Common Shapes

Creative Ideation Portal Day 1: Our Many Visions

• Cody Cook-Parrott • Season 4 • Episode 24

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Welcome to a new season of Common Shapes!

We’re beginning with a mini series going over the free Creative Ideation Portal - a guide to help you vision your projects and share them with the world.

Tune in for daily episodes.

Day One : Our Many Visions 

Day Two : Moving the Needle Forward 

Day Three : Art as Service

Then join me and Amelia Hruby at the FREE COMMON SHAPES PARTY on Saturday, September 20th. RSVP here.


Mentioned in the episode:

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Thanks to Softer Sounds, Saltbreaker, and Jess Herrera for their help making this podcast. If you'd like to support the show, please send it to a friend, leave a 5-star rating & review, and download the Creative Ideation Portal.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Common Shapes, a podcast about practices and systems for creative work. A podcast that hasn't always been consistent, but is back for season four. I'm your host, Cody Cook-Parrott, and I am delighted to be back in your ears, in the airwaves. I haven't hopped on the mic since January of this year and, and there is just so much to share. So much has happened since January, professionally, politically, personally, spiritually, energetically. And we just, we have so much to get into this season. Since the last time we spoke, I continued experimenting with social media. So in our last episode, I interviewed Amelia Hruby from Off the Grid.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:01:05]:
And then last week Amelia interviewed me on her podcast, off the Grid. And it's great to now be back on my own podcast. And I just feel very like held in the web of podcast dreams. And it feels that way because so much of Common Shapes last season I talked a lot about Instagram and leaving Instagram and Instagram addiction. And after my episode with Amelia last season, I did continue to experiment with using Instagram. And then about a month ago, I deleted Instagram permanently. So I said goodbye to 80,000 followers. The blue check mark, the fancy connections, and it is gone.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:02:04]:
So if you want to hear more, head to that episode from off the Grid with Amelia last week and take a listen. So I'd love to give you an update of where I've been the last few months this year. But first let me tell you what we're going to do the next few days. So, as you know, my longtime listeners, there is a free guide for the listeners of Common Shapes called the Creative Ideation Portal. And if you've downloaded it, I actually encourage you to download it again because it is new and improved. So you can find it in the show notes or@codycookparrot.com and click on podcast and it'll pop right up. So it is a three day guide to help you vision your projects and share them with the world. And over the next three days, a new episode is going to come out each day to help you go through the free guide.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:03:16]:
So today we're going to go through day one, tomorrow we're going to go through day two. Friday we're gonna go through day three. And then Saturday, me and Amelia Hruby of Off the Grid are hosting a free welcome back to Common Shapes party live on Zoom at 12 EST. So that's Saturday, September 20th, live on Zoom, totally free. And we're gonna be going over all three days of the Creative Ideation Portal on the Zoom we're gonna be doing a live Q and A about podcasting and we're giving away free, including Amelia's new book, you, Attention is Sacred, except on social media, and we'd love for you to be there. I'll give a brief update before we dig in. So I'm continuing my studies and my MFA program at the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics at Naropa. This semester I'm taking Queer lit with Stella Corso and they are also mentoring me through an independent study in somatics and poet.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:04:26]:
I invented something new called Cody's World for paid subscribers of my weekly newsletter where I'm tracking my grad school projects as well as behind the scenes of my business and my different containers in my business experiments and notion templates and dance videos and writing experiments. I'm going to say experiments a lot of times because it's a huge experiment, but that's what's going on in Cody's world. Five doll a month or $35 for the year. And I just started a new season of fieldwork with the most amazing 20 people I could ask for. So this is my second cohort of fieldwork this year. I'll be running it again in the spring. And Fieldwork is my small cohort of weird, wild, radical business owners. And so we meet over the course of three months every Wednesday afternoon and do peer support circles and co working and a series of workshops to strengthen our small businesses together.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:05:37]:
And I'm just thrilled with the group. They are so cool and so awesome. I built a brand new website which you've probably seen at this point. I did it with the visioning help of Laurel Schwalz, designed with Jess Herrera and copy editing support with Nicole Cloutier. I love it so much much I could just scream. It feels like a zine. But a website. And Jess also made the new art for Common Shapes and they are a total design genius.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:06:14]:
And I actually found them because they placed a classified ad in my weekly newsletter. So, longtime listener, first time caller. So those are my updates. That's what's been going on in the land of Cody. All right, let's dig in to the Creative Ideation portal. So again, go to the show notes, grab the Creative Ideation portal and then open up to day one. You will see the homepage. So I want you to just scroll down so you'll see the link to each of the days.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:07:02]:
One, our many visions. Day two, moving the needle forward. And day three, art as service. So again today we're going to go over our many visions. Tomorrow we'll go over moving the needle forward and then on Friday we'll go over art as service. And then if you scroll down you'll find the project database. So this is a fun space where you can click into each of these and then it says project template. And you can use this to organize the projects that you start to build so you can just it's just a page in notion so it's not like a fancy database so that you don't have to like learn anything super deep in notion.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:07:44]:
So it's just for you to start writing out your ideas for your project. So I love thinking about Twyla Tharp who used to use or perhaps still does use these like banker boxes to collect all of the like ephemera and ideas and cassette tapes and VHS tapes and like costume notions and yarn and fabric clippings and like everything for a project for a dance. She is a choreographer. Like she would put everything in the banker box and collect it to vision the dance she was working on and choreographing. And so these are your little boxes so you can start collecting the ideas that you are working on. So let's scroll back up and click. Day one Our many visions. So the first step is to set a timer for seven minutes and make a list of everything you want to work on.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:08:47]:
So this is like dreaming day one. Our many visions is like we are putting on the hat of really thinking about like what do you want to work on? And timeline wise we're thinking this week, next week, one year from now, five years from now, like everything you want to work on. These could be your goals around earning a book you want to put into the world, an online class you want to teach, an art show you want to have. And this list could also include hobbies, passion projects, work related things like everything you can think of. So I had so much fun updating the creative ideation portal because I looked at my sample list and that I made this portal originally two years ago and I had done so many things on my list and it was just, it was really impactful to read. Like oh my gosh, I've learned to grow flowers. I started a small kitchen garden. I've healed so much of my debt.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:09:53]:
I wrote my next book. I worked on a small series of quilts and had an art show. I self published a book of the quilts. I painted my bathroom purple. I started grad school like I did. I did all these things or some of them are Projects I'm just starting and like in the process of doing now. And I wrote that list in like a minute. So if I can write that list in a minute, think of what you can write in seven.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:10:18]:
So I want you to pause this episode and take and set a timer for seven minutes and write your list. Okay. Good job. Welcome back. So in my 2025 list, I wrote, finish the outbuildings, create recorded evergreen classes, Start a small press, create an analog newsletter. Create an analog writing class. Okay. Rosemary Gladstar, who's an amazing herbalist, has this like huge binder herbalism class that is like you do it in the mail.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:11:01]:
So I really have this dream of creating an analog writing class. Create a card deck of writing and movement prompts. Host a writing retreat, teach more in person classes and retreats. Buy a motel and turn into a retreat space. I don't know why I said that like a question. Because I'm a dreamer. On day one, fence in the yard, build a woodshed, and get rid of unnecessary objects in the house. Again, I like mixing in like non work things.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:11:32]:
So that is step one. Step two, pick three that you want to focus on this week. Now, that doesn't mean that they have to be completed this week, but we're just like turning our focus toward them this week. So you want to keep them in your mind's eye and then decide which one you want to pick. So I break the three into three categories. One that excites you the most, one that increases your earning, and one that is a hobby or not tied to your job. So that way we have a little bit of variation kind of going into the week. And we're not like overly thinking about making money or like just thinking about our hobbies or overly thinking about what excites us or something like that.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:12:17]:
So my three this week would be create a card deck of writing and movement prompts, Create recorded evergreen classes, and get rid of unnecessary objects in the house. So take a moment and write those three down. Step three. For each one, set a timer for five minutes and journal about the why of doing these things. Why are you devoted to these different things, projects or goals? What will they bring to your life and what will they bring to the lives of others. Now this part is really, really important because I think this is where we get really freaking stuck. Like, this is where I get really stuck. So I'm just sort of guessing this is where you get really stuck.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:13:06]:
This is where I start to tell stories about my work not being important. This is where I'm like, why me? Why should I do it? Why not someone else? Like, why does it matter? Like, the world is on fire. Why would I do any of this? And you know, I am certainly in the chorus of arguing that when the world is on fire, it is exactly when we do this. But it's really easy to paint the picture that our work is important. And don't worry, in days two and three, we will get to that. So today I want you to just really cast the spell and really look at the why. Like, why is it important to you? What will it bring into your life and what will it bring into the lives of others? So I'll just go over for me, why some of these are important and then I want you to really sit with five minutes for each, so taking 15 minutes for the whole of step three. So for creating a card deck of writing and movement prompts, I love decks like oblique strategies and how much it helps me in my creative practice.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:14:22]:
So. Right. I've seen examples of how other decks by artists help me in my practice. So that's proof to me that if I made a deck, it might help others. So I want to create this deck as part of my MFA thesis and research old decks like this and how they have been used in history and how we can use them now. Also, it just sounds fun and I've been feeling called to do it for years. Create recorded evergreen classes. While I love teaching live, I want more time to research and deliver material directly to students while not being on camera.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:14:55]:
I want to be able to focus my energy more on the teaching and delivery rather than the facilitating. And keep the facilitating to things like fieldwork and landscapes and see how that feels. So to me, the recorded evergreen classes are an experiment. I'm curious. I've never done that before. I'm also thinking about growing my income and thinking about scalability and I'm curious about it, if I'm honest. Get rid of unnecessary objects in the house. I have so many books, I have so many clothes and I do not need them all.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:15:29]:
I would love to have a garage sale or a clothing swap or something of that nature or a big online sale or just bring it all to Goodwill. I just did a residency for two weeks and saw how little I needed and want to get back to that. So yeah, I just did a beautiful residency in Western Massachusetts at Atlan. And you know, I drove my truck out there and packed what I needed for two weeks and it was just like so simple to just have exactly what I needed for two weeks. And I'm really, I'm really feeling that. So pause the episode and take five minutes with each one. All right, step four. So for the sake of this process and for the next three days, I want you to choose the income earning one of the three.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:16:27]:
And again, if more than one is tied to that, I think pick the one that's the most exciting to you right now. You can take what you like and leave the rest. If you're like, Cody, I want to choose a hobby. The good news is you'll be able to apply all this later if you want. You could apply it to all of them if you're like really feeling juiced and ready to go. So from this I would pick create recorded evergreen classes. So I will now choose something I can do for the next two days to commit to this project. So the example for me is I will watch a recorded class I bought about creating funnels for evergreen classes this week.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:17:06]:
I have resources already in my possession to support me in understanding how to create recorded evergreen classes. I don't need to buy something new. I don't need to hire someone new. I have the materials available to me now to go deeper into this. So I'm going to do some research into the with the materials I already have. So other examples of daily commitments to your projects would be something like, I will spend time outlining what some ideas could be for an evergreen class. I will survey my students to see what they would like to learn about. I will also survey my current students to see what they would like to learn and if they would like to learn in this way.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:17:52]:
I will survey new students to see if they would like to learn from recorded classes. I will experiment slowly and build out a short recorded class funnel. So that's always a good reminder to me like, I don't need to make a like thousand dollar recorded evergreen class funnel. I can like do it slowly and try something out and see what happens. So pick one. And it's okay if it's a small time commitment. So again, step four is, for the sake of this creative ideation portal, we will choose the income earning of the three to focus on for the next three days. Or if more than one is tied to your job, pick the one that's the most exciting to you.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:18:36]:
And again, you can apply this system to everything on your list that you wrote for seven minutes or to all three that you picked for today. But we're just doing one at a time right now. So then you're going to choose one thing that you can focus on to really apply to this income earning strategy, this income earning idea. And we're starting to strategize a little bit and then you can write some other examples of daily commitments to your project. But I would say at the end of the day, pick one. So my one is I will watch a recorded class I bought about creating funnels for Evergreen classes this week. So my best advice is to carve out one hour tomorrow and the day after to look your project right in the face. And the next two days I'll send more words of support to help you in that hour via the podcast.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:19:37]:
You can Even just do 10 minutes each day or even just the time you read the email that I'll send out. But right now, pick the time you will look at your project tomorrow and stick to it. So open your Google Calendar right now. I know, okay, if you're driving, don't do it right now, please. But if you're sitting and doing this with me right now, open it up and pick the time that you'll look at the Creative Ideation Portal tomorrow and dip back in with us tomorrow, Thursday, September 18th and again, a reminder that we are meeting this Saturday, September 20th at 12:00pm EST with me, your host, Cody Cook Parrott and Amelia Hruby to party online and celebrate the return of Common Shapes with going through this Creative Ideation Portal in real time together as well as giving away cool prizes and hanging out. The last thing I'll say is consider texting a friend to bookend for accountability of the Creative Ideation Portal. You could send them this episode is what I would say. I would say text them this episode and say, hey, have you listened to Common Shapes with Cody Cook-Parrott? Because it's a pretty cool podcast and they guide us through the Creative Ideation Portal and it's really cool and you should totally think about doing it.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:21:10]:
And then together you can do the Creative Ideation Portal each day as a team and then as a team you can complete the Creative Ideation Portal. So that's a beautiful option and I would love for you to consider doing it together with your friend. That's it for now. Rest easy. You just did a lot. Hold in your mind's eye the one project you will stay committed to for the next few days. Bring it to the light. It is goodness in the making.

Cody Cook-Parrott [00:21:41]:
If you loved this episode, I would love if you could share it on a social media app you are not addicted to or link it in your newsletter. Text it to a friend. I would love to thank Softer Sounds Studio for podcast production, Saltbreaker for Music and Jess Herrera for our podcast Art. You can find more episodes of Common Shapes all the places you listen to podcasts like Spotify, Apple. You can leave us reviews, give us a little five stars, or you can go to CodyCookParrot.com where you'll find everything. Thanks for listening.