Creative Courage

Creative Courage

Fearlessly face the future with the #1 skill you need.

You needed it yesterday, but I can help you find it today.
Much more, and much less than a paint night.
Creativity is like poop. You're full of it.

Watch Video

Creativity.
Our Elemental Human Gift

Let me be your guide...

Everyday Creativity has proven to influence:

• 

  Resilience

• 

  Innovation

• 

  Confidence in Uncertainty

• 

  Job Satisfaction and Performance

• 

  Agility and Adaptability

• 

  Complex Problem Solving

• 

  Critical Thinking

• 

  Empathy

What to Expect

I challenge people to reconnect with their inherent creativity, even if they can’t sing “Happy Birthday”. Drawing from my experience in stand-up comedy, I love to entertain while watching paradigms shift. Kids can have fun learning and so can you. I might even sing a song or play my guitar (don’t get excited, I'm not every good).

I’m a veterinarian with ADHD, trained in medicine, steeped in science and data, with an inner performer who loves to create and play. My science background compels me to use research and data to support my claims. My ADHD compels me to keep it interesting and relevant. No back-rubs, or fingerpaints - not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Keynote Speaking

Since I'm a creativity speaker, I'm extremely flexible.

I want to ignite a spark so big it launches your team into next year. Got kindling?

• 

  Creative Agility: Building emergency exits in dead ends
  Keynote for Sales Teams

  

  Click to Expand

  

  Best Audience

  Sales Conferences, Training Kickoffs, Association Events, Skeptics and “non-creatives”

  All the Feels

  Creativity is not just for artists, kids and grandmas. Everyday creativity will help you to make better decisions in uncertainty, improve your mood, job performance, leadership and more. Respond with more agility, differentiate yourself by finding new opportunities. Leave your competitors behind in the stale and crowded waters of the status quo. Let's explore how the #1 skill you need this decade will help you to build windmills in the gale of change, instead of getting blown away.

  Learning Objectives

  1. Embrace your unique style of creativity

  2. Understand the two types of creativity and how to use them for maximum effect

  3. Discover 5 easy ways to practice creativity daily (D.A.N.C.E)

  4. Gain clarity on the pitfalls of making decisions in uncertainty - and how creativity helps

  5. Learn how to generate more insights

  6. Connect the dots between creativity, your comfort zone, resilience and failure.

  

  Watch Video

  

  It was such an inspiration, interactive presentation. Our staff loved it and have mentioned they feel rejuvenated and are looking forward to finding more ways to stay creative through these times.

  — Karen Velthuys, Executive Director, Learning Disabilities Association of Manitoba

  
• 

  Creative Courage: The parachute to leap effortlessly into excellence
  Keynote for Leaders

  

  Click to Expand

  

  Best Audience

  HR Events, Associations, Training Events, Leadership conferences, Personal Development training

  All the Feels

  The problem with having a big human brain, is that we think we have more control over our instincts than other animals. We still crave certainty. These instincts no longer serve us in our rapidly changing environment. The good news is that with self-awareness, we can use our big brains to chart a new course, with better results. Let's explore the discomfort of uncertainty together in this interactive keynote. Discover how we can avoid self-sabotage that plagues those who simmer in the status quo. You will be astonished to learn that you already possess the secret antidote to this design flaw in our evolution. Leave with the confidence to take bold moves and rebound from failures like a bouncy ball in a squash court.
  *Workshops available for a more in-depth and immersive experience.

  Learning Objectives

  1. Understand the proven benefits of Tolerance of Ambiguity at every organizational level.

  2. Recognize the relationship between Tolerance of Ambiguity, Creativity, and Resilience.

  3. Discover your physiological response to ambiguity and uncertainty.

  4. Learn how the current climate of ambiguity influences creative problem solving, and how you can break free, to prosper this decade.

  5. Curate techniques to build your ability to face ambiguity with confidence for competitive advantage.

  6. Build an agile mindset to embrace “just in time” skills development.

  

  Thank you for your inspiring workshop on uncertainty. It provoked good thoughts and lasting contemplation. And it was fun!

  — Caitlyn Burda - Montana

  
• 

  Creative Design: Blueprint for a regret-proof life
  Keynote and Workshop options

  

  Click to Expand

  

  Best Audience

  Sales Teams, Marketing Team, Executive Team, Fundraising Organizations, Associations, Small Business Owners

  All the Feels

  This is no finger-painting session. In order to resist the siren call of comfort, we must choose discomfort. This feeling of stepping into the liminal space, out of our comfort zone, is one that can be learned and practiced. Join me in discovering this process for yourself.
  With customized and curated experiences for your team, we will step into the liminal space where all is uncertain. Individual benefits of everyday creativity include more happiness, less stress, higher job satisfaction, salary and performance. Companies benefit from a creative workforce with higher profits, less turnover, lower health care costs, a more positive culture, and of course, the innovation required for differentiation.
  *Offered as a keynote or half day to full day workshops, customized to your needs.

  Learning Objectives

  1. Recognize every human’s capacity for Every Day Creativity.

  2. Identify unconscious creative sabotage in ambiguous conditions.

  3. Identify 5 techniques to increase creative potential (D.A.N.C.E).

  4. Describe the relationship between Tolerance of Ambiguity, Creativity and Resilience.

  5. Define Comfort Zone and benefits to facing failure and uncertainty

  6. Find the edge of your creative comfort zone with a surprise group activity (group and individual needs will be accommodated)

  

  Watch Video

  

  Caroline spoke at a retreat for our Women Presidents’ Organization. She was highly accommodating and willing to create a custom program for our unique needs. It was very interactive and activity oriented, with lots of group work and opportunities to embed the learning in the moment. Caroline is an aspiring comic so I appreciated her sense of humour and ability to keep the day light and fun! She definitely pushed us outside our comfort zone, in a good way. She is very intuitive and sensed the high trust in the group so she challenged us to expand our creative horizons, and it was a successful outcome. Personally I also appreciated learning a bit more about my own creative potential in a professional and comfortable setting. I highly recommend Caroline for any corporate keynote or workshop if you want to boost creativity and innovation in your culture.

  — Dawn O’Connor, Women Presidents Organization

  
• 

  Creative Leadership: Unlock team potential with Creative Problem Solving
  Keynote and Workshop for Managers

  

  Click to Expand

  

  Best Audience

  Creative Problem Solving, Manager Training, Sales Conference, Executive Retreat

  All the Feels

  Leaders are struggling with the rapid pace of change in the workplace, with good reason. Humans hate ambiguity, and have developed complex, often unconscious reactions to avoid uncertainty. In this interactive experience, managers will experience and name their own thoughts and feelings in response to uncertainty. Once identified, we will practice strategies to interrupt old habits, and apply a validated Creative Problem Solving framework to find new and feasible solutions to any problem. The depth of material covered will depend on your needs, and the workshop length and format.

  We have a big brain for a reason. Let’s use it to pause, get curious, and adapt. Let’s banish the status quo, but only if you want competitive advantage, innovation, and empowered teams who want to come to work because they are making a difference. Quite literally, if we can learn to respond to uncertainty with creativity, we will most definitely change the world.

  For what it's worth, I'm not prone to hyperbole.

  Learning Objectives

  1. Learn how we react to ambiguity and uncertainty.

  2. Identify your own reactions (thoughts, feelings, sensations) in response to uncertainty.

  3. Gain clarity on the pitfalls of making decisions in uncertainty - and how creativity helps.

  4. Discover the curiosity advantage and how to apply it to ambiguity.

  5. Outline the Creative Problem Solving Framework.

  6. Describe Divergent and Convergent Thinking and when each is indicated.

  7. Practice exercises for creating new solutions for old problems.

Videos

Disrupt HR Talk

• Creative Leadership to Seize more Smiles (and profit)

• How to D.A.N.C.E into a bright future with Creativity

• Creative Thinking for useful solutions despite Uncertainty

About Me

Testimonial Pond

(where I go fishing for compliments)

• “Our newcomer job seekers who attended your session not only had fun but learned practical and creative ways to approach their job search challenges particularly in these days of uncertainty and crisis. Your session was interactive, and your inputs were practical and relevant.”

  — Marivic Prospero, Director, Career and Employment Services

  

• “Caroline is amazing at helping people to unlock that creativity with practical tips and tools that anyone can use. I had the pleasure to host a few of her sessions she presented with our organization, and had also been an attendee to her talks. I have seen and experienced how Caroline uses her knowledge and positivity to connect with people from all walks of life.”

  — Michael Manzano, BA, MBA, Bow Valley College, Alberta

  

• “Caroline recently supported Elevated with a client in our course called Leadership Essentials. We would highly recommend using Caroline to support you in building a creative and more resilient team!”

  — Michelle Berg, Chief Visionary Officer, Elevated

  

• “Caroline's workshop was fantastic! I had many key takeaways that I was able to utilize with my team and those tools have made us quicker at coming to a solution for a problem, easier to be more creative in our process and overall have a lot more fun working together. I'm so grateful I took the time to attend!”

  — Lisa Genovese, Président, BottomLine

  

• “Caroline was highly accommodating and willing to create a custom program for our unique needs. It was very interactive and activity oriented, with lots of group work and opportunities to embed the learning in the moment. I highly recommend Caroline for any corporate keynote or workshop if you want to boost creativity and innovation in your culture.”

  — Dawn O'Connor, Women's President Organization Chapter Chair

  

• “It was such an inspiration, interactive presentation. Our staff loved it and have mentioned they feel rejuvenated and are looking forward to finding more ways to stay creative through these times.”

  — Karen Velthuys, Executive Director, Learning Disabilities Association of Manitoba

  

• “Caroline was a pleasure to work with! She was respectful of deadlines and very attentive and responsive to the needs of our organization. Caroline delivered an engaging presentation with both humour and professionalism.”

  — Susan Iannuzzi, PTSA 2020 Virtual Conference Planning Committee

  

• “Caroline is a confident, engaging, and charismatic presenter. Her enthusiasm for talking about creativity is contagious.”

  — Hasmik Asmaryan, Project Manager, CCIS

  

• 

  “...her presentation was engaging, informative and well received by our members and additional community stakeholders. I would recommend her as a speaker, workshop facilitator and consultant.”

  — Carrie Axten, PCDC Provincial Chair

• 

  “Caroline is an engaging, practical, and relatable speaker, and her experience with stand-up comedy adds hilarious commentary that keeps the audience laughing”

  — Marie Holowaychuk, DVM, DACVECC

• “Everyone we received feedback from stated that they really liked how interactive your talk was and that you were able to provide many tangible ways that they can inject creative problem solving into their job search”

  — Nicole Dodd, Coordinator, Career Connection, LINC Career Services, School of Global Access

• 

  “Caroline came to my emerging leader virtual group... We had some great exercises in breakout rooms and one of the participants said: "Your speaker today was amazing and I need to connect with her for sure. " It was so much fun but the group learned how to tap into their creativity in such an engaging way. I highly recommend Caroline!”

  — David McGlennen, High Performance Culture Coach

• “I've developed this daily anxiety threshold, and it can wear on you. Having this "conversation" with you about creativity, and going back and listening to some of music, has lifted a heavy weight off me.”

  — Jeff King, Developer

• “It was fabulous to see the mix and dynamic she brought forward to connect the business side of things along with the creative side of things. She made us dive into our inner comedian – scary, right?! But certainly true to her letting me know prior to the presentation that she would open our creative side, add to the presentation all the laughs we had – and data/stats she referenced (because I love data!), it was awesome!”

  — Jaclyn Reid, VP & CEO, CSS Office Solutions Inc.

• “I attended and loved your ATB presentation yesterday. It truly has inspired me, and has contributed in a positive way to my fragile state of happiness.”

  — John C.

• 

  “Our newcomer job seekers who attended your session not only had fun but learned practical and creative ways to approach their job search challenges particularly in these days of uncertainty and crisis. Your session was interactive, and your inputs were practical and relevant.”

  — Marivic Prospero, Director, Career and Employment Services
• 

  “Caroline is amazing at helping people to unlock that creativity with practical tips and tools that anyone can use. I had the pleasure to host a few of her sessions she presented with our organization, and had also been an attendee to her talks. I have seen and experienced how Caroline uses her knowledge and positivity to connect with people from all walks of life.”

  — Michael Manzano, BA, MBA, Bow Valley College, Alberta
• 

  “Caroline recently supported Elevated with a client in our course called Leadership Essentials. We would highly recommend using Caroline to support you in building a creative and more resilient team!”

  — Michelle Berg, Chief Visionary Officer, Elevated
• 

  “Caroline's workshop was fantastic! I had many key takeaways that I was able to utilize with my team and those tools have made us quicker at coming to a solution for a problem, easier to be more creative in our process and overall have a lot more fun working together. I'm so grateful I took the time to attend!”

  — Lisa Genovese, Président, BottomLine
• 

  “Caroline was highly accommodating and willing to create a custom program for our unique needs. It was very interactive and activity oriented, with lots of group work and opportunities to embed the learning in the moment. I highly recommend Caroline for any corporate keynote or workshop if you want to boost creativity and innovation in your culture.”

  — Dawn O'Connor, Women's President Organization Chapter Chair
• 

  “It was such an inspiration, interactive presentation. Our staff loved it and have mentioned they feel rejuvenated and are looking forward to finding more ways to stay creative through these times.”

  — Karen Velthuys, Executive Director, Learning Disabilities Association of Manitoba
• 

  “Caroline was a pleasure to work with! She was respectful of deadlines and very attentive and responsive to the needs of our organization. Caroline delivered an engaging presentation with both humour and professionalism.”

  — Susan Iannuzzi, PTSA 2020 Virtual Conference Planning Committee
• 

  “Caroline is a confident, engaging, and charismatic presenter. Her enthusiasm for talking about creativity is contagious.”

  — Hasmik Asmaryan, Project Manager, CCIS
• 

  “...her presentation was engaging, informative and well received by our members and additional community stakeholders. I would recommend her as a speaker, workshop facilitator and consultant.”

  — Carrie Axten, PCDC Provincial Chair
• 

  “Caroline is an engaging, practical, and relatable speaker, and her experience with stand-up comedy adds hilarious commentary that keeps the audience laughing”

  — Marie Holowaychuk, DVM, DACVECC

• “Everyone we received feedback from stated that they really liked how interactive your talk was and that you were able to provide many tangible ways that they can inject creative problem solving into their job search”

  — Nicole Dodd, Coordinator, Career Connection, LINC Career Services, School of Global Access
• 

  “Caroline came to my emerging leader virtual group... We had some great exercises in breakout rooms and one of the participants said: "Your speaker today was amazing and I need to connect with her for sure. " It was so much fun but the group learned how to tap into their creativity in such an engaging way. I highly recommend Caroline!”

  — David McGlennen, High Performance Culture Coach

• “I've developed this daily anxiety threshold, and it can wear on you. Having this "conversation" with you about creativity, and going back and listening to some of music, has lifted a heavy weight off me.”

  — Jeff King, Developer

• “It was fabulous to see the mix and dynamic she brought forward to connect the business side of things along with the creative side of things. She made us dive into our inner comedian – scary, right?! But certainly true to her letting me know prior to the presentation that she would open our creative side, add to the presentation all the laughs we had – and data/stats she referenced (because I love data!), it was awesome!”

  — Jaclyn Reid, VP & CEO, CSS Office Solutions Inc.

• “I attended and loved your ATB presentation yesterday. It truly has inspired me, and has contributed in a positive way to my fragile state of happiness.”

  — John C.

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