Here's how you can independently learn new skills in Creative Strategy.

1. Stay Curious: Follow industry blogs, read books, and watch webinars. Use platforms like Coursera and Udemy for courses. 2. Experiment & Play: Test new ideas with small projects. Use tools like Canva and Adobe Creative Cloud. 3. Network: Join forums, LinkedIn groups, and virtual meetups to learn and share insights. 4. Analyze & Adapt: Study successful campaigns and tweak your projects based on what worked. 5. Feedback Loop: Get feedback from peers and mentors to improve. 6. Document & Reflect: Keep a journal of your learning process and areas for improvement. Learning new skills in Creative Strategy means staying curious, experimenting, networking, analyzing, seeking feedback, and reflecting on your journey. 

Curiosity is the spark that ignites the fire of learning. Be curious by asking questions regarding creative strategy, researching new trends, ideas, and skills that are in demand in the industry, and listening to other people who have the skills it takes to excel in a creative strategy career. Asking questions doesn't make you ignorant, but more of a willing-to-learn person.

Try a new thing every week, something you're curious about or heard about -- keep experimenting and limber as you test out new methods. Look at your own patterns of curiosity, especially engaging the curious research and reading or watching from your playlists. Where are you finding resonant and enjoyable patterns for yourself and how can you double down on this pattern as a model for yourself and others? Critical thinking and curiosity go together but are not always friends, so make sure the critical thinking inquiry is adjacent but not the only process running in any moment. Ask questions and wait for the answers; seek openly without assuming the outcomes.

Understand why those successful campaigns in creative strategy become successful and study how they work. If you are able to understand that, you can know certain strategies that work the same with the campaign and start with that.

Before the internet, research was done through books and libraries. Today, online resources make learning creative strategy accessible with free courses, articles, and videos. However, it's vital to intelligently curate and apply what you learn. For example, while servicing an Indian pharma firm, I used online resources to research global health trends, identifying emerging needs and tailoring a campaign that significantly boosted brand engagement. While AI can organize data, our human brain visualizes end goals. Stay curious, practice with hypothetical scenarios, and apply new concepts. Knowledge is the key to unlocking endless possibilities in our creative journey. Embrace these tools to transform your ideas into impactful strategies.

The internet has a vast source of data to begin with. There are a lot of resources or learning materials available on the internet to learn independently in the creative strategy career. There's YouTube, there's Skool, there are free online courses offered, there are also cheap courses, articles, and many more online sources to study and learn. All you have to do is to find them and have the interest to learn them.

Iterative cycles are like research and development, a process of testing and refinement, curation and editing based on the feedback loops you build into any creative process. To be effective in creating your own feedback loops or a process for your team, engage your inquiry and build together as you reflect on what works for everyone. Critical thinking and curiosity are adjacent processes, so make sure the critical thinking inquiry is adjacent but not the only process running in any moment - focus on all aspects including the good, the bad, the ugly and the malleable in any moment. Ask questions and look for answers; seek openly without assuming the outcomes. Use the data in front of you and work toward improving data, flow & insight.

Apply new skills in real-world projects. Practice consistently to strengthen proficiency and adapt techniques to different challenges.

There will often be another way in or around to find a path forward. Make your own doorways. Your creative voice, strategy, approach and methods are YOURS, not for someone else to dictate or determine. When working within the constraints of a company or team there will be group or collaborative decisions that shape how your creative strategy is activated (or not) and this can be frustrating for creatives who want to focus on making their best work. When you feel thwarted in your strategy or process, look for workarounds, ways to continue the inquiry in a new direction or opportunities to build off an innovation offshoot or R&D endeavor that lets you pursue the deeper inquiry at the heart of that big question you are holding together.