S2E1: Cultivating Creativity in Business

Season 2, Episode 1. 

Empowerhouse Coaching presents, Creative Mindsets for Business, a podcast where Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, and their teams learn how to cultivate creativity together so they can accelerate growth, and scale to success.

In this episode, your master coach, Amanda Escobedo, discusses Creativity in Business:

• She shares the key qualities or characteristics of a creative person
• She defines creativity
• She shares the 5 qualities of essence, which form your creative base
• She shares the value of creativity in a business and it’s benefits to an individual
• She shares 2 mindset tools that you can start practicing today to cultivate your creativity

If you find this podcast valuable, give the gift of sharing information and share this podcast with 3 people in your network that would benefit from this episode. 

For anyone that shares this podcast and tags @empowerhouse_coaching on IG, you’ll be entered to win a Free 30 Minute Coaching with Amanda Escobedo. All you have to do is come to the call with 1 thing that is stressing you out (business or personal), and Amanda will help you take the stressor off your plate. 

Amanda is also giving away reflective writing prompts to help you cultivate your creativity. To download, visit www.empowerhousecoaching.co/mastermind. Scroll to the bottom of the page to access. 

Transcript

Empowerhouse Coaching presents, Creative Mindsets for Business, a podcast where Entrepreneurs, Business Leaders, and their teams learn how to cultivate creativity together so they can accelerate growth, and scale to success.

My name is Amanda Escobedo, I’m your host, creative mindset master coach, and the founder of Empowerhouse Coaching.

If you’re joining me for the first time today, I want to give you a warm welcome. Thank you so much for being here. I’m confident that you’ll learn something, and I hope to provide you with a breakthrough or new insight. 

For those of you who have been following my work, welcome back. 

In today’s episode, we’re going to be discussing Creativity in Business

• I’ll be sharing the key qualities or characteristics of a creative person
• We’ll define creativity for you.
• I’ll share the 5 qualities of essence, which form your creative base
• The value of creativity in a business and it’s benefits to an individual
• And I’ll share 2 quick tips that you can start doing today to cultivate your creativity. 

Before I dive into all, it’s been a minute since i’ve been talking to you all. So, let me re-introduce myself. 

A little about me, I went to school at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, and I graduated with a degree in Social Science and concentrated in Social Services. 

With an interest in the human psyche and a desire to inspire and support the community, I pursued work in the field of mental health, and provided therapeutic mentor, counseling, and crisis interventions for at risk youth. 

IN 2010, with the support and advice of my mentors, I pivoted my career to Human Resources, and there I was able to advance my business acumen, coaching and counseling and leadership development skills. 

As an HR professional, I was able to help business leaders unveil their authentic leadership style so they could effectively unlock their teams potential and motivate and drive employee performance.

In 2018, I discovered the work of mindset coaching, and when I did, I became obsessed with the field. As my interested in the practice grew, I acquired multiple mindset certifications, including a Stanford University Master’s Degree Creative Mindset Course. 

Today I use my HR expertise and coaching mastery to help Business Leaders and their teams cultivate creativity together so they can gain a creative edge and accelerate the growth process. One of my Early Stage Entrepreneurial clients recently shared that when he started with me, he was at $0 revenue. After 12 months of coaching, he successfully generated $1.6 M in revenue. He’s now raising $5M on a $300 M company valuation, based on a forward 12 month forecast. If you don’t call that accelerated growth, I’m not sure what is!

I’m super passionate about human potential and our ability to unlock new discoveries in the world that will transform the future of humanity and civilization for the better. 

My intention with season 2 of the podcast, is to unlock and advance your creative spirit by sharing mindset tools that will systematically strengthen your mind and and wire your brain in a way that gives you access to a higher level of intelligence, increase your self awareness and control under high stakes and high pressure environments, and successfully transition your struggles into bliss and a state of flow. 

Now this area of creativity and the mindset tools which I will be sharing come form an MBA program that was taught at Stanford University. 

In 1979, Dr. Michael Ray, professor  at Stanford, developed  a course in creativity because he saw his business students graduating with all the expertise, getting the high paying jobs, and making a lot of money. 

But when they came back to him, noticed they were thinking linearly, they lacked clarity and a vision for their life, and they were super unfulfilled. 

Now, Dr. Michael  was a researcher that focused on advancing innovation and developing generative leadership. With his research and his students in mind, Dr. Michael Ray created a profound program in mindfulness and emotional Intelligence which has revolutionized the art of success. 

Some of the most influential and innovative leaders are time are huge fans and have been speakers for the course like, Charles Schawbs, Jim Collins, Steve Jobs, Ken Oshman Philp KNight, and many more world class game changers

High profile companies have brought this course into their organization, like FB anheuser Busch, Prada, and many more. 

Now that you know a little bit more about me and what I’m about, and where the tools I will be teaching you have come from, let’s dive into the topic of creativity in business. 

To start us off, let’s talk about the key qualities or characteristics of a creative person. 

I want you to take a guess, what do you think they are? 

Think of someone in your life that you consider to be very creative…what kind of characteristics do they hold? 

• Are they confident? 
• Are they curious? 
• Are they adaptable? 

I’m to pause for a few moments, I want you to get your juices flowing….

Ok, have you thought of some characteristics? Let’s see if they match up.

The key characteristics of a creative person are: 

• High self-esteem
• Positive attitude towards failure
• Clear in their vision
• Detached from observation
• Curious and full of questions
• Tapped into their Intuition
• Deep concentration and focus
• Takes time to incubate
• Obsessed, full of passion
• Persistent
• Faith in their creativity
• Playful and fun!

Now, when I list those characteristics, do any of them click with you? 

• How’s your self esteem? 
• Your attitude toward failure?
• Do you feel ike you have clarity on your vision for your career or your life? 
• Are you attached or detached for what you’re observing or experiencing?
• Are you curious or do you make judgments? 
• Do you depend on analytics to make decisions or are you tapped in and consider your intuition in the process?
• Are you super focused when you’re working, or like, squirrel squirrel? 
• When you hit eht brick wall of frustration, do you stay stay stuck in frustration for way too long, or do a step back, let go of your attachment from the outcome, and incubate
• Is there anything that you’re obsessed or passionate about, something that really peaks your interest, or have you ever really been connected to your work
• Are you persistent or do you give up easily
• What about faith in your creativity? Do you believe you have the ability to take your idea from concept to fruition? 
• And fun - do you make time for play, or is your life full of responsibilities? 

If you don’t feel like you have all of these characteristics, that ok…this podcast is here to help you develop these characteristics so you can be more creative!

And when I say creative, I’m not talking about making you a painter, or an actor, or a singer. Though those people are creatives, the type of creativity I’m talking about is a state of flow. Have you ever had a time where you were so plugged in, completely focused, Runner’s call this the runner zone…

Maybe you thought 20 minutes past by, but it was really a few hours! 

Now that’s creativity, and that’s the creativity we’re going for - a state of flow - we want you plugged in, completely focused, obsessed with what you’re doing, detached from what you’re observing, if you hit a brick wall, it’s ok because you have a positive attitude towards failure, which helps you to be be curious and open to learning, and willing to try new ways to get through your setbacks and obstacles.

Now, the 5 essence that make your creative base are: 

• Intuition
• Will
• Joy
• Strength
• Compassion

So what do I mean by the 5 essences,...

According to Dr. Michael Ray, our essence is something we’re born with. 

For example, think of children.

Children are highly intuitive - they know when they need to eat, sleep, poop…

But adults, we work past stress, we eat past full…we’re so out of tune with our mind, body and spirit.

And willpower…kids have sooo much willpower…when they drop their blanky, how big of a temper tantrum will they have until you pick up their blanky. 

Or maybe they want a toy at a store, they will keep asking or making a fit until you buy it for them.

As adults, we might ask our boss, our partner, for something, or even a prospect, and they say no, and we don’t ask again. Or even worse, we may not even ask the question if we think the answer will be no!

And joy, kids have soooo much joy. Every little thing gives kids so much.. 

Like a silly game like peekaboo, or crinkling a chip bag..it cracks them up.

Whereas as adults, someone might have hurt us, our parents, a bully, a partner we loved, and we bring that jaded past into our present, and we create the same future with it. We carry this baggage, and it becomes our attitude, our forever mood..we’ve allowed a circumstance to dim our light. 

Strength…kids have so much strength. Think of how hard it is to figure out how to walk. We had to fall and get back up, and fall and get back up so many times. Kids are so resilient. 

Whereas adults, for many of us, we hit our first brick wall, and allow a moment of defeat to mean we’ve been defeated! This may happen in business, this may happen in dating, this may happen in a single attempt of communication. We didn’t get the outcome we hoped on the first try, so then we say it isn’t possible. 

And lastly, compassion, kids have so much compassion in their hearts for everyone around them, their mom, dad, animals…for themselves..

Whereas we are constantly beating ourselves up on what we should have said or done differently, we’re so critical about other people, and we’re so afraid of what other people might think of us. 

You see, we were all born with these five essences, but then as we got older life happened. 

And we’ve allowed circumstances to squash who we really are at the core. 

But that’s ok, but again, that’s what this podcast is about. It’s about helping you develop those key characteristics of a creative person, and cultivate your essence for your creative base. 

Now, why or how does your creativity matter in a business setting? 

Scaling to success is a business experiment – a messy process full of trial and error.

Creativity is the GUIDING FORCE to leadership, product design, marketing, and every other aspect of the business.

When Business Leaders are creative, they are accessing a higher level of intelligence and exploring breakthrough thinking and innovative paths and solutions.

Creativity is what makes you effective, and it’s a way of life.

Forget cookie-cutter brainstorming techniques or tips for better meetings

The fundamentals of creativity require you to truly dive deep and get to know yourself, and your work in the world. You can’t know what and how you want to create, until you know who you are and what you hope to do with your life.

And the mindfulness and emotionally intelligence tools I will be sharing are practices that will help you unveil your unique blueprint, and systematically  strengthen your mind and transforming neuro-linguistic programming

– driving real behavior change at the root. 

When you cultivate a mindset practice, the benefits are 

• Increased Self-Awareness
• Improved Interpersonal Skills
• Increased Effective Decision Making Skills
• Advanced Innovation
• Ignited Passion and Increased Energy
• Stress and Anxiety Reduction

Now, I told you I would share 2 mindset tips that you could start doing today to cultivate your creativity, and they are meditation and reflective writing. 

Now, if you’re like most of my clients, you may be resistant to meditation.

You might be like, been there done that, i'm not good at it

Or I get restless when I sit still

Etc. etc. 

I love all your excuses by the way. 

But let me tell you how it works. 

If you’re doing it “wrong”, you’re doing it right. 

The benefits of meditation don’t necessarily happen while you're meditating, they happen outside of the meditation. 

Think of your meditation like the gym, you take your body to the gym…why wouldn’t you take your mind to the gym. 

And when you go to the gym for the first time, you might be out of breath, not have much endurance…you probably can’t deadlift 250 right away, you’re going to start at lower weights…

But as you keep the practice up, all of sudden, you have an extra pep in your step, you’re not as tired as you walk up the stairs, you’ve just cleaned out your entire garage and you aren’t sore…you have more energy and you’re more focused at work

You start to notice the benefits of your gym session outside of the gym. 

THats the same for meditation…

In meditation, you may have a hard time quieting the noise or slowing down the thoughts in the meditation…but if you keep the practice up…

All of a sudden, you’re more focused instead of squirrel squirrel, you get interrupted so much less…

All of a sudden, you feel more grounded rather than overwhelmed and stressed

You find yourself more in the present moment instead of worrying about future worries…

That's meditation for you.

Reflective writing is another great tool for you to cultivate your creativity, and gain insights on yourself. 

There are a few ways that you can do reflective writing. 

1. Set a timer, and do a stream of consciousness for 5 minutes, just see what insights come through your for you
2. Or, you can use reflective writing or journaling prompts. Stanford has some really great prompts that help you get unstuck, navigate through interpersonal conflicts, tap into your futureself. 
   1. And today is your lucky day…because you tuned into this podcast, I’m gonna give you 4 different reflective writing prompts for free! To download them, go to www.empowerhousecoaching/mastermind. When you scroll to the bottom of the page, you’ll be able to download the clarity and insight questions there. 

So those are you 2 tools that you can start today….

Meditation is going to help you quiet the noise in your mind, and help you be more present, so you can get into a state of flow

And reflective writing is going to help you gain new insights, access your inner wisdom, and unlock that answers you already have within you. 

To recap, what we reviewed in today’s episode were: 

• the key qualities or characteristics of a creative person
• We got clear on the type of creativity we’re going for.
• I shared the 5 qualities of essence, which form your creative base
• The value of creativity in a business and it’s benefits to an individual
• And I shared  2 mindset tools you can start practicing today, to help you cultivate your creativity. 

Before I let you go, I want to leave you with a closing quote by Angeles Arrien (Cultural Anthropologist)…

“The Creative Spirit, the relentless power within us that constantly extends an invitation to be who we are, requires the capacity to be open to our authenticity, clear vision, and creativity.

If you found this podcast valuable, give the gift of sharing information and share this podcast with 3 people in your network that would benefit from this episode. 

For anyone that shares this podcast and tags me on IG - empowerhouse_coaching, you’ll be entered to win a Free 30 Minute Coaching on the Fly session with me. All you have to do is come to the call with 1 thing that is stressing you out, i don’t what is it, business or personal. 

I have a super skill that allows me to get to the root of the issue fairly quickly. I identify what's in your control vs. what isn't, and give you actionable items that will allow you to take the stressor off your plate. 

Alright folks, I’m Amanda Escobedo, and you’ve been listening to Creativity in Business, by 

If you haven’t yet, go to apple podcast, or where you get your podcast, subscribe and review this podcast.

Your review will help others come across this resource and leverage their creativity in business.

Join me next time in another conversation about the creative spirit, human potential, accelerated growth, and ultimate impact. 

Thank you for listening.