How to discover innovative ideas even if you are not a creative genius?

Hi, this is Mayur Bardolia and you are listening to Love Your Business Podcast. This podcast isn't about magical tactics on running the business that makes you bored and tired. Instead, it's about how to love your business so that you can enjoy doing it and enjoy more time for yourself. If you go to United Kingdom, you will find that one of the most famous dishes is chicken tikka masala. It sounds like an Indian dish, but it's Britain's unofficial national dish. And it's quite surprising to know that the dish chicken tikka masala was invented accidentally. It wasn't a set recipe. It was found in Glasgow, Scotland. It was created to satisfy the unsatisfied customer, and it's said that it was found by Mr. Ali Ahmed Aslam, who is the owner of an Indian restaurant called Shish Mahal in Glasgow. This man Ali Ahmed is the true creator of chicken tikka masala. Back in 1970, a customer visited his restaurant and he complained about the chicken being dry. So he wanted something with gravy and must be tasty. So Mr. Ali went to the kitchen and he decorated the dry chicken dish with a touch of his tomato soup and sprinkled some spices. Then he served the dish to that customer. And needless to say, the customer went from unhappy to overjoyed. He was so happy that he kept returning time after time with his friends just to taste this beauty of a dish once more. He asked the owner, Mr. Ali Ahmad Aslam, the name of the dish, and Mr. Ali Ahmad didn't know the name of the dish, so he randomly named the dish Chicken tikka masala. So a star was born at the Shish Mahal. This dish has become one of the most authentic British dishes. Not only that, the Parliament legally recognized Glasgow as the home of chicken tikka masala. Most of the things around us are invented almost accidentally like this. They are not existing because of meticulously planned events. But how does it happen? We need new ideas to run our business. People tell you, oh, you have to be different, you have to be unique. But is it really possible? How can we invent something Is there a way to be creative? So in this podcast, we are going to find out 3 things to create groundbreaking inventions. Number 1, how to find more ideas. Number 2, why your creative ideas should not always be new. And number 3, how do you find ideas from various resources? Let's dive in. While creating this podcast, I have to do many things such as creating the structure of the article, outlining, finding the ideas, stories. Then I have to create the entire script and make sure everything is with correct grammar and words. Then I proofread to see if it makes sense or not. Then I record, re-record if it doesn't go well, and it happens many times. Then the part comes when I have to add music. I have to edit the recording. I have to add the right music at the right time and at the right place. Then the recorded podcast episode passes through the post-production process to improve the quality, and it doesn't stop there. I then have to upload on various podcast channels like iTunes, Google Podcasts, Anchor, Spotify, and of course the website mayurbardolia.com. And this is how each episode is created, you see, or hear on my podcast channel, Love Your Business Podcast. Hmm, that's a lot. There is a lot of things happening before you listen to this podcast. But the landiest part is not the first step, as you heard earlier, which is creating the structure of the article. And it's not even the editing or recording. The most consuming part is something that happens before it, which is coming up with a theme or a central idea of the article or podcast. It's a scary and frustrating part. It takes a lot of time to come up with the idea that I feel happy to create a podcast on. I love doing it, and that is a selfish reason too. By sharing my teaching and thoughts in public, I can develop more understanding and challenge myself to know what I don't know. Many times I think of ideas and don't even work on it because I'm not quite happy with it. But I have to create more podcasts like this. So it's challenging to come up with an idea that I create an article or a podcast. And it's not only challenging to me, but for you and many others. It's challenging to come up with as many ideas as possible and as quickly as possible. And how do I do it? In order to grow, you got to be creative. Well, maybe not. You got to come up with solutions to your problems. You got to come up with ideas, innovative ideas. And that's what runs the business, and that's what runs the world. So what is the best way to boost creativity? Here's the best thing I ever found, and I would say the best tool you will ever get To boost your creativity, and it's called deadline. Yes, you got to give yourself a deadline. I sometimes don't get ideas if I have to write an article or create a course after 3 to 4 weeks, but the morning I have to write or create them, I'll come up with 5 to 10 more ideas. And I mean, it's not even hard, they just come up. There is something about your listening or reading this today that makes those ideas come. It is not the mic or camera or script or any, any software. It is just a deadline. So if you are not giving your problems deadlines, they are much less likely to be solved. So how do you get creative? Well, give yourself a deadline to come up with a solution. You'll be amazed at how well you come up with a solution. So write down 3 big problems that you got to solve and write down a deadline to solve those problems and make those deadlines serious. Stick with those deadlines. Don't let them pass. The day that the problem is supposed to be solved, you'll be amazed at how creative you will be in coming up with those solutions. So that takes us to the second part. In the year 2000, there was an Olympic event. So Speedo company based in Nottingham, England, who makes swimwear and swim-related accessories, and they hired Jenny Thompson To test their swimsuits before the 2000 Olympic event. Now, Jenny Thompson won gold medals in 1992 and 1996 Olympics, but she hated this new swimsuit designed by Speedo. She found it very tight. It covered her entire body. She didn't even like it because it was rough. It wasn't smooth like other swimsuits. Jenny Thompson wasn't even feeling comfortable and confident. When the experiment was done, she finished much quicker in the new Speedo swimwear than the previous one. The new swimming costume by Speedo performed better than other swimming costumes. The swimmers didn't like to wear, but their performance was improved. Now the question is, how this rough swimsuit against the smoothest swimsuits that cover the entire body can help swimmers perform better? This swimsuit was designed by a lady called Fiona Fairhurst. Now Fiona Fairhurst was hired by Speedo in 1997 to create a swimsuit that makes swimmers Swim faster. She has been in the industry of textile, and she also has been a swimmer in her teenage time. Interestingly, Fiona did not study the competitors. She didn't study what some of the fastest swimmers and their strategies. On the contrary, she did completely different. She studied what works fast. She studied torpedoes, and she designed the swimsuits that covered the entire body. It was restrictive, but it was also straightening the entire body with least resistance whilst swimming. And as a result, the swimmers started swimming faster. She found the biggest mind shift when she visited. The Natural History Museum in London. So she studied the dead shark under the microscope. Now sharks are one of the fastest swimmers in the ocean, but the skin of the shark is not smooth. It's grooved and hard. The nose of the shark is rough too. Yet it's fascinating to know how a shark can swim so fast in the ocean. Instead of what others were busy with designing smoother swimsuits, Fiona Fairhurst was creating the swimsuit that makes swimmers swim faster as sharks. Against what others were doing, She was working on researching and finding material that would allow her to design the swimwear that would copy this ridgy feel of shark. On further research, scientists later found out the shark's rough nose reduced drag and increased the thrust. But before knowing the science completely, Fiona Fairhurst created the fast skin swimsuit that was the real champion of the 2000 Olympics because it made the swimmers much faster, and 83% of the medals were won by swimmers wearing these new and uncomfortable Speedo suits. It sounds easy to hear that to create faster swimsuits, learn from the fastest fish in the ocean. But it's not too obvious. Half the things Faraday studied did not help her, but it was essential, and wastage was unavoidable. Every successful scientist has a long list of failed ideas behind their breakthrough. Failures are unavoidable. It's been said that you need to be specialist or expert in only one particular area. But that's not entirely true. Everything that you see around is somehow connected with each other. You will find great ideas when you think like no one else is thinking. You don't need to expect all your ideas to work out, but you still need to try many things, and then you will know which ideas will work. And that's why you have to study not only deeply but also widely. You will never know how your great ideas will pop out. So once you find the breakthrough, your wasted efforts become valuable too. So how are you going to do it? Well, find out what characteristics you are looking for and then find out the ideas from various fields that match these characteristics. So that takes us to the final part. On December 1st, 1913, Henry Ford installs the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. His innovation reduced the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to 2 hours and 30 minutes only. Initially, Ford's Model T, it was introduced in 1908. It was simple, sturdy, and relatively inexpensive, but not inexpensive enough for Ford, who was determined to build motor cars for mass audience. In order to lower the price of his cars, Ford figured He would just have to find a way to build them more efficiently. Ford had been trying to increase his factory's productivity for years. They also hired motion study expert Frederick Taylor to speed up the production and to make those jobs even more efficient. Meanwhile, he built machines that could stamp out parts automatically. And much more quickly than even the fastest human worker could. And the most significant piece of Ford's efficiency crusade was the assembly line. And it was inspired by continuous flow production methods used by flour mills, breweries, and industrial bakeries, along with the disassembly of animal carcasses in Chicago's meatpacking plants. So Ford installed moving lines for bits and pieces of the manufacturing process, but on December 13th, he unveiled the moving chassis assembly line. In February 1914, Ford produced more and more cars, and on June 4th, 1924, the 10 millionth car of Model T rolled off. They did not work on how to clean and set up properly between the production of different models. The process of cleaning and setting things is required to change the production of different models. It cannot be hurried too. You can't do it faster. But Ford wanted to solve it anyhow. So Henry Ford didn't call his team and ask them to provide their automobile engineering solutions. Instead, they focused on how to use continuous flow production methods used by flour mills, breweries, industrial bakeries, and also Chicago's meatpacking plants. Ford installed moving lines for bits and pieces of the manufacturing process. They studied the process of assembly line from the whole different industry than the automobile. So when this technician came back to work, they got together and figured out how to cut the hours-long switching time to some minutes. People keep saying that, oh, this won't work for me, but it's not entirely true. You don't need to stop yourself. Most people spend all their time finding reasons why ideas from other industries won't work for their case. You ask any consultant and he will tell you that the objection he hears most often is, that worked well for them, but it won't work for me. But they are not completely to blame because yes, all the ideas won't work equally well, but you have to put in the effort and go beyond the resistance to make this excuse because that's how Henry Ford used these ideas from the Chicago meatpacking industry to streamline automobile manufacturing. And that's how McDonald's learned from banks and created the drive-through lanes for ordering food on the go. So isolate your problem characteristics and then cast a wide net and find out everyone who has solved similar problems. And probably from a different industry. You need to get rid of all your assumptions and start from scratch. This may lead to chasing unrelated ideas and many dead ends, but it will also lead you to huge breakthroughs. Study the different subjects and study everyone who has solved similar problems. That takes us to the end of the podcast. So let's summarize what we have covered so far. Most of the things around us are invented almost accidentally. They are not existing because of the meticulously planned events. So how can you invent something? Is there a way to be creative? In this podcast, we have discussed 3 things to create groundbreaking inventions. First, we talk about what is the best way to boost creativity. One of the best tools I use to boost creativity is setting a deadline. You got to give yourself a deadline. If you're not giving your problems deadlines, they're much less likely to be solved. How do you get creative? Well, give yourself a deadline to come up with a solution. You'll be amazed at how well you come up with a solution. Stick with those deadlines. Don't let them pass. The day that the problem is supposed to be solved, you'll be amazed at how creative you will be in coming up with those solutions. Then in the second part, we talk about this swimsuit designed by Fiona Fairhurst. Was hired by Speedo Swimwear Company. She was asked to create a swimsuit that makes swimmers swim faster. Surprisingly, her newly designed swimsuit was rough and was covering the whole body, and it's quite against what others believe that swimsuits has to be smooth. So she studied sharks. Now sharks are are the fastest swimmers in the ocean. Now the shark's body, and especially the nose, is rough. So Fairhurst created the fast skin swimsuit that was the real champion of the 2000 Olympic because it made the swimmers much faster, and 83% of the medals were won by swimmers wearing this new and uncomfortable Speedo suits. Every successful scientist has a long list of failed ideas behind their breakthrough. Failures are unavoidable. You don't need to expect all your ideas to work out, but you still need to try many things, and then you will know which ideas will work. That's why you have to study not only deeply but also widely. You will never know how great it Ideas will pop out. So how are you going to do it? Well, find out what characteristics you are looking for and then find out the ideas from various fields that match these characteristics. Then in the final part, we covered how Ford Motors increased its efficiency and productivity. They did not apply the latest technologies from automobile science. Henry Ford did not call his team and ask them to provide their automobile engineering solutions. Instead, they focused on how to use continuous flow production methods used by flour mills, breweries, industrial bakeries, and also Chicago's meatpacking plants. Ford installed moving lines for bits and pieces of the manufacturing process. Most people spend all their time finding reasons why ideas from other industries won't work for their case. And they are not completely to blame. Because yes, all the ideas won't work equally well. But you have to put in the effort and go beyond the resistance to make this excuse. Isolate your problem characteristics and then cast a wide net and find out everyone who has solved similar problems. That takes us to the end of the podcast. Now, what's happening in my world? Is there a way to get a magnet that attracts customers to us and buy from us? I published a book called Conversational Hypnosis where I showed how to capture people's attention and get them interested. It is possible to hypnotize your customers, but you can't cheat them. If you know how to convince someone but you don't know what to say, you will struggle to market your business. Most businesses don't know what they're selling. Do a small experiment. Talk to some of your friends and clients. Share your business offer to them. See how they respond. Ask them, If they understand what you say. If you find out that 70% of people don't understand what you have to offer, then there is nothing wrong. Surprising, isn't it? Well, because 70 to 80% of people can't communicate their business clearly, and that's why their customers don't buy. So in my book OfferCraft, you will find in the first chapter that customers don't buy the best product or service. Customers buy what they understand easily. So if your customers are not buying from you because they don't understand your offer, I invite you to be part of my online course where I will guide you how to create the marketing offer that customers pay attention to. You are not going to find some loosely thrown information. I hate that as much as you do. Not only you will learn each part precisely, but I will also guide you along each step. I will be doing this online course and offer craft application. Well, I haven't yet decided the final name. I'm going to do it at the end of September 20. You can send me an email on mayur@mayurbardolia.com and I will add you on my waiting list. Yes, there is a waiting list. You should read the book OfferCraft if you haven't yet. Go to Amazon, buy the ebook, and read it. You will love it. It's Mayur Bardolia. Bye for now. Still listening? If you haven't subscribed to my podcast or newsletter, go to mayurbardolia.com/subscribe. Once you subscribe, you will get my free ebook, One-Liner Report. It will show you how to explain your business so that your customers listen and understand in just 1 minute. You will also get more podcasts full of new ideas, free articles, offers, announcements, and free goodies. Share this with your friends who may find it helpful. They will thank you for sharing it with them. You should subscribe if you haven't yet, so go to mayurbardolia.com/subscribe. It's Mayur Bardolia signing out. Mayur Bardolia signing out.