Author Archive
Idea Discovery: Article – Why Your Best Ideas Happen In The Most Unusual Places
Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here’s my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.
Are you looking for your next BIG IDEA? It might be time for a bathroom break! Read this latest article about how some of today’s great ideas were started in the oddest of places.
Read the article here
My goal is to serve you with resources and strategies that help you clarify, organize, and implement your ideas.
Stay connected with me for more Idea Discoveries.
IdeaSuccessNetwork.com
Sylvia Henderson, Your Idea Coach
Author: “Hey, That’s MY Idea! How to Communicate and Get Recognized for What You Know and Think”
Idea Discovery: Website – Bizopy
Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here’s my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.
Came across this site recently called Bizopy and saw that it was founded by Dane Carlson, a gentleman whose other idea site I highlighted on a previous Idea Discovery.
Bizopy is a site where people around the world share their ideas in the hopes that the core of someone else’s successful idea will help another person implement something similar using their own personal touches, resulting in matching success or better. The site is loaded with photos, which you click on to get a description/explanation. You could literally spend hours here.
Enjoy and please share with your friends, family and business associates!
My goal is to serve you with resources and strategies that help you clarify, organize, and implement your ideas.
Stay connected with me for more Idea Discoveries.
IdeaSuccessNetwork.com
Sylvia Henderson, Your Idea Coach
Author: “Hey, That’s MY Idea! How to Communicate and Get Recognized for What You Know and Think”
MLK 50th Anniversary March on Washington, DC
What a Saturday! Mom and Dad left me, as a toddler, with my Aunt and came to DC to march with MLK, Jr. for the “real” march 50 years ago. I had to experience just a little of what they marched, sat-in at lunch counters, walked instead of rode buses, and went to jail (Dad) for at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington DC on August 24. To see the MLK Memorial Statue, hear the various groups’ chants, feel the energy, and see the variety of people who came to commemorate and celebrate was a moving experience. These are the photos I took to capture the event.
eWN Conference 2013 Takeaways – Part 3
I am attending the eWomenNetwork International Conference and Business Expo and wanted to share some of the takeaways I have gathered over the last few days. I hope by reading some things I have learned it will help you, my readers, gain some insight to possible struggles you might face whether personally OR professionally. If you know family, friends or co-workers who could benefit from any of the takeaways I share, please pay them forward!
Take-Away from Marc Ostrofsky (Author of “Get Rich Click” & “Word of Mouse”)
Marc’s advice was short & to the point. For a business to be “Shark Tank-able” it must be able to operate without us as owners/entrepreneurs; must be scalable; must be saleable. We need to take ourselves & emotions out of our business planning and create a foundation that goes beyond “us”.
My take: It’s a tough thing to do when we’re so close to our own “stuff”. When we need to get of our own heads – our own stuff – to create a sustainable and solid business beyond us, we need trust partners and advisory boards who will help us strategize our ideas into operational plans. That’s how I help entrepreneurs get out of their heads and into action.
#ewnconf2013 #ideasuccess
eWN Conference 2013 Takeaways – Part 2
I am attending the eWomenNetwork International Conference and Business Expo and wanted to share some of the takeaways I have gathered over the last few days. I hope by reading some things I have learned it will help you, my readers, gain some insight to possible struggles you might face whether personally OR professionally. If you know family, friends or co-workers who could benefit from any of the takeaways I share, please pay them forward!
Take-away from #eWNPublishing program:
Book ideas – We must not hold our “I want to write a book” ideas inside us until everything’s perfect, ie: we have it all figured out, have an agent, and a publisher is ready to work with us. Between self-publishing, vanity publishing, publishing with the “do it for you” assistance of eWN, and traditional publishing there’s little excuse for keeping our messages inside. Kindle publishing is huge! And not just for the Kindle(TM) device itself. I can read Kindle-formatted books on my Windows-based system and on my Android phone. Get your ideas onto “paper” and write 20 pages to start that 100+ page book. Then get those 20 pages into the Kindle system so that you’ve got SOMETHING written with your ideas out.
#ewnconf2013
eWN Conference 2013 Takeaways – Part 1
I am attending the eWomenNetwork International Conference and Business Expo and wanted to share some of the takeaways I have gathered over the last few days. I hope by reading some things I have learned it will help you, my readers, gain some insight to possible struggles you might face whether personally OR professionally. If you know family, friends or co-workers who could benefit from any of the takeaways I share, please pay them forward!
Take-away from #HyrumSmith program: Two items really “stick”.
1. Being a person for whom communicating ideas effectively is of huge importance, what Hyrum said about vocabulary resonated with me. He said that you cannot think any deeper than your vocabulary will allow you to. The breadth of your vocabulary dictates the openness of your thinking. My take: when you limit your vocabulary to text-speak and cursing, you limit your thinking to the same low levels. How can you get others to understand and support your ideas when you keep your words and your thinking so tightly bound?
2. This take-away applies to any educational session we attend to help make what we learn stay with us. He suggested that we write about/take notes on the topic, then think about the session for 36 hours, and finally, to teach someone else the material we learned. By then the topic will be a part of us and will stick with us. My take: When we just listen, we forget most of what we’ve heard. When we use multiple senses AND turn around and teach someone else, we’ve burned the topic into our minds enough that it stays with us.
Take-away from #SallyHogshead program:
When I understand my archetype (as she presents archetypes through her Fascination Advantage assessment and tools) I can use my strengths to be “more myself” and use who I am to be more fascinating to my clients, my potential clients, my family, and my business associates. I can be more congruent “on stage” and “off stage” so that I present my genuine self proudly. When I need a balanced team to support me I must find people who are my opposite archetype to complement me. Within her Fascination Advantage model I am a Maverick Leader…pioneering and irreverent; entrepreneural. My primary trigger is rebellion; I change the game with creativity. My secondary trigger is power; I lead with command. Helping people clarify their ideas (the creativity part) and strategize to implement ideas (the command / leader part) suits me!
#ewnconf2013
Idea Discovery: Website – Side Hustle HQ
Make your IMPACT(c) … one idea at a time!
Here’s my Idea Discovery for today to help you do just that.
Many individuals are struggling to make ends meet. Here’s is an innovative new website called Side Hustle HQ, which offers hundreds of money-making business and job ideas. It’s a great resource for those looking to make more money and a great place to network with other entrepreneurs.
My goal is to serve you with resources and strategies that help you clarify, organize, and implement your ideas.
Stay connected with me for more Idea Discoveries.
Sylvia Henderson, Your Idea Coach
Author: “Hey, That’s MY Idea! How to Communicate and Get Recognized for What You Know and Think”
Five Take-Aways to Help You Take Your Ideas A Ways Forward
What’s the use in attending conferences if you don’t have take-aways that bring you a return on your investment? To elicit a return on my investment my take-aways need to either benefit myself personally, or my clients and potential clients directly or indirectly by helping me to better serve you.
So here are five take-aways I’ve garnered from my conference experiences that you can apply to your businesses and life right away.
1. Hypergrowth through incremental steps. Apply laws of hypergrowth to your business or profession. The law of least effort is that hard doesn’t make things better; only harder. Simple gets things going more quickly, and any improvement is better than none. The law I especially like is the law of compounding…that small changes to interrelate parts of your business multiply each other. Instead of looking at our ideas as all or nothing, when we make continual positive cumulative improvements we grow our results consistently. For example, a 15% growth in business can mean just going from six clients to seven clients. When we use this perspective, doing what it takes to gain one more client is “doable” and we can realize an encouraging growth factor that motivates us to keep going and growing.
2. Societal pendulum – “me” and “we” cycles. Society experiences two cycles of public opinion and thinking – a “me” cycle and a “we” cycle. Based on the book “Pendulum” by Michael Drew and Roy Williams, we swing between these two cycles and reach the peak of each every 40 years. If we don’t realize the cycle we’re in and the cycle we’re moving towards, our focus and our messaging will be out of sync. If we’re heading – or are already in – to a “me” cycle, our messaging should focus on freedom, personal liberty, big dreams, a desire to be the best, individualism, elevating one person higher than “the rest”, and to paraphrase from Star Trek(TM)…”The needs of the one outweighs the needs of the many”. The most-recent “me” cycle is 1963-2003; think “Baby Boomer” and X generations. If we’re heading – or are already in – to a “we” cycle, our messaging should focus on conformity for the common good, creating a better world, small actions leading to large results, teams, individual humility and thoughtful people, solving societal problems to strengthen the whole, and again from Star Trek(TM)…”Logic clearly dictates that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few”. The most-recent “we” cycle is 2003-2043; think Millennials and Re-Gen/Homelander generations. Know the cycle you’re experiencing and where along the pendulum swing in that cycle we’re heading, then target your idea messaging and your business focus towards the prevalent values.
3. Creative problem-solving process. When we work through problems and challenges and come up with ideas to solve them, we follow specific processes consistently. Many models exist – some with four steps, six steps, or seven steps – that define such problem-solving processes. The model to which I am acclimated is the FourSight(R) model. This model consists of four phases: clarify, ideate, develop, and implement. Each of us tends to be strong in one or two of these phases, yet every phase is essential if we are to move from situation to ideas to solution to action. If we work within a team, the ideally productive team has a collective set of members with varying strengths in each phase. Clarifiers are good at details and like to get a clear understanding of issues before leaping into ideas, solutions, or action. Ideators are “idea people” – great with generating a lot of ideas, developing concepts, and seeing possibilities. Developers like analyzing potential solutions, exploring strengths and weaknesses and examining alternatives to turn rough ideas into well-crafted implementation plans. Implementers get their energy from taking action on those implementation plans. They focus on getting things done, period. None of these phases – or strengths – are good or bad. We must realize that to solve problems and implement ideas, we need to travel through all four phases of the creative problem-solving process.
4. Unlock your brain. When you need to get your sluggish brain in gear to work through an idea, shake-up an old habit or alter a routine. Do things backwards. Try a different color pen or print font. Walk through a different door. Schedule an “off” time for a meeting. Take a different route home. Use your other hand (from your dominant one) to do things. Ask “silly questions”. Engage in “serious play” with build-anything toys like Legos(TM) or Geomags(TM).
5. Storytelling: “But I don’t have a story to tell.” Most of us know that effective messaging – whether in a presentation, on a stage of thousands, on our website, or in our marketing – must include stories of some type. Stories captivate, elicit emotions, and move us. We sell on emotion and support with facts. I experience people at times who say they don’t have, or can’t think of, stories to tell. So here’s a tip…use other people’s stories! Read or watch or listen to “how they got there” or “how they did it” stories of people you admire or who are prominent in your (or your client’s) industry. Then relate their stories to your message, giving appropriate acknowledgment to the story originator of course. You will be perceived as a good storyteller and also as a researcher who knows her or his stuff!
Use any or all of these take-aways and apply them within the next 30 days, and you will authenticate the return on my investment in the conferences and retreats I’ve attended. When you attend your own (you DO engage in personal and professional development, don’t you?), strive to identify some of your own take-aways and share them with others to solidify your return on your investment in the experiences.
NSA Convention 2013 – 7/28/13
Attending the National Speakers Association’s international conference in Phila PA. Takeaway from #ChrisClarkeEpstein – implementing ideas after a conference for ROA (return on attendance) or ROI (return on investment):
Based on research by Robert O. Brinkerhoff – “What is the implementation rate for how many people implement the ideas they get from a conference?”
A. 86% don’t implement
A1. 15% never even try
A2. 70% try, have trouble, then give up
B. 15% use what ideas they get and obtain measurable results
I’ll host a webinar called “Integrate Your Ideas into the Rest of Your Life” on August 21, 2013 @ 7:00pm. Get your subscription to “Idea Success Notes” @ IdeaSuccessNetwork-dot-com to get the most current info and call-in numbers.
I’ll help YOU add to the implementing 15%!
PS: Stay tuned for my upcoming #IdeaSuccessTelesummit for September, 2013 to further ensure you implement your ideas.
Sylvia
Post-Its(TM)
Went to the US Postal Service Museum (Smithsonian) and this exhibit made my heart sing! Post-Its(TM) all over. They must have a deal with 3M!!
