Leeds Brainstorming Club

None of us is as smart as all of us Mike Nuttall explains his latest brainwave, Leeds Brainstorming Club, and wants to know what you think …

The internet has changed everything. It’s hard to notice. It’s like having a pet, you see it every day so you don’t see it change, but it does, it keeps growing, it keeps changing. And the internet keeps growing and keeps changing. And it‘s changing us, it’s changing how we communicate, how we learn, how we work.

And one aspect of that is – it’s allowing more and more people to work from home. It’s opened up an opportunity and people are taking it.

This can be great. It’s what I do and I like it. I always hated working for other people. Stop telling me what to do! I like to do what I want when I want, set my own hours, decide my own agenda. If the sun is shining go for a long run in the daylight, soak up a bit of vitamin D. I don’t want to be a cubicle slave imprisoned from 9 to 5.

There is a price though. I work longer hours, take fewer holidays and earn less money. But it’s my choice and my decision, and I control my own destiny, and who knows what ideas I might have and where they might lead next week or next month. It’s exciting.

Those ideas though, how good are they? When you work for a company there’s usually other people to bounce your ideas off, but when you work alone that’s not the case. I work alone so when I have ideas they can sometimes take on a life of their own as they rattle around my head.

Friends can be helpful. I can be trying to solve a problem that seems insurmountable, then I ask a friend and it disappears in a puff of logic.

The trouble is friends can get a bit bored hearing about your hare-brained schemes, and it’s not really fair to keep burdening them with your work problems. So what else can you do? The internet!

Yes, the internet is great for sorting a lot of stuff out too. “Google is your friend”. You can visit forums and ask questions and sometimes just the act of writing your problem down can clarify it and bring the answer to you before you even need to send it. And if that doesn’t happen there are usually some friendly people willing to help you out.

But I think there is another way that can complement these methods.

Lets help each other out!

All you freelancers, creatives, entrepreneurs, bloggers, sole-traders etc etc. whatever the label, if you work alone or in a small team, we can help each other.

Non of us are as smart as all of us! It’s true so lets take advantage of that and get together and brainstorm some ideas to help each other out.

How are we going to do that? Well how about using the power of the internet.

I’ve started a meet-up group Leeds Brainstorming Club which you can find here:

www.meetup.com/Leeds-Brainstorming-Club

How would it work?

Like this:

Anyone who needs some inspiration describes what it is they want help with. Everyone else listens, there’s a round of questions from everyone listening, then maybe another round for clarification. Then everyone pitches in with their ideas, as many as possible, go for quantity rather than quality. Anything goes, crazy ideas are welcome and criticism (at this stage) isn’t allowed. Evaluation comes later.

So everyone who asks should get a whole load of ideas to work with and in that mass of ideas there might be just the thing that was needed or a spark of inspiration that might lead to something useful.

So if you need some inspiration or mutual support for you endeavours and you like the idea of trying to help other like minded people too, why not join up?

Mike