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When The Idea Fountain Runs Dry…

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It happens to the best of us, myself included. You go to get a drink at the Idea Fountain only to find somebody didn’t pay the water bill!

Drat!

Or the fountain is still running but instead of clean, crisp water brimming with wonderful ideas it’s a stagnant trickle filled with bug legs and only provides mediocre ideas.

BOTH happened to me recently.

The second happened in the title of my teleseminar. Everything else was clear and easy: all the benefits, snappy sales copy, email strings, pain points that had ME shivering.

But the title: uninspiring at best. NOT awesome for somebody who is teaching an entire module about how to craft killer titles. I didn’t have any choice except to run with what I had but, ewww, it was bad.

Enter a mentor:

I was on a VIP coaching call and mentioned the launch. It was going well, I was ecstatic with the signups but… There was something missing. She asked what I was calling it – and started to laugh.

“That’s a TERRIBLE title, Kim!” she said between giggles. “Who helped you?”

Pause. The line crackled.

“I came up with it myself,” I muttered.

“And THAT’S why you need a mentor!” In a matter of moments, she helped me tease out a terrific title AND she used the exact same process I use with my clients!

The difference? I can’t see my own nose – I’m too close to it. Having a mentor look at the idea, the title, the flow from OUTSIDE the creation and launch process is key!

By the way, the title of the class is:
The ‘Client Magnet’ Book Builder Bootcamp: 5 Easy Steps To Write A Book To Promote Your Business & Attract More Clients NOW!

About a thousand times stronger than what I had created.

And the other time when I went to the Idea Fountain and found it dry?

I’ve agreed to co-write a book of short stories with Karl Bosselman. He’s got five slightly-twisted stories about bugs and I’ll write five bug stories of my own.

For WEEKS I’ve been mulling this over and coming up dry. I couldn’t even decide which bugs I wanted to write about, let alone come up with colorful plot ideas.

What to do when the Idea Fountain runs dry Click To Tweet

Then today, I was working on a totally unrelated project. I wrote a direct-response sales letter and the client didn’t like the greeting line. This is where you say,

Dear {pain-filled-person}

I had originally provided Dear Clutter-Bug (the page is selling a course that helps people deal with clutter) but that got x-nayed.

I spent a good solid half-hour coming up with SIXTY-ONE new openings. Some are okay, others are crap, some are completely tongue-in-cheek. (And I discovered you can only dance around the word “clutter” so long…)

But here’s what happened:

By sipping at the Idea Fountain for something completely unrelated to ANYTHING I am personally invested in, my ideas about the BUG stories started to flow. But the ideas weren’t what I expected (spiders, mosquitos, centipedes.) Instead I’m thinking of writing about a clutter bug and a jitterbug and a humbug…

Moral of the story: when you’re started but then get stuck, and it happens to the best of us, reach out for help from a trusted mentor. Sometimes you can’t see your own nose!

And if the Idea Fountain has completely dried up, try using it for something else and maybe an idea will float to the surface!

Kim Galloway
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