Creativity Isn't the Thing You Make: Noticing, Play, and Keeping the Human in the Creative Process

Show Notes: Heartwired – Emotionally Intelligent Leadership

Episode Title: Creativity Isn't the Thing You Make: Noticing, Play, and Keeping the Human in the Creative Process

Host: Dr. MJ Vignone

Guest: Garnet Davis McElree, Creative Strategist, Speaker & Founder of Modern Being

Episode Summary

In this episode of Heartwired, Dr. MJ sits down with Garnet Davis McElree — award-winning creative strategist, speaker, and founder of Modern Being — to ask a question that gets harder every month: if AI can produce the website, the logo, the campaign, and the template in seconds, what is left that belongs to us?

Garnet's answer is that we've started confusing creativity with the things creativity produces. The website, the building, the painting: those are outputs. The creativity is the thinking behind them, the noticing, the curating, and the questions nobody thought to ask. Garnet has led creative teams and brand strategy for years, and in this conversation he makes the case that the most human parts of creativity are the ones most worth protecting, and that AI can help protect them if we use it well.

The conversation covers a lost-dog message pole that helped a friend find an apartment, why Garnet hands every audience a box of crayons, the difference between a stepping stone and a mistake, and a practical method for using AI as a creative partner without letting it do the thinking for you.

Key Takeaways Creativity Is the Thinking, Not the Output

We call a beautiful website or a well-designed kettle "creative," but Garnet argues that's the output. The creativity happened earlier: what the person drew from, what they noticed in the world, how they combined things that didn't obviously belong together. You can't see that process, which is why it's easy to overlook. That doesn't make it any less important. When AI can generate the output instantly, the invisible part is what's left to us.

Not Everything Is Searchable

On his way home through Vancouver, Garnet looked up from his phone and noticed an apartment ad pinned to a community message pole. A friend had been searching online for weeks without luck. He sent her the ad, and she got the apartment. His takeaway: some things are observational, and not everything lives online. Noticing takes a willingness to look up, and it often leads to opportunities you wouldn't have had otherwise.

Noticing Includes Noticing People

Garnet describes himself as an "introverted extrovert" who has been challenging himself to talk to more people. When he got lost in a Paris museum, he noticed that another visitor was just as stuck. Instead of staying stressed and silent, he said hello in the elevator. By the time they found the exit, he'd made a new friend. Noticing, he says, isn't only about looking. It's about noticing what other people are feeling.

We Unlearn Creativity on the Way to the Boardroom

Children explore, ask why over and over, and put things together that don't make sense, and they're immersed in the experience while they do it. Garnet believes we're all born with that instinct and that many of us learn to undo it on the journey from the playroom to the boardroom in order to fit in. Leaders who want innovation have to make room for it again.

Play Is Not a Four-Letter Word

Garnet argues that when people feel safe, and can work on something that isn't directly tied to the task in front of them, that's often when the best solutions show up. Asking why, experimenting, and taking risks are all ways of embracing both safety and innovation. He also points out that the stepping stones in any successful person's story would look like mistakes if the outcome had gone differently. A lot of it comes down to perception.

Crayons and the Missing Control-Z

Garnet hands every person in his talks a box of Crayola crayons with a band around it that reads "never be afraid to color outside the lines." Crayons make a permanent mark, so there's no undo. He gives assignments that defy logic, like mixing colors that don't make sense, because bringing together things that don't belong is often where the best solutions come from. Dr. MJ shares a similar exercise from her workshops, asking teams to draw their organization as a moving vehicle. Some draw a rocket ship and some draw a rickety bicycle, and explaining the drawing to others is where people discover what they actually think.

AI as a Creative Partner That Frees You to Focus on Ideas

Garnet describes how he nearly failed drawing in art school and was once told he'd never make it in advertising because he couldn't draw, even though he had great ideas. AI lets him output what he imagines, so he can focus on opportunities rather than execution. He calls himself AI-agnostic, and believes the human being is at the center of everything while embracing AI as a tool that lets him do more and challenges his thinking in ways he might not have on his own.

AI Runs on Endless Red Bull. You Don't.

Garnet warns that AI has endless energy, and it's easy to follow it down a rabbit hole until you're overloaded with information and no closer to an answer. His antidote: step away, give yourself time to get a human perspective, then come back. Ask AI to ask you questions. Ask it for examples of other people who've worked on something similar, so you're bringing outside perspectives in from within the system.

Bring Your "What Ifs" Before You Open the Chat

Before you start working with AI, spend time on your own thoughts and your own what-ifs. What if we didn't do a presentation and created an experience instead? Coming in with possibilities that challenge AI's logic keeps the conversation wide instead of immediately deep, and protects your own critical thinking. Dr. MJ adds that once you're inside the conversation, it's easy to get sold on the first thing that sounds right.

Be the Editor, the Curator, and the Conductor

When AI produces a moment that makes you say "brilliant," Garnet's advice is to take it out of the system and save it somewhere else. When you go back, AI tends to reinterpret what it created before, and it doesn't always represent it accurately. Guard what you create. You are the editor, the curator, and the conductor.

Memorable Quotes

"I believe we're mixing up what creativity is versus what an output is."— Garnet Davis McElree

"Play is not a four-letter word."— Garnet Davis McElree

"AI is a great canvas, a palette for your inputs."— Garnet Davis McElree

"You're an editor and a curator and a conductor."— Garnet Davis McElree

This Week's One Thing

Garnet offers a few small experiments. Look up from your phone and notice something you'd normally walk past. Talk to one more person than you normally would. And the next time you sit down with AI, come in with a few thoughts and a "what if" of your own first, and save the best ideas somewhere outside the chat.

About Our Guest

Garnet Davis McElree (pronounced Mac-il-ree) is an award-winning creative strategist, speaker, and founder of Modern Being. His work explores the human side of change, from creativity and culture to the ways technology is reshaping how we live, work, and connect.

With a career built around understanding people, ideas, and what makes them matter, Garnet brings a curious and distinctly human perspective to a world increasingly driven by data and prediction. Through Modern Being, he helps leaders understand not just what's happening today, but why it's happening, so they can help shape what happens tomorrow.

Website: modernbeing.com

Garnet's LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/garnetmcelree

Modern Being LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/modernbeing

Instagram: @modernbeinglife

Connect with Heartwired

Email: drmj@drmjheartwired.com

Website: drmjheartwired.com

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/maryjeanvignone

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