- Pairaw
- Posts
- how to never run out of ideas
A week and a half ago I released an email titled:
“lessons in creative philosophy”
I detailed the similarity of fear and desire as the biggest human emotions and how you can use them to improve in your business/life.
One of my readers said: “I’ve never clicked on an email as fast before!”
For some reason, he also thought I have an incredibly intricate ideation system for writing.
Hell no.
The idea for that email literally came from a TikTok comment while I was scrolling.
That’s how most of my ideas come to fruition.
I don’t spend hours thinking
I don’t spend hours journaling
I don’t use complex ideation systems
I have three specific principles I use to turn an empty page —> profitable parables.
Here they are:
1/ Idea Time Machine
When you write a story, you should aim for three things:
1) Relevance
2) Entertainment
3) Value
How relevant is the story to the reader?
How much fun will the reader have reading?
What value can they get out of it that’ll make them come back?
The Idea Time Machine hits all three points perfectly.
It’s relevant to the reader because it’s relevant to you.
It’s fun for the reader because you decided it’s worth writing about.
You can add the value as a “moral of the story” type lesson or CTA..
It’s about taking your past experiences and turning them into stories.
( Don’t be afraid to dramatize them as well. Don’t lie, but don’t make them boring. )
The key is practice.
Not all stories are meant to be told. But if they’re not, then you’ll never know if they were.
Your community FEEDS off of your life and your experiences.
They make you more human and add a layer of intrigue.
Let them eat.
2/ The Swaperoonie
Take your favorite pieces of writing:
Book quotes
Posts
Emails
CTA’s
Copy
I suggest you put most in a swipe file or a folder for later.
Then, swap the key aspects of the writing with your topic at hand.
I do this a lot with creators like @waltxwalt and @thedankoe.
Seriously, I’m a big thief.
The reason this is so effective is twofold:
1: You’re showing the original creator you like their content enough to reform and refine it onto your own topics and ideas.
2: You replicate the viral framework the exact way, which will get you results 90% of the time.
Just a word of warning:
DO. NOT. PLAGIARIZE.
Nobody likes a copy.
Your job should be to refine and reinvest the original work of writing into something of your own taste; keeping the structure and the framework, but transforming and elevating the idea.
A similar thing should be done with brands.
You should take the advice, frameworks and tactics that the greater creators used to build their brand, but never replicate it.
Which is exactly the strategy I use in my new 5 week creativity coaching program.
Over the course of 5 weeks and 5 calls I help you:
- Generate better ideas + monetize them
- Improve your writing skills and get results by writing about your interests
- Build a stand-out brand and community of people who are interested in you and will buy from you
You’ll be given tasks and tips every other day to boost your creativity and improve your business.
1 / 2 spots have been taken.
Reply to this email with “LFG” to learn more.
3/ Systematic Association
My ex.
My ex is dirt.
Dirt has worms, seeds and plants.
Plants have flowers.
Gardens have plants AND flowers.
The mind is like a garden of thought.
Boom. Post.
Let’s try this again.
Potato.
Potatoes reproduce through asexual reproduction
The method they use is called “budding.”
Hey, that’s kind of like ideas!
“Your ideas aren’t sexual.
They reproduce by themselves.
It just takes time and thought.
That one boring idea you had?
It’ll turn into 100 good ones.
Keep thinking.”
Think of any word. Literally anything.
From that one word, you can easily get one, two or three ideas to write about.
I used posts specifically, but this is entirely possible with emails, book chapters, video ideas, scripts, or literally anything else.
The power of creativity in a closed system is overpowered.
You just have to jumpstart those juices by thinking of something and finding a way to write about it.
The best way to do this is to start one word at a time.
Those are the main three methods I use to jumpstart my creative writing process.
But, ideating content is half the battle.
Learning how to leverage and persuade the reader is the other, more important half.
Powers to you,
Z2