Creativity & Productivity w/ Stacy Christopher

Stacy says, "We were born to create!"  What if creativity is inside all of us and can be tapped into to reduce stress, increase joy and elevate innovation and productivity in our everyday lives?

Join me in this conversation with Stacy and let her stir your thinking about how adding play to your life can calm things down AND catapult things to another level all at the same time.

Stacy is a visual journaling expert who helps heart-centered leaders find inspiration, joy and step more fully into their creative leadership. She teaches visual journaling as a source of awareness but also as a roadmap tool to call deepest desires into reality.

Enjoy!

Find Stacy at: www.startwithartmasterclass.com

Learn more about Carla:  https:/www.carlareeves.com/
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Learn more about Carla:
Website: https://www.differentlyco.com

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Go to https://differentlyco.com/events to get The Class schedule, sign up, and/or pass it on to a friend.  Come hang out and learn with us for FREE!

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Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:06

Do you ever have thoughts like I know I need to relax and play more, but there's just so many things I want and have to do? Or I feel like there are parts of me that are trapped inside and just waiting to come out, but I don't know how to get them out. Or do you ever feel like your brain is just tired and needs some rest? But other than sleep, you haven't found that thing that works for you. If so, you're gonna love this. Stacy is a visual communication expert and she teaches people to step more fully into their own version of creative leadership. A beautiful outcome of the work she does is teaching people how to rest their minds while communicating personally and professionally with images that build quicker, more memorable connections that last. Open up your heart and mind and let Stacey inspire you to pick up some markers. And as she says, give your mind a long deserved, refreshing drink of water. I'm Carla Reeves, and this is Differently, a podcast where we explore the ins and outs of what becomes possible when we're willing to think, do, and show up differently to the moments of our everyday lives. Stacey, welcome to Differently. We finally made it. Yay! We're persevering, we're persevering technology. I'm so excited to share you with my listeners. I I knew right after we met that I wanted to bring you on the show and have you really share what you're doing in the world because it is so different. And so tell tell everybody what is visual journaling. And thank you. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Um, this is a joy to speak to you about this topic. I'm so passionate about it. Um, visual journaling is the practice of putting our thoughts, um, our ideas, our hopes, our fears, our dreams into our journal. It's different than art journaling, which is a beautiful practice in and of itself. But visual journaling really is uh a practice that focuses on simplicity. You don't need to be an artist. It's just a form of um capturing all of those things that are going on inside and putting it on paper for the purpose of recording them for ourselves, right? Um, so many statistics and um and facts about why this is important for us, what it does for our neuroplasticity, um, what it does for our brain chemistry. It's just a great all-around practice and was really my entree into how I started focusing my brand and pivoting my business actually to um bring these same skills into the online business world.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

So I want you to share more about the science and what you're doing today with it, but I want you to first take us back. Like, how did you get here?

SPEAKER_01 3:33

Great question. Um, so I've always been involved in art. That wasn't a process that got interrupted for me in childhood, like so many others' experience and a lot of my clients' experience. It's uh I was fortunate enough to just keep that creative spirit alive throughout, you know, childhood, my teenhood, and into my adulthood. I spent a lot of time studying art, traveling, uh, studying in different museums around the world. But I always tell my clients that you don't have to be an artist to do this practice. It's just for me what led me here. Um, because of the intersection of creativity and productivity is um so fascinating to me. Uh, that's what led me here.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

I love that. So say more about the intersection of creativity and productivity. That excites me too.

SPEAKER_01 4:37

Yes. And it excites a lot of people, Carla, because 65% of the population are actually considered visual learners. We don't know this, we're not taught this. We're actually taught to sort of expect it to be different because we're mostly taught through words, through text, through linear forms of education. But most of us are visual learners. And so when we are taught visually, we're taught in a way that's more native to how we learn, we integrate the information more quickly and we are more productive with it. The brain is more um thankful for giving receiving information in the way that it needs to receive, so then it's happy to gift back. And that's um that's really kind of at the heart of it.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

How does the creative part of it? You know, I think when when I first talked to you before joining your class, I remember saying to you, you know, I was really doing it out of a desire to have more play in my life because I'm somebody who's always been a doer and been really productive. I'm good at that part, I'm good at the productivity part. I'm not so good at the relaxation and play part, and I know my clients relate with that too. And for me, I I really signed up to carve time to play more. And so the the business part of it is sort of a great byproduct of that. But what do you find? What happens for people when they start playing? Or in in this case, play, play is really is really what in in the way that you teach it? Give us a visual, walk us through what that looks like when you're working with somebody or a class like I'm in.

SPEAKER_01 6:37

Yeah, so I have a process I call the seven steps to creative leadership. And the first step is really what I call just meditating with your markers, taking time in the morning, 15 minutes or 15 minutes at the end of your day, and just doodling or drawing in your journal. And so, what this does, we live in such an information heavy era, and we're always getting bombarded with information, our brains get exhausted. Most of us have brains that are on exhaustion mode, and we don't even realize it. We're just so used to operating in that in that way. But when we take a little bit of time out, the brain actually does feel like it's getting a chance to play. When we just allow it to have 15 minutes to just draw our duel without expectation, that we're not supposed to create an amazing work of art or gift this or hang it on the wall. It's just downtime for the brain. And so when we do that, we're increasing our neuroplasticity, we're increasing great brain chemistry, and it's like the brain gets a drink of water and its thirst is quenched, and then after it has a chance to rest, it's ready to start gifting back to us in um the form of inspiration, clarity, focus. Because I always like to use the example of like, you know what it's like when you have a toddler that's exhausted, like what that looks like. It looks like somebody, little person throwing um themselves down on the floor, kicking, crying, screaming, and refusing to do anything. And if you want that little person to do something at that point, you're probably gonna have to pick them up and physically carry them to wherever they need to be. And um, our brains are similar that when we get exhausted, they just shut down in terms of being playful, being creative, being productive. So when that toddler has a nap, what happens when they wake up? Most usually they're just raring to go, right? They're they're ready to get back in it, and the same is true for our brain. We have a little bit of a rest, it's ready to just get back in it. And so that could be having fun with friends, or it could be, you know, making a ton of money in your business. It just spans the whole picture.

SPEAKER_00 9:07

I love that. I love this idea of meditating with markers and downtime for the brain. Because I think like when I show up to your class, and we're usually there nine, you know, an hour over an hour, and it really is that. It really is downtime for the brain because it I don't know, it takes you out of your brain, right? As you start to even I I've said before, but even watching you when we're in class with you for people listening, we get to actually uh there's a camera on her drawing as she's drawing things, and then we're drawing them as well. And just watching you draw is the one of the most relaxing things.

SPEAKER_01 9:53

And so it really it's just there's studies about this, like uh our oxytocin levels can increase just by watching somebody draw without even drawing ourselves. If we start doing that ourselves, it's like you know, triple, quadruple the experience. But just even watching somebody draw immediately raises our oxytocin levels. It's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 10:22

Yeah, I mean, even signing up for your course, you know, my productive doer brain, um, like that was not leading the way when I signed up for your course. What was leading the way was this when I when Kelly told me about your course, the little girl inside of me was like doing cartwheels. And I really let her lead the way when I signed up for the course because with my productive mind, it didn't make so much sense, right? That I was gonna carve out this much time to play and draw. And even that first class, I remember I struggled with just relaxing into the time that it was okay, and I could give myself permission to just draw and color and doodle and draw silly things and mess up. And but I remember shortly after I felt my brain working more creatively and differently. And so take us into some of those moments with your clients and and what that looks like.

SPEAKER_01 11:29

That's exactly what happens with the process. So, you know, the first step where we talked about you know, my seven steps to creative leadership, the second step is what happens when the brain starts to get a little bit of clarity and focus back, right? And my clients, I focus in the online business world with coaches, consultants, and entrepreneurs, and I focus on profitable visual communication, and so um we look at the ways that incorporating visual communication is the most strategic for their brand and increases their profitability. But this is the awesome thing, and my clients say this all the time: it's like all of a sudden I made their business fun again without without much effort, you know, that things that they dreaded or were feeling um burdened about, all of a sudden just got a huge injection of fun and relaxation and playfulness, and so it's all of those things, and what we don't understand is that we tend to separate this concept of play and work when really both of those things can and need to be combined in order for us to live like the most joyful experience with our business.

SPEAKER_00 12:52

Ah, I love that. It's like that's like a drink of fresh water or a you know, a breath of fresh air, right? It's so I want to hear the other steps. So I don't know if you'll have time to share all those, but I invite you to share those as they feel relevant. I also what I'm seeing is that there's two sides to this there's the rewards that we reap in doing the work as a business owner or as an individual, just the drawing and doodling and coloring and inviting play. But then there's the other side of the receiving side that when we're using this to communicate concepts, that there's something that happens on the receiving side too. And you've talked about that um in our class. I'd love for you to share a little bit about there are two things happening, right? Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 13:40

And this is why I get so passionate about bringing this work to the world and sharing it and helping other people continue sharing it in their own work. Um, because it is it's this um, what is that infinity symbol is something I see with this work where it circles around and gives back and replenishes and it's sustainable, it just keeps giving back. So excuse me. Um we we perceive visual images 90% faster than we do things that are text-based. Um, and what that means is people are able to make an emotional connection that much faster to what it is they're seeing. So, as a business person, this is just a phenomenal kind of secret that most people don't realize about visual communication. Um, and and not only that, when people see things visually, in a study that was done, it was out of Harvard, that when we see visual images and then we're measured three days later how many of those, what information we retain, it's about 96% of recall of what we learned. When we're shown the same information, text base or orally, we're hearing it, three days later, that drops down to about 20%. That's an incredible difference. So if you want your information, your messaging, your brand to be memorable, you have to include visual communication as one of your tools. That doesn't have to be the only tool, but it has it has to be one of the tools if you really want to get your information seated in people's brains. We look at a year later, after being shown those images, um we're still really high in the visual image retention, but the oral or text-based information retention drops to lower than 20%, somewhere between I think it's between 10 and 13 percent. And so what that tells me is that if you want your information to be remembered, you want it to be unforgettable, um, visual communication is key as a business person. And by visual communication, you know, I mean simple hand-drawn icons, symbols, the kind of things that we do in class. They're not fancy. Anybody, you don't have to be an artist. Anybody can learn this method and and still get the maximum benefit out of it, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:30

I think that was one of the first things I asked you is do I need to know how to draw? Do I need to, you know, be an artist? And I'm sure you run into that all the time, but you you have such a way of starting us out with such basic, simple shapes, and then using those shapes to make other things. And so it really is accessible to anybody. And I love that. So tell us a little bit about. I'd love to hear how you're how you're watching your clients do this and the ripple impact that you see. And I'd also love to know how people can use this if they're not a business owner, how they might use this in their personal life. Yeah, great questions.

SPEAKER_01 17:17

Um, well, you know, I just have a one-on-one client with huge success um that this year. So we've not even finished out the first quarter. And in in my business, we track with my clients, we track the success of their visual communication pieces specifically. So we can be super clear on the success they're having related solely to the visual communication pieces and not just business overall. We want to be really targeted in understanding the effect, right? Um, so this client has by the end of this month, will have created a hundred thousand dollars of extra revenue just with her visual communication pieces. I mean, that is phenomenal. Incredible. She's really rocked it, and and I do require all my one-on-one clients to have a 90-day marketing plan. That's essential, so we know how to be the most strategic with picking where we want to insert visual communication. So that's you know, that's an amazing success story in business. But to me, this says I, as a person, I want my concepts, my ideas, the things that I'm passionate about, I want that to be memorable. I want it to be memorable to my family, I want it to be memorable in my community because I get a great deal of um satisfaction is not the word, but you know, a just a great deal of um, I don't know what the word is I'm trying to look for. I guess satisfaction. Fulfillment, fulfillment, yeah, exactly. Um of knowing that I've communicated those things effectively, right? I get a great deal of fulfillment when I know that I've brought happiness or um joyfulness or relaxation or better brain chemistry or clarity or focus to somebody. That gives me a huge amount of fulfillment, and so that's not related to business, right? That's in our communication with our spouses, with our with our children, with our friends. So around the house, for instance, if I want to communicate something that's maybe a little bit more of a difficult conversation, like I would really like it if the kitchen got cleaned um in a in a more efficient way, you know. I would draw little pictures of what that means to me. And you know what that does? That instantly takes the charge out of those conversations. That makes this paper that I've created and I've put up on the refrigerator with these happy stick figures responsible for communicating, and it's not me anymore telling people what they have to do, it's just become um a fun thing that everybody is engaged by. That's just one simple way that when we use visual communication, how we're received better and with more ease. You know, we used to go into caves, right, with a piece of charcoal and draw off stories on the side of the cave wall and not these fantastic works of art. They were all pretty simple and for a reason, because primally we know that that's how things are best integrated and understood, and we can use that same form of simple basic communication to um speak in our everyday lives, right? And we're actually so thirsty for this.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

Oh, I love that. And what I hear use, like what I hear is that it just takes the complexity out of it, like just like you said, this conversation about a clean kitchen could get so messy and complicated, right? In our thinking or overthinking, having that conversation, and it almost just like brings it down to just such a simple basic form where we can connect the dots much faster. Yeah, and we need things to be simple right now.

SPEAKER_01 21:40

We just just so need it to be simple, especially this past year, right? Right, and so yeah, all of that is just like salved to the soul.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

So good. I remember you telling a story once about a client you worked with. And I can't remember his exact journey or situation, but I remember he started the drawing and then it really created connection with his kids. Say a little bit more about that.

SPEAKER_01 22:12

Oh, okay. Yeah. So you know that before I did this, I have a background in rock and roll and um in rock journalism, and my husband comes from the music industry. So as a coach, before I even started using visual communication, um, I was doing different types of coaching. And I have this rock star client. Um, and at the beginning of the pandemic, he was grounded. He, you know, was brought back home, tours were canceled, it was a huge, you know, international tour, big stadium things, and um that all got canceled just within a couple of days. So we've worked together before, and he said, you know, I I've got to do something to get through this. He's got some addiction issues, and um, you know, he does really well with him, but you know, that was kind of a concern for him. And he's not used to being home with his family in the kind of way that we all have been for the last year. Loves his family, he's got a great family, got a couple of really great kids. But when he would be home, it would be like, let's go do X or let's go do this. Um, and it was a lot of doing stuff, right? The fun kind of thing, because now that dad's home, but not as much of sort of the quiet hanging out together type of time. So we started working with visual um journaling, and he immediately started getting the benefits that we're talking about, less anxiety, less stress. Um, and that was super helpful. Then he noticed how it was actually creating more connection in his relationships because when he would sit down at the table in the living room, get out his journal, all of his markers, but his kids were instantly magnetized. And you know, he commented to me how he was just experiencing this deeper level of connection and just hanging out in silence and drawing with his kids. That was really fulfilling for me to hear. Um, and then sort of the he moved into the third phase of like really feeling inspired, wrote a new album over this past you know, year at home that he felt like hasn't written anything, the quality of this for years. Um, so it served in all of those different ways for personal anxiety and stress reduction, better communication and connection in his family, and then with greater inspiration in his work.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Oh beautiful. So tell us about creative leadership and how do we learn more about those steps? And is that in the programs that you take people through? Like, tell us a little bit about all of that.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yeah, so um the the seven steps of creative leadership is a body of work that I haven't released yet. I'm not just sure if I want to um publish it as like a visual guide, um, but it is something I lead all of my clients through. And um, yeah, I don't uh we wouldn't have the time to go through like what each of them mean, but basically, where we started off with what we talked about is the the meditation with markers and all the benefits that we get with that. And the end result is actually taking steps to then spread the work to other people. Um, as a coach or consultant or entrepreneur, using visual communication to teach your message, to share your message, and then teaching other people if you if that's where it's at for you, how to do the same. Um, so that's sort of the other end of the spectrum of creative leadership. In my programs, I focus on what I call the the business ecosystem. So my signature method is looking at four aspects that I say comprise our entire business ecosystem. And the first of which is messaging, the second is um lead generation or client attraction, the third is um uh program offers, and then the fourth is program content. And if any one of those things are slightly out of whack, the whole business ecosystem doesn't thrive, right? It's sort of standing like on one leg, and so we look at each one of those um aspects and then figure out which visual communication pieces can really bolster up that aspect of the business ecosystem, and um and through that process, really creative leadership is established because it's interwoven into like any everything and anything I do with my clients.

SPEAKER_00 27:23

I love that. I can't wait for the visual guide or whatever that's gonna be that you publish. I I love that. I love the idea of creative leadership. And I I um when you said, you know, just this idea of bringing more play into our work, I I think there's such a huge opportunity there. And so excited about the work that you do. So if somebody wants to get started, we're gonna give them some links and access to find out more about the work you do in your programs. But if for somebody who maybe just wants to get started today, dabbling a little bit, can you can you give them a couple guidelines or starting points? Yes, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

So it really is as simple as this. You can have um blank piece of paper or a blank journal. Um you can have crayons or colored pencils or highlighters or even just pen and pencil. And if you start off by drawing shapes on a page, so for instance, like you know, in the beginning of our class, we just do a row of circles, a row of triangles, a row of squares, a row of hearts, and you fill that page with just rows of shapes, and then you color in each one in a different way. That is how you can just start meditating with your markers. And then if you want to advance what you do with that, start looking at those shapes and then do another page, say, of squares and all the things you see around you that could be drawn with a square shape. Could you turn that square into a book? Could you turn it into a TV? Could you turn it into a dresser drawer? What are all the different little icons or symbols that you could come up with that are based in a square? And you can do that with each of the shapes, and then that starts training your brain to see shapes in the world around you. It helps turn you into a visual thinker, and it helps start building what I call your visual vocabulary. So I tell people I teach your hands to speak in visual vocabulary, and this is how you do that.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

So visual vocabulary, you brought that up, and I'm still trying to wrap my head around exactly what that is. Like, do we all have a unique visual vocabulary? Or yeah, speak to that.

SPEAKER_01 30:04

Yeah, and yes, we do. The answer is, you know, the short answer is yes, we do. And I I tell people think about sign language and think about people you know who sign or speak sign language. So there's, you know, um a commonality around the shapes people make with their hands, but each person is so unique in the way that they sign, right? And even us in the way we speak, and we tend to notice this less because it's not visual, it's auditory, but we all have a different cadence and a different style of speaking. So while we're all speaking the same language, it's highly personalized, and the same is with our visual vocabulary. So the icons and symbols that you speak, right, that you pick to speak metaphorically about something will be different, say, than the icons that I choose. I might choose to draw a light bulb to communicate the metaphoric idea, the concept of an idea. You might choose a light bulb to metaphorically speak about the concept of inspiration. So how you use your light bulb in your journal or in your visual communication might be different than how I use mine, but guaranteed the context and how you use yours or how I use mine will be perfectly clear to somebody the instant they lay their eyes on it. That's the 90% um the 90,000 times faster of perceiving a visual image. That's where that comes in.

SPEAKER_00 31:44

That makes so much sense. I could sit here and talk about this all day. That's so fascinating. I know you can too. Yeah. So tell us where can people find out more about you and what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 31:59

So I have um a presence on Facebook. I I, you know, I have a personal profile page, uh, Stacy Louise Christopher. And um it's clear from the banner um image on my page that it's me because it speaks about visual communication um and being unforgettable with your brand. Um, and I also have um email stacy at stacychristopher.com where people can reach out to me. And um, I have I can give this to you later to publish, but I have a web address and people can go and sign up um for my uh my list and get on my email list, and that's at startwithart umintro.com.

SPEAKER_00 32:47

And um yeah, all those ways work. And that's a great starting point for people, right? Is your start with art group program or self-study? Yes, yeah, that's a perfect, it's a four-week class.

SPEAKER_01 33:00

I don't have one scheduled right now, but I do them throughout the year. It's a perfect starter and kind of just get your toe in the water and and feel what it's like and learn some of the basics. And then, you know, of course, I have the masterclass that you're in, and then I work one-on-one with clients and um with also with with you know larger businesses. I'll sometimes work with their team as opposed to the individual, the CEO.

SPEAKER_00 33:30

Awesome. And lastly, what um two things. One is what are you most excited about in your business right now?

SPEAKER_01 33:41

Oh gosh. So I am um this whole concept of working with the business ecosystem. I'm so excited about this because I don't see anybody else in the online coaching consultant and an entrepreneur uh world working with visual communication. And yet I've read studies and I know it's going to be a huge trend in the online space in the next 10 years. So I'm so excited to be at the forefront and pioneering what that's going to look like, and really helping my clients have clarity about how profitable visual communication can be to their brands and helping them understand, you know, when we use visual communication, it's like it takes a ton of weight off of our shoulders because we can then let that visual communication take responsibility for um achieving what it is we need to achieve, just like that list on the refrigerator about the kitchen, right? It's like I don't have to worry about that. It's on it's on the refrigerator door and it's doing its job for me while I go off and do something else. So those are the things that really excite me right now.

SPEAKER_00 35:05

I love that. And lastly, what is what is differently or doing differently, what does that mean to you and your life?

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Yes, and I love I love, I have to say, the whole concept for your podcast around that, because um I just relate to being a differently thinker in in many ways. And so your podcast really just speaks to me like we all have a place here, right? And you are creating that that arena. Um, but for me, it means all of us who dare to think outside the box and follow our heart and do things differently because we're drawn to it and not um we're not letting the the norm sort of dictate what we should and shouldn't be doing. But we're pursuing our passion, our joy, and what brings us happiness. And that at the end of the day is really what it's all about, right?

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Yeah, it's gorgeous. I love that. So thank you so much for being here and for sharing your work. And you are you're lightening, you're lightening us up in the world, you know, like your work really like reduces stress, it lightens us up and takes away a lot of the heavy. And and I'm on a mission to do the same in a totally different way, and I'm just so delighted that our paths have crossed, and I thank you so much for being here and sharing all of that today.

SPEAKER_01 36:46

Oh, thank you, Carla. And you are doing such great work in the world, and I'm so glad that our paths cross too. Just beautiful kismet. Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 36:59

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of Differently. I hope it stirred your thinking, and I invite you to take one inspired action from something that stood out to you. If you want to hear more conversations like this, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app, and please help us spread the word by sharing this podcast with people you know. Remember, new episodes drop weekly. See you next week.