Everyone. So my name is Katrina VVA. I have the experience of setting up a commerce for multibillion retailers on Russian market. And I also work as a um advisory tech advisory and uh mentor for uh different start ups in different um in different countries.And I was um also working in the low DIGITAL UK. So today I'm going to talk about how to generate new ideas and uh to be, we don't have a lot of time. So we have only 20 minutes therefore, or I will focus on how to make the grounds for generating new ideas. And um yeah, I want you having time to talk about how to test this idea. But anyway, so it will be an exciting session. I will share my experience, experience of my colleagues as well as some of the knowledge I got from the books and knowledge I got from other people. So it will be an exciting session. I'm going to share with you. So this session aims at those who um already founded their companies, they want to pivot or those guys who actually wanted to found a successful company, achieve a big name or those who are working in um companies in a big uh already established companies and they wanted to um to deliver a new products services.

It's a bit complicated for these guys just to, in terms of the environment is not very flourishing, like very um done for uh performing as something you the constraints. But anyway, so I don't want to focus today on this, but as for how to actually to set yourself into this creativity world to put yourself in a mindset of generating new ideas. So the first thing I wanted to talk about is about creativity muscle. These guys uh just send me some of the messages like I know what it's all about or I have heard about this activity, muscles kind of thing you might already bump into. So and um why I wanted to stress about the importance of CRE of training creativity, muscle is that um um many uh very successful founders, we know today they failed a lot, really a lot in the past. So I'll give you some of the examples of these guys. And to be honest, it's not very, I mean, just to start with the development as something new and then to be successful from day one, it's something which feels like steadily. Maybe you get the experience, you talk to different people, you see how other people react on your ideas and other investors. They give you some of the information how you will, they would like you to proceed with your, with your ideas, your products.

So uh some of the examples of failures which actually eventually uh turned to successful stories, right? So we can we know the founder of Twitter, right? The Twitter is a platform we used or we heard of it's very famous. But did you know that he developed a podcasting platform called Odeo early on before setting up Twitter? And it actually didn't work very well because Apple decided to introduce itunes. So Linkin founder, he also set up something new uh before actually going on with the li in.

So this was a platform. So social uh it was a social network platform and a data platform which didn't go very well. Dyson, he did 5126 prototypes. Actually, before he created uh this um famous vacuum cleaner, we might have used all of us use Richard Branson. He did 400 companies. He set up 400 companies before actually thought famous. I mean, and none of them succeeded. I mean, it's also kind of um kind of very common not to succeed. Uh from the day one, the very diverse ideas uh among very kind of very very famous people, very talented people, right? So Instacart founder, he was desperate in creating some successful start up. So before actually, he created Instacart, he did um uh set up 20 start ups. So he uh he did like grouping for foods. He did social network for uh social network site for lawyers. It's a different, which is very good just because you get exposure to different industries, you understand the standards, you take these standards and bring the standards to another industry.

It's so exciting. So kind of the um kind of the experience which was um I, I just wanted to uh get a bit of like to, to draw attention to these failures, to draw attention to this um that this is something that like the successful start of successful products and services, they don't really start from the day one.

It's not very common. Therefore, we really need to uh train our creativity muscles. This is why I actually conversation from this thing, even for example, if we compare it with tennis, right? So you build in this technique every day, like every training you build and try to uh play better. So then you do it like very freely. It's like natural for you. It's like as if it's you are brilliant, right? For professional, for professional sports, this is the way how we wanted to build the creativity. So the ideation mindset in our daily in order to have more possibility to succeed with our products and services. So now I'm going to talk about how to build these grounds, how to build this mindset in order to create new um very ideas and also going to introduce some of the free. So actually free tips from my side, which um helped me a lot. So it's kind kind kind of a bonus for you guys. So the first thing um in order to be creative, in order to boost creativity and is to uh absorb as much information as possible. So we can read articles about different industries, even the industry I've never worked in, you can read books, you can uh join some of the uh conferences, understand the information, You can also go and talk to some people, you never talk to, you need to be open to this fire exposure with different information.

So the only thing I would like to stress here, which is very important is that while absorbing this information, it's very important to do it actively rather than passively. So by actively, I mean, so for example, you can go and read a book with your pencil and in some of the interest interesting um uh somebody to stream um I don't know stories uh whatever. So some of the information you can observe. And this way you kind of given a note to give your direction to your mind that this information is very important. You need to observe it, you need to just to put it somewhere deep in your side in order to use it lately. So this was the first thing to say the grounds for creativity. The second thing is uh very important is to uh widen your views and eliminate limiting beliefs. So these guys, I've talked about these famous founders, famous companies if they were like with um very limiting and beliefs like that. Well, this, they didn't work, it will never work. I'm not that talented ever. It would never happen. We will of this company is um like very famous. So it's very important to be um to be surrounded and try to be surrounded with people who believe in you. So in my case, my family is very supportive.

So whenever I fail, whenever I don't have well in very successful things happening in my life, my family is always here to support me. It could be a friends, it could be a some of them if you can find a mentor, actually to stimulate you to push you through, not to stop just to generate as many as possible ideas and to go um to go forward. So this is very important because without any, without belief, there is no action. If you really believe you can achieve something better, something bigger you do action. So this is the most important thing. The third thing is psychology. So I decided to introduce this um this um kind of tip uh you guys just because uh psychology is also very important the way they think the way we see the things in our life. So one therapists are working with their clients first, they wanted to understand what kind of world these guys are looking at what is inside the world, what the things are happening, what the assumptions, what are the beliefs, what are things they don't really believe something is going to happen in their lives.

So they still, they, most of the people they have this world like in borders. So they have some things happening inside but they never look outside. So the aim of the therapist is just to um to show you that actually there are so many exciting opportunities, things and capabilities happening outside of the world. I'm not like uh stressing that you need to find a therapist. But it could be also a good thing just for you to widen your uh kind of view, widen your mindset in order to uh be more creative, boosting more ideas. So the first thing is to once we set up this, um once we gather it, the accumulated this information which should be happening on a daily basis, then um when your mind is working, it's very good. When you just starting to understand how some industries they correlate to in other industries, you understand how you can bring standards from one industry to another. So it kind of like looking deeper into the topic, but this is where your mind is working. But you might have already heard that some of the greatest ideas are the biggest breakthroughs and insights. They came. When people were driving in the car, the people were taking a shower, having a walk, for example, the famous periodic table by Vile.

He actually um decided how to actually formulate everything, how to make it happen uh when he was dreaming. So how does this work? So when we accumulate all the information, this is how uh where we have the ground to idea, to create something. But in order to create really to have this great in size, we need to ourselves to get bored. So that for example, you can have a walk in the park, which helped me really a lot. So you just observe the nature. You try not to think about anything else. Of course, there will be some, some of the thoughts coming back and forth and you will be all thinking, oh Why I'm, I'm just not concentrating the nature. I'm just walking and breathing and uh just doing nothing. It's, it's very common, it's very, it's, it's OK. But uh in this state, this is the best state when your unconscious start to work. So we use our own and is a product of unconscious and unconscious. Help us to just to um you know, not to only to observe and to, to kind of kind of express our, our, our ideas, not only observe the information, but also just like to find this information to t the information to do something new. So this unconscious part is also very important.

So get to the park, go to um to have a drive somewhere in the direction where you don't really need to, I think to turn left to right, just go to the shower, something which really gets you bored, something where you don't browse your social network, your Instagram, nothing like that.

So something where you can like get your unconscious work. So the fifth thing is neuroplasticity. So, neuroplasticity means that um when we go to office, when we go to our uh cafe, which we like the most is the path we really take every day. But in order to widen your mind, said, why didn't you approach? It's better to take some of the other directions. I mean, to go to your office, uh a different road to visit um different people to visit and to try new food, different c all of it helps a lot just to see the things differently when you're stuck with something. For example, you're developing your project, you start up uh or you are stuck with something you don't really know how to proceed. And the conscious can help you a lot when you like it can just like it, it, it, it can arise from you. I mean, you can't really, you can't really express it, but it's something which really helps you to uh some of the day like think about, oh this is really inside, but it's also very, very um cool decision in order to postpone something, for example, you're stuck with the development of product.

It's very good to focus on something else developing some other things, for example. So this kind of slow multitasking helps a lot when you're stuck on a project because you don't really um stop thinking, you let unconscious work. Uh You still observe the information from different sources.

But at the end of the day, you kind of let yourself be on something else and be productive as well. Um The second thing is to set goals for generation new ideas. So generation ideas uh could be also um made in your life in a way that you actually um set the goal. So for example, five ideas a day. So this is something is for people who are very determined and very kind of enthusiastic into achieving um their aims into uh creating as many ideas, success as possible. So this also could be a very good tip in order to set yourself in the grounds of creativity. And the eighth form is test the ideas. So I didn't want to say anything about very deeply around testing the ideas uh because of the time constraints, but testing the ideas could also help you a lot in order to get new insights. Um and to see things differently. For example, when you uh test your product with different people, some people will tell you such things you have never heard of. And maybe these things could draw your attention to something which could potentially be an next product service. So this is really powerful. So just don't be stopped by like all this idea. I'm not that talented. I don't want to proceed. Uh Somebody will do better or somebody has already been doing this. This is not the right mindset.

You need to find yourself in the position of this enthusiastic mindset, surround yourself with the enthusiastic people who can push you and just because something else could arise out of that. So these are the grounds for you guys to set yourself in a, in a creative, in this ideation mood in your daily life. Because the more ideas you create, the better, the more efficient you become, the more actually you have chances to succeed with a with a great start, the next big name. So um and I also have some free tips from my uh personal experience which I would like to share with you guys. So these things uh really help in order to create something, some, some um just to boost your creativity. So the first step, the first tip is to read about start ups. So we all know tech branch, uh um resources, tech branch uh site website. So go there, try to read about different start ups before actually, um when you start reading about different start ups, for example, they got some investments in series a try to think what this start up is about.

So try to yourself to be creative when um when reading this first lines of the article about the start up, try to imagine what it could be about. And this could be also consider it as an active reading, active learning because you actually pay attention to what's happening inside. But what's actually the article is about. So it gives you a uh a lot of information, a lot of new things, exposure to different industries, different things happening to trends. And it also let yourself train your creativity on the spot. Second tip is always, always question assumptions. So for example, uh there is not a single right answer, think of alternatives. So we all think that some of the things are like that they they are done this way just because it's right. It's not always the case. So I can't really give you like very like maybe a bright bold example. But we, we see, for example, if we go on the street, we see a traffic light, it's green, amber and red color. Have you ever thought about why it's this in, in this particular order or why this um lights are around? So all these kind of things uh cap and boost your uh imagination and uh and creativity. So this is really, really popular.

And so the third tip which I also would like to stress attention is that um it's also very powerful to pay attention to the things that make you angry or the things you are lazy to do lots, lots of different services, products start ups, innovations are made because people are so much lazy, they really don't want to go to uh buy another milk if they have forgotten to buy it in a grocery for that.

So these kind of things they are really good for, for new, start up, new products, new. So think about that, just, just put yourself in a position where, you know, all these little things every day. This helps really a lot in order to be very mindful of happening is very mindful of your like what's what's inside of you, which really makes you angry, which really bored you or which really makes you lazy to do. So these are the things which um set yourself in a position where you are uh thinking about um uh think about environment as a, as a place of opportunities, as a place of capabilities. So there are no rules actually to widen your approach, you can see things differently or do things differently. Lots of start ups and products that have been created because previous ones were actually not. So think previous founders, they were not thinking this way, we're not thinking in the next step. So uh these are kind of uh all the tips I wanted, all the tips, all the suggestions, all the steps you need to take in order to boost your creativity, to train your creativity, muscle, to um in order to more chances to create something very powerful, something very successful.

If we're talking about services, products in start ups, in already established companies, wherever you, whenever you wanted to pivot with your product and services, these things really, really help you to um get uh insight this uh Civ mindset and uh uh create something new, which we will for sure.

Uh heard of. So, uh thank you very much for having me in this session. I'm really happy to uh be a part of the global conference and please feel free to join me and to send me a message. Tell me how it's going on. Tell me uh how would you like the session? Uh Go to linkedin Me, Katerina Bran. I'm happy to get in touch. I'm happy to talk to you guys. Thank you very much. It was really lovely. Thank you.