One of the most frequently questions I get asked when I speak or do As Me Anything questions is “how do you come up with so many ideas all the time?!”. I get it. We produce A LOT of content! That said, the conception of ideas is my FAVORITE part of my job so I guess you could say that I’m a professional ideas person?

Obviously, not every idea I have is great or successful and others are runaway hits, BUT I’ve developed some methods to help me and my team think of ideas. Here are a few of those methods.

How to get ideas for your content

While I used to be the one and only person at Lars, at this point I’m not always coming up with all the ideas. Because of the sheer volume of work we product, it’s not possible (and because I’m still in maternity mode and also my brain is fried. Anyone else?!??!). That said, the conception part is my favorite especially when I have the time to really do a proper brainstorm.

Brainstorm

Ok, this might seem obvious, but a good quality brainstorm session will ultimately be worth the time and effort.  What does that look like? It means allowing yourself a proper setting to receive inspiration. Do you get your ideas best in a shower? Or on a walk? Put yourself into that place! If you don’t know where that place is, start noting a moment when you have a really good idea. Did you get the idea because of where you were?

I admit that I don’t always give myself this proper brainstorm time because of well, a lack of time, but I find that when I do it’s both rewarding and fruitful. Just typing this out makes me realize that I don’t know when the last time I did this–and that’s fine too because there are other ways to get ideas….

Accidents

Some of my best ideas have come when I’ve mistaken something for something else. One time I was at my niece’s house in Denmark. I mistook a balloon garland in her room for a fruit balloon garland. Now, this was before balloon DIYs were big–I think it was 2010 or 2011 so I wasn’t necessarily thinking in that vein. But then I thought, wouldn’t it be so cool to turn balloons into fruits?

Of course, the problem with this method is that you can’t force accidents so it’s not necessarily the most efficient method. However, my advice here is to LEAN into the accidents and don’t dismiss them when they happen. Consider if it could be something that could be a part of your work or at least process.

Limitations

My last method is probably the one that I use most: Limitations. What does this mean? Well, contrary to what it sounds like, giving yourself some limitations or rather, specific criteria, will actually help you to narrow down your ideas and focus more effectively. How do you do that?

Branding

When you have proper branding in place, whether the branding is of you as a person or for your company, then you can channel your ideas. Some of our key words here are Lars are: rainbows, flowers, beautiful, not too cute, whimsical, grounded, colorful but not too saturated. There’s more to our brand than just those words of course, but when it’s time to come up with ideas, we can use those words to channel our ideas into something more refined.

Client limitations

One sure fire way to come up with an idea is if there’s an objective or story in place. Oftentimes when we work with clients, they will give us their campaign objective for their product or service. This helps us to filter our brand story into their objective. It’s much easier to have something in place so that we can fulfill their goals through our lens. Does that make sense?

The challenge of adapting a brand who may not seem aligned with ours and figuring out a project that works for both of us is one of my favorite things to do because it just means you have to exercise more creativity. And one of my favorite definitions of creativity is clever problem solving.

Well, those are my top ways to come up with ideas. I have more. Let me know if you’d interested in more! And I’d love to hear your ideas too! 

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