A tale of conspiracy theories, a race to superior learning and creativity and copycats who love the idea of sprinkling their promotions with the word “idea” but who haven’t done their homework. This is ultimately a tale of ideas creation.
Ever had such a gnawing feeling in your gut that you had no choice but to take action?
That’s when I knew I had to create The Ideas Code.
The process has been on the tip of my tongue, circling round the back of my head, hoping I’d notice and making my feet itch and my fingertips tingle. This idea - a science based course on how we arrive at our best ideas has been bothering me for some time. And I’d been resisting it.
I’m not a neuro scientist, a brain surgeon, a member of MENSA - who was I to write and create this course?
But we all know resistance is futile.
And if something is meant to be. It WILL find you.
And so The Ideas Code is here. Finally. But not before time.
Allow me to explain.
Having watched online entrepreneurs struggle with finding their elusive original, creative, rich idea from the sidelines, all of us grabbing at shining objects and trying to apply other people’s ideas to our own situations and then carrying on regardless, even if it didn’t feel right due to the ever-present driving need to create an online empire in this “new age” - I’ve been obsessed with noticing everything to do with ideas for some time now.
For me, it began, when as a teenager (*coughs* before NLP was a thing) I discovered “Superlearning”. I’d also read “The Wave” when I was at school (although definitely not on the curriculum). This was a book aimed at young adults - a fictionalised account of a teaching experiment which took place in a history class in California (so essentially based on a true story) and it simply blew. my. mind.
We don’t have much time. So you can check out the book here if you’re interested (bear in mind it’s for teenagers). But the gist of the story is that teachers conduct a social experiment in attempts to illustrate how it might have felt, living in Third Reich Germany and unwittingly develop a nazi-style bootcamp fuelled with supremacist behaviour - albeit creating a revered academic elite in the process.
Dark.
But powerful.
Having spent most of my working life (so far) marketing education in some guise or another this sobering tale has never left me. I’ve always remained conscious of the connection between self esteem, confidence, resilience and independence - without crossing to the dark side - seeing first hand the incredible effect utter self confidence in your capabilities can have on grades and scores.
I wasn’t your average college student. Whilst my friends were getting drunk and partying hard I was reading books about super learning and uncovering dark secrets of how the USA had feared the Soviet Union had discovered a fast track to rapid learning and special powers. It tapped into my conspiracy theorist tendencies at the time, and I read about how the Russians, 20 years or so earlier had reportedly claimed you could be fluent in any language within a month, behind the iron curtain. This prompted the Americans to allegedly launch into exploring new learning modalities in the spirit of competition (and possibly fear). The bonus was that new creative routes away from established academic pathways were explored and new teaching ideas were shared across the world.
Superlearning is still very much a thing.
Some people suggest it didn’t become mainstream because in the process of learning in a different way you inadvertently “awaken” other senses, other potential which some people find overwhelming and frankly daunting. Let’s stick to what we know and ensure some crowd control. Call me cynical, but I’ve noticed in most countries education at all ages is stretched, with government targets to meet and boxes to tick. No one sums this dilemma up better for me than the charismatic Sir Ken Robinson’s famed talk: “Do Schools Kill Creativity?”
As a result of this reading - when let’s face it I probably should have been binge partying - I became utterly fascinated with ideas and in the potential to learn stuff. Quickly and to have it feel like fun.
But then life happened. I got bogged down in the grind. In paying the bills. And in staying on top of day-to-day stuff. The odd Tony Robbins book and NLP article passed before my eyes now and again and I continued to write consistently, whether for paying clients, work or pleasure but the whole exploration into how we think and why we think certain ways - I’m ashamed to say - was put on hold. It was a topic that resurfaced whenever I met someone interesting or found myself pondering our great existence on long car journeys.
Hardly structured thought. More like absent minded day dreaming.
Rarely advancing.
Just something that continued to fascinate me.
Fast forward a bit.
Being practical I’ve always liked structured workshops, articles, blog posts and any marketing training I’ve delivered to be results-driven, “follow this process to achieve this” style offerings.
This year, after a lot of recharging my brain cells, research, consistent application, writing, editing and editing some more I’ve finally bottled what I know about ideas. In a practical “try this” way.
The Ideas Code.
What other online courses don’t delve into.
The copycats who know that “ideas” has a passion-inducing, hypnotic lure use the word “ideas” in every headline, wherever possible, in any way they can because they know it will attract your attention.
They know you know there’s something more.
That you, on some inner level have a wealth of ideas ready to discover.
They know you feel you’re only the thinnest veil away from clearly seeing your defining moments, your winning idea - but they just don’t always know how to help you reach in and draw them out.
That’s why most other online courses which talk about ideas normally start when you’ve got your idea already.
Not The Ideas Code.
This is a reset button.
A chance to take another look at where ideas really come from. And perhaps, more importantly, how to trigger them to appear. How to ask for rich ideas that are relevant to you. It’s like jump starting your neural pathways with dynamite.
And if you’re swamped with ideas how to slash the overwhelm and draw out the richest ideas that really need to be heard.
Only then can you go on to making your ideas bigger, brighter, better.
Only then can you get into how to package up, market, present and share in the world what your idea means to you and how it can make a difference to someone else.
We weren’t all born to do the same thing.
As a marketer, I know we all like to follow our leaders - the inspiring people who have got their idea right, developed systems that work for them and processes that will take us along similar paths… but when it comes to ideas - without originality we are just part of the never ending crowd. Not doing our thing. Not feeling alive. Not claiming our destiny nor creating our legacy. And everything feels like hard work.
The Ideas Code tunes you back in, using a science based process to help you trigger expansive, energetic ideas - Your ideas.
The Ideas Code found me.
The gut gnawing feeling in my stomach told me to stop procastinating. To stop resisting.
To take action.
To collect practical tools. To capture the Ideas Rich Method and to unlock and describe the tools I’ve been using for decades - intuitively, without thinking - so that you could be reading this. Right now.
Wondering what ideas are on the tip of your tongue, that are shyly circling the back of your head, hoping you’ll notice them and take action - in your own, splendidly unique way.
To finally confidently create and claim your winning ideas - ready to unleash your big idea on the world.
We’re all waiting.
Cheering you on.
Please don’t leave it too long.
If you fall head-over-heels in love with ideas and want them to fuel your soul, be sure to like the Ideas Girl page for more ideas, inspiration and resources or visit The Ideas Code to find out more!