Some ideas I've collected over the past few months -- nothing serious. A few might be worth something to the right person. Let me know if you can use them at all -- totally free.

1. 51 ideas for free
Greg Dyche, Sept 2016

2. List what drops
If you are at least 30 years old, you’ve lived more than 10,000 days. The odds of dying tomorrow are
very, very low. We are told to live like today is our last day, but that doesn’t help. If today was my last, I
would sit with my family and friends, share memories, laugh, cry, and try to prepare them and myself.
This is not going to help me live my life.
What is important is to realize life is short and the end is unknown. The end can come sudden and be
surprising. The end might come slowing and rob you of the quality of life you take for granted.
Know what drops. List why it isn’t important enough to give you limited time and energy away.
Keep a not-to-do list. It’s more important than a to-do list.

3. Book: Run for Life
● Do you know anyone that doesn’t wish to run?
○ I don’t either.
○ I too don’t run -- yet.
● Start to run. Journal your struggles and triumphs.
● Everyone else that hasn’t run yet needs to know what you’ll learn.
● You’ll grow stronger.
● You’ll figure out how to make change stick.
● It will change you and you’ll be better.

4. Therapy for Work
Are you a leader? Can you lead others out of a slump?
We all struggle. Averages are an illusion. It’s a mathematical description of
events that has nothing to do with the reality we live. We live in peaks and
valleys, feasts and famines, good times and bad times. You need to have faith.
You need to keep walking, keep going.
You need a professional you can talk to that helps you stay focused on the
mountain and helps you not get lost in the valley.

6. Book Idea -- Sell like a Pro
We don’t need one more book. We need a book for you. Write a book for yourself.
Write what it takes to sell. It will force you to think about how you sell and why
you are doing it.
This book will be great if it works for you -- and guess what? Others will want to
read it also.

7. Book idea -- parenting survival guide
Like selling -- write a book for you. What would you tell your kids when they ask
how to parent?
● We live in mirrors. What we feel others will soon feel. How we act others will
soon act the same. As the leader of the family you set the tone for the whole
house.
● Why do you tell you kids no? Simply because you don’t have the energy to
say yes. Find the energy to be a loving, caring parent.

8. Perfect morning
What’s your perfect start to a morning?
Write it down? Set it up for tomorrow.
Make it easy. Get the exercise clothes and shoes set out. Prep the breakfast that
works. Have the water ready.
Test, experiment, play, figure it out.

9. Workbook/journal to more productive you
As before, write the book for you - not others.
What are your instructions for success? If you had to get twice as much done
tomorrow, what would you do?
● Get up early?
● Stay late? That’s not enough.
● Do you have tool? Tactics? Ideas? Remove distractions.
● Write the manual for productive, successful living.

10. Book -- Lose weight and have more sex
Well this one will sell all the time, so why not write it?

11. Book: What you need to believe
Belief will create your world. You are what you choose to believe. You are the
hero of your own movie.
Do you believe you can improve? Do you believe you can out work, our last most
everyone else? Do you believe you can learn?
What’s the list? What are you believing? You believe what you hear and hear and
hear. Faith comes from hearing, hearing, and hearing. Guard what you hear, read,
see. It’s what you are.

12. APP -- Daily Instructions; my daily ritual; My code
● hit the app and it tells me to think of two people I'm appreciate. Then get
dressed for a walk
● A new alarm clark
● Live the code
● What’s your code?
● If you have only 10 years to live, would you be doing this today?
● Write it down -- remove decisions when possible to give you more room to
make decisions later

13. Talk to the future you
What message would you send to yourself 10 years ago, 20 years ago. Would
you part wisdom? Would you forgive yourself or encourage yourself? Would you
be better off today if you could talk to yourself in the past?
I don’t how to go into the past, but we can go into the future. Email yourself and
use gmail delayed delivery:
google delay send instructions
Write notes for 1 week, 1 month, 3 and 6 months and years: 1, 5, and 10. You’ll
be surprised how the notes read when they show up in your mailbox.

14. Damn! That Felt Good App
● Specialized journal that’s looking to record the good times
● Feel great after a hard run, especially one you didn’t want to take.
● Even energy you feel after giving up caffeine
● Have icons, record comments, rank the feeling -- record how great it is!
“Lest we forget” might be a better title for the app.
We forget and back to the middle road, the road commoningly traveled.

15. Got2go
Map app that locates decent places to find a restroom.
● With kids
● Clean
● Rate by users

16. Lunch +
We get hungry, crave fat, sugar, and salt and make poor choices for lunch,
especially work lunch.
Have an app that suggests healthier options based on your diet preferences.
On a spectrum from horrible to super, just try to move a little more toward super.
Don’t try to be perfect.

17. Chase me
When I exercise, I’d like to compete with a friend. Maybe a virtual competitor to
pace me. (Nike already does this; I think, but I had the idea anyway.)
If it works for exercise, maybe it work for other ideas: long travel trips, reading a
novel (more kids would like this), number of books read, water drank today,
veggies eaten today, etc…

18. High 5 (or 5x5 rule)
This has become popular and perhaps doesn’t need explanation anymore, but
you become the 5 people around you. This app would ask you to:
● list those 5,
● why them,
● are they better than you (they should be)
● What do they do
● Why do you care
● Are you contributing to pulling them down

19. Iterative Interrogator
Have a big goal?
● Can you do it in a day? No, what are the steps to the goal.
● What’s the first step?
● Can you do it alone? Who can help?
● Can you do this small part today? No, break it down further.
● What skills will you need to be what you need to be? Can you start to gain
those skills today?
● Guide me through the iterative planning process and ask questions to probe
deeper.

20. STOP (Small Talk on Purpose)
Maybe facebook, maybe something else. Hold a digital sign that says I’m open to
talking about a topic: self-improvement, exercise, eating healthier, losing weight,
whatever you are interested in discussing.
You could spot conversations happening in coffee shops and know which ones
are open to join.
People would be able to rate each other and know if they would want a stranger
to join the conversation or not.

21. Book: car maintenance for older cars
● Take your car to a garage and have an idea of what it really needs -- not
what they suggest.
● What type of repairs are common for this mileage
● Connect to an app with stats based on the auto parts consumed
○ More parts sold means more repairs needed
○ Connect with a major parts supplier like NAPA
○ Only buy cars on the lower end of parts consumption -- avoid a lemon

22. Personal shopping service
● Blue Apron is doing this but you don’t pick the menu.
● Take a family’s menu and work with them to create rotating meal plan
● You can shop for them, twice a week
● Adjust for seasons and holidays
● Find better sources for bulk, veggies, exoctic options, etc..

23. Worst Case Planning Service
● What happens if I’m unemployed?
● What happens if my spouse dies in a car crash?
● What happens if I have a life altering disease?
● What happens if we lose power for a week in the winter?
You need to have a plan before you need it. You may realize the worst case isn’t
as bad as you think and you can make a plan to survive.
The average person will not think of common issues and could use some help
getting ready.

24. Stoic 8 ball
8 ball type app that answers in Stoic philosophy.

25. Homeless tours
● Join me and live homeless for a long weekend
● Stoics believed you should experience depravity every once in awhile to
appreciate what you have.

26. Traps and Triggers Guide
Got an idea or solve a problem? Great; now what?
● Location?
○ Know the code to a bathroom in a building you visit once a year? Favorite restaurant in a
foreign town
● Weather?
○ Always forget the umbrella. Flashlight batteries?
● Time - birthdays, etc…
● Have smart tags for a journal that suggest the hints when they are most
likely needed and have it learn to improve next time -- think Watson cognitive
computing app.

27. 3D self-help cube
● Start from where you are
● Go deeper or wider to explore and improve

28. Invitation only Think Tank
● Private youtube group
● Private facebook group
● Group text messages
● Only 5 people
● Confidential
● Participation required

29. Unemployment action plan
Breath Long walk Bed at 10 & up at 5
Don’t Panic Call a close friend Initiate the disaster plan*
Only listen to inspirational
material
Observe don’t perceive --
it’s only a sword thrust*
Interview a connection - not
a friend -- everyday
Write: If I wasn’t afraid, I’d
….
Journal everyday - and plan
to publish after you get back
on your feet
Realize success is
measured day by day
It’s okay to laugh and play
with kids
Hug more often Socialize productively
Read idea books Interview with friends -
pretend it’s your dream job
Have references read -
good ones

30. APP: walk and talk together
● Conference call and gps map together
● Walk with friend in different cities and all sync on pace, distance, goals
● Be able to be on the conference call the whole time as a group
○ Mute yourself or other individuals to control sound

31. New Alarm
We all have used the same old alarm. With technology we have new options.
Find motivation music. Maybe a voice memo from your kids saying get up.
Maybe a voice memo from your better self, friend, favorite motivational speaker.
Find something better than a buzz or beep.

32. Walking conference calls
Walk and talk
● Have slideshow available on mobile device and be able to talk to others
● Join inspiring conference call each morning
● See calorie or step count of others on the phone

33. Idea Showers
Shower plus for idea people
● aromatherapy : smell triggered with water or steam
● wet massage markers to write on walls
● Waterproof recorder - iphone in protective case?
● flow head that shows water use and temp

34. App - sync audible book listening
● Can we listen to a book together?
● Can we watch a movie together?
● How can we use technology to be closer together even though we live miles
apart?

35. Service: Time capsule
Mail the package and have it sent back on the date you specify and to who you
specify.
● Not many, many years away
● Weeks or months or 1 year could be interesting

36. Service: text me and I’ll answer
● Text me 6am asking, “Did you get up?”
● Text me 6:30 “Did you eat breakfast?”
● Text me at 8pm “Did you write goals for tomorrow?”
● Prompts for better living

37. Schedule rest and idleness
● It’s okay to be idle
● It’s okay to rest
● At times, rest will be more valuable than action. It’s different than be lazy. It
takes rest to build. It takes rest to repair.
● I started a running program, and I was so out of shape I needed to start out
at a very, very easy pace. The hard part was holding back and giving my
body time to build and repair. If I ran ahead, which I could easily at the time, I
would be too sore to run again the next time. I’d quit. Rest was in the victory.

38. Hot Dog Stand that serves on veggie dogs
● We have one in Omaha, so I guess this isn’t new idea anymore.
● Hot Dog Stands aren’t new, so you need an angle.

39. Fresh Fruit and Veggie delivery
● Deliver to businesses
● Vacuum packed veggies and fruit
● Ready to rip open and eat

40. Daycare for kid businesses
After school care, where the kids are expected to work on a business.
Think lemonade stand and farmer’s market combined -- all ran by kids.
● Crafts
● Services (dog sitting, homework help for example)
● Computer work (social media work)
Similar to start-up incubation centers but for kids 6 through 12 grades; older kids
consult with younger kids

41. Facilitate Open Conversation Night
● Host or facilitate open conversations at a coffee house.
● Have topics
● Set rules
● Maybe speed dating style change of topics
● Stand up table tops for finger food and drinks

42. Prep Club
● Closes at 9, so you can go to the real club
● Dance lessons at every song
● Drink aren’t stiff
● Lights are dim
● Everything you need to prep for going to the club
● Meant for couples or older singles who aren’t as cool as we used to be
● Learn to dance, get social skills dusted off and prep to go out

43. Winter Bike Storage
If you have the space…
● Pick up and delivery, of course
● Clean, tune-up, and have ready for first ride in spring

44. Walking Club to discuss and solve problem
● Walk the Mall in poor weather and park in good weather
● Have a topic to discuss and solve
● Like a book club but with a small amount of exercise
○ Few people actually read the book but anyone can talk about an idea

45. Watch it again Sam
● Movie theater like no other
● Shows only re-runs from 10 years ago or longer
● High-top tables for finger food and drinks
● Lights stay bright enough for people to mingle
● Volume only movie is ¾ normal
● It’s really a bar to meet others, but you buy tickets to the movie
(spin on this idea is to create it in the lobby of a movie theater -- something to do
while you wait for your movie -- or just drink, eat, visit with friends and never
leave to see a movie)

46. Do what famous people do
● Collect morning routines from famous people -- or use those already
recorded.
● Coordinate for time of day and when the app is tapped, show what a famous
person is doing right now
● What to be like Michael Jordan, then do what he did at 5am
● Could also set an alarm to match someone famous and get up when they do
-- adjusted for time zone of course

47. Dress Me
● Service connected to amazon
● Each morning scan the barcode for what you are wearing (or load
description based on dialogue)
● Amazon will learn your wardrobe
● Track the age of clothes
● Suggest when new items should be ordered based on your agreement
● Introduce a better arrangement of color and style based on your input of
intent -- look professional, sporty, out with the guys, etc...

48. Facilitate a lunch and learn at your work
● Pick a topic you’d like to learn more about
● Invite others to join you
● Each buy a book or subscribe to podcast, free course, or youtube channel
and facilitate a progress path for the group to match
● Watch a little at lunch, discuss and move the group forward

49. 5:15 am wake-up conference call
● Need accountability
● Hold a conference call at 5:15am
● Get up at 5, grab a drink of water and be ready to talk at 5:15am
● Check in with buddies and 30 seconds each telling one thing you’ll do today
and 30 seconds saying if you did or didn’t accomplish yesterday’s goal

50. Daily Goals
● One thing to eat today
● One thing to cook today
● One thing to avoid today
● One thing to write today
● One person to thank today

51. Potty Training -- all lessons in 3 min or less
● Phone app to give you 3 min reading on a topic of your choice
● To be read while uhm… pausing for restroom break

52. Get in touch if any idea was fun or useful
Reach out on linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregdyche
Thank you