Our Brains On Music + Fall Workshops

During a recent workshop session I facilitated, we watched and discussed WIRED’s video How Does Music Affect Your Brain? (inspired by listening to new songs from a musician in the group). Playing and listening to music is one of the few activities in life that lights up multiple areas of the brain at once. I learned that reading Daniel Levitin’s book This Is Your Brain on Music many years ago and think about it often (he is one of the interviewees in the video too). The video covers a lot in 12:00 - you probably get chills (and understand why), see Fantastic Negrito do a solo in a MRI machine, learn how Gabrielle Giffords used music therapy to regain speech, and remember to let go when creating.

Does that sound like a workshop you’d like to be a part of?! You’re in luck!

My next Passion Project Workshop spans seven weeks in October and November. You may have:

• A seed of an idea for a project

• Something ongoing in the works

• A creative outlet you want to pay more attention to

Either way, workshops give you inspiration, accountability, feedback, and community to propel your creativity forward. It often feels like group therapy too. All creative disciplines are welcome - a mix is wonderful!

Get more detail and express interest here by Sunday, Sept 22.

I also have individual sessions (career and personal creativity focused) open this Fall if that’s better for your schedule and/or working style. To learn more just reply to this email or set up a free consultation here.

New Team Offerings!

I have three new offerings for teams who care about collaboration and morale! I’m currently developing these with high profile brands and/or have had success with them at past jobs and am excited to share more widely:

1: Inspire productivity and connection through PERSONAL creative outlets.

Creatives need consistent creative outlets outside of work to stay inspired, productive and balanced. Sharing at work is a cool way for people to get to know each other better too. Backed by research, we’ll develop a program that is fun, engaging, impactful and fits your team culture. This can be a one-off workshop or more ongoing work.

2: Understand and improve your team engagement and morale.

I come in as an unbiased, fully confidential outside ear and brain to LISTEN to your team. Yes, the whole team. Then we see where you have room to improve, set better expectations and/or celebrate what you’re doing great. People want to be heard! And trust me, everyone knows you can tell who’s who in those “anonymous” surveys … you’re not getting the full story.

3: Improve your cross-collaborations.

Creative teams typically work with tons of cross-functional partners - and tensions can run high. Years ago I ran a survey where two questions really stood out: 

• How is the team dynamic with your immediate team? 

• How is the team dynamic with your cross-functional teams?

The first question got the HIGHEST SCORES; the second got the LOWEST SCORES. It wasn’t that one team was actually better than another, it’s that people knew their immediate team better. I’ll meet with your team and partners to get to the heart of what’s working and what’s not.

All three offerings illuminate one of my core beliefs:

The better we know each other and the more we listen, the more trust and tolerance we have for each other.

Of course in some cases, this leads to blinders or dysfunction runs extra deep. But more often than not, deeper relationships mean we work out issues in healthier ways. Feel free to apply that to other areas of life, too.

I’m super excited to help teams collaborate better. Reply to this email if you’re interested in chatting!

Shhhhhhhhh Find Quiet

I spend a lot of time encouraging people to embrace activities that help them be more creative. I also do it for myself. I keep this post-it note up in my office to remember a few things that help me: 

I’m not freaking kidding, it took me over a year to realize the common denominator is QUIET (so I added that in later). This often overlaps with solo time for me too, a close relative to quiet.

I need it for ideas to come. To calm my racing brain. It helps with listening, too.

I know this is not breaking news, but is so easy to forget, so this is just a reminder. 

I also loves this quote from Dr. Eric Maisel’s Advanced Creativity Coaching class:

“To have an interesting idea that provokes you and that sends you to the canvas typically requires that you have gotten quiet enough for neurons to release their everyday grip on their small ideas (like remembering to pick up the dry cleaning and pay the gas bill) and gather together for a whole-brain big idea. The desire to create is related to quieting our mind sufficiently for ideas to percolate and incubate … Desire needs quiet!”

And with that, maybe go stare at a tree all by yourself?

And that concludes newsletter Vol 5, September 2024. Please share with others who may enjoy it! Anyone can sign up and read past newsletters here.

YAY FALL,

Kate