Why You’re More Creative Than You Think (and How to Reclaim It) with James McCrae of Words Are Vibrations
EP 47

Why You’re More Creative Than You Think (and How to Reclaim It) with James McCrae of Words Are Vibrations

Show Notes: 

 

In this poetic and expansive episode, Tonya sits down with writer, meme philosopher, and creative guide James McCrae to explore the relationship between creativity, healing, and the unseen forces that shape our lives. From his early days as a teenage poet in Minnesota to going viral through memes that blend mysticism and modernity, James shares the winding path that led him from advertising boardrooms to open mic nights in Austin. Together, they talk about why so many people feel disconnected from their creative energy, how to reclaim it as a spiritual practice, and how ideas often find us when we’re finally willing to surrender. This conversation is a love letter to the inner artist and a reminder that your creativity is not only welcome - it’s medicine.

 

Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your favorite podcast platform. 

 

Topics Covered:

  • The origins of James’s creativity and how poetry shaped his inner world
  • Leaving the fast-paced world of advertising to reconnect with artistic purpose
  • The power of memes as modern-day myth and healing modality
  • How creativity, like emotion, needs to move through the body first
  • Ways to overcome fear of being seen and redefine authenticity
  • Why everyone is creative—and how we’ve been conditioned to forget
  • The role of mysticism, spirituality, and mushrooms in James’s creative process

 

Guest Info:

 

Resources:

‘Howl’ by Allen Ginsberg https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/49303/howl

 

Connect with Tonya:

 

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Show Transcript:

Tonya: Hi James! Welcome to The Rainbo Podcast, and thank you so much for being here.

James: Yeah, of course, Tonya Thanks for having me on, and it's great to meet you.

Tonya: Likewise. We were just chatting a bit about our Canadian roots and some of our experiences in Topanga together, or rather, not together, but you were living here for a little period of time.

James: Yeah, there's some parallels there. I definitely miss Topanga, what a little, little enchanted land. Truly, truly, very. But I found a great home in Austin, Texas, so I'm, happy here too.

Tonya: I love that. So I typically start all episodes asking you to tune into anything that's been evoking a sense of gratitude in your life or in your day.

James: Well, so what comes to mind is something that's very simple and practical, but we have a. Almost nine month old baby. Wow. Which is beautiful. And, and I'm grateful for, for her herself. But in particular, this moment we just figured out how to get her to sleep through the night. So, so I'm very grateful for the extended periods of rest

That my wife and I get to enjoy because she's sleeping. She went from sleeping, waking up every hour to sleeping like 12 hours straight. Wow. So I'm very grateful for that at the moment.

Tonya: That's,really special. I'm very happy for both of you. Nine months in and nine months out. That's a big one.

Exactly. Cool. Yeah. We baked. Yeah. Truly I'll share a brief moment as well. This morning I was sitting in a tea ceremony with a friend, a new friend, and her little lap dog was sitting in my lap and I was in a meditative state and just holding this dog and I was like, I guess this is what it feels like to have a baby that's like this.

It was just this like moment of such deep connection to this little dog and being like, yeah, I guess when you're pregnant you have this thing on your lap all the time, and yeah. That's exciting. It's very much the season for my husband and I too. We're chatting about when and all of the details, as much as you can plan, I guess.

James: Well, we didn't plan, we didn't think about it and talk about it until we did, and then we pretty much got pregnant right away. So it can, things can change very quickly and it's been, yeah, it's been a blessing in our lives. Just I mean, it's so fun to have a little one to play with and to communicate with, and now as she's getting a little older, you can interact with her.

So it's just entertaining and fun for us.

Tonya: that's amazing. I'm sure it also, oh, I'm curious about the creative process, but I would love to. Well, I'm, so, I've been so excited about this conversation with creativity. I've loved your work. I didn't mention that to you, but yeah, I'm a big fan of your account and the work you create.

And I'd love to start with maybe a brief background. You went from advertising to becoming a poet, and now you inspire people to embrace their inner artist and claim that creativity and kind of democratize that, which I love. So how did the whole process unf unfold for you?

James: Sure. Well, it started, in a way, it really started with poetry because that was really the first art form that I connected with when I was younger.

So I grew up in a very small town in Minnesota, so very isolated, very remote. And, this pros and cons to wherever you grow up. And the pros for, for me was I had Plenty of space just to wander and to imagine and there wasn't a lot of pressures to, you know, get into the right schools to become a lawyer or a doctor.

there was a lot more freedom. So I just was able to connect with my imagination and creativity. And when I was like, probably like 13 or 14, I, I discovered some poetry books that my mother had around the house and it kind of felt like I had discovered my native language In a way. And I just really connected with the form and, I felt connected to all these writers throughout history that had, you know, documented their innermost thoughts and got really into poetry and soon started writing it. And from 14 to 20 I was writing.

Tonya: That's amazing.

James:

Tonya: was that, how was that experience as a teenager, as a teenage like boy doing that?

I am curious.

James: What was it like? I mean, I don't know. I feel like it was a way, just looking back I feel like it was a way to I don't know. You can express things in poetry that you can't express in regular life. Like, period. Like art in general. You can say things in art that you cannot say to your friends and family very often.

It's like a, place where you can dump all of your inner Yeah. In a way it's your most vulnerable thoughts and feelings, and then you're dumping them onto a piece of paper and then, if you do share it or post it or publish it, by the way, here's something I've never told anybody, but here it is online for the world to see, or in a book for the world to see.

Yeah. So it's a funny paradox aboutThe vulnerability that's expressed, but then sharing it. But I wasn't sharing it. I was just writing it. And I think looking back, it might've been a form of therapy. It might've been a form of working through my own, teenage inner turmoil.

I think I was, I would write about, crushes that I had that. Of, that I didn't even have the courage to speak to or in real life, but then I would like express it in, in, in, in poetry. And then it just helped me develop a love affair with language too, you know? And it was at the time I started listening to song lyrics and getting into, great songwriters and exploring Bob Dylan.

So I really just kind of tapped into this world of letters and language and, kind of fell in love with that. And communication through, artistic communication. I, I heard a quote once, I don't remember who said it, but they said that poetry is to language what music is to sound,

Tonya: Poetry's language.

Music is to sound.

James: and I also like how it's an art form that is so minimal. Like if you're a musician, you need to have all these instruments and equipment. If you're a,painter and, and I've been a painter, you need to have canvas and paint and you need to like store this stuff somewhere.

Tonya: And it's a mess and it takes up space. And I've always liked, as a writer, you need a notebook and a pen. And that's all you need. And it's so minimal. And it's just you, it's just the most like direct, just like it's your mind mm-hmm.

James: There's no barriers behind it.

So I just love that directness of it. But then, you know, I think that for me and for a lot of people, I think it's so hard to take the things we love as children or as teenagers, they often drop off as we grow up and as we go into the real world. And I was really resistant to, you know, get having a career of any sort.

I really wanted to be an artist and I was in my late teens, I was got really into painting. So I really wanted to be a painter, be a poet, maybe write books like just be creative and figure out a way to do that. So I dropped outta college and like traveled around the country working at odd jobs and just like working on my art.

Cool. Which I love this, which is great. I,

James: I'm glad I gave myself that freedom to do that. But the way I did it, I didn't have a lot of direction or support or guidance or purpose. my friends were in college and I was kind of alone, so I decided to get back on track, get more direction with my life and with my creativity.

So I went to art school. I thought that would be a happy medium between, like,they'll help show me how to do, make money off of this somehow. So it was like a commercial art school, so studied graphic design and fell in love with that, you know, making logos, making posters, making websites and typography and all that stuff.

And then I found my way into the advertising industry. So I feel like I kind of, snuck into the corporate world through the back door, like as an artist. That's cool. Before you know it, now I'm, meeting with CEOs and. And presenting my work to, marketing teams and all this stuff, and kind of found my footing as a professional.

And after a few years of graphic design, I got kind of bored with that and I kind of pivoted to being a brand strategist, which kind of more big picture thinking and more you know, more writing, writing brand messaging and coming up with strategies and more, more big picture thinking, which I was interested in exploring.

And then I moved to New York City and I had a whole decade career as a brand strategist. I was leading a branding team in a New York ad agency.

Tonya: That must have been so fast paced, too,

James: super fast paced. You know, just like New York is fast paced in general, especially the, the corporate world.

So I was always juggling multiple clients at once do presenting work, kicking off with kicking projects off with new clients and, drinking way too much coffee, drinking way too much alcohol. And you know, my nervous after, after years of this, like my nervous system was a wreck.

And I really started to lose my inspiration and I just started to feel really disconnected from myself and from my own intuition and creativity. And I'd made a lot of progress in my career and I had gotten a lot of promotions and I you know, had a lot of momentum and then it felt like all that had just stopped.

it felt like I'd hit a wall.

Tonya: Like when you decided to leave or in that moment before leaving?

James: Yeah. Leading up to it. Leading up to it. I just felt really stuck and really frustrated and I didn't know what to do. And I remember one night I was at my upper West Side apartment andfeeling so frustrated and didn't know what to do, and I really fell into a state of surrender and I'm just like, I don't know what to do.

I just, I give up and I didn't even expect this to happen. I didn't plan on it happening, but in that moment when I surrendered, I felt like a poem like moving through my body.

Tonya: Cool.

James: And I, In like years. And it was like purging. It was like,vomiting out all my sickness and all of my frustration into this totally poem.

Tonya: And it's kind of like, surrender is such a, deeply creative state because you're shifting from trying to control it to just being like, open.

James: Exactly. And, when that happens I think what you do is you allow grace to inter interfere. Or to intervene.

Because Yeah, when you give up, it's like when you give up your own ego and you stop trying to control everything you create space for grace, which is almost like a divine intervention. to like catch you. Like, you think you're gonna fall, but then you're caught by grace.

Tonya: Yeah.

James: And and that really just opened up my portal of imagination again. And I remember, you know, I was still working in advertising, but I was, I really made a concerted effort to, to slow down and to cultivate my intuition and my creativity again. So I started to read poetry again. I got really into Mary Oliver at that time, who I'd never really read before.

She's much more, you know, a slow nature type poet.

James: So that really helped connect me. And I would just like, spend a lot of time in Central Park, which is such as the beautiful oasis in the city. Right. So I would just like read Mary Oliver in Central Park and just write poetry again. And I started getting poems published in like small, little literary journals.

I was submitting them and I was getting them accepted. And I just started to feel like I had rediscovered my artistic voice. Or my writing voice.

Tonya: Wow. And then how did it transition to kind of the work that you're doing today? When did memes come in? How did it also kind of. was the moment for you where you also wanted to empower other people to really claim that space too?

James: So, let me think of the timeline here. So it was right around that time when I was reconnecting with poetry that my now wife, she had his intuition to leave New York. And that's when we moved to Topanga. Wow. And little did we know that this was like the end of 2019. So little did we know that the world was about to go into a global pandemic and it couldn't have been better because we left a small one bedroom apartment in

a big old building in the upper West side. And instead we had a house. In Topanga with a yard and hiking trails and all of that, so we were really blessed to be in a much more comfortable environment mm-hmm. To experience quarantine. And when COV happened, it was such a crazy time and the insanity of it all, you know, in LA everything was very severely shut down.

And it was just crazy, and like all of the, you know, at that time there was like the, the Black Lives Matter protests that were erupting in cities all over the country, and there were also all the conspiracy theories and everything, and just everything was happening. And it all seemed so crazy and of kind of absurd.

And a few things happened. I was listening to Terrence McKenna talks on YouTube. I love, and I was really inspired by the things he would say, and he was such a psychedelic thinker.

And, he kind of planted the seed because he was talking about memes.

Terrance McKenna would talk about memes in the eighties and nineties and in these like talks Yeah. And the importance of memes. And I ...

Tonya: Do they mean something different then though?

James: Well, yes and no. So the word meme was coined in 1976 by the evolutionary biologist, Richard Dawkins. And he published his theory in this book called The Selfish Gene.

And it's a book about genes. And he wanted to make an analogy to genes and how genes work and how they. Replicate and he made an analogy and he created this idea called the meme, which is analogous to the gene, but instead of it in the context of biology, it's in the context of culture and ideas.

Tonya: Hmm.

So

James: cool. So a meme is almost a viral idea. Mm-hmm. It is something that is spread person to person. And it's al it, it, it almost creates like a gen genetic mutation in a culture. So a meme could be anything. It could be a fashion trend, it could be a, you know, a, a viral dance move. Mm-hmm. It could be a, a slogan like I often think of like.

In the Vietnam War. This is like in the hippie, the, the hippie movement mm-hmm. Was in a way, it was like a, a movement and a revolution based on memes and like phrases. Right. Like you might have a phrase like, make love not war. Right. Make love, not war. Yeah. That's like a meme. Mm-hmm. Because it's like, it's, it's a distillation of kind of a big idea into a catchy, easy to remember tagline.

Mm-hmm. And then that can be, because it's so simple and easy to remember, it can be easily spread from person to person to person, and then it kind of perpetuates and goes viral in the culture.

Mm-hmm.

James: And that's kind of, that's like the genetic mutation that happens culturally, you know, on the plane of thought.

Right, right. So that's kind of what means it just like. Pretty truly are

Tonya: meta consciousness like Yeah, totally.

James: So Terrace McKenna would be out there saying like, we need to make new memes. Like we need to create memes. It's like, we have a responsibility to create memes because memes have the power to change the world.

Tonya: Because it's like planting seeds Totally. And, doing so in a way that is catchy and memorable and impactful in the way that can be easily accessible and spread. So that kind of inspired me. And then also, again, back to Covid, the world was so crazy and absurd that I didn't know as a writer, as a content creator.

James: I was struggling with what to say and how to say it. And I feel like, when the world gets weird and crazy, it's almost like it's time for the weirdos and the crazy people to come out. It's like,I love that our time, it's like the time for the artist and the weirder weirdo weirdos and the outsiders to be heard.

It's like, okay, we know how to navigate this. I just felt like memes being this kind of absurdist format where it's like kind of sarcastic, kind of, unexpected in a way. Like I just started to, that's kind of where my voice started to go. And because I havemy graphic design background, I kind of knew how to make memes.

So I just started to play around with it and was like, well, let's just, here we go. Let's just make some weird memes. And like, I did not really do it thinking they would go viral. I was just playing around and experimenting.

Andthen I don't know, I just kept making them. And some of them were like going super viral and like, I'd been making content for social media for years and, you know, had not found a lot of success.

And then suddenly, you know, I'm just getting like a thousand followers a day for like months. And it's likeI had kind of like yeah, I kind of had tapped into the. The zeitgeist in a way. Totally. And I feel like I was kind of channeling the collective consciousness And kind of reflecting that back through my own, like language.

So I just really found firsthand like the potency of what a meme can be. And like, not just like an internet meme that looks funny, but like, no, but like tapping into that deeper meaning of Making a message spread through its kind of accessibility and through, its just making it kind of.

Sticky or Yeah,

Tonya: like the poignancy of it's like I often think about, or I dunno who said it, but how, like the comic has the bomb and the salve for navigating these very complex times on earth. Because it's like, when you think about just scrolling and seeing something and just laugh, like, and it just hits where you're like, it's so true.

And it's like, this is the human condition and it just like gets to this very visceral level with humor and with like, not always necessarily humor, but something that hits

James: Exactly. Yeah. And it's visceral. That's, the good word for it. Because I realized it's like, okay, you could you wanna get a point across, right?

Like, we all want to get a point across in some way. You, could write an essay or give a lecture on something and present a, a linear logical argument to something and. If you do that, you're kind of only gonna speak to the people who already agree with you. And the people who already object to you are still gonna object to you 'cause you're kind of operating on this world of the intelligence.

But I feel like memes and comedy as well, they sort of have the ability to bypass the intellect because they hit you in the gut. And it's like if you're, if something's funny, you might, and someone said something in a way that wasn't funny and it was more of a. didactic statement, you would be like, no, I disagree, but if you can do it in a joke, it's like a Trojan horse.

Yeah. It like sneaks in the idea and it hits him in the gut and they're like, ah, well I guess I am gonna laugh because that's just, it hit me. Right. Yeah. And, I realize the memes are similar. You kind of get away with saying things that you might not get away with in other formats.

Tonya: So what do you, I guess, within the realm of social media, what do you say to people who are afraid to be seen or who feel like disconnected from their creativity? Wanna awaken that inner artist?

James: Yeah. Well, Social media is a tough one, right? It's like, I love it. You know? I think it's such a, there are pros and cons of course. It's addictive. It'sthe big problem with social media is it's optimized for the wrong things. Like it could be so much better.

But it's optimized for maximizing profits, which means that maximizing engagements, which means, Promoting certain things and, not promoting other things. Soit can be a frustrating place to be creative, but at the same time,we take it for granted.

Like, we're already kind of like, oh, this sucks. We're like, I'm getting off social media and I get that impulse and I totally do. But we take for granted that we have at our fingertips the most powerful decentralized publishing platform and human history. Yeah. Full stop.

Tonya: Yeah. Like my, I've met my best friends on this tool.

James: Sure. me too. And I found an audience for my work and I've gotten books published because of my social media following. And we all start with zero followers and I've never bought a paid ad once. I've never done any, I don't UI don't use hashtags.

Like, I don't do these things to, you know optimize my visibility or, you know I just share things that people connected with. And you know, on social media, I think it's so important to be, allow yourself to be whatever you are, like, I want to say, like vulnerable and authentic, but, that can mean different things for different people too.

So I think it's really important especially when you're starting out it, starting out, just seeing it as a sandbox for exploration. Because if you go back on my feed, you can go scroll back for years and you'll see the style of my content, and even my tone of voice changing drastically from

Year to year. And so I definitely think like putting yourself into a box or trying to copy what's working for other people is a dead end. You know, I think it's okay to copy other people in the sense of, I think every artist needs to study and sort of like copy on their way to finding their own voice.

Like if you wanna be a great writer, you need to be a writer. A great reader. And I think you kind of absorb all, all the people you read and you kind of alchemize them internally into your own voice. But when you're starting out, you know, when I started out writing poetry in high school, there were some poems where I was almost like copying Alan Ginsburg.

Or when I first started, I was copying Edgar Allen Poe Because that's who I first read. So it's like you kind of have to copy people as like stepping stones Totally. As you kind of find your own path. So like, it's okay to take inspiration from other people, but what works for someone else is not going to work for you.

I could name 10 people whose content goes super viral and, and they have, a really strong following and have published books based on their Instagram success and they all have vastly different approaches. So there's no one way to do it. There's no template to follow.

Like, for me it was literally like, let's trial and error. Let's try different things. Let's try memes, let's try reels, let's try poetry, let's try different styles of typography and just like trying to have fun with it. It's like for me, it's like I love refining and crafting my own voice as a writer, as a creator.

And honestly,for me the content creation is is play time. Like, I've got a new baby, I don't have a lot of spare time, right. But like, at night, baby's asleep. I'm by myself. Like, I'll just make memes and content for fun. 'cause that's what, I really enjoy doing it.

And so finding a way to make it fun for you and you might find something. Fun. That's different than what I find fun. I don't find videos fun and I do some videos, but I kind of have to make myself do it. I kind of have to, okay, I'm gonna do a video. It's not my natural place to go.

I like doing them. Occasionally, some people might just love to be on camera and hammer it up, right? And that's not me. That might be you. So, finding a way to make it fun, maybe that means you're doing things that are, that are hand drawn so it feels a little more organic, right? maybe find the fonts that you really, you think represent your voice, or find a way to make reels that are fun for you to put your personality out there.

So for me it's like I'm gonna try all these different things and see what resonates the most and treat it like a creative sandbox and, I just think it would all be better off if we stopped worrying so much about the metrics. Because, the irony is that like your metrics will go up and they will improve if you're putting genuine love and enthusiasm and imagination into what you're doing, which is not chasing the metrics.

So I always like to say like, focus on your message, not your metrics. And your metrics will grow in proportion to the clarity of your message.

Tonya: I love that so much. There's so much that resonates. To kind of follow up questions from that are. what is your specific process look like?

Because something you say that resonates so deeply as a business owner, but also as somebody who loves to create and story tell is you say like, a mindful of information is like lacking that inspiration. And so, there's days where I'm like, call after call after call, or whatever the case may be in whatever person's scenario.

what are your recommendations? What's your personal practice? How do you carve out that space for consistency? And how do you declutter your mind?

James: I think the quote that you're referencing, I think I said a mind that's too full of information has no room for inspiration.

So for me, I'm also a really big into Buddhism and meditation. I have been for years, and my practice these days is pretty simple. I meditate 10 minutes every morning, but when I was really learning meditation and studying it, I I've been through big programs and where we've meditated, three hours at a time.

So I think it's really important to have, like this foundation of mindfulness, because that's, for me, that's directly connected to your creativity, because creativity is at its core about intuition. It's not a problem that you solve. It's not a mathematical equation. It's not a product of your intelligence or intellect.

It is an energy that moves through you. So you need to have a sensitive mind to. To be aware of what is trying to come through you. And for me, it's more about listening and less about thinking. So I really this sounds like a joke but I really do mean it, I really do mean it. I try to think as little as possible in my life.

I love that a lot. The,brain is amazing and the brain is super valuable and it's great to have when you need it. Like, when you need to problem solve, there's an emergency situation. We need a brain situation. You need to like figure something out. But in my life, in my experience, my brain has got me into more trouble than it's helped get me out of.

it's a very valuable tool, but it's not for every situation. So I really try to be mindful and present and let the answers arise. Naturally, whatever that is. And just to like really be in a state of listening of, okay, what am I picking up?

And that's how ideas, that's how the best ideas come through. It's like,I love this. I'm obsessed with this idea of like, where do ideas come from? And it's like, we don't truly know, you know? I love this phrase that we have. There's an idea that popped into my head and it's like, well, what do you mean an idea popped into your head?

How does an idea pop into your head? Can you explain that? It's like, no, I cannot.

Tonya: Yeah. And then three months later, somebody launches the same idea.

James: This is true too. Some, would say that ideas are entities that are out there And they're looking for a human carrier.

And if you don't pick up the idea when it comes to you, it might find a different carrier.

But, you know, the ancient Greeks had this metaphor for the muse, and because they turn everything into a god or a goddess. So they're like, okay, there's these goddesses called the muses that will come down and whisper the ideas into your ear. So it's really about attuning your consciousness to be receptive to the voice of the muse.

And so for methat voice is most active or no, the voice is not active, but I am most receptive to that voice. Early in the morning or late at night.

Because like you said, during the day, there's calls, there's meetings, and for me, it's really hard to, once I have meetings and calls or podcasts or whatever, it's really hard to go back into that.

Open channel. So I protect my mornings. Like, I don't book if I can help it. I don't book anything in the morning. And I just have that kind of carved out for my own just to cultivate that channel of intuition and inspiration to see what's trying to come through me.

So really my creative process looks like every morning meditate for 10 minutes. I make a big pot of Herba mate tea. Because I love Herba mate, because it's like, it's stronger than regular tea, but it's.not as harsh as coffee. Coffee has a focusing effect. Which is great for productivity.

It focuses your attention, which is good to like power through things. But when your consciousness is so focused, it doesn't have that openness to be receptive. So for me, I found that Herba mate is the perfect balance of energizing, but still kind of like opening.

So I drink her mate and I meditate, play some instrumental music, and then I just have an open notebook and I just try to channel what's coming through. And I might be working on an online course. I use that same process for creating my like offerings as well and my business ideas or it could be a poem or it could be a meme, whatever kind of I'm working on, or a book, chapter, whatever it is.

And I just try to keep that. Channel open and I really try to honor the ideas as they come. Like, I've gotten better with poetry, for example, I've gotten better at not editing and especially one of the biggest mistakes I see writers making is trying to edit as they go, or edit their thoughts as they come, or edit the words as they come.

I think it's much better to tune in, be mindful, and to almost dictate your consciousness as it comeswithout over analyzing, without overthinking, without editing. And you can always go back and edit later. But the more I truly trust what's coming through in that moment, the less I end up feeling the need to go back and edit later.

Tonya: what are your thoughts on I. I guess authenticity. I know we've kind of spoken a bit that a bit about that.

When it comes to whether it's your work with individual creatives or with brands specifically, what does that look like? And I think there's this like there's authenticity and then there's like also this culture that's addicted to performance. And is there performative realness?

James: Absolutely. It's a funny I've been thinking about this a lot actually, because I feel like there is, like, authenticity is generally very good thing.

It just means being, saying what you really feel. And being honest and not speaking through a persona or who you think you're supposed to be. And you mentioned brands, you know, brands especially will do this, you know, 'cause brands base their decisions often on consumer research.

What do they want us to say and this and that? 'cause it's hard for a brand if there's, if there's a board or whatever. Yeah. There is. It's hard. Like what is authenticity? Authenticity for a brand mean when there's all these people involved, so authentic to who. So it really helps as a brand to be authentic.

You almost need to have like that passionate founder who's still like around to kind of set the tone for what authenticity means. Because they have that initial vision of why they started the company. And I'm sure you relate to that, I think. Yeah, so authentic authenticity just means realness.

It just means I'm not afraid to be who I am and I'm not going to, I like to say like, do it for the love and not for the likes. And it's like, you're just gonna come across as more real. It's like you don't want to, you know people can, can smell fakeness. I think

Tonya: Always.

James: Yeah.

So, it's just like you wanna be around people who are real and, because when people, when someone is fully themselves, it gives you permission to be yourself.

Tonya:

James: So you're kind of creating this feedback loop of realness. Yeah. I love that.

Tonya: I like to follow people that really spark that in Me too.

It is such a gift.

James: Yeah. And everyone's authenticity is different too. It's like you don't have to do what someone else does to be authentic, but it's like when they are fully themselves without worrying about saying the right thing or being politically correct, or saying what they think they're supposed to say that just gives you permission to find your own flavor of authenticity, which might be different, but it's like, let's all just be honest with each other.

And start there and just be real with each other. And there's more variety and diversity and thought and expression that way. So high level authenticity. Yes. Super important. Awesome. At the same time, I have noticed there's almost like a slight backlash against authenticity where it's like authenticity is great, but it's also become a buzzword where it kind of like means less than it, and it should mean.

So what All that, all this is to say is. You know, art exists across the spectrum of expression, right? It's like I'm one artist that just comes to mind. Andy Warhol, I love Andy Warhol. One of my favorite artists is Andy Warhol, an authentic artist. I don't think I would use that word to describe him. His work is sort of detached.

You know, he would just silk screen images from pop culture onto canvases. It's like, how is that authentic? It's not his image. And he is using a machine to make it. That's not authentic per se. Right? But it was just him. And he was, it's almost conceptual. So is, I love conceptual art too.

It's, conceptual art. Authentic in a way. Because that's what came natural to that artist. But they're not being vulnerable. Right. They're not being especially expressive. It's more conceptual. And I think there's, there's room for that as well. Like there's room for, some people maybe want to craft a persona and that's part of the, what they like to do.

It's like they find that To be interesting, like, I'm going to create a character and play a character. That's interesting too. Like that's a different idea. So I just like new ideas, different ideas, and exploring ideas. And for some people that might be super vulnerable and personal and authentic, it might be more conceptual, it could be a lot of different things.

So I just love having a wide playing field for creative expression. Whatever works for you. Whatever you're most interested in and excited about.

Tonya: Why do you think. A lot of people believe still that they're not creative.

James: Well, we've been told by society that we're not, andsocial media is not optimized for the right things.

Or society isn't often optimized for the right things either. You know, we've created, and our school systems, you know, as they currently exist in a large part, were created based on like the model of training factory workers. So it's about following orders, you know, following instructions, memorizing things, and like reaching certain quotas and, metrics, et cetera.

And it's not optimized for cultivating our creativity. Right. So, we've been told not to, like, I think we live in a world that tells us that. You know, the artists are this privileged class of professional artists and published authors And, you know, professional musicians, the Beyonces and the Picassos and the Taylor Swifts, et cetera.

Totally. These, are the special class of artists, and it's like all we get to do is worship them and to, you know, listen to their music and to read their books, and then we have to go about our lives and go to our jobs. And it's just so unfair because I truly believe that creativity is our nature.

Like it is a life force that moves through us. Like there's this idea of, okay, it's been said in multiple like religions that humans are made in the image of God. And it's like, well, what does that mean exactly? Well. Across all religions, like the common denominator of God is that God is the creator.

Whatever you believe about. I mean, you could even if it's just like a metaphor, God, whatever God is, it just means this, it is the creator and the creation itself, it is the, you know, the great oneness of creation that is self generating. Mm-hmm. And it perpetuates itself in eternity through nature

Through the creative energy and life force of nature. And it's all creative and it's all a life force that also moves through us.

So I think that it moves, it's quite

Tonya: the meme. It's it, right. Like yeah.

James: Creativity is the ultimate meme. Yeah. life itself is the ultimate meme

'cause it perpetuates itself

Tonya: and just like little like mutation after like evolutionary expression Yeah. Of life.

James: Yeah. Absolutely. So. For me, it's like when we suppress that we're doing ourselves a disservice, I think that suppressing our creativity is similar to suppressing our emotions.

And I think we've learned in recent years with, you know, the therapy being as popular as it is now and, we become very aware of the danger of suppressing your emotions. Yeah. Because when you suppress your emotions, you're bearing it and it starts to atrophy and decay within your body.

And that's going to eventually manifest into either an emotional sickness or a spiritual sickness or even a physical sickness. And I think that when we suppress that creative life force within And, it disconnects us from ourselves and from that inner child, which is the inner artist, which is not a age, but a state of mind.

And an attitude of curiosity and wonder.

Tonya: Absolutely.

James: So tuning back into that and is so important and that, really is the ultimate purpose of my work, is to reconnect people with their own creativity. 'cause I've seen through my own. Rediscovering of my own creativity through poetry and memes, you know, in this new stage of my life where I've rediscovered it.

What done for me, what it's opened up for me. So I believe in cultivating that in others. And that might just mean you know, starting small, you know, you don't have to go and write a bestselling book right away, but it's like, at least start writing something, you know, start a journaling practice.

You know, one of my favorite things that I do is I host a monthly open mic, night slash creativity gathering. here in Austin called Sunflower Club, and it's all about the democratization of creativity where it's not. I specifically say this is not a talent show.

This is not about being the best, I like to say it's not about being good at creativity, it's about creativity being good for you. So I keep it really open andit's designed as creativity as a healing modality. So it's it's doing that purge that, when I was saying that, when that poem just purged out of me after being pent up for years.

And it's almost like you're purging out that stuck energy. And that's what it's positioned as. So some people that come and play or perform or share are super talented and, you know, very accomplished in their own right. But then other people are like literally reading something out loud for the first time.

Yeah. And,those are my favorite. Yeah. Is seeing that vulnerability and that sensitivity where it's like, I don't know what I'm doing, but I'm going to do it anyway. And then we cultivate a really like welcoming. And safe place to do that. So people feel accepted and heard and received.

And I'm always just in awe of like, the transformations that I see happening, or people will come back and say, oh, I, man, I shared at Sunflower Club a year ago, and it completely changed my life. It completely opened up my Artistic, you know, intuition in a way that it was completely closed down and now it's open.

Totally. And, I just see like, wow, this really is needed. It's a form, like some people need to go to therapy.

And, I'm not a therapy guy, but some people there is a therapeutic value in creative expression. Absolutely. Even if it's in your notebook, but especially when it's shared.

Tonya: Yeah. Oh, so much of that resonates and gives me so much energy. I, last year, decided to write every single day. hit almost every single day. And I don't know when, but like, there are so many, and poetry is also my medium of like, words have been my or my thing as well. And one day those poems are gonna find their way into a book and

it's also when I think about creativity as an energy force, like you were mentioning, and justwhere it's born in the body and these like lower parts, and then as it makes its way up into our hearts and then the release from the throat and like, just thinking about picturing somebody, sharing a poem.

And anytime I share a poem, even with my best friends, I'm like you know,it's so vulnerable. And so and I am in my master's right now and one of the topics of interest for me is. Creative medicine, healing as a creative modality. And I've been very inspired by spontaneous remission and those moments of grace where something comes over us and I've had it either happen to myself or clients and like, they wake up the next morning in the hospital and the doctor's like, your stage three Crohn's is gone.

And she was with angels last night. Like, there's just something that happens when we can move this powerful energy from, like liberate it from the body. And so I love that as a healing modality.

James: Totally. Yeah. And I would just add to that, I think you're right. I think I like to say that I think creativity does start in the body, but I think that a lot of artists make the mistake.

I used to, I mean, I used to be the chronic overthinker, right? And it lived inside my head 24 7. Just always s perceiving the world through the lens of my own intellect and ego. And I think a lot of people do, especially men. But I was definitely just like a chronic overthinker always in my head, disconnected from my body.

And even when you create from that space, it's shallow. It's, a little bit cold. It's in the head. Like I feel like now what I really try to do and what I recommend that any creative do, whether they're working on a business or a poem or a painting, get out of your head and get into your body.

Period. So that that might mean, you know, taking a lot of time to learn what that means. So studying breath work, doing more exercise, being in nature, like learning about your body. But then in the moment of creation, it's like, again, I don't start in my head. I try to open myself up, but often that, I think that starts in the, in the body and in the emotions.

So it's more like feeling your body and tuning into your body and feeling what's trying to come through you. And what I believe is that when I sit with my feelings and emotions and energy for long enough, without analyzing them, just sitting with them, what will happen is that energy or that emotion will eventually bubble up into a thought, into this kind of spark of an idea.

Soit works its way into the brain, and then you'll have like that spark of, it might not be a fully formed idea, but just like it becomes manifest in thought form. And then you can take that thought form and expound upon it and turn it into something. But I think that your ideas will have more clarity and potency when you start in the body with your energy and emotions, and then let it bubble up into your mind rather than again, trying to problem solve and think your way through every stage of the creative process.

It's almost a subconscious process That you're allowing, that you're almost shepherding through you, as opposed to you are the one micromanaging it and controlling it.

Tonya: That resonates so much. I, something I also really love about your work is the, the. Kind of mysticism and the spirituality that is like in your message both in the actual creative, I guess like thing and also in in how you share how have those been related for you?

James: Yeah, I've got an interesting relationship with spirituality. I would say. You know, I grew up in a very Christian household. And I'm not a Christian anymore. I don't identify with that, but it did from a very early age, it gave me a solid foundation where I felt like I had a personal relationship with God and I don't, you know, that even that word God, it's like.

I kind of just use that for convenience. I think it's the unknown. It's the divine, it's the great mystery. It is,consciousness itself. It is the creator. It is,the source of all things. Right. And it's kind of cool to grow up thinking you have a relationship with the source of all things, right?

There's a certain There's a lot of value from that, even though like, so it's kinda like, I didn't throw out the baby with the bath water. Like a lot of people grow up Christian or whatever it is. Muslim, whatever religion you're grown up with, if you leave that, there's so many atheists in the world right now because they've kind of like, we all grew up with.

I don't know. Like, I think that, I don't know. I think that Christianity, As an example, it's probably applies to a lot of religions. I don't know. It wasn't working for a lot of people. Maybe it was the, maybe like the depth of the mystery or the felt experience of it. It was kind of, I don't know not quite there.

So a lot of people have like, left the church and in doing so, left the idea of God in general and, you know kind of throwing out the baby with the bathwater. But what I did is I sort of retained this relationship with quote unquote God, with the divine, with the source and try to cultivate that and find that in other ways.

Like, I like to say that I went out and looked for God in the, in the church of life.

And being an artist, you know, I've always found God in the, in the work of art. In works of art, you know,that is manifest God. You know, again, this is about a creative energy that someone is channeling and bringing through them and expressing onto a song or a canvas or a poem that is God in action, that is literally God, the work of God moving through you.

And, I've always loved the intersection of spirituality and arts. So like my favorite artists are, and poets are sort of the, I would almost say like, they're like street mystics, right? Yeah. So this ability, I'm really, I love this ability to have this almost agnostic mysticism where you don't fall into the dogma of a religion, but you're still connected with this, mysticism that you can find in all places in everyday life. Right? Like, I think that God exists in all places, people things. Right. And I think it's the mystical poets have a way of seeing that and honoring that. And you're almost like creating divinity and Reverence and finding the sacred in

the mundane. In the profane. Right. Like I mentioned Alan Ginsburg before. He was like my first really big poetry influence. In fact, I've got, the day my first book came out, I got this tattoo that says Howell after his most famous poem. It's called Howell. I gotta look it up. At the end of that poem, he goes through this big rad about how, how all things are holy.

And he's, but he's saying just like. He's saying all these profane things and just saying how they're holy and how they're all holy. And so I love that art, art is not a religion. Art is not a spirit. I mean, I think art is a spiritual practice, but it's a good place that can re remind us of the holiness that exists in all things.

So that's not always the focus of my art, but I do like to weave in the mystical in kind of unexpected ways in my writing.

Tonya: I love that. Thank you for sharing that. Two more questions for you, first one being since you're on the Rainbo Podcast and we're big fans of mushrooms,

Anything you can share about mushrooms, creativity, your practices,

James: Yeah. I mean, listen, I don't know. I'm not an expert. I'm not, but I do know that mushrooms are magical. I'll try to speak about this. I'll try to articulate it as much as I can. 'cause I don't have the scientific ways of describing it, but I just know that mushrooms are such a unique, have such a unique place in the plant and animal kingdom.

These mycelial networks that are formed, there's an intelligence to mushrooms. they're not quite a plant. they're like a plant plus maybe in a way.

Tonya: plant person kind of thing. Mix. they're an entity. They're an entity. Maybe I've heard

James: it.

I mean, I've heard it theorized even like, you know even like psilocybin for example. I've heard it theorized by people like Terrence McKenna, that, you know, it's possible that these spores. It came from other planets.

Tonya: Totally.

James: And it is quite literally an alien intelligence, and I don't know if that's true, but I love that idea.

Tonya: It's totally possible. Anything, I love that

James: idea. Yeah, because what they do and how they communicate with each other and how they serve the eco, whatever ecosystem they're in, how they kind of adapt and serve the ecosystem. Again, I'm not an expert, so I don't have all these specific examples, but I have seen the footage and I have seen the documentaries and like, I know it to be true.

So I, you know, integrating mushrooms, whether it's, you know, different supplements. I like mushroom coffee. You know, I like to microdose psilocybin I think. It definitely helps connect me with my body. So it helps me not get too caught up in my mind and to, you know, spin outta control with worries or anxieties or overthinking.

It definitely helps connect me to my body and just like, help me be more present and there's stuff that it does onto the surface that I don't fully understand. Yeah. But I know that it's doing it and like I trust it.

Tonya: I love that. And if you could share one prayer or wish or message with our listeners today, or the world at large, what would you share?

James: A prayer or message you think?

So what popped into my head was just like a piece of something that I had written, something that I had posted on social media, and it's a bit of a prayer. Let me find it really quick and read it. May you be strong enough to be gentle. May you be smart enough to admit what you don't know.

May you be brave enough to seek peace. May you be rich enough to be generous. May you be courageous enough to be vulnerable.

Tonya: Thank you for sharing that. that hits, there's like some like paradoxes in there and

James: Exactly. It's about paradox because, you know, you don't usually associate strength with being gentle.

But I think that Yeah, true strength is about being gentle. You know, it's like the Warrior's final mission is to, you know, put down his sword. It's like you almost like have to have to learn to, to yield the sword and yield your own power. But the final stage is being able to set it down.

And, the truth strength is in that gentleness.

Tonya: I love that. Well, thank you so, so much for sharing all this amazing wisdom with us today. I was actually thinking, as I was sitting down to record with you, I was like, oh my gosh. I'm gonna tell James that. For this, when I share this episode on social media, I'm gonna create a meme.

I'm gonna challenge myself. Yeah. I was like, I've never created a meme. So we'll see if that happens, but it's my intention at the moment and I'm gonna see what I got.

James: Hey, listen, we were talking about experimentation and Exactly. Playing and trying different things, so this is your opportunity to do that.

Tonya: Exactly. Well, thank you so much again.

James: Of course. Great to meet you. Great to spend this time with you and, and thanks for having me on.

 

Keywords:

creativity and healing, reclaiming your inner artist, meme culture and consciousness, spiritual creativity, authenticity in social media, how to get inspired, mindfulness and art, poetry and emotional expression, art as therapy

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