Ever feel stuck? Like when you’re trying to brainstorm a new idea but the well is dry? Yep, me too. In this video, I share a couple ideas on how to get unstuck based on what I’m learning in my outdoor leadership training. New ideas are just a few minutes of quiet away…
Full transcript below.
Full Transcript
You ever just feel stuck? Maybe you’re working on some social media, maybe you’re working on a blog post, maybe you’re thinking some bigger picture strategy and you just, brain just sort of locks up on you. I’ve got some ideas on how to get unstuck. Hi, my name is Steve Phipps, and this is your weekly marketing tip from Wayfind Marketing.
Now, a lot of times I share ideas on how to get more traffic to your website and things like that, but as I’ve been going through this outdoor leadership training program this summer, one of the things that we’ve talked about a lot in that training is the importance of silence, the importance of getting out into nature and really just giving our brains time to decompress.
And that’s incredibly applicable, especially if you own a business, you run a business, lead a non-profit. In that leadership role, you know, we have a responsibility to come up with new ideas. There are tons of decisions that we have to make day in and day out and our brains get tired. And two things that can help, if you combine these two things, it really can make a big difference.
Give yourself time to be quiet. Give yourself time just to sit in silence. Turn off the phone, shut down the email, turn off all the alerts, the text messages, all those things that are constantly competing for our time ’cause every time one of those alerts goes off, our brain is making a decision as to what to do with it. And so really what happens is when we sit in silence, it gives our brains time to rest and there’s work that our brains do only in silence. And that’s why sometimes ideas can hit you in the middle of the night or in those times when you’re just kind of, you know, you’re not dialed in on work and maybe you’re just letting your mind wander and all of a sudden an idea hits. Well, it’s ’cause your brain is still working. So give yourself, take 5 minutes, 10 minutes, just sit in silence, do some work without all the alerts. You know, we don’t have to respond to every text message within five minutes.
Now, another thought is get out into nature. Go for a walk. If you’re in Memphis, great. Go to Shelby Farms. Go somewhere that you can just be in nature. And if you want an interesting read, do a Google search for the benefits of being in nature. You can do a search for the benefits of silence and research shows that there is tremendous benefit, health benefit, mental benefits.
And so I share those ideas because as leaders, we need our brains. We need to be able to think clearly. We need to be able to innovate and that becomes increasingly more difficult when we’re not giving ourselves time to just rest and recuperate, and silence and getting out into nature are two really good ways to do it. In fact, yesterday, and towards the end of the day, middle of the afternoon, actually, I was just, my brain was fried. And so I got on my bike. I live close to the green line, which, here in Memphis, that’s some trails that, paved trails that run through the majority of the city. So it’s surrounded by trees and not a lot of people and it was great because it just gave me time to get out. I didn’t listen to any music but just gave my brain time to just sort of decompress and I felt much better after that.
So that’s your marketing tip for the week. Just give yourself time to think. Give yourself that gift of silence. Again, get out into nature and see what great ideas you come up with.
