Intergalactic Chicken Invaders

There are things that you learn as a mom that you carry over into the business world.  I learned how to talk to innovators and entrepreneurs by talking to my kids about their artwork. 

As many people know, in addition to “birthing” Mass Innovation Nights, (High Rock Media, I guess that makes you “Dad” — let’s not go there with my husband or your girlfriend), I also gave birth to two boys.  And, as any parent will tell you, kids were designed to keep you permanently off-balance (and amused.)

The kids bring home a great deal of artwork.  Artwork that needs to be admired.

One day, Younger Son brought home a picture.  It was primarily brown and green, with yellow and orange at the top of the page.  It looked like a sunflower.  “What a pretty flower,” I said. (You already know where this is going, don’t you?)

“Oh, Mom, that’s not a flower,” sighed my long suffering kindergartner.  “That’s an intergalactic chicken invader.”  (The influence of an older brother sometimes produces hilarious results.  Most of the other kids wrote books about happy puppies, kittens, flowers and kites for their final kindergarten projects.  His was “Uh-oh,” the story of those same intergalactic chickens attacking earth.)

Intergalactic Chicken from "Chicken Invaders" (The Game)

“Never assume” goes the lesson.  I’ve since mended my ways and now my approach is “What a great picture.  Tell me about it.”

And the same approach works with anything new.  “Tell me about it” is a great way to approach someone with a new product, a new company or any new idea.

These days a lot of people listen to an entrepreneur’s story and have a standard question or two or three. Here are some favorites:

• How did you get the idea?
• How are you going to monetize this?
• Who is the audience?
• Is there anyone else doing this in the marketplace?
• How are you different or how is your product different than the competition’s?
• What do you see as the next step in what you are doing?

What questions do you ask?