How Free Writing Reduces Innovation Anxiety

How can you be an innovator when you are constantly focusing on firefighting? You simply cannot. Marketing leaders who use firefighting as their default mode create unnecessary innovation anxiety. That’s why I use free writing as a way to keep the anxiety monsters at bay.

You know the feeling of innovation anxiety. It usually gets triggered when you start the week with good intentions. You organize a team offsite for the following. Then the CEO calls regarding an emergency board meeting. Or a big customer calls and complains. Loudly. Over Twitter.

These distractions prevent you from stepping back to design the future. They suck you right back into the vortex of problem-solving.

When it comes to generating great ideas—a key initial step in fostering innovation–we hold ourselves back. Our “internal editor” continuously polishes and tweaks our thoughts.

In fact, we judge ourselves incessantly. We compare our skills to others. We were raised to believe that self-editing was important to fit into society, and look good. We wanted to avoid making mistakes. In reality, self-editing is a recipe for constant stress and suffering.

Mark Levy

Mark Levy, author of Accidental Genius

That’s where free writing can help. What is free writing, and why should you care? In this 4 part video series, Mark Levy, bestselling author of Accidental Genius, explains the process.

Mark has used this process for 17 years to generate big sexy ideas for clients such as Marshall Goldsmith, Simon Sinek, and White House advisers (pre-Trump). He also generates book proposals, TV comedy scripts, and articles using this technique.

I recently used free writing to answer some key questions about my purpose and my company’s value proposition. Needless to say, it created some breakthroughs.

From now until June 15, we’re opening our video collection kimono, and offering a free, 4-part video series on free writing.

These programs are normally reserved for our private member roster. For a limited time, you have access:

Part 1 – Watch this 1 minute introduction to Mark Levy

Part 2Click here to learn the power of list making (5 minutes)

Part 3 – Mark shows you how to use list making for a product launch (7 minute video here)

Part 4 – Mark’s top free writing tips to kick start your marketing innovation (watch the 10 minute video)

In addition to being my good friend, Mark Levy is a favorite speaker at our annual CMOs Leading Innovation Conference (CLIC). One thing I appreciate about Mark is his natural sense of humor—never missing a beat. We also love sharing our cat stories.

Mark will return as a special guest for CLIC ’17. He’s leading a session to help us gain strong commitment to our innovation initiatives. We can’t wait.

Kick your internal editor to the curb, and set your creative genius free! Keep your marketing innovation angst in the rear view mirror.

Copyright 2017, Lisa Nirell. All rights reserved.

Related posts:

10 Reasons to Make Marketing Innovation CLIC

Marketing Transformation Insights: New Videos

CLIC 2016: CMOs Lead Innovation From ‘Now’ To ‘Next’

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