[LISA LEWIS] The Am I Ok? Podcast is part of the Practice of the Practice network, a network of podcasts seeking to help you market and grow your business and yourself. To hear other podcasts like Faith Fringes, the Holistic Counseling Podcast, and Beta Male Revolution, go to the website, www.practiceofthepractice.com/network. Welcome to the Am I Ok? Podcast, where you will discover that being highly sensitive is something to embrace and it’s actually a gift you bring to the world. We will learn together how to take ownership of your high sensitivity, so you can make positive changes in your life, in the lives of others, and it’s totally okay to feel this way. I’m your host, Lisa Lewis. I’m so glad you’re here for the journey. Welcome, everybody. This is Lisa Lewis, your host, and welcome to a brand new year 2023. Wow, I can’t believe it, we’re in a brand new year, and I have a special guest for my first episode of the New Year, and her name is Robin Landa. Robin is a distinguished professor at Keen University, which is her Walden’s Pond and a globally recognized ideation expert. She is a well-known creative guru and a best-selling author of books on ideation, creativity, branding, advertising, and design. She has won numerous awards and the Carnegie Foundation counts her among the Greatest Teachers of our Time. She is the author of 25 books, including The New Art of Ideas: Unlock Your Creative Potential and Strategic Creativity: A Business Field Guide to Advertising, Branding, and Design. Welcome to the show, Robin. [ROBIN LANDA] Thank you so much, Lisa. I’m honored to be here with you today. [LISA LEWIS] Yes, I’m honored to have you on, and I haven’t had anyone with your background on the show yet, so I’m really excited to learn and hear about what you do. [ROBIN LANDA] Thanks so much. [LISA LEWIS] As I like to ask all my guests who come on the show, do you consider yourself a highly sensitive person or not? If so, would you mind sharing a little story about that? [ROBIN LANDA] I do consider myself a highly sensitive person. I think, in fact, most of my students who are creative, aspiring creative professionals are sensitive as well. I think it goes with the territory. When I was first starting out and I would go on interviews and show my creative work to people, I would make believe that I had a vest on, or I actually, that’s not true, I wore a vest so that people’s words couldn’t get to my heart. [LISA LEWIS] Wow, that is, oh, I love that. That’s amazing. That’s something I work with, with clients as a mental health professional, especially with highly sensitive people, like protecting your heart because we feel so much, we’re those empathetic people that can take on too much of other people’s energy and to protect our heart. Doesn’t mean you have to shut it off, but using like a cape or a jacket or something to just protect that front side of our bodies. [ROBIN LANDA] Yes, when you’re a creative professional, you show your work and it’s a very vulnerable feeling because although people are criticizing the work and not you, it’s very easy to take it personally. I mean, it is personal because it’s your work, but it’s about the work, the solution that you created rather than you as an individual. But it’s very hard, especially for young people to make that separation. [LISA LEWIS] Oh, okay, so that’s what you did when you said, when you first started out, you wore your vest to protect your heart? Are there any other things that you did? [ROBIN LANDA] Well, I did that then, and now I constantly remind myself that it’s a critique of the work and not a critique of me, because when I write books and I work with clients that, especially with the books, the work, the books go out for what’s called peer review. Other faculty or other writers or other professionals review what I’ve written. Sometimes the criticism is lovely and it feels great, and sometimes it’s harsh and it could be harsh because the person just doesn’t get it, or the person, sometimes the person will say something like, well, I’m going to write my own book about this, so I don’t need your book. It’s unduly harsh. So I have to constantly remind myself that it, it’s about them as much as it’s about me and it’s about the work, the solution that I sent out, and not me as a person. [LISA LEWIS] Yep, that’s what, I work with that same thing with clients in my office and with me, and I also see it as discharging that energy that maybe builds up inside us, and especially, okay, I’m going to take what I feel is what’s useful to me, and then leave the rest behind as far as any criticism or feedback. [ROBIN LANDA] Yes, exactly, exactly. [LISA LEWIS] So tell us about what is an ideation expert? [ROBIN LANDA] Sounds fancy. It’s somebody who can teach others or help others generate worthwhile ideas. So really anybody can generate an idea, but to generate great ideas or worthwhile ideas or good ideas, whatever you want to call them, you really do need a good system. There aren’t that many good systems for doing it so I do teach others how to do it, and I assist clients in how to do it. [LISA LEWIS] Okay, can you share some steps on how you do that or like, well, what would that look like? [ROBIN LANDA] Absolutely. Well, there are, do you want me to go into the conventional systems and then my new system? [LISA LEWIS] Yeah, that’d be great. Thank you. [ROBIN LANDA] You’re welcome. So there are a few different conventional systems that are widely used. One is a system that was introduced in 1926 by Graham Wallace in England it’s a four-step process for generating ideas. The first step he calls preparation, and that’s what most of us would think of as doing our research, getting all the background information that we need. The second step is incubation, which means that you think about it and you don’t think about it by sitting down at your computer and forcing it, but if you’re taking a shower, you’re walking your dog, with your dog, you’re jogging it’s incubating, it’s working in your mind. Then the third phase of his system is called illumination. That’s where it gets tricky, because the idea is then supposed to pop. It’s supposed to come to you the way Athena popped out of Zeus’s head. I mean, it’s supposed to come out. He doesn’t really give you a system at that point for how to form the idea. It should come because you’ve done your research and you’ve allowed it to incubate. In the 1950s, another fellow named James Webb Young came out with the same system and he added a step at the end. But again, there’s no actual idea formation framework within it. It’s all about researching, incubating, and then that phase where it pops. The other one that your listeners are probably very familiar with is brainstorming. That also came out in the 1950s by a man named Alex Osborne. The O and Osborne is the O in BBDO, which is a worldwide advertising agency. He came up with the notion of brainstorming to use in the agency where creatives would be sitting around a table and everybody would throw out either partially formed ideas or a fully-fledged ideas. Again, there’s no framework for forming the idea and brainstorm is used now by individuals and groups and teams. It’s very, very widely used. I have found that people find it challenging and frustrating because again, there’s no idea formation framework. The other method, which I find is really, really good is combinatorial thinking, where you take two existing things or two existing ideas, and you combine them into a new thing or a new idea. That really works. Great thinkers have used that, great thinkers like Albert Einstein and Mark Twains, Steve Jobs. I’ve used it in the classroom, I use it myself, it’s really great. But if that’s the only one in your toolkit, then you’re limiting yourself. So what I decided I needed to do was codify the framework that I’d been using to teach students to generate ideas for many, many years, and very successfully, 98% of my students are successful working professionals in creative fields that demand daily idea generation. So my system is called the 3Gs. You have a goal, a gap, and a gain, the goal is what you want to achieve. People think a goal is an idea, but it’s really just a goal. The gap is where it gets very interesting and the gap can be pretty much anything that’s missing a piece of research that’s missing, a lack of understanding about how something works, a new method of delivery, a new class of drugs or medicine, a new operating system, a more sustainable method, a way to address the world’s chronic crises like hunger, poverty, human trafficking. Then also it could be an underserved or an ignored group of people, an underserved audience. Then the third G gain is the benefit. What’s in it for people, the planet, creatures or the business, or profit. I really believe that there should be a triple bottom line rather than one, than just a single bottom line, which is usually profit. I think it should be people, planet, and profit. [LISA LEWIS] Now, the gain, I hear like the person is wanting to develop something, and is this something for themselves because they feel it, like this is like their life’s path, this is their journey, this is what they’re supposed to do in this lifetime or is this more about, no, I want to do this thing because I want to in the end, make money? [ROBIN LANDA] Well, it’s all of that. It’s also could be, you could use it at work. So if you are charged with a task, with coming up with an idea for a new product or a new system, it can be used there. A lot of people who are entrepreneurs or tinkerers use the system for exactly what you said, following their passion. But I’m sure people can use it for just profit alone. That’s not my ethos though. I really believe that at this point we’re in an inflection point in the world in terms of sustainability and landfill and every other issue, so that we really have to think about the impact our ideas have on our environment and on others. [LISA LEWIS] I love that. Do you think this is like a turning point in our lifetime as far as the planet that we need ideas that are going to help save the planet if you, I guess if you believe in that, or whoever’s listening believes in that? [ROBIN LANDA] Oh, I do. Absolutely, I think that, and I think some businesses are responding to that. We have to think about more sustainable methods, toxic free methods, child-safe methods, renewable energy methods. And there’s so many, so many ideas that can be formed when we think of things in that way. Also some, there’s still so many chronic issues. Like right now where I live in New York City, our mayor, Mayor Adams is really thinking about what to do with unsheltered people, with people who have no home. These are chronic issues that need good ideas to help solve them. [LISA LEWIS] In case listeners hear some honking or some noise in the background, I just want to point that out, that Robin is in New York City, and we were talking about that before the recording even started, and it just feels like that’s part of the interview. That’s where you live. I would expect to hear that. [ROBIN LANDA] I love that. Thank you for understanding, Lisa. [LISA LEWIS] You’re welcome. We can make it what we want and we can accept what we want. [ROBIN LANDA] I like that. Thank you. That’s lovely. [LISA LEWIS] How can someone unlock their creative potential, and if you can say more about that, like geared towards a highly sensitive person? [ROBIN LANDA] I think a highly sensitive person is the best candidate for this, because somebody who’s sensitive will tend to be a more mindful listener a more mindful observer. Those are two very, very important things in adopting the traits of creative thinkers, being open, being receptive, being curious, curiosity is very, very important. I almost call it extreme curiosity, where so many of us are very, very interested in our own fields. We always try to learn the most we can about our own career, our own discipline, our own field, our own family. I think curious people venture beyond that and really try to learn about other disciplines. They’re open to discoveries, they’re open to new knowledge, and that really boosts creativity. But as a sensitive person, I think being mindful and please tell me if I’m wrong, comes with the territory because we’re paying attention. We’re a hearing everything that people say is that, is that true? [LISA LEWIS] That is true. HSPs are deep thinkers. So these are the type of people that are standing on the perimeter. If there’s like a group of people, or it could be community, it could be a city, a state, they’re the ones on the outside looking all out at the horizon, looking for any danger. Because they’re going to be the ones that will alert everybody and not to say like danger, like something catastrophic is going to happen, but those are the ones that we’re really looking out. Like, it’s not just about me as a HSP, but I’m looking out for that person over there, that person, the whole group, and how can the whole group come together as one. That is like synergy right there. That’s when change happens. That’s when big changes can happen in the planet. [ROBIN LANDA] I mean, and that dovetails into another way to enhance your creativity, which is if you are watching and listening, a question to ask is what if, and not a doomsday, what if, but what if we could turn this into something else? What if we could fly? What if we could be invisible and listen to what people are saying without them knowing that we’re there? The what if question is an extraordinary, almost a magical question for speculating about possibilities outside of our own experience. If we, if highly sensitive people are standing on the side and looking in, it’s a great question to pose. It’s even a great question at the dinner table to go around and ask people what if. Of course, if any of your listeners are science fiction fans, that question is something science fiction writers pose all the time. That’s how we get all this very cool futuristic technology and living conditions and science fiction films. [LISA LEWIS] What would you tell someone, I’m thinking as a HSP, so they have a great idea and they’ve been talking to other people and they start the process, and then they get stuck? Like there’s something that they get stuck and can’t move forward, and they just stop what they are doing. [ROBIN LANDA] I think a lot of people get stuck, and I think sometimes you have to realize that it’s not easy that you have to actually go into it accepting that executing an idea is a challenge, and they’re going to be practical obstacles, emotional obstacles. I always tell my students to see if there’s one obstacle that they can mitigate. Is there one thing that they can take care of that is preventing them from moving forward? If it’s a more practical, let’s say you have somebody who’s very demanding of your time, or you have laundry to do, that’s just taking too much time away from what you want to do, can somebody help you? Can you talk to the person who’s demanding your time? Could somebody pick up your children? Sometimes there’s a practical solution, but if it’s emotional, I think that there are really good creative prompts that you can do to get your juices flowing. You can do mind-mapping where you put a word in the center of a page and then you just map out from there, whatever comes to your mind. There are different games. If you could play a surrealist game with somebody else where you write a word and like, I would write a word and then I’d pass it to you, you wouldn’t see the word I wrote and you’d write a word and then you’d pass it back to me and I wouldn’t see what you wrote. Then you’d have this really wacky sentence that’s just fun, and it just gets juices flowing. There are lots of prompts. People who go to my website and get some of them, download them for free. There are tons of creative prompts on the web, if you look around or go read something that’s really a great piece of literature, go see a really terrific film, go see a great play. That usually can loosen up creative thinking. [LISA LEWIS] Those are all great ideas. At the end of the interview, we’ll have Robin’s information about where to find her, so stay tuned for that and also be on the show notes. How do you help someone, or what do you tell someone, I hear this a lot about procrastination, when someone is procrastinating. [ROBIN LANDA] I think that it’s very useful. You can look at it in a couple of ways. One is a practical way, and that is to give yourself a deadline. Sometimes that will help. Or if you tell your deadlines to somebody else, I mean, at work you get deadlines. People will put it off. Personally, I’m the opposite, mine urges me to do it earlier, but I know that a lot of people, my students procrastinate and I have them figure out time management systems for themselves if I do this much this day and this much that day. The one suggestion that I give, and it’s helped so many people, so many, I mentor faculty around the country in how to write, how to do research and write books. I tell them that I have non-negotiables and getting my work done is a non-negotiable just like brushing my teeth and taking a shower and eating broccoli and exercising. I don’t argue with myself about it. It’s something that’s going to be done today, and I do it, and I don’t waste time arguing with myself. [LISA LEWIS] I love that. It’s easier said than dumb, I have to admit that. [ROBIN LANDA] Absolutely. We all have our dragons because I mean, I still argue with myself over the consumption of cookies. So there’s just things that don’t work for people, but that, if you could try it, that does work for a lot of people. [LISA LEWIS] What do you think of the strategy, I don’t know if it’s more of a strategy or an excuse or something else, waiting till the last minute to complete something like there’s a deadline because I work better under pressure? Do you believe that? [ROBIN LANDA] I hear it a lot. In fact the woman who designed my book cover for the New Art of Ideas and did the illustrations just told me that she is a chronic procrastinator and works better when the deadline comes. She got it done, she got it done on time. I don’t know that, I think the best thing probably to do is try to change that habit and try to create a time management system. But I think we can change habits. I think we acquire good habits and we can get rid of bad habits but if it works for you, I mean, she came out with great work, but that was how she did it. [LISA LEWIS] I always wonder waiting until last minute and I’ll just speak for myself, well, if I had taken more time with this, what’s something else, something better come out of this instead of waiting till last minute and feeling like, oh, I have to rush and this is all the time I have, so I just have to give, turn this in because I’m out of time. [ROBIN LANDA] That’s perfect, Lisa, that is fantastic because that is so true that if you have time for reflection and you do reflect on it, and you look at it and you revise and you have time to get away from it and come back to it, I think you are so right, that it’s so spot on that it would be better. [LISA LEWIS] Okay. Is there anything else you’d like to share with the audience about this process that you go through? Anything that you want to highlight? [ROBIN LANDA] I think that a lot of people think they’re not creative because someone said that to them somewhere, or there was some experience in school, but I have taught thousands and I mean literally thousands of people to enhance their creative potential and to, and to acquire creative habits or characteristics or traits, whatever you want to call them. So negative self-talk isn’t helpful in this arena, but it is helpful to be more curious, more observant and mindful listener, be receptive to new experiences and believe that you can be more creative. [LISA LEWIS] Yes, being creative lights up that other part of our brain, the right hemisphere. Then when we have both hemisphere is working together, that’s, I mean, possibilities can happen. [ROBIN LANDA] I really do think that everyone can be more creative. It’s just a matter of believing that you can’t. [LISA LEWIS] Robin, what would you like listeners to take away from our conversation today? [ROBIN LANDA] If you are having difficulty generating a good idea or a worthwhile idea, it’s not you, it’s the system you’re using, so try a different system. [LISA LEWIS] Okay, wow, I like that. Yes, try a different system. That’s something I tell clients. Think of it as an experiment, and that if something doesn’t work, try something else until something clicks. It’s always, to me, it’s always like a living document. It’s not set in stone. If I choose, oh, this way is working for me, so now I have to do it from now to the end of eternity. Like, no, it may change and fluctuate over time just as you change and fluctuate over time. [ROBIN LANDA] Absolutely. I totally agree with you. [LISA LEWIS] Do you have a free gift for my listeners? [ROBIN LANDA] If they go to my website, robinlanda.com, they can get free quick start guides, they can get an ideal worksheet and other goodies that are all free to download. [LISA LEWIS] Okay, where can listeners get in touch with you? I know you just mentioned your website. Is there any other places you’d like to mention? [ROBIN LANDA] I’m all over social media, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, even TikTok. [LISA LEWIS] Okay, all right, all the social media platforms. I just want to thank you so much for coming on the show today, Robin. This is a great, I was just thinking about this, this is a brand new year. We’re in 2023 and people always like want to do something new or inspiring and creative, and this is a great episode. The time is just right to kickstart your creativity. [ROBIN LANDA] Thank you so much for having me and happy New Year to everybody. [LISA LEWIS] Thank you, listeners, for listening today. Please let me know what you thought of the episode. Send me an email to lisa@amiokpodcast.com. Remember, while you are there, to subscribe, rate and review wherever you get your podcast. To find out more about Highly Sensitive Persons, please visit my website at amiokpodcast.com and subscribe to my free eight-week email course to help you navigate your own sensitivities and to show you that it’s okay not to take on everyone else’s problems. This is Lisa Lewis reminding each and every one of you that you are okay. Until next time, be well. Thank you for listening today at Am I Ok? Podcast. If you are loving the show, please rate, review and subscribe to it on your favorite podcast platform. Also, if you’d like to learn how to manage situations as a highly sensitive person, discover your unique gift as a highly sensitive person, and learn how to be comfortable in your own skin, I offer a free eight-week email course called Highly Sensitive People. Just go to amiokpodcast.com to sign up. In addition, I love hearing from my listeners, drop me an email to let me know what is on your mind. You can reach me at lisa@amiokpodcast.com. This podcast is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regards to the subject matter covered. It is given with the understanding that neither the host, the publisher, or the guests are rendering legal, accounting, clinical, or any other professional information. If you want to professional, you should find one.