journey, like, how did, how did you come to connect with community?
Charlotte: Well, I think there's so much myth around the solo, tortured, suffering writer that I really, through osmosis, had absorbed and, you know, and I think there's a certain part of why people get drawn to creativity is like, ‘it's tortured and so am I,’ So like, ‘oh, it's a match made in heaven! Suffering together.’
And so like, and recognizing that it is through other people on the writing process that we get better, you know, we get the perspective, we get the feedback. When we get the judicious feedback that says, you know, I think this is really strong, but maybe it needs more dialog. And you're like, oh, I couldn't figure that out on my own. And recognizing that we can't see some of those things for ourselves, particularly as beginners.
So, I think the community and workshopping like in a, in getting feedback from people and a lot of it was introduced to me in academic settings that were a little toxic. A little based on the model that came out of the Iowa Writers Conference. There's a fantastic book. If there are writers out there who are looking for a way to kind of heal themselves if they've had bad experiences, with, creative writing workshops.
It's the Anti-Racist Writing Workshop, by Felicia Rose Chavez. It's so good, so good, so healing, so wonderful. If you want to reclaim something from yourself. I mean, for yourself, not from yourself. But the other thing I would say is like, how did, how has my life opened up since I said yes to creativity? And the thing that really sticks out in my mind is the short version is, is this writer from Denmark and I got published by the same small independent press.
And so we met, he came to Austin and we met each other. He had a book release and kind of hosted him. So wonderful, so wonderful. And he's like, hey, if you're ever coming to Europe, say hello. And so he and his wife own olive vineyard, no olive vineyards, olive trees in Tuscany.
So we went and picked olives with him and his wife and daughters in Tuscany. And then had fresh, fresh squeezed, you know, all of juice and just had this wonderful lunch in the Italian hillside. And like, I never would have imagined that that's where becoming a writer could have led me. And I think so.
That's like the movie version of it. There we are, all picturesque. But then I think the other way is just like how you get to say yes to other people. Because people have said yes to you. Oh yes. I believe in your idea and how can you get there? And I think that's another part of it for me.
Melinda: Yeah, I love that. And then just in such a contrast to like, as you were talking about these writing workshops where they're, and I think this is true in art school too, traditionally where there's like the critique and it can be brutal, you know, and, and people feel like they've been sort of like torn down in the process of going to art school or to school for writing or whatever it might be, you know?
So, I love that we're kind of turning that a bit. And of course, we're not the first to do that, but, to say like, okay, well, what does creativity actually open up? And I'm just thinking of all the, you know, just doing this podcast, all the incredible, amazing, creative, interesting people that I've met all over the world that I get to talk to.
Charlotte: It's so awesome. So awesome. And I just, to emphasize, re-emphasize what I said at the beginning, is that that's not about product. That's about connection. And I think that's really what we want to highlight today, is the ways that creativity can be such a connective force in our lives.. And if I think a practice of reflection can help build that.
So do you have a Pro Tip around this?
Melinda: I do, I just want to add, like, just a couple other quick things. First of all, like, you don't have to be a creator necessarily to participate in creative community. I'm just thinking about, like, we've got ACL Festival that just finished here in Austin and, you know, so many music fans going out and going to the festival and like meeting other people and hearing their favorite bands and feeling like a part of something.
So that's another way, even if you're not actually creating, but supporting others, going to concerts, going to openings, events, performances, whatever that is.
Charlotte: Absolutely. Because like the artist, in a vacuum is not healthy, right? And so the audience or reader is just as important as the artist themselves, because there's a synergy that's happening between the two.
Melinda: Yeah. And in most cases, when we create any form of art or expression, it's to communicate something so that, so the audience or the receiver is so important. And then just the one other thing I was thinking about is, you know, we both teach and coach, right? But I'm thinking specifically in the classroom, around writing, creativity, whatever it is, you know, that's another form of community, you know, and, and I see myself not as somebody who's like, delivering information to students, but basically somebody who's facilitating and holding space for other people to explore their creativity.
Charlotte: I would only add to that to explore and connect. Right. Yeah.
Melinda: Yeah. Exactly. So yes, a pro tip today is we really want to encourage you to reflect on how creativity has opened doors for you. Again, whether as a creator or as an audience member, as a reader, as a listener or whatever that might be. And also to take one action, something concrete that you can do today, this week, soon that might open another door to community. So maybe attending a reading, going to an open mic, going to a gallery opening, supporting other artists, and see how that opens up a sense of creative community for you.
Charlotte: Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under Syncreate, and we're now on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: And again, please join us for our Syncreate monthly coaching group starting in January of 2025. We're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin in person together with Charlotte, which is so wonderful. And the podcast is produced in collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios here in Austin. Thanks so much for being with us, and see you next time.
