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 is about the intersection of two worldviews: the way that you see the world and the way that the people you serve see the world. For each of you, certain things have to be true in order for you to start to see the world a little bit differently.
So what’s a better term for this piece of the Red Thread? A Core Truth. This is an axiom, a universal truth that is believed and known to be true outside of the context of what you’re talking about. This shifts the focus from what you want the audience to do to why they should do it: because it aligns with something they believe to be true.
There’s another lesson here, beyond the Red Thread. If we want our ideas to have an impact, we have to look past how we want to talk about them and focus on how they’re heard and understood. It’s only when somebody understands something that they can do something. It’s your job to change something if it’s getting in the way of that understanding.
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Transcription
– When’s the right time to change something that isn’t working? When you found a better way to do it. And this week, I’m speaking from personal experience, because I’ve made the decision to change what I call one of the key components of the Red Thread.
I’m Tamsen Webster of tamsenwebster.com. That’s what we’re talking about this week on Find the Red Thread. As always, like and subscribe you’re a fan.
I need to admit something here, and it’s not just that one piece of The Red Thread wasn’t working as well as I wanted it to, but I knew it wasn’t working as well really from early, early on. And that piece that wasn’t working as well as I wanted to was what we call or have called the Idea Statement.
And the reason why I knew it wasn’t working very well is because we were always talking about two different levels of ideas. There was your idea, the one that you wanted to have big impact on the world. And then within the Red Thread of that idea was this other Idea. And even in the beginning, I said, “I know this isn’t the best word for it. But I can’t find the one that’s even better.” It wasn’t until I figured out what is this Idea Statement really trying to do that I discovered what did I really need to call it?
What I realized was that ultimately, the Red Thread is about the intersection of two worldviews. Of the way that you see the world and the way that the people you serve see the world. And for each of you, certain things have to be true in order for you to start to see the world a little bit differently.
And it’s that idea of truth that finally made me realize that the Idea Statement is truly a Statement of Truth. An axiom, a universal truth, something that is believed and known to be true outside of even the context of what you’re talking about. It’s why so often, proverbs or proverb-like statements work well. That’s why I’m going to call it the Core Truth.
Because a diamond is forever. It’s true. It’s a true statement, and anything that you’re building with your Red Thread needs to have a statement that your audience would also agree to be true.
So despite the fact that I have 70 plus videos now where we talk about the idea as the Idea Statement, we’re now going to be talking about it as the Truth. So the elements of the Red Thread are The Goal, the Problem, the Truth, the Change, and the Action. And by doing that, I think we’re going to get much closer, much more quickly to the kind of concept that that statement needs to represent.
Because remember, it can’t be what you want people do. It needs to be why they would do it. And the only true reason why they would do it is because it aligns with something that they believe to be true.
So while that’s very specific to me and the Red Thread, I think there’s a lesson here for us all, as well. We want our ideas to have the impact that we want them to have. So we have to pay attention to not just how we want to talk about it, but how are they best heard and understood?
Because it’s only when somebody understands something that they can do something with it. And that means if you realize over and over again that there’s confusion about something in your idea, then it’s on you, as the steward, as the shepherd of that idea, to make sure that you change it. That way the people you serve will understand it and use it the way that you want them to.
That’s this week’s episode of Find the Red Thread. I’m Tamsen Webster, of tamsenwebster.com, and you can find and follow me online at Tamsen Webster on YouTube, on LinkedIn, and on Instagram, and as tamadear on Twitter.
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