172: Think Outside the Box: How to Master Creative Problem-Solving

See the show notes for this Episode here.

This transcript has been automatically generated.

Bonnie Christine:
Well, hello, my friends. I'm Bonnie Christine. Welcome back to The Professional Creative Podcast. You know, when I first began running my creative business, I had no idea what types of problems that would come my way, And I really had no experience in solving them. One thing is for sure, in entrepreneurship, there are really no clear paths and there are also no easy fixes. I think a lot of times, it can feel like there's no one really ahead of you, guiding you, and giving you answers. So in my business, it feels like for many years, it was just me, my dreams, and just a whole lot of hurdles. So as I come upon, my goodness, 14 years of running my business, I've learned one incredible lesson, and that's all around the art of creative problem solving.

Bonnie Christine:
It's essential when it comes to overcoming challenges that are bound to come up and really push us to grow in leadership and build a successful business. You know, when I think about creative problem solving, I can't help but think about my team and for how long I was without a team. And I never really felt lonely, even though entrepreneurship can be really lonely. I never really felt lonely. I was used to making every single decision in my business all the time. But I remember just actually coming to tears one day when I was on a team call. This was really early on. I think there were 3 or 4 of us.

Bonnie Christine:
I just felt this overwhelming sense of, I'm not alone anymore, and I've got people to help me make decisions for the first time in a decade because I waited way too long to start getting help in my business. And so I think that that just highlights the weight of all of the decision making, all of the problem solving that comes to you when you're an entrepreneur. Even though it may not feel weighty in the movement, it really is all up to you. And sometimes, that can lead to a lot of decision fatigue. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. Whether you have a team or you're a solopreneur, creative problem solving is going to be so essential. So we're gonna dive into how to really think outside the box when you're facing problems that inevitably arise. We'll explore why creative problem solving is so important.

Bonnie Christine:
And I'm gonna talk to you about my 5 tips on how you can apply this to your own business starting right away.

Bonnie Christine:
I'm Bonnie Christine, and this is where all things creativity, design, business, and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains running a multi seven figure business doing the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today, I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is wildly profitable. Welcome to The Professional Creative Podcast.

Bonnie Christine:
1st, I wanna tell you about a story that my family had on a recent vacation. It involves, being in another country, a car, a lot of mud, and a lesson in thinking outside of the box. So if you've been listening for a while, you might remember that my family and I took a really once in a lifetime 2 week trip to Iceland this past summer. So if you missed that episode, or if you wanna hear me talk more about it, I give a super candid, honest review of the entire thing back in episode number 155. So recapping that trip was a ton of fun. It was an incredible experience for our family, but there was also a bit of a learning curve. So it was filled with kind of ups and downs and just figuring it all out. There's plenty of stories that I'll be telling, I know, for years to come, one of which I'm going to share with you today.

Bonnie Christine:
So one of the things that is pretty common in Iceland are roads called F roads that stands for off roads. Now, they're not super, you know, super off road, but they are kind of unmarked, they're typically gravel, and they're off the beaten path. But a ton of the landmarks, like waterfalls and, I don't know, all this incredible scenery are off what you call f roads. And they are especially enticing to someone like my husband who loves that kind of off grid adventure. And so we were looking up different places to go. We found this incredible waterfall that had good reviews, and it said that the drive was worth it. Someone said the drive is worth it and also that it's not too crowded. And that was kind of a benefit to us because a lot of the sites are incredibly crowded.

Bonnie Christine:
So off we go on this adventure. We drive down this road, it's about 7 miles, and it took us 45 minutes. So that's how kind of rugged it was. Took us 45 minutes to go 7 miles, and we passed 1 car while we were there. It was gorgeous. We got out. This waterfall was insanely beautiful. It's all it's all glacier water in Iceland, so the water is like this brilliant blue color.

Bonnie Christine:
And we decide that it's time to head back, get in the car, turn around, and just immediately, the car sinks into the mud so much. Like, it sunk so much, you all. So we are now just immediately up to, like like, more than halfway sorry. How do I explain this? So the wheels were more than halfway under rock and mud. So when you opened your door, my door actually skimmed the surface of, like, the mud and gravel. Okay. So that's how deep we're in. And here we are in in another country, in a remote place, we'd only passed 1 person the entire time, and there's no cell service.

Bonnie Christine:
That was the kicker. There's no cell service. And so we kind of all get out. We start throwing, like, the biggest rocks that we can find under our wheels to try to get it some traction. And then we kind of start pushing. I'm on the gas pedal. David's behind the car. We're working really, really hard, and we're just getting more and more sunk.

Bonnie Christine:
So, okay. It's getting kind of late here, which is interesting because Iceland in the summer, it's I believe it's called the midnight sun. It really doesn't get dark. It only gets dark for like an hour at like 2 AM or something like that. So it's not gonna get dark on us. We've got plenty of gas, and, we've got, you know, food and water and that kind of thing. But we ultimately decide that my husband, David, is going to put his superhero cape on and take like a like start running out of the place where we were. And so because there's no cell service, we have to really talk through like every scenario.

Bonnie Christine:
So if you run all the way back to the road, how long will that take before someone gets back to us? And we thought it would be roughly 3 hours if it took him as long as we thought it would take him to run 7 miles, get in touch with someone on the highway, and then travel back. We also kind of talked about, like, what would we do if no one ever returned? Because here I am sitting with my children feeling pretty vulnerable, not unsafe, just like, well, what do I do if you don't come back? It's such a such an alarming situation to be in. So I have this video of David. He's got kind of a backpack and his running shoes on, and he's running away from the car. And it was just this moment of feeling like, I really hope I see you again really soon. I hope this doesn't put us in, you know, a scary situation. Me and the kids are all hunkered down in the car. And so he gets just out of sight.

Bonnie Christine:
He gets just out of sight, and I'm sitting here feeling like, you know, I'm hunkered down for a good long while. And about, I don't know, 5 minutes later, I see him running back. And what had happened is that he had gotten cell service, like, just over the horizon. And is that the right word? Like, just over the crest of the hill, he had gotten cell service and started to talk to some people about how to come and get us. And it was such a relief. Like, I don't know, it's been a long time since I felt that amount of relief in one moment. And all we had to do the entire time was walk about, I don't know, not even a quarter of a mile, a half a mile away from where we were, and we got cell service. And we just had assumed that there was none for like a very long time.

Bonnie Christine:
But there was. There was just over the horizon, and so we just needed to kind of get creative. Right? Like start walking around and and problem shooting. So we kind of tried this traditional way to solve the problem, which was, you know, grit and pushing and trying to just get us unstuck. And then we started to get creative about some problem solving, and the solution came really quickly. So long story short, we ended up being up there for about 4 hours. And the one of the owners of a hotel that we were staying at ended up coming to get us. Then we had to leave the car and a tow company came and got it the following day.

Bonnie Christine:
And so it was a whole thing, my friends, but we made it out. I thought that was a good story to talk about as we're really including creative problem solving because we could have either panicked and really not made a lot of progress, or really get creative. And so, again, that conventional solution, it didn't work. It wasn't enough. We had to get really creative to get unstuck. So this story just illustrates that there are 2 different approaches to problem solving, conventional and creative. So I wanna break those 2 down. Conventional problem solving means effort.

Bonnie Christine:
Right? It's typically systematic. It's methodical. You kind of identify the problem. You start gathering information. You brainstorm different ideas or different solutions, and then you choose the best one. Right? So it works. Actually, it works a lot of the times. This approach works in so many different cases.

Bonnie Christine:
It's tried and true. But the thing is that a conventional approach for problem solving is typically only works for predictable, conventional situations. So as creative entrepreneurs, we're often dealing with unpredictable situations. Maybe the gravel is wetter, Maybe the mud is stickier or easier to sink in. It's a unique challenge and sometimes, things that just haven't really been done or figured out before. So creative problem solving is way more flexible. It's more innovative. It's more adaptable.

Bonnie Christine:
It allows for more ideation. It's when you can experiment and stay open to new ideas and be willing to break away from the norm. So in Iceland, we could have sat there waiting for a tow truck, or or hope someone would come to the rescue, or push our way out. But none of those things were working, and so we had to get creative. So how does this really apply to your business? So say you have a course, or a membership, or a product and you launch it and it doesn't go as planned. You're doing all the quote unquote right things, right, following the same strategies that you've learned from those who've gone before you. You're doing the things that have always worked in the past, but this time, it's just not working. So a conventional approach to low like a low launch and underperforming launch might lead you to throw more money at your advertising or reduce your pricing.

Bonnie Christine:
But a creative, problem solving approach invites you to shift your strategy entirely and enter into a new way of thinking. So maybe it's innovating your messaging, or offering a unique enrollment bonus, or maybe coupling it with something coupling a product with something that is really enticing, or maybe launching an exciting challenge that draws people together. The goal with creative problem solving is to stay open to possibilities and be willing to pivot when it's necessary. Hi, everyone. It's Bonnie Christine and I've got some really exciting news to share. Team Bonnie Christine is growing, and we're currently on the lookout for some amazing new talent to join us. So if you've ever wanted to be a part of a team that's passionate about creativity, education, and really making a tangible real difference, I would love to have you consider joining us. We're hiring for a few key roles, including a full time content writer, a full time digital marketing specialist, as well as a freelance video editor.

Bonnie Christine:
These positions are all fully remote. We offer competitive pay, flexible hours, and a ton of great perks alongside being able to just work with an incredible team. So we're looking for people who are really eager to help shape our mission of supporting creatives really worldwide. If that sounds like you or maybe someone you know, go ahead and head over to bonnie christine.comforward/careers to learn more and apply. And, hey, if you know someone who would be a great candidate, please please send this page to them as well. Applications close October 21st. So don't wait too long. We can't wait to welcome some new faces to the team and really get to know you.

Bonnie Christine:
Again, that's bonnie christine.comforward/careers. I can't wait to get to know you. So if you're running a creative business like so many of you are, I wanna remind you that so much of what you've done to get to where you are has already been deeply creative. Whether or not you realize it, you've been using creative problem solving all along. So let's dig a little deeper into what this can look like. Now, I don't want you to leave today thinking, well, that's an interesting topic, but how do I actually apply it? So I want to get really practical and talk about 5 steps for creative problem solving that can be applied to any issue that you have coming up in your business. The first is quantity over quality. The first thing I recommend in brainstorming is brainstorming without limits.

Bonnie Christine:
Get as many ideas out of your mind as possible without judgment, without worrying about if they're good or not or how you would actually bring them to fruition. So when you focus on quantity over quality, you kind of free up this mental space and that's when the best ideas often emerge. In my business, we use this approach many times a year. For example, we recently just had a brainstorm session for new products for my upcoming shop launch, which I can't wait to talk more about. In the past, I've brought them into a brainstorming session for things like bonuses or membership retention or marketing pivots. But I always tell them no idea is off limits, and you would be amazed at how often the most unexpected ideas will just come from this iteration, this vision storming session, and really lead to innovation. Number 2 is to encourage wild ideas. Give yourself permission to think way outside the box.

Bonnie Christine:
Sometimes we get stuck in a routine or what we think is the right way, but breaking away from that can lead to truly groundbreaking ideas. So let go of assumptions, let your imagination roam freely. When it's launch time, we like to cultivate wild ideas. We like to stay nimble and quick on our feet and be able to pivot if necessary. Last time we launched the immersion course, a wild idea came up that we could offer a brand new, still being created at the time, our Ultimate Licensing Handbook as a bonus. This was a huge hit and encouraged people to come and join us in the course, plus it allowed us to collect valuable feedback before officially releasing it to the public. So it was almost like an experiment, a soft launch so that we could get it into the hands of some early adopters and get feedback early on, but it was also a wild success, and everyone who got it loved receiving it so much. If you want to take a look at what I'm talking about, you can see it at bonniechristine.com/handbook.

Bonnie Christine:
Number 3 is constraints. So constraints can actually help spark creativity. When resources like time or money are limited and you're really forced to focus, that's when your creativity can really shine. For example, maybe you use a self timer. So set it for 10 minutes or 15 minutes and see how many ideas you can brainstorm within that amount of time. A great example of this is something that we do in our mastermind called a hot seat. These are highly structured, time constrained brainstorming sessions where someone has exactly 2 minutes to explain a problem or something that they want help with, and then the group has about 15 minutes to offer ideas and solutions to them. We actually did an entire episode on hot seats, so be sure to go check out episode number 44 to have a deeper dive into what these look like.

Bonnie Christine:
And I'll also link those couple of episodes I've mentioned in today's show notes over at professionalcreative.com. Number 4 is to defer judgment. So again, you don't want to have judgment when you're ideating. Don't evaluate the ideas right away. Rather, just let them flow freely without worrying about whether they're good or bad, or how you would make them come to life. You can always go back and refine them later or decide that they're not ones that you wanna move on right away. But in the moment, it's really crucial to just keep judgment at bay so that you don't stifle that creative part of you. Now, number 5 is to seek feedback at the right time.

Bonnie Christine:
So I'm a huge fan of feedback. It's so important. But timing is also really important. My advice is to share your ideas when they're what we call almost fully baked. They're around the 80 to 90% completion rate. This way, you can get valuable input without risking your entire idea being derailed too soon or too early. So why is creative problem solving so important? Well, for starters, it's really the key to innovation. We live in such a noisy world and innovation is really what sets us apart.

Bonnie Christine:
So think about some of the most successful businesses. They don't just solve a problem, but they do it in a way that no one else has thought of. An example that this brings to mind is one that I recently learned about on Facebook. Now, whether you're a fan of Facebook or not, they are the pioneers of social media as we know it today. And they're the industry leader for a reason. They have done nothing but innovate since their company began. So Facebook does this really interesting thing, they call it a hackathon. So when they invite all of their employees, as well as students from some of the top engineering schools in the nation, they bring them together and they have what I'll call a brainstorming marathon, but they call it a hackathon.

Bonnie Christine:
Okay. So they take the best ideas that come from this hackathon and actually implement them on the Facebook app within just a few weeks. So they're inviting limitless brainstorming and then they're actually taking action on it fairly quickly and getting those ideas out into the world. So while a lot of the innovations that come from hackathons are things like behind the scenes of their interface, some examples we might know are the like button, chat, video, and what we call the timeline. So all of these features are answers to a problem that Facebook wanted to solve, whether it was driving up user engagement with the like button, or getting users to stay on their platform longer with the use of chat and video, or helping them organize their posts and memories better with the timeline feature. These are all super successful implementations of creative solutions. So while you won't find me implementing a hackathon anytime soon, I think what we can really learn from this is the idea of ideation and no judgment brainstorming sessions that really bring things to life in our business. So think of what that could look like for you next time you're faced with a problem that requires maybe a creative solution.

Bonnie Christine:
Creative problem solving also builds emotional resilience, which is something that I've been actively working on for, I don't know, the past half decade. As entrepreneurs, we're constantly facing setbacks, and judgment, and opinions, and it requires us to show up in a new way. And so emotional resilience is so incredibly important. When you learn to think creatively, you develop the endurance to bounce back when things don't go as planned. Lastly, it helps you get unstuck. When you're faced with what feels like an impossible obstacle, creative problem solving gives you the tools to really push through and break the boundary and have new ideas. Whether it's maybe finding a new market for your product or creating a new product that offers a solution to your industry, creative thinking helps you see challenges as opportunities. So my friends, mastering creative problem solving is so important for you, anyone who wants to grow in their business.

Bonnie Christine:
This is something I wish someone had told me earlier on. Building resilience and learning to embrace kind of stepping out of the box are just as important as any technical skill you'll learn as well. So my challenge for you today is this: start applying these techniques in your own business. Let go of perfection and judgment, and just experiment with new ideas. And most importantly, keep pushing forward, even when the path isn't clear. My friends, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world, and remember, there's room for you.