Coupla Jerks, Part IIb: Great quote

Currently, I'm reading Planet Google, a pretty interesting read so far.

In light of my previous post on the foundation for ideas, I thought I'd share this excellent quote from the book with you. It's from Kevin Scott, a software engineering manager who used to work there.

Ideas at Google do not burst forth from the heads of geniuses and then find their way unimpeded to huge audiences of receptive users. Rather ideas emerge, are torn to shreds, reformulated, torn to shreds, prototyped, torn to shreds, launched to internal users, torn to shreds, rebuilt and relaunched, torn to shreds, refined some more...and launched, whereupon they are torn to shreds by bloggers, journalists, and competitors.

My take - away? Don't be afraid of letting your ideas get torn to shreds.

Coupla Jerks, Part II: Laying the foundation

The first step in building ideas is to get lots of them to choose from. It gets your creative juices flowing and lets you build something bigger.

But to get a lot of ideas, you have to overcome that nagging voice in your mind. You know the one that tells you things like:

• Someone else is probably already doing this.
• No one will think this idea has merit.
• The timing's just not right.

And on and on.

I thought like this at the beginning stages of Coupla Jerks. I kept thinking that everyone already knew how to leverage social media tools. How could I come up with something that would add value? I kept getting more and better ideas of how to share my knowledge with people, then killing them off.

Then, when I finally decided to move forward with a course about making better cold calls by using LinkedIn, I tried to think of the best way to present it. I brainstormed about 50 ideas, from the totally crazy (build a LinkedIn profile for the roma tomato in my brand, roma creative) to the mundane (just use my own profile as an example).

The entire time I went through this process, I had to focus on not talking myself out of my own ideas. And I'm the biggest advocate I know for not killing ideas! It's a hard thing to do for all of us.

So lesson from the first step: Are you creating a strong idea foundation for yourself? Ignoring the nay sayers (even the ones in your own mind) and letting ideas flow?

Coupla Jerks: genesis of a crazy idea, part I

Well, along with a hilarious nameless collaborator, I've launched Coupla Jerks.

Coupla Jerks is offensive training materials for freelance writers. In other words, training brought to you by a couple of jerks.

What in the world? Offensive training material? Isn't that a little... too different?

This is the reaction I've been getting from many. Since this blog is all about getting more ideas, I want to share with you how I got this one.

About 6 months ago, I started to notice two recurring themes (although at first, not at the same time):

1. People I knew were asking me about new web tools.

Colleagues wondered how they could use LinkedIn more effectively. Friends were asking what this Twitter thing was all about. My mom wanted to set up a FaceBook profile.

As I looked for resources to send people to, I found that there weren't a lot of resources for targeted audiences besides people looking for a job. In other words, a lot of advice existed for the unemployed to use new web tools, but for freelancers like me? Almost nothing.

2. Most training materials are boring

So much of the training material that exists is just plain lame. Even the well written stuff can be a little dry. While I can race through a good novel in a few hours, it can take me days and days to force myself to finish a business book.

I wondered why more written material didn't entertain as it taught. I thought of the book Blue Ocean Strategy, which teaches that you can create a new market by combining two things that haven't co-existed before. Maybe by combining training material with somewhat offensive comedy I could create something new and different.

Over the course of creating Coupla Jerks, I've gone through every phase of my Building Ideas Structure. In the next few posts, I'll walk you through how I did it and how the structure applies. Kind of a learning by doing example. I hope it inspires you to get an idea and follow it through to execution.

Maybe Coupla Jerks is a far fetched idea that will never take off. But then again, 25 years ago, who ever thought people would be paying $100 to go to the circus (Cirque Du Soleil anyone?)

Building more ideas, part VII - The roof

It might be a while before you get to adding the roof, but I'm including it here for the sake of completeness.

When you've been practicing the system for building ideas outlined below, I guarantee you'll have more ideas. It will be great. You'll be on an idea high. But then you'll have a new problem.

You'll have so many ideas, you'll lose focus. All these amazing things to implement and no time to do all of them. This is when you have to add the roof to your idea building.

What's the roof? Pick and prioritize.

Take all your ideas, write them down, pick the top 5 or 10 or whatever is doable, and let the rest go for now. Save them in your idea file and come back to them later. When you get new ideas, add them to the file, but continue to focus on the top 5 until one is complete. Then pick a new one.

Having a lot of ideas, but never acting on any of them is like a rich person who never spends any money. What is the use of dying with $5 million in your bank account? Why did you work hard and save for all those years and never enjoy at least some of the fruits of your labor?

The goal is not to be the person who has the most ideas, but the person who does the most with them.

Building more ideas, part VI - Fourth Support

By now, if you've been following along and building your idea machine, you should be seeing some noticeable results. You're getting more ideas.

The last support in our system is Generosity. Now that you have a bunch of ideas, don't hoard them.

There will be a time when you come up with something really grand, but you don't feel the time is right. Or you don't want to share it with someone else because you're afraid they'll get all the credit.

Don't listen to thoughts like these. The timing is never right, everyone will always try to steal your ideas, and all the other excuses you might have for not sharing ideas will be valid too. Let it go. Tell people about your ideas. Act on them. Don't wait.

Ideas that are hoarded will wither and die. Ideas that are shared will snowball.

Do you have any ideas you can let go of?
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Building more ideas, part V - Third Support

Third in our idea support system is Collaboration. Read and Apply is a great source to get a lot of other people's ideas, but isn't very interactive. By collaborating with other people, you get the benefit of their ideas, but also the rewards of the push and pull of growing ideas together.

Get out and talk to people. It isn't that hard. People love to talk about themselves and their ideas. Join a club. Talk to a new colleague. Volunteer with a charity.

All of these interactions will be valuable, but every once in a while you'll find someone that you click with. A person who wants to dream big just like you. Try to surround yourself with those people, and watch your ideas take off.

Don't forget to give back too. Help when you can. Offer to make introductions and give information. Be available to someone else who wants help getting more ideas.

How can you increase your quality interactions with others?

Building more ideas, part IV - Second Support

The second support to your idea building is Read and Apply. When you want to have a bunch of great ideas, you're going to have to admit to yourself that the best ideas come from other people. You just have to figure out how to apply them to what you're doing. The easiest and most common form of other people's ideas? Books, blogs, websites, etc - anything written.

Reading can have the same mind clearing effect as Activity. And with the amount of information available, you can become an expert on anything you want to.

One excellent source of ideas I read recently was The Four Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. His blog is fun too.

Other blogs I subscribe to are:
Gaping Void
How to Change the World
Real Dan Lyons
Scobleizer
Seth Godin

I have kind of a reading addiction issue to tell the truth. If you aren't a reader, try starting small. Subscribe to one really entertaining or useful blog and read it every day.

Remember that the more information you put in, the more ideas you'll get out.

Building more ideas, part III - First Support

Now that we have our idea foundation built, let's start putting up some supports. There are four main supports. Let's talk about the first one - Activity.

When you need to get more ideas, sometimes it helps to perform some unrelated or creative activity. Play with toys. Take a walk. Draw a picture. Play the piano. As long as it's something that actively engages you. Watching a TV show doesn't count.

After you finish your activity, sit down and try for more ideas. You'll find that it's easier after you've cleared your mind a little.

Another thing to try is to think about how your idea might relate to the activity. For example, if you need ideas for a restaurant ad campaign, you might sit down with some play dough and sculpt the images that come to mind when thinking of that restaurant. You might come up with some good ideas from the exercise, or you might just get a bunch of silly sculptures that look more like hair than spaghetti, but the principle is the same. It allows you to clear your head and open your mind a little, so you can attack your ideas from a fresh perspective.

And the very best thing of all? It gives you an excuse to play when you should be working...

Building more ideas, part II - Foundation

Everyone's heard about building a house on the sand. It doesn't work. You've got to have a solid foundation to start from. In fact, a solid foundation is of paramount importance to a building. Construct a house on a weak foundation, and no matter how beautiful it is, it will eventually fall. So it is with ideas.

Your foundation in this case is lots of ideas. How do you get lets of ideas? Stop killing them. To start having more ideas, you have to let yourself have bad ones and acknowledge that it's ok. Bad ideas are a starting place, a learning experience. Start by letting all your ideas out - good and bad. Don't hold any back. Don't think about what won't work or what's too far fetched. And do the people around you the same favor. Encourage people to speak any and all ideas that are on their mind.

Ideas are a little like family reunion food. According to my grandma, too much is great, but not enough is a tragedy. That's because its always easier to cut things out than it is to add to what you have. So by taking all ideas, good and bad, you'll have many more to choose from. And often, the inspiration for good ideas comes from bad ones.

And ideas seem to multiply, just like tribbles. They increase exponentially.

It will take practice and courage to stop killing ideas, but keep at it. You have to lay the foundation to your idea building, and the more ideas you have to add to it, the more solid your foundation will be.

Building more ideas, part I

All of the elements you need to get more ideas can be structured like a parts of a building. And don't worry, one of them is not a high IQ. If you can take the parts, and start from the ground up, you'll have an excellent way to generate lots of ideas. But, just like building something, it will take time. You can't put it up overnight and you'll probably need some help.

Over the next few days, I'm going to give you the pieces of the building you need to get a lot of ideas. Your first building might not be perfect, so keep building more and more. Every time you practice this method, your buildings will be more beautiful.

The point of getting ideas

There is no end to the journey of getting ideas. There is no magical place you will reach where you will no longer have to have ideas. The point of getting ideas is to have more and more and more forever.

By the same token, if you come to a lull in your ideas, keep going. Keep brainstorming. Keep reading. Keep playing with toys. Keep doing all the things that inspire you because you'll get through it.

You have never reached a point in time where you will get no more ideas.

Think big

One of the things you can do when you’re looking for idea inspiration is to think bigger. When you’re reading something, don’t just think of the information in the context of that particular story. Think about the fundamentals of the information and how you can apply them to what you are doing.

For example, Dharmesh Shah over at Hubspot just put up a nice piece on product launches. He gives seven lessons on launching new software. You may take a glance at it and think, “I’m not launching any new software, now or ever. This doesn’t apply to me at all.” But look again. The underlying principles can apply to any idea.

Take the first lesson – It’s not too early to release. Dharmesh talks about how if you wait until everything is perfect, you’ll never go to market with your product. You’ll be making endless tweaks.

This applies to your ideas. If you wait to talk about an idea until it’s perfect, or until there is no risk that anyone will dislike it – you’ll never offer any ideas.

In fact, all of Dharmesh’s lessons fit perfectly with having new ideas. Here are the rest of Dharmesh’s lessons with my applications to ideas in parenthesis:

Lesson 2 – Be ready to iterate (Be ready to refine and tweak your ideas)
Lesson 3 – Provide a simple feedback mechanism (Let people respond to your ideas without getting defensive)
Lesson 4 – Respond to feedback (Be open to the ideas of others and use them to make your ideas better. Let go of idea ownership.)
Lesson 5 – Track as much data as you can (Take lots of notes - even if you don't use them now, they may come in handy for future ideas)
Lesson 6 – Don’t waste time coding reports (Keep your notes, but don’t obsess over them. Go back and review them later, but don’t catalog and alphabetize!)
Lesson 7 – Watch it spread, nudge it along (When you get a big idea, encourage others to talk about it and participate in it. Ask others for their opinions, and pay attention to who is embracing your idea or not)

You can repeat this exercise with any bit of information. Try pulling out the fundamentals and applying them to your world, even if at first it may seem a little out there. Innovation starts when we take information we have and combine it in unexpected ways.

You don't have to be smart

Feeling like you're too dumb to have great ideas? Read this article from Harvey Mackay. In it, he addresses all my favorite guidelines for having ideas, like that everyone can have more ideas or that the best ideas are built off the ideas of others.


Favorite quote (it was hard to pick just one favorite):

Of every study known to mankind, not one -- zero, zilch, nada -- says there is a
correlation between IQ and creativity. This is good, because it means every one
of us can become more creative.

Remarkably simple, yet painfully difficult

I just finished The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni. Great book, as always from Lencioni. One particular quote in the book stuck out to me:

In fact, building a strong team is both possible and remarkably simple. But it is painfully difficult.

This sentiment is also true of having ideas. If you substitute having more ideas for building a strong team, you get:

In fact, having more ideas is both possible and remarkably simple. But it is painfully difficult.

Simple because all you have to do is stop killing ideas. Painfully difficult because it is hard to overcome your own self doubt. It takes courage to present your ideas when you know they will likely get shot down. It hurts a little (or a lot) when you get ideas that don't work. And that's just getting over killing your own ideas. It's also painfully difficult to get over the habit of killing other people's ideas. "Yes, but" and its friends just keep jumping in the way.

But take heart. Now that you know to expect something painfully difficult, you know to stick it out and keep practicing your idea having skills. And if you can stick out something painfully difficult, it will put you ahead of the crowd.

Find your idea champions

When I was a little girl, my favorite book was Christmas in Ladybug Village. At the age of 2, I had the whole thing memorized. This included the dedication which read:

"This book is dedicated to my mother, who has always believed in my work."

Do you have someone who has always believed in your work? Everyone should. This person is your idea champion. Sit down right now and make a list of your idea champion[s]. Then call them when you feel down. Seek out more idea champions. Surround yourself with people who are confident enough to love ideas, even when they didn't think of them.

Your idea champions believe in you even when you kill your own ideas.

Thanks Mom.

Fake Steve's one pair of glasses

I love to read Fake Steve (note that if you are easily offended, Fake Steve is not for you). It's likely you've heard of it, but if not, it's journalist Daniel Lyons impersonating Apple CEO Steve Jobs via blog. Hilarious.

It's spilling over with idea inspiration. My favorite part about it is that it delivers real news about technology in a way that is much more entertaining than if I found all the articles he references on my own.

Recently, he wrote this post on Robert Metcalfe and others. Funny, if insulting, as usual, but this paragraph got me thinking:

I call it the "one pair of glasses" theory. You see it all the time. People know one thing and they think that this one thing can be applied to every problem, because it's the only way they know how to look at the world. They've got one pair of glasses.

This gave me a good concept for idea transformation. Instead of having just one pair of glasses, get yourself a bunch.

Let's say you need some fresh ideas for your business. Think about ideas that have been successful in a totally different industry. Look through those "glasses" and write down all the ways those ideas might work for you. Then put on "glasses" from a different industry and repeat. Repeat as many times as you like, with as many pairs of glasses as you can find. Then go back, pick the best ones, and refine.

Of course it doesn't have to be industry glasses. It could be product glasses, or style glasses, or profession glasses, or competitor glasses, or any other kind of glasses you can think of.

How many pairs of glasses can you look through to get new ideas?

Make new friends

Often, you can get some of your best ideas from building off the ideas of others. That's why it pays a lot to know a lot of other people.

But how can you expand your network and meet new people? Try volunteering.

You could volunteer in the traditional sense. Like for your favorite charity or arts organization. Maybe you could join a committee at your child's school. Or even the board of a local professional association.

You can also volunteer at work. Seek out additional projects that will allow you to work with different people and outside departments.

It's not always easy and it takes time, but the idea payoff is worth it.

Failure = Better Ideas

I came across a quote in a Business Week that I love. The article (full article here) talks about IBM Research Director John Kelly's strategy for research and development. In it is this quote from Kelly:


"If we don't fail a third of the time, we're not stretching enough."


He lives by the first step of having more ideas.

No raining on your idea parade

Sometimes people won't like your ideas. Even the good ones! And it will be hard. But don't let it get you down. Just keep coming up with new ideas, and eventually you'll hit on one that will work.

And if you really think that rejected idea is worth something... hold on to it until the right opportunity to use it comes up.

Letting go of idea ownership

I just finished Seducing the Boys Club by Nina Disena. Great book. One of the things she talks about is how everyone wins with collaboration. She references an excellent quote from Ronald Reagan:

"It is unlimited what we can accomplish when no one cares who gets the credit."

Sometimes, when someone takes one of your ideas and runs with it, it can be hard to let it go. It's hard not to find yourself thinking -hey! that's MY idea!

Just take it as the ultimate compliment and remember that more and greater ideas are born when everyone contributes.