In this episode of The Ideas Machine, I’m joined by storyteller and creative entrepreneur ‘The Mansu’ (Mansurah Alli-Oluwafuyi) to explore how creativity acts as a tool for survival, advocacy, and business.
Mansu reflects on her diverse journey from a decade in corporate HR and management consulting to the “excruciating” world of tech startups. She shares how these experiences informed the launch of her creative IP studio, Turtle and Bloom Media, and her project Move – a chatbook featuring 30 action words and poems born from love letters she wrote to herself while navigating depression and business failure.
Through the framework of Ideate, Iterate, and Implement, we discuss:
The “Genie” of Ideas: Capturing fleeting inspiration on a “Light Bulb” board and moving selected concepts to a “Big Picture” board for strategic planning.
Incubating Ideas: Why sitting with an idea is essential for answering critical questions and building conviction before going to market.
The Creative Machine: Managing the commercial side of art through MVPs (Minimum Viable Products), legal contracts, and intellectual property protection.
Radical Rest: The importance of 8 to 12 hours of sleep as a vital strategy for keeping a creative brain functional and oiled.
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