We did it! We made it to the end of our first season of Creatively Complicated and we're celebrating with a short and sweet episode about creative things that inspire us. We agreed on 5 categories and each came up with our own answers to what gets us thinking, creating, or appreciating.  Thanks for tuning in so far and join us again in mid-January for season two!  Summer's picks: -Comical: "Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof"   -Unexpected: Salted egg yolk shrimp -Cultural: Indie magazines: Fare https://www.faremag.com/; -Eaten, https://www.eatenmagazine.com/;  Dill https://dillmagazine.com/; Eighty Degrees https://www.readeighty.com/ -Serious: Over-tourism -Guilty Pleasure: Miss Culinary, https://mydramalist.com/39749-miss-culinary  Steph's picks: -Comical: Communist Christmas (not Communist Kitty, whoops) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NKHJ64qRR8 -Unexpected: Nadav Drukker : "London based theoretical physicist and experimental potter. My art fuses those two sides of me."https://www.instagram.com/nadavdrukker/ -Cultural: street signs: https://twitter.com/stephfuccio/status/1204060943367335936 -Serious: Persepolis (movie) NOT Persephone (I suck with names right now. Sight head injury a few weeks ago, mentioned in an ep, blah blah blah).  Persepolis (movie based on a graphic novel) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PXHeKuBzPY -Guilty Pleasure: Billy Joel BEST SONG EVA (New York accent in spelling intentional): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuFScoO4tb0 Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/  Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software We see each other (and our various facial expressions) on the remote video software, Zoom. This is also our back up audio file.  We are now recording our own tracks with Audacity and then Summer is doing two track editing on them.

We fell deep into a rabbit hole in this episode as we pondered the differences between writing and podcasting, as well as what it means to compare ourselves to others in our creative space(s). Both of us seem to think that podcasting feels lighter and "easier" than writing, but why?  Gatekeepers, community, cultural reverence are all covered in this packed conversation—as evidenced by the fact that this episode is nearly 17 minutes longer than our intention. Oops. Quotes: "We can look at somebody else who appears to be at the same level as us; maybe in terms of experience, quality of work, whatever the case may be. And if it seems like they're getting something more or better than we are, the reality is that we don't know what's going on behind the scenes with them." -Summer "I find it (podcasting) a lot easier of a product because people aren't as nit picky with audio as writers are with playing with language." -Steph on word play tolerance in writing versus speaking "I think when you bring money into it and there is a limited opportunity, there is competition." -Summer on hiring one writer for a task "Although writing wasn't thought of as a profession that would lead to a high paying job; we did study literature, we did read from books, libraries were revered. There was a respect for the written word but there wasn't necessarily a respect for the spoken word." -Steph on the  respect given to both ways of communicating growing up (writing versus speaking) Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/   Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software We see each other (and our various facial expressions) on the remote video software, Zoom. This is also our back up audio file.  We are now recording our own tracks with Audacity and then Summer is doing two track editing on them.

If only sourcing good ideas were as simple as walking down to the Amazing Ideas Emporium and loading up a basket of suitably fulfilling, challenging, and hopefully money-making creative visions. But it's not.  So how do we "get" ideas? And how long do they stay fresh? Should we push through with an idea just because it was strong for a moment OR learn to let them go if the energy behind it fades?  Quotes: "Messiness is an inherent part of creativity." -Summer "Acknowledging the messy, admitting the messy, working around the messy, I am comfortable with those. It kinda has to get messy to get done." -Steph  "We are protective of those concepts, when we have a new idea that we've started. Is this protection of our idea or of ourselves?" -Summer "I used to feel very confined by notebooks. If something wasn't working or I couldn't find a place for it to exist in the world or I just got really sick of working on it I would literally burn it." -Steph Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/  Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software We see each other (and our various facial expressions) on the remote video software, Zoom. This is also our back up audio file.  We are now recording our own tracks with Audacity and then Summer is doing two track editing on them.

Do life changes help or hurt the creative process? We have decided to create some geographical disruptions to help us investigate this quandary. Well, not really, but let's pretend that we are doing this for science anyway. Steph will be in Germany for at least the first 3 months of 2020 AND Summer is visiting Japan for 2 weeks around then as well! Hooray for swapping regions madness!  Don't worry, our first season of Creatively Complicated will continue through 13 December but this week we're having a chat about what it's like when life interrupts our creative projects. Are "forced" breaks good or bad for our creativity? Should we scramble to compensate for missed productivity or just relax and go with the flow? Spoiler alert: The outcome of this discussion was more positive than we anticipated.  Links: Steph's YouTube channel closure video (that she forgot to post for hours): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHwdOwwPapY  Quotes: "The more I add things to the Germany to do list, the more I put the list aside and work on the podcast. I have been in straight avoidance mode for at least a week now." -Steph "I think it's good to take a break sometimes. I am that big person on savoring anticipation. I enjoy the act of putting it off."-Summer Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/   Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software Remote video software, Zoom

Why do we create? Often, our motivation is money, entertainment or guilt because we feel like we "should" be doing something. Despite a long list of topics to discuss in our last episode on creative feedback, we both thought the episode felt unnatural and directionless. You might not have picked up on that because Summer saved us with her editing prowess by creating a narrative arch before we published the episode. Stephanie, known globally for her occasional bouts of brilliance, quickly realized that the ladies were lacking the reason WHY they were talking about feedback in the first place. We accidentally on purpose continue this discussion in today's episode by trying once and again to answer this motivational question on an episode AND show level. Do our answers make sense? (That's not a rhetorical question, we really want to know!)  Links:  None, we are deeply in our own heads in this ep Words we want to exist: IRV : in real voice (as opposed to online or recorded voices. Kinda like IRL, in real life but specific to voices) Polypodomous: working on multiple podcasts instead of just one (monopodpmous?) Quotes: "Let's get meta on the meta…" -Steph on the accidental link between last week and this week's episodes "If the why is intrinsic and you don't necessarily have a direction that's still enough of a why to keep going."-Summer Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/  Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software Remote video software, Zoom

Love it or hate it, feedback is an inevitable component of the creative process when you choose to release your work into the wild. This week, Steph and Summer get meta with their thoughts on the whys, whens, and hows of receiving and giving creative feedback.  We ultimately discover that there seems to be a value tier when it comes to feedback and, big sorry to friends and family, but as it turns out, you guys are at the bottom of the pile. Cheers!  If you're feeling inspired to offer feedback after listening to us talk for half an hour about feedback, pop on over to Podchaser and leave us your thoughts: https://www.podchaser.com/podcasts/creatively-complicated-866546  Links:  -Episode with Nicole: https://creativelycomplicated.libsyn.com/ep-14-creativity-roundtable-with-nicole   Quotes:   "I hear these stories but I feel like they are Sasquatched or something. I don't quite get  why you wouldn't wanna know everybody that has the same interests in the world" -Steph    (in response to where the discomfort with feedback exists)  "...the anticipation that someone won't like the work or that bad feedback is coming."-Summer Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/    Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software Remote video software, Zoom

Do you find yourself creatively diverse? Have you accumulated many creative passion projects over the years only to have people call them your "little projects?" Well, this is the episode for you then because Summer and I have had about as much as we can take of the monocreative expectation in current day society.  Links:  -Creativity School with Grace Chon, episode 40, with D'Ana Joi Spencer https://www.creativityschoolpodcast.com/blog/2019/10/08/dana-joi -Regen Racing Podcast: https://www.regenracingpodcast.com/ Quotes: "For me sometimes I get really excited about something and I keep it internally. I sit there on the couch twitching a little bit with excitement because I am really into the history of Chinese tea or something that week."  -Summer "The dream scenario is to be somehow funded with complete creative freedom so that I can offload the parts of it that I don't like and do the other things that I do like in addition to it that feed into it." -Stephanie  Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/  Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software Remote video software, Zoom

Does your creative process change depending what project you are working on? To "research" this we three podgoddesses drove down the creative highway with the top down, the music up and the wind in our hair. Wait, three? Yup, we are joined this week by the most methodical, articulate and humorous person we podknow, Expat Cast Podcast Host Nicole Palazzo. Going meta was our goal so we chatted about when to start, pivot and stop creative projects. Surprisingly Summer and Nicole had an interesting shared experience with writing versus podcasting while I was just plain messy in all creative endeavors. What can I say, we got down with our bad selves and it was cathartic, as usual.   Guest Info: Nicole Palazzo of the Expat Cast Podcast (thanks Nicole!) -Twitter: @TheExpatCast -Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theexpatcast/ -Expat Cast, Nicole's Podcast: https://theexpatcast.podbean.com/ -Nicole' solo episode about her expat story: https://theexpatcast.podbean.com/e/my-expat-story-with-your-host-nicole/ Quotes: "A good comparison is relationships. No one meets and gets together on their anniversary date. Typically their anniversary date is either when they decided this is officially a thing or they retroactively decided." -Nicole "I think it's okay sometimes to wait  until you actually have enough out there to go ahead and promote....where they can see some consistency, that there's a developing voice. Not just for the sake of the creative process but also with the hope of gaining and retaining an audience." -Summer "All the other stuff I've done was very start and stop, I was either doing it or I was not doing it and it didn't really change a lot while I was doing it. It was that thing or it was nothing." -Steph Links:  (in order) Mostly shameless plugs of our podcast episodes with each other! Sooooo, you have a lot of listening to do now, okay?  -Summer on Nicole's Expat Cast  podcast: https://theexpatcast.podbean.com/?s=Summer -Steph on Nicole's Expat Cast podcast: https://theexpatcast.podbean.com/?s=stephanie -Nicole on the Geopat's podcast:  https://geopats.podbean.com/e/nicole-palazzo-expat-cast-schadenfreude/  and -Geopats Podcast episode where Nicole, Tatjana and I geek out about the book, Schadenfreude, A Love Story by Rebecca Shuman. https://geopats.podbean.com/e/nicole-palazzo-expat-cast-schadenfreude/ -Summer on Steph's Geopat's podcast: https://geopats.podbean.com/e/ep-17-two-podcasting-geopats-discuss-the-global-soul-by-pico-iyer/ and  https://geopats.podbean.com/e/ep-75-summer-rylander-the-most-productive-procrastinator-in-expatland/   Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/  Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software Remote video software, Zoom

Has one tweak to your workflow ever made the world of a difference in your creative process? This is exactly where Summer and Steph are standing in timeblockingland. Festering was not working so we added a pinch of numbifying (quantifying) yeast to our creative workflow and brewed to our heart's content. This ultimately hatched some pretty awesome new timeblocking plans and the creative foam floatith over (too much?). Our creativity is all the better for it so hurrah to numbifying and mixing metaphors.  Links:  (in order) -NoNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month): https://www.nanowrimo.org/ -NaPodPoMo (National Podcast Post Month): http://napodpomo.org/ Quotes: "It's kinda crazy how when you've decided to just sit down and do something and actually do it, then wow, you can get something done." -Summer "I've been kinda Swiss holing my schedule and I've noticed...I wanna be there for 4-5 hours so I need to reblock my time." -Steph "I'm either dicking around online or I can use that time constructively." -Summer "So you went to a numbyfying place…" -Steph Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/  Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software Remote video software, Zoom

It appears that we have been in a creative incubation period for the past 11 episodes. This episode could very well mark a shift in our creative turmoil,especially for Summer. Yup, we are thrilled to bring you our first creative breakthrough since starting this podcast. Summer had a massive creative productivity moment of truth recently that we can't wait to tell you about. It involves a splash of time management, a pinch of paprika and a large cup of hyperawareness. This recipe metaphor is a not so subtle way to tease you into popping in your earbuds to hear the change in her voice. The parallel nature of our job, language and time management lives have reached a new level and it's called scrumpdillyicious.  Links:  (in order) -UnF*ck Your Brain Podcast : https://unfuckyourbrain.com/podcasts/ -Pomodoro Method: https://www.themuse.com/advice/take-it-from-someone-who-hates-productivity-hacksthe-pomodoro-technique-actually-works Quotes: "The temptation of reaching my phone when I am working on something and it gets a little hard and my brain thinks it needs the release of a break " -Summer "It's about finding out what works for you at that time and then doing that until things change and then finding a new thing that works for you at that time. There is a constant shift …" -Steph "I actually need some discipline in my creative life" -Summer "There is something about numbers and about quantifying things. That nagging feeling about needing to do more goes away.There is a forgiveness of not doing everything when I do that one thing." -Steph Questions for our next week future selves: Summer: Have you completed two of your writing time blocks since last Wed?  Steph: Have you figured out a podwork-job hunting time schedule?  Music: And a big thank you to Alex of Kwick Lights (https://kwick-lights.de/de) for recording our snazzy new intro/outro jingles! Thanks also to Lena of Lena On The Move (https://lenaonthemove.com/) for the sound idea and pulling this together for us! Check out Alex and Lena's Nuremberg-based band, Off The Grid, at https://www.instagram.com/offthegrid.music/  Contact us:  Creatively Complicated (in Internetland): Twitter: Creatively Complicated Podcast, @stephandsummer Email: [email protected] Summer (in Germany):   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/summeroutside/  Twitter: https://twitter.com/summeroutside Blog: https://eatsomethinggosomewhere.com/ Stephanie: (in China): https://linktr.ee/stephfuccio This episode was created with: Steph and Summer's microphones Samson Q2U  Auphonic, free online leveling software Remote video software, Zoom