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 72: Creative Spark Series - Creative Community with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
How do you cultivate a sense of creative community? We believe that community and connection are vital to the creative process, especially for those of us who tend to create in solitude. For the new year, our Creative Spark series focuses on setting creative intentions and bolstering our creative habits so we can move toward our goals with greater clarity and flow. This mini episode focuses on the power of community to nurture our creative selves, especially in challenging times. This episode, like the mini-episodes that preceded it, also includes insights 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 join a creative community or reconnect with one you’re already a part of by attending an open mic or other creative event, or perhaps even starting a gathering of your own.
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 49: Creativity in Challenging Times, Episode 69: Reflecting on the Year, and Episode 70: New Year’s Creative Intentions.
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! We’d love to hear your feedback as well, so drop us a line at info@syncreate.org.
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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 change makers 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: And I'm Charlotte Gullick. I am a writer, educator, and writing coach. We are the co-authors 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 bring your work to the world.
We're offering a monthly coaching group starting in January 2025, and we'd be delighted for you to join us. We'd also love to hear your feedback on the show. Please drop us a line at info@syncreate.org. We're looking for feedback on how we can improve the show, what's resonating for you, and future topics you'd like us to cover.
Welcome back to the Syncreate podcast. We’re so happy that you're here. Melinda and I are working on some podcast quickies or some creative sparks, and we understand that people are enjoying these and so we want to do some more. Right now we're talking about the importance of community, which we have talked about before, but we're thinking about it through a different lens.
And, you know, we don't know what changes are coming in our country, coming soon. And some people may be feeling a little bit, bereft of, certainty about what things can look like. And we really wanted to talk about the importance of community as a structure that sustains and takes care of the most vulnerable. And in addition to being where we can be really fed in our collaborative and creative sense of ourself, is that community is extremely important. Many of us already know that. And we're thinking a little bit about how it might become more important. And, this might be hard - to think about how do I stretch myself so that I feel empowered no matter what the changes are coming? And so we wanted to spend a little time with that.
Melinda, how does community show up in your creative life in kind of a civil sense in addition to a creative sense?
Melinda: Yeah. So one of the things that we were kind of talking about when we were brainstorming for this episode is, you know, just after the election, I heard a clip with Rachel Maddow, and she was talking about, you know, the basis of a civil society is not necessarily government. It's people, gathering together in community, whatever that looks like. It could look many, many different ways. It could be an organization that you volunteer with or, you know, a spiritual community or a book club. Or for me, this really shows up in my music. So as I've talked about previously, I have a group of musicians that I play with here in Austin.
And, you know, we kind of started out as like we were all sort of desperately doing our own thing. Three of us are singer songwriters, and I first started playing with my friend George and then started playing with my friend Randy. And then we came together. They are five of us that have been playing together for a while now, and, you know, started to kind of blend our music together and harmonize and sing on each other's songs and perform together and it's really taken on this very, like, intimate familial feeling and almost this - it's got a spiritual element to it. And our weekly rehearsals, you know, sometimes they end up being group therapy sessions -
Charlotte: (laughs)
Melinda: - or celebrations or depending on the mood and what's going on, but it's like a time that all of us like, really, really cherish and really value in our coming together. So that's been, you know, such a blessing for me over this last year or so.
Charlotte: And it's making me think a couple of things. One is, you know that for those of us who haven't formed a creative community, that this might actually - the two might merge together - is that your civil and your engagement and your creativity may find an outlet together.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: And I'm also thinking about, like, you know, because I talk a lot about writers and community is so important, but we don't talk about it enough as writers because so much is done by ourselves. And I saw a thing on Submittable, which is a platform that has lots of artists and writing opportunities. And I saw a Writers Workshop and I applied to it one night very quickly. You know, something I'd written before. So I had something polished. So it was easy and I was accepted. And then I was like, I don't know if I want to go.
Melinda: (laughs)
Charlotte: It’s going to be right after the election. And I've done two writing programs, and what do those people have to offer me? Which was really full of myself, but then there was also an honest thing of like, am I going to be challenged enough so that I grow? And I wrote the woman who was organizing it, and you know, I was accepted. And then, I said, you know, I've done two writing programs, and I do want to be connected and challenged. And she's like, I think this will be a good group for you. And I was a little bit skeptical. And I went, and it was awesome.
Melinda: Aww.
Charlotte: I didn't know a person there. And everyone, you know, held each other with such compassionate support and knowing it was a rough, vulnerable time, and some people in particular really worried about the future for family members that are particularly vulnerable. And I'm so glad I went. Like it, you know, feels like there’s a - I know sometimes as a writer, I think I have to move between audacity and humility.
Melinda: Mm-hmm.
Charlotte: And I think I was operating from the audacious place, like, do I need this? And then from the humble place, it was so restorative and so connective. And now I have a whole new group of friends. I'm relatively new to the Hudson Valley, so I got to meet other writers in the area, even though some had traveled from so far to come. And I felt like it was - I love the timing that I -
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: - decided to go and that it was right after the election. That was really, really, sustaining.
Melinda: Yeah, yeah. That's beautiful. I love that. Yeah.
Charlotte: So our pro tip, when you were thinking about this is we encourage you, as we often do, to find a creative circle to become a part of. So this could mean that you have an existing group, and you haven't been with them in a while, and you reach back and you try to get - bring people together again.
We’re also thinking of maybe you go to an open mic in your community, see what - how people are putting themselves out there. That can be really inspiring. Go to a meetup. It doesn't necessarily have to be one that is creative focused. But what we're really encouraging you is to connect to community - it’s very important now.
And our suspicion is that it will continue to be very important. Or if you're in an area where you don't know or you don't like what's there, maybe you host your own, and maybe you start out casual as a virtual, and then you go to in person.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: But we're really encouraging you to put some creative energy into finding a way to connect with community.
Melinda: Yeah. And I think just someone from a previous episode who spoke to this really beautifully is Amanda Johnston, the poet laureate of Texas that we had on the show. And, you know, her pro tip was very similar. She was like, if you want to write and you haven't even started yet, like go to a reading and find your people, you know, so, so important. And I think a really great antidote to fear and uncertainty and isolation. Just like, go connect.
Charlotte: Find us and connect with us on YouTube and social media under Syncreate and we're on Patreon as well. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and leave us a review.
Melinda: 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.
