Creativity Sparks Inspiration (Not the Other Way Around)

Inspiration doesn’t start the fire. Creativity does. Inspiration is the smoke that rises once creativity starts burning.

The Button Belt & Junk Drawer Adventures

I should have realized this truth all along, because creativity has been my companion since I was a little girl.

When I was little, we had this tin cookie box in my house. It wasn’t filled with cookies though, it was filled with random buttons. Some from my mom’s sewing projects, others that fell off clothes and never made it back on.

I was obsessed with that jar. Rarely did more than two buttons match. There was no plan for them. Just potential.

One day, I spread those buttons across the floor and started arranging patterns. Then I found a piece of thread and thought, What if I made a belt?

Of course, the thread was too weak, and the whole thing fell apart when I tried it on. But instead of being discouraged, I felt excited. Now I had a new question: What could hold these buttons together?

That wasn’t “inspiration.” It was creative momentum. Every time I hit a problem, it sparked a new possibility.

And that curiosity—the desire to create just for the joy of it—that’s what kept me coming back. Whether I was digging through relatives’ junk drawers (the ultimate childhood treasure chest) or inventing stories about where each odd object came from, I wasn’t trying to make anything the world would call important. I was just following the creative spark wherever it led.

If you were that kid who loved building worlds from nothing, whether it was Lego castles, mud pies, or mixtapes, you already know this truth deep in your bones:
Creativity doesn’t need a purpose to be powerful.

But somewhere along the way, the world teaches us that creativity is only valuable if it creates something important. Something profitable. Something other people call meaningful.

That’s the real lie.

And the sad part? Science backs this up. Researchers who followed children from early childhood into adulthood found something heartbreaking:
As kids got older, their creativity levels plummeted.

Most young children tested as creative geniuses. By the time they were teenagers, almost all that creative genius had disappeared. Not because it died, but because it went dormant.

Replaced with “the important stuff.” Facts. Grades. Productivity.

You don’t lose creativity because you get older.
You lose creativity because you stop using it.

And this is the real conversation we need to have as parents, creators, and leaders of our families.

• Creativity isn’t something you turn on when you’re inspired.

• Creativity is something you exercise, so you stay inspired.

• Creativity isn’t about making something important—it’s about making yourself alive inside your own life.

When you stop creating, a part of you stops living.
And when parents stop creating, their kids inherit that silence.

That’s what we’re about to explore. Because when you flip the script on creativity, you don’t just spark inspiration; you spark a whole new legacy.

Aretha Franklin & The Creative Fire of the Black Church

“What the world calls soul music started as survival music. Creativity wasn’t optional—it was the only way through.”

Before Aretha Franklin was the “Queen of Soul,” before she was a global icon, she was just a little girl sitting in the pews of New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit. Her father, Reverend C.L. Franklin, was a legendary preacher. But the sermons weren’t the only thing shaping young Aretha. It was the sound.

In the Black church; especially in Pentecostal and Baptist traditions, creativity isn’t a luxury. It’s a necessity.

• When there were no instruments, the voice became the orchestra.

• When there was no band, the feet became the drum and the hands became the cymbals.

• The harmonies weren’t rehearsed, they were created in real time, voices blending like call and response with the heavens themselves.

Every Sunday was a creative act born from what was available, and that creativity sparked something bigger than a song, it sparked the inspiration for whole genres.

From Necessity to Legacy

That creative license, stretching a single note into a testimony, taking the Lord’s Prayer and turning it into a full-on spiritual experience; that’s where soul music was born.

Not in a studio.
Not from waiting for inspiration to strike.
It was born from people creating what they needed because it didn’t exist yet.

And Aretha carried that fire with her. No matter how far she went; performing for presidents, and topping the charts, she never forgot where the creativity started. In fact, in the documentary, Amazing Grace, she went back. Back to New Bethel. Back to the pews where her creativity was first sparked; not by inspiration, but by necessity and response.

What Creativity Really Is

Creativity is what happens when you refuse to let silence have the last word. When you build something out of nothing because your soul needs it to survive the day.

That’s the deeper truth Aretha embodied and it’s the truth every parent, every leader, every creator needs to remember:
Creativity isn’t decoration. It’s deliverance.

When’s the last time you used your voice, your hands, your feet—not to perform, but to create something you needed?

• A silly song with your kids after a hard day.

• A dance in the kitchen just to shake off the stress.

• A story you made up just to remind yourself you’re still allowed to imagine.

That’s not “wasted” creativity. That’s soul survival.

And here’s what makes this so powerful, when you create out loud, your kids catch the spark. They see that creativity isn’t about being famous or perfect. It’s about making what you need to make to get through.

Aretha learned that in the pews.
Your kids could learn it at the kitchen table.
But only if they see you creating too.

Creativity in Motion: Proof is All Around Us

This week, I was sitting in a café in San Miguel when my new friend Mariló Carral walked in.

Marilo is a painter, one of those artists whose work hums with energy even when it’s standing still. You can feel the creativity inside her work. It’s undeniable. We started talking, and I asked if she had any exhibitions coming up.

That’s when she told me the news:
She’s flying to Bangkok the follow day.
She’s been commissioned to design a dress for a major opera that’s about to tour across Southeast Asia.

I blinked. “A dress?”

“Yes,” she laughed. “A dress. I’m not even a clothing designer. This is scary. But they trust me, so it’s going to work out.”

Creativity First. Inspiration Follows.

Here’s the part that matters: Marilo didn’t go to design school. She wasn’t training for this. She wasn’t trying to become a fashion designer.
She was busy painting. Creating her truth, her way, on her canvas.

And someone saw her work, felt the creative energy in it and said,
"That’s the mind we want designing this dress."

It wasn’t about qualifications. It was about creative presence.
Marilo wasn’t waiting for permission. She wasn’t waiting for inspiration.
She was already creating and her creativity sparked someone else’s inspiration.

Now, she’s on her way to work alongside Hermès, one of the world’s most iconic design houses, to bring that dress to life.

This is What Creativity Does.

This is the creative ripple effect no one talks about enough:
When you create out loud, your creativity travels farther than you ever will.

Marilo painted because that’s who she is.
And now her creativity is moving through opera houses in Southeast Asia.

She didn’t plan for that.
Creativity opened that door not her résumé.

This is What I Want My Daughters to Know.

That story reminds me of my daughter Kaja, and how creativity moves through her life too.

When Kaja wrote her first book, it wasn’t because she woke up one morning “inspired.”

For years, she was simply a kid who devoured books, reading everything she could get her hands on. She loved playing with words, writing stories just for fun, with no agenda.

Then one day, during a homeschool project, she had the chance to connect two of her loves; scuba diving and storytelling. Out of that creative mashup came her first book: Because Kids Can Scuba Dive.

The book wasn’t the goal.
It was the byproduct of a childhood full of creative play with words and experiences.
Creativity came first.
Inspiration followed.

That playfulness, that creative motion, eventually sparked an idea worth chasing.
The book wasn’t born from a vision board. It was born from play.

Creativity is How We Make Our Own Maps.

The same thing happened when Kaja joined her first band.
She didn’t wait to feel like a songwriter. She just started messing around with sound, playing with chords and lyrics until something started to click.

Once again, creativity showed up first.
Inspiration followed.

My Own Story: How “Because I Am” Was Born

And truthfully? That’s how my own creative work came to life too.

The Because I Am children’s book series wasn’t born because I had a polished “big idea” handed to me by some muse. It started with a question I couldn’t let go of:
What if self-worth wasn’t something kids had to earn—but something they already owned?

That question led to sketches. Drafts. Ideas written down in the margins of notebooks.
I didn’t wait for the “perfect” idea.
I created my way into clarity.

This is the Real Creative Lineage.

Marilo, Kaja, me; we’re all proof of the same thing:
Creativity in motion doesn’t just spark inspiration in ourselves. It sparks inspiration in others.

And that’s the inheritance I want Kaja to have, the understanding that creativity isn’t something you wait for, it’s something you practice.

That creativity doesn’t need to be important or perfect to matter.
It just needs to exist.

The Quiet Legacy Parents Forget About

Parents think we pass down wealth, values, or traditions.
But there’s a quieter inheritance we’re constantly handing off:
Our relationship to creativity.

If your kids never see you create, they grow up believing creativity is something you outgrow, something only for artists.
But if they watch you create for no reason other than joy, curiosity, or problem-solving, they learn that creativity is a way of living.

They learn that when life feels stuck, you create your way forward.
They learn that when you can’t find the right words, you paint the feelings instead.
They learn that creativity belongs to them.

Create First. Inspire Later.

Marilo painted.
Now her creativity is dressing an opera.

Kaja played with words.
Now her creativity is on bookshelves.

I wrestled with a question.
Now my creativity is shaping the way kids see themselves.

None of us waited for inspiration.
We just created and trusted the spark would follow.

Creativity Sparks Movements (Graffiti, Hip-Hop, Street Art & Beyond)

“Every movement starts with a creative act. Creativity isn’t decoration, it’s revolution.”

By now, we’ve seen creativity spark inspiration in a child with a jar of buttons.
We’ve seen it spark a legacy of soul music from the pews of a Black church.
We’ve seen it spark an unimaginable opportunity for a local painter in a Mexican café.

And if we pull the lens back even wider, we see the same pattern over and over:
Creativity in motion doesn’t just spark personal inspiration it sparks global revolutions.

Graffiti: When the Walls Spoke First

Let’s go back to 1970s New York City.
Before graffiti became “street art,” it was a creative act of protest; a way for the ignored, the unseen, and the unheard to reclaim their right to exist.

Kids who had no platforms, no microphones, and no power picked up a spray can and spoke directly to the city walls.
They didn’t wait for inspiration. They didn’t ask permission. They just created because they had to.

That creative response; writing names, drawing symbols, claiming space, sparked a global art movement.
Graffiti became street art. Street art became a cultural force that redefined fashion, advertising, fine art, and even politics.

It all started because someone created first and the inspiration followed.

Hip-Hop: The Bronx Block Party That Became a Billion-Dollar Industry

Now look at hip-hop.
It wasn’t born in a corporate boardroom. It wasn’t born from market research or focus groups.
It was born because kids in the Bronx (still debatable in Brooklyn) got creative with what they had:

• Turntables became instruments.

• Sidewalks became dance floors.

• Rhymes became testimonies.

Nobody was “inspired to build a global empire.”
They were creating because creation itself was survival and expression.
And that creative spark ignited the single most influential cultural movement of the last 50 years.

Street Art: From Rebellion to Respect

And today, the cycle continues.
Street artists across the globe from Banksy to artists whose names we may never know, are using creativity to challenge power, rewrite narratives, and inspire entire cities.

What started as vandalism became fine art.
What started as destruction became creation with purpose.
Because creativity in motion doesn’t stay small. It catches fire.

The Pattern is Clear

Every cultural revolution, every creative renaissance starts with someone creating before they know where it’s going.

• Graffiti artists didn’t know they were launching a global art genre.

• Hip-hop pioneers didn’t know they were inventing a cultural economy.

• Black church choirs didn’t know they were shaping the sound of soul music.

They created first.
Inspiration and history followed.

What This Means for Families

Here’s why this matters to you, not just as a parent, but as the leader of your family’s culture.
Every time your child creates; every drawing, every beat they make on the table, every weird little story they invent, they’re practicing the muscle that makes cultural revolutions possible.

And every time you create in front of them, you’re showing them:

• Creativity isn’t just for “artists.” We’re all artists.

• Creativity is how we survive, adapt, and lead.

• Creativity is how we tell the world: I’m here, and I matter.

The Hidden Cost of Creativity Lost

This is why creativity is non-negotiable in visionary families.
Because if creativity dies in your home, it doesn’t just rob your kids of artistic skills.
It robs them of the ability to imagine a future they want to live in and the courage to build it.

This is why the greatest gift you can give your kids isn’t just inspiration it’s the permission and example to create, no matter what.

Because creativity isn’t a hobby.
It’s how families, cultures, and legacies are built.

Create Out Loud

“Your family doesn’t need perfect plans. They need to see you create out loud—and trust that they can too.”

Creativity isn’t something you wait for. It’s something you do.

Creativity doesn’t come after inspiration, it sparks inspiration.

Creativity isn’t a luxury for artists, it’s a survival tool, a cultural inheritance, and a leadership strategy.

And here’s the part we can’t ignore:
Every time you create in front of your kids, you’re teaching them how to live.

When you sit down to write, paint, build, cook, and dance without apology, without perfectionism, without waiting for permission, you are showing them how to trust their own ideas.

When they see you create, they learn that creativity isn’t just for school art projects.
It’s for problem-solving, joy-making, healing, thriving, and imagining the life they want to build.

The Real Job of a Visionary Parent

Your job isn’t to raise obedient kids who follow every rule.
Your job is to raise creators, kids who know how to turn nothing into something.
Kids who can dream up the future and then create their way into it.

That’s leadership.
That’s how legacies are built.
That’s how families become culture shapers instead of culture consumers.

Creativity Challenge (for Your Family This Week)

This week, I dare you to:

• Create something with your kids; a meal, a story, a silly dance, anything.

• Create something in front of your kids even if they’re “too cool” to join you.

• Tell your kids a story about something you created as a child, just because you could.

Show them that creativity is part of who you are as a family.
That your home isn’t just a place to consume content, it’s a place to create culture.

The Ultimate Legacy (Pass the Torch)

Every family leaves a legacy.
Some leave money. Some leave trauma. Some leave stories.
But visionary families leave a culture of creativity and courage, the kind that teaches the next generation how to solve problems, break patterns, build businesses, make art, and change the world.

You don’t have to be perfect to pass that torch.
You just have to create out loud and invite them to create alongside you.

That’s the work.
That’s the leadership.
That’s the legacy.

Final Words

Create.
Inspire.
Repeat.

That’s how families change.
That’s how culture shifts.
That’s how legacies live.

It starts with one simple decision:
Create out loud and let them see you shine.