"This could be the one!"

I'm working with our marketing team on a few brainstorming sessions as we start to think through the next phase of our marketing efforts. And with every idea that goes up on a flipchart, I keep hearing my dad's voice: "This could be the one!"

My dad was the eternal optimist, and he approached everything in life with a positive outlook. He used that optimistic spirit in how he and my mom raised my sister and me. So, one day when I was in fifth grade, I told him I had an idea for a new board game. He looked at me and asked, "What are you going to do with your idea?"

I hadn't anticipated that question, so I responded like most eleven-year-old boys do: "I don't know."

"Well," he went on to tell me, “Ideas are worthless unless you do something with them. Maybe you could send your board game idea to a company that makes games and see if they'd turn your idea into a real game.”

"That would be great!" I replied.

And that's when the work began.

First, my dad took me to the library and showed me how to find game companies' names and mailing addresses. Then, with that information in hand, we drove home, and he showed me how a typewriter works and how to compose a business letter. Then I rolled a paper into the typewriter and painstakingly typed out the letter to go with my sketches. Finally, he showed me how to put an envelope in the typewriter and type the addresses correctly. After all that, I dropped my packet in our mailbox and waited. And waited.

Then, months later, my dad told me there was mail for me. It was from Milton Bradley – the game company!

I opened the letter with so much anticipation. Were they going to use my idea? No. They politely thanked me and told me they weren't interested. I was devastated.

"Why the frown?" he asked. It was only one idea. He told me the story of how many filaments Edison tried as he was inventing the incandescent light bulb. Or how many strikes a good baseball player makes to get a hit. As I said, he was the eternal optimist. And it rubbed off on me. He encouraged me to keep trying and keep my imagination going.

For years after that board game idea, I would go on to submit idea after idea. I had a holiday-themed design idea for Crest toothpaste. I had dozens of other board game ideas. I submitted ideas on how to redesign buildings. Nothing was off-limit for my imagination.

And with each idea, I would research where and how to submit it, type the cover letter and envelope, and then mail it off with great anticipation. Each time a response letter would arrive in the mail, my dad’s exciting response was always the same, "This could be the one!" Despite never seeing any of my ideas coming to life, he was optimistic and continued to encourage me.

It's that voice I've heard as our marketing team members generate idea after idea for this year's marketing efforts.

Though he was a high school welding teacher, my dad taught me a lot that has helped me in marketing. I have learned that ideas on a page of paper are, in fact, worthless until something is done with them. Executing an idea is hard work. As marketers, we are the ones taking great ideas and turning them into reality. So, do it with attention to detail and precision, so the idea has the best chance of turning into a fantastic tactic helping achieve the marketing goals of a client or company.

I have also learned to keep my optimism throughout every brainstorming session I've ever been part of. This is more difficult than you might think. It's easy to think about how something's already been tried or find all the reasons an idea won't work. So, work hard to keep optimism front and center with your teams to keep ideas flowing. Every idea has potential. There will be plenty of time to evaluate and scrutinize ideas later in the process. Don't do that early on when you start your brainstorming sessions. Let the ideas flow, have fun, encourage your team, and remind them that "This could be the one!"