May 25, 2006

Dream Catching: Brainstorming with a Group

So, as you've already done in this post, you’ve formulated all the ideas you can think of to start moving toward your goal. Though, now you have to get the help of other people to contribute ideas. That's where a group brainstorming session comes in.

Brainstorming are the ingredient dreams are made of and barn raising is the oven that turns them into a reality. You have to ask yourself “who do I know?”

You may find yourself saying, “Well, I don’t know anyone.” What you’re really saying is you don’t know anyone who’s rich, powerful and can make things happen with the wave of a hand. Those aren’t the people were concerned with (yet).

It could be anyone you know, friends, family, co-workers etc… You will be amazed at what these people know and what they can contribute to getting you your dream.

You can either ask these individuals for help one by one or you can throw what Barbara calls a “barn raising party.”

This is a great technique to get your dream. Gather your, friends, and family somewhere and hold a type of gathering. (Barbara suggests that the number of people shouldn’t exceed fifteen. A larger group requires longer planning, not to mentiona a large place they can gather.) Everyone can create strategies, swap ideas and exchange personal contacts. In addition to that you’ll have a great time while building a foundation for your dream.

The beginning and the end of the party can be all about the party; socializing and having fun, but in the middle it’s all business. You have the floor and let everyone know your dream, what you have come up with so far and what you still need.

You should try to be as specific as possible when asking for something. If your dream is to be a movie star or start your own restaurant and you simply ask for “help” many of your guests will just smile sympathetically, shrug their shoulder’s helplessly or offer answers that aren't really what your looking for.

Though, if you ask for second hand pots and pans or if anyone knows someone in the media industry you will get more helpful responses. If don't know what you need, ask for more ideas. Barn raising is a excellent way to get your dream off the ground and get it into action immediately.

You need a plan to start getting on the road after you have established your networks. You need to follow up on information and contacts. There’s nothing worse than getting an unexpected phone from the person you met a week ago asking if you followed up on their information when you haven’t.

Most of your plan stems from the information you have gained through your networks, but you need to create some of it to reach it. You can have the key to your dream in your hand, but it is only you who can open the door with it.

You need to break down your goal into easy to manage steps so you can implement them immediately. Work backwards from the goal itself so you can have a clearer picture of what you need to do. Fill in the early stages with information from your networks. As you begin to follow up on contacts and gain more information you will see what steps you need to create in order to reach the next one.

For example you can’t become a model until you have an agent and you can’t have an agent until you have gone to a modeling agency. The key is to keep the steps small enough so you can start doing them tomorrow.

We’ll be back with more tomorrow.