The Syncreate Podcast: Empowering Creativity

Ben Thoma and Brian Thompson are the Co-Founders of Creative Mornings Austin, a local chapter of Creative Mornings, a monthly creative gathering in cities around the world. Described as “church for creatives,” Creative Mornings includes coffee and breakfast, a musical guest, and a presentation by a member of the local community, in a different location each month. The mantra of Creative Mornings A...

In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte describe the process of iteration, where we revise, refine, rehearse, and otherwise fine-tune and polish up our creative work to bring it to completion. Sometimes iteration requires radical cutting, editing, and reworking. We liken this process to pruning, which actually allows a tree or bush to grow and thrive more fully. It can...

How do we move from healing to wholeness in body, mind, and spirit? How can we communicate and create from a place of deep integrity? We explore these questions with podcaster, workshop facilitator & former NFL player Eben Britton. After 7 years in the NFL, Eben has embarked on a journey of healing and wellness, which he shares via his podcast, workshops, and retreats. His work includes restor...

Collaboration is vital for getting things done, for innovation, and for solving complex problems. But do we really understand collaboration, and what distinguishes it from coordination, cooperation, and even teamwork? According to our current guest, Randy Langford, collaboration involves people in community using communication to express their needs, and offer resources to support one another, for...

In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte describe the final phase of the creative process: Produce. In this phase, according to our Syncreate model, we move toward completion of our creative work. This is where we refine, iterate, polish, get feedback, and ultimately share our creative efforts with the world. It’s also where we celebrate and give back to our creative com...

What distinguishes creativity from other modes of thinking and being? How do we understand creativity from a neuroscientific perspective, and how do psychedelics affect creativity? We explore these questions with Bradley Cooke, Ph. D., a neuroscientist and Program Director at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Dr. Cooke oversees the nation's portfolio of research into the neurobiology o...

In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte describe the Plan, or organizational, phase of the creative process. The word “plan” might not immediately come to mind when we think about creativity, but planning and organization are actually vital to bringing a creative idea to the world. We discuss how convergent and divergent thinking figure into the creative process, as wel...

Just in time for Valentine’s Day, this episode explores the archetypes, personas, and roles we embody in our work life and beyond, beginning with the archetype of The Lovers. My guest is The Corporate Mystic, Stephanie Crain, an Austin-based leadership/ ethos coach and innovation consultant. She’s the founder of Tapas Innovation, and a Certified Master Jungian Coach with a Success Mindset speciali...

 In this episode of our Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte describe the Play, or ideation, phase of the creative process. In our view of the creative process, we begin with play. This is where we dream, fantasize, imagine, and envision the work we want to create. It’s where we play with ideas, build our skills, and experiment with different ways of bringing our ideas to life. We share in...

Following the creative path professionally requires faith and courage, as exemplified by our current guest Warren “Ren” Jackson. Originally from Indianapolis (where he and Melinda went school together growing up), Ren went on to earn an MFA from the University of Arizona, and then to a professional acting career with an emphasis on Shakespeare. He continued his artistic exploration amid the thrivi...

In this episode of our new Creative Spark series, Melinda and Charlotte give an overview of the Syncreate model of Play, Plan & Produce to help you move from ideation to completion with your creative work. Do you have an idea for a creative project but can’t seem to move it forward? Or maybe you’ve stalled out along the way, or can’t figure out how to bring it to completion? We share insights...

For our first full-length episode of 2024, we’re taking things in a more personal direction, as Melinda shares the story of her recent hysterectomy journey, along with her team of women healers, Leah Shadwick, Marie Commisso, and Thais Bicalho Silva. We discuss the connections between creativity, sexuality, the body, and the sacred feminine, as well as womens’ health and healing through creativity...

 For our very first episode of the new year, we’re doing something new! A couple of things, actually. We’re moving to a weekly release schedule, and introducing a new series we’re calling Creative Sparks to help stimulate your creativity. Every other week, Syncreate Co-Founders Melinda and Charlotte will co-host a mini-episode focusing on a specific aspect of the creative process to help stimulate...

In our final episode of 2023, Melinda and Mike reflect on our collaboration in developing and producing The Syncreate Podcast over the last year, from its ideation phase to the present. We talk about Melinda’s inspiration for the show, some of the myths and stereotypes she wants to dispel about creativity, and (now that we can laugh about it) our creative friction in bringing the show to life. We’...

What is creativity and how do we study it? If you’re curious to learn more about the study of creativity and innovation, this episode is for you. My guest today is Dr. Robert Cleve, head of the Creativity, Innovation, and Leadership Specialization at Saybrook University. We talk about how Robert recently updated the curriculum to better address the complex problems we face as a global community. W...

We’ve all likely experienced some degree of burnout or overwhelm in the course of our lives, especially since the pandemic. But what exactly is burnout? How can we recognize the signs of it, prevent it from overtaking us, and heal from it once we’ve experienced it? My guest on the show today is Dr. Katherine Semler. Katherine has worked for 25 years in the field of leadership development. She is a...

Songwriting, like many creative pursuits, can be a mysterious process. There’s no set formula for writing a song, and each songwriter approaches it in their own unique way. My guest today is George McCormack, a British singer-songwriter who performs as Son of Cormack. George and I were introduced by a mutual friend last year and started collaborating musically. You’ll hear us playing together duri...

This episode, featuring Cyrus Gray III, demonstrates how creativity can support resilience, even under extremely difficult circumstances. In Episode 11, I talked with Dylan Hayre about the creativity in his criminal justice reform work. In this episode, we hear about the criminal justice system from the perspective of someone who found himself behind bars for nearly five years, four of those await...

Sharanya Rao is a leadership, team, and career coach with an emphasis on equity and inclusion. She’s also the Artistic Director of Leela - An Indian Community Theatre in Austin, Texas. Her current project, Anklets in the Boardroom , gives voice to South Asian women’s experiences in the workplace. Her project is a living example of creating in community, in service of positive social change, which...

Dylan Hayre is a leader in criminal justice reform focusing on supervision in probation and parole. We connected through his work and leadership, and from the start I was struck by his passion and drive, not only for criminal justice work, but in his striving for self-cultivation in leading from his core values and principles. Dylan is a highly creative thinker, bringing an innovative approach to...

What comes to mind when you hear the word “imagination”? Does it evoke a particular image, scene, or context in your mind’s eye? We often associate imagination with the visual sense, as a close relative and component of creativity. But imagination can be associated with any of the five senses or perceptual fields, and it is also closely linked with intuition, spirituality, and synchronicity. And w...

Dr. Jeff Mims is a psychologist, creativity expert, musician, and researcher. His work focuses on the relationships between music, health and well-being. He holds a doctorate in humanistic psychology with a specialization in creativity studies, as well as a master's in rehabilitation counseling, and a bachelor's in film and cinema studies. Currently he’s the operations lead at the Music...

Anne Myers Cleary is a visual artist, as well as a writer and musician, based in Indianapolis. Anne majored in art at Kenyon College, and studied vocal performance and opera at Longy School of Music in Boston and the Jacob's School of Music at Indiana University. Her work has been featured as part of the Encore Sotheby’s Visiting Artist Series, The Harrison Center for the Arts, Kuaba Gallery,...

One of our primary areas of focus at Syncreate involves honoring the power of collaboration and community in the creative process. So I’m thrilled to bring you my conversation with Charlotte Gullick, my Syncreate Co-Founder. Charlotte is an author, novelist, memoirist, and educator. Her first novel, By Way of Water , was chosen by Jayne Anne Phillips as the Grand Prize winner of the Santa Fe Write...

One of the most powerfully creative things we can do as leaders and changemakers in this complex world is to identify and live from our core values. As a creativity and leadership coach and consultant, I always encourage my clients to articulate their core values and utilize them as compass points in their work. My guest in this episode, Mayela Padilla Manasjan, exemplifies this values-driven crea...