It's morning outside the McNamara Center, and I sit down with Thomas Beutel. Thomas was a guest on The MultiPod way back in November of 2020, an episode we called "Creative Techniques to Improve Your Creativity." And Thomas is an amazing creator. He lives to create.   The multipotentialite side of it comes in with all the different things that he creates. Thomas paints, draws, builds, programs, works with wires, he carves, molds, assembles, which results in all kinds of models, tools, sculptures, and fundamentally, he creates art. Which includes some digital animations and creative coding, too. So it's little surprise that here at the Everything Conference, Thomas offered a workshop under the title of "Harnessing Focused Creativity for Multipotentialites."   We were talking on Saturday, and his workshop was the day before, on Friday, so he was able to reflect on how it went. It kind of boiled down to asking the question, "How does it feel when you have 17 projects started and none finished?" And I'm sure a lot of people can sympathize with that feeling.   We cover: 

•  Overcoming procrastination, daydreaming, distractions, and what to do when creative inspiration gets stale 
•  What to do when you say to yourself, "I am not interested in doing that anymore" 
•  Embracing experimentation and action, and making the most of the supportive opportunities around you 
•  Pushing through the "stranger danger" as an introvert, and recognizing how welcoming and comforting an event like this is 

  Tips include: 

•  The three techniques that Thomas has come up with to help rediscover your focus 
•  Visualizing not just the end, but the part-way through the process 
•  Making the most of communities like the Puttyverse for practicing, testing, feedback and more 

  And Thomas is doing ETC interviews series for his own podcast. It's called the Creative Shoofly podcast. Just like myself, Thomas is going around getting little tidbits and interviewing people for a compilation that he's now published on his show. We'll share it here in The MultiPod feed as well. Definitely check it out, you'll hear lots of familiar, friendly voices, including perhaps yourself!   Encouragement links:   thomasbeutel.art Thomas on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/user/beutelevision Podcasts: 

• You and I Make a Thing, host Thomas Beutel and a guest make something they have never made before 
• Creative Shoofly, An exploration of art and creativity 
• Thomas' own podcast series interviewing participants at the ETC

 Photo credit: Thomas Beutel

The MultiPod @ the Everything Conference miniseries © Quick Edit Podcasts, 2024 Production and original music by Ted Cragg   ---- Stream more episodes of The MultiPod on our site, on YouTube, or or on your favourite podcast app.