Before we talk about how to come up with great ideas, we have to discuss what exactly is a “great idea”?
A great idea is something that’s memorable and change’s people’s emotional state.
A Great idea conveys one message that’s supported by various elements. Some of these elements were discussed in ” How To Make Your Ideas Stick“.
So, How does one come up with these “Great Ideas”
Great ideas come to people “randomly”, but there are some exercises we can do to make them come to you more often. Great ideas come to you when you are least expecting and they come from conscious or unconscious connections that your brain makes.
Consume For Unconscious Mind
If you want to come up with a great idea on a certain topic, you must know almost everything there is to about that topic.
You can quickly do this by reading popular books on this topic.
This is going to help you with 2 major things: You will have a basic understanding of the topic. Second, you also know how the majority of the people think about this topic because you have consumed the same content that others have.
Most of this content is very easy to read because they are made for average people to get a basic grasp of the topic. They are very elementary.
This is very important because you need to know how people are creating logic whenever they hear the topic you are writing about. This is why, I read almost everything that’s popular, not because I want to brainwash myself, but so that I know what thinking pattern I need to break or use in order to promote whatever I am promoting.
After this, I also consume content that’s a little complex about the topic, so that I can use that to fill in the gap in the elementary concepts that I have learned.
I would recommend you make notes about what you read and glance at it every day in the morning and before you go to bed. This is important because we need to remind our unconscious mind that this is the topic we need to think about.
This is an example of notes i took when reading a book, Notice that my notes are not extensive, they are few words that will trigger what i need to know. I write these out with my hand, this is helpful because your brain remembers things that you WRITE more than what you TYPE on the computer, then I just glance over this once in a while to make sure this is saved in my long-term memory.
Reading People’s Mind
The next step to coming up with a great idea is to get into your audience’s head. You need to be able to think about how would someone react to what you are about to say.
How do you do this?
I read reviews, and comments of my audience. I do this by joining groups on Facebook, and Reddit and looking at reviews on Amazon.
Facebook Groups:
I join several facebook groups related to my topic and analyze the posts and comments. What i am looking for here is a pattern. I want to see what is the kind of content they are fond of or what is the content that’s causing them to feel unhappy. I also go look at their profiles and see their lifestyle, are they heavy spender, do most of them have family? Are they part of another group. What i also do is naively make a post asking a question i know people will respond to then i might even take it further by having a chat witht them. At this point, i just listen, make them feel important and keep digging for their “WHY”?
Reddit/Quora:
I try to avoid having personal conversation with people on reddit. I use a “throw away” handle to do all the things, such as reply to comments, ask questions and look over what people are saying. I also spy their profile and check what other “subreddit” they are part of and what is their commenting habit like. On Quora, I am looking for the RIGHT QUESTIONS people are asking and which answers are getting the most upvotes, this is helpful when getting into people’s head because you want to start out your copy with something that they agree with then throw in your own ideas to lead them towoards you.
Amazon Reivews:
Amazon reviews are gold mine, especially the ones with bad ratings so you know what to improve on your product.
But take it with salt of grain because a lot of vendors are paying people or giving incentive to post fake reviews
The following amazon reviews is important becuase it talks about glitches this “robot cleaner” has and you will notice that a lot of other people are talking about it having glitches too.
Second place to look on amazon is the “Review Word Cloud” This will show you things that you could include on your idea.
Be Ready To Receive
Once you have consumed the information, looked at what people are saying about your topic, you will get an idea, but you need to be ready to write it down. I promise you, you will not remember it alter, so have a pen and paper ready next to your bed, because most of the time you will get these after waking up or after a shower or whenever you are on a walk. You will get these great ideas when you least expect it, don’t try to force it, it will come to you.
