Carrie Anton worked as a full-time author and editor for American Girl Publications’ Advice & Activity line from 2005 through 2013, during which time she wrote multiple contemporary nonfiction books for 8-to-12-year-old girls. Anton left the cube life in 2013 to grow Wonder: An Idea Studio while girl-bossing as a freelance writer. Her writing has been published by Women’s Health, Family Circle, Oxygen, Draft, and Outside, among others.
In this episode, we chat about brainstorming techniques, unlikely ways to connect with other business owners and how to cultivate an empowering company culture.
Katie: 00:00 Hi, everyone. Thank you for tuning into The Hustlenomics Podcast. I’m your host, Katie. And today, I am so excited to be talking with Carrie Anton. She is the chief wonder woman of the Wonder Ideas Studio. So Carrie, thank you so much for coming on the show today.
Carrie: 00:12 Thank you so much for having me. This is so exciting.
Katie: 00:14 Yeah, absolutely. So would you mind just telling the audience a little bit about you, The Wonder Idea Studio, and how you got to where you are today?
Carrie: 00:21 Yeah, so my background is actually in writing, and so I got started pretty much right out of college as an editor or a writer in some capacity in the corporate space. And my last kind of full-time gig was with American Girl Doll. And there, I met Jessica Nord Skog who she was working in the magazine at the time and then as an editor and she eventually went on to be a toy designer at American girl doing different product design. And together she and I would always kind of talk about, well, you know, what would we do after American girl? So we would go to these like tea shops and all these different like kind of fun places, and we would just brainstorm lists of businesses that we wanted to start or that we would think of or projects, things like that. And eventually what happened was so many people finally have that problem with coming up with one business idea.
Carrie: 01:12 But we had the problem that we would have like too many. And so we would have these long lists of ideas, and when we kind of just took a step back, we’re like, Oh wait a minute, maybe we’re ideas people. And so that’s sort of how Wonder was born because it was all about brainstorming and sort of an aside to that wonder was always a little bit of a side business for us because once we actually decided to leave American girl, Jessica had left because she had a son. And then I left years later to become a freelance writer. And so she was doing freelance design, and I was doing freelance writing, and that was sort of our full-time gigs. Well, her being a mom also. And so we would be doing these, but like wonder was sort of like our side project. We would just sort of baby step with it, try all different types of, you know, projects and directions mainly because we wanted to make sure it was a really good fit for us going forward.
Carrie: 02:05 And so we did, we took on like all different types of odd jobs if you will. And one of them that part of what wonder used to be about was in addition to brainstorming like we would lead brainstorms and help people come up with names for their businesses and product products and you know, menu items, things like that. We also were doing branding. And so part of that was because I was a writer, Jessica was a designer. It just seemed to be a really good fit. But over time, what we found was that while it was a good fit, like from a time perspective, trying to make it even between two partners, that wasn’t a good fit. And so we kind of stripped branding out of our business of wonder because it fit more, but it fit better with our freelance businesses. So we just focus mostly on brainstorming and ideation, and that was kind of the direction going forward, and that’s sort of how wonder was born.
Carrie: 03:00 And eventually we kind of made it our main thing in about 2017 and, well it was like late 2017 we were also trying to get a book deal for the book that’s now me, myself, an idea as the ultimate guide to brainstorming solo. And when we were doing that, we found that first of all, publishers didn’t come. But when it came time to make a bid on the first round, nobody came to the table. And it was like kind of soul-crushing. We had done this before with other titles, and you know, just it was just a lot to take on. And so I thought, man, I’m done with wonder. I’m done with books. You know, you just kind of feel like sort of crushed by the whole defeat of it all. But then we relaunched wonder in February of 2018, and it was all focused on training and workshops, and we were considering conferences and all these different things.
Carrie: 03:51 And because we were thinking about self-publishing so that we then had a place to sell out with going to workshops and conferences. But then about two weeks later my agent had still been shopping around our book to different publishers, and it turns out its kind of like the mom who wants to have children but can’t get pregnant until after she adopts, like we enroll are completely like February 1st, 2018 and then two weeks later our book gets picked up. It was like a whirlwind at that point. So 2018 went by very quickly cause the business got up and started. The book was getting written, and so we were kind of just in it. And then, at the end of that year, Jessica had the opportunity to go and start a business with her husband. And so then I took over Wonder and to now I’m the sole wonder woman of wonder, an idea studio. So a lot has happened since February 1st of 2018, but now it’s, you know, now it’s me, I’m running this show. We’re still doing the book kind of promotion together, but yeah, so that’s sort of where I am today.
Katie: 04:56 That’s amazing. What a roller coaster, but an exciting one. I’m sure.
Carrie: 05:00 Yeah, it’s been, like I said, it was a that’s a long story right there. But yeah, I was trying to fit it into the biggest nutshell I could.
Katie: 05:07 So I kind of took a look at your bio on your website, and you know, you mentioned that when you were in your nine to five and your corporate job, you always kind of felt like you didn’t fit and there was something missing and then you, you know, you’ve dumped into this huge thing of starting your own business. So what’s that transition been like going from being an employee to being the boss?
Carrie: 05:26, Yeah. So, you know, there’s obviously good and bad on both sides, right? Like with the corporate position, you have some levels of security, but when it doesn’t feel like a good fit, it doesn’t really matter what level of security of that is because your happiness is just kind of gone. And that’s just not to say that American girl wasn’t a lot of fun to work at. You know, the work I did there was really great. The people I did it with was really great. But at the end of the day, it was still a corporation, and I just don’t know that that was a good fit for me, at least from sort of a cultural standpoint. And I just, I, for me personally, I like to be able to work at a very different pace. Like I’m a very fast worker, but that means I like to have moments of downtime too.
Carrie: 06:08 And so what I love about being my own boss is that it really just fits my lifestyle perfectly, right? So I can work 80 hours if I want to, but then that means I can go on vacation the next week or, you know what I mean? Or take a couple of days off. And so I, I’m very dedicated to my business, and even when I was a freelance writer, I was very dedicated to that. And I think that dedication is so much more profound when it’s your own business instead of when you’re like doing it for somebody else. And that’s not to say I didn’t give my all for other companies, but it’s, it’s definitely different when it’s your, you know, your own baby.
Katie: 06:47 Oh, absolutely. I totally understand that. And so like the services that you guys offer, it’s very interesting to me. It’s, you know, cause when I first started, and I know a lot of people struggle with this, I still do, I have all these exciting ideas and goals, but it’s really hard to kind of put it into a pathway, I guess, if that makes sense to, to actually walk there. So is, is that something that you guys help people with?
Carrie: 07:09, Yeah. So so now I do it on my own, but it’s a kind of, so there’s a couple of different paths. And I say this because I’m sort of still in that boat of what you’re talking about of still trying to figure it out on most days. There’s a lot of pivoting that happens I think when you’re a small business because kind of like how when Jessica and I first got started, we really were trying to, you know, baby step into it. And I always say it was sort of a small hobby business on the side because we weren’t all in and that was on purpose. It was because we were really truly trying to figure out what is right for us. And I think it’s so easy when you have a small business idea to just say like, well, I have to do everything.
Carrie: 07:50 I have to, you know, I have to be everything to everybody. And that’s not going to work. Cause small businesses, it’s usually one person, two people, you know, it’s less than ten people at most. Right. And so, you know, in terms of the services that I offer now, some of them are actually geared toward more middle size and corporate businesses because one of the things that have always been really important to me because of my experience in corporations has been workplace culture. And I think that people need to be empowered to like transform organizations and to make them really great. And it’s, you know, organizations are only good as their people, you know, who are within. And so they have to be empowered, and they have to feel like that’s a space that they want to be in and that they want to give everything to.
Carrie: 08:36 But that said, I do also offer services of what I call creative architecting. And what that is, is essentially its sort of a consulting side, but it’s, it’s like life coaching for projects. So like think of me more like the big-picture person. So a lot of times, what I hear, especially when people know that I have a book or me, cause when I was at American Girl, I was a book editor, and then after I left to become a freelance writer, I continued writing for them. And I wrote ten books for American Girl since 2013, and so when anybody hears that you’re an author, a lot of people think they always have a book in them, right? And so they don’t understand the process at all. Or sometimes like their thoughts are all over the road and kind of even what you’re just talking about with your own business, it’s like you know what you want it to be, but you haven’t quite figured out the big picture path of it.
Carrie: 09:28 And so that’s where I come in. Strategy has always been something that I’ve excelled at. And so what I love to help people with is really figuring out the strategy that’s right for their business based on all of those like, you know, post-it notes of ideas that they have written down of like, Oh my business could do this or I could do this or I could do this. But then like how do you bring it all together to see that big picture? And so, those are the types of services I offer. So for small businesses, it’s really the consulting side. And then for middle to large size businesses, it’s workshops and events that are all based on training. And not to say that I want to do training for small businesses, it’s just usually those would be more like workshop styles at conferences and things like that.
Katie: 10:14, Okay. Very cool. Yeah, I definitely suffer from the shiny object syndrome, and I get super excited about something, but sometimes I have the problem of like not falling through cause I get distracted by something else. So I’m sure you see that with a lot of businesses. What are some strategies that you kind of teach people to get excited about things, have a bunch of ideas but follow-through, and actually make it happen?
Carrie: 10:35 Yeah, so in the brainstorming process just in general, whether it’s a group brainstorm or doing it by yourself, there’s something called the sit and simmer. And so usually after you’ve done, like if you’ve been in a group brainstorm and you’ve come up with all your ideas, there’s a moment after where you kind of just have to sit with those ideas and question them and start to sort of picking them apart. And that’s what I would say about people with their businesses is often what happens is people jump into quickly because they get excited about having that idea, that aha moment. Right. And I am totally this person too. Like you can ask anybody, especially my husband, they will tell you I have zero patients. And so when it comes to having a good idea like I just want to be all in, I want to do it right.
Carrie: 11:19 But the problem that often happens when you do that is you go out, you buy the URL, you go out, and you know, tell all your friends about it, and you start buying the business cards and planning the website. All of a sudden you are invested in it and if you haven’t given it the proper time to sort of just sit and kind of grow on its own, if you will, then sometimes you feel like you can’t back out of it because now you’ve put too much into it. And so what I always recommend people is just to take a moment and let it be like you don’t have to do that forever. I’m not talking about procrastination, but like if you have that aha moment, give yourself a few days, start to process it. Like we call seeds, or we call ideas, seeds for a reason.
Carrie: 12:02 And it’s because seeds need time to germinate. You can plant them in good dirt, and you can give them water and sunshine and all of that. But after that, you got to kind of wait and let them become something. And I truly believe that about ideas because you really just have to let those sort of questions that you didn’t initially have about the idea just sort of come to you and then you could be like, oh, I wonder if somebody else is doing this. And then you look that up. It’s okay to do research on it and to, you know, you don’t have to walk away from the idea completely, but sometimes if you just give it some space, I feel like that’s when you can kind of say like, you know what, this is actually going to take a lot of my time and maybe not make me a lot of money. And what I mean a lot of money, I’m talking about any money in consideration to the amount of time you’re putting into it. And so that’s just not a good fit. Or maybe you have to consider a different direction, or maybe you have to consider what is the nugget in there that really you’re passionate about and is there something else you can do with it?
Katie: 13:01 Yeah, that’s really interesting because you hear all the time like just go for it. Take action. But I agree sometimes you have to like let it simmer like you said, to actually know what you want to do in the first place. I think that’s really interesting. And since you’re kind of an idea person, everybody has their different tools and tactics for brainstorming, you know, whether it’s just like a brain dump. And you are then going back a day later to look at what you put down. Do you have any like tools and techniques that you use for yourself and your own business for brainstorming?
Carrie: 13:27, Yeah. Well, I have quite a few, as you can imagine. So it really sometimes depends on the type of idea that I’m sort of playing with. If I’m, you know, coming up with like something completely new versus trying to solve a problem. Like obviously, my techniques will sort of change a lot of times too. I combine a lot of techniques, so like one technique doesn’t always work. You have to use it with another one. So a good example of a technique that I add on to pretty much every brainstorming technique I use is called toddler time. That’s what we called it in the book anyway. And the idea of that is that you know, toddlers haven’t been around for very long, so they ask a lot of questions, but if you’ve ever given them an answer, they follow it up with another question. Right?
Carrie: 14:11 And so that’s what keeps happening. And so for me, when I’m feeling kind of stuck or if my ideas are feeling stale, like I turn to the journalism questions, which are the five W’s and an H who, what, when, where, why, and how. And I pose those questions to it. Like who could use this and why do they need it and where would they use it and how could I, you know, develop it. And you know, and you ask those kinds of questions, and you keep asking and asking until you hit on something that gives you that sort of, that maybe not aha moment of like you have the exact answer. But it’s almost like a pivot point where it’s like, Oh, it makes me think of this. And then I start to go in that direction. And all of a sudden where I started is very different from where I’ve kind of landed.
Carrie: 14:55 And that’s the point of brainstorming in general. So I think at the basis of all brainstorming is asking good questions as well as perspective. So perspectives, the other piece of it. And that’s simply looking at whether you’re kind of trying to create something new or trying to fix something, look at it from somebody else’s point of view. Like we’re so stuck in our own worlds and our own views that we don’t often think about. Okay, well how would somebody in a different industry or in a different age group or in a different part of the world, how would they come at this? And when you can see it through someone else’s eyes, like all of a sudden, that will open you up to like all new perspectives and ideas and directions that you could potentially go.
Katie: 15:39 Yeah, that’s really interesting. I like that. And you mentioned earlier that you, your partner, is doing something different now. So do you have a team helping you out? How are you juggling all the different hats that you know you have to when you’re an entrepreneur and a business owner?
Carrie: 15:51, Yeah. So basically, I cry every day. No, I’m kidding. Sometimes I want to know that’s been the biggest thing is that you know, in this year of sort of change, I’m still figuring it out. You know? And I think that’s what I, I would tell all small businesses is don’t lie about like, oh, I’ve got an under control. Like this is what we do on social media, right? We try to give this facade to people that we have everything figured out and that our lives are perfect. And I will tell you right now that, you know, I know what I want out of wonder, and I know you know what I expect out of it. But there are days where I’m like, how am I going to do this? Right? Like, be honest, because it’ll only help other small businesses to know that. Guess what? I don’t have all the answers.
Carrie: 16:33 And you don’t either. But I will say I’m part of my sort of business design is that I’m going to be offering events and workshops that are not only about my skills. And so in that been that way, I kind of become sort of a facilitator for the event. So I can build in my strengths as well as like maybe another small business. So that’s the thing is like I love networking, and I love meeting other small businesses, and I’m always like just blown away by what people are creating and what people are successful with. And so I think what us small business owners can do together can be pretty powerful. And so while I don’t have another partner and I don’t have a team of people yet at this time, maybe at some point, I will. My goal is to partner with other small businesses so that we can kind of, you know, help each other rise up together.
Katie: 17:31, Yeah. I love that. I’m doing the same thing. It’s amazing finding that network of people. It’s difficult sometimes. Like how do you connect with other business owners? Do you go to networking events or online?
Carrie: 17:41 Yeah, so two things. So when I first got started with wonder and freelancing, I will say, so I live in Madison, Wisconsin, and it is awesome. We have an amazing just local small business network that I swear like everybody just sort of knows everybody. And so it’s like if you ask somebody like, Oh, like I need a web developer or I need, you know, a logo designer or whatever, they’re like, oh, I know somebody or I know, you know what I mean? Or I know somebody who knows somebody and then you just start getting connected in that way. But I’ve met a lot of those people through different community events, workshops. I will say I did because I’m kind of moving in the direction of in addition to helping small businesses, I also want to be there for kind of the midsize to corporations.
Carrie: 18:23 And so that’s a different space than what I’ve been in. And so for that reason, I actually joined my chamber of commerce. Like I was kind of like, eh, do I do this? I don’t know what it’s about. And they had a kind of a breakfast, you know, networking, like a networking breakfast and it’s free. You didn’t have to be a member. And I was like, you know, I should just go and check it out. Like I’m finally like diving back into the business after all of the book promotion I was doing earlier in the year. And I didn’t know what to expect. And so when I walked in the door, literally seven 30 in the morning and there were like 150 people in the room, and I was blown away. So I live in Madison, actually live in Middleton, which is just outside of Madison.
Carrie: 19:04 So this is the Middleton chamber of commerce, chamber of commerce. And it’s a lot of Madison businesses as well though, who can join and attend. And they were so helpful. And I, my goal, look, I’m like, I’m just going to meet one person today. Like, I didn’t want to make it overwhelming. So I was just like, I’m going to go in, and I’m going to meet one person and if it’s related to my business, great. If it’s not, I don’t care. You know, like I just have to get out there and do it. And I met so many people that morning. In fact, I ended up going to being invited to this noon training session that was like, I think it was like $15 to attend. And then by going to that, I met somebody there who works at an organization, and she and I are having coffee tomorrow, and we’re going to talk about how like we might be able to collaborate.
Carrie: 19:50 And that’s actually a large corporation. And so I was just blown away that that one meeting could lead in all these different directions. And I’ve since become a member, and I attended my second meeting and the second meeting was just as helpful. So that’s really how I’ve gotten out there. But you really do. I mean, I will say I’m more of an extrovert, but either way, I think you just have to put yourself out there like trust me, even as an extrovert, I find some of these things super awkward. I don’t like things like team-building exercises, which is partly why I created the business that I did around workplace culture because I hated those things when I was at corporate. And I think there are way easier team-building exercises that don’t have to be as awkward. But again, you just have to put yourself out there, and it’s kind of amazing what you do. Like if you try to open those doors, they kind of open for you.
Katie: 20:41, Yeah. That’s amazing. I had never even thought about joining the chamber of commerce, so I’m really glad you mentioned that’s such an idea. That seems obvious, right?
Carrie: 20:49 But there something about like the chamber of commerce that felt old school to me. Like, oh, like it’s going to be a lot of dentists, you know what I mean? Or like a lot of realtors. And while those people are definitely there, I’ll say like I sat next to somebody who was a financial advisor and there are quite a few financial advisors there. I don’t need a financial advisor, but his wife works in the creative industry, and he connected me with her, and it turns out she and I used to work together at American Girl, but we didn’t know each other. So like we had all of these like, you know, connections, but we had never actually kind of met in person yet. And so it doesn’t matter that the person who’s sitting next to you may not be right for your business, they’re likely going to know somebody who is right for your business.
Katie: 21:33 Yeah, absolutely. And you mentioned company culture, and I’m always so fascinated by that because whenever I worked in corporate, the culture was always horrible. It was oppressive and like really, really just a horrible environment. And I just kept thinking to myself; it can’t be like this everywhere. You know, there have to be places that are actually fostering a really progressive, empowering culture. So how do you kind of teach people to create that culture? In the first place.
Carrie: 21:58, Yeah. Well, I will say you are absolutely right. There are places out there doing it, but they’re few and far between. And so I am really looking to some of those places to two of my kind of like idol companies in terms of workplace culture are Zappos and Patagonia. And so Zappos, the CEO, is Tony Shay and he wrote a book called delivering happiness. And I read this back when I was an American girl. It has to be over a decade old, but it’s still relevant today. And then the other book I read was by the CEO of Patagonia, and I know I’m going to say his name wrong, but I think it’s Yvon Chouinard or something like that. But he wrote, let my people go surfing. And that was all about workplace culture because at Patagonia you can actually like people leave when it’s high tide because they’re going to go out and go surfing.
Carrie: 22:49 Like that’s part of the business model because they want people to feel comfortable there. And actually, I was doing a conference in Las Vegas, I’m speaking at a conference in Las Vegas in May. That’s where Zappos headquarters at. And I did a tour while I was there and got to meet with one of the people who work in the workplace culture division. That company’s amazing. I mean they have like nap pods like, because you just, you know, like, and they don’t frown upon it if you go and use them, you know? And they also have sort of I forget how they say it. It’s basically like you manage yourself. You’re like self-managed, I think, is what it’s called. And I’m like, what? You know, that’s not to say you’re probably not going to answer to somebody if you do something really bad. But for the most part, you’re not having like somebody like feel like a helicopter manager.
Carrie: 23:38 So for me, when I’m trying to help people with their cultures, it’s really trying to open up the lines of, with their employees. Because a lot of times, I think businesses run a certain way because that’s how they’ve always been run. And when you really hear what your employees want, I think you might be surprised. And so sometimes it’s as simple like I think of I’m going to pick out my poor husband, which I always pick, I’m doing interviews, but he’s a lot more introverted than I am and he works in a traditional sort of corporation. And so a lot of times when they want to do these group activities that get together, you know, get everybody together and they go out somewhere, and he’s just like, ah, like that’s not comfortable for him, you know? And so I think it’s okay to do those types of activities.
Carrie: 24:27 But I think what, what if everybody just had a conversation about what, about what does everybody want? Because I’m pretty sure my husband’s not the only one in the group who isn’t like totally on board for going and hanging out outside of work. There have to be some other activities. And so a lot of times it’s just truly about opening up those lines of communication and then figuring out from there, well what, how does it meet with or how does it mesh with the company’s priorities and values and are those properly set and did the indeed your employees help to set them and can you change them? So there’s, there’s a lot of different ways to go about it, but one of the ways that I’m trying to tackle it is really through creativity as the base and how can you be more creative with training and events and the way you do your job that makes people feel more satisfied and feel like they have more ownership about what they’re doing.
Katie: 25:20, Yeah. That’s so interesting. I mean, I would love to see more of that for sure. Even, I mean that’s one of the main reasons why I like left to start my own business cause I was like I cannot spend the next 40 years in this kind of environment.
Carrie: 25:31 Exactly. Yeah. And I think so many people are feeling that way. And you know, I’m sure as an entrepreneur yourself, like, you know what it takes to be a business owner. And like you already mentioned earlier, like about all the hats that we have to wear now imagine if like employees are trained or allowed to sort of work like an entrepreneur. Still, inside corporations, they call them entrepreneurs at that point. So yeah, like if you could have that sort of value system where you have a little bit more control over your day and you, you know, like you’re kind of more self-guided. But then for the company, it’s a benefit because you also usually have broader horizons in terms of the tasks you can take on because you have to work in so many different places. And so, yeah, I think there’s a lot of opportunities there, and I think it gets overlooked quite a bit.
Katie: 26:17 Yeah, that’s amazing. And you’ve mentioned like a fantastic list of resources already, but is there anything else out there that you’ve come across that’s been really helpful for you and you know, business or even in your personal life that you would recommend?
Carrie: 26:30 Yeah, so one book that I really love is talk like Ted. So most of us have seen Ted talks, right? They’re 19 minutes long. But, and they, they are, they’re specifically like that for a reason. So talk like Ted is a book that’s all about public speaking and how to kind of create a Ted talk. And that’s, but I’ll say that with the caveat of if you don’t like public speaking and you have no interest in doing a Ted talk, that’s fine. Because I like public speaking, but I have no interest. Well, I mean, I guess if somebody asked me to do a Ted talk, I’d be on board. But right now, that’s not on my list of goals to go after. But my point more is that it’s all about storytelling and we use storytelling and so many parts of our businesses, and in our lives really, it helps us to connect with other people.
Carrie: 27:17 And that’s what I love that book for the most is because it is really about like if you watch a Ted Talk, you get pulled in because of the stories, not because of, you know, a PowerPoint presentation with five bullets that have all the words written out for you to already read, right? Like that’s super boring. But if you can hear somebody’s story, not only will you connect with it more, but you’ll also be able to tell it again, maybe not to the, you know, the exact extent that the original person does, but you’ll get the, you know, sort of the nuggets of what that speech and what that story was all about and you can pass it on and then all of a sudden word of mouth is created because it’s just a fascinating story. But in a sense, you are referring somebody by doing it. And so if you are in any kind of business, I don’t care if you’re a tech or if you’re creative or whatever, storytelling is always going to be a part of it. So I’m talking like Ted is one of my favorite books.
Katie: 28:12 That’s awesome. And do you mind just telling us a little bit about your book? I would love to hear about that.
Carrie: 28:17, Yeah. So I’m, me and myself, and is the ultimate guide to brainstorming solo. It sort of came to be because you know, Jessica and I were both doing freelance her with design and me with writing. And what we found is we no longer had, you know, like a team of people to pull on or pulled together or a coworker’s cube just to jump in and be like, Hey, I’m stuck. You know, now there’s nobody but my dog around, and he’s not very helpful. So most of the time we have to figure it out on our owns when we’re, when we’re freelancers or when we have small businesses. There’s actually like 57 million freelancers just in America. I think even include small businesses. And those 57 million people mean there alone too. And so we figured we couldn’t be the only one who was struggling. Like, you know, for me it was coming up with story pitches when I was reaching out to you know, magazines or you know, trying to develop you know, a full book outline, you know, for Jessica was, you know, being creatively inspired when she was doing logos or webpages or, you know, print design.
Carrie: 29:19 So we created this book with those people in mind. But what we found is that it actually really applies to just about everybody because, at some point or another, we’re all working alone, whether we’re in a corporation or we’re in a small business. And so the way we approached this book was you know, we looked at what resources were already out there in the, and brainstorming is a very popular topic in business, but it’s always geared toward a group. And so what we found was there wasn’t anything for the person who was working by themselves. And so what we wanted to do was keep brainstorming familiar in terms of what people were used to from schools or you know, corporations or whatnot, but just kind of switch it so that it was for somebody who was by themselves. So we broke it down by the sort of normal brainstorm agenda.
Carrie: 30:11 So there’s like the introduction, and like you find your location in the room or in this case, you find your location in the world. The icebreakers were, you know, icebreakers are probably for me the most soul-crushing activities to do. Like I have to do one more, two truths and a lie. Like I’ll just, you know, punch somebody, but you know, but there is a purpose, right? Like they’re supposed to help you make you feel more comfortable with these people, which I say isn’t actually ever going to happen when you do those exercises. But you know, it’s just supposed to get you moving and go, you know, kind of talking. But when you’re by yourself, the icebreakers are all about trying to switch over from work mode to brainstorm or creativity mode. Because so often as small business owners, like we have a task list or a to-do list and we are trying to get through that, and that means we are very dialed in and like very narrow-focused.
Carrie: 31:05 And that’s the opposite space you need to be in when you want to be creative and come up with new ideas. So the icebreakers we do are all about kind of just letting the mind get loose. And so it will be about doodling, or maybe it’s like, you know, I’m writing your name backward, or one of my favorites is co describing a movie plot in three words and you know, so it’s just super easy exercises, but it just gets your mind away from that work kind of a place. And then, we dive into brainstorming techniques, and there are 20 techniques. And like I said earlier, you can pair those or you know, mix and match them. But the idea is, you know, there are different techniques for different ideas that you want to come up with after that. It’s the sit and simmer, which I already talked about.
Carrie: 31:54 And then the end is the kind of final round of just picking the idea and then how to sort of creating daily habits so that ideas come a little bit more on their own spontaneously. So, you know, kind of the, we always get ideas when we’re in the shower or driving the car, right? But this will help it so that you don’t always have to be so intentional about using a technique so that you’re just, maybe you’re just more observant about the world around you, or you know, again, you’re looking at things from other perspectives, or you’re learning from past failures, those kinds of things. So that’s sort of how the book breaks down. But like I said, it’s, you know, and that’s, you know, very on par with what you would do in a traditional brainstorm. But now we had to like turn it inward, and how does it, how does it work for one person?
Carrie: 32:41 And so that’s, that’s what the book is all about, is doing it on your own. And I’ll say it’s a little bit of extra work, but you know, there’s, there’s a reason that the brainstorm sessions have always involved teams. And that’s because, with teams, you have multiple people who can come in and provide those perspectives. You don’t have to think like a web developer sitting at the table, right. The problem is we just don’t logistically always have those people available to us. So yeah, it’s a little bit of extra legwork, but you know, sometimes you have to do it on your own. That’s what we learn as small business owners are that we wear all the hats, and sometimes it comes to brainstorming. We wear all the hats at the team. Brainstorm is just a team of one.
Katie: 33:23 Right? Right. And where can people find your book?
Carrie: 33:26 You can get the book on my website. Wonder idea, studio.com. It’s under the book tab. You can also get it at Amazon. Barnes and noble. Books-A-Million thinks there are other places. So most places that books are sold let’s put it that way.
Katie: 33:39 Awesome. Awesome. And where can everybody else find you? Like on social media.
Carrie: 33:43, Yeah. So I am on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest, and it’s all at wonder idea studio.
Katie: 33:50 Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to do this. This has been a fascinating conversation. I really appreciate it.
Carrie: 33:55. Thank you so much. This was a lot of fun. I always enjoy talking about this topic.
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Resource List
Me, Myself & Ideas: The Ultimate Guide to Brainstorming Solo
Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman
Talk Like TED: The 9 Public-Speaking Secrets of the World’s Top Minds
