Episode 23: Discovering and Nurturing Your Creative Voice!

In Episode 23 of the Creative Work Hour podcast, the crew dives into the journey of discovering and nurturing your unique creative voice. Join Alessandra, Greg, Devin, Gretchen, Bobby B, Ken, and Basserat as they share practical tips for self-expression, overcoming negativity, and cultivating a supportive community. Reflecting on their pasts, the hosts offer valuable advice to their younger selves about embracing creativity and maintaining joy. Tune in for inspiration and join the conversation about finding your creative path!

Greg
Hello and welcome back to another Creative Work Hour podcast. Today is November the 23rd, 2024. In the room today you have Alessandra, you have myself, Greg, we have Devin, Gretchen, Ken, Basserat and Bobby is on the road driving.

Greg
During the month of November, it's National Podcast Post-Month and we are doing an entry. I will ask a question to get the conversation going and we will see you where we lead. So what tips would you give to somebody who is looking to find and express their unique creative voice? What tips would you give to someone who's looking to find and express their unique creative voice?

Greg
I'll go to Alessandra.

Alessandra
Oh, thank you, Greg. Well, I tell you what, when you start doing, whether you're doing a podcast or you're practicing for a presentation, what is really helpful and cringe at the same time until you get used to it is listening to a recording of your own voice. Because it doesn't, you know, remember when we were little kids and we would have like the tape recorder and whatever and we would record ourselves and then we would listen to it and we'd be like, oh no, no, I don't sound like that, I don't, I do not.

Alessandra
And there would like to be all of this, you know, rebellion because what we were hearing didn't match what we thought we sounded like. And so that's a little bit how camera shyness starts too. So what I have found is in finding that creative voice as much as I hated it. I did 2 things.

Alessandra
One was I found a Hello Kitty sticker and I put it on, I gouged out one of its eyes and I put it over the camera light on my laptop. So here was Hello Kitty and the gouged eye had like the green light coming through. So I would look at that as my point and I would record the whole thing. Now when it was too much for me to look at the visual, I would simply listen to the audio recording like what we're doing here.

Alessandra
And I would play with the microphone and write down the settings, write down the distance from my head. I would just kind of quantify what made that sound like take 1, take 2, and so on. And getting, listening to my voice and then identifying traits about it that I didn't realize were there helped me actually fall in love with my voice. And falling in love with my voice literally helped me fall in love with what I had to say.

Alessandra
And for me it was like a real miracle because I was 1 of those people that I just hid from mics and cameras and now I know that there is a place for me and it doesn't have to be like anybody else's good it just needs to be like me and authentic. And there is a whole avenue of creativity that opens up when I do that.

Greg
Some great advice. Devin, I'll come to you. What tips would you give to someone looking to find and express their unique creative voice?

Devin
I would say look for the thing that gives you more energy back than you gave to it. If you come away from a creative endeavor, feeling better, then you went into it. That's probably your jam, at least 1 of them, and that's the place where you should do a deeper dive and see how much energy you can draw from engaging in that activity.

Devin
And That's how I would advise someone to start, because if you're giving more than you're getting, it's not sustainable. Right. It should be pleasurable. Absolutely.

Greg
Gretchen, how about you?

Gretchen
I would say 1 of the things would be to take out of your vocabulary the I can't do that or I don't know because it's you might be that you've never tried or somebody told you along the way that, yeah, that's not a very good drawing or not, or you compare yourself to someone else. You know, it's not that. You never know what's hidden in there.

Gretchen
Three years ago, I didn't own a sketchbook. I didn't own any paints. I didn't do that stuff because I couldn't do what my sisters could do or I didn't think I was quote-unquote an artist. Hello!

Gretchen
Now I do that all the time. But the other thing that I did was I went out and there was a group of artists that said come hang out with us and I was like but I only I just edit photographs so I took my photographs and edited there and then got interested in theirs or you go to the library and you check out look at books that aren't in your field or you see what there is on on YouTube in a different area than you've ever looked at and like I did with Fluid Art and it was like whoa look at that just just go go find a class find a community group go sit in on something that you've never done you never thought about doing and Because someplace in the back of your head, maybe someday I'm somebody said, you know, you can't make a living at that But that's not what you're necessarily doing it for. It's, you know, join a writing group, join this, try it. It doesn't mean that you have to live there for the rest of your life.

Gretchen
You know, You can take the class, you can try the thing. There's a lot of stuff out there that's free to try or worth it to take the class for just an audit. Who knows? 
Greg

Got the Nike method, right? Just do it, I like that. Ken, how about yourself?

Greg
What advice would you give to someone looking to find and express their unique creative voice?

Ken
Well,  I guess I would say that creativity exists all around us as a field. And you can actually take refuge in creativity. So obviously, each of us can be creative on our own.

Ken
But think of it as like a giant battery or something that you can get charged up on, you can rest in this field of creativity. And you can also add back to it. You can give back to this field of creativity. So it's not just a one-way thing where you're just always taking, taking, taking from the field.

Ken
You can give back to the field. And that's probably when you feel most engaged, when you're creating something and you're returning back to this place. So I guess to sum it up, creativity is a zero sum game. You're always adding to creativity.

Alessandra
So.

Greg
Great, great observation. Basserat, how about you?

Basserat
First of all, I wanted to say Alessandro, you put the Hello Kitty sticker with the green eyes coming off the green light coming out, it sounds like a normal cat at night. Yeah, so for me, I would say personally, finding a community that is really engaging and positive And encouraging is what propels me to be consistently pursuing creative endeavors, whether it's, you know, drawing, writing, reading, just getting into any sort of creative endeavor, having that community around you, finding that community, testing out multiple different avenues for all of those things. That's what really helps me even if I'm not in a good mood.

Greg
Bobby, you have your hand raised.

Bobby
Yes, thank you. This kind of dovetails into what others said, but For me, it's done for no other reason than curiosity. Walk by the bowl, stick your finger in it and taste what's in there.

Bobby
Just curiosity and see where it goes.

Greg
Absolutely. So to follow along with that, and I'll go in the same order. I'll go back to Alessandra. But what advice would you give your younger self about nurturing creativity?

Greg
What advice would you give your younger self? And it's kind of the same thing, but if you were talking to yourself, if you could talk to yourself, Alessandra.

Alessandra
I have to pass on that one. Can I hand it over to Gretchen?

Greg
Sure.

Gretchen
I would say just block out the negative if you can. Try hardest not to compare yourself and, you know, hey, little Gretchen, revel in the fact that you are you and unique and just because you can't do what Patty does or you can't do what Carolyn or you think you can't, that doesn't mean what you have can't be explored differently and that you can try the same thing and it might not look the same and if that's okay and that's perfectly okay to not look the same and to enjoy the journey.

Greg
Absolutely. Bobby, you have your hand raised.

Bobby
It's not black and white. You're not going to get grated down or scolded. Just dip your toes in there.

Bobby
Your ripples are going to be like no others.

Greg
Absolutely. Absolutely. Devin, how about you?

Devin
I would say it is okay to do more than 1 thing. You do not have to spend your life saying, this is my 1 thing now. This is the 1 thing I'll do and I'll be good and throw everything else into the dumpster fire only to have to retrieve it later.

Devin
No, wait, I think that was the thing and then throwing the other thing in the dumpster. So it's okay to rotate amongst several things. That would have been so helpful.

Greg
Absolutely. We have a lot of polymorphs here, don't we? Ken, how about you? What would you tell your younger self?

Ken
Well, I guess I would tell my younger self the exact words that I, my younger self heard when I was in art school way, way back, which was 1 of my teachers saying the thing she liked about being an artist was that every day when she woke up, she had no idea what she was going to do. Like she had no idea how the day was going to begin and no idea how the day was going to end. And I was like, I don't know what that means, but that's the life I want to live.

Ken
Like there's no, there's no script. It's all, It's all kind of just unknown and unformed and you get to pick and choose. 

Greg
Besserat, how about you?

Basserat
I agree with what everyone else said so far. But on top of that, I don't feel like I had a lot of issues being creative when I was younger. Even through my teenage years, surprisingly, I would just do whatever I wanted.

Basserat
But when I got into my 20s, That's when I started feeling less inclined to be creative because of social pressures. It's also when I, you know, got a phone and started getting on social media. So I, you know, I just stopped using social media for 1, for the most part and restricted myself from that. And I also, like I mentioned before, I got into the creative communities because I think what also helped me when I was younger were those friend groups that I was in that really helped me be me or make me feel okay being me.

Basserat
So that community aspect is really important. And yes.

Greg
Gretchen, you have your hand up.

Gretchen
Yeah, based on what Basserat said, it just reminded me. I think that I would tell myself as a child, Remember when you get to be an adult, don't forget the joy of being a kid and remember it and do it. That uninhibited, adventuresome self.

Gretchen
Remember that self is still in you as an adult and it is worth letting that uninhibited self come out to play every day.

Greg
That's right. Well, it's still magical. So there, you heard it here first.

Greg
Record your own voice and listen back to it. What gives you pleasure? We also had batteries comparison. It is a 2 way street, charging, to join a group. Remember that wonder, don't take it too seriously and be curious.

Greg
So it's happened again, you've wasted a perfectly few good minutes listening to the Creative Work Hour podcast, and you could have been doing something else. But What about you? What tips would you give to someone who is looking to find and express their unique creative voice? And what about yourself?

Greg
What advice would you give to your younger self about nurturing creativity? Let us know. But in the meantime, come back again tomorrow and we will be here.