The Common Creative

How “the ripple effect” can deliver a creative impact well beyond a simple decision. Troy Smyth is an award winning Brisbane-based architect and director of Ryall & Smyth Architects. He’s also a personal friend of Paul’s. Troy was invited to join the show to tell a low-key story about a quiet moment of reflection at the side of the street when he’d observed two tu...

Kath Blackham is the founder and CEO of Versa – a digital agency whose mission has ignored tech jargon and instead is all about facilitating conversations between their clients and customers.  Kath appeared on our radar when we spotted an ABC story about her agency moving to a four day week and doubling profits in the process. In this inspirational interview, we discover how Kath has us...

Dani Venn is a three-time Masterchef contestant, founder of Eat It Up Creative (consultancy) and The Wholehearted Cook and the driving force behind a delicious Sri-Lankan style Pineapple Curry, which is available in Coles Supermarkets. In this super-fresh and tasty interview, we learned that even under the pressure of performing as a Masterchef contestant, Dani unleashes her creativity by applying...

Creative Accounting at a Stretch When Chris and Paul challenged Camille Woods (accountancy teacher, yoga teacher and founder of www.mondaymind.com ) to explain how she has managed to combine two such different disciplines into one career, she said “you have to let your creativity come out”. In this powerful interview, Camille reveals a range of deep insights about what drives her and h...

Creativity and risk go hand in hand. New ventures often require a step into unknown territory and this uncertainty can be scary. Sometimes those risks pay off and other times... they don’t. The name elderflower sounds delicate and sweet… so how was it that this flowering plant caused so much trouble for chef Garry Flynn? This week on The Common Creative, Paul and Chris chat to Garry a...

“Frisson" is the feeling you have when you get up on stage for a first performance or the moment when an inner idea goes public. It's the mid-point between fear and excitement and we’ve discovered it's one of the vital fuels for creativity.  In this episode, Paul describes how as a teenager and as an adult various teachers told him ‘you can’t sing’. Driven by a n...

Should the business title CEO mean “Creative Empowerment Officer”?   Confronted by a gunman who had raided the bank branch where she worked, our special guest Lexi Airey realised that, in her short life, she hadn’t had a chance to experience life to the full. So, she declared that she would never work in a bank again and took a job glassing the bottom of boats. After taking...

Michael Fairweather (AM) - the guest on this episode is a business heavyweight and a retired Major General in the Australian Army (Reserve).  He is also Paul Fairweather’s big brother. Despite what may seem to be a background I’m highly structured and disciplined environments, Michael reveals that there is a streak of  creativity running throughout the army - from the everyda...

Build a Bridge - Episode 6 of The Common Creative Many of us harbour a secret desire to create something or do something a bit different but “life” seems to get in the way. In this episode, Chris shares a story about how he discovered how to unlock his secret passion for photography via a ‘moment of clarity’ while motorcycling across the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The lessons f...

  “Chillis" - Episode 5 - The Common Creative   Chris and Paul share a passion for chillis - and not just because they enjoy the flavour. Chris’ consultancy business is called Chilli Sauce and Paul has been painting chillis for many years. Inspired by this passion, Chris and Paul explore the impact of chilis on creativity and discover some surprising lessons:   In order...

The Common Creative Episode 4 “Shampoo”   What is the role of creativity in the cut-and-thrust of the business world?  In this episode, Chris Meredith shares a story about his experience as a junior brand manager in charge of a shampoo brand. Despite having a  creative idea to boost sales the idea was squished by the all-powerful Marketing Director who explained that ide...

What can nuts teach us about creativity? Paul and Chris take an unusual angle in this episode by challenging each-other to use ‘nuts’ as their inspiration for sharing ideas about creativity.  And despite their initial misgivings, both end up pleasantly surprised about the rich insights it reveals: Too much of a good thing Just like nuts, too much creativity on a single theme can b...

In this show, hostsPaul and Chris use a single personal story as a vehicle to explore different aspects of creativity. Paul kicks things off with his light heated story about his disastrous attempt to be an extra on the TV Show “Water Rats”. (Paul failed in his role as a corpse and fluffed a scene where his only task was to shuffle some pieces of paper!) Despite his disastrous experien...

In this episode, Paul and Chris draw on their personal experiences of daily acts of creativity (daily watercolour and a daily photograph) to understand what creative energy is and how to maintain it. The big theme that Chris and Paul draw out are that creative energy is like a rechargeable battery that has to be used regularly to keep it working well but which also needs to be re-charged (through...

What happens when two obsessed creatives and their guests get together to share the secrets of making creativity as everyday as brushing your teeth? Using as their inspiration a common passion for creating and sharing a new artistic image every single day Paul and Chris, are on a mission to understand and share the tools and techniques of creativity. Their aim to help anyone ins business, at home...