Secure your idea nuggets
Secure your idea nuggets...
...before they disappear forever...
...and we don't want that, do we?
How many times a day does an interesting thought, sentiment, phrase or insight pop into your mind, and for that one to three second moment, that thought rattling about your brain sounds like the greatest idea that you ever had...
It’s the one that will revolutionize my service offerings...
It’s the one that will attract more clients...
it’s the one that will change the course of my business forever…
...oh shit, wait, what was the idea? WHERE DID IT GO? I can’t remember it now…
NO, not again!
Yes, this was the story of my life for the first couple years of my business. I would be inspired by something, and a really interesting idea would pop into my head.
I would then daydream about how the idea was going to change my whole world, and then, of course, the moment passes and, dammit...
...the idea is gone forever.
And now, I’m standing there like a jackass trying to retrace my thoughts to get that idea back in my head.
Ugh.
It saddens and upsets me to think about all the ideas that have entered and left my consciousness throughout my lifetime. Who knows what it would have led to or ???
But now, I don’t play those types of games with such valuable inspiration.
The moment that an idea hits me, I don’t care where I am or what I’m doing, I’m reaching for my phone, opening up my Notebooks app, and writing it down as fast as possible before the idea snatcher in my brain steals it from me forever.
Damn you and your disastrous games, idea snatcher!
Don’t worry if the idea doesn’t make total sense at the beginning. Don’t worry if you don’t spell out the thought in grammatical English. Don’t worry if you can’t decide on the spot how to develop it. Don’t judge the idea…
...just make sure to secure it so that you can revisit it later…
AND THEN, you can judge the idea, :)
Now, when it comes to securing the ideas, I primarily leverage tech options, such as my phone, so, when I am out and about and a thought strikes me, I grab it then and there, no questions asked.
If I’m on the phone with a colleague or client and an idea nugget falls from the sky and clunks me on the head, I secure that bad boy with a pen and sticky note. Although my handwriting has turned to shit as the years working on a keyboard have piled up, I do enjoy the feeling of handwriting an idea down from time to time.
One important point to share here - I make sure to transfer all of my handwritten, idea nuggets into my Notebooks app so everything is in one place.
Another option to secure your idea nuggets in the moment is the voice text option found through several apps on your phone. If your hands are tied up, or you are in a rush, open up your notes app, talk into the phone, and there you go!
Now, I’d be lying if I said voice text is a bullet-proof option - I’ve had some interesting interpretations of what I was saying transcribed into the Notebooks app. In fact, I was more impressed with the dictation variation than irritated at how wrong it was.
I looked more into this and realized that when I talk directly into the phone, it’s a much more accurate dictation than when I’m using a bluetooth headset. Something to keep in mind if you want to leverage this route.
So, as you go about your day and ideas strike you at various times, commit to securing your idea nuggets.
Idea generation is an important, foundational step in your content creation strategy, and by allowing yourself to harness all of the ideas that come your way, you’re giving yourself ample opportunity to produce a wide variety of informative, entertaining and inspiring content for your audience.
Oh, and one more thing to point out - these passing thoughts could develop into valuable, intellectual property that people pay a premium to learn from you, so, keep that in mind the next time you don’t feel like writing down that random idea you had as you jumped out the shower or walked out the front door!
I talk in depth about this process during my one-on-one idea generation program, the Idea Nugget Incubator.
It’s an intensive program aimed at strengthening your idea muscles and helps retrain your awareness to be able to recognize these ideas as they hit you throughout your day so that you never have FOMO regarding potential, amazing idea nuggets.
I talk more about the program here, if you want to check it out.
If you have any questions regarding the Idea Nugget Incubator, let’s put a call on the books and talk about it.
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you, because I care, :)