How To Be More Innovative: Build the idea muscle!

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Innovative. The sexiest word we love to put onto our Cvs/resumes. It just looks and sounds ….good!

But can we really build and improve this whole innovative skill we adore so much.

Can we fine tune it so its ready to use anytime we want? To have it resting in our holster ready to fire away when needed?

You can.

James Altucher has a great way of achieving this which he reveals in his latest book “Choose Yourself.” I bought his book purely from reading his “idea muscle exercise” on a guest post he wrote.

It worked for me and if you do the daily routine it will work for you. Guaranteed.

Its so simple, yet so effective.

Heres what you do;

Write 10 ideas. Daily.

Thats it.

And I mean any kind of idea you can think of. And list them.

It could be 10 business ideas.

10 iphone app ideas.

10 ways to surprise your lover.

10 ways you can trick your friends into thinking you are half Lithuanian?

Really anything you can think of. Mix and match the themes. Go crazy. The most important thing is making sure you get 10 of them!

Some days will be harder than others. The main goal is to (and this is how James Altucher puts it) make your brain SWEAT! Trust me, if you force yourself to get to 10 everyday, it will do just that. I often get stuck at idea number 7. The last 3 I really have to force and push myself to complete. But more often then not, the last 3 are the best! Pretty cool huh?

This exercise will build your creativity, your imagination and your idea muscle.

I have an idea packet. Its a little plastic bag (the kind you’d expect to find drugs in) which I carry with me wherever I go. Its filled with dozens and dozens of folded bits of paper which are filled with ideas. As often as I can I go through the packet and review the ideas. Some are really just terrible. Embarrassingly bad. But there will be a few that I’ll pick out and build upon. I know that I would of have never arrived at these good ideas if I hadn’t gone through the bad ones.

The real hidden advantage to adding this excersise to your daily habits is that it really does build your idea muscle – making you more innovative.

One day you’ll be put on the spot by your boss who is asking for a suggestion ,or some sort of creative input and you will find your brain naturally racing towards just that! A creative idea. It would have sweated so much in training that now creating those ideas when they are needed seems so easy.

I know it sounds odd and almost pointless, but by doing your daily ten you are making your brain an idea machine! Plus the best part is you can make the lists about anything you want. If you need to improve your workspace, write 10 ways how you can do exactly that.

So give it a go.

Take out a bit of paper and write!

You’ll be surprised at what comes out.

RS
P.S – remember that ideation without execution is delusion. So get your ideas out there into the world!

3 Quick & Easy Ways You Can Become A High Performer

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1) Brutal honesty – Ask yourself; “Whats the ONE thing I truly want?” GET ULTRA SPECIFIC.

 

2) Ask for help – Reach out to your network. Get in contact with people who are already doing what you want to do. You’d be surprised how many people are willing to give free advice as long as they are approached in the right way

 

3) Surround yourself with other top performers – Bad company corrupts good character! So try to make sure the 5 people who you are with the most throughout your day are just as enthusiastic about being a top performer.

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More lessons from the legendary book “INFLUENCE” by Dr. Robert Cialdini coming soon..

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You are invited to the exclusive, one time only, limited look at the …..scarcity-principle ?

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“We believe we are the consumers, but we are the consumed.” — Bryant H. McGill

We love exclusiveness.

Anything that is “Invite only,” “One day only” “Members only” “one and only” sure does get us intrigued. 

It could be having the social status of being able to say to our friends “Oh sorry you have to be a member” makes ourselves feel special, it makes ourselves feel …..exclusive. 

This is why loyalty schemes work so well. You are given rewards for your loyalty and for choosing to be a member of that companies scheme. Only you are introduced to offers that are not advertised the wider public. Better snap up the exclusive bargain!

Not only is the dating website beautifulpeople.com exclusively tailored for good looking individuals, but when it was first launched you could only gain access by being invited by an existing member. (i.e someone who thinks you are good looking) As vein and shallow as the website sounds it makes you wonder who are these people on this glorious website, how can I gain access? I want to look at single beautiful women too! Exclusiveness creates curiosity. (Google+ also started out as “invite only” but I decided to use the dating website example purely for the uniqueness of it)

This ties nicely in to the scarcity-principle.

How many times have you been looking at a product in store pondering wether or not to buy it, you approach a sales assistant for a little more information, its not long until you are told that this particular item you are indecisive about buying is the in fact the last one. After this one is sold he is unsure whether the store will ever get anymore back in.

Thats it. Fear kicks in. You don’t want to risk never being able to own the product. You buy it!

The same technique is used enormously by estate agents. Whilst being shown around a property and you display some interest, but a equal amount of uncertainty in the house/flat, its very likely you will be fed an all too popular story of “thers another couple showing great interest in this same property and seemed very keen to buy, infact they were looking to move in as soon as next week.” The is done;

  1. to create a sense of urgency so that you make a decision
  2. to make you want it more by there being a chance of you NOT being able to have it.

Quite simply a lot of us a lot of the time are 3 year old toddlers again – We want what we cant have.

Limited availability. Limited stock. Limited time. All of these push us into buying, even when we don’t really want to buy. 

Amongst other persuasion techniques and influence tactics, the scarcity-principle is one of the most effective and widely used by businesses.

I have many others to show you, so stick around, this blog wont be around forever 😉

Reuben.

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Why you can charge big bucks for something that is “convenient”

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Convenience Is King.

You don’t have to be following any business/marketing blogs for very long to read statements like;

“Content is king” … OR

“You got it all wrong, Email is still and always will be king”…OR

“No no dumb-dumb, social media is the king”

Can I just put this out here? The factor that holds all of these together. The reason why your latest video gets watched, your email gets opened your ebook gets downloaded is because of the convenience.

Convenience. Convenience for the customer. The ease of reading email straight from our iphones wherever we are. Checking out the latest posts from our favourite blogs whilst in awkward lunchtime encounters at work.

In Derek Halpern’s latest video he explains how people are willing to pay top dollar for convenience.

  • Uber lets you book a taxi at the click of a button (the cost is practically double)
  •  Pre cut fruit cost 2 to 5 x more money than whole in tact fruit – it eliminates the need to cut it yourself so they charge that extra $.
  • Next day delivery sure is handy. Those of us that hate waiting, we are happy enough to pay the more than doubled charge than standard delivery cost.

So it is quite clear how leveraging the convenience factor can help increase profits in your business.

How can you create convenience for your customer? It maybe something as simple as creating a ebook which answers every possible fear and question they could have when using your product. Or it could be a more elaborate service like offering 24 hour live chat support….Who knows?

All you have to do is create an option where you do 100% of the work for them, where you make it so ridiculously easy, so damn convenient that they will wonder why you aren’t charging an even higher price! Convenience is king…

Reuben.

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