What happens when all the ideas feel taken and all the angles spoken for
3 years ago, I started a journal that became a dumping ground for my quest to figure out what might be next. I wasn’t trying to “create” anything; I was just trying to help myself think. I had been laid off and wanted to explore working for myself and what “next” might look like as a 50+ woman. I figured putting my thoughts on paper might be a good starting point.
My goal was to come up with an idea that could combine my skills and interests into some sort of plan. I was asking myself things like: What can I teach people? What problem can I solve, and how can I do it differently?
After a year, there were a few ideas, but they were all BORING. My journaling was at risk of becoming a bound volume of all the things that were frustrating me along the way.
My boring ideas were leading me towards consulting/fractional work. Just like everyone else.
There were so many marketers starting to write newsletters and LinkedIn posts about building portfolio careers, becoming consultants, and taking positions as fractional CMOs. I told myself there was room for everyone, but I didn’t believe it.
I kept wondering: how the hell do I stand out when everyone appears to be doing some version of the same damn thing?
That was a question I couldn’t seem to answer, so I kept writing. I got another B2B marketing gig, and I kept trying to find a unique idea I could call my own.
I wasn’t finding it. I was stuck with the same idea that everyone else had, and I couldn’t figure out what would make my version of marketing consulting any different. It felt like all the ideas had been taken, and all the angles spoken for.
Three years later, I know what my idea is. And I sure as hell didn’t “find” it. I stumbled across it, and boy, it was one heck of a plain vanilla, generic as all get-out idea. I then spent months asking myself how I could look at this idea differently and come up with a plan that made sense for me.
And then it happened.
I realized the goal wasn’t to find an idea that no one else had. It was to stick with an idea long enough to develop a way of looking at it that is actually yours.
Your story determines what you notice. Your experience determines both what you gravitate towards and what bothers you. Your opinions impact the conventional answers you don’t accept, and your curiosity leads you towards questions you’d like answered.
And when I look at what has shaped my own point of view, some things are obvious. Being a 56-year-old marketer interested in fashion who is part of an audience that I believe most brands misunderstand certainly does. 25+ years spent moving people through funnels while suddenly becoming the person being moved through one absolutely does.
Three years ago, I thought figuring out what my next move meant finding an idea no one else had. I’m learning that unique ideas are not usually found; they are built over time. If you stick with an idea long enough, if you pay attention to it and ask questions about it and apply your own life experience to it, it’s highly likely it will develop into something that is uniquely yours.
