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 96: Creative Spark Series - Creativity Conference Reflections with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda shares insights and reflections from her recent experience attending and presenting at the Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University, connecting and collaborating with friends and colleagues, and getting energized from being around others studying creativity. 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 find and attend an event where you can connect with others around creativity, collaboration, and community in a way that’s meaningful and relevant to you.
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 9: Music and Psychology: "The Pocket" Experience with Dr. Jeff Mims, Episode 16: Creativity, Innovation & Leadership with Robert Cleve, PhD, Episode 48: Can You Learn Creativity? with Creative Director Chris McKenna, and Episode 91: Envisioning the Possible with Vlad Glăveanu, PhD.
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, including a monthly creativity coaching group, 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. 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.
Episode-specific hyperlinks:
Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University
Show / permanent hyperlinks:
Melinda: Creativity and community are absolutely vital in challenging times. 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 media - 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 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, now available in both print and audiobook format, 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, including our monthly Creativity Coaching group. 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 what future topics you'd like us to cover.
Melinda: Hi everyone! Welcome back to the Syncreate Podcast. We're doing our Creative Spark mini episode today. And this one, I'm going to be sharing a little bit about a recent experience I had at the Creativity Conference at Southern Oregon University, which is a wonderful, small conference focused on creativity, that I've been attending for several years now. Charlotte came with me one time. We’ve discussed that in another episode.
Melinda: So, yeah, this is a really fun conference in Ashland, Oregon, there at the university and, you know, conferences can be a bit overwhelming at times. Like, I've gone to the APA (American Psychological Association) Convention and there's like, 20,000 people there. By contrast, this little Creativity Conference has maybe a couple hundred people, but very renowned scholars in the field. And it’s always great to go there. And Ashland is beautiful little town, and just connect with other people that are working in the field of creativity and who are excited about creativity. And it's a great way to just meet people, find collaborators.
This year, I got to see Chris McKenna, who I met there at the conference last year and who I've had on the show in a previous episode. As well as Jeff Mims, who we've had on the show as well. So, always great to see those folks, as well as folks from Saybrook University, where I teach. My colleague Robert and several of our students were there presenting, which was really wonderful.
Charlotte: And it's an international conference, right?
Melinda: Yeah. There are people coming in from all over the world. Certainly from Europe. And then I think they said, because they do - it’s kind of a hybrid conference - so you can come in person or you can attend virtually. And I think they said there were, I don't even know how many countries represented in the virtual conference. So, very international. Yeah.
Charlotte: Awesome.
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: And you presented this year, right?
Melinda: I did. Yes. So, I did two presentations. I did kind of a short what they call a boom talk, like a 15 minute presentation on just the importance of creativity, collaboration and community in challenging times - a topic that we've touched on as well here in the show. And, I'll be doing a larger panel presentation on this topic at the Possibility Studies Conference in Dublin, in a few short weeks. It’s coming up. And actually, just yesterday, I had Vlad Glăveanu on the show, who's kind of the founder of the Possibility Studies Network. And he puts together the conference, with, you know, a number of collaborators.
So I'm really looking forward to that. But, you know, with things in the world the way they are, just really emphasizing how important it is to exercise our creativity in collaboration with others, and how it just helps us remember that we're not alone, and that there's a synergy that happens when we collaborate. And that we can, you know, kind of boost each other's energy, boost each other's spirits, and together, collectively, we can make a positive difference in the world.
Charlotte: So key and such an important message. And I don't think it can be said enough. Right?
Melinda: Yes. Yes. (Laughter)
Charlotte: I have a question for you. So did you first, when you first attended, were you presenting or just attending?
Melinda: I think I actually presented the very first year. That was around the time I was finishing my PhD. I think it was in 2018 or 2019 maybe, before the pandemic. And I was kind of doing the conference circuit, you know, as you do. Like, just presenting on my dissertation research and just trying to put myself out there. So I think the first time I went there, I actually did present something. And I've presented every time since.
Charlotte: It's so awesome because what it sounds to me is like, you're giving a lot because you're bringing a very vital perspective, but you're also, as Julia Cameron would say, “You’re filling the well.”
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: By being with people who are so niche and that like, they're kind of living and breathing it, and it's - you don't have to explain it. The context is understood, shared vocabulary, all those things.
Melinda: And just the enthusiasm. You know, I think the best part of the conference - and there's only so much one can take in and like, presentation after presentation - but just connecting with like-minded people who are interested and excited about creativity is pretty awesome. And the other presentation I did with Robert Cleve, my Saybrook colleague, who we've also had on the show, his research is around kind of framing it now around creative survival.
And, you know, he did his dissertation research on disclosure decisions among young gay men, like, whether or not to come out. In three different countries: the US, Brazil and Turkey. So countries that have like, some of them quite strong religious beliefs that are not gay friendly. So, and he's kind of re-working that research now and we're sort of looking at this topic of, you know, how do we use our creativity to navigate difficult social or interpersonal situations? Especially when the stakes are high, right? We could be marginalized, stigmatized, there could be negative consequences.
So that’s a topic where, you know, we're kind of brainstorming about this idea of, is there an archetype of the creative survivor? And so, stay tuned. We're going to be kind of doing some more research and publication on that topic. Which I think, it really resonated, you know, for the people that that came to our talk, and we asked people to think about examples from their own life. And it was a a fascinating discussion.
Charlotte: How did it work with you two on that one? Who approached who?
Melinda: You know, we just got talking, as we talk often about, you know, various teaching things. He's kind of my boss, if you will, at Saybrook. (Laughter) And, we were, you know, both planning to attend the conference and thought, well, how can we collaborate again? Like, let's put our heads together. You know, let's bring our research interests together. So, that was like, his research that he's now kind of re-working and re-formulating in the context of creativity, because he comes from an international psychology background.
And then my work with, you know, Jungian psychology and archetypes and, you know, how we use creativity to make meaning of our experiences and learn and grow from our experiences, as I also talked about in a recent episode. So it's just interesting to see, like, you know, how does what we're both interested in, how does that come together in interesting and unique ways?
Charlotte: Would you say that you feel like… I mean, I know this for our collaboration, but with other collaborations, do you think through collaboration you get to know your own creative process better?
Melinda: Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, and literally, you know, I was working on my PowerPoints. (Laughter) I actually used Canva for the first time for my presentations, and I was working on them on the plane, you know, on the way to the conference. And even like, up to, you know, you're always like, tweaking and thinking about things. And he and I had lunch, literally the day of our presentation, because we were presenting in the afternoon, to finalize, like, what exactly are we talking about? (Laughter)
And how does this all fit together, and how are we going to do this? And we had ideas, like, to pull the audience. You know, it was kind of a last-minute idea - like, let's ask them about their experiences, and then we can start to informally, you know, gather some insights about how people might be considering creative survivorship.
Charlotte: And one of the things I'm thinking about as you're talking, is how it is through association, we get to know our subjects better. So, like, what do these two things have in common?
Melinda: Right.
Charlotte: There might be a little bit of before at lunch, like, I don't know. (Laughter) And then you're like, we have to trust this collaboration. And it's almost like being a jazz musician, right? We've kind of studied our subject. We woodshedded, as we talk about in the book. And that we're going to trust that we both bring professionalism, enthusiasm and experience. And we're also going to invite the audience in as part of that. So, you're like, living into the collaboration model?
Melinda: Yes. Exactly. It's perfectly stated. And, you know, people said afterwards that they really enjoyed it and that they… just people seemed very engaged. So, yeah, I mean, there's a point at which you do start to trust yourself. Like, I know my stuff. I know I can get up there and even off the cuff, say something/do a decent job. And then of course, the preparation is helpful as well. (Laughter)
Charlotte: I'm sure it was more than decent.
Melinda: Yeah. No, it was good. (Laughter) It was really fun. So, kind of our Pro Tip for this episode, whether you attend a conference or some other creative event, but get out there and attend some kind of event where you can connect with others around creativity, and just building that sense of community and potential collaboration. You know, it could be - again, we've talked about this in different forms - going to an open mic or a reading or a meet up, or just any place that you can connect with other creatives and find just like-minded people.
You know, I hear people often saying, “Yeah, I just don't have that many people I can really deeply connect with, or that I have that much in common with in my life.” And so, I think as creatives - which we all are, by the way, at heart - but, you know, connecting with other people around creativity, I think, can be very, I don't know, just enlivening and empowering.
Charlotte: And I think we can open up that definition of what it means to collaborate too. Like, live music, as an audience member, you are collaborating with the musician in that way. And I know for me, that sometimes when I'm listening to live music, I just, it's almost like I channel writing. So, I'll be the nerd in the corner who's taking a lot of notes. So, maybe we can open up, in addition to what you said - what does a creative collaboration look like? And give the participatory aspect of it more cred?
Melinda: Yeah. You know, on that topic, I just had a Zoom call with my grad students in the class I'm teaching last night, and we were even talking about that on the level of reading a text. Which, you know, reading an academic book, it can seem like a very static thing. Especially like, some of the texts that we're reading for this Jungian psychology class are, you know, some of them like, one hundred years old, right? And yet, each time a reader meets a text, it's a new experience.
It is a collaboration of sorts, because as a reader, we're bringing our experience and our perspective, and wherever we are in our lives in this moment, to what's written on the page. And we might come back to the very same text a year later and get something completely different from it. So, it's actually a very… it’s a very collaborative experience. Even though it may be long dead (laughter), you know.
Charlotte: It's not static.
Melinda: It's not static.
Charlotte: Yeah.
Melinda: Exactly.
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, we'd love to hear from you. So drop us a line any time at info@syncreate.org. We'd love to hear your feedback. If you tried some of our creative sparks out and you want to let us know how it went, or have ideas for potential topics or guests you'd like us to cover.
We're recording today at Record ATX Studios in Austin, with Charlotte joining us from the Hudson Valley. The podcast is produced and collaboration with Mike Osborne at 14th Street Studios, here in Austin. Thanks so much for being with us, and see you next time.
