Supercharge Your Thinking, Productivity, and Creativity with Diane Bleck

Christine Li: 0:00

Welcome back to the show. This is episode eight. Are you looking for ways to strengthen how you think and communicate your ideas with other people? Listen into today's episode with Diane black. She's a professional visual facilitator and innovation strategist who will share her knowledge of how to use art and Visual Thinking to supercharge our work and how we connect to others. She has brought her expertise to assist companies such as Nike, Google, Mars, and Disney to bring their big ideas to life. Now it's our turn to learn from Diane. It's a great episode. So let's go listen. Hi, I'm Dr. Christine Li, and I'm a psychologist and a procrastination coach. I've helped 1000s of people move past procrastination and overwhelm so they can begin working to their potential. In this podcast, you're going to learn about powerful strategies for getting your mind, body and energy to work together. So that you can focus on what's really important, and accomplish the goals you want to achieve. When you start living within your full power, you're going to see how being productive can be easy, and how you can create success on demand. Welcome to the make time for success podcast. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to the show. Today, I have my good friend, and mentor and role model Diane black on the show. Diane, welcome to the show.

Diane Bleck: 1:39

Thank you so much. My name is Diane black, and I'm the founder of the doodle Institute. And I have been a huge fan of Christine over the years and everything that you have been doing growing your business, and I'm excited to be here on your podcast today.

Christine Li: 1:55

Thank you so much for those kind words. Diane, you are someone I admire so much because you use your talents fully. I think you use them every day. I think you use them to connect with the world and to connect with your heart at the same time. Could you describe a little bit of your story and how you got to be the doodle girl? Sure, yes. And

Diane Bleck: 2:24

I love the name the doodle girl. And there was a period of time when I maybe didn't like it as much because I wanted to be valued for the work that I brought into the room. So just a little bit of backstory. So I started out, actually a theater major. And I was working at the Goodman Theatre in downtown Chicago, and my father was a partner at Ernst and Young. And my rehearsals went late and his strategy, innovation sessions went late. And I would go and I would pick him up and we would ride the train home together and talk about me being a starving artist. But I always kept a journal. So one day I was journaling in the room whenever they were wrapping up their session. And one of the other partners came up and said, Can you draw on our whiteboards like you are in your journals, you know, we have opportunities for people to do this. And so the next thing I knew at the age of 23, I was drawing on whiteboards and being flown around the world to capture conversations and to help be the creative person in the room. And so after doing that, for several years, I started to realize that anyone could use creativity and Visual Thinking in their work, aka doodling. And then I started to really embrace that name the doodle girl, and that I could play a role and unlocking creativity inside of others.

Christine Li: 3:56

That is wonderful. I never knew that you were a theater major. I never knew the father connection there. And I think it's wonderful that it just naturally came to you that you could see there was something missing that people were not really taking advantage of the opportunities to be creative.

Diane Bleck: 4:16

Yeah, because what was happening is I was standing in the rooms listening to conversations of huge organizations. And what I heard was I started to go down into like, the next layer of listening. And I was like, this is all really very similar patterns and conversations that are being had. And these conversations are happening inside of nonprofits. These conversations are happening inside of schools inside of churches. And I started to really realize that the power of doodling can play a role in all of these environments. And then I started going back into my own childhood of being a doodler of being a visual thinker of someone who always kept a journal and how it wasn't accepted. Always But it wasn't just that I was remembering my own feelings of it. But people were coming up to me at events, because I would do about 60 events a year, I would meet a lot of people every year. And every event, people would come up during the breaks and say, I used to be creative. I used to draw, I used to have a shoe box filled with all my stuff. And it's like they they set it aside. And so I wanted to help people tap back into that, because when you're in that creativity, which is one of the first questions you asked me, it's about, like showing my creativity everywhere. When you pour into your creativity, you actually have more ideas, more insight, more inspiration for your work. And so I started to realize, I still had to draw everyday for myself, in order to be able to draw for businesses, I had to draw at night, I had to watercolor, I had to do something to creatively fill my Well, in order to be filled with ideas for others. And I didn't have to draw exactly what we were talking about. I had to do creativity just for my own sake of creativity.

Christine Li: 6:10

Yes, it's a big practice of personal practice to be able to be open and to hear what is around you. And to process it. I'm just wondering, how did blending the creative work with the corporate work? How did it help your clients? What did you see? in them? How did they react to the work?

Diane Bleck: 6:29

So it was always interesting, because whenever I started doing this on my own, so I eventually left Ernst young and I started my own practice of doing graphic facilitation is what the term was at that time. When I first started doing it, I was literally knocking on doors of huge fortune 500. And saying, I can bring value to your room, by bringing visuals. And what happens is people will start to see the conversation that's happening in the room. But it will actually encourage them to move that conversation forward and accelerate that conversation. So what I found was, in a typical environment, there's PowerPoints, there's conversations of what you should be thinking, what you should be feeling what you should be processing. But by having someone in the room who's a graphic facilitator, who's bringing that conversation to life, what happens is, you start to see not only what said, but what's not said, because what I would be doing is I would be channeling, what am I hearing in the room, but also what am I not hearing in the room, because you're listening on behalf of the collective group genius, basically, and then you're capturing on the wall. So then what happens is, people are Stumbling on that conversation as its unfolding. And so it's a powerful feedback loop. But then there's also this component that I learned about neuroscience is what was happening as, as people were watching me draw, their mirror neurons are firing, and they feel like they're drawing what I'm drawing. So they're actually listening on that second level, by watching me draw. So there's those popular hand drawn videos, those started years ago, and we were the first company in the US to create them. And what was powerful about those hand drawn videos is the eye of the viewer of those videos is the artist. So you're seeing the drawing through the artist's eye, and you feel like you're drawing it to and that's why they're so popular and such a reinforcement of information to help retain information. Now, on the total side note, so many people asked me whenever I was first pitching this as a service to companies, they're like, do you have white papers on this? Do you have the science behind this? And I would always be like, No, but I guarantee you, once you experience it, once you see it, you will see its power. So I did a ton of pro bono events, just to build awareness around it. And whenever clients would say, I'm not sure about using you, I would say Don't worry, say my name. I'm the doodle girl. And whenever you see this somewhere else, remember that this is what I specialize in doing. And then you can come back to me and we can work together. Because sometimes they needed to go see it to see it validated somewhere else. And then they'd be like, Oh, yeah, the doodle girl does that. And then they would find me and then they would book me for their next event.

Christine Li: 9:29

You're irresistible. I think your work is irresistible to. And your comment about the mirror neurons is fascinating because it makes me think immediately. Well, of course, as soon as we're watching you draw, we're in the experience with you immediately, without thought if we're just taking us on the ride that you're designing for us and I think that's a beautiful point of connection. For people that art can really be the bridge between people.

Diane Bleck: 9:59

Yeah, and What I think really amazing is when COVID hit, and everything kind of changed in the world, my Instagram just exploded. With all these moms and teachers and kids who were looking for a creative outlet, we're looking for some small activity there. I mean, they were looking for anything. And they just kept coming back to my page. And I was drawing live every day. And we were just drawing a lion or a monkey or a lamb. And then they kept asking for more and more. And I've pretty much drawn every day on Instagram, some stuff is archived, it's not always out there. But I'm doing a daily doodle challenge right now where we're drawing every day for a year. And the power in that is, I mean, I cannot tell you how wonderful my direct messages are inside of Instagram of seeing families sitting around a table and drawing together with a phone on that's just showing them how to draw a marshmallow. I mean, it's some of it's really simple stuff. But they're taking that moment, that creative pause in their day to do something creative. And they're doing it normally as a family. And then I have teachers that are taking my PDFs, and they're sharing them with their entire schools. They're writing me and they're saying, Hey, you know, your PDF that I just bought for you? Can I copy it and give it to all 300 kids on Google Forms? And I'm like, Yes, please. Because they need that little creative outlet. And it's five to seven minutes. But what happens is, the kids, they see the I create, like a formula, like a little four step process of how to get started. But then they take it somewhere else. And then they add their own layers, and they add their own creativity. And I always tell him, my mind might be wonky, my line might not be straight. That's what happens whenever we're hand drawing. And so there's this beautiful experience that I've been blessed to have on my Instagram where I truly have people that their lives are transformed, and all those white papers and all those, those documents that people wanted in the past, like, it's beyond that now, like there are people who are writing me saying, my child who's autistic who doesn't draw is now drawing just like you. And it's not that I want them to draw just like me, it's that I want you to start with what I've given you as a formula, and then break it and make it your own. But they at least have the framework to draw something that is recognizable. And then that feedback loop for them internally is like, ah, I do something awesome today. And then they want to come back and draw something else. And then they want to show me Look what I drew today. Look what I created today. And then I respond to almost everyone in my direct messages and tell them how beautiful their drawings are. And it's truly a magical place that we've created on Instagram. And it's the community that that keeps showing up for the video lessons. It's just incredible to me.

Christine Li: 13:00

Again, you're incredible. And please do Everyone follow Diane black on Instagram, Diane, what is your handle on Instagram just so people can get there right away.

Diane Bleck: 13:11

I think it's Diane dot black cuz someone created another diamond black, I've had a couple of issues on Instagram, it happens. I just had one this last Monday where my page was invisible to half of my audience. And it's just one of those things that happens. I keep saying I keep breaking Instagram, which is a good thing. I'm breaking it with doodling I'm breaking it with. And so I say doodling. But the next thing is Visual Thinking where I want you to go from there. And where I created the doodle Institute, it's a online space that I created about seven years ago because I wanted to share more doodle lessons is I create a pathway for people that takes them from learning how to draw to activating their visual thinking to drawing on iPads and creating infographics to eventually doing what I do, working with organizations. And so I work with about 25 students twice a year. And I take them through an eight week intensive and they become part of my community at this other site called the Center for visual facilitation. But I wanted to create a pathway to help people know that they can be creative at work. And they don't have to grow up and become a visual facilitator, which is what it's called. Now it's moved from graphic facilitation to visual facilitation. But they can add it to whatever skills they already have. And it's a way to be a better trainer be a better coach be a better facilitator, a better leader leading from the whiteboard. And so that's been really neat to see that evolve over the last seven years and that was just me, listening to my people. What do you want more? What do you want to know more? What do you want to know more of and then just turning around and serving it for them?

Christine Li: 14:51

Wonderful so you help people both at the home with their children but also giving them a pathway for potential expansion of their careers. Which is beautiful. Could you tell me a little bit about any history of resistance that you've had to building this global audience to putting your heart out for the public to see for expanding just your voice and your business? Just if you could mention that, because you're so inspiring. I'm wondering what doubts you might have or what what does you've had to go through in the past?

Diane Bleck: 15:30

Yeah, absolutely. And it definitely comes up for I think anyone who is following that really big, crazy dream. I remember seven years ago, like trying to make a pivot in my life and trying to decide what I wanted to do. And it was like, do I create this thing called the doodle institute that no one's ever heard of that is like, got the word doodle in it, which has negative connotations around the world sometimes for not paying attention for it being scribbles for it not being valuable. And I had that inner voice that I had to keep following. But as I would grow, and as I would create things, there were definitely hiccups that came up along the way. And there were definitely hard decisions I had to make about building such a large community being at the heart of a large community. There's just a lot of things that come with it. Like I said, the one Instagram basically being my whole Instagram was duplicated, like everything, but it had someone else's name. But it was my photo, it was my bio. And it was every post I ever posted, someone had completely replicated my website, and was taking credit for it for themselves. And I closed down an entire page with a huge following. And I just shut it down overnight. And I was like, I trust that the right people will know how to follow me. And it's interesting. When my Instagram went down this last Monday, I had people writing me like, Are you okay, what's going on, because they know they've seen my bruises along the way growing on a global like, platform. It's hard sometimes. And there are days where I don't know if I really wanted to build something this big. But then I have to say, but who am I serving and who's on the other side of these courses. And that's where, when I created the avatar, which, again, seven years ago, I didn't even know that much about avatars like I do. Now, my avatar was 28 people, my avatar was I want the librarian in the library to understand the power of visual thinking, I want the principal of a school as an avatar, I want a CEO of a major corporation, I want a stay at home mom, I want a homeschool Mom, I want to teach her like I wanted all of these different people. And I named each of them. And they each had a phrase that went underneath them. And so I kept coming back to the people. But then there was a child. And it was this one child and her tag of her line of her avatar was I want to have a choice to be able to do this. And so that's what really kept me going was if I can create more awareness around Visual Thinking around doodling around drawing around putting pen to paper around, pouring into your creativity, because you can still run a great business, you can still be a great mom, you can still you know do all of these things. If I can model that for a child, then I'm giving that child hope for what they could grow up and become and where they want to be. And like my five year old right now is saying I want to be an artist. And I'm like, that's awesome. You can totally be an artist, right? I've got another child that says, I want to be an ecological engineer. And I'm like, that's great. You can be an ecological engineer. But there's so many pathways for artists that, again, we go all the way back to my dad at the beginning. That's great. You want to be a theater major, Diane, but how are you going to make money, right? And so I wanted to create opportunities for people to know that their creativity matters. And it all starts with putting pen to paper. And if I can help build that practice of you putting pen to paper, we can really change the world.

Christine Li: 19:21

And you have and I'm so glad to know you and so glad to have witnessed your journey and to benefit from your teaching doodling and and in business. I've benefited from just your willingness to share. Could you talk about the process of being brave enough to share I guess, because that concept is different for everyone? You know, sometimes it's different per project, how willing we are to say okay, you could take a look at this now. Do you have any advice for people who might be holding back on things for themselves? Right now.

Diane Bleck: 20:01

Yeah, so my advice I always give my students is, share your work and share your process. let people see you growing and learning something new. I know for me, I put stuff out all the time. But when I was first getting started, it was kind of a challenge from one of my coaches have, you're gonna go do 10 live videos this week and just pull the band aid off and do 10 videos. And even if you hate them, and delete them all, at least you've done it. And what happens is, whenever you do that first video, you're like, Hmm, I don't think I like the lighting in that one, let me change the lighting a little bit, then you do like three more. And then you're like, maybe I should get a better microphone. Okay, I'll get a better microphone, you do about 40 more. And then you're like, even you do this, but you don't know what you need until you get started. And the important thing is to get started. And to just keep playing right now as I'm talking to you. I'm in a studio that now has 10 lights for cameras, a microphone that my husband has coached me into buying all to build like basically a broadcast studio. But it didn't start that way it started me and a upstairs attic kind of studio, and tiny little light. And then I just kind of recorded the first video and the next video in the next video. So the biggest thing I would encourage is make a list of what are the things you want to talk about. And then start sharing one item off that list. And maybe it's a blog, maybe it's a video, maybe it's just a photograph, and then you write like one paragraph. And then maybe the next week you do something else in the next week you do something else, because you'll be amazed at what you share, it will touch other people's lives. And the powerful thing that I still have to get my head around is it will touch lives of people you will never see or know and deeply impact them. And that's what's powerful is whenever someone comes back to me is like I've been following you for four years. And this is the story that you know, of how you changed my life. And those are the stories that I'm just like, thank you for telling me because I had no idea and you just have to believe that there's someone on the other side. And I say it sometimes my videos I know someone needs to see this today. I don't know who it may be you maybe you need to share it with someone, but there's something in the story that's going to help someone else.

Christine Li: 22:26

Wonderful. And I think you've built this kind of sharing atmosphere inside your family as well. I know you involve your beautiful family in your Instagram account and in your work. And they're everybody's It always feels like it's a team. Could you talk about managing your family and your career at the same time?

Diane Bleck: 22:51

Absolutely. So I always knew I wanted to be a mom. And I love being a mom. And I love being a working mom. And I love that my kids are a part of my business. They have ideation sessions with me about the business, we talk about products that I create, or a little books that I create. Right now we're designing a new wall, I'm going to film in front of them. And I'm literally looking at 20, paint chips. And we all have thoughts on what color to paint the wall. The business because it's inside of our home, literally, it is a part of our home. And the kids contribute to it. And they come up with ideas for things that we draw, they practice things and, and my 12 year old has been such a great feedback loop because I know whenever she squeals that we've got a good Doodle, because she'll be like,

Christine Li: 23:41

I love it.

Diane Bleck: 23:43

When I hear a little squeal, I know that we've got it. And now we've got jack who's learning how to draw. And he just took his little worksheets into his classroom yesterday. And he was like, I want to practice drawing this candle and I want to practice this but also my husband is a big part of this, especially the digital side. He's the one who helps push me with like I said the microphone or the lights or building things out for the studio. He's hung a whole grid literally from our ceiling, the lighting from he built a fake wall. In the studio. He is my biggest cheerleader. And my biggest critique so like the other day I was I was supposed to do a presentation I was practicing it. And and he was just sitting there going, boring. Keep going, I'm losing you're losing me. You're losing me smalls. And like just like like he's he's he's like my heart. He's like, you gotta grab them first. You gotta you gotta do this. You got to this like he's always encouraging and nurturing and, and pushing me and it's so valuable. And then everything we play with in the studio. He then takes into his own work and then he'll show me like, I tried this year and I tried this there. So like, we both have learned how to pivot our business in the last year to be digital and how to Expand the experience on zoom space, I ran a session the other day for five hours on zoom. And people were like, I can't believe it's over. I mean, in a good way, like they were, like so engaged and they're like, I can't believe five hours just went by because I try and and teach it in such an engaging way that it doesn't feel like you're trapped in a Zoom Room. So those are the things that I teach my students inside the Center for visual facilitation is how do you engage people in visuals as well? How do you engage all of the zoom not just you be the person drawing in the Zoom Room? How do you get everybody drawing so that they sit up a little more, they lean in a little more they're drawing, they're actively listening and thinking, and so it is a family adventure, they also pack stuff up, I'm about to get 2000 new books, and we're turning them around to schools. I'm allocating some of my what would be Facebook ads money into donating books into classrooms. And so they're going to be packing them up and putting tape on boxes and putting address labels on and we had one box go out and our last batch that didn't have anything in it mostly. Sorry, my kids helped me. So we descend down a new one. But they're very much a part of it. And they are very proud of it. They're very proud of it. And they have ownership in it. And I think that's pretty neat. And I've done doodle lessons inside all their classrooms when they're younger, and they just light up when moms coming in to do some doodling in their class.

Christine Li: 26:35

Yes, yes, the kids have been wonderful contributors to your site and to the spirit and energy of your Instagram site. I know jack is a big star. And such a cutie. So thank you for sharing your family with us may ask you for some tips on keeping sane in terms of productivity and managing your time. How do you do it all?

Diane Bleck: 27:03

That's a good question. Because during the last 307 days, all of my kids were home, one just transitioned back to high school two days a week. And the younger two, we just transitioned back into a Montessori School, because they had not laid eyes on another kid in 307 days, and I could just tell that they needed even masks on to just be able to lay eyes on a kid again. But for the 307 days, we were all here together, I would get up in the middle of the night. And I would do a full work cycle, from about four until seven to get my top three things done. I always have top three things for a day. And they don't always have to be hard things. It could be something small, it could be filing paperwork, but I always have three things that are moving the business forward. There's other things, but what are the three things like if I did these three things, all of my other business would fall into place. And I learned that from chalene Johnson, and she's been my mentor over the years. So I make sure and I get those done first. And then I work on the other priorities inside of my business. But if it meant I needed to wake up at four to get it done, then I did because then I could focus on my kids whenever they were here. And I was literally their homeschool teacher, they were not in zoom calls. With the public school, they were home and I was doing arts and music and drama and crafts and running their classrooms. And I mean it was it was a lot and we just had to figure out how to balance it and how to shift our day. So my studio appear kind of transition. So it would go into classroom mode, and then it would go back into work mode. And then it would go into moms got to be on some calls. And then they would go and do other things like put on their snow pants and go play outside while I was on a call or something. So we had to pivot and juggle and balance everything and keep ourselves active was the main thing and have a routine. So I've played with lots of planners over the years to help me. And what I found is I really just need the most basic of calendars where I can just put down What are my appointments for the day, and what are the top three things. And then I have a list and that list just keeps moving to the next day. And then it keeps moving to the next day. And I just pull three items off of it, to keep things going.

Christine Li: 29:29

And as I'm listening to you describe the schedule and the homeschooling. I'm thinking that perfectionism probably does not have a place in your system.

Diane Bleck: 29:40

I don't, I'm more of like, even my clients whenever I'm working on an infographic for them. Last week, I was working with a new team and I said, here's how the process works. I take in the intake of all of your ideas, and I'm either going to send you a perfect illustration, or I'm going to send you a rough sketch because I don't know how it's going to Come out of my head first. Sometimes I have the full picture, and I can send you it all in color and everything's laid out. Other times, it might be a sketch, spelling is optional, like, do not expect this thing to come back perfect, because I let them know this is a work in progress. And I said, I will ship early, rather than ship perfect, because I'd rather not burn your time. In the minutiae of perfection, I'd rather us keep the project moving forward. And I feel that way about my videos, I feel that way about my online courses, I feel that way about all my content that I create is I can always go back and perfect it. And I have a team now that helps to go back into like my courses and polish up my PDFs. But I basically write the passion version, where I'm getting down all the energy and excitement of what I want to say about that specific module. And then they go back and kind of break it into bullets and make it nice and check the typos and all that. But I'm all about showing the process too. And making sure that people know that I'm a work in progress, and that I'm just a mom who's keeps putting stuff out there. So yeah, I'm not a big perfectionist, although I will tell you totally like, I'll be very transparent. We were making my daughter's birthday cake the other day, and I was making a video of it. And I was like, okay, we're gonna make a video of it. You're gonna, I'm putting the flour in the pan, step by step. And then in the video, you hear the two kids in the background and my older daughter go, mom, you can hear them. I said, Don't worry, we're gonna take sound out of it. And then we keep going. And then you hear me kind of like, Oh, that's not right. Ooh, that doesn't look good. The oven looks awful. Like, you hear me saying these things. Because, but I was like, it doesn't like that's not gonna get seen on the video, the video sounds gonna get taken out. But like, it's still there. I'm not a perfect person, I still have like this self doubt of like, Oh, my oven looks awful. Or this isn't gonna look right. Or it's lopsided, like, you know, I still have that talk, I just keep doing the project. And I just ship it out there. Because it is what it is.

Christine Li: 32:13

It is what it is. You're helping me with your style, with your spirit with your creativity all the time, if not every day. So thank you, Diane, for coming on the show today and really describing the whole process that none of us are perfect. But we all have this beautiful gift inside of us of creativity. And thank you for being that person who stuck with that vision so that we could all take part and have fun.

Diane Bleck: 32:45

Thank you. And thank you so much for having me on as one of your first people as you're starting this adventure. I mean, imagine what it's going to feel like when you're at like Episode 100 or Episode 149. Like, it's so neat. I'm really just, I've loved watching your journey, and everything that you've done. And I'm really excited for your podcast and for all the success that comes from it.

Christine Li: 33:11

Thank you so much. I love you very much. So thank you for everything over the years. Please remind our listeners where they can find you especially on Instagram.

Diane Bleck: 33:22

So you can find me on Instagram at Diane dot black. Just look for a bunch of doodles on the page and videos. You can find me at doodle institute.com if you're interested in kind of the beginning of opening up your creativity, and then you can find me at the Center for visual facilitation comm if you're looking for how could you use Visual Thinking and visual facilitation as a facilitator, trainer, coach or leader, and you can find me on LinkedIn at Diane black. I do a weekly video lesson there. That's about three minutes long, but kind of gives you some tips on how to use Visual Thinking inside of your workplace. So those are all the places you can find me. Okay, wonderful.

Christine Li: 34:07

Thank you, Diane. Thanks for helping us make time for success. We will see you in the next episode. Take care.

Diane Bleck: 34:16

I

Christine Li: 34:17

thank you for listening to this episode of The make time for success podcast. If you enjoyed what you've heard, you can subscribe to make sure you get notified of upcoming episodes. You can also visit our website make time for success podcast.com for past episodes, show notes and all the resources we mentioned on the show. Feel free to connect with me over on Instagram too. You can find me there under the name procrastination coach. Send me a DM and let me know what your thoughts are about the episodes you've been listening to. And let me know any topics that you might like me to talk about on the show. I'd love to hear all about how you're making time for success. Talk to you soon.