3 Ways to Boost Creativity

This one is for my superstars who value creativity.

Here in Stella’s Laboratory, we’ve long suspected that creativity gets lauded in the “gifted and talented” way, when sometimes the experience of being creative feels more like Special Ed.

Especially in business.

Because as a creative person, you not only need to keep your eyes on the regular stuff—time management, goals, attracting clients, avoiding burnout—you are also developmentally unlike Regular People.

You need to fuel your creative engine and do weird things to keep it from gumming up and seizing on you.

Not only that. There’s added peril for the creative person who runs a coaching, mentorship, or service-based business. Because not only do you rely on your creative juice to get work for yourself done… your income relies on being plugged in and fired up for your clients, too.

So, what’s a creative person in business to do?

Here are a couple ideas:

1. Take a fricken sabbatical. You are not a factory. You are a channel. And your creativity is more like churning butter than cranking out plastic widgets. Build time for rest, goofiness, and experimentation into your schedule. Not just once or twice a year. Every month, week, and day. What if you started work 1-2 hours later… and began each day with a ritual of grounding, openness, and delight? What if you stopped working Friday afternoons and took yourself out on a hot date (or took a nap)?
2. Welcome silliness into your business. Give yourself permission to add a dorky yet highly amusing section to your newsletter. Or to write a month’s worth of tweets that crack you up. The more fun you have, the more the rest of us love to listen and interact with you. Just as you prioritize your revenue-generating activities in your workday, throw a bone to fun, too. Your tribe will love it.
3. Cross-pollinate ideas. We creative folk get majorly turned on when we get to connect ideas that seem separate on the surface. We are natural improvisors, and love making up stories (Corn. Duct tape. Chicken. Go!) Maybe it’s time to hold on a little less tightly to information about growing and marketing your business… and to divert at least some of that time to reading and research in OTHER areas. TED talks are a great place to start. Give yourself permission to follow your nose here, and just consider what fascinates you.

On my better days, I like to think of life as one big scavenger hunt. All the ideas we encounter, all of the people we meet, every conversation we have give us “clues” to where the treasure is hidden. But I tend to be rather French in my belief that the goal isn’t to get to any particular place… it’s just to enjoy the fact that you are on a scavenger hunt (and have long, sensual boozy meals where you run your mouth off with your friends for the sheer joy of it).

There’s a way to do this in our businesses, too. I invite you on the path to blazing that trail, as we go.

Love,

Stella Orange

P.S. I’m currently running my business from Montana for the month, so I can hang out with good friends and reboot my creativity and joie de vivre. Curious for what you’ve found out about stoking your creative fires in your business—I invite you to share your experiments and discoveries in the comments, below.

Does your brand need a creative reboot? I invite you to learn more about my Message Lab Intensives I work with clients to overhaul their thinking and writing around their websites, brand, programs, and marketing. Plus, there is a $800 savings when you book your session by the end of August

Mighty thanks to myself for taking this picture of the view from my writing retreat in Montana.