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.

To get past the obstacle of having a tight budget to begin with you really have to learn how to market yourself creatively by asking yourself some simple creative questions.

Questions such as:

1) How could I…

Another creative question starter:

2) If I needed help with (blank) this person could help me. This is a fantastic question to remember.

Here’s another one:

3) Who might exchange for ?

Here’s another 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) Could I substitute ‘X’ for ‘Y’? What could I substitute to get ‘ABC’ instead of ‘XYZ’? Just think of whatever you wanted to do, how could you substitute for ‘XYZ’?

Here’s another one that I love. This really puts you in the shoes of unique and different people.

6) How would solve this problem?

A good example: How would my mentor solve this problem? How would my four year-old daughter solve this problem? It’s a great question because it forces you to think from a different perspective.

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.

Let me give you a small example about how I used this creative way of questioning.

I decided to become a professional speaker as soon as I was done University. My focus was speaking to college and high school students about the topic of creativity. I focused on creativity because with it I was able to move from a first year failure in University to graduating being named Most Outstanding Male with straight A’s. I changed a lot between how I did things in first year to my last year, and I credit a lot of it to learning something I had become very passionate about, creative thinking.

The problem was I didn’t know the first thing about being a professional speaker or building a profitable speaking business.

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

At one of my first meetings I attended I approached a gentleman there who was doing very well with his speaking career about what I needed to do to get to his level. He replied by saying. “It’s very simple, Stu. I’ll give you three things to do, once you have those finished, come back and I’ll give you some more.”

“The first thing you need to do is surround yourself with people who are in the same industry as yourself. Join CAPS, it will help your business grow.” I said, “Okay.”

To join CAPS the registration was $200, which was a big chunk of my budget. I remember even asking them if I could pay in smaller payments, which I did. Despite the squeeze, I joined the CAPS organization.

Then he said, “Number two, you have to get out to the CAPS National Conference.” And I thought, ‘Man, how in the heck am I going to get out there?’ It was on the complete opposite side of Canada. The seminar itself was relatively expensive. Anything for me, at that point, was expensive. I had no money. I had to pay for my flight and all that nonsense.

It was at this point that I knew I had to start asking myself some creative questions. I knew I didn’t have much, but I began looking at what I did have, or could do that perhaps someone else might be interested in.

One thing I that I had at that point was time itself. Because I had just started my speaking business I wasn’t speaking very often, so I knew I had some time I could offer.

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.’

But here was the concept and here’s what happened. I approached the biggest chapter of the CAPS organization in my province and I asked for 30 seconds in front of the whole group. There were about 75 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?”

“Awesome,” I said. “Keep your hand up if you have ever attended the CAPS national conference before.” Seventy-five percent of the group kept their hands up.

I continued, “Of those who have been able to attend the conference, how many of you believe it would be beneficial for a new speaker, with no experience to be able to go?” Everyone kept their hands up.

My reply was, “Great. Well I am somebody that obviously needs to go to the CAPS national conference because I have zero experience.”

I continued by saying, “But, here is where I run into difficulty. I don’t have any money, just time. Here is the exchange I am willing to make and I hope you are to. ‘Help Stu Be Like You’ is a campaign that I have created.” At this point I handed out a small flyer to everyone in the audience. It basically was a 8×6 black and white flyer that I had printed at home on 8-1/2 x 11 sheets and cut down the middle to save on costs.

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.”

I could see some of them in the audience were just licking their chops thinking, “Oh my goodness. This is awesome. I’m going to get cheap labor.”

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.

Immediately following that, another gentleman stood up and he said, “Stu, and I will pay for the cost to get you out there.” Boom, boom. Eighty-five percent of all of my expenses were taken care of just like that.

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.

Ideas will come to you when you explore the possibilities of creativity!

Stay posted for more!