Ep 47: My Favorite Podcast Moments of 2023
A Year of Creative Conversations
SUMMARY
As we wrap up 2023, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on some of the most impactful conversations that happened on the Creativity Made Easy podcast this year. From deep dives into the Enneagram to practical discussions about creative processes and organizational culture, this year has been filled with insights that can help you create your best work.
In this special year-end episode, I've compiled clips from my favorite moments throughout 2023. These conversations have shaped my thinking and hopefully yours as well. Let's revisit some of the wisdom shared by creative minds and culture experts who joined me this year.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
⚡️ Key Takeaway #1: Everyone is Creative, But Not Everyone is an Artist - Steven Brewster provided a brilliant distinction between being creative and being an artist. He explained that creativity at its baseline is about problem-solving and idea generation. "If you've ever solved a problem or had an idea, congratulations, you're creative," he shared. Artistry takes that further by expressing solutions in unique ways or addressing problems others don't even recognize. This perspective helps us understand that creativity isn't reserved for a select few—it's an inherent human capability.
⚡️ Key Takeaway #2: Great Culture Produces Great Work - Caleb Campbell offered three compelling reasons why organizational culture matters: it attracts great people, provides a great experience, and produces great work. As he pointed out, "One of the things people are looking for right now is to go somewhere where they can be part of a team they're proud of, part of an organization where they like what they stand for, and can do great meaningful work." In today's competitive environment, culture becomes a key differentiator for attracting and retaining talent.
⚡️ Key Takeaway #3: Awareness is the Key to Growth - Jackie Brewster shared profound insights about the Enneagram and personal growth. She emphasized that the path to growth begins with awareness: "Awareness is the key to change." She highlighted a three-step process: become aware of your patterns, acknowledge your role in your own story, and then pivot toward growth. This framework applies not just to Enneagram work but to any personal development journey.
NOTABLE QUOTES
💬 "Not everyone's an artist, but I think everyone is creative... Creative at baseline level is solving a problem or coming up with a solution." - Steven Brewster - This quote reframes our understanding of creativity, making it accessible to everyone while honoring the unique contributions of those who take creativity to the level of artistry.
💬 "Great culture attracts great people, provides a great experience, and produces great work." - Caleb Campbell - Caleb distilled the value of organizational culture into this simple but powerful statement that explains why leaders should prioritize culture-building.
💬 "Awareness is the key to change. And so we have to go slow. Awareness takes time." - Jackie Brewster -Jackie's insight reminds us that personal growth isn't instantaneous—it's a process that begins with self-awareness and requires patience and intentional practice.
EPISODE RESOURCES
⚡️ Full Focus Planner - The planning system discussed with Blake Baer
⚡️ Explore the Enneagram - Learn more about the Enneagram personality system
⚡️ Subscribe to my weekly newsletter here
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome everyone to the final episode of 2023 of Creativity Made Easy. I'm your host Dustin Pead and it's been an incredible year of sharing content with each of you each and every week. And so this episode I wanted to take a look back on some of my favorite podcast moments of the year. Let's get into it.
All right, so 2023 started off with a series of guest episodes that I called Five Questions. It was super fun. I got to just sit people down that I found really interesting or in my circle and just incredible people. And I got to ask them five questions only. And I wanted to share with you a couple of my favorite moments from these episodes this year. The first one you're gonna see is from creative guru, Steven Brewster. Then you're gonna hear from the culture guy, Caleb Campbell. And then finally, you're going to hear from Jackie Brewster, who will lead us into our second set of clips. So let's take a look at some of the best moments with them this year.
Now, not everyone's an artist, but I think everyone is creative. This is a free question. Can you just maybe distinct that for a second between artists and creative? Yeah. So creative at baseline level is solving a problem or coming up with a solution, having an idea, right? So if you've ever solved a problem or had an idea, congratulations, you're creative. Now, what an artist takes that idea and expounds it to a level or maybe solves a problem that other people don't even see as a problem. That's when you start to drift into artistry or expression of personal expression of how they solve that problem or come up with that idea. And so not everyone's designed for that, but everyone is designed to have ideas and solve problems.
Obviously we're going to channel our inner Simon Sinek, like I often do on this. And we're going to start with why I'm going to ask Caleb, why is the culture of your team so important? Why is culture important? There's a lot of things you could say. I like to give three quick answers. Great culture attracts great people. It provides a great experience and it produces great work. So on the people side, doesn't matter what industry you're in, nonprofit, healthcare, corporate world, whatever it is, the organizations that succeed and win are the organizations that get the best people. That's almost without exception. You get the right people, you're gonna find success, you don't get the right people, somebody else is gonna beat you at what you do.
Now, when it comes to getting people in today's world, right, everybody's going after talent, so how do you appeal to them? There's always gonna be somebody who can pay more than you can. There's always going to be somebody who can offer perks that are more than what you can do. There's a lot of things that companies can throw at people to get the best. One of the things people are looking for right now though, is I want to go somewhere where I can be part of part of a team. I'm proud of part of an organization where I like what we stand for and I can do great meaningful work. So if you can offer organizations or people rather that culture that they're looking for, you're going to attract the best of the best.
Second part on the great experience. Studies say we spend about a third of our lifetimes at work. And if you're right in the middle of your forties, like I was gonna say we are like I am and will be soon right like I am a destined will be soon. Then you're spending a lot more than a third of your life at work right now. Why not give the people who are putting themselves into your organization an enjoyable experience, right? We don't live in the industrial age anymore. Why not give people somewhere where they can go? They can be happy. They can enjoy what they're doing. So you're providing a great experience.
And then the third one that I think is maybe most important is great culture produces great work. One of the organizations I was at a little while back, we had a CFO, great guy, shout out Tom, if you ever hear this. And he'd been at the organization for about a year. And he came to me and he said, you know, when I first joined here, I didn't get the culture thing. Like, I don't know why you guys talked about it all the time. I don't know why we had a team dedicated to it. I just, I just thought, okay, that's great, right? It's sunshine and rainbows. And he said, but now I've been here several months and I get it. And he said, because we've gotten people to buy into who we want to be. That's what actually leads us to doing great work. We enjoy each other's company. We take care of our customers. We hit the bottom line that I want to, because we've created the right kind of environment. I often talk about a best place to work and a place to do your best work. And I think that's another reason that culture is so important. So you want great people, you want a great experience, you want great results. Culture is the key to all three of those things.
The person who's just beginning to kind of explore and understand what this Enneagram thing is, where can the Enneagram knowledge best be applied? That's good. Okay, so this is my passion. This is my passion around the Enneagram. I want you to become aware. I want you to acknowledge and I want you to make decisions around pivot toward growth. Okay. So when we're looking at this, the awareness piece, what do you do with this information? You start to become aware of how these patterns are showing up in your life. So if you look at an Enneagram one and that you find that there's a lot of perfection inside of your story and you really hold people to high standards and you find yourself judging people very quickly or getting really frustrated. You might even not recognize it as judgment, but you're getting really frustrated that people are doing it differently or see things differently. It's like right there, you wanna pause, like, okay, what about this is making me feel this way? What about this is causing me distress? Am I putting my expectations on other people and I've never voiced it to them?
Or I have voiced it to them and they don't agree and they're not gonna, they don't care that I think that, because they're not gonna live by that. So I think it's the awareness. We start to really recognize patterns of behavior within the Enneagram system. That is what I'm looking at, you guys. All day long, all I'm looking at is patterns. I'm trying to figure out and hear and listen and decipher through patterns, patterns, patterns, patterns, because these patterns of behavior we have used as coping strategies to get our needs met, to keep ourselves safe and to get love in our life.
And so as you become aware, you can then acknowledge your own story. So this is not acknowledging how somebody else treated you or how somebody else talked to you or how somebody else did whatever. I want you to acknowledge the role you're playing in your own story. So acknowledging your own part of this, like, okay, what am I feeling? Why am I feeling this? Did I have any part in the situation that would make me feel this way? So you're starting to acknowledge, okay, my own role in this. I can see how this went sideways, whatever, you know. And then from there, you have an opportunity to pivot towards growth, or you have an opportunity to stay, or you have an opportunity to slip back towards unhealth. But it's really paying attention to what's going on in your own story. The only way we can do this is awareness. Awareness is the key to change. And so we have to go slow. Awareness takes time. I always say it takes about three months of you recognizing patterns. And then over the course of the next three months, about six months, we might be able to stop before we act.
And then after that, typically we can kind of harness them. We can grab ahold of them and begin to really understand where they're coming from, why they're happening, what's causing me to react this way. And, you know, real, like a real example, because sometimes this feels like, what are you talking about? You know, but a real example is in my own life. So my kids were, I was like doing a video shoot here last year and Steven was traveling and so the twins were, they're 13, they're joking around, acting a fool, whatever. And I was super stressed and I reacted. I was like, that's enough. And I just kind of, I just yelled at them. I was like, that is enough. I can't take it anymore. And they were like, what are we doing? And I was like, I kind of grabbed it and I was like, y'all aren't doing anything. I don't like the way that this is making me feel. I feel stressed. You guys are being silly and goofy and loud. It's causing me to like kind of not hear what's happening in my head. So I reacted to them and then quickly pulled it back and said, you know what, I'm gonna eat my dinner in my room because you guys are not doing anything. I'm overstimulated and I need to take a break. And so that was like the awareness of what was happening. Cause typically I would have made it their fault that I felt stressed if that makes sense. So that's kind of real talk around the work that the Enneagram does offer around awareness.
Man, as we heard some really great stuff about the Enneagram from Jackie Brewster earlier this year, it got me thinking, wouldn't it be really neat to have a series on the Enneagram where we were able to kind of hear some true, vulnerable confessions from each Enneagram number. so by far it was the most popular podcast series that we did this year on the Enneagram numbers, the confession of each Enneagram numbers. And I set the tone uh, by sharing my own confessions as an Enneagram for, and after that it was game on.
Listen, I believe, um, it's only on the altar of vulnerability. Like I said already that we can begin to understand ourselves and understand others. And because of the, you know, kind of unsolved mystery that Enneagram for is going to be, thought I would just go ahead and make a list, uh, confessional, if you will, of what it's like to be me. So the first thing I want to confess is that I love to create. I've been doing this thing since the beginning of the year where I'm creating new content every single week and I'm releasing content most every single day, whether it's on social media or the blog or the newsletter or the YouTube or podcast or whatever. I love to create. I love to create something from nothing. It's one of my favorite things to do. one of the highest amounts of joy that I can get in my life.
My second confession is that I desire to be wanted and needed. And you might think, well, that's everybody, right? Maybe I think the Enneagram fours, me as Enneagram four, I'm way more in tune with that desire to be wanted and needed because those are very strong feelings. And as you'll come to learn that Enneagram fours are very strong feelers. In fact, most people would say they have the strongest feelers out of all of the Enneagram types.
I like to be pursued more than pursuing others. I think this is very stereotypical, very cliche of an Enneagram four that we would much rather be pursued than pursue. But as a wing three, I do often pursue others as well. But if I had my preference, I would much rather be pursued than pursuing others. Again, so far, nothing crazy out of the box. But here's where we start to get a little different. My next confession is that I love my feelings, but I really hate how quickly they can ruin a moment or even a whole day. I love my feelings. You'll often hear Enneagrams, Enneagram fours describe their feelings as a warm, cozy blanket that they get to cuddle up with. It's like their blankie or their favorite stuffed animal. It's theirs. The blanket or the stuffed animal is the only one that really understands them. The only one that really brings them comfort. I love my feelings. So the worst thing you can do to an Enneagram four is to ask them to not feel a certain way.
So let's ask it this way then this is a little bit off the cuff, but let how how does someone then best get along with you as an Enneagram one? Like what are the things that you're like if these are the type of people that when I'm around we seem to click and the vice and the opposite of that like what the type of people that you're around and you're like I need to get away from that type of person. Yeah, so I'll start with the people that I would need to get away from okay, if I am continuously called out or criticized in front of other people. Told that my ideas are not good. Just kind of I Don't need everybody to agree, You're already critical enough of yourself right need someone else. Yeah, I'm gonna be verbally overly critical right and if they do need to talk to me about something I would hope that they would do it in a private manner and not in front of a bunch of people. Cause that's just embarrassing to me.
The type of people that I really enjoy being around and like, I get that was the question, right? Just the ones who just will let me be myself. They'll let me talk about my crazy chickens and how we homeschool our kids. you know, just that I just get to be me and I don't feel like I have to put on this face. Yeah. I can imagine that Scott, I have a lot of just fulfillment at the end of the day and kind of build up your own self-worth. you find, this is not one of the questions, this is just me listening to you talk. Do you find that your self-worth is defined a lot by what you're able to do for other people? Yes, yeah.
How does that play out? What's that look like for you in your daily life, finding that self-worth? I mean, honestly, so I have health problems, get migraines, I've endometriosis. So on a day when I am in bed because I can't get out of bed, those are my hardest days because I'm not helping my family. I'm not making breakfast for them. I'm not meeting anybody's needs except for my own. And those are the days where I have to remind myself it's okay to have grace for yourself. It's like, this is out of my control. There's nothing I've done what I can do. But I really, those are the days where Blake has to be like, it's okay that you're in bed. This is just life. That's why we're married because we're partners and I can help you and the kids are really helpful. But those are the days where I feel like, oh, well, I have nothing to offer. So are they still going to love me?
Well, I guess before we close our time, is there anything else that you'd like to get off your chest about being an Enneagram 3? There's a lot of things to say here Enneagram, all of them, we've all got our pros, we've all got our cons. As an Enneagram 3, it is... It's a challenge. Some days I've referenced it a little bit ago and a couple of different ways, right? You know, being my authentic self in all settings. That's tough. The overly competitive nature of being an Enneagram three. You know, I know everyone has experienced this at some point in their life, but the game of monopoly, right? Let's just use that as a great example, right? No one wants to play monopoly with an Enneagram three. I promise you, you're not going to want to play with me. The overly competitive nature of that.
You know, I can talk my way into and out of deals and succeed at the game of monopoly. But if you don't want a boardwalk, everybody's walking on it. It's crowded. Yeah. I mean, everybody's going to be there. They're going to look at you. They're going to be staring at your business, right? It's all those things. And so eventually I will win the game, but, there are times where if the dice don't roll my way, man, I am not fun to be around on the game of monopoly. It's not so much that I will flip the board on the table, but I definitely have a feeling like I want to. Yeah. Right. Uh, you know, I become a real sore loser, uh, in a lot of ways. And so like, you know, as an Enneagram three, right. Uh, I'm sure almost everyone's experienced somebody like that.
And the one thing I would say is give that person some grace because they're going to need it. Uh, and so if you experience people that are, are just so driven to succeed, uh, you'll lean into the things that they actually need, which is somebody to allow them to be vulnerable, to be real, uh, authentic and, and, you know, just being a judgment free, you know, safe space. Uh, so it's more of a, I'd almost say a PSA for everybody out there that has any gram threes in their life. Um, know that, you know, we struggle just like everybody else. We just struggle in a different way, and being our vulnerable true selves is in the area where most of us are gonna struggle. So allowing us to be that, be authentic and not be judged for it is gonna help us be the healthiest version of ourselves.
Let's put on the Enneagram five colored glasses for a second and help us understand how you as a five view the world around you. If I had a pair of glasses that if I magically put them on, then all of a sudden I see the world like an Enneagram five. What would that look like? How do you see the world? I feel like we, the color of the lens would be the word why. Like why is this the way it is? Why is this happening? Why does this cause this? We're constantly asking why of the world. I'm constantly trying to break things apart into smaller and smaller chunks of information that we can understand and then like almost reassemble into something usable in our everyday lives. And that's kind of like our constant search is more and more information and figuring out why things are the way they are, why things work the way they do so that we can better operate in the world.
I do kind of wing seven as a six. So like I can have that introverted time that we're talking about, but I love being like a wingman to some with someone. And like, just like, like, like the bro, like just, I don't have to lead the situation, but I love just being able there to support you and whatnot. So that's one thing I definitely do love. One thing I really hate about being a six is the anxiety part. Like I was referring to earlier about stage managing is there it's not every show. It's probably one out of eight shows where I'll get so anxious about a given situation, whether it be, you know, what's Mitchell doing? You know, on stage, do I need to be on, you know, on guard? Or do I just need to be at the ready for something to hit the fan? And like, I get so anxious and, you know, my I have the biggest goal of getting off stage under 10 minutes and we have a lot of gear with a little crew to get everything off stage. So like my anxiety is just through the roof and I overthink the the the loadout of all that.
So that's the biggest thing like quick example last week. I had anxiety pretty much post soundcheck until the end of our set and through loadout. So a good six, five to six hours of just I didn't really want to be with people. I chose to be with some people, but they could just tell like, what is wrong. And then the show happens, the loadout happens. And everyone's like, dude, you were, why were you so worried? Like, everything was fine. Like we did such a good job. You know, why are you beating yourself up about, you know, what just went on? And I'm like, well, I just feel like we could have done better, which is a good thing. But it's also because you always want to progress. But for me, like it was just anxiety driven the whole time and I feel like I lost five years of my life and my heart rate was like sky high the whole time. So yeah, anxiety is my least favorite part.
But I think in general, I see the world. I know I'm wearing my yellow today, but I'm, I feel like Enneagram sevens are like affiliated with like yellow and like happy and joy. And I feel like for the most of the time I see the world that way, through like kind of yellow colored glasses instead of rose. But it's like, I look for the positive, but I think I'm, I know there's going to be like negative things happening. So I think it's kind of like I prepare myself. So I'm not like thrown off by the negativity, but I'm also like hopeful that there won't be any this day or whatever.
Sure. So I'll give you an example for a four. The most important thing to me is authenticity. So I guess characteristic, what's the most important characteristic to you as an intergrate mate? Or what's the most important thing in life? Is family the most important thing to you? Is your relationship with God the most important thing to you? Is your job the most important thing to you? Is your self worth the most important thing to you? You get, one of those open-ended questions.
I'll say it in the form of a movie quote by the most reputable of all actors, Russell Crowe. it is. In the movie Gladiator, he says, what we do in this life echoes an eternity. And I think that's it. And so to say one thing matters over others is hard for me because I think it all matters. And that's why like there's not a work me, there's not a family me, there's not a, you know, friendship, social me. I am what you get wherever you get it. And so that's the thing is like, can't fake. I'm horrible at faking. I'm horrible. You want to play poker with me? Enjoy my money because not good, not good at that. I feel like sometimes it's like, there's a difference between being shrewd and lying. I don't know. It's really hard for me. Yeah.
And so that's, yeah, I think that's it. I think you have to deeply be involved and care about every aspect of life. Family matters because of what a mat means and the depth of it and how my kids grow up matters. And doesn't just matter by things I say to them. I need to be in it, you know? So it's, know, my faith is just, gets my greenest of green zones. The time of day I wake up early, I'm very disciplined about waking up. I do need help at times, i.e. I hit Dustin up and I'm like, check on me, make sure I wake up at this time. But, you know, I get up first thing and I'm just in prayer and reading the word and memorizing scripture because I just want it so much and it matters. But it all matters. Like to be like, tell me the one thing that matters to you most. Can't get it to you.
All right. So how do you... This is probably the most nine question ever. But how do you best get along with people? how, when you're interacting with people and you're in those social settings and you love being around people, how do you best interact with them? Are you just kind of like, I'm just happy that everyone's here and it's a warm blanket to my soul and I can cross my arms and sit back and hide behind my drink? Or are you just like seeking out the people that you want to have conversations with and going from one place to the next? You straight up one-on-one, let's dive into a subject over, you know, over a drink for a couple hours. Like what, how, what's the best thing for you, for Grant to interact with people?
I think it's changed a lot over the years. Um, I think for the longest time because of my social anxiety, I wanted to be like, I wanted everybody there and I wanted to like, Hey, these people are my friends and like, kind of feel that comfort and then just kind of sit back and, um, kind of be silent because I'm in my own head about like, they don't want to talk to me. But I really love like deep conversations and getting to know people and like really knowing like like how they're doing. And like, I like to ask lots of questions and kind of like get people to like understand like themselves and like to understand people. I'm very, I'm a very empathetic person. Yeah. Empathetic. Empathy. Yeah. So yeah, I really do like those conversations and I think that's where I'm at now as a healthier version of myself.
Man, what a response we got from that Enneagram series. big moment for me this year was being able to share with you all my 4D creative process, a bit of a foundational framework to everything that I've been sharing with you thus far this year. Let's take a clip and a listen back on that episode. 4D creative process. Look, if you're like me when you were a kid, any opportunity you got a chance to see a movie in 3D, you took it. It didn't matter what it was. It could be the worst movie. If you were a boy, it could have been some Barbie or horsey or pony movie or whatever. If there was an opportunity for you to see that thing in 3D, to go to the actual theater, put on those paper glasses and watch that thing in 3D, you were all in.
Now, as we get older and we start going to theme parks and they start offering us these 4D experiences, right? If you go to Disney, there's a four four D experiences there for you to be able to make you feel like you're in it. So not only are the things popping out at you, but they're also spraying water and blowing wind and things like that all around you so that you can feel it as well. And so I've been working on this creative process for almost 20 years to help feel our way through this thing called creativity. Right. There's always different stages of creativity, even if you're like, I'm just an Enneagram seven and just kind of whatever comes up in my mind. That's when I know I need to create and that's how I create. Listen, that's fantastic. But I promise you that if you are able to put a process around yourself that works for you, that you will be much more creative.
We closed the year recently towards the end of this year in 2023 ending with a popular episode in which I got to nerd out a little bit with my buddy Blake Baer on the full focus planner. Let's take a look at that. For me, the biggest impact has been I've always had these goals, but never been able to do anything with it. And now I have goals in front of me every single week. And even more so, like we'll talk about here in a second, I have them in front of me every single day. And so that's really changed the game for me to be and I might not hit I have 10 goals this year and he'll tell you not to go past 10 even in the book there's only a space enough for 10 of them. I have 10 goals this year and some life things have happened. I'm probably only gonna hit between seven and eight of those goals. But if you would have told me at the beginning of the year that I would hit, know, 70 % 80 % of my goals for this year, I'd be like, you're crazy. Because by March, I'm not even gonna remember what they are. But it's just been a great, it's, every time someone asks me, what do you get out of it? I'm like, I know it sounds cliche, but it's focus. It's focus. What about you?
Yeah, that's good. I think one thing I would say before I kind of jump into that is it doesn't mean you don't put other things around you like a sauna or like your Google calendar. I think the mindset is the full focus planner is not supplemental to those things. Those things are supplemental to the planner. The planner for me is the fuel and it is the motivation and is the connection to staying with your goals. So many people get so far from their goals because they lose connection to their goals. I love the full focus planner because weekly I am re-establishing my connection to that goal. And even in like an emotional way, right? Okay, so it is so important to have emotional and intrinsic motivation to hit your goals.
Otherwise, when you get into the rough aspect of your goals, you will just drop them. It's so easy. This is why the majority of people never make it past January or February with their goals is because life sets in and it's not easy. And yes, you've got to be able to have something that's deeper than I just want it. You know, you got to have something deeper. So for me, you know why or the biggest impact this has had on my life has been the ability to take vision to action.
Wow. As you can see, 2023 has been just an incredible year for me and the content that I've been able to share with you. And I am just getting started. I cannot wait to experience what 2024 has for each of us as I aim to help you know yourself, know your team and know your process so that you can create your best work yet. Thanks for watching, listening, and supporting me. And as I heard in a toast recently at the NASCAR Awards banquet, that's right, I love NASCAR. Here's an ending cheers for all of us. Here's to us and those like us. Happy New Year everyone.