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 120: Creative Spark Series - Putting Yourself Out There with Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
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In this episode of our Creative Spark Series, Melinda & Charlotte discuss both the fears and rewards of putting your creative work out into the world, sharing examples from their own experiences with music, film, and writing. While sharing your creations can feel uncertain, vulnerable and risky, you’ll never know the potential benefits unless you try. 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 put yourself out there creatively, whether by submitting your work for publication, contests and prizes or simply attending a creative event like a reading or open mic.
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 102: Creativity as a Path of Adventure, Episode 116: Creativity, Power & Agency, and Episode 118: The Power of Imagination.
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. 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:
Out of the Blue Music Video on YouTube
Out of the Blue Song on Spotify
The Syncreate book by Melinda Rothouse & Charlotte Gullick
Show / permanent hyperlinks:
Melinda: Welcome to Syncreate, a show for creative seekers. We explore the deep human stories of 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. What holds us back? Why do we get stuck and how can we fully embrace our creativity?
We talk with visionaries and changemakers 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 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, 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.
Melinda: Alright. Hey everyone. Welcome back to the Syncreate Podcast and our Creative Spark Series of mini episodes designed to help you ignite your own creativity. So, today we're going to be talking about putting yourself out there creatively, and what that looks like and what it means. So, you know, so many people have creative ideas or ideas for like, new inventions or projects they want to do, but sometimes we get stuck.
We have a great idea, but we are afraid to fully put it out there or fully just put ourselves out there because, of course, it's risky. We might fear failure or whatever, but the thing about it is, you'll never know unless you try. So, I have a personal example of this, and I've mentioned it, you know, throughout some of our recent episodes. So, last summer when I was in Ireland, I shot a music video for one of my new songs that's coming out, Out Of The Blue.
Charlotte: Have you done that before?
Melinda: First time. The first time I ever did a music video.
Charlotte: Okay, so this is a first for that. Okay.
Melinda: First for that. Yes. And so - with my collaborator George, who I do the song with, and my partner Juro, who is a filmmaker - and we did some guerrilla filmmaking in the west of Ireland. And it was a really fun process. I scoped out locations beforehand because that's where the song was kind of inspired. And, you know, we did it! And we made it happen. We got a drone. We did some drone footage and we edited it all together, and it came out really cool. So kind of excited about it.
So, in this kind of lead up phase, once the video was finished, I decided to submit it to film festivals because in some sense, a music video is kind of a short film, and the way we conceived this video, it was like, not a typical music video where you're like, lip syncing the song or something. It was like a short film set to the song. So, we were happy with how it came out and started submitting it to film festivals in the music video category, and we've been winning a bunch of awards and recognitions.
And getting accepted to numerous festivals, and we've won awards now for Best Music Video and Best Music. Just super exciting. I'd also never done that before. I didn't really know much about the film world or the film festival circuit. I kind of had to learn that process. So, for me, it was putting myself and putting this project (which I really believed in) out there in a lot of different ways. And, you know, it's exciting to get some recognition for it.
And if I hadn't done that, I never would have known. Like… and it turns out to be this interesting backdoor way to, like, get some momentum around the song and the video before it officially releases, which is happening on June 5th.
Charlotte: Awesome. So many amazing things there. So, first time making a music video, first time scouting, first time doing a drone. What helped you? Well, like, what's the thing that made you go, “You know what, I'm going to submit this to some contests…”? Because there are so many firsts here. Some folks would be like, “I got to make four before I try.” So, like, what was that trajectory change?
Melinda: Yeah. It's interesting. I mean… so, I have some filmmakers in my life and I've learned a lot, you know, from them. Including my partner Juro, who's a filmmaker, and he has done some short films that he submitted to festivals. So I learned a little bit about the process from him. And, I mean, I didn't even know that you could submit a music video to a film festival, but I just started researching it and it turns out… actually a lot of film festivals accept music videos (they have a special category for music videos). Especially short film festivals and independent film festivals.
And there are even dedicated music video festivals. So, just a lot… like, it's a whole new world for me to explore. But, you know, knowing some people who are in that world and who have submitted to other festivals (and had their work shown), it was just kind of one of these things where I think, you know, as a creative, we're always like, exploring new territory, and maybe bridging into new media that we haven't necessarily explored before, or hopefully we're open to doing that.
And it was just that it was like, an expansion (laughter) of my own boundaries of what I had done before. And, you know, moving into new spaces.
Charlotte: I think it's a really interesting… there's like, a deeper story here, and/or a reframe, because I think of you as extremely creatively adventurous, competent… like, you do so many different things. And so, part of me was like, “Is this that you didn't have the confidence to do it?” And “No, I don't think that.” I think that like, it's a new perspective.
Melinda: Yeah. It’s a new genre and a new perspective, and just a new world. And it's interesting to me because I've been an independent musician for a long time. And oftentimes, the music industry feels utterly impenetrable as an independent musician. But somehow, the film world to me feels through this experience, a lot more accessible in a way -
Charlotte: Interesting.
Melinda: - and organic and like, indie friendly, and things like that. And so, yeah, it's been just a really interesting, like, part of the creative landscape to explore.
Charlotte: I think it's also a really powerful example of when we hang out with people who work in different mediums, how they can bring a perspective to us and be like, “Oh, did you know?” And you're like, “Oh, I didn't.” So, like, an expanded worldview.
Melinda: Absolutely.
Charlotte: About what’s possible.
Melinda: Absolutely. Yeah. So, I know you've also had to put yourself out there in many, many ways, particularly as a writer. And it can be so daunting to submit your work to different, you know, journals and publications and contests, and things like that. So, what's that been like for you?
Charlotte: Well, I do have a few examples. Like, a few years ago, an article came out about someone who said they were going to try for 100 rejections that year from literary magazines.
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: And that was the goal. It wasn't about getting things submitted. And I've really taken that to heart. Of course I want things to get published, but like, almost shifting the goalpost for myself, has made it so that I'm much more willing to take the risk to submit things. And then, like, I've been to a very prestigious writers colony. I didn't know how prestigious when I went, (laughter) which was probably a helpful thing. And I got accepted.
And when I got there, people were like, “You hand wrote your application, I was like, “I didn't know…” Like, they had all like, gone and rented typewriters. It was so long ago. (Laughter) And whatever I had done… and I was like, you know… Oh, and it was amazing to me to get accepted. And I think sometimes an outsider perspective can actually give you an edge or like, what you're saying with the film festivals and the music video is that it feels wide open.
You're not necessarily… not embittered, but you're like, “Oh, I've taken so much rejection as an independent music maker… but oh, let me try this other thing. It just feels more possible.”
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: And there have been a couple of writing awards that I was like, you know, just feeling that in your body, where like, “I don't know if I should apply or not. Who am I to apply?” And then just this other voice saying, “Well, your chances of winning are so much better if you submit something than if you don't.” Which seems so obvious, but really grateful for that voice. And I've won a few things, you know, that surprisingly… or not surprisingly… like, I didn't think that was possible for me.
And, you know, the door has been open. So, I think for me, in the creative process, putting myself out there is almost as important as the process itself because it is about connecting to other people through the medium that I choose.
Melinda: Yeah. And it's also about like, we don't always… it doesn't always happen on the first try or the third try or the tenth or the one hundredth try. Right? And the key is that we have to keep trying and persistence is so important and not getting discouraged. Right? I mean, I know you've told stories about pasting up rejection letters on your wall, (laughter) just to remind you, like, “Keep going.” Right?
Charlotte: And I think that the… you know, for me, there's like, this joy in the process, you know. Like, what's the story that I'm telling myself about my creativity? And rejection is part of it. And, you know, the other part of this is, I'm also trying to improve my craft. So, it's like both things. Persistence and the work to get it better.
And again, kind of that like, outsider perspective. (Laughter) When I was at this artist colony and I mean, it was all kinds of fields - composers, visual artists, dancers - and on like, the fourth day we were there and I was like, “What is visual art?” (Laughter) And so someone was like, “Exactly.”
Melinda: (Laughter) And you're like, “No, I'm serious. What is it actually?”
Charlotte: “No, I actually don’t know what it means.” And they're like “Brilliant!” And I’m like, “No, I… there's a term. I mean, I know it. He paints and she sculpts, but I've never had an opportunity to put it all together.” So, I think though, like, the outsider or like… I don't… sometimes there's things like, almost your naivety is like, “Yeah, let's go for it. Why not? Why shouldn't I enter this film festival?”
Melinda: Right. Yeah.
Charlotte: And I mean, there's… I think it kind of like… I don't want it to be like, “My work belongs in the world…” but, like, maybe there's a chance.
Melinda: Absolutely.
Charlotte: And, you know, the universe can say “Yes!”
Melinda: But not unless we take the step to put it out.
Charlotte: Right. Yeah. Yeah.
Melinda: Yeah.
Charlotte: And the persistence of it.
Melinda: Yeah. Yeah. And so, for me, like, these experiences are inspiring me to put more of my work out there. Like, to submit to songwriting contests and other kinds of things that I just had never really kind of thought to do before. Because, again, you never know until you try.
Charlotte: This is something we also talk about in our book, but sometimes in a new or new medium, we have beginner's mind.
Melinda: Yes.
Charlotte: So, the world is opened up and I think that, you know, we're not inherently saying ‘No’ without… I'm not saying it well, but like, that there's like, the world can… it's like, a ‘Yes, and…’ mode when we try a new thing.
Melinda: Absolutely.
Charlotte: But I do think some people are reluctant to do that because, “I'm an accomplished X, so I cannot try Y.”
Melinda: Right. I'm known in this one particular field and I have to stay like, focused or, you know, pigeonholed in one area or something. Yeah.
Charlotte: And we would advocate that starting out as a beginner has so much freshness to it. And then you're probably not the beginner that you think you are because you're bringing some expertise from your primary medium.
Melinda: Absolutely. Yeah. So, our Pro Tip today is to get out there. Put yourself out in some way. Whether it's entering a competition or a contest, or just submitting your work for publication, or going to an open mic, or whatever it might be… just, you know, whatever you've been sitting on or whatever project you're excited about, you know, take that next step to put it out in the world in some way.
Charlotte: I know that there's a storytelling event near us, and I texted a friend if she wanted to go and she's like, “As long as I just listen.” And I think that's a way to try.
Melinda: That’s a start.
Charlotte: When you don't want to do the thing you can like, brush up against it.
Melinda: You can scope it out, and then maybe later you'll -
Charlotte: Change your world. Yeah.
Melinda: - feel courageous to actually participate.
Charlotte: Find and connect with us on YouTube and social media under @syncreate. 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.
