You don’t want your ideas—or worse, you—to fail. Of course you don’t. But sometimes success feels maddeningly out of reach, doesn’t it?
You know your ideas have value. You know they can help people. So why doesn’t everyone else see it?
There are lots of reasons, of course. But whenever someone asks me why their ideas aren’t landing, I always start in the same place.
Every successful idea—whether it’s a product, a pitch, a proposal, or a presentation—depends on three things: your outcomes, your audience, and your message.
And here’s the truth: most people only have clarity on one of them—kind of. But you need all three. Crystal clear.
Your Outcomes
Your outcomes are what you want your idea to accomplish—for you and for your audience.
For you, it might be things like getting more business, entering a new market, or selling your coaching or book.
For your audience, it might be improving their lives, saving time or money, or reducing pain or frustration.
Think of it this way: your outcomes are how you make the money, and your audience’s outcomes are why they’d part with theirs. You need both. Because, as I like to say, you can’t pay the bills with altruism.
Your Audience
Your audience is the group your idea serves—the ones with both the need and the means to say yes. To really understand them, you need to know four things.
Their category: Who are they? Small business owners, mid-career women, HR managers, research scientists.
Their want: What question are they asking right now? It’s rarely the question you think they’re asking. Instead, it’s often something like, “How can I improve productivity?” “How do I get a seat at the table?” or “How can I improve my quality of life?”
Their value: What matters most to them—and does it matter to you, too? Values like credibility, caring for people, or continuous learning shape what they’ll say yes to.
Their struggle: What’s in their way? Often it’s the tension between what they want and what they value. “How can we improve productivity while still caring for our people?”
Here’s a simple way to summarize it:
This idea is for [CATEGORY] who [WANT], value [VALUE], but struggle with [STRUGGLE].
For example: “This idea is for small business owners who want to improve productivity, value caring for their people, but struggle to balance the two.”
Your Message
Your message is what you say to your audience to get your outcomes. It’s how you make the case that your idea is the answer to their question.
As my friend Jay Baer says, “You have to sell something people want to buy.”
That means your message has to connect their wants, values, and struggles with your expertise—what I call the Red Thread®.
It’s not enough to say, “Trust me, it works.” You have to show why it works—for them.
That’s exactly what we build in a Red Thread® Session. But even if you’re doing this on your own, start by clarifying your outcomes and audience. Without those, the message will always miss.
The Bottom Line
Outcomes. Audience. Message. You need all three. Because only when you know what you’re working toward, who you’re working with, and why it matters to them can your idea truly succeed.
So—do you have yours?