About 12 years ago, 2 men had a meeting at a bar. Over what I know to be a local IPA, the now CEO whipped out a pen and wrote a business plan on a bar napkin, while the now CFO created the financial plan for how this business would take off. Just this past year, the consulting firm known as NewGen Strategies and Solutions celebrated their 11th year in business, and the meeting at the bar is fondly known as The Bar Napkin Summit. The CEO and CFO have a repeat of that Summit every year.
In 2012, I took Katy, my daughter, to SeaWorld. (This was BEFORE the movie Blackfish!) While Katy was swimming with the beluga whales, I stood on the ramp watching her, beaming with pride. The sky was blue. The sun was shining. The weather was perfect. And all of the sudden, I had an epiphany: my process at A-list Interviews was 7 steps, and I could begin marketing it that way. My business sky-rocketed after that.
Another client of mine wrote a book while driving across the country by dictating paragraphs into a Dictaphone. She was totally burnt out from her corporate job, so she planned a road trip. It was the beginning of a brilliant career in a totally different field, and she termed it “RoadRage”.
What these stories have in common is that the big idea did NOT come from sitting behind a desk. That next stroke of genius did NOT come from doing the everyday activities that one always does. The stroke of inspiration came from doing another type of activity.
Now that the holidays are here, I hope that you are spending time with friends and family doing activities that you don’t normally do, and that your Bar Napkin Summit turns into your next flash of brilliance.
Happiest of creative holidays to you all!
Beth
POWER THOUGHT: Whether you attend a Bar Napkin Summit, participate in an intense writing session or stare at your beautiful daughter, your next idea will emerge outside of the office. Get to it!