When I was in Vegas last week, the Bulgarian driver who picked us up had a conversation with my husband and kids and careers.

She said that she wants her four year old daughter to be. . . . an artist!

My husband asked her why and we loved her reply:

“Because artists are usually the happiest people.”

As parents of an aspiring 17 year old artist, who currently has green hair, we circled back to that conversation many times over the weekend.

Creativity does indeed increase happiness, and it’s a basic human need that has infinite opportunities to be expressed in life as well as work.

Studies have shown that employees value the ability to be creative and share their talents within the workplace more than money, and companies that foster a creative environment also reap rewards.

Innovation and creativity is the lifeblood of any successful company today.

• A two-year in-house creativity course offered at General Electric resulted in a sixty percent increase in concepts available for patents, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• In 1999, after investing over two million dollars in research and development, Hewlett Packard generated more than 1,300 applications for patents.
• When the Sylvania Company offered several thousand employees a forty- hour creative problem-solving course, their return on investment came to $20 for every $1 they spent.

Business owners of small and mid-market companies have equal opportunity to foster creativity in their teams as well as themselves as leaders of the company.

Creating a culture of creativity and has been key to iconic brands such as Apple, Zappos, LuLu Lemon, Google, IKEA, and Disney just to name a few.

When you give yourself license to loosen up and be more creative, leading your team to do the same will happen effortlessly if you give them permission to share their ideas and innovative thoughts.

Nurturing your creative side is the only way to truly unlock your strategic abilities and integrate all of your talents into your marketing.

Create a brand that is so compelling that it creates a culture with a cult-like following that can’t get enough of your company through your content as well as products and services.