Welcome to 2024!
To get started, we’re looking back at the five most popular posts of 2023. There’s certainly a theme in the posts that resonated most with you last year: you’re interested in getting attention for, and investment in, your ideas. Which of those did you find most interesting and valuable in 2023? Here they are:
The 3 things you need to get the investment you want
When you need investment—emotional, intellectual, or financial—you need to be successful at each step in the process: awareness, understanding, and interest. Agreement at each step builds the argument your audience is making for themselves on why your option is the best one. What do you need to do that? This post lays out how your Core Message, Core Case, and Core Story build the alignment you need to get the investment you seek.
Your Building Blocks for buy-in
This year brought a new framework for designing messages using the Buy-In Building Blocks: Core Message, Core Case, and Core Story. Here’s a walk-through of the Buy-in Building Blocks with examples from my own work and the original launch messaging for the iPhone!
The surprising secret to stand-out ideas
When it comes to stand-out ideas, innovation isn’t about creating something entirely new, but rather about combining existing elements in new and unfamiliar ways. That means there’s a magic number to the elements of your idea: two. Only one element and you’re not adding anything to what’s out there. Any more than two and you’re complicating your message. This approach doesn’t just apply to products, but to any offering or approach that you want or need to stand out.
How to stand out? It’s unexpectedly obvious
There’s one more thing about standing out: the best ideas combine those two essential elements to create something unexpectedly obvious. Something people haven’t heard before, but once they do, can’t imagine how no one thought of it before. Using examples from my own flossing routine (!) and from one of my start-up clients, this post shows how that “unexpectedly obvious” combination of elements not only differentiates your idea, it can lead to permanent shifts in thinking and behavior.
Building a new message? Answer these 3 questions first
Whether you’re thinking about how to pivot in 2024 or just to refresh your messaging, it all starts with your answers to three critical questions. First, what urgent, important question does your idea answer? Next, answer how your idea answers this question, focusing on the functional impact rather than just descriptive elements. Finally, explain why your approach is unique—and unexpectedly obvious—by connecting your methods to underlying principles. These three questions are what I use with every client to help make sure their message aligns with what their audiences need to understand, agree with, and ultimately act on a new idea.
Is your top pick on the list? If it’s not, I’d still love to hear what resonated most with you in 2023 or what you want to hear about more in 2024. Email me and let me know!
Please note that many of the links are affiliate links, which means if you buy a thing I link to, I get a percentage of the cost, and then donate it to charity.
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