Speaker 1: 0:03

Well, hello. This is Kimberly Brock, and for over 20 years I've been running my own businesses that have not only been profitable but personally fulfilling to me. So now I'm on a mission to help other new business owners, just like you, make money doing what you love too. Now we're going to have some fun, so let's get started.

Speaker 2: 0:27

Well, hello, this is Kimberly. It's episode 298, and I'm so glad that you are here today because we're talking about using your creative genius in your business and three big ways you get to do that. I know many of you have started your business because you felt like you had this creativity that was bottled up inside of you that you wanted to express in a way that was different than just having it as a hobby. You really wanted to turn it into a business, and here's what's cool is you get to continue to use your creative brain in so many ways. We're going to talk about 3 of them. I think it's going to make you really excited as you build your business and can't wait to share these with you. If you are new here, welcome. I'm so glad that you found this podcast. I have no doubt it's going to help you along your business journey.

Speaker 2: 1:15

Whether you're in the idea stage, starting or growing, or even starting a podcast, this is for you, so make sure you get plugged in right now. If you scroll down below in the show notes, like if you're an Apple podcast, you're listening to the podcast. Scroll down to the show notes and you will see the links to all of my free resources to help you get plugged in and moving even faster. For example, I have a 16 step checklist for starting your business. I have a workshop for growing your business, for deciding if a podcast is right for you, and just all kinds of things. So make sure you check that out below because I know they are going to help you. And even if you're in the idea stage, I have something for you. And if you've been listening a while, thank you so much to all my loyal listeners. Thank you for all of you that have subscribed and if you haven't subscribed before, make sure you hit that Follow or Subscribe button to this podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. I usually drop them on Thursday mornings, central Standard Time, like 3 am. So if you get up for work or something, you're able to listen. People tell me they do that, that they listen on Thursday morning on their way to work, and I think that's so awesome. And if you've also been listening a while and you find value in this podcast, would you be so kind just to hit five stars super quick? Again, if you're an Apple podcast or whatever player you're in, hit five stars and that will give us a rating. I can't help it, but think that it helps Apple and the other podcast players know that this is a valuable podcast. And then, if you have 30 seconds to write a written review, I would love to hear from you. I would love to know what this podcast has done for you, because I'm so excited about your journey. So that's it On to the episode.

Speaker 2: 3:22

Well, hello friends. How are you? What is going on today with your business? I'm dying to hear, I need to know, what have you done? That's been really scary. That you're proud of yourself, that you actually did it. We should all be recognizing these things in our business, because I think we all feel that insecurity and sometimes that lack of confidence and we're terrified. But I want to applaud you If you are taking courageous action today.

Speaker 2: 3:39

Shout out to one of my clients, shonda Hamilton. She just launched her podcast, mrs Hamilton's Room, to help high schoolers, and even parents of high schoolers, go from striving to thriving, and I'm so excited for her. Shonda, shout out to you. I'm giving you a round of applause. I'm so excited about her business and her podcast, and and I think we can all relate to the fact that starting something new is scary, but once we follow that tug in our soul, the rewards are so great. So I'm so proud of all of you and I'm so excited for you and I hope you you give yourself a round of applause today for what you have accomplished. Okay, Today we're talking about getting to use your creativity, and this is a fun topic because a lot of us are creative in some way or another, and many of you listening may be like, yes, I consider myself a creative, I'm artistic or I'm a dancer or I'm something where you're creating stuff all the time, right?

Speaker 2: 4:41

Others of you may not have thought of yourself as creative, and what's really cool is that you are about to embark on this journey of actually realizing a part of you that maybe you didn't even know existed and maybe that you'd never really tapped into. And what's cool is business ownership gets to amplify your creative genius. Think about that for a minute. We get to amplify our creative genius. We each have a creative genius. Like. It's so funny when I sit down with my youngest daughter, ava she's 16, and we need to make a birthday card for someone or we need to do something. It is so amazing to see her little brain work and actually she's not that little anymore, she's 16. But she's always had this really good creative side to her as far as making things with her hands, like crafts and cards and just she can make costumes and just all kinds of things like that. It's so fascinating to see our creative you know brains at work. Others of you like I think about my oldest daughter super good at organizing and getting things in a logical way, and that's a creative brain right. That is a way that she gets to use her creativity right.

Speaker 2: 6:00

And you get to use your creativity every day in your business. There's stuff that you are creating every single day and you may not have realized it. You may be thinking I offer coaching, I offer life coaching. What am I actually creating? Every day? We're going to talk about these things because it's going to free you too and it's going to be exciting Because sometimes in business we get caught up in the day-to-day stuff and we don't actually enjoy some of the cool sides of it, like the creation side, like the things that we're getting to use our God-given gifts for in our business.

Speaker 2: 6:40

So I think it's fun to look at these and, again, I think it will bring a new spark to how you approach your business every day to realize that you do get to be creative every day in your business, even though you feel like you're you're sledging along. Sometimes it's sledging a word, I don't know, but you feel like you're sledging along every day and you're kind of doing the same thing, which is good, because that means you have a pattern, you have something that's working and you've got a method to your madness. So you should have a pattern. There should be some sense of like. I'm kind of doing the same thing but at the same time, I'm going to free you today and help you see that you get to be creative in what you're doing. So let's talk about 3 ways that you get to be creative in your business and again, this is super fun. So number 1, you get to be super creative in your branding of your business and the naming of everything. I think this is super fun.

Speaker 2: 7:34

I love this when people are starting their business and they're trying to figure out, like, what's the vibe they want to get off, give off, what's the personality, what do they want to name their business? Why are they naming them? The business that they are, you know? What colors do they want? What's the feeling. I love this part of it because to me, it's like a baby is being born. It really is, because you've had all these ideas and this anticipation, but then all the creative juices are flowing and the vision is coming to life. It's like manifesting, it's becoming real, it's becoming tangible. All this stuff that you've had in your head is now getting to be formed into something tangible that you can see. You can see a logo, you can get a feel for a brand, you can get a feel for its energy and I just love it and I love branding.

Speaker 2: 8:30

I love to look at brands that I think are amazing and look at what they've done. I just think it's so fascinating Like there's this one brand of like home I don't even know what to call it All kinds of almost nostalgic but meaningful home decor and gifts which is actually similar to what I sold in my business, but they're a manufacturer and everything has quotes and inspirational sayings on it. It's called Sugarboo and Co. It's also been called Sugarboo Designs in the past. I thought Let me see Sugarboo and Company. Yeah, sugarboo and Co. You'll have to go look at it. I love their stuff. I have some of their wall art. They have cool journals Again Sugarboo so it's like sugar S-U-G-A-R-B-O-O and Cocom Love, love, love their stuff. Anyways, I love their branding. Everything is cohesive, everything is on brand all the time and they're constantly creating cool things and to me, this is just like a creator's paradise.

Speaker 2: 9:38

I can't imagine working for them or being who is the person behind this? I need to look at this up because I'm like I think it's a she. She's a genius. No-transcript. Your business is amazing and it's beautiful and awesome. So shout out to businesses like that, who actually pour their heart and soul into their naming and their branding, and what I want you to realize is that you need to do that too. You need to put your heart and soul into your naming and your branding.

Speaker 2: 10:15

I love it, too, when I talk with business owners and they have some meaning behind their name of their business. Maybe it's about one of their children, it's initials of their family. I've had all these things. I've had a whole bunch of things. I've had someone name their business, what their dad used to say to them when they were a child, and just so many cute things like that. I love it. I think all of us has a story behind our business and you get to use your creative brain when you're beginning it. Now, one thing is you don't want to have names for every single thing. That's super confusing that people don't know what it is. But for your business name, you get a little leeway here because it is based on something that has meaning and the name has to match. You don't want to give it a generic corporate name, right? So the naming and branding is so fun.

Speaker 2: 11:05

I think creating the feel, the vision, is so fun. I think about interior designers when they walk into someone's home and they listen to your vision about your home and then it appears and you're like, yeah, this is exactly what I wanted, like my interior designer. Shout out to Laura Starzik, if you're listening, she was amazing. She did that with me and listened to everything. Even though she can bring many different styles to life, she listened to us and we all. When we walk in our living room and our kitchen, we're like it just feels so comfortable in us and we love it.

Speaker 2: 11:39

Right, and that's how I want you to feel with your business, too. You get to do that, so make sure that you're taking time to create the tangible things in your business aspects of your business that actually represent meaning and your brain behind this. This is part of your creativity coming to life. Okay, so allow that, allow that to flow. Like I know a lot of you when I talk to you before you're getting anything started in your business, you already have this feel that you want for your business and I challenge you today to go with that and don't ever doubt it and to let that flow out of you, because that becomes the whole branding for your business, which is super cool. So that's the first way that you get to use your creative genius in your business.

Speaker 2: 12:27

The second way is that you get to use your creative genius in crafting all that you offer. Whether you offer products, services, programs, coaching, anything. You get to craft it in a way that you're like I wish someone would have made this for me or I wish this was offered. I don't see it out there. This is how I think it should be configured or made, or the ingredients should be this, because no one's doing this and I stand for this. I want you to think about everything that you stand for and how you want that to.

Speaker 2: 13:04

I don't know if the word is manifest into your business or get integrated into your business. But I highly suggest you really think through the offers that you are creating and why you are creating them. For many of you, it's because it's something that brought you joy in your life. For some of you, it changed your life. For some of you, it made you feel better, made you look better, helped you have a better relationship, helped you overcome something, helped you get out of something that was unsafe and get into a more safe zone in your life.

Speaker 2: 13:42

Like, I don't know the reasoning behind what you're offering, but what I do know is that your creative brain again, even if you don't think you're super creative in the artsy sense your creative brain needs to be used. You need to be thinking personally what would I want out of this product or service and what is not out there, and what could make this really special or cool or amazing or worth the money or whatever it is? You get to bring out that creativity and create an offer again, whether it's product, service, program, whatever it is different from what else is out there. And when you do that, when you use that creative genius to create your offers, that's how you create a winning offer, because you create something that stands out, that's different. That means something to people. Create something that stands out. That's different. That means something to people.

Speaker 2: 14:44

Right, think about it. What is it that makes your product or service different? And if you can't answer that, you need to pause today and really think about. What would I want? What have I felt that has been lacking? What hasn't been explained to me? What hasn't been shown to me? What isn't out there that could really make a difference for people, whether it's in a small way, like bringing them laughter and joy, or a big way, like helping them deal with divorce or, you know, placing elderly family members into some type of care. Right, it could be something very minor, it could be something major that you offer, and I don't discount all of them, because I think all of us together are like a really amazing symphony. This is what makes the world go round, and all of us are making the world a better place in some form or fashion, right?

Speaker 2: 15:39

So when you're crafting your offers, make sure that you are tapping in to that creativity, like if I told you you could create it in any way possible. Forget the cost of creating it a certain way or offering it a certain way. What would that be that stands out that you would absolutely love. What are the qualities of the offer that would make it a heck, yes, for you to buy? And you use that creative genius in your brain and you turn that into your product or service offerings.

Speaker 2: 16:15

Okay, you get to create offers that tap in to your creativity, right, whether you're making a physical product or it's an intangible service. Right, you get to be creative in what you're doing. Stop trying to be a robot and copy everyone else. You get to sit there at the drawing board and dream. If you had a whiteboard next to you and you could dream it. I suggest you do it, write it out and see if this is actually possible, and I'm pretty sure there's some way you can get close to that dream. If you can't actually do the dream, right, it may be so outlandish that at this point you're not at the stage of business to do that, but you can start somewhere small and that's when your creativity creeps in, because it can go. Oh, yeah, well, actually there is a way. We could just offer it like this right now, and we could move into something more.

Speaker 2: 17:24

It's just like me starting that audiobook, right? Did y'all know that I have an audiobook. Now it's called You're Just Getting Started and I go through everything for starting and growing a new business. It's the 10,000-foot view of how to turn your passion, skills and God-given gifts into a business you love. I started it here as it's actually like in a private podcast format, but it's actually in chapters and everything like an audiobook. So I know that sounds weird, but that was the quickest way for me to get started and to start testing this and make sure that creating an audiobook and all that goes into that and working with Audible or, you know, trying to get a writer to help me flesh this out because you kind of got to have an ebook or a book first so that then you can turn it into the audiobook.

Speaker 2: 18:11

It's a long, drawn-out process and I realized that would be a cool thing to have. I would love to have an audiobook, but you know what? I can't do that just yet because I need to go through all these motions, using my creativity to create all these episodes, and then kind of I'm kind of going backwards. I created my first audiobook and then I'm going to try to transcribe it and then get a writer to help enhance it and then go into an audiobook. I mean I would love to do that. Am I saying 100%? I'm going to get to that point where I have an actual audiobook. I don't know that. I'm in the research phase, but I wanted to get something out right now to begin the process, and this was my beginning. So I get you.

Speaker 2: 18:55

If you've got something that is really big, that would take a very long time and you're just not there yet, use your creative brain to say how else can I make it work? That's what I did. I said how else can I make it work? I'm going to record the chapters. I'm not a writer. I can speak from the heart and I already had it all organized. And I said I'm just going to put it into like a private podcast where people can buy it and then they can download it and listen. No, it's not in Audible or Audiobookscom, but it's a great first step. I was creative with that and I also used my creative brain to speak this whole audiobook right.

Speaker 2: 19:35

So my creative brain is not in crafting things with my hands. I think my creative brain works best when it has to work really fast and do something and figure out a way and I can speak in a somewhat orderly fashion, but that's my creative zone. This is my creative zone. I love audio. What is it for you? That's your creative zone of genius. And for you, you get to create an offer around it. So remember that you get to be creative. Don't be a bot. Don't be copying what everyone else is doing. Yes, we want to go by what is popular in the marketplace today and we want to tap into that, but we also want to put our own spin on it. So make sure you're using your creative brain as you're crafting your offers. So make sure you're using your creative brain as you're crafting your offers.

Speaker 2: 20:41

And the third way that you get to use your creative brain is how and where you show up to share your business with the world. This is so cool to me because you get to show up in ways that maybe are unconventional or maybe are different or maybe they are common, but you've got your own personality. Again, on this one, don't be a bot, okay. You are going to be someone that is leveraging your personality, your vibe, your energy, your life experience, your accent, the way you talk, your sense of humor. You're leveraging all of it, and it may not even feel creative to you, but it actually is, because it's what your brain is putting together to share with the world.

Speaker 2: 21:27

So, for example, some of you are really good on Instagram and doing reels and all that. I follow people that are just naturally amazing. I don't even think they're trying that hard and they're just captivating and you want to watch them, right? You want to know what's going on and that's cool because they're using their your creative brain. Some of you are good at, you know, doing YouTube videos. Maybe they're more serious. Some of you are really good at writing blogs and you're a very interesting writer. Some of you are really good at writing blogs and you're a very interesting writer. Some of you are really good creatively networking with people locally, like, you're amazing at that and you somehow know everyone and everything going on. And that's your creative brain. You're able to mesh with people and just create connections. You realize you're creating. You're creating connections. So don't ever doubt that you're not a creative and that you don't create, because you actually do.

Speaker 2: 22:22

In today's online business world, you hear about content creators, people who create content. Usually it's video, blogging, whatever. I create content through a podcast, right, and this is my creative brain, like I stated a minute ago. But you can also be creative in how you collaborate with other people. Maybe you team up with other businesses and you do cool things locally or online. Maybe you have guests. Maybe you have two different types of product businesses that y'all team up, have two different types of product businesses that y'all team up. That's your creative brain thinking about your people and going, oh, what would be cool for them, what could we create for them.

Speaker 2: 23:05

So how you show up is part of your creativity. How you show up and talk about your business is actually part of your creative brain, because you're creating conversation around a topic. I know you didn't think of yourself this way and you're like wait, what Am I actually creating something when I'm creating conversation? Yes, you are. You're creating an energy, you're creating a tone. You're creating conversation. You're creating a vibe and an energy around something. You're creating meaning when maybe there was no meaning.

Speaker 2: 23:45

However, you show up when, where, how, on what platform? Whatever you're doing, you get to use your creative brain and most of you are going to have to show up in some way. And you could be saying I don't want to show up in any way, I just want to run Facebook ads. Okay, do you realize that Facebook ads are actually a creative venture as well. Maybe you're good at captivating people through ads. Some people have a gift for this. A lot of people have found me through an ad that I have, but I'm going to be honest, I don't think I'm the most creative person doing ads. I'm doing something that I think will capture the right people's attention, but is that my greatest gift? No, but there exists people who it is their gift, so that could be you. But I just want you to think differently about this.

Speaker 2: 24:38

About every way that you show up in your business, you actually get to be creative. Get to be creative about what you say, about what you wear, about the words you use to describe your business. That is part of your creativity that connects with the people that you're meant to serve. You being you is literally the best way to connect and to create connection and to create conversation around your business niche, right. But just know that your creative genius is at work every time you show up, and it should be. It should never be blocked If you want to be a certain kind of person online and creating content in a way that feels good, that you can test it out and see is this working?

Speaker 2: 25:30

You do it because that's what's going to make you stand out from the crowd, and everyone has their own zone of creative genius and it's up to you to live in that and test it to see if it actually works to bring in your right clients. A lot of times it does what I find. You may have to refine some things, tweak some things, but using your creativity is what will draw people to you. So show up in a way that's actually tapping into your genius, that that's actually fun for you, whether it be online or in person and conversations or whatever, because that's what's going to make you stand out and make people drawn to you that you can use your creative genius in your business. Number one is through all your naming and branding. Number two is in the offers that you create. And number three is in all the ways that you show up and talk about and share your business. It's so awesome, how lucky and fortunate are we to get to do this every day and I'm so proud of you.

Speaker 2: 26:31

If you need help with your business at all, scroll down to KimberlyBrockcom. I have several ways that you can work with me. You can do independent workshops or we can do one-on-one coaching. You'll have to check it all out below. I would be so honored to help you along this journey and I couldn't be more excited for you. So that is it. Y'all have a great day Until next time. Bye now.

Speaker 3: 26:57

Now this episode may be over, but our relationship does not have to end here. Head on over to KimberlyBrockcom and, yes, you can get more valuable information for your journey and you know what. You don't need to go through this alone. I would love to help you. Thank you so much and have a great day. Bye.