In this episode, Simon welcomes Nir Bashan, a world-renowned creativity expert. He is the author of the new book The Creator Mindset: 92 Tools to Unlock the Secrets to Innovation, Growth, and Sustainability (McGraw-Hill, 2020). Inspiration is everywhere, but sometimes it is just hard to find. Listen to how Nir Bashan shares steps we can take to become more creative in business and in real life.

3 Valuable Insights

• Everybody can learn how to be creative.
• Trust your partners and let them do what they're good at
• Creativity is a Business Tool 

Show Notes

(01:08)  - Simon: What are you currently creating?

(01:26) - Nathan Beckord:  We've been busy on the book, been doing a bunch of keynotes and webinars all from a computer.

(02:26)  - Simon: What happens after a book comes out?

(03:57) - Nathan Beckord: I think that writing the book is like maybe 25% of the job after the book comes out in the bulk of the work. It's amazing.

(04:14)  - Simon: Why a book in the first place?

(05:08) - Nathan Beckord: What I wanted to do was find a technique on the how of creativity so that I can become more creative myself. And it wasn't in the marketplace.

(06:01)  - Simon: What did you find out about the creative process?

(07:01) - Nathan Beckord: Everybody's creative. Everybody can learn how to be creative. It just takes the will to want to learn how to do it. It's really straightforward. It's a discipline.

(07:28) - Simon: What stops the creativity in the first place?

(08:14) - Nathan Beckord: So we did a lot of research and we found that no matter where you are in the world from Africa to Europe, US it doesn't matter. At some point something in the education system, the social system, a religious system, stopped creativity and started to develop analytics. We love things that we can count. 

And what we lose, what we lose is the ability to solve problems. So I'm on a mission. My job with my book and my work is to encourage creativity anywhere in the world that it needs to develop so that humanity can get to the next level.

(10:59) - Simon: So tell us more about the formula. What did you find out? Is it something that needs to be trained and that's why you have put together over 90 things to do?

(11:01) - Nathan Beckord: You need to work on it, but it's easy. The first thing I talk about in the book is the concept, the idea and the execution. So what I do is I have people write their concept. Then I have them write their idea. And then I have them write their execution. And I train people by looking at their product or service in a big way, how to execute creativity, how to make it.

(15:13) - Simon: Who are your ideal clients?

(16:08) - Nathan Beckord: I like to work with those people, uh, who have real problems that want real solutions. I would love to hear from you, if you have a challenge that can not be solved by the traditional methods.

(16:21) - Simon: Can you share your experience working with a big publisher for your book?

(18:19) - Nathan Beckord: One of the major things that they helped me with is that make it about the reader, not about me.

(20:17) - Simon: Tell us more about how did you connect with your book publisher

(20:30) - Nathan Beckord: So you got to get a good agent. And I've learned throughout my life that when you partner with somebody or when you work with somebody, you got to let them do what God gifted them with. 

I used to micromanage everybody and I thought I was the smartest person and I wasn't out stupid to do that. And I learned so much by doing it wrong. But anyway, it's really about trusting your partners and letting them do what they're good at.

(22:52) - Simon: So how did writing the book then change your business and your creative process?

(23:08) - Nathan Beckord: It really helped me start to become more aware of what I'm doing and how I'm doing it.

(24:03) - Simon: What are books or podcasts that touched you recently?

(23:08) - Nathan Beckord: For podcasts, I really like the marketing podcast of Douglas Burdette

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