Creativity in Business: 2006
Bubbly Advice
for the Creative Business Person in 2006
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Tell Them Where to Go….
If someone tells you that you’re not creative, tell them to go to hell. Everyone in business is creative.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Who’s Most Creative?
Some of most creative people I’ve ever met are in manufacturing.
They actually CREATE products that change the world.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Who’s Least Creative?
Some of the least creative people I’ve ever met are in advertising.
They spend most of their creative energy telling manufacturers that they…aren’t creative!
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Salespeople Are Creative.
Natural Born Story Tellers.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Accountants are Creative.
Tax Loop-de-Loopholes.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Best Creative Exercise Ever
Write down your ideas. You have a ton every day. But most of the time, you can’t remember them by the day’s end.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Yes, You CAN Write.
Don’t let spelling & grammar issues or relentless self-editing stop you.
Get your ideas on paper.
(Let someone else edit it.)
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
How Do You Noodle?
Blackberries and PDAs may look cool, but they stink when you want to noodle with ideas. Go retro: carry a notebook, pen, and calendar into your meetings.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Go Retro!
Where the great ideas are: The back of a cocktail napkin. The back of a coaster. This is still true in 2006.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Eyes up here, Buster!
Blackberries and PDAs eliminate eye contact. Look up at people.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Story First. Technology Last.
Don’t invest in a presentation class called “How to Use PowerPoint”…. …until you’ve take a class called “How to Tell Stories and Connect with Your Audience”.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
A Simple Creative Exercise…
Simplify everything. Your life, your home, your office, your desk, your processes, vision, policy, procedures. Everything.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Fixing Problems is Creative
Your job is to fix problems, not complain.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Me-too trendy hip…
Wearing designer duds is NOT a sign of creative flair.
It is playing it safe.
Get your own sense of style.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Brainstorming 101
Don’t tell people that their ideas are bad, especially if you don’t have a better one.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
It’s only your life’s work.
Never say,
“It’s not my job to be creative.”
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
How to Lose an Audience…
Show your audience slides with columns of numbers.
Refuse to tell them a story about the meaning of the numbers.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Eyes on the Audience, Buster!
Do not read your speech or presentation. Instead, read your audience.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
How about a puppet show?
Try “giving a performance” instead of merely “giving a presentation.”
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Everyone in Sales Knows…
Tell stories.
Don’t just provide data.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Avoid Meetings.
Do not attend more than two meetings a day, or else you will never get any real creative work done.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Get Fresh Ideas.
Leave the office building at least once a day.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Stay Sane.
The idea that creative people are always [emotionally unstable – drunk - crazy – dangerous – high – bad at math] is a myth.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
The Insanity Clause….
It’s a bad idea to hire a drunk on the outside chance that he/she might turn out to be creative. It’s just as silly to assume that you can’t hire a creative person because he or she is bound to be unbalanced.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Drinking is a bad excuse.
I know a designer who says he only drinks so that people will think he’s a genius.
(He’s a crappy, unhappy designer.)
He’s also an alcoholic.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Get off the pot.
Doing drugs doesn’t make you creative, either. Nothing clouds creativity and productivity as much as dope.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Another Lame Excuse…
I wish designers would put more of their passion into designing great work, instead of endless (boring) discussions about the superiority of the Macintosh over the PC!
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
The Lame Excuse Factory…
“I can’t [write/design/create] because I don’t have the latest [software/hardware/ upgrade]….”
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Stop Whining Already!
You don’t need a Macintosh to be creative. It’s just a machine. You’re the one with the creativity.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
MAC v. PC
You can’t let a machine take credit for your creativity.
And you can’t blame a machine for your creative failures, either.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Don’t Blame the Tool!
The more you become a master of your particular creative form…. ….the fewer tools you will use.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Go Gadget Free!
Master carpenters use fewer tools than novices.
So do cooks.
Use what works.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Creativity: Use it or Lose it.
Don’t just have a nice day. Create one. Create something every day.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Creativity is Interesting.
The most interesting people I know are creative.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Creativity is your life’s work.
Creativity takes place every day, not once in a while. It’s not rare. It’s just been mystified.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Who Mystified Creativity?
It doesn’t matter.
Own your creativity.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Like I said in the beginning….
If someone tells you that you’re not creative, tell them to go to hell. Everyone in business is creative.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
Don’t Have a Happy New Year…
Create one.
Laura Bergells
Creativity in Business: 2006
About the Speaker. . . Writer. Speaker. Podcaster. Internet Marketing Coach. You just watched the break screen from an January address on creativity in business. These were my index cards!
Get Perspective. Contact Laura Bergells. phone: 616-241-5195 email: laura@bergells.com www.bergells.com
Laura Bergells