The Eight Steps For Creative Brilliance

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0:52Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. This is John Jantz and my guest today is Mark Schechter. He's a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and original thinker. He's pioneered an entirely new system of creative thinking that empowers startups to Fortune 500 clients to build robust and sustainable enterprises while reshaping corporate cultures for unlimited innovation and growth. We're going to talk about his latest book, Think Eight, Eight Steps to Ignite Your Creative Genius in Business, Career, and in Life. I'm going to talk a little bit about his proven method for unlocking creativity previously or previously only available to his Global Think8 clients.

1:36So Mark, welcome to the show. Thank you, John. So I first want to tackle the broad nature of your subtitle, that Unlocking Creative Genius in Business, Career, and Life. So are you suggesting that this is a framework that you could apply if you were trying to advance your career, if you wanted a better life as well as grow a business? I mean, are you appealing to anyone who wants to use a process to better something? Well, the origins of the process actually became in Hollywood where I was writing and producing. And I was very curious about having a hit. My agent said, you know, just write me a hit.

2:20And I said, thank you, Elliot. He was with William Morris. I said, easier for you to say. And he said, but that's your job. So I just kind of embarked on trying to understand that element. How do I use my creative juices to up the odds, if you like? And it started there. And all the research on these eight steps began there. But it then migrated because people in business outside of media said, you know, could you come and give a motivational talk and express how you do things? And that led to business. And then people were saying, well, you know, it reshaped the way I think about my career. And so what was happening is just this creative aggregation of ability and enhancement just seemed to kind of have a universal appeal.

3:02It wasn't anticipated that way, but it grew into that kind of application, which was a nice thing to happen, but not anticipated initially. Well, and I could see that. And we'll get into the actual eight steps. But, you know, a lot of them are things that you might actually associate with personal development. But let's face it, companies are made up of people, aren't they? Absolutely. Well, it is all about, and you know this so well, John, it is the individual's own innate capacity and passion and inherent ability to just formulate solutions. And if you give them the opportunity and the tools, as you know so well, to be able to tap into this and then be able to execute their dreams, their passions and so on.

3:45It's a wonderful thing to behold. So the personal thing is always the focus. So you actually introduced a concept of rather than growing a company, really unlocking a company's true worth. I wonder if you could spend some time explaining what you mean by that. Absolutely. Companies typically would start when there's an issue and they want to grow or expand exponentially. They'll tap into or they'll address the thing they're making or how they're making it. And where we start is the individuals behind that effort. And if they can up their creative quotient to solve those problems, they can solve any problems.

4:30So the focus begins with them. And the ability of the tool and why it has proven itself is that people, regardless of their background, coming around a table, an executive group, a board, they through the process are able to kind of find consensus creative consensus and formulate a vision that serves them all and then that juice that energy then is applied to solving that specific problem but they also are empowered to solve you know sustainable problems thereafter so it it kind of aggregates that that consensus and ultimately the alignment around all of that energy this seems to be the ticket if you can get everybody i guess you would call it organizational physics where everybody is really on the same vector.

5:15They're really pulling forces in the same direction. So you, it's in the subtitle and you use it throughout the book, talk about creativity and kind of new thinking on the role of creativity even. And I do suspect there are some people that think, well, creativity, that's like the art department or that's, you know, branding or, Or, you know, that's how we create some slogan or jingle. But you're really applying it in a whole different way, aren't you? We are. I mean, it's a basic capacity. Everybody has it. You know, the way you've created your business. You bake a cake. You build a business.

5:54You're still using that idea of a nothing into a something. It wasn't there before and now it is. So if we can focus on innate ability and help somebody unlock it, and then give them a tool to execute that particular problem combined with that energy, that creative energy, it's quite remarkable to watch. And it serves them in ways that they hadn't thought about rather than diving into how do we fix this particular problem. So it's application for business and career, as you're saying, and others is really opened up. It does offer a more abrasive way to look at creativity. It's not just for artists.

6:33And you raise a real interesting point, too, because we bring the business of art to artists and the art of business to business. And people think I'm not I don't have it. I'm not born with that. I'm sure you ran into your life and people were saying, you know, John, stay with what you're doing or whatever. And you said, no, no, I see something else. I have something else in mind. And the creative capacity is inherent in everybody. And they can they can do whatever they want if they realize that they can. Well, how do you open that up? How do you open those channels up? Yeah. Well, and I do think that, and there are others that are certainly on this bandwagon about, but I do think we have to redefine, certainly in business, what creativity is.

7:13I mean, I think making a decision, you know, between path A or path B is a creative process, but so many people, you know, look at that as now that strategy or that strategic thinking. But, you know, almost everything we do in business takes some sort of element of creativity, doesn't it? Absolutely. But it's a question again of where do you start on that process? And you know this very well from your work. When a person this was the research, this was kind of the thing that opened it up for me. When a person taps into what they're really meant to do what they have actually examined their inner talents, their abilities innately, it does turn on the juices creatively.

7:54It's fascinating to watch because if they aren't focused on something that is meaningful to them, they think less about it. They don't seem to draw all their experience together to focus on a solution. So that creative energy is sort of ignited when starting with just understanding what they're really about and what their worth might be. And that's a very personal process, which is addressed in the eight steps, actually the step number one. But it is it is basic to all. By the way, definition we use of creativity in business, but in life and career is, and you'll love this because it comes from learning, you know, in Hollywood, ideas abound, an idea fully executed.

8:37Just get it done. And that's genius to me. Anybody has an idea and they go, you know, I think I'd like to do this and that. And I go, well, here you go. Here you go. And they go, did it. I just hats off. I'm in admiration of that process. But that's a great definition too, because I mean, the graphic designer can say, well, that's really what I'm doing with the logo, right? Is I'm fully executing an idea. So I mean, it certainly applies to the more traditional creative arts as well. So let's get into the eight steps. And you hinted at the first one being purpose. Now I have to challenge you on this one only because every business book you pick up today says you've got to find your purpose.

9:21And I don't know anybody who really has actually, no, I shouldn't say that. That's a very tough step for people because they sit around a room and say, what's our purpose? Okay. Does everybody agree on those eight words? Good. Well, it is the question. And yeah, how many, you know, go on site and you type in purpose. Of course, you get this millions of, the way we define it is really an impassioned reason, impassioned reason for wanting to create something. We keep it very simple, but we also make a distinction between a product purpose or product why and a personal why. Oftentimes, people will jump in and go, well, I want to create this toothpaste because it whitens teeth.

10:02And we come back and go, why are you into the teeth whitening business at all? And it's fascinating when we sit down with a group of executives and we say, what's the purpose of your business? And they'll say, I want to build a car. I want to build a really good car. I want to build a family car. I want to build an inexpensive sports utility car. We have never had the same answer, just asking that question from an executive team. But that's just the beginning because behind their choices to be in that business, in that place at that time, they're coming from life and experience and something that if you can tap into the real motivation behind their work, you know this so well, something happens.

10:43And then when that thing happens, it is beyond the purposefulness of the tool or the item or the service or the consulting. It's something that is meaningful to them. And I think the biggest thing we find, because our work has also been adopted to business schools, where people have never asked themselves, I'm chasing an opportunity, but does it matter to me? Is it meaningful? and they've never, they don't seem to get access or nobody ever asked them why they're into accounting or doctoring other than I want to help people. But that's a very general statement. It's deeper than that. I was going to say, the interesting thing about that is a lot of people would just tell you, I don't know.

11:21I mean, it's like, this is what presented itself when I was in school. And so it seemed like a path and I did this and 30 years later, I don't know why I'm doing Well, what we'd have them do in the process is we're very tactile. While we have a platform digitally doing this, we also on site have them actually write down without overthinking the things that come to mind. And there's a whole process that we employ that I developed with my wife, Nancy Spockin, who co-developed this whole program. And they put it down, put it down. And the things that come out are the craziest and wonderful things and there it is but it's it's it is the process we take them through your your question is absolutely dead on i don't know i don't know but you know what it's buried and we can go back and tap in and we find it we always find it but it can be very buried or somebody said that's silly or get real you know you know what that that's like be real you know it's honestly not now not time it's the world isn't ready for you.

12:24And you're going, I got to follow this thing. So it's there to be found. And we've been very fortunate that we were able to actually unlock it. And I think one of the great things about a process like this that is very structured too is, you know, I think the real challenge, especially for like business owners, is we sometimes just don't give ourselves the space or permission to have these thoughts, you know, because nobody asked us, they're asking us like, how do we get the order out the door? Exactly. Well, what are the interviews that you held? and so on. I thought the questions were really wonderful.

12:54Nemo and so forth. And he was asking and trying to understand your past. And when you start to answer the question, if I read about you and didn't understand that part, I would have missed the whole part. Because what was coming out was your journey and your passion and what made you just stick with it. There are people that come to us that have done everything. I mean, you know, all of the major consultancies and so on. They've been through it all and they go, I don't know, you know, we've got the bottom end. We seem to kind of understand systems, operations, but something isn't turning over.

13:28We have a mission statement. We have, you know, these various things, mandates. And I go, do you love it? Do you just love it? And they go, nah. And we learned this again coming from Hollywood background stuff. You pitch an idea to somebody and they'll go, this is really great. I'll get back to you. And if you have the confront, you go, you don't love it. You really don't love it, do you? No, no, I think it has real. No, no. Honestly, if you loved it, you'd be screaming up the chain and so on. And so you see the difference. Get me Matt Damon on the phone, right? Exactly. Precisely. I've had people chase me down the hallways to close a deal that I pitched as opposed to, this is really interesting, Mark.

14:10Thank you so much. We really appreciate your time. And you go, it's a no. Let's just deal with it what it is. That's not, to my mind, you know, what we're going for. We're going for that really intense, passionate purpose. But it is findable. Everybody carries it. Everybody. And now let's hear a word from our sponsor. You know, companies are under pressure right now. I mean, pressure to get more leads, close deals faster, get better insights to create the best experience for customers. A CRM can help, but not just any CRM. One that's easy to set up, intuitive to use and customizable to the way you do business.

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16:22I'm a little disappointed you couldn't come up with an acronym. You know, that seems to be the thing to do in consulting to call it something. But, you know, then you're like twisting words to make them fit into. Plus an eight-letter Scrabble word. I mean, that'd be a tough one anyway, wouldn't it? Well, what's happened in business is it's become a verb. Yeah. Literally, I've been in meetings and they go, we did a thinkate on it, a noun and a verb. We thinkate it. You've got to thinkate it. It is, you know, looking for those words. Duct tape, by the way, brilliant. Looking for that. And who is you?

16:53So I couldn't do duct tape eight. Didn't go there. Right? But I went, well, what is it about it? It is a different way of thinking about things. It is the new think and the work we do and the training we give to executives and so on. we talk about new thinking old thing, the old thing being the more conventional, be real type of thing. And the new things in terms of just going for it and out of a passion and a desire to do something significant, you know? So we just stuck with think and eight were the eight steps. So, you know, it just, it went together and that's how it's growing. You know, you sort of hit it and people just use it and use it and use it.

17:30So I'll run through quickly purpose, message, tone, character, content, structure style impact are the eight. Obviously pick up the book because that's where you're going to get the full description. I want to focus on number four for a minute, character. And you define as the company's core values and beliefs. Again, I don't think anybody would argue that that's an important step. That's another one people really struggle with. It's like, these sound good. These should be our beliefs, right? But I think another challenge that I see a lot is, you know, the founder has beliefs. That's not necessarily everybody who's drawn to the vision's beliefs.

18:08It's not the stakeholders, shareholders. It's not the customer's beliefs necessarily. How do you balance kind of the fact that you almost need multiple, I don't want to say multiple beliefs, but you're providing value to multiple audiences in different ways. How do you kind of rectify that? Well, first thing to understand, and it's new, obviously, for you in terms of your acquaintance, but those eight steps form a scale, a sequence from top to bottom. So by the time we get to character, we have examined purposefulness, their level of commitment, basically what they stand for, what they're trying to tell their public, the way their emotional engagement, which is the tone.

18:49When we get down to character, and keep in mind, by the way, it might be for an individual, we're doing this, but for a group, they're all putting their thoughts and ideas and they find something that holds a piece of everything that they're talking about. So consensus is really fundamental to the process and alignment. And so when the executive senior management have all contributed, sort of democratize that process, rather than having it given to them by a branding company or a PR company, they've worked it out. And they're saying, yes, that's a piece of it. Yes, yes, yes. And they have that agreement and it is possible to get it.

19:24We do it. Then when they hit character, this is the support, the foundation where they go, well, you've been talking about cars, but what do you feel about automobiles? What do you feel about EVs? What do you feel about the economy, the worldview? How do you feel about money? How do you feel about helping people, social responsibility? What happens is you start to get into the heart and soul of the business. And it's quite interesting. Everybody carries this, but they don't really, like you said, they don't have the forum to express it. We give them the forum. When all of that's in place, those top four are really about them.

20:00The bottom four get into the more traditional product structure. That's the content and the structure. But again, that sequence really makes it possible. So it doesn't become, the conclusion isn't, we have a mandate, we're going to do the cheapest and the best for the maximum amount of people. Nobody loves that. We've been in meetings. I'm sure you've seen them where they're sitting there in the middle of the meeting. Another memo comes out and it's another mission statement. And they look at each other. And we've had it happen in Europe. We were right in the middle of it. They go, what's that?

20:31And they all gathered around and said, oh, oh boy. And they close the computer and push it aside. There's nothing motivational. Now, when the management knows who they are, to your point about how to expect stakeholders and lower management and those on the floor, they see the vision of a business and there's something they can decide to roll with it or they disagree, they can leave. Honestly, they can, but their stakeholders, they feel the energy PR companies, ad companies can work with it because the brief is clear and there's a commitment, there's an authenticity. So character, transparency, authenticity are synonymous.

21:09So you finish up the steps with impact And I think that it's interesting. There are a lot of people that maybe they go into business thinking impact, but at some point they want to make impact in it. And I think this is a little bit, if we're going to be cliche and use the sort of the Maslow's hierarchy, I mean, you're never going to achieve impact without the other stuff, are you? I mean, the other steps have to, you can't just say, I want to make this impact and here's how I'm going to do it. It's like, you got to get, you know, the, you can't transcend, you know, without having, you know, food and water, right?

21:41Exactly. But in your case, okay, coming back to you, do you recall a moment when you saw the totality of where you're going? Like, when you said, I'm doing this, but I think I can do and actually opened up, you hadn't, you hadn't arrived yet. But you saw where it could go. Did you have that kind of a moment? Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. I mean, I can I don't know that I've arrived yet, but I would say that, you know, when I started seeing the impact that some of my writing was having on people. So it were people that I wasn't meeting, had never met, you know, and they're writing to me saying, you know, my business is what it is today, you know, because of some words on paper that, if nothing else, to me, really drove home the point of this sort of permanent impact you're having.

22:32right but even in the present even though you haven't arrived at it if you took the time and i'm sure you you're a thoughtful person so if you look at where you would like to go the reason i ask is that when we sit down with executives when they hit that spot or an individual or an entrepreneur i just want to limit it to executives it's like you say career and people in life and whatever they have a tough time with that question because they tend to minimize their dream they'll literally start with this wonderful purpose and they get down to the impact then you'll go well what do you think and they're going well i'd be happy if and then i've seen the crossfire going what do you mean you want this why don't we 10x that well i don't you know let's go step by step but what are you dreaming what are you dreaming so the impact is really a statement the way we approach it of an ideal scene the ultimate result of all of their efforts what do they wish it to be and if they wish it they can make it so but they tend to shy away from the wishing it's surprising it's really but if they do it and they actually have to be coaxed into this it's quite amusing we find and then suddenly they go yeah and then suddenly everything kind of shifts in that company and the systems change and the communication changes because they're all going for it It's not dreaming.

23:50It's actually the last point of having worked through all of that. So it's hard to jump to that without, again, that sequence. Yeah, I think a lot of times when people might think of it as a dream, what they're really doing is just being very intentional about where they're going. So, absolutely. So, Mark, you want to tell people where I appreciate you stopping by the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast. You want to tell people where they can connect with you, find out more about your work, and obviously pick up a copy of Think8. well obviously the website thinkateglobalinstitute.com amazon the book is there and on the 24th of may the soft cover comes out we have that digital download right now the kindle version and you know i thank you for the opportunity john as i said you know and you have been through processes and i know you love processes and you know when people talk to me about process and they go, how can creativity be a process?

24:53And I explain everybody has one. They may not articulate it, maybe in the shower, three cups of coffee, but they have their process. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Awesome. Well, thanks so much again for stopping by and hopefully we'll run into you in the road or in Montreal one of these days. Be a pleasure. Thank you. Hey, and one final thing before you go, you know how I talk about marketing strategy, strategy before tactics. Well, sometimes it can be hard to understand where you stand in that, what needs to be done with regard to creating a marketing strategy. So we created a free tool for you.

25:27It's called the Marketing Strategy Assessment. You can find it at marketingassessment.co, not.com,.co. Check out our free marketing assessment and learn where you are with your strategy today. That's just marketingassessment.co. I'd love to chat with you about the results that you get.

25:56We'll be right back.