I'm guessing your business is a bit like mine in that good ideas are worth their weight in gold.

Clients pay us for results. But it's our ideas (rather than our hard labour) that usually delivers those results.

And its our ideas that help us stand out from the crowd. To differentiate ourselves and become seen as an authority.

Better ideas = better results.

Great ideas are hard to come buy. But here's something I've noticed…

The quality and quantity of my ideas increases whenever I've just read something new in a different field.

So while I get lots of OK ideas from reading books on marketing or browsing marketing websites; the best and most original ideas I have usually come from joining two different fields.

I might see something in a book on stand-up comedy on how to rehearse and realise it can be applied to marketing presentations.

Or an article on overcoming addiction might trigger an idea on building useful marketing habits.

Some of the very best marketing concepts and ideas I've used in my business have their roots well outside marketing.

So if you want to increase the quality and quantity of ideas you get, read outside your field. Try something different. A history book. Something on psychology or biology. A biography. A book on marketing if you're in manufacturing, or on manufacturing if you're in marketing.

You'll get more, different ideas from them than from reading “more of the same” in your primary field.

It certainly worked for me.