Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson
Ready Set Collaborate is a podcast with a wealth of knowledge on networking, collaboration, and partnership, unlocking the secrets to successful teamwork and Innovation. Whether you are an entrepreneur, a creative professional, or just someone who can understand the power of networking and collaboration. This podcast is your go-to resource. Join us as we explore the stories, strategies, and insights from experts, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders who have experienced the magic of networking and collaboration to achieve successful results.
Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson
The Creativity Myth with Melissa Dinwiddie: Reclaiming Your Innate Creative Power
What if everything you believed about your own creativity was wrong? Melissa Dinwiddie spent 15 years convinced she wasn't creative at all - a remarkable confession from someone who's now a Juilliard-trained dancer, professional artist, jazz singer, and creative consultant to companies like Google, Meta, and Salesforce.
The turning point in Melissa's journey came at age 13 when, after comparing her artwork to classmates', she decided she simply "wasn't creative" - a limiting belief she calls a "self-installed glass ceiling." This powerful conversation uncovers how these mental barriers form and, more importantly, how we can shatter them using Melissa's deceptively simple three-step framework: Play Hard, Make Crap, Learn Fast.
Perhaps the most liberating insight from our discussion is that creativity has little to do with artistic ability. "Creativity and drawing are not the same things," Melissa explains. "Creativity is problem-solving, essentially." This reframing opens up creative potential for everyone, regardless of whether you can draw a realistic portrait or carry a tune. The innovation that drives businesses forward, the connections that strengthen relationships, and the solutions to everyday challenges all stem from the same creative wellspring.
Melissa also reveals how creativity intersects with leadership development through her "three Cs" - Connection, Communication, and Creativity. When these elements work together effectively, teams not only generate better ideas but also communicate them with greater influence and impact throughout their organizations.
Ready to reclaim your creative confidence? Start by "practicing imperfectionism" - giving yourself permission to make messy first attempts and learn from them. Connect with Melissa at melissadinwiddy.com, where you can also download her free Impact Innovation Checklist to spark fresh ideas, especially if you think you're "not creative."
Connect with Melissa Dinwiddie and get the link to her IMPACT Innovation Checklist: https://bit.ly/rscpthankyou
Website: https://melissadinwiddie.com
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/melissadinwiddie
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@MelissaDinwiddie
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/a_creative_life
Stay tuned for the next episode of Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson. Subscribe - Follow and Like Ready Set Collaborate with Wanda Pearson
Thank you. Conversations let's build, connect and thrive together. Remember collaboration is the key to success.
Speaker 3:Welcome to the Ready Set. Collaborate with Wanda Pearson, where we empower, educate and elevate through powerful conversations and bold collaborations. Today, I'm thrilled to welcome a dynamic voice in the world of creativity and courage Melissa Dinwiddie, that's right Did.
Speaker 2:I say it right.
Speaker 3:Okay good. Melissa is a creative instigator, speaker, author and founder of Creative Sandbox Solutions. She helps people reclaim their innate creative confidence. Build resilience God, I can't even talk here resilience and step boldly into resilience. Get ready to be inspired by practical tools joyful, stellar and fresh. Take on what really means, what it means to thrive creatively. Lord, how much this has been a long day, melissa. So thrive creativity in your life and work. So let's dive in. Welcome Melissa.
Speaker 2:Thanks, Wanda.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me. It's great to be here, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I know we're on the time crunch here because I tell you we're busy women here, right? We just-.
Speaker 2:We are.
Speaker 3:Just keep it going. Nothing stops us. That's what we're powerhouses. That's what we Indeed. Yes, definitely so. I am actually going to read your bio and then we're going to dive into some questions here.
Speaker 3:Melissa Dinwiddie is on a mission to help leaders and teams turn the impossible into reality by uncovering their creative potential. A Juilliard trained dancer wow. Professional artist for 15 years. Jazz singer Wow. Professional art artist for 15 years. Jazz singer, songwriter and performer, improv improviser how do you say that? Improviser, improviser, improviser, ok, improviser yeah, my tongue is like twisted today.
Speaker 3:So Melissa brings a wealth of creative experiences in her work with companies like Google, meta and Salesforce. As the author of Creative Sandbox Way, she's passionate about showing people how to embrace, play, imperfection, experimentation as tools for innovation. I love it. Known for her engaging, interactive keynotes and workshops, melissa empowers individuals and teams to unlock creativity, strengthen collaboration and thrive in the face of uncertainty. When not leading transformation, she's making art and attempting ukulele. Is that, did I say it right? Ukulele and bass duets with herself. Okay, I guess I should have practiced these words here before. This is awesome, I tell you. I wish we had time for you to play a little bit of us and then the jazz singer just to sing a little twinkle, melissa, of your jazz. I need a vacation from email faxes and phones.
Speaker 3:I love that. I love it Me too. I'm going to have you listen to my model song. Thank you for coming on the podcast. I really say collaborate. I really appreciate it. So let's dive in. Let's talk about how you can share a bit of your journey, how the creativity becomes such a central part of your life and work. So tell us about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So you know what's so interesting, wanda is, when people hear my history, they hear my background the reaction that I always get is, wow, my gosh, she's such a creative person. But what really surprises people to hear is that I spent probably about 15 years of my life, if not more, believing that I was a non-creative person.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I always get the raised eyebrows or the head tilts when people learn that literally from age 13 to age 28,. I believe that I was a non-creative person and I talk about this in my keynote. There was a real pivotal moment that I kind of trace it back to, but it really started before this. But I share a story in my keynote of being in an art class when I was 13 and comparing my work to everybody else's work and really looking at my work and the gremlin voices were going nuts, saying my work sucked and everybody else's work is so much better. And that moment I just I gave up on art. I didn't take any more art classes, I didn't make any art for 15 years. Moment I, just I gave up on art. I didn't take any more art classes, I didn't make any art for 15 years. And two years later I gave up on music and now I did dive into dance for a while and that was going to be my career path, but then I got injured and that was the end of that. And for 15 years I believed that I was a non-creative person and it wasn't until I was 28 that I finally came back to art and creativity and I made the mistake that many people do, which is equating the ability to draw realistically with creativity. So many people do that and they think, oh, I'm not creative because I can't draw a person, or I can't draw a tree or whatever it is. But creativity and drawing are not the same things and everybody human beings are all creative. I can't do this one thing over here. That this means that this has applications over everything. It's global. I can't do this one thing. Therefore, I'm not creative completely.
Speaker 2:And what my keynote talks about also is the importance of getting past these limiting beliefs. It's not just a one and done, it's a mindset, and I have this framework, my Create the impossible framework. That's three steps that sound deceptively simple. It's a repeatable process, because you can overcome a limiting belief in one area of your life, but that doesn't mean that you've eliminated the limiting beliefs in other areas of your life. I call them self-installed glass ceilings. And just because you've busted them self-installed glass ceilings, and just because you've busted a self-installed glass ceiling, a limiting belief in one area, doesn't mean that you're not going to face them in other areas, and so what we really need to do is practice, the build, the muscles of being able to identify when those limiting beliefs pop up and being able to move through them, and that's what my framework offers people.
Speaker 3:I love that because the same with me. I didn't think that, growing up from my history, I said I would never write a book. I didn't think I was creative to write a book right. So God said, oh, yes, you are, yes, you can. So now I'm actually writing my fourth book, two collaborations with my two of my own books and it's amazing how the creativity that you find that you didn't think you had. And then you said it took you that long. It took me I'm going to tell you how old I am to realize that I can do this and I love what you teach as far as that. So what inspired you to start Creative Sandbox Solutions?
Speaker 2:And I think you probably pretty much told us a little bit about that, how you yeah, coming from my business as a professional artist, I got really burned out and had to really burned out making art for other people, had to come back to making art for my own fulfillment, enjoyment, spiritual, giving myself the joy of making art.
Speaker 2:I had to figure out how to get back to that for myself, and so I developed a set of tools for myself which are now part of make up the scaffolding of my book, the Creative Sandbox Way, and that sort of led to a second business as a creativity instigator, helping other people get creatively unstuck.
Speaker 2:So I did that for a while and then, ultimately, in 2017, I decided to pivot and work with organizations and over the next several years, I realized that the 10 guideposts that form the scaffolding of this book, the Creative Sandbox Way, could really be distilled down into this framework that I mentioned before the Create the Impossible framework. That's three steps, and so, really, the decision that I mentioned before the Create the Impossible framework that's three steps and so, really, the decision that I made to work with organizations was I felt that's where I could make the most impact, and also the work that I was doing as a creativity instigator was almost all online at the time. It was through these online courses and online coaching and I really wanted to be in rooms with people. Of course, the irony was, not long after I pivoted, we had this little thing called a global pandemic and I found myself doing everything virtually again.
Speaker 3:I was gonna ask you about that. I thought it was when you did that virtually. So that was great that you started it before even the pandemic started, that you already knew the framework of doing it on virtual. And I tell you what we do without zoom right, look at us now zoom. You're in California, I'm in Atlanta, but just, it's really is a great connection to be able to still connect virtually on any platform. So let me ask you something. So what does creative courage mean to you?
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that. I love that phrase creative courage. I think that anytime we do anything creative, by definition it means that we are stepping outside of our comfort zones, because if we are staying within our comfort zones, we're doing something that has already been done before and, by definition, that's not creative, because in order to be creative, it has to be something that we haven't done before, and that requires courage. It requires us to take a risk. That requires courage. So creativity is inherently requiring of courage. It's scary. Anything that requires us to take a risk, it requires us to step outside our comfort zone, is scary, and it's one of the reasons why creatives are known for battling creative block, as it's called writer's block, creative block, creative stuck it goes by various different kinds of names, because it's really hard to step outside your comfort zone.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, absolutely, Because when I start writing, I said, why would want to? People want to read my book? So I'm questioning myself, doubting myself. That's why that creative block actually comes to say I can do this, but I tell you it's amazing. So I want to ask you this question here, and then actually I can do this, but I tell you it's amazing. So I want to ask you this question here, and then actually end with that. So what are some simple ways our listeners can reconnect with their creativity, even if they think they're not artistic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things that is so important for people to really understand is that creativity and art are art is just a subset of creativity are. Art is just a subset of creativity. Creativity really is solving problems, connecting dots, thinking about how am I going to take whatever I have in the refrigerator and make dinner tonight that's creativity. What am I going to do with my garden now that everything's turned brown, or whatever that's creativity. So creativity is problem solving, essentially. So I would love for people to be able to uncouple the idea of creativity and art. Yes, they can go together, but not necessarily. Doing art is a great way to expand your innate sense of yourself as a creative, your innate sense of yourself as a creative. So I encourage people to pursue artistic pursuits. If it's something that calls to them, I think it's a great way to expand your creativity. It's also a great way to develop your leadership skills, interestingly enough.
Speaker 2:It's not something that people ever think about as a leadership development arena, but all sorts of different artistic pursuits, whether they're individual artistic pursuits like drawing, painting, singing or music, or group artistic pursuits, are all great ways to develop leadership skills, which is something we could also talk about. But just to uncouple the idea that creativity has to be something related to art, it's any type of problem solving.
Speaker 3:I love that, because actually that was my next question is how do you, how does building creativity, confidence, help in leadership, team building or entrepreneurship?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So think about if you are leading a team. You have to be able to connect dots effectively. You have to be able to come up with ideas. You have to be able to work with each other to come up with the best ideas. They're going to move your project forward, move your organization forward. So the most creative teams are going to be at an advantage. Now, creativity on its own is going to be less effective than creativity that also has effective communication, effective collaboration. So there's a reason why I work within the areas that I call the three C's, which is connection, communication and creativity. So when you have those three C's working effectively together, intersection, I'm sorry. Innovation lies at the intersection of those three C's, and that's what I. That's where I am most effective. That's the work that I do with companies and organizations.
Speaker 3:I love that because you talk about three Cs and me and my husband have four Cs communication, commitment, compromise and consideration. Those are our four Cs. We've been married almost 44 years. We created our four Cs. I tell people about four Cs, but I love you Say your three Cs again.
Speaker 2:What was that again? Connection, communication and creativity.
Speaker 3:I love it. I love it it is so true, because you need all those things to be creative as far as what you do so what role does that play in having professional growth or personal healing?
Speaker 2:Okay, oh, professional growth or personal healing, yes, yeah. For professional growth, you want to be connected with people around you. You want to be a very skilled communicator and the work that I do around communication specifically is not so much. I'm not the person that comes in and helps when Mary and Joe are in a conflict. I'm not the person you bring in for that, but I'm the person that you bring in when you've got a team of incredible producers.
Speaker 2:They're doing amazing work, but either they're getting passed over for their promotions because they're not able to really sell the fact that they're doing such amazing work, or they're not seen as having great executive presence or that type of thing, or they're like, for example, they're a great research team and they're having these amazing insights, but they're not effective at spreading them throughout the organization, so they're not effective at communicating for influence and impact. So I'm the person who comes in and helps really turn that around. So for professional development, you really want to be able to communicate in a way that has influence and has impact. So the people see you as an influential person, as somebody that they want to be connected to and that they think of when they think, oh, who's the leader here. Who should be promoted? Who do we want to fund? Whose team do we want to fund that type of thing? So anyway, what was?
Speaker 3:did I answer your question? Yeah, you did. You did, and as you're speaking to that, I remember my days with that. You know, 36 years and I became a team leader. But you're right, when you pass over for a promotion, you feel like you deserve that promotion, but somebody else gets it. No, you answered it and that was great. So I want to ask you this here so can you share a story of someone who transformed through creative expression?
Speaker 2:Through creative expression. Through creative expression, the people who come to my creativity retreats that this is like on a personal level, absolutely. I lead these creativity retreats once a year and the people who come year after year, and what's so satisfying and validating for me is to hear them and to watch them as they really blossom in multiple ways. So they come over the span of five days and they go through a journey, arc in their day-to-day busyness and they bring whatever creative project or projects they want to work on and over the span of those five days everything just really transforms for them. And also I get to watch over the span of years as they start to really more and more step into bigger spaces for themselves because more and more they claim their creative courage and their creative voice. So that's what I can speak to in that regard. And then I also can speak to as far as the people that I've worked with in organizations. One example I'll share is a brilliant researcher at Metta. I'll call her Laura.
Speaker 2:She was trying to explain a crucial insight to a cross-functional teammate and it was not going well and she was getting frustrated.
Speaker 2:He seemed confused and the more she tried to explain, the worse it got.
Speaker 2:But then she remembered an exercise that we had done in the workshop that she had with me the previous week and she realized that he wasn't being difficult and he certainly wasn't stupid, but he simply had a different context and she realized that she needed to do something different. And she thought about his background in supply chain management and she thought maybe I'll try using an analogy that compares data flow to inventory management. And when she did that, suddenly everything clicked and he not only understood what she was talking about, but he started getting really excited and he started seeing connections that she hadn't even considered. And that is an example of what happens when you create the impossible framework. Because what she did was she was playing hard, she was playing with different perspectives. That's the first step of the framework is play hard, and she wasn't afraid to make messy first attempts. Make crap is step number two, and she learned from each attempt, and learn fast is step number three. So that's an example of what happens when we apply the framework.
Speaker 3:That's awesome and that makes sense, because you don't know which mindset people are on. So by you teaching her that and giving her the different ways to talk to people that may not understand what you're saying or what they're saying, that's a great way of explaining it. That's awesome. So we're winding down here, but I want you to ask, I want to ask you, what's one mindset, what's my one mindset? Shift or action step you want our listeners to take today to start living more creatively.
Speaker 2:If I could encourage people to do one thing, it is to think about practicing imperfectionism. Allow yourself to be imperfect, and this equates to step two of my framework, which is make crap, let yourself be imperfect. Forgive yourself for being human, and letting yourself be imperfect really is the same thing as practicing self-compassion.
Speaker 3:I love that. I love that. That is great. That's great. And because we don't think about that, because we always think we got to be perfect in doing everything and anything we do, and that's what makes us not feel like we're not creative.
Speaker 2:Absolutely yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, as we're winding down, I wish I'm going to have you back on the show, because you've got so much to tell us about creativity here. So where can people find you, follow your work or connect for workshops and programs? Yeah, the easiest place to find me is at my website, melissadinwiddycom.
Speaker 2:The easiest place to find me is at my website, melissadinwiddycom, but you can also find me on LinkedIn at Melissa Dinwiddy, and you can find me on YouTube at Melissa Dinwiddy as well. And then you can also follow me on Instagram. This one breaks the pattern. I'm on Instagram at a underscore creative, underscore life, so it's a creative life, with underscores beneath, in between the words. Life, so it's a creative life, with underscores beneath, in between the words. And then also I put together for your listeners a free one page checklist that gives a quick, practical way to unlock fresh ideas and spark innovation fast, especially if you think you're not creative. So go straight to the QR code or I have a special short link which is bitly slash R, s, c, p. Thank you All. One word, that's for ready set collaborate podcast. Thank you.
Speaker 2:And you can get my impact innovation checklist. You will have to put in your name and email address and a little like review statement or something. But I don't do any email list or anything.
Speaker 3:That's awesome. So you're going to send that to me and I'm actually going to put it in the show notes for the audio part. But people are going to see this on YouTube as well, so send that to me. All your contact information is for, as well as your free gift there, so I'm anxious to get that myself. I was going to put my camera up and to the curiosity, so yeah. So just send me that short link and I will put it in the show notes as well. So I am excited and having you on our show.
Speaker 3:Melissa, thank you so much for having this conversation with it. What an inspiring conversation with the incredible Melissa Dinwiddie. Right, if today's episode sparks something in you, whether it's picking up a pen, dancing in the living room or simply giving yourself permission to play, that is the beginning of reclaiming your creative power. Don't forget to follow Melissa and check out her work, and Melissa just gave you her information and I'm going to put it in the show notes as well. Melissa, thank you for joining us on Ready Set Collaborate. I'm Wanda Pearson. Stay inspired, stay bold and remember collaboration is the key to success. Until next time. Thanks, melissa. Thank you.
Speaker 1:I hope you found inspiration and valuable insights to help you build meaningful connections and successful collaborations. If you enjoyed today's conversation, be sure to subscribe, share and stay tuned for more great discussions. Until next time, keep collaborating and making an impact.
