(cheerful music)
- You know a creative block
isn't necessarily only for designers.
I know everybody gets one at some point or another.
I have a really good friend, John Bielenberg
and John always suggested the best way
to handle one of those blocks is to think
about the most wrong way to solve the problem.
What is the absolute most incorrect approach
that you can take?
One of my friends owns a surf company
and it's very sort of hardcore,
tattooey, skull and bones kind of a cool surf company.
And he was trying to come up with new products
that could expand the reach of the brand.
So we're having dinner and I mentioned to him,
well what would be the most wrong thing
that your brand would ever do?
And, you know, he said, "We don't have anything to do
"with babies or poodles."
Okay, where can we go with that?
A couple days later I talked to him about it
and he said, "You know what?
"Now we're going to make a line of baby clothes.
"And yeah, the baby clothes are going to be black
"and have skull and crossbones on 'em,
"but they're going to be the coolest baby clothes
"in the world.
"We're going to make little poodle outfits
"and they'll just show the skeleton of the poodle."
In the end, thinking about the most wrong thing to do
actually put him in the right direction.
It expanded his concept of what the brand could be.
It expanded his idea of his product line
and it was able to solve problems in a brand new way,
it always works.
(cheerful music)