4 Strategies I Use To Generate My Best Ideas
Although I do not have a visual mind at all (I don’t even notice when my wife rearranges the furniture in our house), I do have a very creative mind. I find it very difficult to turn off my thoughts and have had to create strategies that allow me to slow my mind down. invariably when I do this, my best and most successful ideas or solutions pop into my head.
1. Massages
I make sure I get a massage at least every fortnight, my favourite is a Hawaiian Lomi Lomi massage from hawaiiankahuna.co.nz. Apart from the obvious stress relieving benefits of a massage, I find that during the massage, my mind slows down and I can think extremely clearly.
2. Kickboxing
I try and go kickboxing at least twice a week (at Urban Sports in Birkenhead). On a Monday, we have a private class for anyone that works at Pure SEO. I find this type of exercise particularly useful if there is something stressful going on at work or home. I get to vent my frustrations in a productive and focused manner. This often allows me to put the issues into perspective and ultimately resolve them in my head. An ancillary benefit is the team building aspect, we have people coming from different departments who get to interact with each other in a non-work environment (plus they get to punch the CEO!!!)
3. Conferences
I have a thirst for learning and regularly attend business or marketing events. I love listening to new ideas and having my mindset and views challenged. I also have a very short attention span and my mind tends to wander quite easily. On one such occasion, at a conference in Sydney, my mind started to wander and I thought it would be great idea to write a book about SEO. The reason; we can’t help micro businesses, there is so much mis-information in our industry and there is a proliferation of cowboys, plus it would be a great marketing exercise. I came back to Auckland and pitched the idea to Penguin RandomHouse, within 9 months my book, How to Get to The Top of Google, was published and available in retailers nationwide!
4. Podcasts
My favourite podcast at the moment is How I Built This with Guy Raz. I listen to them daily whenever I am driving by myself. The podcasts themselves give me great ideas, but also remind me of things I have thought of in the past and never actioned. Some of my most effective marketing strategies have come to me whilst listening to a podcast.
When you are young you think that everybody thinks in the same way, as you grow up you realise we all think differently. I know a lot of people with a high D profile (very self-assured and domineering), I have learnt a lot from people like this. They often have an unwavering belief that what they think is right (even if it’s not). However, because of that belief, they are often extremely successful people.