In today’s fast-paced digital world, where countless innovations flood the market, standing out can seem like an insurmountable challenge. Yet, the secret to success isn’t just about having a groundbreaking idea; it’s about making that idea resonate deeply with your audience. This is where Bernadette Jiwa’s book, “Make Your Idea Matter,” becomes an indispensable guide for both budding and seasoned entrepreneurs. Jiwa emphasizes that while many great ideas falter due to poor marketing, the true power lies in creating a meaningful connection with your audience. Her book is a rallying cry to all innovators: it’s not enough to have a great idea—you must make it matter.
Jiwa’s insights are rooted in the belief that our ideas, supported by facts and figures, need to touch hearts to triumph. She challenges us to move beyond the superficial and dive into the emotional core of why our products and services should matter to others. This article distills the essence of Jiwa’s powerful messages, offering a roadmap for turning your ideas into impactful realities.
Great Ideas, Poorly Marketed
According to Bernadette Jiwa, the path to success is littered with great ideas poorly marketed. Her book is a series of calls to action for budding and established entrepreneurs. We can all come up with great innovative ideas, but unless we make them matter to someone, they will wither on the vine.
Start with a Commitment
Jiwa emphasizes starting simply, with a commitment to doing your best. Doing your best has to have an effect on someone. That one person may be the start of something big. If we don’t have that one person, there can be no future. We have to touch someone.
In today’s digital world, we have all the necessary tools at hand to compete with the big players. But the most important tool is you. You need to care about what you are doing, believe in its impact on the world, tell its story, and bring it to life. Co-working spaces, laptops, Wi-Fi connections, and social media platforms have all made the world smaller and the opportunities greater. Now is your time to get started and make ideas that matter.
Formed in the Mind, Triumph in the Heart
Jiwa is convinced that ideas are formed in the mind but triumph in the heart. Our ideas may be supported by facts and figures, but they are not enough to get people to buy. We need to identify why our goods or services hit the button. What makes it so different from the rest? We need to find out and deliver to our potential customer the feelings they want to feel. Our idea must matter to them, not just to us.
Jiwa suggests that your brand is a promise: a promise with a customer. You need to strive to keep your promises, or it breaks the essential trust between the customer and your business. Your brand helps you differentiate from other services and competitors.
Obtaining Commitment Through Emotion
It’s about communication with and without words with the objective of attaining commitment. If we want people to act, we must make them ‘feel’ the benefits immediately. If they say, “I’ll think about it,” we’ve lost them; they’re gone and on to the next thing.
Jiwa believes that every brand is built on the feelings and experiences it delivers to customers, all in the blink of an eye. All transactions matter — including negative ones. Returns should be as easy as purchases, and cancelling subscriptions should be as easy as signing up.
Surprisingly, admitting culpability and committing to make things better has a greater impact on loyalty than getting things right the first time. Why? When the bubble bursts, it creates an opportunity to personalize the engagement and deepen the relationship. When nobody calls, we interpret that as nobody cares. When they do call, it blows us away and we tell ten friends. That’s our opportunity.
Communicating Clearly
How do you communicate all of your value clearly and succinctly? Start by thinking about and framing just one thing. Craft a single mission. Have one goal. Solve one problem. Close one gap. Find one way to make your clients’ lives easier. Get really clear on how you do that, and you’ll find that your customers suddenly ‘get it’ and begin to want it – an emotional connection.
Addressing Emotional Wants Instead of Material Wants
The products and services we want to sell will not succeed in the market if we don’t address the emotional wants of ‘real’ people. It’s not enough just to fulfill the material needs of prospects. Our businesses need to look past the labels and see their hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations.
Jiwa suggests that whatever your idea, whatever your market, the best way to differentiate from your competitors is by turning up the volume on the story of your mission. While products can be similar, missions are unique.
We don’t want people just to buy our stuff; we want it to matter to them. To believe in what we do. To ‘buy in’. Our mission is to get those people, not everyone, but the ones we care about, to care and in the course of that action tell a better story than the competition.
Ideas vs. Tactics
While tactics are certainly necessary to spread our idea, in the long run, it’s more important that we have an idea that matters. As Jiwa points out, many of the answers to the tactical stuff can be found with a 60-second web search. But we can’t necessarily Google our unique mission or vision; that’s why it is the foundation of our business or cause.
How vs. Why
The first question we need to ask is ‘why will people care about this?’ not ‘how will we get them to buy this?’ Toms Shoes started with a big ‘why’. The ‘how’ came later. The story of a ‘big why’ makes the product better. When our brand story makes an emotional connection with our customers, they’re more likely to spread the word about who we are and what we do. Then your customers will have a bond with your brand. They have buy-in.
It Hasn’t Been Done by You
Lost your innovative mojo? Can’t think of a single truly original idea? According to Jiwa, the good news is that it doesn’t matter if it has been done before because it hasn’t been done by you. The quota for ideas hasn’t been used up just yet. The capacity for experiencing difference hasn’t been reached. What makes anything we do unique is our voice. The story that only we can tell, from a perspective that nobody else can have.
So get up and do it. Do it now. Do the work. An idea without execution is just an idea; it has no impact on the world. As Jiwa points out, it will never matter unless we get our idea out there. So go for it. Prototype. There’s plenty of room to make our very best guess and there’s still time to change things tomorrow, after we launch.
Ideas Come from Uncertainty
The best ideas are born from uncertainty. Most successful entrepreneurs build a winning product by getting over the fear. They just begin. They have no guarantees, no assurances, no safety net… but what they have is a story people want to hear. A story created to surprise, delight, and bring joy to those people and to gently close the door on the people who didn’t want to listen.
If we create something with a specific audience in mind, then the foundations of our idea become so much easier. Jiwa tells us to start by knowing our audience; then build the idea just for them. We can call it what we want: target audience, niche market, or client avatar. The label is irrelevant; the purpose is to understand the human being behind the label.
First Dates
Here’s some good advice from Jiwa: We need to think of our business story as a first date with a customer. It’s a way to establish the kind of relationship that leaves people wanting more. Our story doesn’t need to give all of the information; it simply needs to foster the next conversation. It needs to reach into people’s hearts and create an emotional connection.
How are our businesses catering to our clients’ wants rather than needs? Jiwa states that many huge brands—like Innocent Fruit Smoothies, Apple, Zappos, Nike, and TED—have built their businesses not on servicing needs but on appealing to wants. How are you selling emotional wants, and not just simple needs, to your clients?
A truly great brand creates a new story in people’s hearts and minds and positions a good product beyond its utility. Don’t just name a company or product; set out to name the vision of what we want to see in the world.
No Customer is Forever
While we are busy building our business, Jiwa reminds us of a simple constant fact: no customer is forever. Yet she tells us that forever is what we should be working on.
Forever means remembering that there are five other juice bars on the same street, hundreds of running shoe brands, millions of shoe retailers, and 34 million search results for “life coach” on Google. Forever means working out what we could be doing better. There is no cast-iron guarantee, no secret formula. There is no map to our success. This means that we are the mapmaker. We are responsible for shaping our journey and creating our success.
Conclusion
Bernadette Jiwa’s “Make Your Idea Matter” is more than just a guide for entrepreneurs; it’s a call to action. It implores us to delve deeper into our ideas, to find the emotional core that makes them resonate with our audience. In a world saturated with innovations, the differentiator isn’t just the idea itself but the story we weave around it, the promises we make, and the emotional connections we build. Jiwa’s book provides a blueprint for not only nurturing our ideas but also ensuring they flourish in the hearts and minds of those we aim to serve.
By committing to doing our best, communicating our stories effectively, and focusing on the emotional needs of our customers, we can turn our ideas into impactful realities. It’s about more than just selling a product; it’s about making a meaningful connection. As we navigate the uncertainties and challenges of entrepreneurship, Jiwa’s insights remind us that the journey is as important as the destination. So, let’s embrace our unique voices, execute our ideas with passion, and create lasting value for our audience. Remember, no idea truly matters until it matters to someone else.
Actionable Takeaways
- Commit to Doing Your Best
- Focus on impacting at least one person with your idea. This initial connection can be the start of something big. Without touching someone, there can be no future for your idea.
- Communicate Your Story
- Believe in your idea, tell its story with passion, and bring it to life. Utilize digital tools such as social media, co-working spaces, and online platforms to share your narrative widely.
- Identify Emotional Triggers
- Understand what makes your product or service unique and why it matters to your customers. Identify the emotional triggers that resonate with them and communicate these effectively.
- Keep Your Promises
- Build and maintain trust with your customers by keeping the promises your brand makes. Consistency and reliability are key to fostering long-term customer relationships.
- Create Emotional Connections
- Aim for immediate emotional impact in all your communications. Make customers ‘feel’ the benefits of your product or service right away to secure their commitment.
- Craft a Single Mission
- Define a clear and focused mission for your business. Solve one problem, close one gap, or make one aspect of your customers’ lives easier. A single, well-defined goal helps customers understand and connect with your brand.
- Address Emotional Wants
- Look beyond the material needs of your customers and cater to their emotional desires. Understand their hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations, and tailor your offerings to meet these emotional needs.
- Focus on the Why
- Start by asking why people should care about your idea, not just how to get them to buy it. A compelling ‘why’ makes your product more appealing and memorable.
- Execute Your Ideas
- Don’t just think about your ideas; act on them. Prototype, test, and iterate. Execution is crucial for turning ideas into impactful realities. There is always room to refine and improve after launching.
- Embrace Uncertainty
- Understand that the best ideas often come from uncertainty. Be ready to adapt and pivot as needed. Start with a specific audience in mind and build your idea to meet their needs.
By integrating these actionable takeaways into your strategy, you can ensure that your ideas not only come to life but also matter deeply to those you aim to serve.
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