Laynie Tzena began her work in the field of Creativity Development—bringing creativity and business together—when she was asked to develop fundraisers for the fledgling Creative Writing program at the University of Colorado. While completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Massachusetts, she created a calendar of original events performed and presented in the Five-College Area. This calendar, called Focus, was the first of its kind; it helped artists find an audience and helped community members support the living, breathing artists in their midst. While in Massachusetts, Tzena also spent three years on the staff of English Literary Renaissance and created promotional material for musicians. At Michigan, she was Publicity Director for the Women’s Studies Program and the MFA program’s Visiting Writers Series; she also was involved in promotion for Michigan’s Biography conference, which drew attendance from all over the world.
Tzena saw that creative people who became successful had one characteristic in common: they stuck with it. They treated their creative work as a business. Tzena also saw that the most successful businesses were innovators. Peter Drucker claimed that business has in fact “only two functions—marketing and innovation.” The innovators Ideas Made Real serves appreciate the fact that Laynie Tzena and her associates understand both creativity and business. Ideas Made Real knows the problems they face, and knows how to help them. The result? Increased productivity, profitability, and visibility—Ideas Made Real clients have appeared in all the major Bay Area magazines, as well as in the pages of Cosmopolitan and Elle.
