Bob Sager develops creative-thinking methods and business strategies, and uses them in corporate training to help teams generate ideas and build lasting innovation habits.
20.2K followersBased on 13 posts · latest Sep 2026
Bob Sager is most useful for corporate creative-thinking training with named methods and follow-up.
Best for
Corporate learning and development teams booking a creative-thinking keynote or workshop for managers.
Not for
Consumer brands buying measured reach through paid social, product seeding, or sponsorship with audience numbers.
Key takeaways
Eliminate or Minify uses Polly Pocket, LegalZoom and McDonald's to change an existing offer.
The ABC's of Bad Ideas lowers pressure and looks for promising ideas among bad ones.
Training needs scheduled sessions and follow-up to build lasting innovation habits.
Check first: Ask for measured training outcomes and full details of the follow-up system.
Main ideas
Creative thinking is a set of named methods, not a personality trait · Take things away to make a business distinct · Generate bad ideas on purpose to get past the pressure of being good on demand
Audience
20,166 LinkedIn followers · 7 posts, 9 December 2025 to 17 August 2026 Posts, publication span
Bob Sager develops creative-thinking methods and business strategies, and uses them in corporate training.
Their posts show a practical, example-led approach: they explain a method, apply it to a recognizable business or real situation, and invite readers to try it.
One method, Eliminate or Minify, uses Polly Pocket, LegalZoom and McDonald’s to show how removing or reducing parts of an offering can create something more useful or distinctive.
Another, the ABC’s of Bad Ideas, starts by lowering the pressure to produce good ideas and looks for promising ideas among deliberately bad ones.
They also created the What’s The BIG Idea? game, which combines word cards to prompt ideas for products, services or businesses.
Their work ranges from corporate training and follow-up intended to build lasting thinking habits to a game and a show in development.
In a separate post, they describe pairing the creative methods with behavioral science and guest educators.
Read their work for concrete prompts and examples of how to make idea generation less abstract and connect it to business decisions.
Ask for measured training outcomes and full details of the follow-up system.
Sager makes creative thinking approachable by turning it into a repeatable exercise rather than leaving it as a call to “be innovative.”
The bad-ideas method gives people permission to loosen up before judging suggestions; Eliminate or Minify gives them a specific lens for changing an existing offer.
Their examples make the methods easier to picture: the McDonald’s example links a narrower menu and shorter waits to a changed restaurant experience, while the anniversary story shows how a personal memory became an idea during a word-card game.
That mix of named methods, familiar cases and try-it-yourself prompts is the clearest distinctive feature of the posts.
They also offer a counterpoint to simple creativity exercises: Sager argues that training needs scheduled sessions and follow-up if new habits are to last.
Ask for details on the follow-up and access to the linked video and audio examples, which aren’t available in the posts here.
Bob Sager treats creativity as a craft built on named, teachable methods rather than a talent you either have or lack.
Read more
Across these posts, they group the work under the label Scientific Creative Thinking Methods, teach individual techniques—including Eliminate or Minify and The ABC's of Bad Ideas—and return to two priorities: a business must position itself so customers see it as different, and a training session matters only if new thinking habits survive after it ends.
The examples are deliberately ordinary: a small toy, a legal service, a hamburger stand, a family anniversary.
They argue that creative methods build on behavioral science, the study of why people accept or ignore an offer, and describe pairing sessions with guest specialists from other fields.
Creative thinking is a set of named methods, not a personality trait
Creativity, in Sager's posts, is not open-ended brainstorming or inspiration.
Read more
They repeatedly point to an umbrella practice called Scientific Creative Thinking Methods, then break it into techniques that can be taught, practiced and reused.
Two techniques are named: Eliminate or Minify and The ABC's of Bad Ideas.
The pattern is consistent — name the method, walk through a recognizable example, then direct readers to a session, webinar or article where it is taught.
The core idea is creativity as a repeatable process rather than a gift.
The Eliminate or Minify post goes beyond asserting that subtraction works. It names the method, applies it to three familiar businesses, then points readers to a webinar replay that teaches it in more depth, alongside a separate segment on color psychology by branding specialist Brian Butkowski.
Among the named methods, subtraction gets the fullest explanation.
Read more
Sager argues that stripping a product, service or process down to what customers value most — and deliberately giving up whatever attracts customers a business is better off leaving to competitors — is an advanced way to create something a market has not seen. The McDonald's case makes the reasoning clearest: the brothers changed what a restaurant was rather than improving the existing format, and the single most important thing they removed was the wait.
Polly Pocket miniaturized dolls, dollhouses and accessories.
Legal Zoom, which Sager notes was somewhat ironically created by a lawyer, removed the need for a lawyer for routine legal work.
The McDonald brothers cut their drive-in menu to hamburgers, french fries, Coca-Cola and milkshakes; removed cigarette machines and jukeboxes; replaced dishes with disposable wrappers; and eliminated the wait time.
Generate bad ideas on purpose to get past the pressure of being good on demand
The second named technique turns the usual instruction on its head.
Read more
Sager teaches a method called The ABC's of Bad Ideas, in which a group deliberately sets out to produce bad ideas.
The post gives two reasons: asking for bad ideas removes the pressure people feel when told to be creative on command, and a set of ten or more bad ideas will almost always contain one or more that could actually work.
The exercise is presented as reliably useful, not a matter of luck.
Sager recalls that auditor trainer Rob Berry appeared as a guest in 2024 on a show they co-hosted with Chad Johnson.
For Berry's appearance, Sager used the bad-ideas method to generate the worst ideas they could think of for the auditing profession.
One deliberately bad idea was transformed into a potentially good one.
Safe positioning is forgettable, and that is a business problem
Sager's recurring commercial argument is that a strategy can be perfectly acceptable and still fail because acceptable is invisible.
Read more
A position that does not make customers see a business as different, better or more valuable is easy to ignore.
The writing puts it bluntly: safe is boring and forgettable.
That's why Sager treats differentiation as the point of the strategy work alongside the training.
Sager describes a client whose HR contact was enthusiastic about a bonus strategy included at no charge with corporate training.
At board level, it was dismissed without review: “We already have a marketing strategy.”
Sager's response is that the existing strategy is acceptable but does nothing to make customers see the company as different, better or more valuable.
The post also points readers to an article they wrote on Mascot Marketing, published in FDI Alliance International Magazine, as a way to build the approach themselves.
Most corporate training fails, and the fix is what happens after the session
Sager's most direct answer to whether training produces lasting change starts with an analogy, not a claim about competitors: an exercise product can work and still fail its buyers because good intentions lose to ingrained habits, which is why testimonials carry a results-not-typical disclaimer.
Read more
Sager says many corporate training programs fail the same way.
Their approach differs in two ways: sessions are funded and already on the calendar, so they happen, and a structured follow-up system reinforces the work until new thinking habits form.
The stated goal is a culture of innovation rather than a temporary spark.
Ask for the follow-up system's content and duration before buying.
An exercise infomercial supplies the framing device: the woman on screen credits the product for her transformation, while the fine print reads “Results Not Typical.”
Sager's reading is that the product is probably not a scam — most buyers simply never use it.
A related post describes an unadvertised strategy bonus given to training clients at no extra charge, making the same argument from the other direction: work that is not paid for and calendared can be undervalued or dismissed.
Sager says the business strategies they build draw on more than creative-thinking techniques.
Read more
They describe over thirty years of studying and applying the psychological, sociological and biological factors that cause people to embrace or ignore an offer, grouping them under the clinical-sounding name Behavioral Science.
The stated intent is to teach influence and persuasion principles ethically, alongside idea-generation methods, so an offer is perceived as something a customer must have rather than as unremarkable.
In this framework, a good idea alone is not enough.
Sager's Real World MBA webinar series pairs them with an educator from another field in each session.
Three guests are named: AI educator Paul Carney, branding and marketing specialist Brian Butkowski, and market research expert David R., who appeared the day before that post.
The guests contribute their own expertise; Sager's argument is that each session combines it with their methods.
Ideas come out of ordinary life, run through structured play
Sager's examples rarely come from boardroom case studies.
Read more
They draw on personal experience, then pass through an invented game — a practical link between the methods and everyday observation.
What's The BIG Idea? gives players ten cards, each with a single word, and asks them to combine any two into an idea for a product, service or business.
Sager says they invented it fifteen years ago and have used it in corporate training ever since.
Sager arranged a staged kidnapping for in-laws celebrating their thirtieth wedding anniversary.
A limo arrived after the family had been told everyone was going to dinner, and sealed cards handed out along the way revealed each next stop, from dinner to the theater and onward.
Years later, during family game night, Sager and a younger son drew the words Operation and Vacation.
The post links an audio recording of the idea they built from that anniversary memory.
The game is a product in its own right, and it is heading for a show
Sager's creative-thinking work extends beyond training and speaking.
Read more
Their writing describes a productized game that exists independently of any client engagement, and the post moves from describing play to casting.
The evolution is explicit: a tool used inside corporate sessions is being developed into a competitive show format.
Show sponsorship opportunities are available on request; ask for rates, audience figures and sponsorship deliverables.
Sager says they are officially casting individuals and corporate teams to compete on the upcoming show, offering real prizes, exposure and serious fun.
Interested people can comment SHOW or send a message.
Sponsorship opportunities are also open; the post invites a private message to explore them.
Developed as a training warm-up fifteen years ago, the game is now being cast as a standalone show with contestants and sponsors, moving it from an internal facilitation tool toward a public format.
A tension worth noticing: the free strategy that got dismissed
One post records a problem in Sager's own approach rather than a win.
Read more
Because a strategy bundled as a training bonus carries no substantial fee, they observe that it can be undervalued—and describe a case where it was dismissed before review.
The post sharpens the picture of how the work is sold: training and strategy are related offers, sometimes bundled and sometimes paid, and bundling has a cost.
It is the posts' most candid account of the commercial side.
The HR contact who championed the bonus strategy is contrasted with the board that rejected it, replying, “We already have a marketing strategy.” Sager notes that the strategy was already developed and ready to go, describes the approach as first come, first served while talks are underway with a company, and points readers who want to build it themselves to the Mascot Marketing article.
This post answers a basic question newcomers have about Bob Sager's work: what do these creative-thinking methods look like in practice?
Read more
It walks through one method and shows it applied to a real guest rather than described in the abstract.
Sager explains a method taught in corporate training sessions called the ABC's of Bad Ideas, which asks a group to deliberately generate bad ideas.
The method removes the pressure people feel when asked to produce good ideas, and a set of ten or more bad ideas will almost always contain one that could work.
To illustrate the second point, Sager recalls auditor trainer Rob Berry appearing as a guest in 2024 on a show co-hosted with Chad Johnson.
For Berry's appearance, they deliberately generated the worst ideas they could think of for the auditing profession.
The post says one of those bad ideas became a potentially good one, and includes a video clip of the moment.
For brands planning a campaign
For a keynote or workshop, this is a ready-made on-stage demonstration: it gives an audience a method they can try in ten minutes, plus a real example from outside marketing. The auditor framing shows the method travels across industries, which can help a learning and development team justify bringing in an outside facilitator.
This is the clearest single explanation of a named method in the material, built around three businesses most readers already know.
Read more
Newcomers can follow the chain from method to example to result.
Sager presents three recognizable examples of a method called Eliminate or Minify.
Polly Pocket miniaturized dolls, dollhouses and accessories.
Legal Zoom, somewhat ironically created by a lawyer, removed the need for a lawyer for routine legal work.
Before the iteration most people know, the McDonald brothers ran a drive-in with problems.
They reduced the menu to hamburgers, french fries, Coca-Cola and milkshakes; removed cigarette machines and jukeboxes; replaced dishes with disposable wrappers; and eliminated the biggest obstacle to customer satisfaction: the wait.
The post points to a webinar replay and a separate segment on color psychology by Brian Butkowski.
For brands planning a campaign
This example could work as a workshop exercise: take a product the group knows and strip something out of it. For a campaign, the McDonald's case illustrates how removal, not addition, produced a distinct position—a sharper argument than a generic message about innovation.
The post shows that Sager's creative-thinking work goes beyond training and speaking.
Read more
It includes a productized game with a long track record and a show in development—format details a producer or sponsor needs early.
Sager says the What's The BIG Idea? creative-thinking game was invented fifteen years ago and has been used in corporate training since.
Players combine any two words to generate an idea for a product, service or business, and the post invites readers to try it on an accompanying graphic.
They say they are casting individuals and corporate teams to compete on an upcoming show, offering real prizes, exposure and fun, and ask interested people to comment SHOW or send a message.
The post also notes that opportunities for show sponsors are available.
For brands planning a campaign
Sponsorship is a different placement from a training engagement, so treat it as a separate conversation with its own terms rather than folding it into a workshop budget. The post says sponsor conversations are open; ask directly about rates, audience numbers and deliverables.
The post connects the method to lived experience and shows the game producing an idea on the spot, complete with a recorded pitch.
Read more
It offers the most concrete answer to where Sager's examples come from.
Sager describes arranging a staged kidnapping for in-laws' thirtieth wedding anniversary: a limo arrived after the family was told they were all going to dinner, and the couple received sealed cards at each stop revealing the next part of the night, from dinner to theater and onward.
Years later, during a family game night, Sager and a younger son played What's The BIG Idea?, where players get ten cards with one word each and combine any two into a product, service or business idea.
Their two words were Operation and Vacation, and the post links an audio recording of the idea they developed from the anniversary memory.
The game is used in corporate training events to get creative juices flowing.
For brands planning a campaign
The anniversary sequence offers a useful campaign mechanic: release information in stages so each step builds anticipation. For a learning and development audience, the story also shows how a personal experience can be mined for business ideas, the habit the training aims to install.
For readers assessing whether the training builds lasting habits, this post addresses the question directly and names the mechanism rather than simply claiming results.
Read more
Sager opens with an exercise infomercial whose on-screen testimonial was qualified by fine print reading “Results Not Typical.”
The point: the product probably works, but most buyers never use it because ingrained habits win quickly.
They say many corporate training programs fail for the same reason, then give two reasons the Systematic Creative Thinking Methods training works differently: sessions are funded and on the calendar, so they happen, and a strategic follow-up system reinforces the work until new thinking habits form.
The post asks readers to comment if they have been through training that felt like wasted time or money.
For brands planning a campaign
Probe this post when scoping a workshop.
It names two conditions: a funded calendar slot and follow-up after the session.
Structure the engagement to include both, rather than making it a one-off keynote.
Ask about the follow-up system's content and duration.
This is the most candid account of how the commercial work unfolds, including a client that turned it down, and it points to a published article by Sager.
Read more
It gives a realistic picture rather than a pitch.
Sager argues that safe positions are forgettable, then describes including an unadvertised bonus strategy with corporate training at no extra charge because creative-thinking sessions can take time to produce visible results.
In one case, an HR contact welcomed the bonus strategy, but the board dismissed it without review, reasoning, “We already have a marketing strategy.”
Sager says the client's existing strategy is acceptable but does nothing to make customers see them as different, better or more valuable.
The post refers readers to an article titled “Mascot Marketing,” published in FDI Alliance International Magazine, for some of the core principles; the link is in the comments.
They invite private messages about an already-developed strategy, noting that the approach is first come, first served while talks are underway with a company.
For brands planning a campaign
The post presents the offer as a paid strategy engagement as well as training.
It also shows how a free bonus can lead to work being undervalued or dismissed, a point to consider before proposing a bundled arrangement.
Review the Mascot Marketing article separately: the post does not include its text, and the link was in the comments.
Behavioral science is the discipline Sager says underpins the methods.
Read more
Upcoming sessions combine it with the creative-thinking work, outlining the teaching approach.
Sager says the business strategies created for clients draw on more than the Scientific Creative Thinking Methods: over thirty years of studying the psychological, sociological and biological factors that cause people to embrace or ignore an offer, grouped under the clinical-sounding name Behavioral Science.
Future sessions of the Real World MBA webinar series will teach ethical applications of influence and persuasion principles alongside the creative methods.
They say each session features an educator from another field and name three who have appeared: AI educator Paul Carney, branding and marketing figure Brian Butkowski, and market research expert David R., who appeared the day before the post.
Replays of the first two sessions are offered for a limited time.
For brands planning a campaign
The joint-educator format is worth copying: pair a creative-thinking session with a specialist from the client's field to tailor it to the audience rather than deliver a general keynote. The ethics-led framing of the persuasion material may also appeal to learning and development buyers wary of influence training.
Scientific Creative Thinking Methods as a named system3
What's The BIG Idea? as an invented game and a delivery format2
Training designed to outlast the session2
Business strategy and differentiation work alongside the training2
Eliminate or Minify: solving problems by taking things away1
The ABC's of Bad Ideas: generating bad ideas on purpose1
Behavioral science underneath the creative methods1
Scientific Creative Thinking Methods as a named system
Sager's posts repeatedly return to an umbrella practice called Scientific Creative Thinking Methods, taught in corporate training sessions.
Read more
Rather than present creativity as open-ended brainstorming, they name individual techniques, walk through a recognizable example, and point readers to a training session or webinar replay. Two named techniques appear in the posts: Eliminate or Minify and The ABC's of Bad Ideas.
Name a small set of repeatable techniques, illustrate each with a familiar brand or business story, then close with a practical next step.
For brands planning a campaign
An L&D engagement can focus on a defined set of techniques rather than a general creativity talk, giving managers tools they can reuse after the session and making the training easier to justify internally.
Eliminate or Minify: solving problems by taking things away
One recurring method Sager teaches is subtraction.
Read more
The post uses Polly Pocket, Legal Zoom, and McDonald's as illustrations: Polly Pocket shrank dolls and dollhouses, Legal Zoom removed the routine need for a lawyer, and the McDonald brothers stripped their restaurant down to a short menu, disposable wrappers, and no wait time. Sager highlights removing whatever attracts customers a business is better off letting competitors have.
Strip a product, service, or process down to what customers value most, and deliberately let go of other customers.
For brands planning a campaign
Useful for a workshop segment on simplifying an overloaded offer or process; managers can apply it to product lines, service menus, or internal workflows that have accumulated extras.
The ABC's of Bad Ideas: generating bad ideas on purpose
Sager teaches a second named technique in which participants deliberately produce bad ideas.
Read more
The post gives two reasons: it removes the pressure people feel when asked to be good on demand, and any set of ten or more bad ideas reliably contains one or more that could work. It points to a 2024 clip with audit trainer Rob Berry, in which a deliberately bad idea for the auditing profession turns into a potentially useful one.
Set a deliberate bad-idea quota, then mine the list for ideas that survive a second look.
For brands planning a campaign
A low-risk exercise for teams that freeze in front of a blank page; it works early in a session to warm up a skeptical group before harder creative work.
What's The BIG Idea? as an invented game and a delivery format
Sager says the What's The BIG Idea? creative thinking game was invented fifteen years ago and has been used in corporate training since.
Read more
Players get ten cards, each with a single word, and combine any two into an idea for a product, service, or business.
In one post, the combination of Operation and Vacation leads to a real family anniversary surprise.
The game is also being cast as a show featuring individual and corporate team contestants, real prizes, and exposure.
Word-pair card play that forces unexpected combinations, used as both a training warm-up and a standalone game.
The show post states that opportunities for show sponsors are available on request; no other commercial or sponsorship format is documented in the posts.
For brands planning a campaign
A tangible, low-tech activity a brand could run with a team, while the show format offers a separate awareness route.
Sager argues that most corporate training fails like exercise products: buyers have good intentions, but existing habits win, which is why disclaimers like results not typical exist.
Read more
By contrast, they say their sessions are funded and already on the calendar, so they happen, and a strategic follow-up system reinforces the work until new thinking habits form, aiming for a culture of innovation rather than a temporary spark. A separate post notes that clients also receive an unadvertised strategy bonus at no extra charge, and that one such strategy was dismissed at board level for not being a paid item.
Funded, calendared sessions plus structured follow-up, rather than a one-off event.
For brands planning a campaign
For an L&D brief about lasting innovation habits, this is the most direct evidence: budget and schedule follow-up work, and treat the initial session as the start of a reinforcement cycle.
Behavioral science underneath the creative methods
Sager describes over thirty years of studying and applying the psychological, sociological, and biological factors that lead people to embrace or ignore an offer, grouped under behavioral science.
Read more
The aim is to teach ethical applications of influence and persuasion alongside creative-thinking methods, so a product or service is perceived as a must-have rather than unremarkable. The related webinar series pairs Sager with guest educators from other fields, including an AI educator, a branding and marketing specialist, and a market research expert.
Combine idea-generation techniques with principles of influence and persuasion, taught with a guest specialist in each session.
For brands planning a campaign
Supports a session design that pairs creative output with the question of how an idea will actually be received, and offers a working model for bringing outside specialists into a workshop.
Business strategy and differentiation work alongside the training
Beyond training sessions, Sager offers strategy work, both done-for-you and done-with-you, to create simple, unique, and effective strategies.
Read more
One post argues that safe positioning is forgettable and hard to distinguish, recounts how a client dismissed a free bonus strategy because they already had a marketing strategy, and points readers to a published article on Mascot Marketing to build the approach themselves.
Positioning and differentiation strategy, offered as a free add-on to training or as a standalone paid engagement.
For brands planning a campaign
A brand can evaluate two linked offers: the training itself and a strategy layer that differentiates the resulting ideas in the market. They appear to be sold both together and separately.
Sager's posts name three business relationships: they contribute an article to FDI Alliance International Magazine, teach in the Real World MBA webinar series, and created the What's The BIG Idea? game used in their corporate training and an upcoming show.
Read more
Corporate training is described without naming client companies. Ask for any client, sponsor, or affiliate names relevant to a potential partnership.
FDI Alliance International Magazine
Mention
Sager points readers to the article "Mascot Marketing," published by FDI Alliance International Magazine, and presents it as their article.
Sager says they will teach in future sessions of the Real World MBA webinar series and names guest educators Paul Carney, Brian Butkowski, and David R. from earlier sessions.
Read more
Ask whether they own, work for, or partner with the series.
Bob Sager’s work is easiest to explore through the methods they name.
Read more
Start with the Eliminate or Minify post, which uses Polly Pocket, Legal Zoom and McDonald’s to show how subtraction creates distinct businesses.
Then read The ABC’s of Bad Ideas, an exercise in generating bad ideas on purpose, and the What’s The BIG Idea? post about the word-pair game they invented and still use in corporate training.
Their training posts explain why they see funded, calendared sessions and follow-up as the difference between a one-off event and lasting innovation habits.
A behavioral-science post adds the persuasion layer beneath the methods.
For related subjects, Jen Clinehens writes about turning expertise into a solo consulting offer, Philip Speidel about data-driven UGC content systems for ecommerce brands, and Jesper Lehrmann about product management and scale-up discipline.
Scientific creative-thinking methodsCreative problem-solvingBusiness differentiation and positioningBehavioral science in marketingLasting innovation habitsCorporate training and workshopsWhat’s The BIG Idea? gameWebinar seriesLearning and development teamsManagers and team leaders
Jen Clinehens
Clinehens also writes practical teaching posts for experienced professionals who want to turn what they know into a business.
Read more
Her posts distill the challenge into a named idea—for example, “the offer is the business” and the “Demand-First Offer”—then outline steps and client outcomes. Sager takes a similar approach, naming a method, showing how it works and pointing to a next action.
Clinehens focuses on the transition from corporate work to solo consulting: packaging skills into an offer, validating demand and getting clients. Sager focuses on creative-thinking methods, differentiation strategy and corporate training, with persuasion and idea generation as the through-line.
Speidel treats creative work as a system, not a guess.
Read more
He describes a data-driven UGC production engine, tests hooks, bodies and calls to action, and contrasts the process with throwing content at a wall. That parallels Sager’s view that creativity can be taught through repeatable methods.
Speidel specializes in ecommerce UGC ads and agency production, with a focus on paid social content at scale. Sager specializes in corporate creative-thinking training, workshop games and business positioning rather than ecommerce ad production.
Lehrmann writes short, numbered lessons on how growing companies lose speed and clarity, then turns them into checklists and questions.
Read more
That overlaps with Sager’s teaching format: named reflections, practical implications and a prompt for readers to apply the idea.
Lehrmann covers product management and SaaS scale-up execution, including processes, decision-making, agile risk and reading recommendations. Sager covers creative thinking, training and marketing differentiation, using brand stories and games rather than product-management operations.
The only measured audience figure is a LinkedIn follower count of 20,166, recorded on 9 October 2026.
Read more
The seven posts include no engagement numbers or breakdowns by geography, age, job function or seniority.
They address managers, business owners and corporate training buyers through creative-thinking methods, the What's The BIG Idea? game, training offers and a webinar series.
For a corporate learning and development campaign, Sager has a mid-sized professional following on one platform, and the posts speak directly to the kind of buyer an L&D team wants to reach.
The follower count indicates reach on LinkedIn, not the size of a qualified training-buyer audience.
Before selecting Sager, ask for recent results on comparable posts—impressions, reactions and comments—and any audience survey data.
Ask how the webinar and game posts perform against the strategy posts; all three formats appear among the seven posts, but none has per-post measures.
If job function or seniority matters, ask for an audience survey or another documented source covering those attributes.
LinkedIn followers
20,166
Follower count shown on Sager's LinkedIn profile · 2026-10-09
Posts, publication span
7 posts, 9 December 2025 to 17 August 2026
Publication dates of the LinkedIn posts · 2026-10-09
The posts show two routes for a brand to work with Bob Sager: sponsor the What's The BIG Idea? creative-thinking show they are casting, or book corporate training in the Scientific Creative Thinking Methods they teach.
Read more
Sponsorship appears once, as an availability statement with no rates, placements, or dates; ask for those details in conversation.
Training is positioned as a funded, calendar-scheduled session plus a follow-up system designed to turn new thinking into habits.
Sager says an unadvertised strategy is included at no extra charge, but recounts a case where a client's board dismissed that free strategy without reviewing it, so decide in advance how to handle such extras internally.
They also note that a separate, already-developed strategy is being discussed with one company on a first-come basis, making it a live constraint rather than a standing offer.
Sponsorship of the What's The BIG Idea? show
Buyer requirement
Sager says show sponsorship opportunities are available and invites interested parties to send a LinkedIn private message to discuss them. Their posts give no rates, placement specifications, audience figures, or booking deadline; ask for these details, plus deliverables and timing, before committing.
Corporate training engagement (done-for-you or done-with-you)
Buyer requirement
A training booking is described as a paid session that is funded and scheduled, followed by a strategic follow-up system that reinforces the methods until new thinking habits form. Budget for the follow-up as part of the engagement, not as an add-on, and plan how to review the included no-charge strategy internally so it reaches decision-makers.
A corporate learning and development team booking a creative-thinking keynote or workshop for its managers is a strong fit.
Read more
Sager's posts describe a named, repeatable system rather than a general inspiration talk: Scientific Creative Thinking Methods, with at least three teachable units — Eliminate or Minify, explained through Polly Pocket, Legal Zoom and the McDonald brothers' drive-in; The ABC's of Bad Ideas; and the What's The BIG Idea? word-pair game, used in training for roughly fifteen years.
The posts also address a key concern for L&D buyers: they argue that most training fails because it is treated like an unused exercise product, and that the sessions work differently because they are funded, scheduled and followed by a reinforcement system meant to build new habits.
That is a claim about structure, not just content, and it matches how an L&D team budgets and schedules training.
Two further details strengthen the case with internal stakeholders: a live demonstration in the bad-ideas clip turns a deliberately bad idea for the auditing profession into a potentially good one with auditor trainer Rob Berry, showing the method travels beyond marketing; and the webinar series pairs Sager with a guest specialist from another field — an AI educator, a branding figure, a market research expert — offering a workable template for tailoring a session to the client's industry.
Buyers should confirm two things before signing.
First, the reinforcement system is named but not described; ask about its format, length and cost before allocating budget and calendar time.
Second, Sager recounts a case where a no-charge bonus strategy was dismissed at board level because the client already had a marketing strategy and had not paid for it.
If such an extra is included, agree in advance who inside the company reviews it, at what level and by when, so useful work is not shelved because it is free.
When to choose a specialist
A consumer brand buying measured reach against a defined audience — a paid social placement, a product-seeding campaign, or a sponsorship with specified segments, placements and audience numbers — is not a supported fit based on the posts.
Read more
The only audience figure listed is a LinkedIn follower count of 20,166 recorded on 9 October 2026.
There is no geography, age, job function or seniority breakdown, and no per-post engagement numbers for any of the seven posts, so reach cannot be converted into a qualified-audience claim.
The content is written for managers, business owners and corporate training buyers; it addresses how companies make decisions, not how consumers choose products.
The audience sits on one platform, LinkedIn.
Sponsorship appears once, as a closing line on a show post saying opportunities are available and asking interested parties to send a private message.
There are no rates, segment or placement specifications, audience figures or booking deadline, so a buyer would be negotiating blind and should confirm deliverables and timing in writing.
The show is described as being cast, not as an established property with a track record a sponsor can price against.
These posts do not demonstrate consumer reach.
A worked campaign example
A worked angle for an L&D team seeking a tailored training engagement: a three-part program built from techniques described in the posts, with the reinforcement piece planned before the first session.
Part one is a 90-minute session for managers that opens with the ABC's of Bad Ideas applied to a real problem the team brings in.
This lowers the pressure people feel when asked to be creative on demand and reliably produces one or two usable ideas out of ten or more.
Part two uses Eliminate or Minify on an actual product line, service menu or internal workflow the managers own.
The Polly Pocket, Legal Zoom and McDonald's examples establish the method; then the group strips something out of its own offering and states which customers it is willing to let a competitor keep.
Part three runs What's The BIG Idea? as a hands-on card exercise using the team's own vocabulary, so the game produces candidate ideas in the room rather than staying a demonstration.
A closing segment can draw on the behavioral science layer Sager describes — the psychological, sociological and biological factors that decide whether an idea is embraced or ignored — so managers leave asking not only what to build but how it will be received internally.
The follow-up distinguishes this from a one-off keynote, but the posts do not describe the reinforcement system's content, cadence or duration; scope and price it explicitly.
A workable shape is a monthly reinforcement session for two to three quarters, a named internal owner for any strategy output, and a simple reuse measure — whether managers can point to a technique applied to real work in the following quarter.
Plan for one constraint: Sager says an unadvertised strategy is bundled in at no extra charge, and one such strategy was dismissed at board level because it had not been paid for.
Agree in advance that the engagement sponsor reviews that output directly, so free work is not lost to a purchasing assumption.
If the company also wants visibility rather than only training, treat show sponsorship as a separate track with terms to be negotiated, not part of this session budget.
Choose Jen Clinehens over Bob Sager when the learning and development goal is not creative thinking in general but helping experienced managers turn their expertise into a sellable solo consulting or advisory offer.
Read more
The two available posts focus on that exact problem: most advice about starting solo consulting overcomplicates things, and the offer is the business.
Clinehens describes a Demand-First Offer that sits between the skills a person already has and what the market already knows it needs, and warns that building a website, a logo, or a LinkedIn posting plan before validating the offer kills most solo consulting businesses.
The second post names three mistakes — failing to package skills into an offer clients want to buy, failing to stand out in a crowded professional services market, and lacking a client-getting system — and cites a client who added $50k in recurring revenue after packaging existing skills into a Demand-First Offer.
For a cohort of managers considering independent consulting, or for an internal programme about commercialising expertise, that is a more direct match than a creative-thinking workshop.
It also gives managers a concrete validation step: test the offer with real people before building the business around it.
Bob Sager's posts do not show how to use a creative-thinking method, run a group ideation exercise, or deliver a corporate keynote or workshop.
They focus on the business of solo consulting and the Employee to Consultant programme, not on teaching teams to generate and select ideas together.
If the goal is to build lasting innovation habits within an existing management team, Clinehens offers commercial-offer discipline, not the ideation toolkit or in-room exercises Sager's posts show.
Two posts offer a limited basis for judging how the teaching works in a corporate setting; ask for a sample session or corporate client example.
Choose Philip Speidel over Bob Sager when the manager audience is an ecommerce or performance-marketing team and the actual problem is producing and testing paid-social creative at volume.
Read more
The available posts describe a UGC production engine that a team can use to create at least 160 UGC ads per shoot day, with multiple hooks, bodies and calls to action per ad, so a brand can test each element and find its winning creative style within two to three months.
Speidel argues the old method of throwing content at the wall is about 70% guesswork and that creator quality is a 50/50 hit or miss, and lists the failures brands hit with small UGC creators: inconsistent quality, missed deadlines, creators who do not understand the product, and content that looks good but does not convert.
The second post sets out what an agency should provide instead — scroll-stopping hooks, content aligned with buying intent, high-quality creatives at scale, consistency across campaigns, and data-driven month-on-month improvement.
For an L&D session aimed at making a marketing team's creative testing system more reliable, that is closer to the operational problem than a general creativity keynote.
Speidel's material focuses on ecommerce UGC and paid ads.
It does not show a method for managers outside marketing to think more creatively or a keynote or workshop for a cross-functional management group.
Where Bob Sager offers repeatable creative-thinking techniques applicable to products, services and internal workflows, Speidel offers a content production and testing system for one channel and one commercial context.
If the L&D team's goal is lasting innovation habits across departments, ask Speidel for examples of facilitation, reinforcement and broader applications beyond this channel.
Choose Jesper Lehrmann over Bob Sager when the managers are product managers in a scaling SaaS business and the capability gap is operating discipline rather than idea generation.
Read more
The available posts give five reflections from someone who has grown companies: processes are communication vehicles and should be simple; waterfall accumulates risk while agile mitigates it; separate the decision from the implementation; say no much more than yes; and communicate strategy always.
Lehrmann frames these as daily practice for product management during scale-up, after noting that four out of five scale-ups become mediocre.
A second post recommends Atomic Habits and Extreme Ownership for reflection, positioning reading as a way to get new ideas and advice for life and work.
For a product organisation trying to improve how it makes and communicates decisions while growing, that is a more targeted discussion than a creative-thinking workshop, and the reading list gives managers a low-cost follow-up resource.
Lehrmann's material is reflective and list-based, drawn from product management and scale-up experience.
It offers principles to discuss, not a tested session format with exercises and reinforcement.
The second post explicitly says 'I can't tell you what to read' and frames the recommendations as personal reading, not a training programme.
For an L&D need to build innovation habits through facilitated practice, ask Lehrmann for a sample session and evidence of follow-up; Bob Sager's posts, by comparison, show named techniques used in corporate training and a follow-up claim, though they do not specify what that follow-up involved.
This profile draws on seven complete LinkedIn posts by Bob Sager.
They cover his named creative-thinking methods, the What's The BIG Idea? game and its planned show, corporate training and follow-up, behavioral science, and business strategy.
One post refers to a 2024 guest appearance; the others did not carry publication dates, so ideas are presented by content rather than in a dated sequence.
Comparable creators were assessed from six LinkedIn posts by Jen Clinehens, Philip Speidel and Jesper Lehrmann.
The only audience figure available is a LinkedIn follower count of 20,166 recorded on 9 October 2026; there are no audience breakdowns and no per-post engagement numbers.
The posts point to the Mascot Marketing article, the video and audio clips, and the webinar replays, but their contents are not described here, and no independent or third-party sources about Sager were available.
Readers should treat the training follow-up system as a stated practice rather than a documented outcome: its content, length and cost are not described in the posts.
