Expert Advice for FREE!

I was able to gain over thirty great ideas in 90 minutes yesterday from business and thought leaders for FREE!

Yesterday I participated in two MeetUps’ yesterday. I had been watching them for a while and this week was the first Friday in months I was able to attend. I am so glad I did.

The IDEA cafe is the Brian Child of John Wren, a local small business consultant and adult educator. The concept of the cafe is, you come prepared to 1) Freely share your creative mind in generating ideas to help others with a product, service, or a problem.  2) Bring a product, service or problem that you want help with.

Here is how it went. Mark Lake, PhD presented the idea behind his new book The Inventors Puzzle. He addresses how do inventors (large and small) move from the idea and the invention into the marketplace and acceptance. We then opened up to anyone who wanted ideas.

The process a brainstorming session focused on idea generation not idea evaluation.  You share your issue (product, service or problem). Then John and the others take just a few minutes to clarify your goal or desired outcome. And then with the individual taking notes we generate ideas.

Now let me tell you who was in the room:
–    Author consultant to business on moving from idea to market
–    Marketing and Branding consultant
–    Consultant to business on unleashing innovation in their organizations
–    Small business consultant
–    Business and Leadership Coach
–    Sales Professional
–    A serial entrepreneur
–    I think the final was an engineer (he came late and I did not catch his role)

Most of us have twenty plus years experience in the world both in the corporate and small business settings. And, they are willing to share their ideas for FREE! The other benefit is that they don’t really know you and they are not in your business so they are as one person put it, so deep in the frame they can’t see the larger picture.”

•    I received 36 ideas on how to attract more readers to by blog. I will generate several more as I work through these and I will be able to boost readership.

• The Business Coach received 40 or 50 good ideas on how to attract a new segment of clientele that will also help her study leadership in a new way.

• The serial entrepreneur got dozens of ideas that he can use to help improve his referral rate from others.

John is obviously a lover of ideas. How do I know this? Because the IDEA café is followed by, the Franklin Circle, which is modeled on the Junto that Ben Franklin created over 200 years ago to help generate ideas. And that is followed by Socrates Café where individuals gather to explore the big ideas, the meaning of life and so on.

I stayed for the Franklin Circle, which delivered an interesting and valuable set of actionable items. But I’m out of time. Stay tuned.

For more information on the Idea Circle and John Wren you can find him on Facebook, Linked in and at the links below.

Take Good Care,

http://wrensjournal.blogspot.com/

http://www.meetup.com/Denver-IDEA-Cafe