poseycorp helps innovators become great communicators. (Sometimes by sending out helpful stuff in a newsletter.)
ISSUE 111
Featherbedding
"We fear change."
-- Garth Algar
Gearing up to deliver a major new innovation to the world? That’s awesome! But you can’t just fling it into the world and expect it to be absorbed. No one will get it. You’ll squander the little attention you receive and waste a huge opportunity.
So, what do you do? You lay down featherbeds - layers of context - to get your audiences' minds ready in the weeks before dropping a transformative idea.
Let’s say you have a profound innovation in epigenetics that’s going to transform medicine. Everyone needs to understand your idea, not just other researchers. Featherbed in this
manner:
Talk about medicine and disease interventions today. How do things work now? Where are the holes? What’s wrong?
Move on to the design and technical challenges inherent in fixing these holes.
Explain what epigenetics is in general – use metaphors from nature, use examples. Create a vocabulary that your audience can absorb.
Then, lay your idea on them – how and why epigenetics is perfect for this tough problem you’ve identified.
Follow up by pointing out interesting demographics, enlisting commentary from third-party experts to illustrate the great future your epigenetics innovation can deliver.
Yes, you can do this all in one presentation if you have an audience that is engaged enough (or obligated) to listen to you. But to reach a broad audience (one that doesn’t know they should be engaged and interested), you’re better off doing a dramatic reveal over several weeks.
Great featherbedders anchor their campaign with a strong story to draw people in – a patient in peril, a doctor desperate to find a solution.
Create a sweeping narrative for your audience to follow over several weeks and you’ll educate them whether they realize it or not!
When you featherbed for it, your big idea comes in for a smooth landing. And doesn’t every great idea deserve that?
“This was actually worthwhile,” said a skeptical media training participant.
If you’d like great results, schedule a conversation with me! It’s easy! Reach me at inquiries@poseycorp.com.
Your business must scale, and you must scale with it. Great communicators create the change they want to see in the world. poseycorp helps innovators build powerful messages and the skill to deliver them so they can break through the noise and be heard! Lisa Poulson, poseycorp’s principal, is expert at helping innovators scale by becoming great communicators.
Do you wish everyone around you had great communication skills? Share this link with them so they can learn too!
