Business
As a former TV host, Creative Director and ideation specialist turned training diva, Leslie Ehm knows a thing or two about creativity. And has made a career out of making others more creative. She was a Group Creative Director at Canada’s largest ad agency, MacLaren McCann, with clients like Nestlé, GM, Rogers, Microsoft, Bacardi, and McNeil. In 2009, she focused on the areas of study she found were truly moving her clients’ businesses forward – ideation, collaboration and presentation skills. In 2010, Leslie launched Three Training and it's been unstoppable ever since. She trains many of the world’s top ad agencies (Leo Burnett, draftFCB, JWT, Venables Bell & Partners, Taxi to name a few) as well as leading innovators like Disney, Pepsico, Mark Anthony, Boston Scientific and more. In addition to Three Training, Leslie delivers workshops all over the U.S for the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), develops and delivers part of the Institute for Communications Agencies’ (ICA) CAAP course, is certified by the Creative Problem Solving Institute, and is a sought-after keynote speaker. And is about to launch a company focusing on creativity within larger Fortune 500 type companies. Today, she’s going to train us. SHOW NOTES: We begin at the beginning - Leslie's childhood and the importance of her mom in fostering Leslie's creativity. Let's just say purple hair is involved. As a creative director, Leslie realized that agency creativity is not a natural way to be creative, so she started a company to train creatives to handle this unnatural act. Three Training focuses on ideation, collaboration and presentation. We discuss the problem agency's have by designating some people as "creative" and others not. We talk a lot about fear and how it blocks creativity. Leslie suggests, among other things, that we not listen to that little scared inner voice. Group brianstorms require rules of engagement, and she shares many with us. Then we wrap up with some specific tips on how we can all be more creative: from barfing out ideas, to avoid judging, to avoiding preciousness. Good stuff.