Sometimes it is difficult to start, no one starts at the top. Almost all of us have to overcome one major obstacle in the beginning.

If you’re looking to market yourself and your business on a tight budget, you’ve got to learn to be creative and you’ve got to learn to start asking creative questions.

Questions like:

1) How can I

A different question to get started with:

2) Who could assist me with This is a great question. Who could assist me with

Here’s another one:

3) Who do I know that would exchange for ?

Or this one:

4) Could I do this cheaper? or How would I be able to do this faster? or Could I do it with less effort? or Is there a way to do this for free? That question will really get your creative juices going.

Here’s another one:

5) What can I substitute for ‘X’? Could I substitute ‘XYZ’ for ‘ABC’? Just think about whatever you could, or want to change.

This next one is a great one because it puts you in the shoes of other people, someone who is thinks completely different than you.

6) If I was so-and-so, how would I solve this problem?

Here are some examples: How would my mother solve this problem? How would my competitor solve this problem? The great thing about this question is it forces you to think from different perspectives.

I’ve answered these business questions myself and it has allowed doors to open in every direction, propelling my career to new heights and success to be and continued to be achieved.

I’ll show you an example of how I used this method of creative questioning to help me.

As soon as I graduated University I decided that I wanted to become a professional speaker instead of working within a corporation. My focus was college and high school students, which I still do talks for on occasion, to teach them the importance of creativity. Creativity had helped me rise from being a University failure in my first year to graduating with straight A’s, and being names Most outstanding Male. The transformation that occurred between my first and fourth year I owe to learning the skill of creative thinking.

Even though I had decided that this is what I wanted to do, I had no idea about becoming a professional speaker, or if I could turn it into a profitable business.

To try and learn the ropes I joined an organization called CAPS, The Canadian Association for Professional Speakers.

I remember going to one of the local chapter meetings and there was one guy there that was doing very well in his speaking career and I asked him, “What do I need to do to get to your level?” And he said, “Well Stu, it’s very simple. I’m going to give you three things to do. When you’ve done all three, then come back to me and I’ll give you some more.” I said, “Okay.”

“Number one,” he began, “You should join CAPS. By surrounding yourself with like minded people in your industry it will help your business grow.”

In order to join CAPS it cost $200, which at that time was a squeeze. Thinking back on it I remember paying for it on payments in order to be able to do it. I did number though, I joined CAPS.

He continued saying, “The second thing you have to do is get to the CAPS National Conference” At this point I thought to myself, ‘How am I going to do that? The conference that year was being held on the other side of Canada. With the seminar being pretty expensive itself, plus traveling costs, it was really expensive. I had no money, so everything at that point was expensive for me

I needed to find a creative solution. Here’s what I did. I asked myself some creative questions. What I started to do was look at what I had that, perhaps, somebody might need and want.

What I had at the time was time itself. I wasn’t speaking very often because I had just started my speaking business, so I had some time on my hands.

I started to then rack my brain about how I could use that time to benefit someone else. By asking myself that question I came up with a campaign called, ‘Helt Stu Be Like You.’

This is how I used my creative thinking. The largest chapter of CAPS in my province consisted of about 75 people. I went to one of their meetings and asked if I could have 30 seconds in front of them.

No one had asked for this before. I asked a question that got everyone’s hands in the air. It was, “How many of your, at one point, started off as a speaker with no experience?”

I said, “Great. How many of you have attended the CAPS national conference before?” And about 75% of the room had their hands up in the air.

I continued, “With experiencing the national conference, how many of you with your hands up belief that it would be beneficial for somebody with zero experience to go to?” Everyone who had been kept their hands up.

I said, “Great. Because I am somebody with zero speaking experience that you just said needs to get out to that CAPS national conference.”

Then I said, “But here’s the problem. I don’t have any money. But what I do have is time. Here’s the exchange I’m willing to make and hope that you are willing to make as well. I’ve created a campaign called Help Stu Be Like You.” And I handed out these little flyers, black and white. Basically what I did was I printed two 8×6 flyers on an 8-1/2 x 11 sheet to save costs, and I just cut it right down the middle and I gave everybody in the audience one.

I began to explain my campaign. “This is what I am willing to do. Anything that you as speakers don’t like doing, don’t have time to do, or just need an extra pair of hands to do, I will do it. Sales calls, creating sales letters, licking stamps, anything. I will even come to your house and cut your lawn or wipe your baby’s bottom if that’s what you want me to do. All I’m asking in return is a financial contribution of your choice.”

Surveying the audience at this point, I could tell some people’s minds were racing with all the odd jobs they could get me to do for cheap.

I finished up by saying, “Whatever you don’t like doing I will do, in exchange for an financial contribution of your choice. Everything I make from this campaign will go directly towards getting me out to the CAPS national conference.”

As soon as I finished explaining it, a gentleman at the back of the room stood up, and he said, “Stu, I will pay for your entrance fee to the seminar.” Boom. Just like that. Half of my costs basically taken care of.

Another gentleman stood up right after him and said, “Stu, don’t worry about paying to get out there, I will take care of it.” In a matter of five minutes 85% of my expenses needed to go were taken care of.

That’s what being creative is about my friends.

By asking myself that one creative question, I was able to come up with a creative solution that solved my problem of not being able to get to the national conference. By the time the conference happened all kinds of people had heard about my story and even had a story published about me in the national publication.

Always remember to explore your creativity and may ideas come to you when you need them the most.

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