Mini-experiments: FUN, creative & fulfilling
Do you think about writing a book, starting a podcast, public speaking, or running an event that would fill a gap you’ve noticed?
In this episode Deanne Renting – the Queen of Mini-Experiments – takes us behind the scenes of her many mini-experiments:
- Starting a blog
- Establishing a podcast
- Speaking at a conference
- Creating a food event.
We discuss how to overcome the objections that we all create in our heads: What would I talk or write about? Do I need to pick a niche? Who would listen to me? Do I really have anything to offer?
We share how mini-experiments are the antidote to overwhelm and procrastination.
You don’t have to marry a concept and do it forever. Just identify one small thing you can test out. This enables you to find the joy and experiment with doing something fun or adding creativity to your life. That is where the genius comes from: mini‑experiments open doors, build connections, and enable you to discover unexpected and fascinating things.
Deanne works as an engineer with a large multinational company in Perth. She lives with her partner and is mum to 2 young children.
When we first met, one of her core wishes was to return to Perth after numerous overseas postings in Thailand and North America. She has achieved that wish within the same company. In addition to returning to Perth, Deanne wanted her new role to match her strengths more strongly. She has also achieved that!
Deanne’s strengths’ profile means she wants to do a lot outside of work. Mini-experiments have been a way for her to explore what these other things might be; to learn, be creative and pursue other interests. Some of the interests we identified for her to explore included writing, travel, great food and sharing others’ stories. The barrier to starting was: How frivolous extra activities can be and how they tend to fall by the wayside in the mix with young children or extra work commitments.
Mini-experiments gave her a clear approach to add her projects into her busy life.
I recommend you listen to the entire interview, but if you don’t have time here are some key points you can jump to:
1.55 Deanne’s strengths
Find out what these strengths mean:
- Communication – find it easy to put her thoughts into words
- Individualisation – leverage unique qualities in others
- Input – curate information from multiple sources
- Significance – want to do be recognised at work
- Learner – insatiable desire to learn.
2.55 What are mini‑experiments and the benefits of doing them?
8.45 How Deanne has embraced the mini-experiment model to explore different things that she might be interested in/grow her creativity/play with her strengths, e.g. there were 3 separate mini-experiments around her blog:
- Build a website
- Write the content
- Publish!
Here are some key points:
7.03 The ‘before’, ‘during’ & ‘after’ experience of the mini‑experiment
8.05 How Deanne’s podcast came about and how she figured out her topic. It combined her communication, individualisation, significance and learner strengths to overcome the ‘don’t’.
13.00 Benefits of the podcast mini‑experiment. How the ‘before’, ‘during’ & ‘after’ experience changed from the very beginning. Deanne’s shift from being overwhelmed to getting traction and feeling satisfied and purposeful.
16.25 How speaking at events connected Deanne with her communication and significance strengths, but not individualisation.
17.25 A mini‑experiment around a bigger project: a food tasting event
19.35 Lessons learnt and why she pulled the pin on the food event
26.16 How to counter the negative belief: “Who am I to do this?”
27.55 Deanne’s mini-challenge to you: Set your next micro-experiment! What is one small thing you can test out? Something different you can do to find joy or add creativity to your life?
