1
00:00:03,480 --> 00:00:07,680
Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio.

2
00:00:08,960 --> 00:00:15,240
Speaker 2: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

3
00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:21,120
Speaker 1: Today's tip is that mediocre ideas might lead to good ideas.

4
00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:26,000
Speaker 1: Don't edit yourself for dismiss ideas as bad too soon.

5
00:00:27,360 --> 00:00:31,240
Speaker 1: Let lots of ideas flow and then decide whether any

6
00:00:31,240 --> 00:00:35,000
Speaker 1: of the ideas are workable. Sometimes you may come up

7
00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,199
Speaker 1: with great ideas as you are looking at ones that

8
00:00:38,280 --> 00:00:43,400
Speaker 1: are anything. But I'm sure many people listening to this

9
00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:45,760
Speaker 1: podcast need to come up with ideas.

10
00:00:45,360 --> 00:00:48,760
Speaker 2: All the time. Perhaps you work in a creative field

11
00:00:48,760 --> 00:00:51,640
Speaker 2: and need to come up with content, or maybe you

12
00:00:51,680 --> 00:00:54,440
Speaker 2: are coming up with new product ideas or ways to

13
00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:59,000
Speaker 2: reach new clients or keep your employees engaged. Or you

14
00:00:59,120 --> 00:01:01,720
Speaker 2: just have various problems and logistics in your life that

15
00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:05,360
Speaker 2: you are constantly dealing with, or your friends and family

16
00:01:05,400 --> 00:01:09,880
Speaker 2: expect you to plan wonderful adventures for them. A great

17
00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:14,560
Speaker 2: idea seems obvious in retrospect, but breakthroughs tend not to

18
00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,200
Speaker 2: just appear like a shaft of light coming down from

19
00:01:18,240 --> 00:01:22,400
Speaker 2: the sky, weird as it may seem. Sometimes the best

20
00:01:22,440 --> 00:01:25,120
Speaker 2: way to come up with a great idea is to

21
00:01:25,160 --> 00:01:29,880
Speaker 2: generate lots of ridiculous ones. That is because the process

22
00:01:29,880 --> 00:01:33,720
Speaker 2: of generating the ridiculous ones has your brain turning, and

23
00:01:33,840 --> 00:01:36,000
Speaker 2: soon you start to make connections and come up with

24
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:41,520
Speaker 2: other ideas. You never know where the initial thought will lead,

25
00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:45,720
Speaker 2: so rather than dismiss ideas out of hand, just get

26
00:01:45,760 --> 00:01:48,080
Speaker 2: them down with an open mind and see what they trigger.

27
00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:52,200
Speaker 2: For instance, maybe you and your college friends can't decide

28
00:01:52,200 --> 00:01:56,080
Speaker 2: where to go for a long weekend together. People suggest

29
00:01:56,120 --> 00:01:59,600
Speaker 2: ideas that others shoot down. You seem to be hitting

30
00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:03,440
Speaker 2: an impact, but then you just decide to see how

31
00:02:03,520 --> 00:02:06,200
Speaker 2: many possibilities you can come up with, even if they

32
00:02:06,200 --> 00:02:09,880
Speaker 2: are ridiculous. Just to be funny, you throw out thirty

33
00:02:09,919 --> 00:02:13,880
Speaker 2: six hours in Auckland. Someone mentions camping in the Everglades

34
00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:18,120
Speaker 2: in August, But after that someone mentions Lake Como, and

35
00:02:18,440 --> 00:02:20,480
Speaker 2: then you remember that you had a blast at a

36
00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:25,160
Speaker 2: cabin on much more accessible like George. Once you realize

37
00:02:25,200 --> 00:02:29,079
Speaker 2: that might actually work for a weekend together, bad ideas

38
00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:32,720
Speaker 2: lead to a good one. Or perhaps you need a

39
00:02:32,720 --> 00:02:36,160
Speaker 2: cat setter and your old one just moved away. Rather

40
00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:40,600
Speaker 2: than edit yourself, just list any mediocre possibility. The neighbor

41
00:02:40,639 --> 00:02:43,600
Speaker 2: who helps you out but is allergic to cats, your

42
00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:46,000
Speaker 2: friend's teen daughter who just got her license but lives

43
00:02:46,000 --> 00:02:49,600
Speaker 2: thirty minutes away. And then you remember that another friend's

44
00:02:49,639 --> 00:02:52,600
Speaker 2: niece moved to town and is job seeking and might

45
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:55,280
Speaker 2: be excited to earn a little extra money while she's

46
00:02:55,280 --> 00:02:58,640
Speaker 2: got some oop in time. I know I've had this

47
00:02:58,720 --> 00:03:03,600
Speaker 2: experience with generating podcast ideas and book ideas. Book ideas

48
00:03:03,639 --> 00:03:06,960
Speaker 2: in particular are challenging because the idea needs to be

49
00:03:07,000 --> 00:03:10,919
Speaker 2: good enough to sustain seventy thousand words and my interest

50
00:03:11,160 --> 00:03:14,560
Speaker 2: for two years of my life. But rather than waiting

51
00:03:14,600 --> 00:03:16,880
Speaker 2: for the perfect idea, I come up with dozens of

52
00:03:17,160 --> 00:03:21,880
Speaker 2: mediocre ideas and write articles about them and write podcast

53
00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,800
Speaker 2: scripts about them and see what people say. If I

54
00:03:25,840 --> 00:03:28,200
Speaker 2: get a lot of feedback about one, that might mean

55
00:03:28,240 --> 00:03:31,240
Speaker 2: it's worth pursuing, or at least that a different angle

56
00:03:31,760 --> 00:03:36,160
Speaker 2: might ultimately be workable. So if you are stuck on

57
00:03:36,200 --> 00:03:40,320
Speaker 2: a difficult problem, generate as many possible solutions as you can.

58
00:03:41,480 --> 00:03:45,200
Speaker 2: Don't evaluate the solutions as you think of them. Instead,

59
00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:49,240
Speaker 2: just write them down, ones with potential, ones that would

60
00:03:49,240 --> 00:03:53,680
Speaker 2: probably not work, ones that are downright ridiculous, and keep

61
00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:57,520
Speaker 2: letting the possibilities flow. Often you will come up with

62
00:03:57,600 --> 00:03:59,760
Speaker 2: a better idea this way because you'll be more open

63
00:03:59,760 --> 00:04:03,720
Speaker 2: mind and creative about what could work instead of getting

64
00:04:03,720 --> 00:04:08,480
Speaker 2: stuck on why things wouldn't work. Mediocre ideas lead to

65
00:04:08,520 --> 00:04:13,160
Speaker 2: good ideas. It happens all the time. In the meantime.

66
00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:18,440
Speaker 2: This is Laura. Thanks for listening, and here's to making

67
00:04:18,480 --> 00:04:29,000
Speaker 2: the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.

68
00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:33,320
Speaker 2: If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach

69
00:04:33,360 --> 00:04:43,040
Speaker 2: me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

70
00:04:43,080 --> 00:04:47,360
Speaker 2: is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,

71
00:04:47,400 --> 00:04:51,440
Speaker 2: please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

72
00:04:51,520 --> 00:05:02,919
Speaker 2: listen to your favorite shows.