How to unblock your creativity

Are you experiencing a creative mind block? 

We find that when we're stumped by a problem at work we need to read or see something that is completely random -- meaning it has nothing to do with the problem at hand. For example, if you work in a business setting all day, take time to shake up your brain and look up information break dancing or how to drive a sports car or how to watercolor.

For some reason, it will help change your brain waves and help you think in different, creative ways. Here is a list of some web sites that can help stir up your grey matter when you need some fresh ideas to help you think creatively:

Future Technology Portal: Crazy futuristic ideas and images
Picocool: Random images from social media and subcultures
PrintMag: Where you can read/see innovative print design. We also found this awesome video there created by Element X Creative (check out their demo reel).
Poetry Foundation: Fill your mind with new combinations of words
Dvice: Feed your technology obsession

There are a bajillion other places to visit so, if you've got other sites add your comment to this post so other's can learn from you.

Webinar Hypnosis

You all know how hypnosis works – pick a spot, fixate on that spot, listen carefully to my voice, keep looking at that spot, hearing my voice, you’re getting sleepy, sleepy, sleepier…. You’re now fully relaxed and in my power….

How’s that different than “sit there while I talk at you”, “look at your screen or that tiny webcam at the top of the screen”, “stay focused on that unmoving, text drenched PowerPoint… and don’t feel sleepy, sleepier, sleepier…

The goal of webinars should not be to induce an hypnotic state. You shouldn’t create a “spot” for people to focus on while you lull them into a near death experience.

The goal of webinars should be to induce an engaged, interactive, vital state. Not nap time.

What is your Twitter strategy?

Twitter is one of the big three social media sites. In our opinion, LinkedIn and Facebook make up the other two. Social media has also received a lot of media lately thanks to the now infamous and inappropriate antics of politicians (Anthony Weiner), sports stars (Brett Favre), celebrities (Gilbert Gottfried), and many other "not so famous" web citizens.

One recent article on Mashable.com actually lists some of these in their, "10 People Who Lost Jobs Over Social Media." 

Besides some of the negative press associated with Twitter and social media, there is really a lot of productive ways to use 140 characters. So, how do you use Twitter?

We have a winner! See what the cover of our next book is thanks to YOUR input.

Thanks to your feedback and input, we have what we feel is a great cover for our new book, The Webinar Manifesto: Never Design, Deliver, or Attend Crappy Webinars Again! (Coming in May 2012)


Many of you who voted on our Facebook page, contacted us via Twitter, and gave us your opinion at learning conferences we presented at. While the voting was close, this design kept rising to the top.

With this book we intend to start a movement against badly designed and poorly delivered webinars. We will be enlisting the help and wisdom of several other thought leaders and platform providers in this movement. To give you a feel for what is coming, here are several of the principles we will be presenting:

Are you trapped in an intellectual hall of mirrors?

Oftentimes we're trapped in an intellectual hall of mirrors. We get lost in our own knowledge and only reflect what we know and nothing else. We aren't able to break past the glass that shows us what is familiar and into other circles where our knowledge could be expanded indefinitely.

Through the power of the Learning Explosion, you now have the ability to find your way past the mirrors and into a whole new world of knowledge. Try it now. Click here or here or here and find something you never knew before.

Go on...explore.

Thunderstorm vs Snowstorm Teachers

Living in the Rocky Mountains we need snow to survive. It piles up in the mountains and then slowly melts throughout the spring and summer filling up our lakes and reservoirs. Without snow we wouldn't have enough water to drink through the rest of the year. We've learned to love it when a snowstorm rolls through and drops feet of deep powder on our mountains.

When you learn something, which teachers made the biggest impact on you? The most lasting impact? Was it the equivalent to a snowstorm or a rain shower?

Thunderstorm Teachers are those who come in with a big bang, make lots of teaching noise dump some water on your head and then leave quickly--along with their precipitation.

If you don't put it online, don't print it!

I was flipping through a magazine the other day, when a particular article got my attention. After reading it, I immediately wanted to share it with you and others online.

However, after searching online for a while I could not track it down. It was nowhere to be found. Not even the magazine website (which will remain anonymous) had any reference to it...