Making Ideas Productive

Create and develop business and marketing ideas

Mike Handcock is co-owner of the ‘Rock Your Life’ and ‘Entrepreneur X Factor’ brands and I try and see him speak when he comes to town because he does this for me. Look at www.rockyourlife.net for info.

The thing that resonated with me was how he creates and develops business and marketing ideas. It made so much sense to me at such a basic level that I wanted to share it with you.

It is based in the 5000 year old teachings of ‘I-Ching’ that focusses on the elements and creates    5 key questions from them. These are in a specific order, the last of which is ‘How’.

How is a metal element and solid in nature so focussing on this removes flexibility of thought and action. Yet it is the first question most of us ask. If I say to a client “I will double your sales” they automatically ask how? It kills all the creativity right there!

But this is out of order. Look at the difference when you work in order. 

1) Water, which is fluid and grows. It is the ‘why’ question. You need to ask your big WHY – why am I doing this? The now famous Simon Sinek Ted Talk is offered as this month's video (June 2014) and shows the ‘why’ beautifully. It is also important in modern marketing because potential customers are now interested in your motivations and reasons for doing what you are doing. When you know why you are doing something it becomes your focal point on which everything else is built.

2) Wood grows from the water and is the ‘what’ question. What will we do? What form will marketing take and what will we achieve.

3) Fire is the next element and is the ‘who’ question. Who do we need to bring into this marketing or project and who are we really targeting?

4) Earth is ‘when’. When will we get these people involved and when do we run this project or marketing. When will we finish and when will we know if it worked?

5) Finally we come back to the metal element – the ‘how.’ If we resist the usual impulse to start here and commence at ‘why’, this question pretty much takes care of itself. From here we start over at why again.

Sounds a bit simple but it really works. If you have tried some marketing that has not worked out, run through the process you used and see if you missed an element out. If you did, chances are this is where the project was less successful.

If you are starting a new project or piece of marketing, try this process. It is simple and it works.

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