▶️The Quest #18
What it means to be a creator
Hello Friends!
Greetings from Barcelona☀️. Many thanks for your feedback on the last edition and for reaching out. A special shout out to the following people: Maria in Miami, Nadia in Montreal, Ali in the US, Deepa on Bainbridge Island, Hank in Amsterdam, Aaron in Madrid, Connie in Toronto, and Barry in Bracebridge 🙌.
If you are joining The Quest for the first time, welcome to our weekly exploration of creativity, facilitation, and learning. You can catch up on past editions here.
This week:
What does it mean to be a creator?
Lessons from 3 creators who have inspired me: a podcaster, an author, and a musician
Let’s dive right in!
▶️What does it mean to be a creator?
What best describes a creator?
a) Your nephew who spends hours in his bedroom creating cool YouTube videos on his favorite brands.
b) Your neighbor who is a student-turned-online-yoga-instructor who streams classes live on Instagram to thousands of followers.
c) Your favorite author who is now a podcaster, Netflix producer, and cooking show host.
d) God.
e) All of the above.
Nowadays, it’s easier to be a creator and connect with an audience without the usual gatekeepers in the way. The pool of people who call themselves “creators” is growing.
But what does it mean to be a creator?
I like the Miriam Webster Dictionary definition:
I’ve been lucky to have grown up with, worked with, and collaborated with creators of all shapes and sizes.
I have always been fascinated to learn from people who fearlessly put their ideas out into the world by creating something new.
Take my dad. He has dedicated his entire professional life to re-imagining education. Together with my step-mother, another visionary educator, they are getting ready to launch their first app this week. It’s called Skillpod. It teaches life skills to young people transitioning into work. My dad turned 85 last year and he’s still creating.
We all have creators in our lives who inspire us. And they remind us that we all have the capacity to create.
In this edition, I’ll introduce you to three creators who have inspired me.
What can we learn from them to activate our own creator engines?
Meet Deepa Narayan…
🔥What’s a Man?
A brilliant new podcast series by researcher, social scientist, and cultural detective Deepa Narayan. Deepa explores what it means to be a man today, drawing on insights from India. She is an author with 17 books to her name. She’s a TED speaker. She has spearheaded countless social change projects. And now she can add podcaster to her list of titles.
So what can we learn from Deepa about creating?
1) Know your subject. Deepa conducted 250 interviews for her podcast, on top of tens of thousands of interviews over her lifetime. By knowing her subject she is able to contribute something of value to what already exists.
2) Ask powerful questions. Last week we explored the art of asking powerful questions. Deepa asks provocative questions that go straight to the heart of an issue. It’s no coincidence that the name of the podcast is one of her powerful questions - What’s a man?
3) Listen without judgment. Deepa can make anyone feel at ease. She brings people into the conversation instead of shutting them out. She does this by listening without judgement. What she creates is rich with diverse perspectives instead of an echo chamber of sameness.
🧨So… What do you do?
A question that guides Lux Narayan’s new book, Name, Place, Animal, and Thing (NPAT). Lux explores the building blocks of a fuller life by telling a modern fable through a popular children’s game. Lux is a tech entrepreneur, stand-up comedian, and TED Speaker. With his new book, he adds author to his long list of titles. Name, Place, Animal, and Thing is set in post-COVID times. It’s written so well that you can almost taste what it will be like to talk about the pandemic in the past tense.
So what can we learn from Lux about creating?
1) Open your field of choices. Lux could have written any number of things. A self-help book. A novel. A memoir. A series of blogs. Instead, he chose to write a modern fable. It’s original. It’s a reminder to open your field of choices before narrowing down on one.
2) Explore through many lenses. Luxs varied life experiences gives him the ability to create using many lenses. The result? Lux comes up with novel insights about a question that we’ve been asking ourselves since the dawn of ages.
3) Use humor. Lux is a stand-up comedian. His writing is peppered with little jokes that tickle your tastebuds with the paradoxes in life. Lux has a gift of using humor to engage us in what he is creating.
Oh, I almost forgot. Lux is also a rapper. Watch the rap intro to the book here:
🦉Wake Up Calls
UK-based composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Cosmo Sheldrake’s latest album with songs of endangered birds. You may know Cosmo for his song Come Along in this Apple advert. Or for inspiring millions of Tic Tok users with his song Birthday Suit. If you don’t know Cosmo’s music, you are in for an enchanting, dreamy, poetic treat. My favorite tracks are Nightjar, Cuckoo Song, and Owl Song. You can read more about Cosmo in this piece from Songlines, shared by Rick Ingrasci at Big Mind Media.
So what can we learn from Cosmo about creating?
1) Seek out original ideas. Cosmo reminds us not to shy away from seeking out original ideas. His work invites us to go beyond the obvious and to create something truly novel.
2) Find your tools. Cosmo has learned to play all kinds of musical instruments. He experiments with technology. He has accumulated a set of tools that gives him many ways of exploring sound.
3) Create with a purpose. Cosmo’s music is a means of helping us to examine our relationship with the environment. All three of our creators create with a purpose. They help us examine our beliefs, and uncover new ways of thinking and being.
Let’s start a conversation!
Who are the creators who inspire you most? What lessons have you learned from them?
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📙Speaking of Creating…
I am looking for a handful of people to proofread and share feedback on a final draft of an e-book I am creating. If you are interested, hit respond to this newsletter and I’ll send you a link. Thanks to Connie, Delia, Michaele, and Jen for their feedback so far.
Stay tuned for more news soon…
Thanks for reading The Quest. I always love hearing your feedback and suggestions. Visit my website for ways we can work together here.
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Until next week!
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