Defining Creativity

Dev Meenagh finds and embraces creativity in every aspect of life—  from performing in various capacities and working with children to escape rooms and cosplay:

“I think that I kind of approach everything with this strong sense of wanting to know more, wanting to go deeper… and that ties into things like psychology. It ties into empathy. It’s all these little kind of feelings that I’ve always a sense for. And curiosity is a really big part of creativity, ‘cause creativity is all about an output and the input of that has to be a point of view, a psychological assessment, an idea, a feeling… There’s so much that you have to put into that. So, in my day-to-day life I’m just very curious... I’m very interested… and not just in things that would be described as typically interesting, but in the mundane—in things that are very quiet, in things that are very small, that just catch your attention because you think, there’s always more there. There’s always more going on… and not just with people, but things, like something like just staring at a cloud that looks a little bit different than all the other clouds. You know you can take things in from just anything, so just having a very open mind and open eyes.”

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

Brooke Ivey, the Chief Sales Officer for a niche company in Jacksonville, FL that provides services to insurance companies, embraces the creativity she has cultivated her entire life. Her family has provided a multitude of examples for applying creativity—from vaudevillian grandparents, a trial attorney father with a job that necessitated publicly standing in front of people and delivering important concepts, and mother who was a 2nd grade teacher and elementary school principal, to her creatively inspiring husband and young daughter.

Proclaiming that everything she does is either telling stories or listening to people, Brooke understands the value and applies those skills to her job:

“Instead of just saying, ‘How do we find people who want to buy this product? [and] How do we find people who want to buy this service?’ (certainly the foundation of any sale)… We try to go beyond that though and say, ‘What are the problems out there that people have that we can solve? What needs are there in the market that we can solve? How do we become partners to people?’ and that’s, I think, really where business and creativity really meet oftentimes.”

She shares an encouraging outlook, not only in the positive and supportive way she is a leader, but also how she views changes in her industry:

“We seem to have come to an era of understanding where there is not only a willingness to say we value everyone’s voice, but to say in valuing everyone’s voice we have an obligation to make sure that voice is heard—not just to invite people to speak up and be a part of the conversation, but to make sure that they really are a part of the conversation and that’s really exciting to see for me.”

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

Todd May, Director of Innovation and Process Improvement for the Indiana Department of Transportation, has a unique perspective of creativity, incorporating his professional and personal world. With interesting comparisons of DOT work with sports and the arts, Todd offers reflections from firsthand experiences interwoven with those of his children in baseball and dance. One observation made connections between golf, ballet, and the business of construction:

​“You start seeing it in your mind’s eye before it actually happens. You start seeing the result of if the [golf] ball lands here, I know that it’s going to hit twice, check up and move to the right or to the left. And I think… watching ballet and being steeped in ballet through my daughter for so many years, she would see it in her mind’s eye before she ever tied her ribbons… she would kind of close her eyes and almost visualize in her mind’s eye what this is going to look like and then translate that from the abstract to the real. That happens in sports and I think that happens in my world of concrete and asphalt. People have to see it in their mind’s eye—kind of start with the end in mind and work to that and figure it out—and it’s pretty cool when it works out… That doesn’t mean that there’s not mistakes in between. That doesn’t mean that a dancer doesn’t fall or an actor screws up a line or a batter in baseball strikes out. There’s failures that happen. That just happens. That’s just life.”

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

David Hale brings a wide variety of experiences to his recently launched Gemini Wine Company. Even as he introduces himself in this episode of Defining Creativity, it is evident that his background in musical theatre, opera, directing children's theatre, work alongside award-winning chef Michel Richard, and twenty-five years in the restaurant and wine industry all influence his approach to his business and life in general—though he ultimately chose to have the title of the episode designate him as a sommelier, because as he states:

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"I identify with the spirit of what it means to take care of somebody— and that's just what I try to do; try to do it with love; try to do it with energy and passion behind it."

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

Michael Menapace is an insurance lawyer who applies the creativity cultivated as a saxophone player to the various aspects of his life. This episode of Defining Creativity is chock-full of analogies from Michael that demonstrate the application of creativity and its parallel between music and his current endeavors. 

​Michael reflects: “My creative process in writing is very similar to how we were trained as musicians since we were five or ten… whenever we started… What I do now, whether it’s writing a book or it’s solving a legal problem, is I take the issue, I break it down into all of its component parts—I research those parts, I figure out the background and the history of those parts, I then perfect each one of them, I make sure that I’ve really dug in, and then I put the whole thing back together, so I can present it as a convincing whole. As a musician, this is what we’ve done since we started performing. We have a piece of music, it’s not a problem, it’s a piece of music—we break it down into its component parts, we understand where it came from, we understand the history, we break it down into every two measures, we perfect them so that we can perform them, and then we put the whole thing back together and have to present it to somebody as an effective piece of music, as a performance.”

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

Megan Elyse Fulmer is TV, film, and stage actor who was raised in Morrisville, PA by her Puerto Rican mother and German/Irish father. Megan embraces her roots, as well as her varied experiences, as she engages creatively in both her work and everyday life. Currently performing in "In the Heights" with Stages St. Louis, she reflects:

“Coming from Latin roots, there’s a lot that’s always unspoken, there’s a lot of things you don’t talk about and then you put yourself in the world of this show [In the Heights]… This show has meant the world to me since it came out on Broadway. I was obsessed with it and I felt so represented for the first time, because, yeah we had West Side Story, but I’m literally a product of what that show is against the entire time... They don’t want a white man marrying a Puerto Rican woman, and that’s me. My father is Irish-German. My mom’s Puerto Rican. So, for the first time, I saw families like mine; I saw stories like mine. But now that I’m twelve or thirteen years older, those stories hit on such a deeper level… all these moments in the show that directly relate to my life—yes, I’ve worked through as me, but now I’m portraying it through my art, through my soul, through my body, through my passion…”

“I have so much diversity just within my family and so many different cultures within my family… and when you [welcome everyone with open arms], you’re able to learn from so many different people’s points of views, feeling… Our family would not exist if we were not open and if we were not willing to explore. And then comes the creativity with building families, with cooking different dishes, with traveling to find roots—again, we go back to those roots. We are creative from the roots.”

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

This week's episode features a conversation with Louise Neilson, a mediator with a master's degree in creativity and innovation. She shares her extensive exploration of creativity and conflict styles, along with the parallels between mediation and creative problem solving using first hand examples from her considerable career. Louise has authored two books related to our creativity discussion:

"Mediating with Picasso: Relying on Your Inherent Creativity When You Need It Most"

"In Cahoots: A Playbook for Creative Collaboration"

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

Cindy Ripley, a nationally recognized educational consultant and master teacher, takes on additional roles as mentor, facilitator and peacekeeper as she dons various hats. Cindy’s enthusiasm for connection is evident—eliminating barriers of culture, experience, age, or any other roadblock encountered, while fostering community. Any interaction or discussion with Cindy shows clearly that her actions illustrate what her website clearly states: “Cindy fervently believes that all individuals are inherently creative. Her passion for excellence is her trademark as she celebrates the spirit within all of us.”

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

John Holzhüter describes his profession of chaplain as being someone who connects with people in need. The flexibility of his position allows that connection across demographics, cultures, and generations—meeting people wherever and however that need exists. John's specialty is triage, and he embraces his creativity in situations from assisting with traumatic events such as natural disasters or a car crash to engaging in programs to cultivate creative outlets for young people struggling with addiction. John’s contagious positivity shines throughout this discussion as he illustrates his creativity with an entertaining and insightful use of analogies and endless energetic search for creative solutions to life’s myriad of challenges.

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.

Tatiana Kolovou brings her vast experience in professional and personal development to this discussion about creativity. A native of Athens, Greece, creativity permeates all aspects of her approach to life, making evident her status as a prominent and respected leader and educator. Tatiana's passion for teaching and nurturing development is apparent on every level as she reflects on raising her children, working with college students from freshmen to graduate students, and helping individuals' pursuit of fitness and health goals. 

Tatiana offers more than 15 LinkedIn Learning courses and a newsletter, Stronger, in addition to teaching at the Kelley School of Business, Indiana University. Connect with her at:

LinkedIn— https://www.linkedin.com/in/tatianakolovou/
IU website—  https://kelley.iu.edu/faculty-research/faculty-directory/profile.html?id=TATIANAK

Defining Creativity explores how people from diverse backgrounds understand, experience, and practice creativity in their lives and work. Subscribe for new conversations with people whose stories expand our understanding of creativity.