My Mastermind Intensive met last Friday and had the privilege of hearing Bryan Mattimore’s expertise on the subject of innovation and creative thinking. He’s the author of Idea Stormers and a long-time business associate of mine. He graciously accepted my invitation to inspire 8 remarkable women business owners and share lunch with us.

Inspire us he did! Using his own creative process as an example, he told of an experiment he self-imposed to come up with 21 big ideas (for business growth, but it could apply to personal as well)  in 21 days. To warm up for this exercise, he made a list of 70 ways to expand a business, bought magazines on a huge variety of subjects, and then read through them through the lens of his newly generated list.

He shared a term I’d never heard but had experienced: Principle Transfer. It means that you get an idea in one place and apply the skills, knowledge, etc. in a different arena. Using Eli Whitney’s cotton gin as his illustration, you could see the lightbulbs going off in everyone’s minds as ours expanded with the possibilities of this practice.

The benefit of this kind of rigorous challenge is that your inner critic gets quieter as you pursue the assignment. The assignment also gives you a way to hyper-observe and problem solve. As with Bryan’s technique called The Worst Idea, what you most want to do is take the pressure off of getting it “right.” This is enormously freeing.

Bryan also contributed a copy of his book to our group. Since we’re in the process of naming ourselves, he inscribed it to The Whatchamacallits.

The conversation on our private Facebook page has been flying back and forth as we allow ourselves to come up with the worst names ever for our extraordinary community. We’re laughing, creating and fully engaged.

We are all grateful for Bryan’s visit and generosity. Thank you, Bryan!