Interviews with Participants at the Everything Conference

In this episode, I interview some of my fellow participants at this year’s Everything Conference in Minneapolis. We talk about creativity and multipotentiality.

 

Links mentioned in this episode

Everything Conference

Puttyverse

How To Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick

World Domination Summit

Camp Indie

Some of the above are affiliate links and I may earn a small commission.

 

Transcript

Welcome to the Creative Shoofly. I'm Thomas Beutel. This podcast is about exploring the creative journey as an artist. And in this episode, I speed-interview some of the people I met at this year's Everything Conference, which was held in Minneapolis.

The Everything Conference is a semiannual gathering of multipotentialites, and it's styled as an unconference, where everyone is a participant, and the workshops and experiences are led by the participants themselves.

I had an opportunity to lead a workshop based on some of the creative processes I've described on this podcast, mind mapping, role play, and Scrum for One, and I'm happy to say that I got some nice feedback.

In addition to participating in other experiences, I met a lot of wonderful people and I made some new friends. It's really cool to be in a group that doesn't blink an eye when you say, I'm interested in this… and this… and this… and this! They totally get it because they have as many interests as I do.

Before going to the Everything Conference, I knew that I wanted to interview my fellow multipods, and the idea I came up with was to write a bunch of questions and have them pick one at random.

Half of the questions are about creativity, and half about multipotentiality. I ended up writing them on a set of blank Bicycle playing cards. I enjoyed seeing the look on their faces when they picked a card from the deck and realized that it was not a real playing card. I ended up interviewing about a dozen people. And we'll start with my friend, Heather.

Heather: Can you tell me what it is? Oh, oh, okay.

Thomas: Let's see. So, Heather. What's a piece of advice you would give to a young multipotentialite?

Heather: Okay. That's a really good question because I think our society has typically been, quite, like you must choose something you have to specialize and I do think that's shifting. But in the meantime, it's really working on accepting that for yourself. Honoring that you do have all of these interests. And that basically, one, you're really awesome, you're not broken, and it's just sort of, it's, it's just like being a different flavor of human.

Thomas: Yeah. Right, right.

Heather: Yeah, um, and to explore, like get into your interests, try them out, it's okay to shift because that's what we do. But yeah, just to kind of honor that and try to be firm with others. Like, hey, this is really who I am, and I need your support, especially for a young person. It's just like, I need that support to nourish those interests and, and that identity, so.

Thomas: Thank you very much.

Thomas: So, Colleen, how do you know when a creative project is finished?

Colleen: Oh, that is a hard question, because most creatives I know, they'll, they'll pick at it. And never let it go.

I think there's a couple ways to see. One is by sharing your work. Because other people will see the whole better than you will. Another time is just to be comfortable with good enough, it meets your standards, and then let it out in the world. I think when we don't let our work out, it's really, fear that it won't be good enough.

Thomas: Right. So that letting go part is, is key.

Colleen: I think that is what it is. I mean, we don't, you know, especially people who do, one off work, and you know in my practice, I know that a lot of times I'm terrible at planning. I don't, I'm trying to learn how to sketch my work ahead of time, but really I just see what the materials want to be. And so it's sometimes hard to know when you're done because you didn't know what you were going to do when you start it.

I think if you know, it's kind of like, well, in my corporate life project is done because you define done at the beginning.

In my creative work, I'm not as good at doing that.

Thomas: Great. Thank you very much. You're welcome.

Thomas: Let me pull up my cards. All right. Stacey, how do you stay updated and informed in multiple fields?

Stacey: Okay, primary way I do is I'm an avid reader. And my tastes are eclectic. So I'll read across anything that interests me.

I mainly do nonfiction though. I do read fiction as well. And even