ThoughtOffice
ThoughtOffice |
Member Since Oct-22 2007 |
|---|---|
| Last Active almost 16 years ago | |
| 0 Brainstorms | |
| 13 Ideas (Public + Private) | |
| Name: | ThoughtOffice | Mark Alan Effinger |
| Location: | Portland, Oregon |
| Year of birth (e.g. 1978): | 1961 |
| Education: | School of life... Wizard Academy, Austin, TX. |
| Employment: | ThoughtOffice Corporation: CEO and Founder -- RichContent Corporation: CEO and Chief Evangelist |
| Interests: | Creativity, Innovation, Brainstorming, Media, Online Marketing, Social Networkds, Entrepreneurship, Personal Growth, Trikke, TED, |
| Achievements: | Founded 12 companies since 1986. Sold the first in less than a year. Inc 500 status for one company. Award-winner for technology development in lasers, advertising techniques, mass-customization. Early Interactive TV evangelist. Early Internet Evangelist. Marketed the most popular Macintosh disk utility in early 90's. Developed and marketed one of the most popular desktop shopping-cart builders for web developers, 1998-1999. Executive Director of TechCoast.com, Irvine Incubator. CMO of eAgency.com. CEO of ExitPath.com. Chief Evangelist for PRWeb.com. Worked with Marsh Fisher of IdeaFisher from 1999-2004 to extend the life of Marh's software application and dream of universal, web-enabled innovation. |
| Expertise: | Innovation Muse: Creating innovations and driving creativity and brainstorming in the marketplace. Deep knowledge of SEO-SEM and how media and content are distributed and revealed online. Serial Entrepreneur so startups and corporate development are big-time passions. |
| About Me: | Typical serial entrepreneur (passionate, ADD, energetic, interested in everything). Read more than 30 magazines, 100 newsletters and 3 books per month. 3 amazing children, and an incredible life. I am very fortunate to be here, with the best partners and employees in the universe, health, and youth on my side. |
ThoughtOffice has not created any brainstorms
L-Pyroglutamic Acid and L-Tyrosine. Take the former with Vitamin B (a good multi is great) at night before bed. Then L-Tyrosine during the day (take both with water, away from protein-based foods). Those two provide phenomenal neurochemical activity, making it easier to be creative for longer periods of time, and to increase your associative thinking capability. When you are operating with excellent biochemistry, creativity flows naturally. [almost 16 years ago]
Work to a soundtrack: Find a song that resonates with you, and one that drives you. Momentum is critical to idea generation. There's a song I have played in my mind since my road racing days: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbxswV2a6l0. It's called 'Los Endos' (The End). The genius in the song is that it's made of the key melody in each of the songs on the album. As a result, it's all hooks and a number of different rhythms (9:8 time is my fave... always playing catchup). A ThoughtOffice Fave. [almost 16 years ago]
Humor. A successful joke is most often based on associative thinking. So connect with some humor, and "riff" on it. My key employees and I make sure to riff at least a few times a week... it's a great way to get into a new mindset. More often than not, we arrive at an "a-HA!" moment that gets us to a new level in our innovation process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8kThoZpF_U and http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHI-foSNccA are great examples. (thanks to Brian Regan). [almost 16 years ago]
Watch this video: http://www.gofish.com/player.gfp?gfid=30-1025863. This is the classic Eames "Powers of 10" video, expanding to the mega-universe level, then to the subatomic level. Now, watch for the noise level at each phase. See that? There appear to be sequences in nature that move from quiet to noisy in a rhythmic pattern. Look for those patterns in your work and idea exploration, and you can often tap the noise (or the whitespace) for the next big breakthrough. [almost 16 years ago]
Read the free newsletter from Roy Williams of the WIzard Academy at http://www.MondayMorningMemo.com. This one weekly insight has provided more powerful insights and is a great way to start your week. [almost 16 years ago]
Act like Bowfinger: (Google that one if you missed the reference). Take sticky notes and imagine you are writing a movie. Take each "scene" (or problem, or list of issues) as a separate sticky note. Then craft solutions, expansions, contractions, corrections, etc... one each per note. Then put them all on a whiteboard and rearrange as they make sense. Arrange vertically for "Scenes", and horizontally for either Time, company division to handle, or person/personality to handle. Amazing results. [almost 16 years ago]
Cross-pollinate Ideas: Read. Everything. I read 31 print magazines a month, 100 email newsletters and 4+ books. By reading diverse text covering every field, you develop threads that help expand the mind and discover creative solutions across ever field. There may be "no new ideas", but the combinations of existing ideas is limitless. [almost 16 years ago]
Gmail. Yes, get your free Gmail account (that's Google Mail, FYI). Then send email to yourself with random words, phrases and posts. On the right edge of your email you'll see Google AdWords that are a result of keywords within your emails. Many times you'll find some very interesting phrasing, associations, and other fun explorations to play with (these AdWords are slightly different than the ones on a typical search on Google, because they are AdSense versions). [almost 16 years ago]
http://unboxing.gearlive.com. There is a certain combination of thrill, anticipation and "Scooby Do" moments when you open a well-designed product package. UnBoxing does it well, with pictures and descriptions for all kinds of products. And if you haven't opened an Apple product box, do so immediately. It is a study in user experience and innovation. [almost 16 years ago]
http://shopliftwindchimes.com/videos.html. This is the video portion of poet Rives. Brilliant. If you can't find creative inspiration in his "Def Poetry Jam" video, you need work. Also: http://www.virtualpoetryslam.net/main/contests/2007/all. Some great inspiration in their words, cadence, rhymes and rhythm. [almost 16 years ago]