Rebel, Reject, Create

What happens when creativity stops being fun?Holly Blondin joins David Chislett on Rebel, Reject, Create to explore the frustration, effort and vulnerability behind creative work—and why struggling doesn’t mean you lack creativity.Holly is a creativity and innovation educator and author whose work spans science, design, entrepreneurship and the arts. In this conversation, she draws on her experience working with PhD students and teaching research students in fashion management at Parsons School of Design.We discuss why brainstorming is only part of the process, the emotional challenge of becoming a beginner again, and how existing experience can support a new creative direction without removing the need to learn.The conversation also explores disconnection, the appeal of making things with our hands, and what creativity means in a world increasingly shaped by AI.Holly’s parting advice: stay curious—and give your curiosity room to influence what you do next.Find Holly Online:https://hollyblondin.com https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollyblondin/ https://www.instagram.com/hollyblondin/ Find David online:https://davidchislett.com

Bradley Charbonneau has built a creative life around a deceptively simple principle: make something every single day. In this conversation, he explains how leaving advertising gave him the freedom to create on his own terms, while also revealing how much structure from that world still supports his work. Bradley has published forty books, uploaded more than seven thousand videos and grown a YouTube audience beyond one hundred thousand subscribers, yet he is honest about the difference between financial success and personal fulfilment. He describes creativity as a cycle of input and output, with mornings reserved for making and afternoons for learning, consuming and refilling the tank. The discussion explores habit stacking, creative energy, audience expectations and the value of publishing work that is simply “good enough.” At the heart of the episode is Bradley’s idea of becoming a “mathemagician”: someone who balances routine, measurement and practical effort with intuition, play and openness to unexpected possibilities. He also challenges the idea that inspiration will arrive without preparation. His advice is practical: stop waiting for a dramatic breakthrough, choose a small daily practice and commit to it for thirty days. The magic may come, but only after you have done the math.Find Bradley online:https://repossible.comFind David Online:https://davidchislett.com

Roland Williams is a creative leader, author and innovation specialist whose career has taken him from Coca-Cola’s global headquarters in Atlanta to corporate communications, startups, scale-ups and innovation projects in Sweden.

In this episode, Roland joins David Chislett to explore what leaders must do if they genuinely want creativity and innovation from their people. They discuss the importance of trust, belonging and being seen; why overloaded teams cannot simply be ordered to innovate; and how small changes to meetings can create meaningful space for people to reconnect and think differently.

Roland also introduces the tension between two very different organisational worlds: the changing cultural system in which people experiment and develop new possibilities, and the stable cultural system responsible for budgets, optimisation and implementation. The challenge is not choosing between them, but enabling ideas to travel from one to the other.

Drawing on examples including Gmail, Amazon Prime and his own leadership experience, Roland makes the case that creativity should be treated as a long-term investment in adaptability rather than a short-term initiative expected to produce an immediate, measurable return.

Find Roland Online:linkedin.com/in/williamsroland

David's Home page:https://davidchislett.com

In this episode of Rebel, Reject, Create, I speak with Monique Pelser, a South African artist based in the Cape who works with people of all ages to reconnect with creative practice. Monique has worked with tiny children, teenagers, adults, university-level art students and older learners, helping them explore drawing, play, experimentation and the emotional blocks that stop people from making.The conversation moves quickly beyond “art” and into the deeper mechanics of creativity. Monique talks about shame, the inner critic, fear of error, the pressure to imitate, and the way people begin to censor themselves when they feel watched or judged. She argues that creativity is much more accessible than people think, and that the act of making something — however small, rough or imperfect — can restore agency.This is a warm, sharp and very human conversation about why creativity gets buried, how we can begin again, and why mess, play and uncertainty may be exactly where the good stuff starts.Photo by Martin ParrFind Monique Online:https://moniquepelser.comhttps://www.instagram.com/moniquepelserstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/canister_communityhttps://www.youtube.com/@moniquepelserstudiohttps://www.linkedin.com/in/monique-pelser-550b5627https://www.facebook.com/monique.pelser.94

In this episode of Rebel, Reject, Create, David Chislett speaks with Michael Brian Lee, creative breakthrough catalyst and author of World Innovators Cup.
Michael’s new book reimagines famous innovators as World Cup football stars, using the playful format of trading cards and sporting mythology to ask a serious question: why do we celebrate athletes more passionately than the people whose ideas actually change the world?

The conversation moves from Nikola Tesla as a Serbian striker to Michael’s own creative journey through writing, television, film education and corporate creativity training.

David and Michael also explore why creativity matters in an age of AI, what machines can and cannot do creatively, and why human instinct, taste and unpredictability still matter.

https://worldinnovatorscup.com/

The episode closes with a simple creativity exercise using a pen, revealing how quickly people look for the “right” answer — and how creativity begins when we push beyond the obvious.