Trekkers will remember The Borg, Cpt. Picard’s frightening nemesis on the long-running second Star Trek series. The Borg was a hive of interconnected humanoids with one brain and an insatiable appetite for everyone else’s. “Resistance,” the beast intoned, “is futile.”

Everyone has a Borg moment – a time when it just seems simpler to give in and let groupthink take over, a time when creativity meets burnout – and burnout wins. But the very health and growth of your business may depend on your ability to come up with innovative marketing approaches. And those fresh brainwaves will, in turn, reinvigorate you.

Think back to that fertile time when you were planning the birth of your own venture. Weren’t your synapses bouncing off the walls with bright, shiny notions about how to make your venue a standout? Don’t you want that feeling again? Here’s some advice from the experts on how to boot The Borg out of your brain.

Be a Trend-Bucker

Creativity guru Tom Monahan is a proponent of so-called 180-degree thinking. When you want to apply some creative juice, he writes in The Do-It-Yourself Lobotomy, "simply direct your thought process in exactly the opposite direction." For example, it’s standard practice to start displaying fall merchandise in July. Everybody does, so it must be right, yes? Not so fast. Maybe you’d earn more attention – and a wave of customer interest – if your store went on an anti-autumn kick instead. A “We’re-desperately-clinging-to-summer” campaign is so crazy, who knows if it would work? But going against the flow will ramp up your imagination and allow an influx of other ideas.

Embrace an Obstacle

Monahan argues that the flip side of a problem is an accomplishment. Problems cause you to stretch, he writes, but only if they’re genuine and don’t come pre-packaged with ready-made solutions. Suppose, for instance, two-month-long renovations going on outside your venue are noisy, messy and disruptive to your clientele. Business is down and you have a major headache. How to solve this crisis? As Monahan puts it, that what-can-I-do moment is when the wonder gland kicks in. How about distributing your-logo-here hardhats and lunchboxes (maybe filled with bottles of candy aspirin and discount coupons) to all passersby?

Channel da Vinci

Or anyone else, for that matter, whose genius and talent you admire. Monahan recommends that you choose high-achieving people to “consult” regularly. They could be living; they could be dead. It doesn’t matter, because the consult is all in your head. To broaden your perspective, choose someone in a field other than your own. The point is to try to emulate the way your hero thinks. What can you learn from orchestra conductor Pinchas Zukerman, for instance, about making your staff work harmoniously? Would conducting rehearsals before big store events be useful?

Storm Your Own Brain

Sometimes, you just need to hear yourself think. David Perkins, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, says that bad ideas, which can be catching, may limit inspiration all around, so premature brainstorming can be counter-productive. The key here is to spend some quiet time away from naysayers or other potentially negative influences. Let everyone else pick their own brains in private, too. Then, as quickly as you can, scribble down your wildest what-ifs and most out-there notions. Get colleagues to do the same. Then hold your brainstorming session.

Supersize Your Thoughts

Much of creativity, say the experts, comes from taking an existing idea and morphing it. One technique to use, suggests Bob Eberle, author of Scamper: Creative Games and Activities for Imagination Development, is to look at a notion through a magnifying lens. Suppose customers responded well when you publicized your new line of hemp clothing as eco-friendly. Is there a way to up the ante? How can you take this idea over the top? Add value? What elements can you exaggerate? Perhaps you can launch a reduce-your-footprint campaign to coincide with the arrival of the next season’s line.

Jack up the Grey Matter

It’s all a matter of polishing up the brain cells and going to town. Your creativity got you this far. Now it’s time to really test its boundaries. You may be surprised to find there aren’t any, and that you can kiss Borg moments goodbye forever.