Coming up with creative ways to tell a story or market a product often involves a lot of heavy brainstorming. On a weekday afternoon you’ll gather together the team and cast in different ideas of far flung schemes or unique twists that could help bring in coverage. Many of them look like just the right idea, but not quite in focus enough. So your search continues.

It’s easy to get focused searching far and wide for the perfect angle to compliment your story. We all want to try something unique and different, to see something others standing around us can’t immediately see. But often when you get too focused trying to search for some far off idea, you forget to stand back and look right around yourself.

Take some time to step back from the table and look at what is around you. Who are your closest contacts, what can you use around you and do you really have to be looking that far off to tell the story you’re aiming for? When you evaluate your situation and look around, you might just discover something perfect right under your nose.

We’re always trying to take in the big picture here at GCJPR and not just the details. So remember in your next brainstorming meeting, don’t discard an idea simply because it’s the easiest to do or the one closest to you. It might be just the one you’re shooting for.