Tamsen Webster - Find Your Red Thread : Make Your Big Ideas Irresistible

The fool wanders, the wise man travels

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Copyright 2021 by Tamsen Webster

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior written consent of the publisher or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright). For a copyright licence, visit www.accesscopyright.ca or call toll free to 1-800-893-5777.

Cataloguing in publication information is available from Library and Archives Canada.
ISBN 978-1-77458-052-3 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-77458-107-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-77458-053-0 (ebook)

Various terms used throughout this book are trademarked. These include the Red Thread, Fear Experiments, Multi-Level Leadership, Marketing Agility Ascension, Red Thread Storyline, and Red Thread Throughline.

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Edited by Kendra Ward
Copyedited by Tilman Lewis
Cover and interior design by Peter Cocking
Ebook by BrightWing Media

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Printed and bound in Canada by Friesens

Words, mademoiselle, are only the outer clothing of ideas.

Agatha Christie, The ABC Murders

T his book could have been one sentence: The best way to make your idea irresistible is to build the story people will tell themselves about it.

In fact, if you already know how to do that (or if your idea is already irresistible), you can probably stop reading now. Im grateful you picked up this book, but its not for you.

If, instead, you see that your idea is so powerful that it could change a life, a market, or even the world, but others dont see it... yetthen I wrote this book for you. I wrote it for people, like you, who want their idea to impact the world. I wrote it for people, like you, who value the possibility of their idea so much that they see it as bigger than they are; who are willing to put the idea first. I wrote it for people, like you, who, despite their motivation and willingness to do the work, struggle to communicate how irresistible their idea really is.

Ive already told you what to do: build the story people will tell themselves about your idea. This technique, which youll learn how to do in the pages ahead, is called the Red Thread.

In Sweden and other northern European countries, the expression red thread refers to the core idea of something, the throughline that makes it all make sense. Youd say it when youre trying to clarify what something means. You could ask, Whats the red thread here? And the answer might be, Our red thread is to drive not just action, but long-term change. In other words, youd use this expression to get to the bottom of questions like the ones you probably get about your idea: What is it? What is it about? And underneath all those: Why should I care?

Your ideayour product, your brand, your business, your servicehas a red thread. It is the mental path you took to make sense of your idea. And if you want your idea to inspire action and real, lasting change, it has to make sense to other people, as well. They have to see the red thread in it. They have to hear your red thread in your answer to their questions about your business, product, or brand when they land on your website, when they talk with you in a sales meeting or pitch presentation, when they hear from you in an online video or at a conference keynote. Most of all? They have to understand and agree with your idea. They need that red thread as their guide through the maze of other ideas and options, and through the maze of their own heads. The red thread will inspire them to act in the way you want them to, to get the outcome youre looking for.

The expression red thread comes from the story of a mythic heroa slayer of monsters and a master of mazes. Youll soon see that you are a modern-day version of this hero.

First, though, you have to find what Ill call, capitalized, the Red Thread of your idea.

Thats the Red Thread this book is all about. It is a clear, powerful answer to the most important aspects of your idea: what it is, and why people should care. Ill lay out a process to make sure your idea is as strong as it can be, by answering all the questions your audience (clients, customers, investors) are asking about it, both consciously and not.

The biggest obstacle to inspiring your audience to act is the gap between what you want to say about your idea and what people need to hear about it. To be inspired to act, the human brain needs to hear a specific structure, and it all comes down to story. In this book, youll learn how to use five core elements of story structure to express the core elements of your idea itself and any case you need to make for it.

Great ideas arent found, theyre built.

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Find Your Red Thread has three main parts. In the first, Context, I explain the story of the red thread of Swedish idiom and the Red Thread this book is all about. I also introduce you to the five core elements of story youll be working with throughout the rest of the book:

• Establishing a GOAL

• Introducing a PROBLEM someone didnt know they had

• Discovering a TRUTH that demands a choice

• Defining a CHANGE in thinking or behavior

• Describing the ACTION , or actions, that will make that change concrete

Youll start drafting your own Red Thread by identifying where youll use it, with whom, and to what hoped-for end.

In the second part, Components, well get into the details of each of the five Red Thread statements: specific, templated sentences about these goal, problem, truth, change, and action elements of your story. Each chapter includes a definition of the element, the criteria for that statement, and step-by-step guidance for developing it. Youll also see a chapter on the goal revisited meant to bring your work on your Red Thread full circle.

The chapters in the final part, Combinations, show you how to combine Red Thread statements into the forms I and my clients have found most useful: one-paragraph summaries called your Red Thread Storyline, which string together all your work on your Red Thread statements, and a one-sentence summary called a Red Thread Throughline (like the one that started this book). Finally, the conclusion reveals two additional interpretations and applications of your Red Thread, and a third that may be the most important one of all: how finding the Red Thread of your idea may help you find the Red Thread of you.

Ive tested the approach youre about to learn with hundreds of ideas and hundreds of clients, including the most skeptical and story-phobic. (Im looking at you, scientists and engineers!) Ive taught it to thousands more. People have used the Red Thread method to build communications as varied as these:

• Marketing messages and materials

• Strategic sales conversations

• Pitches and internal presentations