Where Do Your Ideas Come From?

This article is inspired by a conversation that occurred a few months ago and what happened between that conversation and this writing.

This past summer my family was visiting my grandma. Yes, I’m blessed to still have one in my life. She’s 93 and doing well. She lives several hours away, and we visit her regularly.

While we were in the area, we connected with several other family members, including one of my cousins. We hadn’t talked for a while, so the conversation ranged far and wide.

One of the topics that came up was a new project she was embarking on. She had become a designer with JBloom jewelry. At the time I didn’t know what that was. I don’t get out much.

Being the Facebook person that I am, I asked her if she was using Facebook to promote the products and show people what she had.

She said she had dabbled in it a little but hadn’t done much yet. We talked a while, I gave her some tips, and we moved on to another subject. I didn’t think much of it. You know that advice from a relative, especially free advice, doesn’t always get followed.

Fast-forward a month. It was early September and we were together again. My cousin brought up our conversation and told me the results of what she’d done.
Just a few days earlier she had received a call from a woman asking who she was and how was she selling so much jewelry? This woman had never met her and was an independent founding designer of JBloom.

It turns out that my cousin had risen to the top 10 in sales for JBloom in just one month. She had sold more that month online and at other events than others do over several months.

She had sold to people in Texas and Michigan, which is unusual because my cousin lives in a small Iowa town.

My cousin had no idea she had done anything special. She was just trying a few things I had recommended and adding a few twists of her own.

How does my cousin’s success relate to marketing? The point of this article isn’t to stress that Facebook can put your business growth on steroids. No. The point I’m trying to make is, are you paying attention to information that can help you?

The conversation my cousin and I had wasn’t a business meeting. Our talk ranged from family to what other people we both knew were doing, to fun times in the past.

However, she remembered the comments about using Facebook, and more importantly, she acted on them.

Do you listen for ways you can grow your business no matter where you are? Do you act on them?

It doesn’t matter where you are or to whom you’re talking—keep your ears and eyes open for great ideas. You may be surprised.

Here are a couple places you may not expect ideas to come from. In the grocery store checkout line there is always a rack of magazines—you know the ones, People, National Enquirer, Globe, Star, etc. Have you thought about the fact that the headlines on these magazines sell the magazines? They have some of the best writers in the world writing headlines for them. Do you borrow these ideas and look at how you can adjust them for your business?

How about when you’re talking with other business people, especially those who aren’t in the same industry. Do you ask them what’s the best promotional idea they’ve ever tried and then look for ways to adapt it to your own business?

If you want to grow your business, you need to constantly be on the alert for new possibilities and be open to trying them.

Who knows? You or your company could be the next rising star, with sales increasing faster than most others.

Have a great week!

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