How to Have More Creative Ideas than You Know What to Do With

If the future is split between floods of AI generated, generic content and deeply human, authentic and creative content, what does it mean for you as a content creator? Since you won't be able to compete against LLMs when it comes to generating loads of generic stuff, the only logical choice seems to be to go all in on authentic, creative content. But how do you come up with authentic, creative ideas?

As it turns out, I've got a formula for that! Two, even. Today, we'll look at the tried and true method you can apply to generate more creative ideas than you know what to do with. Plus, an "authenticity formula" to go with it.

Lots of sources and recommendations in this one!

Let's start with related sources and videos:

My recommended sources to learn about following your curiosity:

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
00:36 The Question
01:03 The Creativity Formula
01:22 Read Good Books
02:06 Take Long Walks
03:26 Empty Your Head
05:24 Run Experiments
05:50 Example 1
06:29 Example 2
08:07 The Authenticity Formula
10:16 Conclusion

[ScottBritton]

Thanks for the support Shane! Great stuff here

[StretchFletcher]

Shane, thank you. I really love your work - well most of it. You resonate as a thoughtful, helpful person. (Authentic, actually).
However I must say, the long-form content you were publishing/posting became difficult for me to deal with.
Not that I didn't want it, or, it wasn't interesting, but just the time drain.
I enjoy this type of format as it allows me to listen (10-13minurtes is easy). From the content if there are links and references to more detail I can follow through on those.
In closing this video was really helpful.
Thanks again.

[bwbalazs]

I recognized the first three steps of the creativity formula this summer, and the fourth step is a great addition - thanks for sharing! I have to say, it was a game changer for me to take long walks at night, when the streets were empty. I found myself stopping every half a minute to write down notes on my phone. After about an hour, my mind quieted down, and I ended up with a complete vision of what I was thinking about. It was such an incredible feeling of joy.

By the way, did taping your mouth at night help improve your sleep?

[valniles]

Shane, I find your processes motivating. I've followed you for years since I first discovered "Course Craft." I like the method in which you teach and share your processes. I find them enlightening. It seems that you've been on a different journey of self-exploration. You mentioned branding and that Ikario doesn't seem to work for you anymore. Can you share why you feel that way? I am always interested in "pivoting" (going through one myself) the whys, hows, and struggles involved and how others do so.

[jussi.helaakoski]

Really insightful, thank you! And I was already pretty sure beforehand that the "formulas" wouldn't be anything that is easy and fast to implement. If they would be like that, AI could do that instead of us humans. So, in a nutshell, we need to immerse into a topic as a human being and then share about our own experiences and also to share things that we have learnt with other people and learn also from their experiences. Not easy but definitely will create a ton of ideas for content, new experiments and also new topics to start learning next 😊

[DougLietz]

Another great video, Thanks Shane! If you are looking for another title on ideation and creativity to perhaps round out one of your 3 book study sessions, IdeaFlow (2022 publication) by Jeremy Utley, was highly recommended to me by a respected colleague who had dinner with the author at a conference recently. I have not yet had time to listen to this one myself, but it is now on my short list after doing some due dil on the author, A Stanford Professor who heads up their renowned "Hasso Plattner Institute of Design" ... apparently it is SO renowned that people in the know just call it "the d school" lol. Anyway, what piqued my interest the most about what's covered in the book, is how to go deep on an idea once you have decided to lean into something specific... kind of like if Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (Flow) and Gary Keller (The One Thing) had a baby, perhaps Jeremy Utley (IdeaFlow) might have been the result :) PS: Great to see that you have added VoiceNotes to your toolbox!

[saadahmed]

Very interesting and exciting video and once again i am surprised by your knowledge and wisdom i am lucky that i have you as one of my information sources. But i am thinking that how i get the energy to do all of these things because my whole time got wasted in university bullshit assignments tasks and tests and i end up very tired, unable to do other important things that i am aligned with and enjoy how should i manage my time properly so that i get to do the things i want to do

[cyrilbazin]

Hello Shane and thank you for these kind of new insights.

I have a concern about the access of the premium courses I have bought from Ikario that you said is kind of dying.

Will they remain accessible indefinitely ?
Will you move those elsewhere ?

I still have work to do around those qualitative courses you have made.

So, I definitely do not want to see those disappear 😅.

Take care.

PS : If I can get a way to access to Content Blueprint course, feel free to tell me

[nish]

Instead of voice notes AI and using AI for that, why not just use speech to text? That's what I do

[frankmalenfant]

This is a curse. You'll be feeling like a failure. Where the video about how you can achieve all these creative ideas ;)