The good news? You’ve just created a shiny new positioning statement. You’ve labored over how to frame your target market. You’ve wordsmithed your competitive differentiation. You’ve detailed the how those differences make your product better. Now you’re ready for the market to respond and pay off all that hard work. The bad news? It probably […]
Change
Why You Can’t Make Change Happen – EP:099
There are two kinds of change, technical and adaptive, and you need to solve for the right one. Tamsen is working on a book about the Red Thread, and it’s been hard to get that change to happen. Michael Bungay Stanier’s advice was that she was probably solving for the wrong kind of change. Technical […]
Four ways people react to messages (and how to get the one you want)
You have a message. You want to get it heard. That’s all good. (I mean, people have to hear your message to act on it, right? Right.) Except that’s not enough, is it? Nope. Because after someone hears something, they react to it, and it’s that reaction that determines what happens next. You can’t get the action […]
How to find the words that build ideas
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.” “Haters aren’t your problem. Ignoring them is.” “You can’t change what you do until you change how you see.” What do those three phrases have in common? They capture someone’s Big Idea (Simon Sinek, Jay Baer,…me). They’re short (tweetable, even!). They’re clear. They’re memorable, […]
Who (or what) are you choosing to be?
If you could choose to be anyone, who would you choose? I chose “the Dread Pirate Roberts.” Perhaps I should explain. The Princess Bride is and has always been one of my favorite movies (and books), and the Dread Pirate Roberts is one of the main characters. He kidnaps the heroine, Princess Buttercup, after killing […]
Why you need a process for problem-solving
I blame my boys for the last two weeks. I mean, it’s a good thing, but still. It’s totally their fault I’ve been spending the last two weeks teaching myself how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. Now, you may be saying to yourself, “Um…Tamsen, isn’t that something you should have figured out 30 years ago?” And […]
How to create a “moment of truth”
What really happens in a moment of truth? And I don’t mean the Procter & Gamble, marketing, or even Google “moments of truth,” though I’ll get to those in a minute. I mean those times when the traffic light of change in someone’s mind suddenly flips from red to green. When you decide to go […]
When communications failures drive marketing failures
In 1987, the Walt Disney Corporation and the government of France signed a deal to build a new Disney theme park in the suburbs outside of Paris. France fought (!) to have Disney come. They wanted the theme park. They beat out Spain to get it (another first!)… and so Euro Disney was born. And […]
The Idea Lifecycle – EP081
How to Raise Your Idea From “Idea Infancy” to “Idea Adulthood” Ideas need to grow up to meet their potential, to do that you need to understand the idea lifecycle. With an idea in “idea infancy,” your role is the seeker. Just like with humans when an idea is in an infant stage, you don’t […]
Why a Truth Lies at the Heart of Your Idea – EP078
From Idea Statement to Truth We’re renaming a piece of the Red Thread because the truth is it isn’t working like it should. It can be easy to get mixed up between the idea behind your message or pitch and the Idea Statement that comprises a part of its Red Thread. Ultimately, the Red Thread […]