Episode 10: Unleashing Innovation – Your Best Idea Might Be Elsewhere

Welcome back to The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing – the podcast for people who’ve opened seventeen tabs on innovation and still aren’t entirely sure any of them were the point.

I’m your host, Sean Makin — a man prone to overthinking not just the big decisions, but also the small ones… like whether this introduction should have been shorter.

Before we begin, a small suggestion.

You may wish to pause this episode and prepare yourself something to drink. Not something simple. Something involving:

• Multiple steps
• At least one decision you’re not entirely qualified to make
• And a level of effort that feels wildly disproportionate to the outcome

A coffee involving terminology you don’t normally use is ideal.

Once you’ve done that, find somewhere comfortable to sit. Not optimally comfortable. Just comfortable enough that you can relax… but not so comfortable that you fall asleep.

We’ll wait.

Today, we’re talking about innovation.

Not the kind announced with dramatic music and a keynote speaker in a black turtleneck, but the kind that quietly determines whether your business grows… or slowly becomes a cautionary tale told at networking events.

Because here’s the thing:

Innovation isn’t optional.

It’s not a buzzword.
It’s not even particularly glamorous.
It’s just… necessary.

Part 1: The Myth of Innovation

Innovation has been somewhat over-marketed.

It’s been polished, packaged, and presented as a business superpower — something that arrives in a flash of brilliance during a shower, a walk, or a meaningful stare out of a window while holding coffee.

Ideally with a dramatic soundtrack.

But real innovation rarely arrives with a bang.

More often, it appears quietly:

• A small improvement
• A slightly better question
• Or the vague feeling that something is unnecessarily complicated

Which, if we’re honest, describes quite a lot of business operations.

There’s also a persistent belief that innovation belongs to a select group of people:

• The ones with job titles that didn’t exist ten years ago
• A worrying number of sticky notes
• And an unsettling confidence that suggests they’ve already thought of something you haven’t

But innovation isn’t a department.

It’s not something confined to glass-walled brainstorming rooms with beanbags and whiteboards that haven’t been cleaned since 2017.

It either happens everywhere… or not at all.

Because the real barrier to innovation isn’t a lack of ideas.

It’s a lack of permission.

Permission to:

• Question existing processes
• Suggest alternatives
• And occasionally say, “This doesn’t make sense,” without it becoming career-limiting

Most organisations don’t actively discourage innovation. They simply build systems that make it difficult.

You might say you value ideas. But if every suggestion requires:

• Three approvals
• A formal proposal
• And a meeting to schedule another meeting

…then what you actually value is endurance.

Not innovation.

And so, ideas get filtered — not by quality, but by persistence.

Which is unfortunate, because some of the best ideas quietly disappear somewhere between:
“That’s interesting…” and “Let’s revisit this next quarter.”

Which, in business terms, is roughly equivalent to throwing something into a black hole.

Part 2: Culture — Or Why Ideas Die in Meetings

Culture is often described using uplifting words like:

• “Dynamic”
• “Collaborative”
• “Forward-thinking”

And yet somehow still manages to make sharing a new idea feel like attempting to return soup in a restaurant.

Because culture isn’t what’s written on the wall.

It’s what happens in the room.

It’s the reaction someone gets when they say:
“I’ve been thinking…”

In healthy organisations, that sentence is followed by curiosity.

In most organisations, it’s followed by:

• Silence
• Mild concern
• Or someone asking, “Have we tried what we did last year?”

Which is useful if your goal is consistency. Or nostalgia. Or slowly becoming irrelevant.

People stop sharing ideas not because they lack them, but because experience has taught them the risk outweighs the reward.

Eventually the equation becomes:

Effort + Risk – Recognition = Silence

And nowhere is this more obvious than in meetings about innovation.

They usually begin with enthusiasm.

Someone says:
“We need to think differently.”

Everyone nods.

There may be biscuits.

Then, slowly but inevitably, the conversation transforms into:

• Why things are the way they are
• Why changing them would be difficult
• And why now might not be the right time

By the end:

• Nothing has changed
• The biscuits are gone
• And everyone agrees to “circle back”

No one knows what that means. But it sounds productive.

Part 3: Customers – They Know Things. Annoyingly.

Customers are fascinating.

Not only because human behaviour is fascinating, but because customers will:

• Tell you exactly what they want
• Ignore half of what you say
• And use your product in ways you were absolutely certain were impossible

And despite this… they remain your greatest source of innovation.

Which is mildly inconvenient, because it means the answers already exist.

They’re hiding inside:

• Feedback
• Complaints
• Reviews
• Support tickets
• And emails beginning with:
  “I’m not usually one to complain, but…”

Which universally means they are absolutely about to complain.

The challenge isn’t collecting feedback.

Most businesses are excellent at collecting feedback.

They have:

• Surveys
• Dashboards
• Reports
• Entire ecosystems dedicated to understanding the customer

And yet still manage to ignore the part where the customer explains the problem.

Real innovation begins when feedback shapes decisions.

Because customers rarely describe solutions.

They describe:

• Friction
• Confusion
• Frustration
• Experiences that don’t quite work

And somewhere inside those frustrations is the question:
“Why is this difficult?”

That’s where innovation starts.

Part 4: Technology Or Stop Panicking About AI

At some point in every innovation conversation, someone says:
“We should probably be doing something with AI.”

This is usually followed by a long pause where everyone hopes someone else understands what that means.

Technology has developed a reputation for being:

• Extremely powerful
• And slightly mysterious

Which is an impressive combination.

So businesses tend to respond in one of two ways:

1. Ignore it completely
2. Adopt it immediately without knowing what problem it solves

The second option is particularly popular.

It involves:

• Buying new tools
• Attending webinars
• And saying things like “leveraging AI capabilities”

Usually while quietly Googling what those capabilities actually are.

Technology matters. But technology is a tool — not a strategy.

Because if you take a disorganised process and apply advanced technology to it…

You don’t create innovation.

You create a faster version of the same problem.

The most effective organisations don’t start with technology.

They start with:

• Problems
• Opportunities
• Outcomes

Then ask:
“What tools help us get there?”

Part 5: Collaboration – You Don’t Know Everything

Eventually, innovation requires collaboration.

Which is a polite way of saying:
“You are going to need other people.”

This can be difficult.

Because most organisations quietly believe all the answers already exist somewhere internally.

And perhaps they do.

They’re just not speaking to each other.

Real collaboration isn’t putting people in a room.

That’s just a meeting.

Real collaboration is:

• Different perspectives
• Shared problem-solving
• And the deeply uncomfortable experience of discovering someone else has a better idea

But that discomfort is useful.

Because innovation accelerates where disciplines, experiences, and viewpoints collide.

Especially when external voices are involved.

Fresh perspectives challenge assumptions.

They ask dangerous questions like:
“Why do you do it this way?”

At which point everyone suddenly becomes very interested in their notes.

Part 6: Learning

Innovation is not a one-time event.

It’s not something you:

• Schedule
• Complete
• And file neatly under “done”

It’s an ongoing process of:

• Testing
• Learning
• Adjusting

Which sounds straightforward until you try doing it consistently.

Because learning requires admitting something uncomfortable:
What worked yesterday might not work tomorrow.

Markets change.
Technology evolves.
Customer expectations shift.

And marketing, in particular, moves at alarming speed.

You can spend weeks building a campaign only to discover the platform redesigned itself while you were sleeping.

Learning matters because without it, you’re not innovating.

You’re reacting.

And reacting is not the same as evolving.

Part 7: Agility

Agility isn’t about moving fast for the sake of it.

It’s about moving intelligently.

Testing early.
Learning quickly.
Adjusting before you’ve invested too much into something that doesn’t work.

Traditional projects often involve:

• Months of planning
• Endless documentation
• Multiple approvals
• And a launch date treated like a national event

Then reality arrives.

And reality, unfortunately, did not read the strategy deck.

Agile organisations understand this.

They:

• Test earlier
• Adapt faster
• Focus on learning instead of perfection

Because innovation doesn’t come from getting everything right first time.

It comes from:
Trying.
Learning.
Improving.

Preferably without another three-hour meeting.

Part 8: Measurement

Measurement is the least exciting part of innovation.

And unfortunately, the most important.

Because without measurement, innovation is just enthusiasm.

You need to know:

• What worked
• What didn’t
• And whether your “big idea” achieved anything useful

Otherwise decisions become based on:

• Assumptions
• Anecdotes
• And strong opinions delivered with alarming confidence

Measurement creates clarity.

It helps businesses:

• Double down on what works
• Improve what doesn’t
• And stop wasting energy on things with no meaningful impact

Because hope, while admirable… is not a metric.

The Slightly Philosophical Bit

So what have we learned?

Innovation isn’t:

• A single moment
• A giant breakthrough
• Or a shiny new piece of technology

It’s a culture.

A process.

A continuous cycle of:

• Trying things
• Learning things
• And occasionally wondering why you didn’t do this sooner

Because growth doesn’t come from doing what worked yesterday.

It comes from being just uncomfortable enough… to try something better today.

And if all else fails…

Remember:
Somewhere inside your organisation, someone already has a good idea.

They’re just waiting for a meeting where they won’t be ignored.

Thank you for joining me for this episode of The Overthinker’s Guide to Modern Marketing.

Until next time:
Stay curious.
Keep questioning.
And make sure the biscuits are worth it.