In my most recent episode I spoke with, poet, Lauren Ducrey. Lauren studied literature and grew up with the belief that you’re either born creative or you’re not. Events in her own life caused her to shift from analyzing works of art to creating them and just earlier this year, she left her job at Google to pursue poetry full time. She now leads creativity & poetry events in NYC for companies, individuals, and groups to help people find well-being through poetry. Listen to hear her talk about her journey and process, embracing her identity as a poet, AI and creativity, and how poetry is more accessible to us than we might think.

Here were some of the lessons I took away from Lauren:

• A poem can be a pick me up, a meditation, or even a friend: Just like music, poetry can be used to access different parts of ourselves, build empathy towards one another, and have challenging conversations as a society.
• Creative identity can be formed from your process rather than output: Lauren has learned to re-frame her identity based on the activities she does everyday, regardless of if they result in a ‘finished’ work of art.
• AI can help us bring greater awareness to the creative process: In order to use AI well in creativity, we need to truly understand the discrete parts of the creative process, which requires actually engaging in the practice!

To learn more about or get in touch with Lauren, check out her website, and follow her on Linked In or Instagram.

Also check out her book, Tongues Tied and album, Cordes sensibles.

My next episode is out!

In this episode I spoke with Rob Lawless. Rob started his career off in consulting but very quickly realized he missed the close connections he had felt while in college at Penn State. He designed a project for himself called Robs10kFriends where he is on a mission to meet 10,000 people, each for one hour, to see what can come of connection with no specific agenda. He has been working on this for the past 8 years and has been covered by the Kelly Clarkson Show, the TODAY show, and Ryan Seacrest. Listen to hear about Rob starting this project, how he has re-framed his mindset along the way and what he has learned about intentional connection. Thanks to Adam Wise for connecting us!

Here were some of the lessons I took away from Rob:

• Learn to trust commitments to yourself rather than relying on external promises - “Your idea is going to be perceived as silly until it's not. And then people flip their perception on it and it becomes inspiring.”
• Recognize the cyclical nature of confidence and doubt and attach to action rather than emotion - “If I'm feeling confident today, I don't get too comfortable because I know that there's a doubtful me in the future. And if I feel doubtful, then I don't sit in that either because I know there's a confident me coming down the road. I try to attach myself to the action of what I do rather than the emotion.”
• Be the most interested in your own creative project in order to get through the tough times - “There are times when no one pays attention to it. There are times when a lot of people pay attention to it… the most important thing is that I’m interested in it.”

In this episode I spoke with Saba Ahmed, previous Chief of Staff of the Skimm and current social wellness entrepreneur. In our conversation, I got the chance to hear from someone who is right in the middle of her creative process - Saba is currently intentionally exploring the social wellness space in an effort to help people connect in person with their local communities. She also is the host of Friends of Friends, a social dance party designed for intentional connection. You’ll hear Saba share what she has learned about community architecture, how she is approaching this time in her life, and what she’s learned about herself in the process. I’m so grateful to David Nebinksi for introducing Saba and I back in the Fall!

Here are some of the topics we covered in our conversation:

• Why do we create? Saba’s view is that we feel compelled to create something because we want to enjoy the process and see what comes out of it.
• How can you best support a community builder? Saba points out the value that these community builders are providing in hosting intentional events and therefore encourages us to think about the best ways to support and contribute to what they are doing.
• How do community builders design events where people feel comfortable going deep? Saba shares many examples of intentional design to help curate a ‘third place’.

Connect with Saba on Linked In and follow @friendsoffriends.bk on instagram to stay tuned on future events.