Here’s How to Get Your Idea Out There
You know that unsettled feeling that comes along with the niggle in your brain that you have to get it done.
It’s the decision that needs to be made.
The dragging of your feet on writing a newsletter.
Or, crafting the proposal.
What is it about the expansive nature of a clean page and the finality of sharing it with others that dredges up apprehension?
Like a giant roadblock and all that you aim to accomplish is on the other side.
In order to move forward, some extra effort will be needed.
Do you plow through?
Look for another route?
Turn around and go home?
Well, you likely didn’t come this far to only come this far. And bulldozing through won’t bring the best energy along for the ride either.
How about we find another way?
That’s exactly what I’ve encountered these last few weeks.
Each time I sit down to put an idea on paper, I’m blank. If you were to shake my head around, you’d hear a few legos rattling around.
Oh, does this space feel uncomfortable. And a bit alarming.
Because if I don’t have ideas, how will I move myself closer to my goals? What about the people depending on me to have these innovative thoughts?
Self-coaching is great. And at the same time, it isn’t getting me out of the funk.
So I decided to hijack my trepidation by talking it out.
In the past, I’ve mentioned speaking your blog posts as a hack to blog writing. In that spot of advice, you then have the audio transcribed and edited, but still post your thoughts in text form.
What I mean here is – record a video or audio message and send that to your client, prospect, team or community.
It doesn’t need to have a high production value or be ultra scripted. Just you, in your realest form, sharing your thoughts.
And the bonus is that the person on the other side of the recording, will not only hear your words, but also get to take in your tone, volume and inflection. As cheesy as this is about to sound, they’ll be able to hear your smile, if not actually see it.
How lovely would that be today?
Here’s how to make this happen:
- Take up to 5 minutes to gather your thoughts on what you want to share. Writing down minimal notes or bullet points is okay.
- Fire up your tech of choice, whether that’s Quicktime on your computer or Voice Memos on your phone or Loom in your browser.
- Press Record and go. You’ve got this!
- Listen or watch back the recording to make sure your overall message is covered.
If this is an uncomfortable step for you, that’s totally normal. Most of us aren’t accustomed to watching or listening to ourselves. A tip – listen or watch at an increased playback speed, like 1.5x. - Upload your message file to a cloud storage platform, like Google Drive or Dropbox. If you recorded using Loom, then you get to skip this step.
- Grab the sharing link and pop it into a short and simple email.
Here’s one to get you started:
Hi NAME,
I was thinking about that project we’ve been talking about and recorded a quick audio/video for you to share some ideas.
Have a listen/watch here: [paste your link here].
Then, let me know how that lands. What comes up for you?
Thanks so much,
YOUR NAME
At times, we hold ourselves back from taking that next step because it feels too difficult to put our thoughts into words on paper.
We hope our words will tie up the idea in a pretty bow. We don’t like messiness or questions or uncertainty.
The truth is, the next step is the beginning of a conversation or maybe even a middle point but it’s definitely not the end.
Treat it as such. Get the dialogue started and go from there.
Photo by Victor Garcia on Unsplash