Entrepreneurs and marketers are constantly challenged to be creative. But creativity, as it is commonly thought of and practiced, is sin, not virtue, because it is slow and ponderous; because it begins with a blank slate. One of the most profitably creative entrepreneurs of all time, Walt Disney, said “....stop talking and begin doing.” To be profitable in the real world, creativity must be fast, decisive, practical, implementable and implemented. There’s little room for creativity for creativity’s sake.

I tend to practice “creativity cheating” – and thought I’d give you a few quick “cheats” from the many I talked about at my one-day Creative Thinking For Entrepreneurs Seminar.*

#1 Steal and Adapt What’s Already Built

From Tony Baxter, Senior V.P., Creative Development/Imagineering

at Disney: “For the climactic scene in the Indiana Jones Adventure at Disneyland, we wanted the ride vehicle to suddenly start backing up as the giant rolling boulder comes thundering toward us. Having a ride vehicle back up in the middle of a ride is rediculous. With eighteen vehicles traveling down the same track at the same time, a vehicle going in reverse would collide with the next vehicle coming behindit along the track. But if you’ve ever ridden in the Indiana Jones attraction, you know your vehicle does suddenly start backing up. At least that’s your perception. Your vehicle has actually stopped. It’s the walls and ceiling that are moving, giving you the undeniable feeling that you’re traveling backward...so, where did we come up with this solution? A car wash. One of those self-service machines at the gas station where you pull your carin and park while a series of brushes and spray heads mounted above and beside your car travel back and forth.”

There’s more to Tony’s story, but enough here to make the point: whatever you’re trying to do, somebody has already figured out and built – just not in your business or industry, or in an application you might ordinarily, easily think of in connection with your business. Find the thing that’s already built.

#2 Work Backwards

Most people approach creative thinking from the front – the idea. Let’s say you’re going to open up a new restaurant. You’ll probably start with the name, maybe the theme, the menu. But the best place to start is with what will ensure a customer keeps coming back, his final few minutes in the place, or what goes on at the cash register. In short, you start thinking about outcomes and then build backwards. Right now, in the movie business, a ton of very important money comes from stealth advertising and product placement. So, very, very, very early in the creative process, in many cases prior to script and definitely prior to picking actors, the list of every possible product/advertiserthat can be integrated into the film is thought through. I am told, in one blockbuster movie of 2005, a scene that took place inside a ski resort’s dim-lit bar at night in the book was moved to daytime, outside on the restaurant’s deck, because they could get a sunglasses company, a parka company, and a liquor company with its name on patio table umbrellas to pony up money.

#3 Be Market / Buyer-Driven in (almost) Everything You Do

I started out, ever so briefly, in the ‘traditional’ advertising business, and have occasionally been involved – such as a few years back, when I butted heads with Weight Watchers’ big- name Madison Avenue agency. They tend to start their creative processwith random ideas. If you watch the advertising-related exercises on ‘The Apprentice,’ you’ve seen this same mistake made. So, gather a bunch of ad industry creative types together to talk about advertising for a new perfume, they’ll instantly leap off a dozen creative cliffs: names, colors, package, celebrity, music. I say: wait a damn minute! Tell me who the ‘target’ is – don’t even bother telling me about the product. I don’t give a rat’s patootie that it smells like jasmine or ocean breezes or beached whalesin the last throes of death or is made from cedar planks or horny minks’ glandular secretions. I want to work backwards from who the intended buyer is. And it matters whether she’s 18, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, single, married, etc. I catch clients constantly playing BLIND ARCHERY. Don’t develop a product or service or offer or Marketing Message unless you are developing it for a particular somebody.

#4 Swipe, Swipe, Swipe, Swipe (Legally & Ethically)

I get real joy out of hearing from GKIC members as I did the day I wrote this, and hearing one after another telling me how they took an example from the NO B.S. MARKETING LETTER, etc., etc. Again, you should never start with a blank slate. Too hard, too slow. Gather up some stuff to give you a jump start.

#5 Doodads as Inspiration

The copywritingI did for Rory Fatt’s boot camp one year, “The Magical Business Life Boot Camp For Restaurant Owners,” was because I first found a bunch of magic stuff in the Oriental Trading catalogs: tricks, cards, top hats, etc. I picked the theme because these things were available cheap.Finding the little doodads, promotional items, grabbers that are available, that suggest or furnish the theme for my marketing campaign – especially when doing direct mail, are instrumental in separating your ads from the other ads.