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The Doctor Is In

The official broadcast from The Innovation Doctor. Your weekly prescription of practical creativity to get your ideas unstuck.

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🎙️ The Doctor Is In: What if stillness is the fastest way to move forward?

Hey Reader, In a world that never stops moving, I've been thinking about the radical power of stillness. It's the theme of this week's letter. A view of the bay in Santa Cruz, California Dear Creativity, There is something about stillness that soothes the soul. It's the moment we can finally cut through the clutter in our minds and in the world to find you again. Sometimes stillness is the calm before the storm, that quiet, generative space right before a surge of ideas takes flight. But...

Hey Reader, A friend made this beautiful charcuterie board for us, and it felt like a masterclass in creativity. I had to share the lesson I learned from it. More in this week's letter. And there was more...gherkins, sheep chees, and golden goosberries, oh my! Dear Creativity, Sometimes, your presence is so clear it’s something I can taste. I saw you this week in a beautiful charcuterie board, a feast made by a friend. The careful cuts, the vibrant colors, the surprising textures made it...

Hey Reader, Happy Solstice! With the official start of summer, I'm feeling a pull towards a different kind of creative play—the kind you can touch. More on that in this week's letter. Hot glue and laser-cut Scrabble letter fun! Dear Creativity, Summer is here. It’s the season to play, test, and expand. While my business is built around play, I’m feeling a call to return to a different kind, the kind where my hands are moving, where I can feel you through touch. I want to feel my fingers...

Hey Reader, I'm a bit of a collector of card decks, and my latest acquisition gave me a thought I can't shake. More on that in this week's letter. From the Excuses to Celebrate card deck by People I’ve Loved Dear Creativity, By now, you know my love for card decks. This week, a new one from Carissa Potter of People I’ve Loved absolutely delighted me. One card in particular reminded me "to revel in the small things we take for granted." It read: "Celebrate someone else's accomplishment. Let...

Hey Reader, This week, NASA's "Moon Joy June" art challenge gave the prompt "LAUNCH." My response wasn't a rocket, but this little illustration. It got me thinking about a distant memory and what that word truly means to me. More in this week's letter. Dear Creativity, When NASA gives you a prompt like "LAUNCH," it’s easy to think of grand finales. But my hand didn't draw a rocket. It drew this, a quiet launch. This little watercolor and ink drawing is my commitment to sitting down with you,...

Hey Reader, I've been thinking about the 'idea swirl' that so many of us live in. I'm starting to see it differently. More on that in this week's letter. A visual prescription for the 'idea swirl.' Dear Creativity, Let's talk about the 'idea swirl.' I’ve always seen it as this vortex of ideas that leads to overwhelm and analysis paralysis. A quiet storm inside the mind of a multipassionate. But every time I update my work, I find myself revisiting old thoughts. Each time I return, I add a new...

Hey Reader, I bought a shiny squirrel for my bookshelf as an inside joke. But it turns out, it's the key to everything. More on that in this week's letter. The shiny squirre sitting on the bookshelf in my home office/creative studio. Dear Creativity, Let's talk about shiny objects. Or more specifically, this shiny squirrel on my bookshelf. When people see us multipassionates chasing squirrels, they often put us in a box, labeling us as misfits who can't focus. But they're missing the point....

Hey Reader, I hosted The Creative Amp workshop this week, and I'm still buzzing from it. This image I captured says it all: messy, playful, and surprisingly profound. More on that in this week's letter. Non-dominant-hand sketching, a six-word story, and a visual representation of a person are activities enjoyed during The Creative Amp experience. Dear Creativity, We did it. The Creative Amp workshop felt like building a bridge between all the parts of me, the 'lab' of systems and learning,...

Hey Reader, This might look messy, but it's actually the picture of me falling back in love with an old passion. It's bringing me alive. You'll see what I mean in this week's letter. Micro-Cast Video Editing in Canva Dear Creativity, It’s funny how we can forget. I was thinking about us, twenty years ago. I was just starting out as an educator, and the thing that truly lit me up was digital storytelling. It felt like I’d found a secret language. With a few simple techniques in iMovie, I could...

Dear Creativity, We often talk about the blank page.The dead air.The unknown. Those are the moments we say stop us from reaching for you. But lately, I’ve been noticing something different. It’s not the absence of ideas that’s making it hard to connect with you. It’s the opposite. The noise. The constant movement. The steady stream of information, experiences, and ways to be that fill the space before I even realize I’ve lost it. I tell myself I need quiet. That I need to slow down long...