1). What does creativity mean to you?
Answer: To me, creativity means daydreaming a bit, and letting my mind wander into things that may or may not make sense. Whether what I'm thinking about makes sense or not doesn't matter, because I don't have to make use of everything I think about. Would someone want to send something secretly? How would someone respond to a message? Would someone send something tangible? Perhaps I won't have products? Perhaps I'll just be a broker of products? Perhaps I'll make my own products? Perhaps one can send any product under the sun through the site? Some would call it brainstorming, but I say daydreaming because it doesn't have to be for any particular purpose or project; the questions above were probably more brainstorming, but coming up with the whole concept of SecretExpress takes some daydreaming. I let my mind wander and then when I stumble upon something interesting, I coach my thoughts back into the real world and see if the thought has any real-life application. It's when a real-life application is found that the real work can begin to actually create something that may be of value. Real work means real time, real money, and real risk. It's a lot safer in the daydreaming world.
2). Do you think that people are born with creativity or do they learn it?
Answer: Born creative or learned creativity -- I think there is a little of both in the world, but it's easier when you're born that way. Learning creativity means learning to let your mind wander into the completely unknown and unfamiliar and treating the experience as potentially leading to something of value. Some do drugs for that experience, and I have heard that that probably helps the creative process for some; I don't know first-hand, because I haven't taken drugs. I daydream just fine on my own -- without drugs, that is. "On my own" -- that's a good issue. Working with others can help one learn creativity because one can learn how others think and gain insight into the creative process though seeing another creative mind in process. For example, I saw how someone thought of some ideas for my bear images, and I continued that project. I often seek others' opinions on things, but I have to be careful whose opinions I seek. A negative opinion can stifle my creativity because it could cause me to see how silly a thought may be and cause me to abandon the thought, when the thought may actually have a plausible real-life application.
3. From where does your creativity stem (your emotions, your personal experience, etc.)?
Answer: My creativity stems from every part of me and everything that made me what I am; that includes emotions, personal experience, dreams, wishes everything that goes into my subconscious, because creativity includes thoughts outside the real world and inside a world where anything goes.
4. When you begin to create, do you have a finished product in mind?
Answer: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. When I want to create something in particular, then, possibly yes, but more than a product in mind, I may have in mind an impact I want that product to have or I may have in mind what I would have wanted when I was the age of the targeted audience of my product. Thoughts may wander from the product to the assumed minds of various minds of the audience to the mechanics of the product, then back out to rethinking the product by changing the impact I want the product to create, then jumping into the minds of a different audience. For SecretExpress, I heard of a site called GentleHints.com which lets you send an anonymous message telling someone they should shower more often or use breath mints, or lay off of the beans at lunch. I thought that was a good use of the internet, so I tried to think of what else someone might want to send secretly. When someone mentioned, what if you had a crush on someone? I thought that would be a good audience for a product. So, with SecretExpress, I had a general concept of the product, then I found the audience that would be served, then I went back to creating the product, then I flowcharted the website, then decided how the site would work. For example, would my service simply forward e-mails so the sender would be anonymous? Would the receiver be able to reply? If so, how? Then I came up with the senders registering to choose a Member ID such that the receiver of a message could reply to them without knowing who they were. Then I thought of my audience again. Would they be kids? Can kids purchase through the internet? Can they borrow their parents credit cards? Does the service need to be free? I thought a free service would be good, so I had the e-cards being free. What else might they want? How about sending a product? How old can the audience be? Maybe it could go up to college age and beyond. What product is good for romance and appeals to many age ranges? Then I saw an article in the Daily News about the creator of Macca Beanies, which makes a Jewish theme stuffed animals like Gefilte The Fish. That inspired me to have the Secret Bears! Then the creative process starts on what my bear should look like.
Other issues include what the logo should look like, and what the name of the company should be, and does that name infringe on anothers trademark. My original name was YourSecretAdmirer.com but my attorney suggested I change the name because there was a SecretAdmirer.com whose product was different but similar enough such that I could be at risk of trademark infringement.
5. When you have finished creating, do you modify what you have created, or are you usually happy with the finished product?
Answer: Constantly modify! Changes never end. There is always an improvement to make. For example, I had images on my site that users could choose to send with their e-cards. At first, there were no printed greeting cards, but rather a letter that could have no image on them. I then designed bear images. I liked them so much, I wanted them included on the letters, which should be able to include chosen images since, after all, users were being charged for the letters. Then I decided that instead of letters, they should be greeting cards! So I changed the site again. Now users can pick their image, write their message, then decide whether to send it as a free e-card or pay $4.99 to send it as a printed greeting card. So long as the printed greeting card is being mailed to an address anyway, I give them the opportunity to add a Secret Bear too for $9.99. I may lower the prices, perhaps $2.99 for the greeting card and $7.99 for the bear at first. I will continually add more images for the cards too, and perhaps add new products such as coffee mugs filled with chocolate. I even plan to develop a new site that will allow the sending of the e-cards, printed greeting cards, and bears without being anonymous. Nothing ever stops evolving.
6. Do you identify with your creative product?
Answer: Yes, I imagine myself using it and I think, when would I use it. However, sometimes I may not be the type who would use it, and, actually, I havent yet sent a message to someone who wouldnt know who I was, but that doesnt mean someone else wont. Thats why in the creative process, I have to put myself into the mind of someone else and guess as to what that person may be like and what they might want. I know what others might want by seeing what other products are out there that people use. For example, I didnt use SecretAdmirer.com or eCrush.com either, except to test it by sending a message to myself, but I know that others use the service.
7. What kind of impact do you hope to achieve through your creative efforts?
Answer: I hope that people develop relationships that otherwise may not have developed.
8. Who (or what) do you consider to be the greatest influence in you work?
Answer: Everyone I have talked to has added something. I have been out to dinner and talked about it and came up with the idea of appealing to those who have crushes. I was out with a friend and went to RiteAid for ice cream when I saw a Macca Beanie Animal and then I saw an article about the Macca Beanie owner in a Daily News article. I was at dinner and my date mentioned terrific ideas for bear images. You se, you never know who will influence your work, but getting ideas from others greatly stimulates the creative process. Sometimes I wish I had a partner with this site because two minds working together are as powerful as ten minds working independently.
9. Do you have periods of great creativity or does your creativity flow continuously?
Answer: I find it is best to be creative for a bit and then leave it and let your mind do other things for a while. Later come back to it. You need to let the electrical paths made in your brain settle down so that new paths can be creative. When you think of things for a while, it may be difficult to think of something else or in a new way because the electrical path your brain uses becomes stronger and stronger the longer you stay with a thought making it more difficult to think of something else. Thats why when you try to remember someones name, think of it, then forget it; that gives you the best chance of finding the path to the information in your brain.
10. What do you do to enhance your creativity?
Answer: I try to be conscious not only of the world around me, but also of the world that could be, or should be or shouldnt be, things that exist and dont exist, and things that could exist (note I left out couldnt exist because one just never knows). I let my mind wander.
Final Thoughts:
Being creative is really the easy part. Making that creativity into something tangible and useful in the real world is the hard part, and thats really the only part that can have any impact on others. Making something tangible from the creativity can be risky because it can be expensive in terms of money and time, but hopefully, the process will be fun too. I enjoyed creating SecretExpress.com and extending that creativity into a total learning process while making it tangible, from choosing a limited liability company as the business entity and setting it up, to creating a logo, to designing the website, to finding a bear manufacturer in Thailand, to hiring a programmer, to learning some programming on my own to make simple changes, to designing the bear, to learning what is possible through computer programming, to finding out about toy licenses and applying for toy licenses in four states, to learning to work with my Access database, to setting up an accounting system, to preparing the tax returns, to setting up a mailing system, to creating my address labels, to designing bear images for the cards, and on and on. You never know what will work in the real world, but its fun trying to create something and its fun making it into something tangible so that others can enjoy the fruits of your creativity and work.
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