Welcome to From the Front porch, a conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South.

My job as a director is to protect the writer's vision. I work to guard it and enhance it by constructing a safe creative environment that fosters the best ideas, including those no one had thought about before.

James Burrows directed by James Burrows.

I'm Annie Jones, owner of the Bookshelf and independent books are in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia, and this week we're back with a third episode in our 2023 Business-Minded series from the Bookshelf Files.

I'm joined in conversation by Bookshelf Community Liaison, Entrepreneur, and author Felicia Dilbert.

Throughout this year you'll hear us talk more about the business side of the Bookshelf, our stores growth, and the ups and downs of small business ownership, what life looks like at the Bookshelf and how it's changed over the years, and how ideas like reader retreats and shelf subscriptions come to life.

Today we're talking about ideas and creativity in business.

Before we begin, don't forget, one of the best ways to grow from the front porch is by word of mouth, and your reviews of the show are so helpful for that. Here is one of my favorite recent reviews from Megan.

A wonderful discovery. I knew about the Bookshelf in Thomasville for years before I found out about this podcast run by the owner, through the pandemic this podcast helped me reconnect to my love of reading, and provided me with some of my favorite new books.

I especially like the new From the Bookshelf Files episodes where Annie and Felicia talk about running a small business.

Thank you Megan, and you are in luck because Felicia's back on the show today. If you have not left a review of the show yet, all you have to do is open the podcast app on your phone, look for From the Front porch, scroll down until you see right a review, and tell us what you think.

Your reviews really do help us grow the show and as a result grow our small brick and mortar business. Thank you.

Now back to the show. Back in January, we launched our From the Bookshelf Files series. You can go back and listen to episodes 407 and 415 if you want to hear me talk with Felicia about the bookshelf's origin story and some of our small business woes.

Now Felicia and I are back to talk about ideas and creativity in business. Hi Felicia, welcome back.

Hi Annie, thank you and Megan. Thank you so much. Yay!

Yes, wasn't that fun feedback? It's always good to hear from listeners and to see their reviews and to know that new episode series like these are working.

So we're glad to have you back. What are we talking about today?

Thank you, thank you. Annie, we're talking about creativity and ideas and I mean, what is a business without ideas and creativity?

That's right.

So when you hear the word creativity, what comes to mind for you? Do you have a picture in your head or an experience?

Yeah, I think for me two things come to mind. I get this is a kind of metaphor that I use at the bookshelf all the time and I've used it really ever since kind of starting at the bookshelf, which is the idea of throwing spaghetti on the wall and seeing what sticks.

So so much of small business and so much of creativity is trying something and not all of those something's work.

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