Julie Holton:
What do you do when you feel stuck in a rut? When you just can’t get those creative juices flowing? All the buzz in business is about exciting innovation, collaboration, generating ideas to move our world forward, but sometimes we have to fight for that creativity. And today’s guest has a new way to show us how.
Julie Holton:
If you’ve ever said you are just not creative or that you’re losing your edge, this podcast is for you. Welcome to the show, I’m Julie Holton with Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris. Audrea, taking a brief break, so our third today is our guest.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Allison Spooner is an author and says she knows that creative rut all too well, but she was able to climb out of that hole to write four books. Allison, welcome to the Think Take of Three podcast.
Allison Spooner:
Hello. Thank you for having me.
Julie Holton:
We are so happy to have you here, Allison, especially because not only did you come up with a way to get out of your own rut, but you now are teaching other people the same steps you took, and I can’t wait to just dive in and learn all about this today. Allison is a dear friend of mine, one of the creative minds behind The Artist’s Umbrella, it’s a variety show in Lansing that shines a spotlight on community and creativity of all kinds. Allison, you say that no matter what you do, you need to be creative and that all people have it in them. Explain this for us because I have a feeling that there’s at least someone out there listening that might claim they don’t have it.
Allison Spooner:
Exactly. There’s probably somebody right now associating creativity with artists, writers, and of course artists and writers and all those people are creative, but also everyone has to be creative in some way, shape, or form, no matter what they do. Entrepreneurs, business owners, moms, teachers, no matter what your chosen path, creativity can be a really helpful tool to help you move forward and stand out. But sometimes that creativity can feel just a little out of reach and hard to grab onto. So these tools can definitely help with that.
Julie Holton:
And you’re not kidding. Think about the mom driving the kid to soccer practice or a game, and suddenly gets reminded, “Oh Mom, it’s our night to bring snacks.” That is creativity in full force to figure out, “Okay, where can I stop on the way to get enough snacks or juice boxes or whatever?” That is creative problem-solving, no doubt.
Allison Spooner:
Exactly.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Okay, so Allison, you say that it doesn’t just show up, that you have to fight for those creative juices and you’ve created a program called Creative Warrior helping people to find the fight within that creativeness in some unexpected ways. So, what exactly is Creative Warrior?
Allison Spooner:
Yeah, so Creative Warrior is a brand that is all about helping creators, or anybody who needs a little more creativity in their life, get out of those creative ruts and get back to creating if you’re feeling stuck. Because as artists know, or anyone who has suffered from a creative rut, it does not feel good. If you are someone who loves to create or passionate about creating or need creativity in your life, when you’re stuck, it doesn’t just affect what you’re trying to create, it can affect your whole life. So a creative warrior knows that creativity isn’t just going to show up whenever you need it, you have to fight for it, and that’s what Creative Warrior does. It provides the tools that you can use to fight for your creativity.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
It’s so interesting that you lay it out like that because it’s not, but it almost sounds counterintuitive. There’s a plan, there’s a way to get to your creativeness. Because people think of creative as it just flows in the atmosphere, you lay down on your pillow and osmosis, it just happens. And you’re saying no, there is that, but there is get those juices flowing, do some stuff. Which then leads you back to, I think back to when I was in, I want to say probably high school, it was probably high school and college, and we have some type of writing thing, and I remember one of our teachers saying, “Just take out your pen and just start writing. Just write.” And just that the process of the pen on the paper and the hand flowing would kind of help get something out of you. But feeling like there are steps that are there, I think it’s key. Where did this come from? How did you come up with Creative Warrior?
Allison Spooner:
Yeah, so I definitely agree with what you’re saying because as an artist, I used to be what we call, or as a writer, I used to be what we call a pantser. Just fly by the seat of my pants, write down whatever comes to me, if I wanted to write a novel, it was just start writing and see where it goes. And that didn’t get me very far. So there was a time a little while ago, a long time, probably about five years or so that I didn’t create anything at all. I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, I’ve always been passionate about writing, I’ve known from the time I could hold a pen that I wanted to be a writer. But at one point in my adult life, I found myself not writing, not creating, or trying to write and not getting very far or starting something and not finishing it.
And then all of a sudden, because I couldn’t write, there was a whole lot of self doubt that came into play. Am I even a writer? If I wasn’t a writer, I didn’t know who I was because I’d always wanted to be a writer. If I can’t write, who am I? If I don’t have a completed novel, am I even a writer? So lots of scary thoughts going through my brain that then made it even harder to create. So I was pretty stuck, and then I started discovering things little by little that helped me create a little bit at a time, and those things kind of formed what I call the four pillars of a creative warrior. So I started entering contests online and attending writing events here in Lansing that used prompts to get you started. So the contest would give you a genre and object and a location that you had to include in your story or the events would include three words.
And those prompts just really helped me get ideas that I wouldn’t have had without them. So that started getting me writing a little bit more. Those contests and events also provided structure in the form of deadlines and word count and things like that, and that led me to flash fiction, which is complete stories in less than a thousand words. And to somebody who wasn’t creating at all, a thousand words seemed really doable. So it was I didn’t have to try to write a novel, I could write a thousand or 500 words, and that felt a little bit like a relief to someone who wasn’t creating anything at all. So structure became one of the second prompts, or pillars, sorry, of Creative Warrior. Among all of this, I started doing yoga. I knew I wanted to get in shape, I knew I needed to be doing something a little more active than what I was doing as I was getting older, but I wasn’t going to jog because jogging, eh.
Julie Holton:
Yeah, really.
Allison Spooner:
Right?
Julie Holton:
If you’re not a runner who’s been running your whole life, no one picks that up in your thirties or even 20. Yeah.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
I’ll walk forever. I will walk forever with you, and this is coming from the track and field person. I will walk anywhere, I don’t run.
Allison Spooner:
Exactly. As Anne Perkins says, I know it gets you healthy, but at what cost? So I didn’t want to run, so I found yoga, I discovered that. And then as I was doing yoga more and more, I also discovered that it can help you feel more creative by nourishing your sacral chakra. And I won’t get into that right now, chakras are really interesting, really complex points in the body that can impact different energy and emotions throughout the body. So I won’t get into that, but yoga can nourish your creative center and help you feel more creative, which I was like, oh my gosh, this has to be one of the biggest, best kept secrets in terms of creativity that yoga can help you be more creative. I hadn’t heard that before, so that was kind of a light bulb moment for me, so yoga is another pillar of the creative warrior.
And community. So by entering these contests, starting to go to writing groups and be more involved with other writers, I discovered that community and being around other creatives was just really inspiring. Even if we weren’t actively talking about writing or talking about our projects, just being with them in the same room, seeing their struggles, seeing them push past their struggles just really inspired me. So eventually by combining all of these things that I came across accidentally, I was creating and I was creating short stories, flash fiction stories, and for a long time to me, it just felt like practice to eventually create that novel. And then I realized that I had all these stories just sitting around and they were good and they were worthwhile, and they were something I was proud of. So I compiled them, put them into a book, I kept creating and writing more, came up with more stories, put them in another book, and eventually all of this writing, all of this creating did lead to that novel that seemed so elusive for so long.
I finally completed that over COVID, so if you notice, this really wasn’t that long ago. This is all still developing, I’m still learning to nurture the creative side and slowly bring it out of its hiding place when it goes away. So completed a novel over COVID that’s now looking for a home, I wrote a book about creativity and fighting for your creativity and winning the war against writer’s block. So long story short, the pillars worked and they worked for me, so I want to share them with the rest of the world so that other creators or people feeling stuck and having that identity crisis that I once suffered from don’t have to or at least see a way out when they are suffering from that.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
I think that two of your pillars in particular stuck out to me. Once again, going back to structure, being involved with the creative process, isn’t it funny how you give a person a deadline and parameters, all of a sudden what seems like this project that’s never going to happen comes out of you because, “Oh, I got to get this done.” I know myself, I work better knowing that I have a date to get this done by. Or when I was working in the news, the show was going on at whatever time the show was going on, stuff had to get edited and stuff had to be ready to go. So you had-
Julie Holton:
Oh my gosh, I still have nightmares about, as an executive producer, going into the booth and still writing the show and not having many of the tapes in on time, and none of the stories are… And actually that happened to me in real life once when I was an intern and I was put in charge of the Christmas morning news that was two hours long and I had never produced even an hour-long show. And I was like, “Oh my gosh, we ran out of time and we don’t have enough news written for the show.” I still have that nightmare.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
I remember the first time when I first got into sports producing, and I remember my main sports anchor, his shot was coming up, let’s say this was the 11 o’clock show. Sports hits at, we’ll say 11:20 ish, I believe, somewhere in there, 22. Listen to us hitting the times.
Julie Holton:
Between 11:20, 11:26, right around there.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
And he’s editing, kid you not at 15. And he’s like, “Just wait here, I’m going to give you this tape.” And you couldn’t just upload it anywhere, this is you had-
Julie Holton:
This was back when we were running tapes to the tape room. The physical…
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Running tapes down the hall to a tape room.
Julie Holton:
Yeah, big yellow beta tapes or maybe you had advanced to the black.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
We had the black ones and then moved to little blue ones.
Julie Holton:
You were more advanced.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
But no, but he’s like, “All right, ready?” I’m like, “Okay.” And he gives me the tape and it’s like, “Get that down to the tape room.” And I’m sprinting down there and we’re hearing over the announcements, “Sports, sports is in one minute, sports.” And he’s like, “It’s okay.” And I’m like, “This is the A block. This is the A story in your sports, this is the first thing. Why am I not having it yet?” But these deadlines, they push you to do whatever it is that you need to do.
So I like the structure part of it because again, it sounds counterintuitive, but it’s just not, it kind of forces your brain, I don’t know, maybe shocks your brain into this has to happen, so let’s go. And then the yoga part, even though I’m not a huge yoga person, but I think just something that gets the blood flowing, something that just centers you. If that’s taking a walk, if that’s taking a run, you know what? God bless you if you’re going for a run, if that gets your juices flowing. But there’s something that allows the process of breathing, the process of clearing your mind, the process of getting rid of the clutter that might actually be blocking you so that you can think about the project. I really do feel like those things are so key.
Allison Spooner:
Exactly. And when you say, “I’m not that into yoga or I don’t like yoga,” and you mentioned the breath, the breath is actually the most important part of yoga. For those that say, “I can’t do yoga, or I’m not flexible enough to do yoga, I just don’t like doing yoga.” If you are standing up in a strong stance, aware of your posture, aware of yourself, aware of your thoughts and your breathing, that’s yoga. So I could stand up from my desk right now and just pull my shoulders down away from my ears, really engage my core, and when I say core, I’m not talking about getting strong abs here. I try to make that distinction when I talk about core, because I think that’s the first thing people think of. You’re just making sure that your body is supporting itself. You’re doing yoga if you’re standing up and doing that and you’re aware of your breath, you’re aware of your thoughts and you’re saying, “My thoughts are okay, but I’m not going to focus on them right now,” that’s yoga. And so if you’re worried about yoga, you can do yoga, believe me.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Who knew? Who knew?
Julie Holton:
And we’ve talked about that breath work before on the show because as much as we all like to think we know how to breathe properly, apparently most of us are doing it wrong or not doing it consistently well to be getting the benefits. That big deep breath. But I’m curious, Allison, because I love listening to your story and how it takes so much creativity to write books and not just one, but you’ve authored multiple books that you’ve used this technique to really pull that creativity out of yourself. I’m curious for those listening, who on a day-to-day basis, maybe they’re not writing creative stories, maybe they’re not trying to author a novel, but they are trying to tackle that project that’s due. Sometimes it might be technical writing, it might be just tackling an email where you feel like you can’t get your words in the right order. Can you talk us through how do these steps help even with what we might think of as the mundane things that we need to do, but actually do take some creativity just to pull it out of us?
Allison Spooner:
Yeah, I think prompts could work in a similar way. It doesn’t have to be a creative prompt. I have done workshops about using flash fiction to get blogging for businesses that want to blog more, so the prompt doesn’t have to be a creative writing prompt, it could be something to do with your industry, it could be something to do with your specific job. As long as it offers a different way of looking at things or something you might not have thought of before, so you could use an image or a goal or something that you have in mind. Take a moment, look at it, let it sink in, let whatever thoughts kind of come to your brain, let them come, maybe write them down freehand. I like to do my brainstorming by hand before I start typing, so take a look at that prompt or whatever you’re using for a prompt, write down by hand whatever you think of that comes to mind immediately, and then walk away.
That is one of my biggest tips. I talk about this in my free webinar that I can talk about a little later, but brainstorm and then walk away, do something unrelated to what you’re doing, like the dishes or something that doesn’t take a lot of brain power. So don’t go watch TV or maybe don’t even read a book, but go for a walk, do some yoga, maybe just some stretching if it’s not full-on yoga, clean the house, whatever tasks you like to do to just let your mind wander and have that whatever you’re working on in the back of your mind. And then come back to it. Set a timer so that you don’t get distracted by whatever you’re doing, and it can be 10, 15 minutes, however long you have in your day to devote to this. And then go back to your project with a fresh mind.
Look at what you wrote down before you walked away and who knows what might come up. And give yourself a deadline, give yourself a crazy deadline depending on when your project is due or whatever you’re working on, whether that deadline’s 24 hours, 48 hours, something that seems just a little out of reach to you, just so that you get that we were talking about earlier, that adrenaline rush, that urgency. Because like we were talking about, if you have all the time in the world to work on something, you’re going to take all the time in the world to work on it.
Julie Holton:
You’re so right. I’m sitting here like, “Oh, okay, I got to start giving myself more self-imposed deadlines.” Tell us about the community you’ve created that ties in with Creative Warrior, because if there’s one thing that I can definitely relate to, no matter what business you’re in or what career you have… And it could be whether you’re a mom, whether you’re an entrepreneur, whether you’re working in a mid-level management position, a top C-suite position. I think any position, there are times where we feel isolated and alone and that we’re the only ones who understand what we’re going through. And frankly that’s why we created the Think Tank of Three podcast, to really bring women together to start having these conversations about the things that are difficult to have conversations about. So I love that your process, your pillars include community. So tell us how your community works and how you really help fuel and support each other.
Allison Spooner:
Yeah, so the biggest place right now that that community is centered is a Facebook group called Creative Warriors. So the Facebook page is Creative Warrior, the Facebook group is Creative Warriors. And like I mentioned, when I was stuck in my creative rut, it was just by going out and just being around other writers that helped get me through my rut, get me through my challenges. I could see other writers having the same struggles and not giving up. And that was really important to me. I know that a lot of people, and this particularly applies to artists and creators and writers, think that it has to be a really solitary activity. And it does, there are times when you have to be heads down and tune out distractions and just get stuff done. But it’s also really important to be able to rely on other people and bounce ideas off of other people.
So when I say community, it doesn’t have to be a community because I know a lot of writers don’t like to be around a lot of people, and that’s fine. Find a writing partner, find one person that you trust. If community seems a little overwhelming, join the group, maybe watch the conversation, see if there’s anyone posting or chatting about something that you can connect with. And then see if you can develop a relationship with that person in particular, and maybe they become a trusted writing partner. So it doesn’t have to be a community of three to 400 people or whatever, even 20 people, it can be one or two trusted individuals. But just having that person or those people there, even if you’re not always talking to them or around them, can be really important.
And we do live write-ins through Creative Warrior on YouTube. I’ll just go live and say, “Hey, I’m going to be writing for 30 minutes or two hours, hop on.” And even though we’re not in the same space, just knowing that there’s other people logged on, however you want to say it, popping up in the chat every now and then, just knowing that those people are there is really motivating and knowing, “Hey, if I turn this off now, this person’s going to see I didn’t make it for the whole 30-minute sprint or whatever.” So accountability is also really important, and if you have a trusted group or a trusted friend, they can help keep you accountable.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Ladies, what do you think, do either one of you feel that there might be also something to understanding what might be causing your creative rut in whatever space it is, especially if it’s something that’s happening repeatedly. I think that once you find the flow, it might be easy to continue that flow. Moving on from project to project, once you feel, “Okay, I’ve got my groove, I know what I’m doing now,” and you’re feeling good. And like you said, you went from one book to the next one, got a third one, here’s my fourth one, you just found your groove. But every time there’s a project or every time there’s something you’re trying to accomplish and you keep finding yourself sitting in this rut, do you think maybe there’s room to try to figure out, okay, there might be something larger here shutting you down for some reason? A completely random question.
Julie Holton:
I’m with you. Yes, yes. It’s exactly why I developed a keynote on burnout. Because what I was finding was that I would think, “Oh, my brain’s not working today, or I just can’t get my creativity to flow.” Or insert whatever static phrase about not being able to accomplish the level, the quality of work that I wanted to do. And I finally realized it had nothing to do with my writing ability, with my graphic design ability, or my ability to see big picture strategy. It had everything to do with everything else in life, the overwhelm, just too much, and finding those proper ways to avoid one getting to that place. But once you’re there, how do you back yourself out of that burnout? How do you get yourself to that point of feeling renewal? But absolutely, it’s not burnout for everyone. I think there can be a variety of ways and root cause, we always have to get to the root cause to even figure out what’s going on with us.
Allison Spooner:
Exactly. And I think yoga can be a really helpful tool for that as well, because it allows for that time of introspection, of looking inward, of slowing down. So even if you’re not actively creating, there are times in my life where I am not actively doing anything, I shouldn’t say anything creative, there are times when I’m not actively writing. I haven’t really been working on a new fiction project or creative project lately, I’m working on growing Creative Warrior. But there might be times where you are not creating, you’re taking time to do yoga consistently. So maybe you’re doing the yoga during the time when you would be working on your creative project, you are taking that time to look inward, to meditate, to journal, to see what’s coming up when you think about creating.
If you think about going to your computer and you find yourself pausing, why? Write down what’s happening in your body or if your stomach is clenching or you are finding yourself being like, “Hmm, maybe I should go do X instead.” Why? And just really dedicating time to thinking about that. And the other thing I would say to that and one thing I advise… Advise, it’s a strong word. One thing I suggest for some people is to write or do your thing, whatever that is, first thing in the morning. So if you’re having trouble devoting time to yourself, your creativity, your projects, because you feel pulled in so many different directions, give yourself, whether it’s an hour or even if it’s 20 minutes, in the morning before you do anything else, dedicate that time to yourself, to your project.
Before you’re pulled in so many different directions, before you’re needed by your kids or your job or your spouse or just life, whatever that happens to be. Even if it’s just 20 minutes. It could just be reading a book, too, it doesn’t have to be writing, it doesn’t have to be creating. Something that fuels you, just let yourself do that first thing in the morning. And I don’t know if it’s connected to the original question, but I think that can help start to steer and guide you to discovering maybe what’s holding you back.
Julie Holton:
I love that. Anyone who knows me knows ever since I launched my business five years ago, I am really bad about setting aside my own time. Except it used to be late at night because… And actually, I read an article on this about procrastinating sleeping because you feel like you want to own your me time and that was me, well, and still is me sometimes. So my problem was I would get up really early and hit the ground running and start working right away, reading email before I’m even fully dressed and ready for the day. So I’m already in work mode before I leave my bedroom. Well, no more ladies. I am here to tell you that I have officially, it’s been a few months now, so I would say officially I’m in a new routine. I finish an entire cup of coffee before I even open my email. Applause, everyone.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Yes.
Julie Holton:
I’m kidding, of course, but-
But I love…. And it doesn’t take me that long because I need coffee in the morning, but setting aside that half hour, I am in such a better place by the time… My brain’s in a better place to function when I start reading emails, it’s not 6:00 AM when I start reading emails, it’s a little bit later. And it really matters, it changes the setup for your whole day.
Allison Spooner:
And then, so you set aside that half an hour, and I think that relates back to the structure and utilizing these things in a way that works for you. Because I think some of this advice that we hear from all over the place can get overwhelming because a lot of advice has people getting up at 4:00 AM or dedicating an hour or two to their workout and their journaling and their reading. And all of those things are important, but you can do those things in five minute chunks if you only have 20 or 30 minutes in the morning, if you’re not ready to dedicate that whole hour, if you don’t want to get up at 4:00 AM which I definitely do not. You can do these things in smaller chunks, that’s why flash fiction helped me get writing, that’s why really short deadlines can be helpful.
That’s why these pillars are so important because they can be applied to your life in a way that works for you. So if you have 30 minutes in the morning and you want to get in a little bit of movement, a little bit of reading, a little bit of journaling, do it in five-minute chunks. Get up and just jog in place for five minutes or do a couple stretches for five minutes, read your favorite book, do a quick journal sprint for five minutes. Do these things in a way that works for you and don’t let all the noise out there saying that you have to do this for two hours, three hours, get up at 4:00 AM, deter you from doing it because you can do all of these things in a way that works for you.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Honestly, I think the five-minute chunk is probably the easiest one to fit because I can hear the working mom or even the stay at home mom saying, “30 minutes? 30 minutes for coffee? You go girl.” But even if it’s just breathing. Because I’ve seen that there’s a sign, there are little posters, “Don’t talk to me. I haven’t had my first cup of coffee yet.” I’m not a coffee drinker, which is fine, but there is something to be said about, “Wait, let me just take a couple of deep breaths.” I say this having not yet practiced this, but I do-
Julie Holton:
I’m just impressed you don’t drink coffee, okay?
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Girl, we were driving back from a hockey tournament from Hershey, Pennsylvania, and it was the first time in my life that I was just like, “I really wish I was a coffee drinker.” Leaned over the steering wheel, so tired, and I’m like, “I want some caffeine.”
Julie Holton:
Aww, breathing. Apparently you’re just going to start breathing now.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Just breathing. Alex, my husband Alex is just asking me questions and saying stuff to me and even saying stuff that’s annoying. And I’m like, “What are you doing?” He’s like, “I know you’re tired, I’m trying to keep you awake.” “You’re making me angry.” He’s like, “Is it working?”
Julie Holton:
Ooh, I like that tactic.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
But what I wanted to actually say was even if it’s just take five minutes to just not hear anything except your breath, your heartbeat, your moment. Whatever it takes, if it’s just five minutes, if that’s all you think you can give yourself, then that’s all you give yourself for that part of the day. And then come back to it later. I’ve got five minutes here, let me take this five-minute break for myself. If you are in the office building, “Let me close the door, close my blinds, I’ve got five minutes and I’m going to take these five minutes.” And I think people don’t really give themselves the credit or the ability to say, “I can take five minutes.” Because you can, you absolutely can. If you have time to go to the bathroom, you have time to go take your five minutes to just breathe. Just take a breath. And apparently that, too, is yoga.
Julie Holton:
Look at you, you’re a yogi and you didn’t know it.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
I’m a yogi and I didn’t even realize it. Didn’t even know.
Julie Holton:
Allison, this has been awesome. I really have loved having you on the show. You’ve just given me so much to think about. I’m even thinking, Reischea, about what you just said about the five minutes, because how often do we hear, too, “The five minutes will turn into 10 minutes, will turn into 15 minutes.” And forget all of that, just focus on the five minutes because of course I wanted to make a joke about the new five-minute workout routine that I’m going to start. And then my mind started going to, “Oh, and then it’ll be 10 and then it’ll be an hour and then it’ll be working out five times a day.” And then that overwhelm sets in where I’m like, “Oh my gosh, well I’m not taking the five minutes because then I’m going to feel pressure to do more.” No pressure. Five minutes. I love that.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Do not talk yourself out of five minutes.
Julie Holton:
Allison, before we go, we collect advice, as you know, on the podcast from each of our guests. So we have three rapid-fire questions for you. Are you ready?
Allison Spooner:
I think so.
Julie Holton:
Is there a lesson that you’ve recently learned that you wish you would’ve learned earlier in your career?
Allison Spooner:
It’s not going to look like you think it’s going to look. However you want to apply that, whatever you want to apply it to. It’s supposed to be rapid-fire, but I always thought my first book would be a published novel, it ended up being a collection of short stories. It’s still a book, I’m still a writer. It’s not going to look how you think it’s going to look.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
I love that. It’s not going to look how you think it’s going to look.
Allison Spooner:
And that’s okay.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
That’s a hundred percent okay. That’s fantastic. What one piece of advice would you offer to any woman?
Allison Spooner:
It’s not selfish to devote time to the things you love.
Julie Holton:
Love it. All right, last question. In today’s professional setting, what is the most important skill for women?
Allison Spooner:
Drown out the noise. Like what we were just talking about, drown out everything that’s telling you, “You have to get up at 4:00 AM, you have to do this for an hour, you have to do this. If you start with five minutes, you have to eventually move to 20, to 30.” Drown out the noise, whether it’s criticisms or what you have to do or what you should do. Just learn to look inward, listen to yourself and drown out the noise.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Find a way to give yourself the hand. “Talk to the hand.”
Allison Spooner:
Give everyone else the hand.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Give everyone else the hand and talk to the hand.
Julie Holton:
And you take five. Hand, five, yes.
Allison Spooner:
There you go.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
We’ve come up with something new. Talk to the hand, here’s five.
Julie Holton:
We have a new tag line for you, Allison.
Allison Spooner:
There you go.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Outstanding. Hey Allison, where can our listeners connect with you online?
Allison Spooner:
Oh, everywhere. I’m on all the things. On Facebook as Creative Warrior. If you want to be a part of the Creative Warrior community, you can find that group as Creative Warriors. I have a YouTube channel where I post yoga flows for writers, advice for writers, writing sprints, I have prompts attached to 25 minute chunks of time where you can use the prompt and just sit and write. CreativeWarrior.club. I do also have a website.
Julie Holton:
And we will-
Allison Spooner:
Sorry Julie, I’m on Instagram as well.
Julie Holton:
And we will post all of those links in our group, how about that? Think Tank of Three podcast group. We’ll post all those links for you so you can easily get to Allison and all of her socials.
Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
Allison, thank you again so much for being on the show. It has been an absolute pleasure, even got some fresh thinking from my own mind as well. So thank you again. And that is all for this episode of Think Tank of Three.
Audrea Fink:
If you have topics you’d like us to cover or guests you’d like to hear from, send us a message at ThinkTankofThree@gmail.com. Subscribe to the Think Tank of Three wherever you listen to podcasts and connect with us online, we blog weekly at ThinkTankofThree.com.
Julie Holton:
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Reischea Canidate-Kapasouris:
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