Gregg Fraley

Guerilla Innovation- Chapter 12 Having a Healthy Money Mindset One major factor that stops people from making the jump into business ownership is their relationship with money. Before I get into ways in which entrepreneurs (aka ‘guerilla innovators’) can get funds, a blurb on the whole money mindset is in order. Money, because of its importance, is deeply entwined with our thinking. It is often an emotional relationship. These emotions about money can inhibit creativity and put a damper on innovation. Before you go out fund raising, think about these statements: Do you have a problem with asking for money? Do you have a fear of rejection? Do you worry you can’t prove or persuade others you and your concept are

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Guerilla Innovation Chapter 10 In the previous post/chapter of Guerilla Innovation we talked about “amping ideas.” I reviewed two tools for doing so. They’re good tools. And…there’s more to it than those techniques. Idea amping is a way of life for an entrepreneur — and especially so for a small business one. Nobody will do the hard work of making something special for you. Something in our culture encourages you to quit when things become unreasonable. Yet, entrepreneurship is in many ways being unreasonable with yourself — and accepting the lemons people give you and making lemonade. Being an entrepreneur is a contrarian state. Unreasonable, in the sense that you go beyond what reason or logic would dictate to you is

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Guerilla Innovation Chapter Nine You have to amp those ideas before you start marketing and selling. If you are in before-start-up mode, even more reason to AMP like mad. The refined or amped up idea might just get you to that elusive Point of Difference we talked about. It’s not enough to have a great idea. I’m not making light of the effort one must make to get to a breakthrough idea, but if you’re an entrepreneur, really, a great idea is only what you need to get to the starting line. The early going in the business race is about “insanely great” ideas (thank you Steve Jobs). Good ideas are  normally “out of the medals” at the end of

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Had a fun evening at the London Writers Club last night. It got me thinking about thinking. Writers are always thinking about their projects, which inspired this cartoon, and this thought: to be a fluid idea generator one must allow for a lot of free association. That means allowing your mind to go its own way without you trying to control it. Writers tend to be pretty good at this, not only in their writing, but in their thinking between writing sessions. Everything in front of them is stimulus for characters, stories, structure, and generally, ideas. Do you allow your thoughts to roam and roam free? At least now and then? Then do you try to pull some meaning out

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At the heart of it, much of my professional work revolves around facilitation. Mostly I facilitate innovation projects. I do other things of course (speaking, writing, coaching) but I am often to be found, on my feet, creating innovation magic — facilitating idea generation sessions, aka ideation, aka brainstorming. And Yes, It Works. They work! Because it’s so much a part of my daily work life I sometimes forget what a challenge facilitation can be for others. It also occurs to me that if you’ve never had a good facilitator you don’t know what you’re missing. It’s interesting that I often hear, after my sessions, that they’ve never had such an “active” or productive session. Apologies for a bit of

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Can we just Get the Innovation Party Started already? One of the most frustrating things about being an Innovation consultant is watching organizations get stuck in a mud pit of inaction around innovation. Call it procrastination, lack of corporate will, a culture of bureaucracy — they all amount to the same thing: no productive innovation work done. I see it over and over, it’s as common as a head cold and just as unpleasant. I’ve written about this before — today’s post has a bit of a new wrinkle. Here’s the message: Have a party and get started. I mean it literally. Make innovation an ongoing company party. The common suggestions around how to circumvent this…innovation infarction…are many. They include:

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Is there a value to goofy, no purpose, experimenting? Does it make you more creative? I think yes. Madge here wanted to be goofy — and see if anybody noticed. Nobody noticed. She didn’t care. She felt better and got off the train with a giggle in her heart. Creative tip: giggles in your heart are a good thing. Have them. Make them happen. Toodles.  

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There is a new breeze blowing in the once troubled land of Derry-Londonderry, Northern Ireland. It’s a wind bringing a refreshing sense of posibility, energy, good ideas, youth, art, music and entrepreneurial spirit. It might otherwise be called Hope. Walk the new pedestrian Peace Bridge over the River Foyle into the walled city and you’ll find a vibrant core of creative talent. I don’t know enough to comment about the Troubles that existed here, but I think it’s fair to say that Derry has turned a corner and is moving forward into a new era. To a great extent the economic playing field has been levelled — and the result is an emerging regional center of excellence in the digital arts

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The classic American vacation might be that drive out west to see Mt. Rushmore. I’ve always yearned to see the famous mountain sculpture. This past week I got out to South Dakota, determined not to write or even think about creativity or innovation. I was there to enjoy the Black Hills, the Badlands, take in Mt. Rushmore, have a couple of strenuous hikes, and share it all with my lovely partner. Then I saw the Crazy Horse Memorial — and I had to kiss goodbye the idea of a creativity and innovation thought-free vacation. I’ve never seen such an ambitious creative project. It took me by surprise. I was only vaguely aware of the project and we stopped to see

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I believe that one of the most fundamental choices a human being can make relates to creativity. The choice is: do I wish to be a creative person or not? It would seem to be a no-brainer, but it’s interesting that at least half of people I talk to make the choice to Not be a creative person. This is done without a lot of thought, but sometimes it’s deliberate. Oh shame! For a long time I’ve taken for granted that people would want to be creative, but now I’m getting that there are reasons why folks might go the other way. Here are those reasons:   I don’t want the pressure of people looking to me for creative options

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