Balance Your Inspiration with Action

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Ask anyone that starts or runs a business and you are likely to be told stories of random instances of inspiration that seem to strike from no where and affect the course of their company positively.

The thing is, it is not just business owners, but all individuals that share in these random instances of creative idea generation. Unfortunately, for many, these come and go without any remberance. Going astray in those random spurts of creativity? Good ideas

Just two weeks ago, I grabbed a recent edition of BusinessWeek and started reading. My reading started in front of the television upstairs and made its way around the house until it ended up in the bathroom with a stack of other magazines. Truthfully, I do my best reading there.

I got to reading a story on a company called Plan B Branding. The article was called “It’s Not Whether You Win or Lose. It’s How You Sell the Game“. It told the stories of Jason and Casey, a pair of enterprising individuals that followed their passion of branding to the minor leagues, creating a niche that did not previously exist.

The parallels between the company Matt and myself are running now and that which Jason and Casey are currently successful at were astounding.

Jason and Casey started their business in college, the idea? They saw logos out there and knew, they, themselves, could do them better. After sending out letters to over 130 minor league teams, one responded. They proceeded to spend three months creating that logo…for free.

Interesting because as I was working for Bradley, I found myself thinking the same thing. I was the person in charge of doing all the creative for an NCAA Division-1 athletics institution as a student. This very point was enough to convince me that I could do this on my own and make money at it. It also began the conversation between myself and Matt about the idea of starting a business.

After reading the BusinessWeek article, I immediately handed it to Matt, excited to see two young individuals having success in a similar arena as us. This is where the fun began, because after Matt read it, he found their website and crafted an email to them. Balancing both of inspiration with a bit of action.

To our astonishment, they not only got back to Matt, but set up a conference call with us for that Friday. Extremely excited for the opportunity, our team prepared questions and fired away to Jason on the other end.

We had blocked 20 minutes off for the conference call but it lasted over an hour, with no realization of this until the conversation was over. The discussion was encouraging, inspiring, and eye-opening. We left with over a page of notes each and with a renewed focus, a great contact, and a piece of advice we won’t soon forget: “Go into battle assuming all your ninjas are going to die.” An effective idea for any business meeting, proposal, or creative concept.

Matt simply acted on an idea with this same premise in mind. So what if he didn’t get an email back? He spent a few minutes crafting an email and if he got a response, great! If not, what’s 10 minutes of time?

We got great advice, from a great person in Jason. He merely requested we pay it forward when our time came. So here’s some advice for all of you:

1. When an idea strikes: WRITE IT DOWN!

Too many great ideas come to people and they don’t write them down. They become lost, only to reappear at some other date to the person chiming “I HAD THAT IDEA!” So, go out and get a notebook. I have three grid paper moleskine notebooks at my ready. One on my desk at work, one on my nightstand, and one that seemingly floats about the rest of the house. I chose grid paper because it allows me to sketch logos while also writing. But a napkin or $.20 notebook will do.

2. If that written idea seems good a week later, do it.

Too many people have too many great ideas and fail to act on them. ACT ON IT. It is amazing to watch Rob Dyrdek function in the show ‘Fantasy Factory’ on MTV. He has random spurts of creativity and the one difference between him and millions of Americans is that he has a profound way of getting it done. From crazy ideas like Rob’s to applicable ideas that can help people’s lives, if you don’t act on them they aren’t worth the ink they’re written in.

3. Pay it Forward.

As Jason said at the culmination of our call, ‘When someone comes around asking for help or guidance, make sure to do what I did and share your knowledge.’ Likewise, I just saw the enshrinement of Karl Malone into the hall of fame. He ended his acceptance speech stating ‘What good is success if you can’t share it with someone else?’

When you have even the remote semblance of success, don’t be too caught up in what you’re doing to forget the immense joy that comes from helping others and lending advice.

Now go out after it and get it! Take the time to read that article, it just might inspire you too.

Click on the link for the BusinessWeek article and if you’re interested in learning more about Plan B Branding and their impressive body of work, click here.