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At 14, Randi Brill announced she was going to be in charge of something. Randi has been in charge of many creative “somethings” ever since. Armed with a BFA in Graphic Design from Carnegie-Mellon University, $57 and a fierce drive to succeed, Randi launched her first design business—and many since. Currently in her role as Chief Creativity Lab Guru for QuaraCORE, her thriving creative design agency in Chicago, Randi uses 99 powerful business Words of Wisdom (WOWs) with staff, clients, family, and friends to “create great results that help them soar.” She’s authored a new book on the subject, 99 Creative WOWs for Business, to help new and striving creative entrepreneurs jump start their own entrepreneurial journeys. The book will release this summer and will be sold on Amazon and other major marketplaces. In addition to her “day” job, Randi is an avid speaker, radio host, author, and blogger—the latter activities occurring most often from 2 to 4 in the morning, when Randi is typically wide awake, busily creating her luck.
City where you’re from: Chicago, IL, born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA
Hobbies: walking, calligraphic design
Favorite quote:
Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient. —Jeff Bezos
Hey Randi, why did you decide to become an entrepreneur?
I didn’t really decide to “become” an entrepreneur; I simply always was one. My first business was co-founded with my brother; I was nine and he was six. I’d broken my arm and we sold tickets to kids in the neighborhood. For ten cents per spectator, my brother dramatically brought them up to my room so they could see the cast and hear me moan. For thirty cents, customers could autograph the cast. We made almost four dollars until our mother shut us down for operating out of my bedroom without a license—or permission. Needless to say, all profits were rapidly returned to their rightful owners. Ha love this!
From my first babysitting job and first freelance business in college to today where I run currently two successful entrepreneurial entities, I have always been comfortable in the driver’s seat. As an entrepreneur, it’s my job to figure out what needs to happen to help our clients achieve the success they seek—and then to deliver smart creative results that get them there.
I also believe that it’s also my job as a successful, established entrepreneur to help new creative entrepreneurs figure out the challenging lessons of business—more rapidly than I did. While my formal education ended with a BFA in Graphic Design from Carnegie-Mellon University along with the vague awareness that CMU prepares its graduates to lead, not follow, my true education began exactly where CMU prepared me to go—into the leadership hot seat.
The design education I received from CMU was an excellent foundation for running my first business as a creative designer, but it wasn’t enough. It was not until I did my post-graduate work at Randi’s Real-World University, majoring in Take Smart Risks with a double minor in Figure It Out and Gee, That Really Didn’t Work, that I began to fully understand what it takes to succeed in business.
Who were your biggest influences? Was there a defining moment in your life?
My mother significantly influenced me; she always told me I could be and do anything I set my mind to—that no doors were closed provided I had the skills, resources, and determination to open them. That belief instilled in me a confidence that even when I do not know what to do, I still possess the ability to figure it out. My mother also had a strong sense of balance, eventually realizing that her entrepreneur interpreted timing and urgency differently than most others. She eventually tempered her initial counsel with “Why not become the Vice Queen instead, just for a little while? I’d love it if you got some sleep.” That never happened.
My defining moment also involved my mother. I was 25 years old when I decided to open my first design firm. I had decided that I would offer to deliver only some design services for many companies instead hoping any one company would give such a new designer enough opportunity to create to the level I’d decided I was ready for. I’d been working for a start-up as a junior designer. When I resigned, the company offered me a newly created position at four times my salary with a car, stock and much more. The position was very new—created for me immediately upon my resignation. When I told my mother about it that night she sighed and said, “Oh, Randi. It’s more money than your father and I have ever earned, even together. I don’t know many 25-year-olds who would ever be offered this kind of opportunity. And I know only one who turned it down. You turned it down, didn’t you?”
I did turn it down. I decided if they thought I was worth that much, I must be ready to be on my own. I respectfully declined the position and never looked back. That start-up went on to become one of my company’s biggest clients for many years. Wow!
Now What are you working on? How did you come up with this idea?
In addition to my work as a Creative Director and President of QuaraCORE, I am the Chief Creativity Lab Guru. The “Creativity Lab!” is an amazing creative resource for clients across a wide swath of industries. The lab concept works incredibly well because creative problem solving can be messy, indirect and even silly. QuaraCORE’s Creativity Lab inspires experimentation, hypotheses and clarity to boost confidence and “give new directions a whirl.”
We don’t stop there. We then rapidly prototype, test, revise, reflect, and retool as often and as quickly as challenges demand. The lab metaphor continues as we document, protect, and deliver creative solutions through clear processes, reliable execution, and market-driven messaging that only comes from being integral to the creative strategy.
QuaraCORE’s “Creativity Lab!” began because I detected a distressing pattern the more I worked with thought leaders across so many different industries. Leaders risk (and waste) vast amounts of time, energy, and money solving problems they DO see while often missing CORE problems they SHOULD see. So, we developed the proprietary “Creativity Lab!” process to help avoid this dangerous obstacle to success.
With markers in hand, I love to personally lead QuaraCORE’s clients through this defining exploration to verify problems, distill messages and construct smart creative products, campaigns and solutions. QuaraCORE then masterfully brings the vision to life to deliver on and beyond the market’s expectations—as well as our clients’.
How is your product/service different and unique? What has been your favorite moment with it? What’s the vision?
Our products and services are unique because we are a highly unique team of creative and business minds at QuaraCORE. My favorite moment is that “ah-ha” moment when clients and creative ideas click and we begin to really solve the right problems together. Clients typically come to QuaraCORE’s “Creativity Lab!” for three reasons:
- Clients have a complex creative challenge they aren’t sure how to solve.
- Clients know what they should do, but schedule, market, or budget demand they create something different and equally effective instead.
- Clients need a quick and thorough turnaround solution to fix an earlier creative plan that didn’t deliver the right results.
How do you uniquely market your company?
In addition to our website, and a strong portfolio of past assignments, we invite people to join us for a Creativity Lab!™ PREVIEW session where we “colLABoratecollaborate” together for a short time so they can experience the powerful outcomes before committing to a full-scale Lab experience. We’re also launching a new radio station in the fall, Design Biz LIVE, to showcase creativity in business. In addition, we prepare customized proposals to assess client opportunities and articulate how QuaraCORE uniquely adds value to a range of clients across many different industries.
What scares you?
It’s likely that whatever scares you is also holding you back. Look your fear in the eye and break it down into smaller bites. It will seem a lot less scary and you’ll be better able to act. Randi, what scares you? Maybe a statement like “For me, it was xyz so I xyz and conquer it…”
What was your biggest failure and biggest success? What did you learn from them?
My biggest failure was starting a business I was not passionate about, thinking that others could run it, sell the services and care for the customers. They did, but not like I would have. It eventually made more sense to close it rather than fund it. I learned that not everyone can sell like I can and that my companies have to fuel my creative passions and “get my attention” because they engage, excite and energize me to create smart solutions as a result.
My biggest success? While I’ve had many significant successes in my entrepreneurial career, as a true entrepreneur, I’m sure you can guess my instinctive answer to this question—my biggest success simply hasn’t happened YET. It’s definitely on my to-do list!
Value-add questions: Give the readers the best entrepreneurship advice you have.
I’ve just written a new book, 99 Creative WOWs for Business, scheduled to release this summer on Amazon and other online marketplaces. WOWs are words of wisdom.
Throughout the years, I have hired and inspired many talented professionals, from those with no work experience to those with highly seasoned track records. Regardless of where team members were on this experience spectrum, it took at least a year and often longer to begin to “get” my companies. I ultimately realized that it wasn’t the companies they didn’t “get”—it was my business, creative, and personal philosophies that they didn’t immediately comprehend.
As issues arose, I realized that we saw the world differently. This pattern of disconnect led me to discover why. Businesses of a transactional nature are complex enough. Businesses with corporate structures are tougher still, even with predictable protocols and in many cases, right and wrong answers. Compound these business intricacies with the subjectivity that’s intrinsic to creative services, and even bigger challenges abound.
As the boss, I knew the financial and business demands and how they had to fit into the relationship connections with our clients. As a designer, I directly experienced the intense creative pressures associated with subjective creative service offerings. Creative services cannot be measured easily; every requirement box can be checked and a design can still be rejected. I could see all of these puzzle pieces; through many missteps and false starts, I had learned how to fit these pieces together to achieve successful outcomes.
Many capable subject matter experts on our team with deep skill sets could not connect these dots, however. I began to understand, much more slowly than I would have liked, that it was my job as the creative entrepreneur to not only lead, protect and inspire team members—I also had to teach them how to “see” with my entrepreneurial lens.
It’s taken 35 years to distill my hard-won business expertise into a cadre of 99 succinct WOW (words of wisdom) reminders and rules upon which to operate. I apply WOWs to the business, personal, and creative exchanges in which I engage—they work for me. My battle scars have morphed into quickly applicable, sound business advice. 99 Creative WOWs for Business distills what I’ve mastered into sound bites ideal for recent design graduates, creative entrepreneurs and professionals eager to achieve dynamic business results—NOW.
Here are three pieces of entrepreneurial advice to inspire—
Teach us something about {Internet marketing, social media ads, fundraising, sales funnels or another topic} Can you recommend any favorite websites to learn that topic? See above and below.
Here are three more WOWs from 99 Creative WOWs for Business that will help entrepreneurs in business—and life.
While working on your project, have you come across any interesting bit of knowledge that you’d like to share? (i.e. any new research finding, any new platforms, some novel management technique, etc.)
As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned that it is easier than you might think to learn what you do not know. In today’s technological world, just a few swipes, clicks, and taps will lead to more information than you can possibly digest. By zeroing in on the reason WHY you are researching, you will be well served in your journey. WHY is the ultimate filter.
Teach me something I don’t know (it’s vague and open-ended on purpose)
Everyone likely “knows” this, but few tend to follow it more than entrepreneurs. Trust your gut. Through practice, you’ll learn how to listen to that nagging feeling, that little inking andor that overpowering hunch. Do this every day in even a small ways for 21 days and you’ll soon be ready to trust your gut on bigger opportunities. Trust me.It’s a habit worth forming. Trust me.
What daily habits do you have that allow you to perform at your peak?
I walk 5-9 miles every day I possibly can. Walking keeps me focused, energized, and helps me make interesting creative connections. I’m also an avid listener to audiobooks, podcasts and music across a range of categories. They keep both my feet—and mind—moving forward.
What should an entrepreneur focus on?
Entrepreneurs should focus on the unique talents and results they care capable of delivering to the world—to help others become their best, make the world a better place, invent new solutions and generally add value.
Walk us step-by-step through the process that you had to go through to get from the early stages to where you are today.
No matter the challenge, here is the process I have used successfully since my start.
Start-Create-Repeat
- Just start. Capture initial ideas. Ask questions.
- Do homework. Ask more questions.
- Research what is currently happening. Ask more questions.
- Create a new vision. Don’t stop with one.
- Create three different solutions. Ask tough questions of yourself.
- Show the work to others (client, market, world).
- Listen carefully to what others say—and don’t say.
- Revise, refine, redo. Succeed or fall flat on face, there’s rarely any in-between.
- Get right back up. Figure out what went right and understand what went wrong.
What are some of the best books you’ve ever read?
Where do you see yourself and your product in a couple years?
Continuing to do amazing creative work and shaping new products and solutions for companies and individuals, continuing to write the next books on my list, and of course, the intent of it all—spending time with my family. As for the products, they will pave the way for even more entrepreneurial creativity. Of that, I am confident.
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