Creative Thinking and Collaboration
BY MARCY TIVOL
Having an entrepreneurial mindset runs in my family. I’ve had my own business before, and was eager to start something new. With a lot of creative ideas, the most important part for me was to find the right partner to share it with. Collaboration is one of my favorite parts of what I do. I love hearing other peoples’ ideas and sharing in a safe space. Here are some of the things I’ve learned on my entrepreneurial journey during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We believe that joyful challenges lead to engaged learning. Our passion is making solving FUN.”
Maintain Balance
It’s interesting because my career has kind of come full circle. I went to college and graduated school to learn to be an art director in advertising. In my first job, I was actually a designer for Games Magazine, which was not what I was trained to do, but was a lifelong dream of mine.
I ended up fulfilling my education path and had a successful career in advertising. It was intense, and wonderful, and extremely competitive. I left that world to have children and was fortunate to be able to freelance on the side while trying to be a good mom. That balance was always important to me and also the cause for a lot of struggles. With a mom that did it all and a dad that was a successful entrepreneur, I certainly had the role models and upbringing to create this type of path for myself. They made it look so easy. I’ve definitely learned throughout my life and career that it’s not.
When my kids were tiny, I ended up randomly starting my own business. My grandparents lived in a senior living facility and when visiting I would see a lot of walkers. They looked so impersonal. I developed the idea to make seat and roll bar covers for the walkers and created Coverz. I loved all the parts of being an entrepreneur, wearing all the hats, learning new skills, and growing a business that also helped me grow personally. Of course, it also came with its challenges.
Take Risks
As much as I believed in the product, I really wanted to do something with the right partner. Finally, in early 2020, the timing was right. I found a partner who was aligned with my need for creativity, balance, and professional challenge. She was the principal at my kids’ school and we were in sync about children, but also our vision.
The people I’m fortunate to have in my life give me the courage to take risks. I talked about my parents, just the fact that they allowed me to go to a Fine Art School, was a huge leap of faith. Having a husband that’s supportive and encourages me to fulfill my own dreams, independent of financial risk. And then, finding a person to be an amazingly compatible business partner. A true partner in all senses of the word.
We started Solving Fun together. I wouldn’t want to do this without her. We create puzzles, activities, and games focused on perseverance and creative problem solving for kids. Her expert education background, and my history with games and puzzles, make for a wonderful combination for what we do.
We believe that joyful challenges lead to engaged learning. Our passion is making solving FUN. As we grow our business together, we practice this belief ourselves.
Find a Great Partner
As a creative person, there are always new ideas floating around, but I figured out along the way, it’s not worth it for me to put in all the work, without someone to share it with. I was looking for someone that had complementary skills and goals, and that mostly, someone what I would also enjoy working with.
I happened into a lucky bit of timing and connected with my kids’ past elementary school principal. We both wanted to figure out how to better engage children in learning. Some kids just require more and we wanted to work on a project that would help them in the classroom.
We started meeting just before COVID, and were excited to develop puzzle products that classroom teachers could use to fill in some voids, teach perseverance, and help build kids’ self-esteem.
Then COVID hit, and we quickly switched our focus to include kids at home. I’ve always loved doing creative work, but the biggest shift for me is that I’m now working with children. Education is very different from the world of advertising. It feels so wonderful to be able to give back and make a difference in other people’s lives. Watching kids laugh and grow is incredibly rewarding. Most of our work is done through collaborating and the favorite part of what we do is brainstorming new ideas together.
Persevere
We teach creative thinking and problem solving, perseverance, and self-confidence. My biggest hope is that kids will learn that they can love learning and be confident about who they are.
We all have different interests, strengths, and challenges. It would be wonderful if the work that we do enables kids to use their strengths and find interests to be more confident people. If kids learn to love problem solving with puzzles, hopefully they will love being able to solve problems in their grown up lives. Those just-right-level of challenges teach kids it’s ok to struggle (and in fact beneficial to struggle) through to get to those AHA moments.
If we can teach those struggles in a fun and engaging way, kids will learn not to give up and to go for it. A 3rd grader in one of our creative thinking sessions the other day said, “You make me feel like a math expert, this is so fun!” It doesn’t get better than that.
Be Flexible
We are all shifting and pivoting at such a rapid speed today — I love how we can. During
COVID, our entire business platform shifted from in-classrooms to virtual. We shifted how we worked together because we could no longer plan in person. On the other hand, we had more time to spend together from home with everything else shut down.
All of this has taught us to be more flexible, which is extremely beneficial for other parts of developing a new business. It required us to keep focus on our goal, but navigate creative thinking with resources constantly being limited.
For example, production of new products had to be done with stores closed and overseas manufacturing options eliminated. We had to come up with new ways to reach our target audience because of stores closing. The entire purpose of being in classrooms shifted when schools and classes were constantly shutting down with no idea of reopening plans. How could we still meet the academic and social emotional needs of children, when actually the needs became even greater?
Keep Up with Technology
Zoom and Google Meet have proven vital for allowing us to be in classrooms. We would have never thought to use these before COVID. We use Google Slides a lot and are constantly looking for new creative ways to interact with kids during classroom sessions.
We’ve recently discovered Jamboard and love using it in atypical ways to play games with kids. Adobe software is my go to for everything creative. Social media is our only way to communicate about our business because we no longer have access to being in retail, in school buildings, or other in-person traditional locations, such as trade shows or conferences. Much of this has been a steep learning curve for us, but all of it has kept Solving Fun’s mission moving forward.
Do What You Love
We had a child after a recent session say, “did time just fast forward?” When you are enjoying what you’re doing, it just doesn’t feel like work. I’m so fortunate to have found something I love doing and have someone to share it with. I hope to not take either of these for granted.
ABOUT MARCY TIVOL
Marcy Tivol is the co-founder of Solving Fun, an online and virtual company that offers puzzles, activities, and games for kids that focus on perseverance and problem solving. She brings groups of kids and friends together for fun, twist-your-brain, think outside of the box, and laugh with other solvers, virtual experiences.