Get Your Creative Juices Flowing

DROP THE DEVICES – GO OUTSIDE!

Behind every product there is a creative person. Behind every company there is a creative idea. Get your creative juices flowing and GO OUTSIDE! Despite my use and exposure to digital media, we all need a break from it on occasion. I crave to get outside and be in contact with more tangible things in this world. Stepping outside to breathe in the fresh smells of bread being baked at the local bakery. Visiting the teller at the bank to make a deposit, rather than online, who asks me how things are doing with my family. Exercising while flipping through a magazine, or bending a favorite page of a book, and not having to worry about damaging an electronic device at the gym.

TURN IT OFF AND TUNE IT OUT

Every day, I make it a point to take a break from the computer and enjoy the surroundings around me. Turn off – the television, iPod, computer, iPad and other devices, but rather step outside into the world and appreciate mother nature and the artistic talents of others that surround you. The architects drafting designs for builders to craft ornate structures that create an impressive city skyline. Mother nature giving birth to Spring awakening the leaves, trees and flowers, bringing sweet smells of sprouting plants on a sunny day that fills our lungs with fresh air and lifts our spirits. Roam the stores along the streets and see how each one sets itself apart and a friendly smile can go a long way to greet someone. Go for walks admiring the beauty in the world and get inspired by the creativity of others. I do it each and every day!

Stella McCartney's Las Vegas Store

EVERYTHING AND EVERYWHERE IS ART

Amazed by the Paper Gowns by Anthropologie

As an avid shopper, my interests include retail marketing, learning about new fashion trends, examining consumer behavior, and helping others to shape business with strategic ideas that reach a wide audience with new innovations. I’m inspired by color, interior design, photography, clothes, new cultures, flowers, music, dance, discovering new places and exploring the charm and people of different towns. The influx of eCommerce, online coupons, and mobile technology have created a competitive environment for retailers to attract consumers to their stores. The media is a buzz about the latest technology, location-based mobile marketing advancements, but take the time to appreciate the real visual spectacle before your eyes. In some stores, the clothes are displayed as if they are paintings in a museum adorning the shelves, and the window displays become a canvas to create beautiful masterpieces. I enjoy discovering new fashionable finds along my travels that help to get my creative juices flowing and it inspires my work.

Retailers such as Barneys, Anthropoligie, Bloomingdales and others have devised experiences with great focus on visual design to stimulate the senses and connect with one’s imagination and desires.

Nordstrom's Clipboard Canvas

There is art in everything from paper, clipboards, hangers, to little pieces of crystal suspended from the ceiling that take on new form. That’s impressive. Grab something and get your creative juicing flowing by making a masterpiece of your own to display your artistic talents for others to admire.

Barneys Collection of Hangers Makes A Horse

Get Inspired to Reach Out to Someone Today

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down to write down my thoughts here. Over the last few months, I found myself busy like most of us working full-time while juggling my day-to-day activities that I have not contributed to my blog. It’s funny, I hear time and time again busy professionals not having a moment between work, assisting their families, spending time with friends, enjoying their hobbies and side projects that there is no time to for social media and explore all the new technological advancements at one’s fingertips. Now I can understand what they all meant. I missed blogging but I was occupied with other things that needed my attention. I realize it’s important to express one’s thoughts and get inspired to reach out to someone. It can be damaging to one professionally and personally when not actively learning about new advancements, trying new things, and exploring this new digital playground. It’s important to stay abreast of the new things on the horizon and how society is adopting new forms of communication to reach the masses. In fact, it could alleviate the necessary time for one to conduct his/her daily activities, as well as discover it to become more manageable.

There is still something to be said for those that have a good balance between the virtual and the real world. We rely a lot on our cell phones and other technical toys. I admit that I love my new iPhone, but you won’t find me hugging it at the end of the day!

This digital and mobile world opens our eyes to consider new ways of engaging with others more personally for when we dream, love, listen, satisfy a need or a want, explore, and perhaps help us learn a thing or two about others and ourselves.

The George Clooney movie Up in the Air  features him traveling around the world having to bring bad news to those people being laid off from different companies. Many of us over the last year have had to face that same reality. I’ve learned from each encounter and knew it was God’s way of looking out for my best interest that something better was around the corner.

Eventually in the movie, George’s side-kick felt strongly about adopting new digital media to help make the process of letting people go from companies more efficient. She was young, savvy, smart and determined to prove him wrong and perhaps even drive him out of a job. However, after her reality of facing numerous employees day after day to be laid off, she learned that no computer could replace such a personal matter. Still to this day, there are certain things that will NEVER replace those personal interactions. However, we need to embrace the new and make sure to balance it with the old in a way that helps to do good for others, grow businesses and learn from one another.

Even if one takes a half-hour a day to comment on a blog, twitter a thought, check out a new perspective on an article and provide feedback, or learn about a new start-up in the social media space, could help you and your business. Do take a step each day to reach out into the digital world, try something new. Go out there to share your perspective. We can all benefit from each other’s digital footprints, as well as embrace the handshakes, personal interactions and of course someone’s smile.