My Approach
Nothing is Created Alone.
Every great innovator has had a creative partner along the way--someone who understood the soul of their work and worked alongside them to overcome challenges and bring their best ideas fully to life. This deep level of collaboration takes many forms and allows for greater professional and personal achievement. At its heart is the acknowledgment of my core belief: Nothing is created alone.
My clients are visionaries and innovators, whether they work in a B2B organization, lead their own service-based businesses as entrepreneurs, or seek change for themselves. As leaders coming to the table with mutual respect, we both understand that the best results come from cultivating a relationship of open communication, appreciation of each other’s vision and strengths, and a firm commitment to owning the challenge and solutions together.
I serve clients with the Creative Partnering™ Approach.
My approach, called “Creative Partnering,” means meeting you where you are--no matter what professional opportunities or challenges you face. This also means we need to “go slow to go fast.” My experience and successes have taught me that this, more often than not, opens the floodgates to the highest creativity, analysis, and results possible.
When Creative Partnering approach works.
My clients find themselves in a variety of situations--from idea drought to idea overwhelm to execution haze. Feeling daunted by what lies ahead or exhilarated by it--or both at once (which I call “scarecitement”). From enterprise-level corporations to microbusinesses, from the C-suite to the individual contributor level, the clients I work with are united by one thing: they are poised for transformation, ready to tap into or reignite their passion for their work, and motivated to step up their productivity, profitability, or both.
The benefits of a Creative Partnering™ approach and its guiding principles are:
Be Wholly Invested: The Best Partnerships Are Based on Commitment
A great creative partner is invested in you by truly seeing where you are in your professional and interpersonal life. In any true business partnership, the benefits of sharing vision, division of labor, and real commitment are huge. Creative partnering provides the same level of commitment you would have in a formal joint venture--but without the typical drawbacks. I invest the time and energy to allow you to access the advantages of these long-term partnerships (such as shared responsibility) while avoiding the pitfalls of partner conflict, divergent ideas for direction, and questions of ownership. As a creative partner, I care as much about your success as you do--while always respecting the fact that true ownership of the situation is yours.
Everyone wins when we cultivate our working relationship with respect. I take the time to get to know what you’re going through and strive for a level of partnership that supports co-creating together, which is about more than being a traditional service provider.
I am guided by being truly invested in YOU and your success. It’s not just that I treat you the way I'd like to be treated in my own business (though that’s true as well)--it’s also that when we co-own the challenge and co-create the solution, I'm able to enjoy your success behind the scenes and contribute to your success which is my ultimate goal, always.
Practice Non-judgment: Those with Beginners’ Minds Innovate/Have More Options
I always start where you are. I add bigger thinking to increase the options for addressing your central challenge or accomplishing your objectives. The value of a creative partner with a non-judgmental mindset is that I help you think through things more clearly, from perspectives you may not have considered. If we judge ideas too quickly because they aren’t what current experts are saying or don’t fit a particular mold or existing paradigm, we end up working with a lot less potential. We may have blinders on to innovation. All of us can make this mistake, and it takes someone else to watch our steps.
My approach lies in the heart of creativity and analytical thinking--so we'll say yes to a lot of things, at least initially, in that we let them come to the table. When we do this with non-judgment, we'll find previously unseen connections between disparate ideas and look with fresh, curious eyes to find what’s possible. Being open-minded in the brainstorming phase of any challenge is what clears the pathway to success. I help you incorporate a beginner’s mind perspective to expand possibilities and achieve more.
Be Prolific: The More Ideas, the Better (Initially)
Empowered with a non-judgment perspective, I'm able to be prolific--which means ideas come easily to me. With ideation as a core strength, I am brave enough to generate a high volume of “almost-right” ideas to get to the just-right, or even groundbreaking ideas--together. I say "brave" because it’s easy to get attached to one idea or solution and find yourself spinning your wheels as you work, trying to force something to happen--either at all or a certain way. But the goal is to be prolific--to have ideas on top of ideas--because the most original solutions are likely to come about when we are generating a high level of output together.
Get Real: Leaders Need to be Grounded to Go Further, Faster
I'm not an advocate for chasing and executing every idea--no matter how great I think it is. In fact, the value of the creative partner is that I will assess that laundry list of possibilities and tell you tough truths. I do this through detailed analysis and past experience. Plus sometimes intuition.
When the top ideas and solutions are in play, I roll up my sleeves alongside you. I apply dedicated creative and analytical thinking to your situation, with the benefit of both of our perspectives and experiences. I play devil’s advocate and whenever necessary, I do my research--in order to test the bounds and feasibility of an idea.
Helping you to be grounded in reality means you’ll be more productive and successful; without this grounding, you might be headed down rabbit holes! Getting real may mean needing to let go of some long-held notions to make room for something new, or it may mean clearing obstacles in your way. This guiding principle of “grounding” means that I ensure the solutions or action steps we're weighing together are personalized and always fully aligned with your unique goals and strengths.
Creative Partnering: An Approach and an Offer
I am a Creative Partnering™ coach, applying these principles to everyone I work with--even IT channel marketing agency clients.
I offer Creative Partnering™ Engagements as a stand-alone offer for entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs when they have multiple, competing responsibilities and goals. These visionary leaders don’t always have a cut-and-dry “scope of work"--and that's perfect. One of the benefits of working together is that they actually don’t have to wait to have it all figured out. The Creative Partnering™ offer facilitates getting started without a defined scope by its very design. I invite you to show up right where you are, because this approach means I am ready to help you go further, faster than you could alone.
I expedite getting to the ideal result when you’re not sure where to or who to turn to next.
My clients experience a variety of complex situations. They face challenges, sure, but they’re also excited by the prospect and power of making positive changes.
No matter what the frame of mind, role, or level of Creative Partnering clients, the common thread is that they need someone like me to provide the insight and momentum to bring the best ideas to life--whether those are net-new or around a specific challenge.
You can turn to me.
Does an idea or situation come to mind for you? Something you haven't quite been able to tackle yourself?
Learn more about the specific work I do:
