Strands of Genius: Cannabis Does Not Increase Creativity But It Does Increase How Creative You Think You Are, How Phytoncides From Trees Boost Your Immune System, The AI Content Tools Are Here

Guest curated by Nicole D'Alonzo, Cofounder, Social Fresh

Apr 12, 2023

:: A BIT MORE ABOUT GUEST CURATOR, NICOLE D’ALONZO::

LOCATION: Beersheba Springs, TN

In November, my partner Jason and I packed all of our possessions into a storage POD and drove North. When our NYC place fell through, we accidentally became nomads. Reluctant to lock ourselves into a home that we weren’t 100% excited about, we’ve been haphazardly navigating life on the road, while I’m also still recovering from long COVID. The biggest gift we’ve been given is the time we’ve been able to spend with people we love. We spent the winter with friends in Stowe (southern-born Jason who didn’t have a winter coat when I met him learned to ski!) and now we’re at Wholemeal in Beersheba Springs with Rosie & Faris. I didn’t know how much I needed this time together. Since we all left NYC, we’ve only had a few days together at a time. Being here together co-working, cooking, and playing board games has been soul-soothing and healing. Love you two so much and grateful for your good vibes and love (I’m not crying, you’re crying!).

In my past life, I was a global social lead at L'Oréal and Omnicom. I co-founded Social Fresh, the original social media conference and consultancy, built my own yoga app, and I write about long COVID, health, and wellness. This week I’m building our live cohort training course, The Social Video Playbook, on how to get better results from TikTok and Reels. We have a special gift for YOU, as a Genius Steals reader: Get your TikTok Audio Cheatsheet here.

Editor’s Note (Genius Steals): We can't even tell you how much we've learned from Jason Keath and Nicole D'Alonzo over the years! Not only are they incredibly smart, but they're incredibly kind. What more could you want besides the ability to access them from the comfort of your home?! And now you can!!

This year, they're not hosting Social Fresh as a live conference, but instead live cohort-based learning. If you are AT ALL interested in social video, I suggest you jump on this opportunity ASAP. I'm confident you'll be empowered with not only tools and techniques, but life wisdom as well.

:: THE LINKS ::

CANNABIS DOES NOT INCREASE CREATIVITY BUT IT DOES INCREASE HOW CREATIVE YOU THINK YOU ARE

Good news and bad news… The Bad: Studies show cannabis isn't the creative elixir we thought. In blind trials, sober and high folks had equally creative ideas. The catch? Being high makes you feel warm and fuzzy, making you think your ideas are more creative. The Good: Weed makes you see another person’s ideas as more creative too. So next time you need to sell an idea, offer them an edible first to increase your chances of success. (PsyPost)

HOW PHYTONCIDES FROM TREES BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM AND MORE

Feeling better after a walk in the woods? You're not imagining that. Plants release something called phytoncides, which people can absorb by inhalation. While any forest can help, there are specific trees, produce, and spices that make more phytoncides than others. Get outside to take advantage of this natural byproduct. (Environment)

THE AI CONTENT TOOLS ARE HERE (AND THEY’RE BLOWING UP)

Have you heard of CapCut? The owners of TikTok created it and it’s a short-form video editing app. It just crossed 200 million monthly users. AI content creation tools like this are on the rise. YouTube is building AI editing tools to allow for “virtually swapping outfits” and “creating fantastical film sets.” AI won’t kill off creative jobs anytime soon, but it’s streamlining the creation process for writers, editors, designers, and creators.
Here are some AI tools to explore for your content needs.

ChatGPT — Great at creating outlines, script drafts, and metadata
Lex — AI writing assistant
BigRoom.tv — Create auto-panning vertical videos from landscape video files
Prime Voice AI — Create and clone voices for VO tracks
Descript — Edit video and podcasts, advanced voice cloning
Unreal MetaHuman — Video cloning, motion capture, and animation (Pandaily)

Looking for more from Nicole D'Alonzo? Coming Friday, look for an interview from her in your inbox!

:: AND NOW… SOME FAST FAVORITES ::

:: Game :: Codenames

:: City :: We fell in love with Stowe, VT over the winter

:: Book :: Fast Like A Girl

:: Podcast :: Just listened to “The Thing About Pam” by Dateline and loved it (h/t to our friend Jenko!)

:: Album :: Listening to a lot of Spotify playlist right now, including Chill Covers and Rosie’s friend Vosters’ 90s playlist is on repeat!

::HEALING POWER OF NATURE::

I’m getting deep into the healing power of nature and love this meditative video of the Alabama Hills night sky. And lately, I’m learning to talk back to my anxiety with this one direct question, “What if everything was always OK?” #TouchesGrass

I'm most likely to be found Shazaming a song Rosie's playing or posting my keto-ish dinner (or organic wine) on IG Stories, but most recently I started writing again on Substack. Last week I published my first post, The 5 Best Treatments I’ve Tried For Healing Long COVID, and I’ll be sharing all the holistic healing resources I discover as I find my way back to health. If you see me on IG, Twitter or LinkedIn, please say hello! You can never have too many good people in your life :)

Be Bold & Stay Grateful,
Nicole

Strands of Genius is currently read by 13,000 subscribers. Support us by sponsoring an issue, encouraging friends or colleagues to subscribe.

It's called Genius Steals because we believe ideas are new combinations and that nothing can come from nothing. But copying is lazy. We believe the best way to innovate is to look at the best of that which came before and combine those elements into new solutions.

Co-Founders Faris & Rosie are award-winning strategists and creative directors, writers, consultants and public speakers who have been living on the road/runway since March 2013, working with companies all over the world. Our Director of Operations is nomadic like us, our accounting team is based out of Washington, our company is registered in Tennessee, and our collaborators are all over the world. Being nomadic allows us to go wherever clients need us to be, and to be inspired by the world in between.

Hit reply and let’s talk about how we might be able to work together :)

Strands of Genius