Aspire Magazine: Inspiration for a Woman's Soul.(TM) Aug/Sept 2017 Aspire Mag Full Issue | Page 92

So many of us are passionate and enthusiastic. We have powerful gifts and big dreams, we have great ideas we want to share with the world. It takes all of these elements to get us off of the ground but we will fail miserably if we are not meeting a need for a specific group of people. To be visionary is to find the place where your passion and the world’s hunger meet, as Fredrick Buechner says. You can’t feed hamburgers to a crowd of vegetarians. Think paper clips and Post-It notes, two revolu¬tionary products that simplified our life. Think Chicken Soup for the Soul that fed us powerful, positive stories we didn’t even know we needed. Where can you be more visionary? Practical Action Step: You may not think you are a visionary thinker but I bet that you are. As human beings we all have the capacity to be innovative, imaginative and creative. Start looking for ways that you can be of service to your community. Where could you be serving them differently than anyone else? Also start looking, listening and dreaming of ideas, keep a journal of your insights. The more we practice brainstorming and creative problem solving, the more visionary we become. cook or dig in the garden although these are all fun activi¬ties. Creativity in business is about two things: offering information and ideas in new ways that people have not experienced before and problem solving. Something the visionary knows is that you can sell the same product as someone else, but you have to do it in a way the looks, feels, smells, sounds and tastes different. Have you looked in the freezer aisle lately at how many different brands of vanilla ice cream that you can buy? Not all vanilla ice cream is created equal, neither is chocolate or butter pecan or other popular flavors. When I think of ice cream, I think of two brands that stick out for me: Bluebell Ice Cream which is a Texas-made product and Ben & Jerry’s. They are both memorable for their marketing and for making themselves appear unique in a very crowded marketplace. Think Chick-fil-A and their cow campaign. Who doesn’t giggle and smile when they see a commercial or billboard with cows holding up “Eat more chikin” signs? The cows even have their own names and website biographies. Where can you be creative in your marketing, messag¬ing and delivery of your products? 3. BE CREATIVE We talked about being visionary now let’s talk about creativity. When I say be creative, I am not saying go take a painting class, 92 Also, where can you be creative in your problem solving? Not every problem gets solved the same way. We will not get new www.AspireMAG.net | August / September 2017