Get Paid To... Brainstorm?!

This post is going to serve a few purposes. First, it is going to introduce a new hashtag topic on this blog. Then, it's going to convey some real actionable thoughts on the value of your brainstorms...

The New #BrainStorms Hashtag Topic
As this blog grows, both in number of posts and topics, it will make sense to have topic links where you can see other posts that relate to the topic. Topic links will be denoted with a hashtag. If you are viewing this blog on a desktop, laptop, or tablet, you will find hashtag topics on the right side of the page and at the bottom of each post. If you are viewing on a cell phone, you will only see them at the end of each post.

Today, I am introducing the #BrainStorms hash tag. In addition to sharing my more refined, highly thought out posts, I am also going to be putting out some posts that are a more raw exploration of ideas. There are actually benefits to both of us in doing so.

The benefit of #BrainStorms to you

From your perspective, there will be times where I will have an idea that I would like to develop into a post, but it will take some time to throw the post together. Before I write the post, I brainstorm ideas that will exist within it anyway. By taking in a brainstorm, you'll have at least some sort of access to what's going on in my head a little quicker, until the more refined thought is complete.

Also, the brainstorm may plant a seed that leads to a whole line of thinking for you that might not otherwise have occurred. There may be things that you realize or contemplate that are independent of any more refined post that I make. This is good for you from the perspective of idea generation.

Lastly, as you dive deeper into my content, I think you're going to find that I think quite a bit differently from most people. It's not necessarily better or worse. But, it's unquestionably different, which can be a source of value to you. By seeing me think about an idea at a raw level, you'll have a deeper insight into how I think. And, from that alone, you may be able to extract some value.

The benefit of #BrainStorms to me

From my perspective, publishing my brainstorm ideas does two things. First, it allows me to test ideas to see how they are received. You as the reader have the ability to make comments at the bottom of these posts. Also, readers engage with these posts on social media outlets, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, also places where I can get feedback. With your feedback at the brainstorm level, I can make more refined posts that are far more interesting and valuable to you (which I guess is also a benefit to you as well as me.)

Feedback doesn't just exist in the form of comments either. Behind the scenes of this blog, I can see which posts have the most views. If one idea gets quite a bit more traffic than another, that could be an indication to me of where your interest lies, even in the absence of a comment.

Also, from my perspective, exploring an idea as a written brainstorm allows me a way to keep track of ideas that I might like to develop. For any particular idea, maybe I'll develop it later... maybe I won't. Maybe I need more time for it to develop. But, in any event, this will create an easy place for me to have a well of ideas that can be further developed.

Your brainstorms are worth far more than you may realize...

There is a somewhat common saying the "success gurus" like to say, which is, "Ideas are a dime a dozen. Execution is everything." While the speedy execution of good ideas does produce tremendous value, the idea that ideas are a dime a dozen is simply garbage. Let's look at why.

Let's start with a very literal approach and run the math on this. Ok, if ideas are a dime a dozen, then the value of one idea (not even a great idea, just a typical, run of the mill, mediocre idea) is worth $0.00833, or 0.10 divided by 12, according to this saying. So one idea is supposedly not even worth a penny. Well that's just bulls#!t.

Over the years, I've put my ideas out there on a variety of mediums, some which can be monetized, like on a blog, YouTube, and Amazon, and some that cannot such as on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. To the extent that I've put an idea out there on a platform that can be monetized, even my worst ideas, there is not a single one of them that's been worth less than at least a few bucks to me thus far. (I say thus far, because once you have an idea out there on a monetizable platform, it stands to pay you for the rest of your life.) And, that's just my worst ideas! But, the question is why.

When you engage in a brainstorming process in, say, a work environment, maybe you sit around a whiteboard, toss some ideas around, write some on the board, and at the end of the day/week/month, the white board is erased. The brainstorm is gone. (I actually think this is part of the reason people incorrectly assume that brainstorms themselves have no real value. We dispose of them so quickly!) Sure, one or more of the ideas may remain alive at the business (figuratively speaking), but the actual brainstorm is gone.

Maybe it's not a whiteboard. Maybe instead you do have a brainstorm on your own on a piece of scratch paper. You can organize your thoughts a little better when you can see them. But, more than likely, when it's all said and done, you toss the paper.

Well, consider this. What if you just spoke your ideas into a camera and put them on YouTube? Each video brainstorm is essentially another create whiteboard that can stick around for as long as you want, possibly even decades or centuries after you cease to exist!

Each of your brainstorms, even though just a raw exploration of your ideas, now functions as an entry point of sorts to access all of your other ideas, include your more valuable ones.

Each idea not only functions as an entry point to more of your ideas, it also functions as a piece of a sort of digital commercial real estate which you can have a billboard on. Meaning, YouTube, with certain restrictions, will allow you to put ads at the beginning of the video. If someone watches the ad, you can get paid!

What's powerful here is that the ad exists whether the ideas in any given video are good or crap. So, an idea doesn't even have to be developed to potentially have some real economic value to you. Your brainstorms have value... but only if you record them and only if they reside on a platform where you can be compensated for the digital real estate you are creating.

Conclusion

There is so much more to share on this, but I'll reserve further thoughts on this for some future posts.  For now you get the point. Ideas are valuable, whether you execute them or not. Going forward, I am going to bring you some ideas that are intended to bring you tremendous value. Some will be refined. Some will be raw. However they come, count on one thing. We're going to have some fun here.

Topic: #BrainStorms