You make things. You create this art for people in your life. Maybe it began as a hobby; maybe it was a work you wanted to pursue and you had children, or started a 9 to 5 you cannot walk away from just yet. And you hear it: “You should sell these.” Turning your creativity into a business is often worth the risk, but the choice to take something you love and turn it into an income producing machine does come with responsibility and even pressure. This week Shaunna and Marian talk through questio...
Mar 10, 2020•42 min
Snippet 4 - Journal Prompts To Build Creative Resiliance by Marian Parsons & Shaunna West
Feb 27, 2020•15 min
If we decide we have all the answers in this life, that is then the end of our road. There is nowhere to go, nothing new to do and see and be. There is no wonder. For creatives, there is such rigidity to this way of thinking and our work will suffer. When we remain teachable, it leaves us with a willingness to learn, change, and grow. This week Shaunna and Marian encourage us to create with curiosity, to recognize there are other ways to look at the world. There is always more to learn. Remainin...
Feb 25, 2020•40 min
Snippet 3 - Our Favorite Ways To Play Creatively by Marian Parsons & Shaunna West
Feb 20, 2020•11 min
Wounding happens to all of us, in every way. It happens to us at home and at work, and it happens to us creatively. So what is creative wounding? It is anything that deters you from doing something creative you love that is outside of a reason you choose for yourself. It may be a word spoken over you as a child. It may be blatantly negative or incredibly subtle. And when it happens, we sometimes give over the ability to choose that “this” is something that we will even try to do. This week Maria...
Feb 18, 2020•52 min
Observing and creativity go hand in hand. There is such importance in slowing down and being observant. This week Shaunna and Marian talk about how much harder this is due to all the digital distractions we have at our fingertips. They still contend there is power in sitting on a bench to enjoy being outside, or to watch a couple walk through a park. To simply be. We all need to just be able to sit, to breathe deeply, to be truly present. To revel in Intentional quiet. The gift of bring present ...
Feb 04, 2020•29 min
Creative Snippet 2 - Journal Prompt - What's Your Why by Marian Parsons & Shaunna West
Jan 30, 2020•9 min
This week’s episode of The Creative Exponent welcomes its first guest, Artist, Author and Workshop Connoisseur, Jeanne Oliver. Shaunna and Marian ask her questions surrounding her own creative journey, and find out what makes this creative entrepreneur and teacher tick. Jeanne shares her first creative memories painting on the carpet as a child, protecting herself from her inner critic, and the impact of words spoken over us that can become a part of our own narrative that limits us. She address...
Jan 28, 2020•49 min
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Jan 23, 2020•10 min
Asking why is important. The “why” matters. But what if asking “why not?” is equally important? Asking why not forces you to face the fears and insecurities behind why you don’t do it...because often the why not is just that: fear. This week Shaunna and Marian talk about finding a balanced approach to asking ALL the questions we need to when trying something new creatively or for our creative work. Asking why not is not flippant or reckless. Looking at the answers to our “why not” does, though, ...
Jan 21, 2020•35 min
What does it mean to be creatively resilient? Today, Shaunna and Marian are talking about creative resilience, and the knowledge of how much it is needed for us as creatives. And more than needing it, they realize creative resilience is a practice, rather than simply a skill we learn once. Sometimes it is easy, and the resolve we find in ourselves spills out naturally. And sometimes, holding on to the fortitude in us to keep creating, to keep going, to keep sharing our work vulnerably...feels im...
Jan 14, 2020•53 min
Welcome to season two of The Creative Exponent Podcast! Shaunna and Marian are so excited to be back for another season to chat about creativity. To kick off 2020, they’re talking about the dreaded R-word… Resolutions. Creative Resolutions, to be more specific. And, if the R-word doesn’t have a good reputation with you, Marian & Shaunna unpack the difference between dreams and goals and share some encouragement and resources to help you set your own attainable goals. If you’re ready to see s...
Jan 07, 2020•46 min
In the season finale for The Creative Exponent podcast season 1, Shaunna and Marian explore the creative frontier! Why is it important to continue to look to the horizon to see what is outside of your comfortably settled territory? Creative exploration is important for the soul and for the creative community as a whole. We need to go beyond creating in our carefully manicured suburban plot and get out into the wild to see what can be discovered there. Let’s be brave and curious…
Nov 26, 2019•48 min
It is just simply difficult to truly unplug and give ourselves enough rest creatively. Pressure, stress, the to do list...all of these things eventually lead to some form of burnout. Doing creative work we love is no exception. This week Marian and Shaunna talk about their own seasons of extended burnout, and how often it can be tied to turning the creative work we love into an income producing business, lack of rest, lack of unplugging from the “audience” before us. They talk about how unpluggi...
Nov 19, 2019•49 min
Ahh, copycats. In creative work, running across someone doing exactly what you have done before is an inevitability. And while there are some cases where the copying is less of a compliment and more along the lines of trademark infringement, often the truth is there is nothing new under the sun, and the copying itself is actually a compliment. This week Marian and Shaunna talk about how they’ve dealt with copycats, and how mostly, they try to choose to keep their blinders on and continue focusin...
Nov 12, 2019•45 min
Creativity and the word schedule don’t often go hand in hand. But Schedule doesn’t have to be a dirty word for creatives. It would be a wonderful world if creative genius would strike us over the head every single day, but often, it finds us working, and in our normal day to day routines. This week Marian and Shaunna talk about their own schedules and how creativity realistically fits in, and how you can build a schedule for creativity that works for you in your lifestyle, as is. You can find Ma...
Nov 05, 2019•38 min
How in the world do we keep creating when life just goes SIDEWAYS? When it feels like there are more things going wrong than going right...by a long stretch. How does creativity fit in then? Or our creative work? Marian and Shaunna each talk about some of the challenges they are battling right now in life. How it is simply a reality that we will face heightened stress and pressure as well as serious trial in our lives. How do we continue to create in the midst of a bonafide dumpster fire? How ca...
Oct 29, 2019•37 min
There is such a tempting habit in today’s world of instant feedback. How easily do we get sucked in to sharing our work online, only to hover over what we publish like the best of all helicopter moms? We publish, and we check comments. We scan likes, followers, feedback. All day. If we own a creative business or share our creative work, do we have to be aware of the response to our work? Sure. Of course. This week Marian and Shaunna talk about the difference between awareness of the “public resp...
Oct 22, 2019•35 min
Do you feel like your life is too normal, too boring, too typical, too ordinary to have anything interesting to say? Shaunna and Marian have heard this as an excuse time and time again as an argument against sharing stories, creations, and thoughts with others. “I just don’t have anything to say.” The beautiful truth is that we all have something to say. Even if you are a plain Jane suburban housewife soccer-mom with 2.5 kids and a dog, you have something to say. And, believe it or not, other pe...
Oct 15, 2019•34 min
Procrastination. The inevitable word all creatives eventually face. This week, Marian and Shaunna talk about all the subtle ways we can make ourselves busy as stall tactics. Procrastination for creatives is not always an obvious putting off of our responsibilities, because our to do’s also FEEL like action. They talk about the most common procrastination tools and how they usually stem from negative feelings about your and your business. They go a step further and ask, “Where do these tools come...
Oct 08, 2019•46 min
What happens we experience success as creatives? Success can be a catalyst for more success, but it can also, very subtly and unintentionally, create a set of unspoken expectations we place on ourselves and our creative work. This week, Marian and Shaunna talk about this reality, and share their own personal stories of how the best of their past has been the enemy of their present good. How those nagging questions can sneak up on us….”Maybe my best ideas are behind me.” “Maybe I’ve done my best ...
Oct 01, 2019•43 min
Based on a creative biography exercise from the book The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharpe, these mini-episodes were born. Marian and Shaunna share their own creative biographies, and a lot of laughs, honest, off-the-cuff answers, and truth telling around each of their creative journeys. In this mini episode, you’ll hear Marian and Shaunna answer questions like: When confronted with superior intelligence or talent, how do you respond? When faced with stupidity, laziness, hostility, or indifference ...
Sep 27, 2019•25 min
Marian and Shaunna relive their brainstorming weekend of developing The Creative Exponent and share the moment where Marian “stroked out” creatively. We all do it. We are plugging along with our creative work and out of nowhere, we hit a wall. One of the worst things we can do when hitting these walls is to try to push through it because of deadlines and pressures, both externally and internally. Marian and Shaunna talk about how they deal with their own walls, developing your own strategies, an...
Sep 24, 2019•39 min
Based on a creative biography exercise from the book The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharpe, these mini-episodes were born. Marian and Shaunna share their own creative biographies, and a lot of laughs, honest, off-the-cuff answers, and truth telling around each of their creative journeys. In this mini episode, you’ll hear Marian and Shaunna answer questions like: What are your habits and what patterns do you create? Describe your first successful creative act and one word attitudes towards money, po...
Sep 20, 2019•23 min
It is really simple to feel like creative work is scarce. We struggle to find and hold our own place in the world, to hold our own space creatively. Do you believe that there is a limited amount of success, joy, love, or creativity in the world? This week Marian and Shaunna talk about how easy it is to fall into the trap of getting stuck in a mindset of scarcity, which can ultimately destroy our creativity and keep us in a toxic place. Shaunna shares her own story of abundance to scarcity, and b...
Sep 17, 2019•49 min
Based on a creative biography exercise from the book The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharpe, these mini-episodes were born. Marian and Shaunna share their own creative biographies, and a lot of laughs, honest, off-the-cuff answers, and truth-telling around each of their creative journeys. In this mini-episode, you’ll hear Marian and Shaunna answer questions like: What’s the best idea you’ve ever had? What is the dumbest? What is your creative ambition? What are the obstacles to achieving that creati...
Sep 13, 2019•13 min
Thinking of taking your creativity and turning it into a business? There are a few things you should be doing first. This week Marian and Shaunna talk about the things you should be doing before you expand into the world of creative business. They talk through the lessons learned, and what they would say to themselves about a decade ago. They would tell themselves, and you, to create privately for yourself, to decide if you REALLY want this to be a business, to establish your why to create filte...
Sep 10, 2019•39 min
7. Make An Appointment With Creativity by Marian Parsons & Shaunna West
Sep 03, 2019•35 min
Here’s a little secret to spill. Those numbers you’re looking at to tell you that you are doing good work...those numbers are people. This week, Marian and Shaunna talk about analytics and the numbers, and while we have to be aware of them, we cannot be controlled by them as creatives. They pose questions for us to consider: Are we looking to the numbers for worthiness and validation When are the numbers enough? How much more genuinely will we share our work and creative voice when we put faces ...
Aug 27, 2019•34 min
Have you ever been paralyzed to begin a creative pursuit because everything isn’t just quite...perfect? Marian and Shaunna talk about the realities of waiting until everything is perfect for you to get moving and how much the creative process needs a little freedom. Marian shares a personal story of her own and you hear the benefits of allowing people to join you along your journey. They encourage you to be practical, sure, but to give yourself a little grace to begin before everything is in exa...
Aug 20, 2019•36 min
