Less Creation, More Communication: Why Your Best Ideas Deserve a Replay

When I post about sharing ideas in multiple ways the most commented thing ends up being:

'Only a portion of your audience sees every post, so sharing it multiple times means everyone sees it.'

But that comment misses the whole point of WHY we should share our ideas repeatedly.

It's not so everyone in our audience can see it just one time. It's so our audience can see it multiple times!

And this fundamentally comes down to how we view our audience.

Most of us think about our audience as one person (or one group of people).  So we share our idea to our 'audience' & expect them to see & understand it the first (& often only) time we share it.

In reality our audience is made up of so many different people, with different personalities, learning styles and ways of viewing the world. So doesn't it makes sense that we should find new & fresh ways of communicating our idea so that all of those diverse people can understand it?

Sharing your idea once just isn't going to cut it.

Case in point. I've shared a variation of this idea hundreds of times online:

But this week the way I shared it, the format, the wording - something clicked for Susan & she told me so.

If I had stopped after the first go, many people would have missed out on their 'got it' moment.

Alright. So that's easy to say. But HOW do you exactly do this without sounding like a broken record stuck on repeat, endlessly skipping over the same scratch in a melody that once felt fresh, but now just drones on?

The Pink Sheet Method

The best framework I have come across for this is called the Pink Sheet Method by Matt Church. Matt is an incredible 'ideas' person & founder of Thought Leaders here in Australia.

I've followed the Pink Sheet method WAY before I ever learned about smart notes or Zettelkasten.

The basic premise is that you take a core idea and you build supporting resources in four different categories around your idea:

• Metaphors: I'm a huge fan of metaphors and analogies when describing an idea. It's so easy for people to understand a new idea when you show then that it's like something they already know.
• Stories: Stories are another great way to represent ideas and how they live and breath in real life. Always be collecting stories that you can attach to your ideas (I just shared a story with you above that illustrated my point).
• Numbers & Data: While Metaphors and stories appeal to our emotions. Numbers & Facts appeal to our analytic brains. So having facts and data to back things up will help round out your ideas & appeal to data driven people.
• Models: These are visual representations of your idea. They might be as simple as a matrix or a Venn Diagram. Opening up the visual side of your idea can help you and your audience understand it better.

You might not collect material for each of these categories for every idea. And you won't use every category every time you share an idea. But by thinking about these categories you are creating shareable components for each of your ideas.

And this opens up your idea to be shared in so many different ways for different types of people.

If you want even more ways you can make your ideas fresh & shareable you might want to consider my ​Spark Toolkit​. It contains over 130+ prompts & frameworks to help you think about & share your ideas.

So this week take some time to go back through some of your previous ideas and see if you can add some shareable components to help you communicate that idea again in a different way. I think you'll be surprised at how fresh your ideas become again.

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Whenever you're ready to turn your unique personal knowledge into powerful ideas - here are three ways I can help:

1. Want to get Sparked like this each week? Sign up to my weekly newsletter - The Spark Newsletter where I deliver one actionable tip every Sunday to help you bring your ideas to life & share them with the world.
2. If you want to build a complete system to help you build ideas you can share with the world then check out my ​Atomic Ideas Masterclass​.
3. If you're coming up blank when it comes to exploring ideas you might want to grab my ​Spark Toolbox​. It's filled with over 130+ prompts & frameworks that are guaranteed to get you sparked!

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