Natalie Nixon

Join me in my conversation with Author John Launius as we discuss his role as President of Vidzu Media and COO of Geniecast The Virtual Experience Company, and we share how to create dynamic, immersive virtual experiences for companies around the world. As a bonus, we will also be talking about scent, emotion and human connection!
This is an interactive discussion on LinkedIn , please use the link in my bio to RSVP and drop a question for us in the comments while we’re live!

Join me in my conversation with Author John Launius as we discuss his role as President of Vidzu Media and COO of Geniecast The Virtual Experience Company, and share about how we create dynamic, immersive virtual experiences for companies around the world. As a bonus, we will also be talking about scent, emotion and human connection!

This is an interactive discussion on , please use the link in my bio to RSVP and drop a question for us in the comments while we’re live next Tuesday.

Natalie Nixon: An Icon of Flourishing, Wonder, and Rigor A strategist and innovator, Natalie Nixon is "the creativity whisperer to the C-Suite". As CEO of Figure 8 Thinking

Today’s the day 🌟 I’m filming my upcoming course for with an amazing team! Thank you for getting me camera ready ✨ stay tuned for more behind the scenes content and look out for the course premiering this Fall 🍂

What is design thinking?

Design thinking is a human-centered problem solving process. It is a 50/50 balance of qualitative research methods and ethnography, combined with the application of design principles such as prototyping and visualizing data.

Many leaders or business owners excel at the data driven side, but struggle with the visualization (or vice versa). I can help you unlock both sides of the process, so you can see what else is possible.

Visit https://bit.ly/3Oj2abj to learn how. 💡

All great ideas are the result of a brainstorming session. 🧠

How do you get a productive brainstorm?

Check out this article for the 7 best ways to brainstorm: https://bit.ly/36JvlTY

As human beings, we’ve all made mistakes. I’ve made so many, it’s hard to choose just one! Making a mistake is evidence that we are doing the work—and it’s not the end of the world.

Empathy requires us to start with our customers’ and clients’ needs and to fall in love with their problems.

We also have to get out of the building for deep observations. Actually, listen to their needs, so you can tailor your products and services to meet them. This will drive profit margins, productivity, and efficiencies.

When was the last time you asked your customers or clients what their main issues were, and what did you learn?

What does it take to collaborate?

Great collaborators are very curious people and the most collaborative teams have amazing amounts of thought diversity—so people from all departments in your organization come together.

When Jerry Hirshberg was the head of Design at Nissan, he purposefully brought together people from design, finance, sales, and manufacturing to solve problems—and he called this collaborative process “creative abrasion”.

If you're looking to collaborate, visit www.figure8thinking.com

📷:Sahar Coston-Hardy Photography

My story is featured Becky Robinson's new book, “Reach: Create the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause.” Weaving Influence

Pre-order now on Amazon.com: https://amzn.to/3rUWIk0

📷: Sahar Coston-Hardy Photography

Creativity belongs in the boardroom just as much as the art or dance studio. Most of us don't really understand what creativity is, or how we can harness it to drive real growth.

Listen to my conversation with Rosanna Gill on the Her Path to Purpose podcast on why it’s crucial to creativity to continue to be a life-long clumsy student of something:
https://bit.ly/3E5H8Iq

How can we make our dreams a reality?

Writing our dreams down makes us more accountable. Remember: goals are dreams with deadlines

The first step is writing our dreams down to turn them into goals. Crucially, the next step is reviewing and revisiting those goals to keep the dream alive. Do you prefer using paper and pens, or apps like Evernote and Otter Voice Meeting Notes?

My podcast, WonderRigor™ Lab gives you a front-row seat to exercise your creativity, inquiry, improvisation, and intuition.

Check out what innovators like Faith Popcorn, Futurist and Author ; Ingrid Fetell Lee, author of "Joyful"; Eve Rodsky, author of "Find Your Unicorn Space"; DJ Rich Medina; questionologist Warren Berger • Author & Speaker Warren Berger and author of "A More Beautiful Question"; and finally, the dynamic entrepreneur Beatrice Dixon, Founder & CEO of The Honey Pot Company have to say when it comes to discussing wonder, creativity, and innovation. All episodes are produced by RadioKismet.

According to a 2015 Capgemini published report, "Since 2000, 52% of companies in the Fortune 500 have either gone bankrupt, been acquired or ceased to exist."

The main reason for this failure has been due to up the inability to adapt. The larger reason for why successful companies fail is that they do not cultivate their capacity for human creativity.

If you're looking for a leap of creativity, check out my book, "The Creativity Leap"! 📖

🔗: https://bit.ly/37lBHZy

Books - Figure 8 Thinking Who can design? For too long, that question has highlighted the supposed division between right-brain dominant “creative types” and left-brain dominant “analytical types.” Such a division is not practical for preparing people to become innovative contributors to the complex world of design. ...

I've now lived in five different countries: Brazil, Israel, Germany, Sri Lanka, and Portugal. All of them have been very different places and experiences. It's an incredible opportunity to immerse oneself in a different culture. I am reminded each time of how small world we are all in and our interconnections and what drives us as humans is to feel loved to connect with with one another, to be seen and heard, period. I think the ability to travel sparks the anthropologist to me, and it's the perfect recipe to always catalyze curiosity. Experiencing different cultures is really important for us personally, so that we stretch and simultaneously become attuned to who we uniquely are, as individuals and professionally.

Feeling a little stuck while trying to achieve your professional goals? Book me for a learning session for your department or team.

Katherine Adkins, chief legal officer at Affirm says, "Natalie facilitated a learning session with the Affirm legal and compliance teams. She was stimulating and engaging. The entire team found her concepts easy to implement. Rave reviews!"

🔗: https://bit.ly/3CT6qsP

A hybrid form of working—whether in an office or from home—is our new normal and during the pandemic, we have all had to adjust to new ways of working. 👩‍💻

It's no secret many of us still feel burned out at work. And we're not alone, a 2019 study that 23% of full-time employees felt burned out. Since COVID-19, the root cause of burnout has been a lack of separation between work and personal life. Sound familiar? What can we do about it?

While working in the global fashion sourcing industry, I noticed the best garment factories ensure that work stations are made with the human body in mind. This resulted in greater productivity and higher efficiencies, plus happier people.

🔗 Check out more tips on ways to make your work from home space kind to your body

3 Ways to Make Your Work From Home Space Kind to Your Body - Figure 8 Thinking Years ago I worked in the global fashion sourcing industry, living in Sri Lanka and Portugal, manufacturing bras and panties for the Victoria's Secret brand. During that time, I observed that the best garment factories ensure that work stations are designed around the human body. This results in hap...

During a speaking event, I was recently asked by Nike's data analysis team about the best practice when it comes to terms of team size. For me, it's the rule of four.

With four, you can make sure that you're ultimately getting the optimal amount of insight and creative productive output from each person, and that they're working as a team.

With smaller groups, it's more noticeable when someone is dominating the conversation. Bigger groups start creeping towards slacker-ville where the chatty extroverts will tend to dominate too much. Plus with a group of four, you (hopefully) end up with additional and dynamic points of view. 💡

Thank you Inc Magazine for the ink, featuring my advice on realizing your vision for your business.

"Creating a vision can be fun and energizing. And it will also feel messy and ambiguous...This will not be a linear process; there will be shades of gray.”

Creativity cannot be thought of as a separate from business strategy. Creating new departments or spaces for innovation implies that we need different times and places to be creative or be productive.

Businesses must welcome creativity as part of their culture. Taking the leap to build an organization-wide creative capacity is the single best way to continually innovate.

🔗 For more on creativity, download a sample of my book, The Creativity Leap: www.figure8thinking.com/products/books/

I recently had the honor of joining a group of trailblazing women who are making history. Our conversation is a part of “Power Shift,” an inspiring 4-part series in conjunction with “Your Hour, Her Power,” Dress for Success' campaign that addresses the $800B in wages lost to women due to the pandemic.

🔗 Tune in to the episode 2 watch party: https://yourhourherpower.org/

Change does not happen without taking a creativity leap. This , let us continue to find ways to acknowledge and support women who challenge the status quo.

I personally admire these women:

1. Ketanji Brown Jackson—the 2022 Nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court Justice. I admire her for her professional accomplishments - she could be the first African-American woman to serve as a Supreme Court Justice.
2. Eve Rodksy (Eve Rodsky)—the author of Fair Play and Find Your Unicorn Space. I love the impact her thought leadership is having on gender equity and the ways we practice our creativity.
3. Harriet Tubman—a remarkable strategist, liberator and intuitive leader.
4. Grace Hopper—computer scientist and the Grand-Mama of AI. It is her whom we have to thank that computers can talk to each other. A real bad ass (and fellow Vassar College alumna 😜)

Keep rockin', ladies! ✊🏾

For those of you who are new to following me, let me Introduce myself. 👋🏾 I'm Natalie Nixon—a step-momma & wife from Philly unraveling some of life’s toughest questions through alternative ways of thinking. As much as I love dancing the night away and swimming laps, my passion for inspiring underground creatives to raise their voices led me to develop Figure 8 Thinking - My process for helping people get un-stuck and move forward creatively.

2022 is OUR YEAR to keep taking leaps of faith and opening doors for opportunity and growth! I'm here to help you toggle your mindset between wonder and rigor, so you can become your most productive self.

🔗 Get started: www.figure8thinking.com/

My new website is done and I'm super excited for you all to check it out. It's been a journey full of learnings, and I hope you join this new evolution of with me. As always, I am so grateful for your continued support. 🙏🏾

Teaching holds a special place in my heart, and a few years ago I made it a goal to help others find their creativity. If you ever find yourself stuck, I'm always willing to lend an ear.

🔗: https://www.figure8thinking.com/