The Art of the Call

Ever stared down a project while your brain begged for one more option, one more draft, one more “thinking walk”? We’ve been there—on an opera stage with eighty Vikings, in ad studios racing against dawn, and inside a passion project that ballooned into overwhelm. Today we pull those threads together to show how decisive action turns chaos into creative momentum.

We start with the high-stakes story: a dress rehearsal, an expectant cast, and a conductor waiting. That pressure cooker reveals a quiet truth about the creative process—every piece advances one choice at a time. From the writer’s room in New York to production pits and pitch decks, we unpack why “writer’s block” is often decision block, and how simplifying low-stakes calls preserves energy for the art. Wardrobe shortcuts, default tools, and tight constraints aren’t boring; they’re safeguards for your best ideas.

When a month of fundraising, casting, and platform choices for Song in Space tipped into noise, we chose an intentional pause: a road trip across Appalachia, history-soaked detours, and fresh air that reset the compass. Distance wasn’t avoidance; it was a decision to restore flow. Back at the desk, a cleaner pitch and a realistic plan snapped into place. We lay out the three-step framework that made it possible: recognize the decision point, define the choices—including the “impossible” one—and make the call. Along the way, we challenge the perfection myth and share a Miles Davis insight on turning a “wrong note” into the right one through commitment.

If you’re stuck cycling options or fearing the imperfect, this conversation offers practical tools, sharp language, and a friendly push to move. The universe doesn’t respond to maybe—it responds to motion. Hit play, then tell us the choice you’re making today. And if this resonated, subscribe, share with a friend, and leave a review to help more creatives make the call.

Thanks for listening.

Chapters

• 0:00 Vikings Onstage, Stakes Of Choice
• 0:58 Deadlines Forge Creative Decisions
• 3:32 Simplify To Avoid Decision Fatigue
• 5:25 Choice And Momentum Seesaw
• 7:20 Overwhelm Signals A Broken Process
• 10:00 Step Back To Move Forward
• 12:07 Three-Step Decision Framework
• 14:48 Perfection Is A Con, Choose

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Picture this: a grand opera house, 80 Vikings in fur and chain mail, swords drawn, breath steaming under the lights. They're waiting. The conductor's baton hovers, and in the middle of the stage stands one man, our hero, frozen. That man is Chris McHale. No, really, this isn't a metaphor. It's Tuesday in production land. Welcome to Creativity GGG and today's episode, The Art of the Call. Because when sweaty Vikings are staring you down, indecision isn't philosophy. It's life-threatening.

SPEAKER_01: 0:39

Okay, Rita, taking us into this. And yes, that uh Viking thing actually happened. And when uh a whole bunch of Viking people are standing around you waiting for you to to make a decision, you know, you take it seriously. I d I did a bunch of operas uh back in Boston and uh I love doing opera and I I learned uh something about life and being creative and creativity and the importance of decision making in the creative process. I mean it's like a core creative skill, that's the way I see it. But back when I worked as a writer in New York, three days were a lifetime to get a piece done. Um I mean, a lot of the time they would they would call you at like six and say they needed something by ten the next morning, and you know the right answer was do you need it earlier? I mean, that's that's kind of like how we we hustled back there in New York. And you didn't have time to philosophy. You had to make a call, for better or worse, and move. That's what I'm talking about here on creativity J Gigi, the art and the importance of decision-making in the creative process. In New York, in my writing days, three days was a lifetime to finish a piece. And if you missed the deadline, your client would assume that you joined a cult or taken up pottery. I mean, you had to choose. You had to choose in your process. This word and not that word, this idea, not that idea, this angle, not the other angle. You just had to kind of pony up a choice in the process. No time for writer's block, that's for sure. I mean, look, I've always thought writer's block is just another way of saying uh the writer can't make a decision. I mean, I think that's what it is. It's like I've got writer's block. Well, just decide you don't. I mean, the words are there. Uh you just haven't chosen which ones belong. That's the way I think writer's block is. It's like decision block. Maybe with better PR. The words are there, you just can't decide which ones get to live and which ones get to delete. I'll be honest with you, um, I'm not that great at decisions. I mean, in my real life IRL, I'm I'm not that great at it. Um my default mode is procrastination, so I simplify. That's what I've learned in my life. I mean, if my taxes are due, I'm gonna pay them at uh 1145 before midnight. Uh if I go into a restaurant, I just have learned uh to pick the first thing I see on the menu. Because if I start going through the menu in detail, I may never pick. And I'll probably pick the wrong thing, and I'll uh, you know, the chef will be closing out of the kitchen and I'm trying to decide what to eat. So I simplify. I simplify my choices. That's the first thing I've done to kind of, you know, work through my bad decision making in life. You know, anybody who knows me will tell you, like, uh, you know, Chris is not that great at decisions, but you know, you you have to kind of grow up and be an adult, so you gotta figure out how to make it work. I went on this shoot to Europe, and um, I packed in my suitcase uh four white shirts and uh four black jeans and four white socks. And um that was it. That was it. Every day I looked the same, every day I dressed the same, and every day the art director on the chute had words with me about it. It seemed to get under her skin. Well, I don't know if it really got under her skin, but uh, you know, that's the way I was handling it. I've I've learned to simplify my choices. You know, one less decision in the morning between me and getting to work. All right. Um, back to the stage and the Vikings. I'm better in production. There's no doubt about it. Deadlines taught me decisiveness. You know, when 80 people and a bunch of Vikings are standing around you on an opera company stage waiting for your cue to go, for your decision what to go, indecision's really not an option. I mean, it's it's not something that you can say, like, well, maybe I'll maybe I'll do it, maybe I don't. And uh that's um when you're got four thousand people coming to the opera, uh you don't have time. That's a luxury. You've gotta make the call. Decision making and creativity is a balance of choice and momentum. Right? That's the way I see it. It's like it's like you're on a seesaw, and choice is on one end and momentum is on the other, and the decision making is in the middle. Creating the balance between those two poles. You've got to make a choice, and by making a choice you keep a momentum, and that's why I believe decision making is important in creativity. You slow up in creativity, you could lose the whole project. Uh, what should a character do? Uh huh. What's their name? How do they feel? Where do they live? I mean, the options are endless, but endless options are also an infinite ways to delay. You know, uh, I'm not feeling good, I'm not gonna, I'm not going to uh write today, I'm gonna take a long walk. Well, I mean, there's nothing wrong with a long walk, but are you taking that walk because you don't want to make a decision? Or it's just become too hard? Why am I talking about this? Why am I going on about this on Creativity Jiji? It's because I've just been in a month-long decision-making period with Song in Space. Fundraising, production plans, collaborations, new actors, new new musicians. Where am I gonna do it? Am I gonna do Kickstarter? Am I gonna do Indiegogo? I mean, I was driving myself crazy, which is something I'm really, really good at, but uh I felt uh a push to decide a whole bunch of things fast that I wasn't ready to decide. And um I started feeling overwhelm, and uh, I believe overwhelm is an indication that your creative process is wackadoodle. You know, something is wrong. I mean, you really need to keep away from overwhelm. You're not gonna paint a great canvas or write a great song if you're sitting down and you're like, oh, I've got to do this. I mean, it's look, any artist will tell you that's what it is. I used to be a jingle writer, and jingle writers were like, here it is. Uh, we need a song for Budweiser, or we need a song for Kit Kat, or we need this, or we need that, and uh we need it by the end of the week, and it's gotta be great. I mean, tremendous amount of pressure, but that's not art. That's commercial work, and nobody expects it to be world-changing. It happens. It happens. I did some great, great work um where we put out music that that shifted the world a little bit, and I was always kind of aware of that, that my jingles were gonna be broadcast to millions of people. I was kind of aware of that, and I kind of felt a responsibility for that. But that is not art. That is not art. And these days, and on this show, Creativity J, I'm really talking about art. I'm talking about the artistic process, and I'm talking about how decision making is so important in the artistic process. So with Song in Space, I was feeling overwhelmed. Ah, that's wrong. I was feeling pressure, uh, that's wrong. I was feeling like I had to make all these decisions, and I was losing control of the project. I wasn't even sure what I was doing, to be honest with you. Uh, the flow was gone. It was just something was off, you know? And my instincts were like, hey, Chris, slow up. Come on, give yourself a break. You're never gonna find the groove if you keep this pressure on you. So I uh decided, um, I went and sat by the lake for a while, and I decided, you know what? Screw it. Um, and I went and I rented a car. That was my decision to rent a car. And we got in the car and we drove uh down through Ohio, where we stopped and visited a great friend of mine. And then we um we went into the Appalachian Mountains, into West Virginia. If you don't know West Virginia, it's highly recommended. It's absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. Uh, the Appalachia Mountain state with tall peaks and deep valleys and raging rivers and lakes and caves. We visited this cave. At least my wife visited the cave, but I I couldn't get down there because I have trouble with stairs, but she went down and said it was amazing. We drove over the Cumberland Gap, which I wanted to do because I'm a history buff, and that was sort of like one of the main entrances to uh the West in the old days, and uh the uh site of the first national road. I mean, there's a lot of history along there. And we went to a family wedding in Maryland, and then we turned around and came back. And by the time I got back, uh I went into my studio and I had a clear head, and I sat down and I wrote a great new pitch for Song and Space, and my producer who I'm working with in LA said, How'd you do that when you were driving? And I it's like, because I was driving, because I went into the mountains, because I pushed back on the overwhelm and uh gave myself room to think and uh room to breathe. I came up with uh a pretty good uh new plan for Song and Space, and uh it's a plan that's reasonable, and it's a plan that lays out some realities, and it's just gonna work better. Alright. So everything shifted. Everything shifted because I made a decision to pause. I made a decision is the important part of that. The secret the secret that people don't tell you a lot is that the universe doesn't respond to indecision, it responds to motion. It responds to motion. Uh go out into the middle of the desert and say, like, I don't know what I should do, and the stars will look at you like you're nuts. Go out into the middle of the desert and say, like, I'm ready, I'm open, I know what to do, and the universe will respond. So I'm gonna sum this whole thing up and show you how I handle it, because I broke it into three steps. Alright. Step one, recognize the decision point. That point when you're reaching the creative process where it's like you have to make a choice. It's also, if you're looking for the indication, like you're at a decision point, it's like you uh realize you're not refining anymore. You're delaying, you're hiding, you're looping. You open the fridge six times and still haven't started cooking. I mean, that's the sign that you're at a decision point. So recognize the decision point. That's step one. Step two, define the choices. All right, that really helps me a lot. Write them down. Because when you make a list, it'll be like the obvious one will often come to the fore. And I'll give you a little pro tip here that I found from my career is that when I make my list of choices, I'll be like, okay, that's a cool one. Oh, that's okay, that's when, and then I'm like, you know, there's this one, I can't do that. That's that's craziness right there. I can't do that choice. I can't make that choice. But you know when I do, when I make the crazy choice, that's when things work better. I mean, that's the one that people like. That's the one that you look back on years later and go, like, wow, that's cool. I like that. I like that choice. Uh and then step three in the process is make the call. It's obvious. Listen, perfection is the biggest con of all time in the creativity world. There's no such thing. And uh, your job as an artist is to get it out there, and perfection's not gonna help you do that, so forget that. Just make the call and make the best call you can. Uh I did some work with Miles Davis once when I was doing lighting design, and Miles was a particular kind of cat. He lived his life a certain way. And he once said, Um, if you play an E flat, uh make it the right E flat. In other words, if you play the wrong note, make it the right note. Right? Whatever way it comes out. That's kind of like surrendering to the creative spirit, right? Oh, I I didn't mean to do that. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna make that work. That's what he was saying. That's what he was saying. Perfection is a big con. Don't even try. Just decide. Just decide. Because movement beats paralysis every single time. Alright? So recognize the decision point, define the choices, make the call. Alright. The universe doesn't reward indecision, it rewards motion. And it's never, ever an option not to choose. This has been Creativity Jijiji. My name is Chris McHale, and uh I hope that this helps you a little bit, and I'll get back to work.

SPEAKER_00: 16:13

Well done, Maestro. Eighty Vikings survived, no lawsuits filed, and you even got dinner. So, dear Audiononauts, you've heard the sermon. Now make a choice. Subscribe to Creativity GGG, leave a review, or I'll send those same Vikings to rehearse outside your window. This has been Creativity GGG. Make the call.