Episode 33: How Do We Dial Up the Magic of Creativity This Holiday Season?

Explore Episode 33 of the Creative Work Hour podcast, where host Greg and guests Alessandra, Gretchen, Devin, and Shadows Pub discuss how to enhance the magic of creativity during the holiday season. Discover personal insights, whimsical ideas, and unique traditions to spark your creativity.

00:02 - 00:41
Greg: Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Creative Work Hour podcast. This is episode 33. Can hardly believe that. As you know, the format is I ask a question and we go around the table and each of the creative work our members will give their take on the answer or a version of their thoughts. Today, with the holiday season being right in the middle of the holiday season, our question is, how do we dial up the magic of creativity this holiday season? How do we dial up the magic of creativity this holiday season? And I'll

00:41 - 00:42
Greg: Go to Alessandra.

00:45 - 01:36
Alessandra: Hi Greg, and welcome everybody. We have Devin in the room, we have Gretchen, we have Shadows Pub, I'm Alessandra and our producer is Greg Shaw. That beautiful English voice that you hear, that base English voice that you hear. Yeah, so we're talking about the magic of creativity. And that work came out of a recovery holiday hack. I was encouraged when I was really seeking out mental health recovery. I was encouraged to do a couple of things and 1 redefined every relationship in my life and here was the challenge. Find your own hand-picked family of friends that

01:36 - 02:23
Alessandra: are good for you. Well, that's what we've done in the Creative Work Hour. We didn't even know what was happening. But with that intention on its own, it happened. And here we are, this wonderful, creative, funny, charming family of friends. And then the second thing was, carve out your own traditions for the holiday season. Traditions for the holiday season. Carve out your own. So if you put the 2 together, the hand-picked family of friends with... Oh I'm getting help over here from Nisabu. Say hello Nisabu.

02:24 - 02:27
Shadows Pub: He says I'm not hand picking you.

02:27 - 03:22
Alessandra: No I'm not hand picked. I'm not even claw, well maybe I am claw picked. I'm about to be bit if I'm not careful. But that with carving out your own traditions for celebrating the magic of the holiday season. That's where we are. And so for me, identifying what are those elements that are magic? What's the magic of creativity? What's the most fun you've ever had being creative? Well I know that it came out of having a childlike playfulness, a childlike imagination, a childlike wonder, a lot of coffee or ice cream, belief in things that are unlikely

03:22 - 04:11
Alessandra: or impossible, that we receive and we give and we share. And I think those are the things that allow us to dial up the magic of creativity. Some say, and some make a lot of money at courses and books and what have you, that it's about the management of your habits or the management of your time. But I say in this holiday season, I say, hooey! I say it's magic. Now, What elements do you find that will allow you to dial up the magic of creativity? That's worth celebrating. I'm going to hand it over to Gretchen.

04:13 - 04:14
Alessandra: What do you think Gretchen?

04:14 - 05:05
Gretchen: Thanks Alessandra. In turning,  like capturing the magic, it's funny that you had that because I'm working on a series and that's the very first title of the very first video that I'm doing called Capturing Magic. And it's... No kidding. And we talk about the holiday season, but as a creative and as a creator, it is 1 of those things that you need to be able to tap into any day of the week, anytime. And for me, I just thought of this, I want to look at my creativity as the holiday and as something that's there

05:05 - 05:49
Gretchen: all the time and that that's the magic in and of itself and just to capture that and realize that there are Everybody has different things that spark the smile, that whatever brings it to them. But to think of that as like as a child, you know, like if every day was a holiday, Yes, you'd think as an adult you would get bored but kids don't get bored with that kind of stuff. Any little thing to celebrate. Oh, it's, you know, we, and we would do this at school, all kinds of weird holidays we could celebrate and

05:49 - 06:34
Gretchen: They'd be like oh yeah sure let's do that. So just making that creativity part of your magic and celebrating that and know that it's okay for you to celebrate that. Oftentimes we feel guilty about, oh I don't have something for someone or I don't have something for... No, this is something for yourself and that's how creativity really grows. You understand that this is something that's essential to you. It's something that you have no need for any kind of guilt around it. And you just tap into it, however that is. And it's not always easy, but that's

06:34 - 06:40
Gretchen: okay. Whatever. So, yeah, that's my thoughts. Onto Devin.

06:42 - 07:21
Devin: Thanks Gretchen. I have trouble putting the word magic  anywhere near the idea of Christmas. I've had some Christmases where there was magic. It was definitely coming from the dark arts. So that's a bit of a tainted word. But if I substitute whimsy, then I can get a little more into it. I imagine I've been in Gretchen Studio, I can see all the dragons and wyverns surrounding her and that makes me happy. And so if I go into a place of whimsy, then that stimulates a special kind of creativity that does remove me from the current

07:21 - 08:00
Devin: reality. And that could be, you know, animated things, things that are set in fictional places, like Whoville, say, for Christmas, or things like that. Or well, it's just plain old fantasy like middle earth, you know, nothing like a day in middle earth to take your minds off your, the rest of your trouble. So that's, I guess my whimsical creativity is special because it just takes me to a different place and I want to create different things than simply, oh, I feel like, you know, creating something today, which might be more, I don't know, rather, no special

08:00 - 08:10
Devin: whimsy to it. So that's what I would say is going to a whimsical place can draw out a different kind of creativity, which can really be rewarding if it all comes together.

08:13 - 08:20
Greg: Thank you, Devon. How about you, Shadows? How can we dial up the magic of creativity this holiday season?

08:22 - 08:53
Shadows Pub: So I've been sitting here thinking that Artemis would be a whole lot better to be the 1 in here answering this because she does it pretty well all the time. She could put creative and magic together and creative and Christmas and magic and  Christmas with no problem. Just take a look at her images for me. I Really don't care I would largely ignore Christmas other than making sure that my niece and my sister get a gift. And beyond that, I carry on doing what I'm usually doing and thinking about the fact that at the end of

08:53 - 08:57
Shadows Pub: the year and it's time to set up for next year, that's about it.

09:00 - 09:34
Greg: Thank you, Shadows. And you know, I'm similar to you. When I was younger, when the children were younger, things like that, Christmas was all magic and wonder and you know, fairy tales and everything. But I was thinking of other people's answers. Christmas, the holiday season in general lost a lot of its magic through things happening. And I just thought, you know, we often, you know, if you need a cup of sugar, if you're a good neighbor, you know, you'll loan a cup of sugar or you'll you know loan this or you'll loan a wrench or

09:34 - 10:03
Greg: whatever but what about loaning some magic or borrowing you know someone else's magic and I don't think there's anything wrong with borrowing a little bit of magic from somebody else until you can make your own again you know maybe that's what's needed a little bit of pincher magic from Gretchen and a pincher whimsy from Devin and a little bit of you know, cheer from Shadows and mix them together in the pot and let it brew up and knead it out. You know, maybe you can make your own magic again. I don't know, maybe I need to

10:03 - 10:06
Greg: be committed. That's a whole different story again, but.

10:07 - 10:11
Alessandra: Hey look, some of my favorite people. Right.

10:11 - 10:14
Shadows Pub: Well he was actually committed. I thought, I was wondering, committed to what?

10:15 - 10:45
Greg: Oh yeah, very committed. I was told I should have been on the stage, the next 1 out of town, if all it up would, but. Oh! 0! Sweeping it maybe, right, sweeping the stage. But yeah, I think borrowing a little bit of wonder from someone else, borrowing a little bit of magic to make your own would be a great place to start. I'll bring it back around to you, Alessandro. We're at the 10 minutes 40 second mark, so I'm not sure if we want to go a little bit longer or if you want to close out.

10:46 - 10:48
Greg: But what are your thoughts on that?

10:48 - 11:39
Alessandra: Well, I do have a couple of thoughts, and I love the idea about borrowing the magic when you're fresh out. And what I love about that is, if you're having a final time and you're doing great, well, bully for you. We may need to borrow some of your magic. Right? That it's absolutely fine to not be fine, whether it's this holiday season or another season. Likewise, if you're doing good, sometimes just showing up as evidence that we also have good days is a gift, just to show up. Now, all right, so the magic of creativity,

11:39 - 12:31
Alessandra: let's just put it to some use right now. Making our own traditions. So in this family of friends, the Creative Work Hour, here's an idea. Now, 1 of the things about Creative Work Hour is whatever that we do, It has to be sustainable. This is going back to that, it has to energize itself because nobody needs more of a weight. Nobody needs more to do. What we do need is more play and more fun and more enjoyment. So here's the idea. In this happy creativity season, What if we did a little something like carols and coloring

12:32 - 13:13
Alessandra: where we just have basically an open house on say Go Brunch. We have an open house so you can be in your jammies you don't have to be on camera. We'll have some music going and our AI art wrangler, Shadows Pub, might if we asked her super nicely. Shadows, would you please Look in your library of creative work and see if you have Maybe like some holiday themed coloring pages that we could enjoy That might be fun

13:18 - 13:23
Shadows Pub: Interestingly enough we may actually have a room that you could use.

13:24 - 13:28
Alessandra: Oh, okay. So something's already created a place that we can go.

13:29 - 13:33
Shadows Pub: Well, I'm just dropping you a screenshot of it.

13:33 - 13:34
Alessandra: Okay, cool.

13:35 - 13:47
Shadows Pub: I've created, I've got a room sitting there because we're going to try to do a virtual family gathering on Christmas Day. Now, that's a limited family gathering. Right.

13:48 - 13:48
Alessandra: That's your

13:48 - 13:48
Shadows Pub: private thing.

13:48 - 13:49
Alessandra: My older

13:49 - 13:55
Shadows Pub: brother and his wife, my niece and her spouse and Artemis and her spouse.

13:57 - 13:57
Alessandra: So we might

13:57 - 14:01
Shadows Pub: be able to borrow that room. Cool. Yeah.

14:02 - 14:04
Greg: French magic. Copy the room.

14:06 - 14:08
Shadows Pub: Yeah, I can do that too or just use the room.

14:09 - 14:13
Alessandra: There we go. I like it. Okay. So, if I know- The

14:13 - 14:19
Shadows Pub: image just came up, or Artemis. Oh, Sandra. You got the A right.

14:19 - 14:20
Alessandra: You got the A right.

14:20 - 14:33
Greg: We got some magic creativity happening right now this holiday season live going on right now with this Go Brunch Room and Coloring Pages. This is magic right now.

14:34 - 15:15
Alessandra: Yeah. And okay, so if we had nothing but thumbs down on that idea, I had a backup idea, okay, but you can boo this 1. Okay, so when Devin was hosting Creative Work Hour for us, there was a day that he did the break transition between the first hour and the bonus hour. He played rock music, the rock break. It was, what is the name of that song, Devin? I think it's Run DMC. It's Christmas music. What is it called?

15:15 - 15:21
Devin: Man, I don't know the title. I have to look it up really fast because it's not a title that sticks with me.

15:22 - 15:38
Alessandra: But it's featured in Die Hard, in the beginning of Die Hard. Yeah. And so the idea of his hosting and using that song as break music made me think of, oh well there are some people who like to do that like to do...

15:38 - 15:41
Devin: Christmas in Hollis is the name.

15:41 - 15:42
Alessandra: What is it called?

15:42 - 15:48
Devin: Christmas in Hollis, H-O-L-L-I-S, which must be like a hood in Los Angeles.

15:49 - 16:32
Alessandra: Oh, okay. I got it. So, you know, the idea with that 1 was, oh, we could have an hour where we rap while we're rapping, you know, for a wrapping Christmas present. So, you know, so being able to just celebrate creativity and create out loud with 1 another. In fact, the way that this podcast, how we come up with the questions that we play with during the podcast, is Greg and I, we get into a breakout room during creative work hour, and the 2 of us, we just throw ideas and subtopics and what's going on in

16:32 - 17:04
Alessandra: the world. We throw all these things in a blender and we take turns writing what that question may be and what that question means and then we go back and we rewrite the question again and we do this for about 45 minutes and that's how we come up with these topics that since we started doing it really kind of come to life and people have wonderful answers and they'll say things we could have never anticipated. So what do you think Greg? How did we do today? I really had fun. Did you have fun? I found it

17:04 - 17:04
Alessandra: magical.

17:05 - 17:35
Greg: Yeah, I think we witnessed some magic creativity on this call today and I've already borrowed a little bit so if you notice a little bit missing on your the meter that shows your magic meter, I already kind of took a little bit out. I took a creative license in Liberty and took some of your magic. So yeah. But what about you? How do you dial up the magic of creativity this holiday season? And what are some of your holiday traditions? We would love to know. And I think maybe we'll talk about traditions more in the future.

17:35 - 18:01
Greg: But in the meantime, it's happened again. You've wasted some perfectly good time listening to the creative work hour podcast when you could have been doing something else. Let us know your answer to that question. How do you dial up the magic