Too many people wrongly think the role of strategist is all about being clever. Thankfully, this industry is full of clever people. Being a strategist is all about being curious.

Why are things the way they are? How did we get here? How could we be in a better position? What do we have to do get there? How will we know if it’s going well?

These questions are the very core of the strategy process, and they’re all about the interplay between curiosity and imagination. What can I learn, and how can I put it to work? How can we be better tomorrow than we are today?

Bear with me, but one of the most finely honed insights I’ve ever heard was “men pick a style of trouser in school and stick with it for the rest of their life.”

That’s how we end up with so many creatives (and strategists) in their 40s with skateboards mounted on their wall. Or worse, KAWS dolls.

When I started at Mischief, a colleague was surprised that I had a Pret subscription because strategists are coffee snobs.

I don’t care about coffee, and I don’t really care if you must have skateboards on your wall. I do care that we, in the “creative industries,” can be so easily and lazily clichéd. I really care if the skateboard-mounter is going to attack every nail with a skateboard-shaped hammer. Youth culture! Gen Z! Collab! Influencer!

Our business is about serving others. That it’s not our job to be to make the work to our tastes, but to endeavour to understand the audience’s tastes, and how to best fit into them.

We can’t just draw on the same references, time and time again.

Every brief should be a joyous opportunity to learn something new, immerse yourself in new worlds, and widen your horizons. To do so, you must consume widely in your daily life. You can’t survive on a diet of “consumer safari” or HR’s Culture Team Away Day to the Tate™.

Going back to the big insight, we all need to be trying more, more different new trousers, in a richness of fabrics and fits, a lot more frequently.

But in a world gone mad with busyness, how do you even find time to shop? There’s no real hacks, you just need to bake it into your daily routine. Thankfully, curious people can find inspiration wherever they go – whether it’s on the school run, lunch break, or the train home.

So with that in mind here are five small tips to live a bit more curiously this summer:

1. Take it outside 

My morning train comes into Victoria, so I like to walk to Mischief HQ on Great Portland Street, and back at home time. If I’m stuck my thinking, I go out and wander Soho, people watching and popping in and out of shops. I’m looking for what people are doing, wearing, and how other businesses are communicating, and I’m doing it daily. This is so basic, but it’s the foundation for all other inspiration.

2. Talk to strangers

Shops, galleries, tubes, buses, museums, churches, pubs – whatever – are brilliant places to meet people who are not like you. Try talking to them! This is admittedly easier if you have child under 5 or a very small dog. Bring help.

3. Unfollow everything

Once a year, I cull my feeds. I do a mass “unfollow” on social apps, I unsubscribe to every newsletter. I also delete big swathes of my Apple Music and clear out the podcasts. Going blank is the fastest way to get out your bubble. When and if you miss something, or get a pang for that album, bring it back. You’ll open yourself up to new things, and reaffirm what you actually care about versus what you do on autopilot.

4. Be ready to buy

This might sound like bad advice in the current climate, but I suggest you go out shopping until you find something you really love, and buy it, cost be damned. Olive oil, wine,  records, shoes, it doesn’t matter as long as it’s new for you. Just don’t do it online, do it IRL where you can talk to a knowledgeable sales associate who can guide you into this brave new thing you’re about to spank a lot of cash on.

5. The Summer Exhibition

This is my one specific tip, and it’s about as mainstream as they come. Nowhere else in the country will you see such a high concentration of one ideas in one place. It’s literally stacked up to the ceiling. You can even buy some! It’s on until 20 August.