What’s your next big idea?
Are you just going through doing the same things, year after year? Or, are you coming up with new ideas to stay ahead of people who are trying to copy you? New ideas don’t always have to be big changes, and they may even come from outside your category or even outside the industry.
Listen to this new, 6-minute episode for some thoughts on how coming up with, and trying new ideas, keeps you fresh and gives you a point of differentiation.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
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– What’s your next big idea? Listen to this episode. Find out what I’m talking about. Hi, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the “Wedding Business Solutions Podcast.” What’s your next big idea? Are you coming up with new ideas or are you just going through the motions, chugging along, chugging along, doing the same thing, same thing, same thing? I’ve used this phrase before, I’m pretty sure I’ve written about it in at least one of the books where I’ve said, you know, for my business “I want to make my own business obsolete before someone does it for me.” People are copying you. And if they’re copying you, they’re copying history. They’re copying what you’ve done.
Because think about it, if they are copying what you did at a wedding or event, they’re copying what you started planning months or years before, they’re copying what you’ve learned over those months and years. What they can’t copy is what you’re going to do at a wedding a year from now or at an event, corporate event six months from now or a bar mitzvah two years from now. They can’t copy that until they see it. And that’s the key. How do you be moving ahead all the time so that you’re a moving target? So, if people are copying you, you don’t mind because they’re copying what you used to do not what you’re doing now, not what you’re offering now. It doesn’t have to be radical new ideas. It can be like just a different twist on something.
Kind of like when I wrote “Wit, Wisdom and the Business of Weddings.” I tried a book that every chapter was a different topic instead of a book that you had to write, or sorry, read front to back, that was something new. It was something different. I didn’t know how it would go over. It turns out it went over really well because people liked that they could read one chapter and then jump around to another without having to have read the one before or after that. Kind of like this podcast. I didn’t know how it would go over when episodes were short. I thought they were all going to be 10 minutes. That was my thing. I was going to put a clock out. I actually did put a timer out and tried to make all the episodes 10 minutes, and it didn’t work because I was trying to squeeze the thought into the timeframe instead of taking the thought and letting it just run its course. And if it’s shorter, it’s shorter. If it’s longer, it’s longer.
I remember the first one I did that was four minutes. I contacted Richie, my producer, and I said, “Hey Richie, it’s four minutes.” He goes, “And?” I said, “It’s four minutes.” He goes, “Did you finish the thought?” I said, “Yeah.” He said, “Then it’s done.” So, try something different. Try something new. I didn’t know if the podcast would be, you know, something people wanted to hear, but 100,000 plus downloads later on audio plus tens of thousands more on YouTube, yeah, I guess the answer is yes. So, thank you for listening there. So, what are you doing different? What’s the next new idea? And then what are you doing to get there? What steps are you taking to get there? Many of you know my story about “Don’t paint the house” where you should just, you never paint a whole house. You kind of paint one wall at a time, but you have to buy the paint and you have to buy the brushes and the drop cloths and all the rollers and all the things that you need before you can even get started.
So, that new idea that you’re thinking of, what are you doing to get there? The same with the next book that I’m writing. I’m writing a book. And you can’t write a book, you write words. And words become paragraphs, and paragraphs become chapters, and chapters become books, right? So, I try to write. Do I write every day? No. Do I try to write a little bit every day? Yeah, I try to. And then eventually I’ll have enough content where like, okay, that’s enough for now. That’s good. There’s enough in there to make a good quality book that people will like. And then there’s the beginning of the editing process where we go through and we find out what we’ve duplicated in content. We find out where the voice doesn’t match and we find out that the order isn’t right and things and we start shifting things around. Because editing actually makes the words into the book. The words just have to have been there first. So, what steps are you taking towards that? Anything that you’re trying to do that’s a big idea is going to require a lot of steps.
It’s like me with learning French. As of this recording I think I’m 702 days straight of doing at least one French lesson every day. Well is that something that I am better at? Somebody said “you’re better at languages”. I don’t know that I’m better. But if you did something for 702 days straight and you did it a little bit every day for 702 days, I think you’d be better than you were when you started. I think you’d be better than you were 300 days ago or 100 days ago. And that’s what I’m hoping for, is just by continuously doing that, I’ll get better. The difference with language versus the book is there’s no end. There’s no end to that. It’s just constantly getting better, constant improvement. But if you’re trying to make a new website, if you’re trying to learn a new skill or break a habit, you’re trying to quit smoking or lose weight, or you’re trying to get in better shape or whatever, you know, what are you doing today? Or what are you planning that you can put a little bit towards that idea?
But when it comes to your business, new ideas, new innovations, which again very often are just a little twist on something that already existed and you just do it a little different way and that makes it unique to you, are you looking outside of your area for ideas with people that are in your industry? Are you looking outside the industry for ideas? Because very often the best idea is something that is completely outside your particular industry category and you’re adapting it to what you do. And just nobody else has done that. Or at least nobody else in your market has done that. Or nobody’s seen that being done in your market. So, are you just, you know, I guess it’s kind of like the sheep just going along, just following along.
Are you being the innovator, being the leader? You don’t have to do this all the time. It’s exhausting to constantly be coming up with the new ideas and working towards them. But if you’re not doing them, are you just becoming stale? Becoming stagnant? As the market changes, you’re being left behind. Not that you’re not still doing quality work that you did before, but there’s nothing special about it and there’s nothing that differentiates you from other people because everybody’s doing that. So, come up with some new idea. Write down the steps it’s going to take to get there. Take that first step and let me know about it. Thanks.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
Listen to this and all episodes on Apple Podcast, YouTube or your favorite app/site:
- Apple Podcast:
- YouTube: www.WeddingBusinessSolutionsPodcast.tv
- Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3sGsuB8
- Stitcher:
- Google Podcast:
- iHeart Radio: https://ihr.fm/31C9Mic
- Pandora:
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