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3 Ways to Recharge Your Business Creativity

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Stephen Key

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Why Letting Your Inner Child Out Can Benefit Your Business

How many times have you watched your son or daughter’s imagination shine as they play with their friends or by themselves? Children are incredible dreamers and creators who have no inhibitions about letting creativity dictate their actions. To me, entrepreneurship is synonymous with creativity. People often talk about business and art as if the two couldn’t be more separate, but both celebrate the value of looking at the world a little differently than everyone else. The best entrepreneurs see possibility and opportunity where others have failed to, because they’re able to spot unique and powerful ideas that will resonate with consumers. Developing and celebrating your creative energy can benefit your business in countless ways.

I’ve spent the past twenty years bringing my product ideas to life. Thinking creatively has helped me invent and innovate, but even more importantly, I’d argue, it has helped me problem solve. Business owners are constantly surprised by new and different conflicts to overcome. You’ll never be able to predict them all. The more comfortable you become with quickly brainstorming solutions, the better your business will be. There’s never just one answer. And that’s why being able to think outside the box when your business is faced with a seemingly impenetrable roadblock is important. Somewhere along the way most of lose the ability to dream and imagine as easily as we did as children; being able rekindle these skills will help your business.

3 Ways to Recharge Your Business Creativity

I don’t believe that certain individuals are inherently more creative than others. The belief that ‘you’re just not creative’ is an excuse. We’re all creative! As children, we’re all able to dream and imagine with abandon. But like any other skill, creativity requires practice, commitment, and inspiration. I’ve found that playing games helps recharge my creativity.

The first one is, ‘What If?’ When I try to imagine new product ideas or encounter a problem in my daily life, I allow myself to ask any question I want to. What if we lived in a world that __? What if I were able to __? There are no right or wrong questions (nor answers!). I remember my own three children asking me question after question when they were little. Questions lead to answers, answers lead to more questions, and creative juices flow during the process!

The second game I play I call, ‘Mix and Match’. I combine several ideas together, even if they don’t seem to make immediate sense. Someone really hit the nail on the head when they matched a camera and phone, after all…. Some of the best ideas actually combine existing concepts or products in interesting ways. Think about all the times you’ve watched your son or daughter play with their toys in unique ways. They are no strangers to mixing and matching to make things new and exciting.


The third creative game I use is called ‘Solve It’. What do you wish was made better? What would you do to change it? Some products and services have been around for so long, we no longer even think about what it would be like if they were different. Don’t take any assumptions for granted, and stop subconsciously assuming what is and isn’t possible.


And finally, don’t forget to get inspired. Seek out friends, family, and peers who, like loved and empowered children, believe that anything’s possible and embrace the alternative. Some people are more receptive to new ideas than others. At the least, find someone whose first word isn’t always ‘no’.

Break out of your normal mold and schedule. How can you imagine something different and unique if you always do and see the exact same things? Change your route to work. Try a new restaurant instead of your neighborhood favorite. I know your schedule is hectic, but make time to read a new book or magazine, or watch an interesting film. Exposing yourself to new ideas and ways of thinking will jumpstart your own creativity.

Above all, allow your creative inner child to emerge to help bring your business to new heights.

What do you do to inspire your creativity?

Author’s Bio:
Stephen Key writes about licensing and small business at www.inventornotes.com. He is also author of One Simple Idea and One Simple Idea for Startups and Entrepreneurs. You can find Stephen on Twitter as @inventright ()

Thank you, Steven. Love your thoughts on inspiring creativity!

–Me “Liz” Strauss

5 Ways to Leverage Other People’s Success to Fuel Victories of Your Own

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A Good Wheel Already Exists.

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I had a problem with my computer. The operating systems wouldn’t recognize the CD-DVD player. Every time I tried to reinstall the drivers, I received an error stating that my attempt to install the drivers was unsuccessful. I put to work my problem-solving skills. I tried various and sundry fixes. I approached it from every direction I knew.

The situation went on for a few days — or was it weeks — until a day came that I needed to use the CD-DVD for a project. I was serious now. Again I tried in my usual problem solving approach. Then, when I’d decided the whole endeavor was taking too much time, I turned to Google asked the question. Found an answer. It worked. I did a victory dance and moved on.

The I remembered something I already knew. The kind of common sense that we commonly forget.

The answer had been waiting while I suffered though all if my testing and trials. I’d been thinking that I had to do everything alone, solve every problem myself. I’d ignored perfectly good answers.

Never let a good thing pass you by. Charlize Theron.

I’d been letting those good answers pass me by, because they weren’t my own.

5 Ways to Leverage Other People’s Success to Fuel Victories of Your Own

Now, let’s be clear, I’m not proposing that we shift the burden of doing our own work to someone else. When other people hand us their work, we don’t learn. Rather, I’m suggesting that we take advantage of work that’s available to help yourself. Leverage the success of other people to reach success of your own.

Many people have discovered answers to the problems we’re facing, with a little creativity in our thinking we can save time and get to successful solutions by finding out what they did. When we find their solutions and apply them to our problems we still learn, but with fewer random guesses along the way.

Here are 5 Ways to leverage other people’s success to fuel victories of your own .

  1. use Google to find an established model or solution. See who’s solved the problem or built a process already.
  2. Ask your networks, including Linkedin, Quora, and Twitter, WWhat’s your best advice for doing this?

    3. When people answer be sure to explore what doesn’t work too.

  3. Look at how the “big guys” do it. Email several people who are more experienced than you are. Ask each to answer the same question — one that gets to the solution you’re trying to find. Compile and publish their answers into a single blog post so that others looking for that solution find you.
  4. Look at how it’s done in other domains and other industries. Ask yourself, How would a mathematician, a scientist, a painter, a dancer, a chef approach this problem? What other industries
  5. Find a mentor, join a community, or take a class. Experience is hard won and valued by those who’ve earned it. It’s hard to top the feeling of being asked to share what we’ve learned. Give someone that great feeling by choosing an experienced teacher, mentor, or friend and Inviting him or her to asking them the

Time IS money. Knowing how is good. Knowing how to find the answer quickly save time. When we need an answer to what we might never need to know again it’s time to leverage other people’s success to fuel our own victories. Getting help with problems that are peripheral can keep us focused on what we truly need to learn. Getting help with what we truly need to learn can keep us moving forward toward our most important goals.

Put the two together — focus on what we need to learn and moving forward is powerful fuel for a business, a career, and a life.
Leveraging other people’s success can make our work easier, faster, and more meaningful. And you know those are keys to unliking the irresistible.

Bet you know more ways to leverage other people’s success to fuel your own. Will you share them?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Get Visible! Grow UP! Solve Your Problem for Everyone

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When Location Becomes Solution

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In the days of my dad’s saloon, everything was location, location, location. If you wanted to be noticed, you put your store at the corner of State and Main. Every car driving past, every person on the sidewalk saw you.

Big brands and entrepreneurs now find ourselves in a 24/7 world where time and space don’t limit our community as they once did. Many businesses only meet customers on their computer screens.

And location is taking on new meaning online and off.

Now the grand location might be at the top of the search engine page 1 or a huge twitter retweet list. Social Media’s new Location, Location, Location is another thing. It’s showing up on your smart phone screen.

To do that it’s really solution, solution, solution. Solution is the new location. People search for answers to the problems they have.

So it makes sense to have a problem-solving mindset.

Solve problems in your own business.
Solve problems that everyone has.
Solve problems that will still be problems when the social media tools change.

Make a habit of recognizing what’s a problem in your business and solve that problem for everyone else. It’s a strategy that works to raise visibility and grow a business because …

  • Though we may think we’re the only ones who have a certain fear, problem, or issue, a conversation about almost any problem will prove that we’re not.
  • The people you can reach as clients, customers, and readers are a lot like us. It’s the nature of how people connect. We gravitate toward those who have similar values and think in similar ways.
  • Some of those people are looking for the same solution. If we talk to them about solving their problem, we move outside of our view of the problem and our feelings about it. Being outside of the problem brings new perspective, new ideas, and new approaches to solutions.

With a problem-solving mindset, we stay in a learning and listening attitude. Leaders who reach out to listen and learn, to find solutions and value the people who share their ideas are irresistibly attractive. The leaders grow and so do their businesses.

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And when you’ve tackled one problem, look again for the problems or glitches inside that new solution, the discomfort around the new process, or the old habits that no longer work. That’s how we keep our growing businesses growing up when we reach a small hitch.

Which of your business problems can you solve for someone else?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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Two Things Successful People Do to Get Where They're Going

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Things in Twos

Yesterday Karen emailed to say that she won’t be able to attend SOBCon. Her company is sending her to California next weekend.
Karen has been a good friend to the conference and an attendee since the beginning. This year she was also going to speak with Glenda on accessiblity. Later in the day, I found out that Saul Colt had a similar situation.

It was the kind of news that happens. That doesn’t make it less disappointing. I got two for the price of one.

How did I get to be so lucky?

Two Things Successful People Do to Get Where They’re Going

Yesterday was a day of twos, I had two speakers to replace and two last minute contracts to write up. I had two kinds of people come knocking — people who wanted to help and people who wanted me to do something for them. The event prep for two events came through — two key things were missing. I had two other projects that I wanted to move forward. The details to be handled seemed to be multiplying by twos every time I communicated with anyone about anything.

I had two choices — to take a nap or to keep going.

At about 2pm, I was going through more SOBCon preparations and my eyes landed on the name of man I admire. I got thinking of something simple and profound he once told me.

Successful people do two things to get where they’re going — talk and move.

It only took those two things to get everything back in order.

I’m pleased to announce that Jeff Willinger will be partnering with Terry Starbucker Friday afternoon at SOBCon to bring a spectacular session on the infrastructure of an online business. And a second plan is in action for Karen’s session with Glenda. Can’t wait for that.

Two more things about talking and moving …

  • Talking needs to be about the opportunities.
  • Moving needs to be invested in a positive action.

Thanks to all of the people who’ve been helping!

What sort of positive talking and moving have you been doing?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

Register for SOBCon09 NOW!!

What Business Are You In

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Cam Beck from ChaosScenario shares an interesting insight:

: Are you in the business you think you are in?

…imagine you’re Wilbur or Orville Wright, who, in addition to running their own bicycle business, decided to take on the “problem of flight,” which included not only successfully flying a heavier-than-air craft under its own power, but also maneuvering in mid-air.

Oh, and due to a general human intolerance to blunt force trauma and impalement, landing alive consistently was another important issue to solve.

But what business were the Wrights in? Weren’t they just bicycle men?

Well, yeah. But they were so much more than that.

They were even more than entrepreneurs or even inventors. They were all of these things.

But chiefly they were problem solvers who, importantly, were not afraid to try, though they might fail.

Ray Croc, the founder of McDonalds restaurants, is famously known for telling an audience that McDonalds was not in the food business, rather the real estate business.

When you take a step back from the day-to-day operation of your business what does it look like? Are you in the “Marketing Business” or are you in the “Relationship Business”?

Can changing a couple of words in the label change the entire meaning and scope of what you do? What might happen if you changed some other labels in your life and work?

Can You Get The Balloons to Joanna Young?

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Just a Little Monday Creativity

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One of the most exciting things about teaching young children is the creativity they bring to problem solving. It’s almost contagious what they see when you throw out a question that might have an ordinary answer.

Some of it is plain physiology, the abstract-thinking frontal lobe of our brain develops last. So until age 9 or 10, we not adept at separating real from make-believe — our thinking can range wildly through, in, and out partially real, partially fantastic solutions.

After age 10 or so, we understand what can be and what cannot. Some of choose to leave the fantasy far behind at that moment.

That doesn’t mean we’re no longer creative. We still are. Like recapturing another language we used to know, creativity is a skill that we can regain. We can even become highly fluent with a little practice at stretching ideas into new solutions — changing the ordinary answer to something “extra,” extraordinary.

Let’s do that. See these balloons?

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How would this solve problem: You need to get them from Chicago to Joanna Young in Edinburgh by tomorrow.

Can you invent, stretch, or devise an extraordinary solution to the problem?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
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