Posts Tagged ‘creative ideas’

Surprise someone

If you live in Orange County and haven’t attended the OC Fair…what are you waiting for? Definitely a great night whether you have kids or not (my hubby and I love it and never miss a year). This year, we went with my sister-in-law and her boyfriend as well. My sister-in-law who absolutely loves, loves, loves pigs. Which is why this year, we couldn’t miss the pig races. (I really tried to get a picture, but I didn’t want to stand in front of the kids…)

I had never been before, so I don’t know who their sponsors has been in the past, but this year, the Pig races were sponsored by…. Ralph’s. The Grocery store. The place you can buy all sorts of pig products.

The tagline for the event? “Bring Home the Bacon”

And they were giving away coupons to all race attendees:

(yes, that really does say Free Bacon.)

Always being in marketing, I thought it was clever.

My sister-in-law, however, after posing with the winning pig, told me it wasn’t.

What do you think: Excellent marketing strategy or perpetuating the childhood nightmare of cute little pigs becoming bacon?

Photo by Ori Bengal

Yesterday, I talked about the fact that I need to get into a more set routine. Today, I’m telling you to shake things up.

Maybe I should make up my mind.

Nah, I’d rather share some ways that I shake things up and get my creativity flowing:

1. Blast music and dance around my living room. yes, I actually do this. My hubby has come home many evenings to find me singing and dancing (and then he’s laughing).
2. Shut off all technology and hit the beach (one of the definite perks of being in So Cal)
3. People watch. Pretty much any Starbucks or corner bakery will suffice for great people watching.
4. Call a friend. Catch up on life and get your mind focused on anything but work.
5. Design something/write something just for fun. I get tired of writing and designing things I am supposed to. Sometimes I just want to play with photoshop and see what my crazy ideas create. (I’m considering creating a page on my blog dedicated to my random creations…what do you think?)
6. Spend an hour or so laughing at a few of my favorite nsfw sites (textsfromlastnight, fmylife, awkwardfamilyphotos, notalwaysright, passiveaggressivenotes and failblog
7. Stumbleupon. Keep clicking, you’ll find something awesome.

How do you shake it up?

As I read this tweet, my mind started spinning a million miles a minute, but I had no time to focus on it, as I was trying to get a new design off to a client. Rather than come up with a half-arsed answer, I saved the link to come back to. Unfortunately, twitter is like a river that never stops, and were I to reply to Laban now, my tweet would probably be swept away by the current. Plus, this is not a question easy to answer 140 characters.

In the next 2 weeks, I have decided to focus on 5 distinct tasks that will *hopefully* change the next 2 decades:

1. Reaching out to more of my contacts. Despite what many people think, I am actually a very shy person. Like anyone, I hate to get ignored or rejected and am nervous to email or call people who I have not spoken with very much. This has got to change, and soon. Being able to send out emails to people that I have connected with, or giving them a quick call to see how they are doing, will keep me in the forefront of their minds when someone they know is looking for my services. It is also the first step towards building relationships outside of the social media bubble.
2. Create my business plan. Since officially becoming Wright Creativity, LLC I have not had a spare moment to start creating my business plan for the next year. This is not going to be easy, but it is going to be what I have to do to make sure that my business is successful. The plan needs to include both strategy and objectives, what I want to see happen and how I plan on getting there. Without a plan, I am just a girl with a computer.
3. Stay focused on the future. I tend to get frustrated when plans fall through or clients who should have been, aren’t. But, if I continue to do this, I can pretty much guarantee that I will miss out on other great opportunities. I need to start focusing on what I can accomplish, rather than what did or didn’t happen last week or last month.
4. Ask more questions. As I have gotten older, I have become less and less inquisitive. This is not a good thing. I used to ask questions about everything, always challenging what I knew and expanding my knowledge base. Now, I seem to be less curious and more focused on improving what I already know. I want to start asking more questions, learning new things and bring back my inquisitive nature.
5. Get into a more set routine. I hate getting up early. Absolutely despise it. And I have found that owning my own business has a slight pitfall: No one forces me get up and dressed early. Which means I often don’t actually start working until 9:30ish, unless I have a client meeting. This also means that I end up working late at night to get projects finished, therefore am tired in the morning (see the problem cycle?). So, I need to get myself into a more set routine, ideally, working by 8am. It will take a conscious effort, but in the long run, will pay off. It will mean less time working late, and more time with my hubby. A plus on both ends!

Thanks to @labanjohnson for this incredible question – and inspiration.

How can you spend the next two weeks?

Over at Freelancefolder today, Laura Spencer wrote a fantastic article about the creative truths that freelancers should know. While I agreed with everything she said,  I think that the list shouldn’t be for freelancers. This list should be for the average joe. The person who doesn’t believe they are creative, the person who rarely thinks that their ideas are top notch.

Freelancers love their creativity, they relish in it, and already know how to use it. It is those outside the realm of freelance that don’t always understand how to be creative (or the fact that they already are).

For example, Laura explains the 4 characteristics of creativity: Persistent, Unconventional, Imaginative, Flexible; all 4 of which are found in almost every freelancers “about me” page. Really, read a few, you’ll see. Where they aren’t found is on the pages of your average business – which is exactly where they should be! Businesses in the ‘corporate’ world, use terms like “customer focused, driven, committed, etc”. They are terrified to be thought of as unconventional and persistent.

Those are scary and uncontrolled terms…which is exactly why they should be words that corporate businesses use more often.

She then talks about how you can be more creative. With the exception of  slow down, all the others are ones freelancers already do. We allow ourselves to dream, because if we didn’t, we would never take the risk into freelance. It is our dream that someday we will have a famously successful solo business that allows us to even go for it. We always consider alternatives, especially when it comes to alternative ways to save money. Freelancing is all about balance, and finding alternatives helps to keep that balance. And lastly, well if we aren’t following our passion already with freelance, then why are we doing it?

Again, freelancers already know how to be more creative…it is the everyday guy or girl who needs to dream, find alternatives and be passionate.

What do you think? Should this article have been aimed at the average joe or was she right in writing it for freelancers?

Two-words to give you a bit of creativity. Do with them what you will – and don’t forget to share!

Link Love

*For those of you who saw “palate” when it first went out… apparently spell check doesn’t cover “lack of caffeine”. I completely forgot that there is “palate: roof of mouth” and “palette: color”

Thanks to @ksablan and @ShelleyDelayne
for helping find my error!

Life is about color, from what you wear to your website design. Many of us hear ‘color palette’ and assume we are talking graphic design. But what about the color palette of your office and work clothes? Shouldn’t you give them  just as much attention as the space your website lives on?

I find that when working in an environment that is filled with color and a well created color palate, that I am more creative and enjoy working for longer. Dingy, dreary atmospheres are horrible for me to work in. Same thing for my apparel. If I don’t like the outfit that I am in, it affects my mood.If I am in bright, fun colors, I have a bright, fun mood. Soft fabrics mellow me out, and flowy skirts make me more visually driven.

What is my color palette today?

My attire:

My work atmosphere (Corner Bakery):

What’s your color palette today? Does it make you want to be more creative?

My sister-in-law is one incredible woman. She is currently finishing her degree in psychology at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. Oh, this is after already receiving a Sociology degree from UCSB. It’s a long story..but basically, she started college in Nebraska, playing soccer for them. In her 3rd year, due to issues with the soccer program she transferred to UCSB. We were all excited to have her closer to home! Anyway, when She got to UCSB, she couldn’t receive the same psych degree – they don’t correlate between schools – and so she changed to a soc degree at UCSB. She graduated from there in 2008. But, she was only about 15 credits short from getting her psych degree from Nebraska now, so she decided to go back this summer and finish her degree. Needless to say, I am super proud of her, although I miss her so much. She is an incredible sister-in-law and friend. We have been keeping in touch via email and phone, and I even set her up a blog so she could write about life there for the rest of our friends and family to read. Most of the emails are about life in general (family gossip, life in Nebraska, work, etc), but last night, she sent me a message on Facebook that I just had to share:

*Side note: The only people in my family who actually read my blog is my parents, and it’s only because I’m an only child . The whole family knows what I do and what I write about, but don’t read it.

Hey lady, I’m reading for my psych class and I ran across something that i thought you may find interesting. I know you like to write about creativity and this could play into that. Anyways, here ya go:

“No wonder that the child shows an insatiable curiosity. He has the whole world to discover. Education and learning, while on the one hand furthering this process of discovery, on the other hand gradually brake and finally stop completely. There are relatively few adults who are fortunate enough to have retained something of the child’s curiosity, his capacity for questioning and for wondering. The average adult ‘knows all the answers,’ which is exactly why he will never know even a single answer.”

I know its random, but I especially liked the last few sentences. I feel like the average individual fails to be able to maintain that sense of juvenile creativity that got them here in the first place.

I have no idea if this is in any way pertinent to your blogs and such, but I figured you would enjoy it none the less. Miss you lots ?

See why I adore her? Thanks Katie…I miss you too!

Katie and I in Vegas before she left to Nebraska

I am very creative on my own. Give me my computer (with Internet access of course!), good music, no interruptions, fresh coffee and something to snack on and I’m set for the day. The problem is, interruptions are inevitable, coffee runs out and sometimes good music can’t be found. Or I’m just human and far from perfect.

Einstein couldn’t change quantum theory on his own. He needed collaboration. He needed Bohr.

We all need someone that can look at our ideas and add to them, tear them down, build them back up, stronger, more efficient and definitely better.

But it’s scary, right? You have created something brilliant, it sounds flawless…perfect. And then you tell someone about it and they start asking questions. What if this happens? What if that goes wrong? What if your calculations are off? And all you want to do is beg them to stop…because you don’t have the answers. Your idea isn’t perfect, and thank goodness it isn’t! Having an imperfect idea is the start to something great, because at least you have an idea.

You have somewhere to start, something to build from.

I would be a little worried if every idea you came up with (and I’m talking about the generic ‘you’ here) was brilliant. In fact, I might not want to know ‘you’.  I want people I interact with to be imperfect, to make errors and come up with ideas that need work. Because perfect people really scare me. Perfect people are no fun to talk to, not good to work with and definitely no fun at parties. Perfect people irritate me. I’ll take ‘you’ imperfect, with lots of crazy wild ideas that through collaboration, can become brilliant life changing ideas.

What are your thoughts on collaboration? Do you like collaborating or does it bring out the fear of “someone won’t like my idea” in you?

Einstein liked inventing phrases such as “God does not play dice,” “The Lord is subtle but not malicious.” On one occasion Bohr answered, “Einstein, stop telling God what to do.”

(I know the quote doesn’t quite connect..but I liked it!)

I’d always heard you are what you eat…I disagree. I think you are what you read.

I have thousands of books. Most are in boxes in our garage, but a select 150 or so are gently tucked into the small bookshelf in my bedroom. I dream of having a room just for my books, with floor to ceiling shelves and a ladder on a pole that runs around the whole room someday. But for now, my thousands of books remain in boxes in my garage. It’s sad, it breaks my heart, and I wish I could even get one big bookshelf, one that can hold at least half my collection. We just don’t have the wall space for it.

Anyway, what I do know is if someone were to look through my personal book collection, they would learn a lot about me. Note: Business books don’t count, while I do have many I like, they don’t say nearly as much about me as my personal collection.

There are quite a few books in there that are worn from reading so many times, others that are filled with notes, highlights and thoughts and some that have barely been opened. While I respect books more than a lot of people I know, that doesn’t mean I keep them pristine. Books I love are often worn, torn, written on and beat up from the number of times I have read them and the places they have been. The more I love a book, the more worn it is. There are even a few books that I have had to buy a new one because I beat up the first one so badly…I’m on my 3rd copy of I Know This Much is True and Atlas Shrugged. My notes all go in the original copies, but if I want to re-read it, and take it somewhere, I take one of the newer ones so they don’t fall apart (seriously, the first copies, the bindings are barely on anymore).

Of course, there is an exception to every rule. There is one set of books I have read 4 or 5 times, and still remains in perfect condition. The Harry Potter series. They stay in the house, protected. I feel like if I were to beat those up, I’d hurt their feelings. They need to be nurtured and loved, for fear the magic would just fall out if I was careless (told you I love books).

When I tell people about my collection, I often get the question: So, which book is your favorite? And I can never answer it. I try, but I just keep thinking of others that I couldn’t live without. I guess the best answer would be, it depends on my mood.

When I need uplifting? I turn to either Atlas Shrugged (Ayn Rand) or one of the 7 Harry Potter’s (J.K. Rowling).

With a glass of wine? The Queen’s Fool (Phillipa Gregory) or Me Talk Pretty One Day (David Sedaris)

Cold and rainy day? I Know This Much is True (Wally Lamb) or Weep No More, My Lady (Mary Higgins Clark)

What do you read? What books are you passionate about?

And if you’re interested in checking out any of my favorites, here’s the links on Amazon: