We did it! We made it to the end of our first season of Creatively Complicated and we're celebrating with a short and sweet episode about creative things that inspire us.

We fell deep into a rabbit hole in this episode as we pondered the differences between writing and podcasting, as well as what it means to compare ourselves to others in our creative space(s).

Both of us seem to think that podcasting feels lighter and "easier" than writing, but why? 

Gatekeepers, community, cultural reverence are all covered in this packed conversation—as evidenced by the fact that this episode is nearly 17 minutes longer than our intention. Oops.

If only sourcing good ideas were as simple as walking down to the Amazing Ideas Emporium and loading up a basket of suitably fulfilling, challenging, and hopefully money-making creative visions.

But it’s not. 

So how do we “get” ideas? And how long do they stay fresh? Should we push through with an idea just because it was strong for a moment OR learn to let them go if the energy behind it fades?

Why do we create? Despite a long list of topics to discuss in our last episode on creative feedback, we both thought the episode felt unnatural and directionless. Stephanie, known globally for her occasional bouts of brilliance, quickly realized that the ladies were lacking the reason WHY they were talking about feedback in the first place. We accidentally on purpose continue this discussion in today’s episode by trying once and again to answer this motivational question on an episode AND show level.

Love it or hate it, feedback is an inevitable component of the creative process when you choose to release your work into the wild. This week, Steph and Summer get meta with their thoughts on the whys, whens, and hows of receiving and giving creative feedback. 

We ultimately discover that there seems to be a value tier when it comes to feedback and, big sorry to friends and family, but as it turns out, you guys are at the bottom of the pile. Cheers!

Do you find yourself creatively diverse? Have you accumulated many creative passion projects over the years only to have people call them your “little projects?” Well, this is the episode for you then because Summer and I have had about as much as we can take of the monocreative expectation in current day society.

Does your creative process change depending what project you are working on? To “research” this we three podgoddesses drove down the creative highway with the top down, the music up and the wind in our hair. Wait, three? Yup, we are joined this week by the most methodical, articulate and humorous person we podknow, Expat Cast Podcast Host Nicole Palazzo.

Has one tweak to your workflow ever made the world of a difference in your creative process? This is exactly where Summer and Steph are standing in timeblockingland. Festering was not working so we added a pinch of numbifying (quantifying) yeast to our creative workflow and brewed to our heart’s content. This ultimately hatched some pretty awesome new timeblocking plans and the creative foam floatith over (too much?). Our creativity is all the better for it so hurrah to numbifying and mixing metaphors.

This episode could very well mark a shift in our creative turmoil,especially for Summer. Summer had a massive creative productivity moment of truth recently that we can’t wait to tell you about. It involves a splash of time management, a pinch of paprika and a large cup of hyperawareness. The parallel nature of our job, language and time management lives have reached a new level and it’s called scrumpdillyicious.

We have talked about juggling day jobs and our creative projects before but we needed a space to unpack it in all of its agonizing details. Like the time (errr, last month) when Steph hired someone to rewrite her resume/CV. This is not a bitchfest, although that might be a fun separate episode, eh Summer? Instead, we check in on my (Steph’s) current job hunt as well as spend some time in Summer’s ideal jobland as we try to etch out what is in the realm of possibility and what is purely a day dream.