Mindset Shift 9

GOING INTO GROWTH MODE

You’re gaining traction as a startup maven—glowing and now ready to start growing. This chapter shows you how to embrace the Mindset Shift necessary to persist and keep reinventing your business as needed. We’ll get into how you can develop a growth-mode mentality in terms of three key areas—resilience, reinvention/rebranding, and innovation/creativity—to catapult your venture to long-term success. I know you’re ready now, so let’s go!

Developing Resilience

As a fempreneur, you’ll need to cultivate a mindset of resilience to help you bounce back from the inevitable obstacles associated with launching and running a startup. Some days, you are going to feel like you’re being bounced around on the heavy-duty setting in your washing machine, so you’ll need the strength to climb into the dryer and get those wrinkles out! I’ve been there before: losing a large client, hitting a major snag with products, or having to deal with some other type of complicated issue. You’ll face similar situations, too. We’ll discuss how you can develop mental strength, overcome adversity, adapt to change, pivot after failure, deal with setbacks, increase confidence in your power, and learn to reframe difficult situations—nothing is insurmountable.

You are a business owner now. You will not win every fight you’re in, and you’ll lose supporters and backers along the way. If the path to entrepreneurship were an easy one, there would be many more successful entrepreneurs out there. In order to grow and thrive in business, you need to develop the ability to overcome hindrances and keep trudging along as you face failures, setbacks, and disappointments. These pitfalls will be interwoven with opportunities and successes, and you must be resourceful as a leader in order to bounce back, keep moving forward, and grab those lucrative, new opportunities as they arise.

Resilience is something that I have developed and mastered out of necessity. When my two daughters were only two and four years old, my husband passed away unexpectedly in a helicopter accident. I was working two jobs at the time and midway through getting my PhD. I thought I would never make it through—that I’d never be able to work, take care of my children, and complete my doctorate. But you know what? I did. I raised my two girls on my own, finished that PhD, and blossomed both personally and professionally. I also went on to launch a brand and write two books. If I didn’t pull on my resilience during those tough times, that would have never happened.

You can do this, too, because inevitably, we’ll all experience snags as entrepreneurs, and resilience helps us keep progressing and enables us to deal with problems. Resilient women are mentally tough, able to overcome adversity, and know how to cope and adapt without getting stuck. Being quick to recover is vital for when we hit those challenges. We will sometimes lose (deals or support) and must pivot in order to keep moving ahead. Leading a startup is about reinvention and growth.

Failure makes us stronger, so it’s essential to own it and take with us the lessons we learned: we’ve got to adjust, adapt, and move our companies along. There are many times when I didn’t get opportunities that I was so sure I would get. In those cases, I had no choice but to try something else and find another way. You should, too, and, as part of that, don’t spin your wheels chasing after something that is not meant to be. There is something else better that is just around the corner, and it’s got your name on it in ALL CAPS!

Everyone has resilience but at differing levels. Your success has to do with how you put it to use and how you deal with problems and setbacks as a rule, but the good news is that your resilience level is not fixed. There are ways that you can increase it.

The first thing you can do is to believe in yourself and have more confidence in your abilities and strengths. We’ve talked about this before: you are amazing, so keep telling yourself that! Hell, shout it from the rooftops if you need to! You can also focus on becoming more positive. When you hit a difficulty, don’t drown in the misery. Instead, come up with a plan. How are you going to tackle this roadblock and regroup without giving in to feelings of defeat? Lay out your next steps and then execute them because you are now a master time manipulator and planning diva. You have many talents.

Improve Your Communication and Problem-Solving Capabilities

Work on your communication skills, too. If you have an issue with a colleague or client, ask questions and get feedback. If you get a dismissal from a sales prospect, don’t let that decision maker escape without telling you the reason they decided not to hire you. Further, try to talk them out of their decision if you can and turn it around. There have been times when something happened that didn’t seem fair or clear to me until I asked for and got clarification. It’s difficult to guess what happened; ask the one who made the decision instead.

For example, once I didn’t understand why I wasn’t considered for a professional opportunity. Another time, a client was upset about something that wasn’t clear-cut. I could have merely guessed why this happened, but instead I dug deeper and got feedback from both of the parties involved. And guess what? The reasons they gave were not what I’d imagined on my own. On another occasion, a pitch of mine was rejected, but when I asked for more information, I was able to turn it around and get the deal. Once you have the answers, you can adjust and make changes moving forward. I’ve done this many times. I’ve flipped situations to my favor and broken relationships toward repair.

Honing your problem-solving skills will also be crucial. Visualize and clarify outcomes and then make plans and track your progress. When thinking about an issue, focus on the solution instead of the problem. The problem is the negative; the solution is the positive. This can be challenging, I know, because our instinct is to dwell on the problem. But as a fempreneur, you fix things. The solution is your BFF, and the problem your frenemy—remember that.

It can also be helpful to ask yourself why questions. Why is this happening? Why did this break? Why was another company chosen? Why don’t I live next door to Bradley Cooper (JK)? Simplify the issue, and don’t overly complicate the solution.

Lastly, brainstorm as many possible fixes to your problem as you can before choosing one. The easiest fix is typically not the best, so resist the urge to cheat by grabbing a quick solution. Pretend this is a test and your mentor is watching you like a hawk! Be accountable to the best, because you are at that level now!

Become More Patient and Positive

In order to develop your resilience, you must simultaneously develop your patience. I will tell you that patience has always been (and still often is) a challenge for me, but it’s something that I continue to work on. Don’t get discouraged; things will happen for you when the timing is right, and your moment is approaching.

Practice developing your patience by making yourself wait on things, such as eating, buying, or taking action. Realize what makes you anxious, and work to overcome it. Avoid instant gratification. For example, when you consider getting a second helping of dinner or buying something that you don’t really need, wait. Pause on that piece of cake or before making a knee-jerk action. Also, try to wait before speaking: train yourself to think first—another toughie. Learn to recognize triggers and employ positive self-talk to get you through when your impatience starts kicking in. Attempt to be patient for an entire day and build on that.

Teach yourself to see the bright side, too, because with every negative, there is always a positive. Where is it? Perhaps you got the feedback you needed to take your product or service to the next level. Or you realized where your weakness was compared to your competitors. All of your failures are leading you to something else, something better. Think of your journey as a path; you simply need to follow a few zigzags to get there. There are no straight lines in entrepreneurship, so zig, baby, zig!

Focus and Energize

To successfully bounce back, you need to eliminate distractions. We talked earlier about the ways you can reduce them (Mindset Shift 4), so you are well versed. Consider what can deter you and whether or not you have the time and energy to get to where you want to be.

Sometimes you’ll have to get reenergized and do the things that give you that additional boost and momentum. Maybe it’s playing music or having dinner with friends. I always feel so much better after I find time for a good, solid workout. Maybe it’s running or dancing for you. Always accept yourself (good and bad) and believe that you can overcome anything, because you know what? You can. I believe in you, fempreneur.

Accept Change

Resilient fempreneurs like you welcome change. Don’t panic when there is a kink in the plan; instead, simply make new preparations toward your goal, adjust, and find perspective. It’s usually not the end of the road and only a minor hindrance. We live in a world of constant disruption, and as a business owner, you’ll need to get extremely comfortable with that. If you don’t pivot, you won’t be able to compete.

You can always learn from your past, too, so make reflection your new best friend. How have you been able to overcome similar obstacles before? What got you through? Perhaps you can go to others for strength: persuade them to give you reminders and clues if you need them. I always call my mom for this sort of advice (don’t judge me).

Get Unstuck

If you’re really stuck, you can get help. Join groups and feed off the energy of other people moving ahead toward the same goals. Read books on resilience and achievement. Consider finding a coach. Sometimes, one single session is all you need to recharge your battery. It can get lonely as an entrepreneur. So many female business owners have come to me for this very reason, and I’ve loved talking them through their next moves. I’ve also sought help before when I was feeling stalled or off-kilter. It’s a magnificent way to put extra energy behind your venture or idea. If you are experiencing severe self-doubt or negative thoughts, you can always pull in a counselor to help you sort through your feelings.

Charge On

At the end of the day, you need to keep charging ahead, and this begins with laying out your plans and next steps. It’s what separates those who succeed from those who fail. In the face of setbacks, you have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, straighten your skirt, and rise to the challenge.

Regroup and reformulate your goals. Ask yourself some tough questions:

•   What do you really want to achieve?

•   What can you improve on and when?

•   Are you really committed to making it happen?

•   What can stop you?

•   What part of this do you find most overwhelming, and why?

•   Are you experiencing any negative self-talk?

•   What are your biggest sources of stress, and what can you do to keep them at bay?

Keep it positive, of course. Although you might love to throw yourself a pity party or smash a dish in protest, does it really make sense now that you’re a successful entrepreneur? Not so much.

Imagine Something Better

When you encounter a setback or failure, train yourself to dream up new possibilities. Maybe there is a bigger deal on the horizon, or perhaps that client is not as good as the 10 new ones that you’ll get next month and who will take less of your time. Determine what can now come about as a consequence of this shift. Has it opened you up to conquer something else? What is newly possible, and how can you get there? Make a list, because putting it on paper brings you one step closer to making it a reality—it’s a written contract with yourself. You deserve that deal, so sign it, stamp it, and move on it.

Reframe Your View

Being resilient hinges on your ability to reframe and adjust, so uncover any fears and hidden risks that may thwart your progress. You can’t control what happens to you, but you can control how you react to it. Reframing begins with recognizing negative thoughts and turning them into positive thoughts. It’s okay to be disappointed, but don’t live there. Find a way to put an optimistic spin on whatever happens. There is no specific meaning to any event or experience. We are the ones who assign it a meaning. It’s that simple.

One way to launch this reframing process is to start recognizing your thoughts by writing them down in a thought journal. As soon as a situation happens, chronicle your negative thinking related to it, recognizing and reframing your perception. It can also help to wear a band around your wrist. Every time you have a negative inkling, give the band a snap. Ouch! It seems silly, but it can really stop your pessimism right away through conditioning.

Regroup and brainstorm. What are some possible fixes to your jam? Do you have a contingency plan? If not, you should start making that a part of your best practices moving forward. In the words of award-winning entrepreneur and founder of Li-Da Foods Rita Zahara, “When your world is in pieces, you can choose to see it as crumbling or building. Your attitude, resilience, and determination mark the difference.”¹ Be a builder, not a crumbling sugar cookie, fempreneur.

Develop Coping Strategies

You should also develop coping strategies for regrouping—that is, learning to release your emotions and not keeping them bottled up inside. Feel them, but don’t wallow in them. If you are experiencing distress, learn to distract yourself with activities and people you enjoy. Plan an outing, get some fresh air, reward yourself. I like boxing as a release—hitting a bag, not a person (duh). You should find your own release. Process and get rid of any anger that you are feeling, as it won’t serve you well over the long run. Acquire ways to relax and reset your mindset, and then visualize your next move. What is it? When will you start? What will it take to make it happen?

Come Up with an Alternative Plan

As I mentioned in Mindset Shift 2, make it part of every day to develop a plan B, and have a C, D, and E, too, just in case. If you’ve reached the end of the alphabet, use Plan A-2 or start using emojis. As the old saying goes, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” Always embrace a challenge, because if you are pushing yourself hard, you are growing a lot more. Find the fun in it, rise to the occasion, and adopt a can-do attitude to make things happen.

I love a good challenge, particularly when someone thinks I can’t do something. It’s sort of like a duel that makes me say, “Oh, yeah, I’ll show you.” I guess I should say thanks for the nudge. You should too, girl. Show ’em what you got!

Remind Yourself to Be Resilient

It can be useful to give yourself resiliency prompts and reminders. Find a beloved inspirational quote and display it at your startup where you can readily see it when you need a little boost. One of my favorites is Henry David Thoreau’s “In the long run, we only hit what we aim at.”² I have it hanging on my fridge to remind me to always endeavor to aim big. You can get whatever you really try for, so click your heels three times and focus.

Hold yourself accountable by setting calendar check-ins regarding your new goals. Identify someone you can either celebrate with or lean on if things don’t go the way that you’d hoped initially. The point is, plan a celebration either way because even failures are worth embracing. You tried and you put yourself out there. You stretched, but it just didn’t work out this time. It will eventually. Come up with something that helps you deal—your go-to deal-with-it strategy and method to reflect and recharge. Mine has always been getting outdoors. As Helen Keller, the resilient female icon, said, “We could never learn to be brave and patient if there were only joy in the world.”³ You said it, Helen.

Reinventing and Rebranding Your Business

While leading your startup, you’ll need to constantly reinvent and rebrand your business: entrepreneurship isn’t an occupation where you can sit back and rest on your laurels. Embracing this is another critical facet of your Mindset Shift. When you launch a company, you need to adopt an attitude that helps you take market shifts and other changes in stride, which requires being comfortable with disruption and evolving. We’ll get into a number of strategies to do so, such as continuous learning to stay ahead of the curve in your industry; pacing yourself by making small, step-by-step improvements; and rebooting and rebranding in response to evolving market conditions. This section will further unleash the disruptor in you: she is in there and ready to take action!

Running a business is a never-ending process. Just when you think you’ve got everything about right, or the way you want it, it’s time to change and readjust as the market shifts. Keep learning new skills and stay abreast of movements in your industry. When adjusting, do things a little at a time, avoiding the urge to do everything at once. Progress involves incremental improvement and change, so stop every now and again and assess how far you’ve come on your entrepreneurial journey. You may be shocked at the amount of headway you’ve made, even when it often feels that you are sitting still. It might be that you are only moving forward slowly, but it’s still progress.

Keep a journal that chronicles your achievements, and refer back to it and use it to formulate new goals after you’ve hit your initial milestones. Make it fun, too, by thinking of it as your brag book or the eventual story of how you hit it big—the early years are what make that possible. Who knows, maybe they’ll turn it into a screenplay one day. Wow! Who would you choose to play you?

Make time to take inventory and focus on your accomplishments. What have you done well, and what do you need to improve? Always keep your most intense concentration on the good. Declutter from time to time by getting rid of anything that no longer serves you or your business (both physically and mentally), and reorganize and revisit often.

As the leader of your brand and band, you’ll also need to reboot occasionally as market conditions morph and evolve. Entrepreneurship encompasses steady innovation and building on your initial growth and success. Rebranding is especially critical when sales or traffic is down. Do your due diligence before embarking on this endeavor through exhaustive market research, with your current customers being central to the process and equation, and plan every detail related to your rebranding before rolling it out.

When your target market has shifted, when there has been an increase in new competitors, or if changes in technology or new trends have taken hold in your industry, rebranding is also needed. In addition, it can be important if you never really had a solid brand strategy in the first place, or if your brand has become stale or dated. Sometimes a light tweak is all that’s necessary, and other times your brand will need a complete overhaul. Analyze your current strategies and processes, and then ascertain what you should keep and what you would like to do away with. Whatever is still working well, retain—there’s no need to reinvent the wheel here. Pay attention to what your competition is doing, and bring employees and other stakeholders into the discussion as well. Together, you’ll come up with a better and more applicable rebranding strategy.

Once your plan is in place, launch and then promote, promote, promote. You want the world to know how you’ve changed, improved, and will now better serve your customers’ needs. Never be complacent. You are a mover, shaker, and pioneer at heart. Push, push, and then push some more.

Being Innovative

Part of the reinvention and rebranding process involves adopting a mindset of constant innovation and creativity at your startup. Ensure that you are continually pushing the envelope by coming up with new ways of doing things and thinking. These can be changes to something within your business or something that adds to your industry. This section covers the mental shifts that are required to do so, whether you’re transforming a process or a product.

Many people define innovation as breaking through boundaries to add value for your customers, which encompasses coming up with new ideas, fresh thinking, and brainstorming. There is a difference between innovation and improvement, however. All innovations are improvements (because they involve a new idea), but not all improvements are innovations (because they are often merely upgrades to existing ideas).

Innovative people have certain characteristics: they are your rebels (think leather jackets and laptops), who push limits and don’t like to follow rules; they tend to be super-charged, creative go-getters who make things happen, and they are also very curious and quick to spot problems. Innovators are extremely independent and really into what they do, typically have a good sense of humor, and can laugh at themselves. (I know I can. I do a lot of silly stuff.) They also want to take action and have the next big breakthrough—ambition drives them. (Did someone say “type A”? Hear, hear.) I’m sure that you have many of these traits already and should now kick them into overdrive.

Don’t continue to do things the same way just because they’ve always been done that way. Instead, you must look for new approaches, and as a great leader, you shouldn’t shy away from risks. Innovators want to do it quickly, so they often take shortcuts to get there faster, not getting mired down in processes. And these women aren’t having self-esteem issues either; they are very confident and open. Disruptors are flexible when things go wrong, network with others to get ideas, value people and teams, and know how to inspire everyone to work together to make big breakthroughs. Learn to adopt these same best practices.

Our country has never had a shortage of innovative women, ranging from Jeanne Villepreux-Power, the creator of the aquarium, and Josephine Cochrane, who invented the dishwasher—God bless her!—to modern disruptors like Oprah Winfrey and Sara Blakely. If you feel that you aren’t particularly disruptive or innovative, that’s okay. There are things that you can do to build these qualities, starting with transforming the way you think. You must first take control of fear, learn to embrace risks, and power through scary situations. It’s not that innovative people don’t experience fear; they just don’t let it rule their decisions, and they learn to ignore it (like that annoying coworker, remember him?). There are many other methods to boost innovation too. Let’s look at some of my favorites.

Phone a Friend

If you feel that you’ve hit a wall innovatively speaking, dial up a friend. You can become more inventive by asking other people for their thoughts on what you’re doing or working on. I’m sure that you are already doing this when you hit other stumbling blocks or barriers in your life—turning to your “ride or dies,” or those people you can go to for help, no matter what. Now, you need to find your innovation “ride or dies.”

Become More Curious

Try to cultivate your curiosity if it doesn’t come naturally for you. Start by asking questions and strive to become a person who takes action when they spot something out of the norm or an opportunity to improve something. Begin to ponder the mysteries in the world that surrounds you, particularly through the lens of how it can make you grow as a savvy businesswoman.

Embrace the Extreme

Innovative women learn to embrace that extreme, excessive side of themselves, latching on to those outrageous ideas and running with them. They think really big to start and only bring it down in relation to their ability to execute, so get into that habit. Another way to push boundaries is to not settle for the first solution. Always keep searching, and learn to ignore your expertise, which can sometimes inhibit you, disruptively speaking.

It also pays to dismiss obvious solutions or existing ideas. If you’re lacking inspiration, look to breakthroughs from pioneering companies. Although their solutions may not relate directly to your business, they might inspire you to come up with one of your own. So browse around. In other words, stalk other startups for innovation hacks that you can try!

Look to the Unrelated

To become more of a disruptor, it can also help to turn toward those things that are unrelated. There are so many ways that you can do this, including going to conferences that are outside of your norm and reading articles from industries or businesses that are dissimilar to your startup. Search for magazines and books that are not part of your usual reading, too. What novel groups will you join? Online and in person—again, look to the unique and nontypical. Commit to reading some trendy blogs, listening to some new podcasts, and following different brands and people on Instagram (the ones you wouldn’t usually). Why not read Popular Mechanics one day, or follow The Rock on Instagram? Or listen to the Punch Up the Jam or Song Salad podcasts? Try something that doesn’t naturally appeal to you, and you’ll be more likely to uncover a hidden treasure. All of these practices will help your brain and thoughts expand, which will translate into your mind wandering, thus enabling you to come up with more imaginative ideas.

Additionally, train your brain to avoid the everyday. You can do this in several ways, such as looking for new adventures and finding fresh ways of completing the tasks that you always perform. Try a trending workout (boxing ballet?), give a new restaurant a chance (Colorado cuisine?), and look under the rocks and get lost once in a while.

Last, another innovation-building practice is to write down five pie-in-the-sky ideas every day and see if there is any potential in them. You can pull new, ambitious ideas from anywhere, including all of the places I’ve just mentioned. The goal here is to dream bigger than your biggest competitor!

Relax

As counterintuitive as it may seem, you can become more innovative by relaxing more. Relaxation loosens the brain, so take a walk, meditate, practice yoga, and get out in nature. These activities will disrupt your logical thoughts, which is good because logic thwarts creativity.

Take a nap, too, because the more well rested you are, the better able you’ll be to innovate and brainstorm. And we could all use a good nap, couldn’t we, ladies?

Bond

We’re creatures of habit and convenience, and most of us usually interact with those who are similar to ourselves; it’s natural. However, when we associate with people who are unlike us, we expand our world and open new doors. We get fresh perspectives when we communicate with others from different backgrounds, personalities, and areas of expertise. I often run ideas by those who are the opposite of me to get a different point of view. It really works, so give it a try. It’s also so amazingly cool to have different types of people in your life!

Experiment More

If you want to become extra innovative and disruptive, experiment more. Get out there and try new approaches and different ways of building and processing things (both at your business and in your home) through trial and error, simplifying tasks, and dismantling and updating standardized processes in a unique way. Always ask a lot of questions and observe as much as possible. Listen and watch instead of always jumping in. (This is a bit like being a mother: sometimes you just have to kick back and monitor what your kids do without interfering.)

It’s also advantageous to solicit feedback, particularly from frontline employees and customers. They often see things from a better perspective. And, surprisingly, you actually become more innovative as you get older, due to your experience and the luck you’ve had with trying new tricks. So stick with your startup for a long time, and keep those birthdays coming!

Don’t Wait

Pioneering women don’t wait for opportunities, and you shouldn’t either. Go out there and find them, and always turn your attention to the future. Remember that if you don’t ask, you won’t get what you’re after. Don’t stop pushing, and avoid the need to be perfect (as mentioned throughout this book). If you continue to strive for perfection, you’ll lose speed, which is the name of the game when it comes to disruption as an entrepreneur. No one is perfect either—although you are all super amazing in your own way.

Innovate Every Day

Train yourself to make innovation a part of every day, by having an innovation plan and scheduling regular brainstorming sessions with your team. During these sessions, everyone should throw out ideas without anyone shooting any of them down, taking each one and building on it. You never know where you’ll end up, and you can also invite outside people to join in on these idea-hashing activities. They will bring a fresh perspective since they are not as close to the work. If you are a solopreneur, perhaps you can team up with another fempreneur or business contact for these fun brainstorming meetups.

File It

Another best practice is to create a file on your laptop that’s an innovation file. In it, you’ll store random ideas that interest you, no matter how diverse. You can also collect all of your inspirations in an innovation journal instead.

As a next step, randomly match the ideas and try to find a way to make them work together—it’s good practice for spotting opportunities in your everyday world. Think about and identify who will be your “person” to discuss these potential disruptions with—you’ll need one—perhaps someone from your mastermind group.

Boosting Your Creative Thinking

For this Mindset Shift, you’ll need more than innovative thinking. You should also strive to boost your creativity. Creativity and innovation are related, but there is a distinction between the two. Creativity is being able to see brand-new ideas or the connection between two things that are unrelated, whereas innovation is about transforming these ideas into products or processes. Creativity involves ideas, and innovation involves execution.

To become more creative, we just need to practice. It’s like exercise, where we must build those creativity biceps to get stronger. Yup, another workout for you. The more we keep trying, the more creative we’ll become, and creativity is vital for modern business owners.

Follow Best Practices

There are some best practices that you can leverage for bolstering creativity. Why not try to take a new route somewhere instead of continuing on the same one that you follow every day? Is there a business or store that you pass by all the time that you are curious about? Why not pop in? Find a really, really bad idea and then pick out the best parts of it. Start over with some task that you do all the time, and find a unique way to approach it as if it were your first day on the job. Think about it like disassembling something and then putting it together in a fresh way!

When working at your startup or formulating something original, if you take a break for a while and get some air or do something else, it will give you a lift. Set aside 30 minutes every day for creativity: you can paint, play piano, draw, or dance. This will tap into the creative part of your brain. If you’re drawing or daydreaming, just let your ideas flow.

Learning new skills can help, too. Why not take classes, attend webinars, and read? I know there is something you’ve always been dying to learn how to do—maybe skydiving or studying another language. The sky’s the limit, and you can even jump from it if you want while speaking French on the way down. I’ve gone indoor skydiving a few times, and I love it. It forces me to think totally differently. Maybe that is something you can try, too. And it’s so much fun, whirling around in the air like that!

Stay Healthy

When it comes to your creativity, being healthy is a must. Ensure that you are getting enough sleep, because the more rest you get, the more creative you’ll be. Drink lots of water as well, because water keeps you from feeling sluggish and improves brain function. Put an emphasis on incorporating breaks throughout your day and discover methods to relax. As mentioned, stress inhibits creativity, so include downtime in your schedule. That’s when your inspiration builds up. It can also help to eat healthier by making good choices like salads, fruits, and vegetables. (It’s good for you as well, so bring on the broccoli.)

Write It Down

Make a point to write more. Put together an article or journal at random without a particular focus. This habit boosts your creativity and also helps establish you as an expert (as discussed in Mindset Shift 5). Choose subjects that are outside of your wheelhouse (in addition to those that you know). That way you’ll have to do research, you’ll learn more, and you’ll be forced to come up with a creative way to present your ideas.

Change the Ambience

Sometimes all it takes to become more creative is to change the atmosphere and mix it up. When you are in a different location, you are out of your comfort zone. If you work at home, perhaps you can sit outdoors or at a safe coworking space. I used to hit a French bakery here in town with extensive seating and good Wi-Fi to challenge my status quo (although I had to refrain from eating too many macaroons). Now, it is often just as simple as moving into a different room in my home.

Turn on some music for a change, as music can frustrate your logical thinking—rap, jazz, pop, whatever you’re into. Write out your ideas with a pen and paper and get in there and use your hands. You can also isolate yourself so that you can think more clearly. Ensure that the process, whichever you settle on, is fun by making it a game. Laugh it up, too, because laughter is good for getting those creative juices flowing.

Perhaps you might even take things a step further and set up an inspirational spot in your startup or your home—think reading corner, she-shed, or creativity room. Although the she-shed didn’t work out so well for Cheryl (it burned down in the State Farm commercial), I’ve always wanted one, don’t you?

Above all else, give yourself some time to chill. Play Ping-Pong, take a breather, or go for a stroll. You can also move where you sit; even relocating across the room may give you the change in perspective you need. Let your mind wander. Daydream and see where your thoughts take you. When you give your brain a rest, a creative idea will often come to you subconsciously.

Brainstorm

You are a startup maven now, so keep pushing the edges to become more inspired all the time. Dedicate some time specifically each day for brainstorming by implementing a method for generating ideas, and making that a part of your routine. Reward yourself and others, too, for being creative. If you come up with a great idea, or someone else on your team does, treat them or yourself. It doesn’t have to be anything big but enough to stimulate you to produce more ideas. Did someone say chocolate Frappuccino? Give a bonus for brilliance and for thinking outside of the box (even if it’s just to yourself).

Stay Optimistic and Play Games

Remaining hopeful stimulates inspiration, so endeavor to look on the bright side and work on an attitude adjustment if necessary. There are also some creative-thinking exercises that you can do daily. Incorporate them and other brainstorming activities into your routine. Remember those drawing pages where the picture is half complete and you must finish it? Pick exercises like that from creative workbooks for adults, which are fun to do.

Other best practices include taking two unrelated subjects and finding a way to tie them together. Like oranges and snails, or butterflies and baseball. How can you connect them? There’s always a way. When in doubt, sketch it out: go up to a white board and doodle. You can also perform word association games. If I say “successful,” you say? Why, you, of course!

Develop a plan for how you’ll incorporate some creative activity into your schedule. As part of that, decide how you’ll add more writing (think thought-leadership pieces or reflective journaling) into your norm—you’ll become a more disruptive and innovative leader as a result.

FINAL THOUGHTS