My Brand of Ideaphoria

No, I didn't make this word up
Ideaphoria is the ability to generate ideas quickly in an energetic stream of creativity and original ideas.

Ideaphoria + caffeine= love

How does it work?
My Ideaphoria is a tool I pull out of my clunky toolbox of a brain to solve a specific problem. When I let my Ideaphoria run wild, I identify the ideal outcome and state the challenges and blockers. I generate “what ifs” and “why nots” and begin shaping the result into something useful. I mentally run diagnostics on each idea, test it against what I know, and refine it until I have something that is about ninety percent complete. From there, I draft a proposal so my manager can pressure test it and point out anything I may have missed. At home, pressure testing can mean checking Pinterest or YouTube for others who have tried to solve the same problem.
Ideating and riding a wave of Ideaphoria is energizing when I have the time and space to follow each line of thinking.

Examples of times I let my Ideaphoria run wild:
At work, I needed to create a communication that recapped our organization’s wins from the past six months. Every team needed to be represented, but no one had time to provide the details—and the final data wouldn’t be available until right before publication.  

My solution: Using the most current information available (last quarter’s reports plus a few fresh updates), I used Copilot to match team achievements and product milestones with specific songs. I wrote short explanations for each selection and intentionally left space for last‑minute updates as new reports came in.  

The result was a full “album” for each team and an organization‑wide playlist. I made the playlist available on Spotify and added a QR code to the “album cover” for our All‑Hands meeting. I also leveraged my design team for unique album cover art. After the quarter officially closed, each leadership team member presented their wins, and the corresponding songs were revealed live.  

Between “Don’t Stop Believin’,” Katy Perry’s “Roar,” and Gene Allison’s 1957 classic “You Can Make It If You Try,” the vibes on the call were immaculate.

Coming soon: details about the time I delivered a fiscal year‑end recap immediately after a meeting with overlapping content and audiences. I used a high‑school yearbook theme to capture favorite highlights, quotes, launches, and team photos from across the organization, and showcased the final piece on our internal SharePoint site.

Looking Ahead
I’ll share some of my Ideaphoria rabbit holes on this page. Sometimes they turn into fully formed business concepts. Sometimes they are just interesting thought experiments.

Do you have ideaphoria?
If this sounds like you, I'd love to hear how your brain works. What concepts have you developed, and what problems have you solved?