By the way, the word “launch” was NOT invented by an online marketer (although my buddy Jeff Walker certainly owns it now)!
But after a career of launches, online and offline, there are two truths that apply whenever you are brainstorming your latest and greatest ideas.
And to give you the punch line of the subject line, the location of where your best ideas go to die are, very often, in your BEST brainstorming meetings!
How many meetings have you attended where there were way more ideas than anyone could deal with…and then you ended up doing nothing?
Let me explain further by giving you today’s TWO quotes from two of the most important mentors in my career:
“First find out if you have a business.”
-Gordon Grossman, Direct Mail Guru and one of the business builders at Reader’s Digest in the 60’s and 70’s
AND
“Where does the money flow?”
-Adolph Auerbacher, Former Senior VP/Meredith Corporation and Magazine Publishing Guru
New ideas are the lifeblood of any business, and brainstorming, ideation or whatever you prefer to call it, is critical to your success.
BUT how many brainstorming sessions have you been a part of where you end up with way too many ideas and not enough action? I know they say there are no bad ideas in brainstorming – but it might be time to get rid of that rule. Focusing on bad ideas will kill your best ideas.
So how do you avoid this? That’s where today’s quotes come in.
If you go into every brainstorming session asking the question “what do we absolutely have to test to prove the business model?”, you will find that bad ideas have nowhere to hide…
And then if you follow that up with “where does the money flow?” (and it doesn’t matter if it is money related to profit, charity or whatever), you’ll prevent your mini version of the dotcom bust…
Always remember: Revenue and/or profit (or some other “monetary metric”) is how we keep score.
Never leave a brainstorm without asking these questions…and your best ideas will not only live but they might even see the light of day…
Warmly,
Brian
p.s. What is one marketing roadblock you’re facing right now? I want these emails to be as helpful as possible so hit reply and let me know what you’d like me to write about next.