Learning to be Creative Again

About 8 months ago, I changed careers and since then have found myself struggling to tap into my creative side. As an educator, I leveraged my platform to speak or present at conferences and large events on topics centered on amplification of teacher/student voice, equity, leadership and technology but I also created content in the form of blogs, articles, video and sometimes books.

I have never been afraid to publish or put my ideas out into the world but if I'm being honest, I found this much harder since making the transition.

Part of my issue was navigating this new normal when so many of my interests had been deeply rooted in K-12 education. The other part is me trying to understand how to continue creating authentically both as a person who has now changed careers but also one who works for the very platform that I'm using.

Perhaps the most important lesson that I have learned in the last few weeks of chats with peers and my managers was that even as I am learning and growing in my new career, it is important for me to also continue to develop my ideas and skills in areas where I am passionate.

...which brings me to this newsletter...

In the spirit of fearlessly creating the things that you want to see in the world, I started this newsletter as a way to highlight my weekly learnings and ideas. As someone who has always been accustomed to reflective writing, this space will give me an opportunity to quickly share not only what I have learned but also key discoveries and where you can learn too.

One more thing, because if you're going to jump into the creative waters, you may as well go big, right?

About a week ago, I started a podcast with my friend and fellow career changer Knikole Taylor . The name of the podcast is Pencils and Popcorn. It's a play on words with a slight nudge to education and our main goal of continuously sharing our life experiences from the world of K-12 to where we are now. We're one pre-episode in and looking forward to publishing episode 2 this weekend.

The podcast happened because Linkedin challenged us to create for our last "In Day" and I took that opportunity to learn how to create, edit and also dabbed a little into branding. Basically, we recorded, edited and uploaded across multiple platforms in about 2 days. It's not perfect by any means but it's a start and a great motivator to continue creating and sharing while learning.

Key Learnings Last Week

Record Your Podcasts Using Anchor for Creators

Repurpose Video Content with Descript (from Creator Weekly)

How to Be Seen and Heard as a Video Creator (This is basically self-help for any creator, not just video)

Linkedin Creator Posting Strategy