The Innovators Studio with Phil McKinney

The emerging creative economy is dependent on having a workforce that is skilled differently than in the past. These new skills include: critical thinking, using our natural ability to be highly creative, be willing to take risks and to not have a fear of failure. There are kids/young adults who showing the rest of us how they […]

The emerging creative economy is dependent on having a workforce that is skilled differently than in the past. These new skills include: critical thinking, using our natural ability to be highly creative, be willing to take risks and to not have a fear of failure. There are kids/young adults who showing the rest of us how they will succeed in this new innovation economy. Nick Titus, a creative high school student who took his science fair project and created a company, is showing the rest of us what kids can do when given the chance to innovate.

In this weeks show, we covered a wide range of topics including:

* How did you come up with this idea?

* Why did you decide to start a startup?

* How did you bring your team together?

* What is different about your technology?

* How did you become part of the Boomtown Accelerator?

* Why have you decided to open source the technology?

* What do you say to those who say you don't have enough experience to tackle this big problem?

* Have you worked with paralyzed users? Results?

* Who will this technology be able to help?

* What is the market potential?

* Is voice control the only system you plan on using?

* How are you balancing high school and being CEO?

* What advice would give to another creative high school student who has an idea?

About Nick Titus:

Nick Titus is the CEO and Co-founder of Myonic Technologies Inc. Myonic has created a wearable device that allows paralyzed users to regain control of their muscle. He founded the company after developing the medical device in his high school engineering lab for a science fair project. He saw the good that this device could bring to people's lives first hand and found a vessle to get this technology in the hands of more people around the world. The Myonic team recently graduated from the Boomtown Accelerator in Boulder, Colorado. Here, they developed their business model, further developed their technology, and experienced the world of entrepreneurship for the first time. In addition to developing their life changing technology, the Myonic team is currently starting their senior year of high school.

Show Links:

* Myonic on Facebook

* Myonic on Twitter

* Myonic website

Other Resources:

* How to Nurture Creativity in Your Kids

* How to teach kids to be more creative (video)

* Toys That Help Nurture And Encourage Creative Kids S11 Ep36

* Kid Entrepreneurs: A 10 Year Old Who Is Franchising His Idea S12 Ep14

The emerging creative economy is dependent on having a workforce that is skilled differently than in the past. These new skills include: critical thinking, using our natural ability to be highly creative, be willing to take risks and to not have a fear of failure. There are kids/young adults who showing the rest of us how they will succeed in this new innovation economy. Nick Titus, a creative high school student who took his science fair project and created a company, is showing the rest of us what kids can do when given the chance to innovate.

In this weeks show, we covered a wide range of topics including:

* How did you come up with this idea?

* Why did you decide to start a startup?

* How did you bring your team together?

* What is different about your technology?

* How did you become part of the Boomtown Accelerator?

* Why have you decided to open source the technology?

* What do you say to those who say you don't have enough experience to tackle this big problem?

* Have you worked with paralyzed users? Results?

* Who will this technology be able to help?

* What is the market potential?

* Is voice control the only system you plan on using?

* How are you balancing high school and being CEO?

* What advice would give to another creative high school student who has an idea?

About Nick Titus:

Nick Titus is the CEO and Co-founder of Myonic Technologies Inc. Myonic has created a wearable device that allows paralyzed users to regain control of their muscle. He founded the company after developing the medical device in his high school engineering lab for a science fair project. He saw the good that this device could bring to people's lives first hand and found a vessle to get this technology in the hands of more people around the world. The Myonic team recently graduated from the Boomtown Accelerator in Boulder, Colorado. Here, they developed their business model, further developed their technology, and experienced the world of entrepreneurship for the first time. In addition to developing their life changing technology, the Myonic team is currently starting their senior year of high school.

Show Links:

* Myonic on Facebook

* Myonic on Twitter

* Myonic website

Other Resources:

* How to Nurture Creativity in Your Kids

* How to teach kids to be more creative (video)

* Toys That Help Nurture And Encourage Creative Kids S11 Ep36

* Kid Entrepreneurs: A 10 Year Old Who Is Franchising His Idea S12 Ep14

The emerging creative economy is dependent on having a workforce that is skilled differently than in the past. These new skills include: critical thinking, using our natural ability to be highly creative, be willing to take risks and to not have a fear of failure. There are kids/young adults who showing the rest of us how they will succeed in this new innovation economy. Nick Titus, a creative high school student who took his science fair project and created a company, is showing the rest of us what kids can do when given the chance to innovate.

In this weeks show, we covered a wide range of topics including:

* How did you come up with this idea?

* Why did you decide to start a startup?

* How did you bring your team together?

* What is different about your technology?

* How did you become part of the Boomtown Accelerator?

* Why have you decided to open source the technology?

* What do you say to those who say you don't have enough experience to tackle this big problem?

* Have you worked with paralyzed users? Results?

* Who will this technology be able to help?

* What is the market potential?

* Is voice control the only system you plan on using?

* How are you balancing high school and being CEO?

* What advice would give to another creative high school student who has an idea?

About Nick Titus:

Nick Titus is the CEO and Co-founder of Myonic Technologies Inc. Myonic has created a wearable device that allows paralyzed users to regain control of their muscle. He founded the company after developing the medical device in his high school engineering lab for a science fair project. He saw the good that this device could bring to people's lives first hand and found a vessle to get this technology in the hands of more people around the world. The Myonic team recently graduated from the Boomtown Accelerator in Boulder, Colorado. Here, they developed their business model, further developed their technology, and experienced the world of entrepreneurship for the first time. In addition to developing their life changing technology, the Myonic team is currently starting their senior year of high school.

Show Links:

* Myonic on Facebook

* Myonic on Twitter

* Myonic website

Other Resources:

* How to Nurture Creativity in Your Kids

* How to teach kids to be more creative (video)

* Toys That Help Nurture And Encourage Creative Kids S11 Ep36

* Kid Entrepreneurs: A 10 Year Old Who Is Franchising His Idea S12 Ep14

Our early childhood experiences have a major impact on our lives. In the case of Rodney Williams, he started down his path of being entrepreneur at the early ago of 8. While his friends were out cutting grass, he had his first entrepreneurial success by renting, for $0.50, the latest and hippest magazines to customers waiting in his […]

Our early childhood experiences have a major impact on our lives. In the case of Rodney Williams, he started down his path of being entrepreneur at the early ago of 8. While his friends were out cutting grass, he had his first entrepreneurial success by renting, for $0.50, the latest and hippest magazines to customers waiting in his mothers beauty salon. He found he could make a few bucks and the results was that he always had $20.00 in his pocket.

Later, he became a Brand Manager for Pampers diapers at Proctor & Gamble. Turns out the diapers was ground zero for online sales and marketing. Did you know that Pampers was the first product to sold online and at one point, made up 51% of P&G's online sales?

Topics covered:

* Rodney's first entrepreneurial success was as an 8 year old “renting” magazines to customers at his mom's beauty salon

* From an early age, he wanted to be a CEO.

* At P&G, he was a brand manager for Pampers.

* P&G and the diapers products have a long history of spawning silicon valley leaders.

* LISNR was birthed with him trying to solve the challenge of knowing/engaging with customers at the right moment no matter where the are.

* Rodney shares how LISNR uses an audio tone that humans can hear to transmit (and not receive) information anywhere.

* Som euse case examples include retailers using it to display an ad at the right location in a store without the user doing anything.

* Newer use cases include using the tones as a form of authentication/identify verification – including at the offices of LISNR.

* What advice would you give yourself back when you were graduating college?

* What advice would you give an entrepreneur who is thinking about starting their first company?

About Rodney Williams:

Rodney Williams, CEO and Co-Founder of LISNR, leads one of the most disruptive companies in the IoT space and the world of mobile connectivity. He is the 2016 Black Enterprise Tech Entrepreneur of the Year and has also been honored by Ad Age's Top 40 under 40 and the Upstart100. Prior to LISNR, Rodney spent over four years at Procter & Gamble as a brand manager and is most noted for being the first marketer there to co-write digital patents. He is also a former Lockheed Martin and Department of Energy disruptor. Rodney achieved those honors after earning four degrees by the age of 24, including an MBA and Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from Howard University.

Show Links:

* Rodney Williams on Facebook

* Rodney Williams on LinkedIn

* Rodney Williams on Twitter

* lisnr.com

 

Our early childhood experiences have a major impact on our lives. In the case of Rodney Williams, he started down his path of being entrepreneur at the early ago of 8. While his friends were out cutting grass, he had his first entrepreneurial success by renting, for $0.50, the latest and hippest magazines to customers waiting in his mothers beauty salon. He found he could make a few bucks and the results was that he always had $20.00 in his pocket.

Later, he became a Brand Manager for Pampers diapers at Proctor & Gamble. Turns out the diapers was ground zero for online sales and marketing. Did you know that Pampers was the first product to sold online and at one point, made up 51% of P&G's online sales?

Topics covered:

* Rodney's first entrepreneurial success was as an 8 year old “renting” magazines to customers at his mom's beauty salon

* From an early age, he wanted to be a CEO.

* At P&G, he was a brand manager for Pampers.

* P&G and the diapers products have a long history of spawning silicon valley leaders.

* LISNR was birthed with him trying to solve the challenge of knowing/engaging with customers at the right moment no matter where the are.

* Rodney shares how LISNR uses an audio tone that humans can hear to transmit (and not receive) information anywhere.

* Som euse case examples include retailers using it to display an ad at the right location in a store without the user doing anything.

* Newer use cases include using the tones as a form of authentication/identify verification – including at the offices of LISNR.

* What advice would you give yourself back when you were graduating college?

* What advice would you give an entrepreneur who is thinking about starting their first company?

About Rodney Williams:

Rodney Williams, CEO and Co-Founder of LISNR, leads one of the most disruptive companies in the IoT space and the world of mobile connectivity. He is the 2016 Black Enterprise Tech Entrepreneur of the Year and has also been honored by Ad Age's Top 40 under 40 and the Upstart100. Prior to LISNR, Rodney spent over four years at Procter & Gamble as a brand manager and is most noted for being the first marketer there to co-write digital patents. He is also a former Lockheed Martin and Department of Energy disruptor. Rodney achieved those honors after earning four degrees by the age of 24, including an MBA and Masters in Integrated Marketing Communications from Howard University.

Show Links:

* Rodney Williams on Facebook

* Rodney Williams on LinkedIn

* Rodney Williams on Twitter

* lisnr.com

 

Creative thinking is not about how many ideas you can generate in a brainstorming session. Creative thinking is the result of using a variety of thinking styles to improve your creativity. The result is better ideas that turn into better innovations. We are born with a variety of thinking styles that are established based on […]

Creative thinking is not about how many ideas you can generate in a brainstorming session. Creative thinking is the result of using a variety of thinking styles to improve your creativity. The result is better ideas that turn into better innovations.

We are born with a variety of thinking styles that are established based on watching our parents, how we are taught in school and the early success we have in career. We get it wrong by attributing certain thinking styles as creative and others as not creative.

For example, most people will attribute “right dominate” as being creative while “left dominate” as analytical and therefore not creative. Another example is saying that people who are creative have an internal radar that allows them to just know the solution (intuitive thinking).

I don't agree with these gross generalizations – especially around creative thinking. What I've discovered over the years is that we as humans are far  more complex than we care to admit. Each of us have multiple thinking styles running around inside which makes categorization impossible.

Thinking Styles Related To Creativity

What are different types of thinking styles?

* Left Dominated Thinker versus a Right Dominated Thinker

* Fast Thinking versus Slow Thinking

* Rational Thinking versus Intuitive Thinking

* Convergent Thinking and Divergent Thinking

What am I? As best as I can tell, I'm a right dominated (I'm ore visually oriented), slow (I like to spend time to scan for ideas), rational (I'm an engineer), divergent (I'm an idea person) thinker. So that makes me an RSRD.

What are you?

Is there one group of thinking styles that can greatly improve your creativity? No. In one study, when individuals were asked to use a thinking style(s) other than the one they normally use, they were significantly more creative.

How Do You Improve Your Creativity?

So how do you exercise a different thinking style to improve your creativity? By setting aside time to consciously apply a different thinking style than your own to whatever problem or opportunity you are facing. I call this Deliberate Thinking.

 

To learn the specifics of each thinking style and how they impact your creativity, list to this weeks podcast …

 

Other Materials That Are Related To This Topic  …

* A recent blog post titled, “3 Actions To Improve Your Creative Thinking“

* A recent podcast titled, “Creative Thinking: The Critical Skill For The Creative Economy S12 Ep18“

 

Creative thinking is a critical skill for personal, professional and business success. When you look at others who have been highly successful, such as Elon Musk, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford, the common skill they have is a well exercised skill of creative thinking. Creative thinking is the fuel to everything you do. Creative Thinking According […]