According to German writer and Theologian,  Meister Eckhart, “what we plant in the soil of contemplation, we shall reap in the harvest of action.”  It  is through action that we find our small business  innovation solutions – committing to action so that our ideas can take root.

We must harvest all of our creative activities to advance what we call “spark moments” (those moments when we know we’re on to something big – the next, new big idea) in order to make those moments real – into tangible results that you can touch, see, or feel. Read More »

What’s the simple secret to creating products and services that sell like crazy?

In 1996, a month after I launched my first website and couldn’t find it in the search engines, I knew I had a problem. I’d spent $34,000 on the site and it was hardly getting any visitors much less generating any income. It was clear I needed to find out how to get it noticed and get it to the top of the search engines so I could start bringing in more traffic.

The answer? I wrote one of the first ebooks on search engine marketing – and it sold like crazy. Not only did I need a simple system for improving my search engine rankings, but so did thousands of others. Read More »

Many say that taking a short snooze can do wonders for creativity.

Okay, I confess that the idea of sleep delights me, whether it’s a brief nap, forty winks or a prolonged swoon.   As authors and entrepreneurs, you might think that we have more freedom to control our schedules and therefore, catching some z’s would be easy.   However, we feel just as guilty about taking a “power nap” as our clients and corporate professionals.   So what do we do? Read More »

This was a question posed by a small business leader recently.  Are you wondering the same thing?  Everyday all around us there are stimulating spaces and places that we can use to get people out of their rut and come up with creative new ideas.

On an average day, we have about 60,000 thoughts.  If these are the same 60,000 thoughts each day, we may need to look to our surroundings for inspiration.  For example, while driving over the same bridge I cross daily, I decided to look and think differently about the structure, shape and vibe of the bridge.   Read More »

Over a cup of tea in Dublin, our client, David confessed to us that he had run out of creative juice, was unable to come up with fresh, new ideas, and was feeling stuck in a rut.

Lacking the passion, energy and zest necessary to help him lead his team toward success, he was feeling zombie-like…going through the motions day-to-day, showing up but not really being there, doing what he had to do but not doing it with joy and passion and getting by but not getting inspired. Read More »

Often when we give a talk or a seminar one or more participants come up to us afterward and say something like this: “Hey, I loved your program and creativity is important, but I don’t have the time to be innovative or creative.”  Ever feel like that yourself?

Let’s face it, even when we are not busy completing tasks, attending meetings, responding to emails, taking out the garbage, walking the dog or taking care of the kids, Read More »