Good Life Project - Conveying the Cool: How to Sell an Idea That’s Ahead of it’s Time

Episode Date: February 10, 2016

Here’s a great question from one of our listeners, David: If your work is truly cutting edge, how do you effectively market if people don’t even have the distinctions yet to “get it,” and you need to get their attention AND it takes a longer conversation to really open it up? The art of conveying […]The post Conveying the Cool: How to Sell an Idea That’s Ahead of it’s Time appeared first on Good LifeProject. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him!

Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk. This week we're talking about how to convince people that what you're working on is really, really cool. So I'm having fun, actually, with these riffs. And I've been getting more and more questions from you, from our listening community. And I love that. So if you have questions, be sure to send them in. You can use a contact form on our website or just shoot them to Jonathan at goodlifeproject.com. And if it sounds like a great question to answer as a podcast riff,

I will go ahead and share my thoughts on it. So this week comes from David and he asks, if your work is truly cutting it, how do you effectively market if people don't even have the distinctions yet to quote, get it. And you need to get their attention. And it takes a longer conversation to really open it up. It's a really fascinating question. It's something that I've struggled with. I'm somebody who has, I tend to see things three, four, five, 10, 20 steps out. That's both a blessing and a curse on two levels. One, because it wars with my desire to be present and grateful and alive in the thing that I'm doing right now.

Very often so future-driven and future-oriented, but also because it can sometimes lead you to create stuff that is not yet part of the popular vernacular, is not even in somebody's conversation or purview, is that, you know, those famous air quotes, ahead of its time, which, you know, when the time comes, makes you, you know, seem like you've created something astonishing. But when it's ahead of your time, you're just somebody who's on the fringe, somebody who people don't get. And the question is, you know, if you're somebody where you feel like the work that you're creating is genuinely innovative on that level, it's truly cutting

ends to use the words, then how do you get that across to people? It's a really challenging question. The way that most people do it from what I've seen is they focus on the mechanism. Listen, I've created this thing. And let me tell you how the mechanism is profoundly different than everything that's come beyond it. Let me tell you how the biomechanics of it are totally different. Let me tell you how this workout protocol is just radically different. Let me tell you how this technology is radically different. And focusing on the mechanism can be really, really critical in a market where the desired outcome has been promised for so many years in so many different ways that the market is just entirely and utterly

done with it, then you have to start to focus on the mechanism as a way to distinguish yourself. But what I find is that very often that's not the case. People, especially creators and makers, technologists, founders, inventors, academics, they get massively, massively excited about their work, about the research, about the data, about the mechanisms that are going into what they're doing. And it's Richard Feynman's classic, it's the kick of finding the thing out that lights them up. So for you, if that's you, your default mode is very often, well, that's the thing that should light other people up. The thing that the mechanism, the research, the question, that's the thing that, ah, I live and breathe for, and I'm figuring out, and it's incredible. So that's the

thing that I'm going to focus on when I'm telling the story of this to other people, to get them inspired, to get them to understand what it's about. Now, if you surround yourself in a community of people who are just like you, that can work. But what happens when you want to take that idea out to a vastly larger, less informed, less involved community? That's where it becomes massively challenging and what i found is it's at that moment very often much more helpful to focus less on the complexities of of this you know massively differentiated highly innovative cutting edge mechanism or researcher question and focus on the outcome how will this thing that you're working on, what is the single most desired outcome that is connected to this thing that you're working on? This cutting edge thing,

what will it do to or for people or organizations that will allow, give them a desired outcome in a way that nothing else will? If it's truly cutting edge, if it's truly innovative, it will do that, right? It will deliver an outcome, a desired outcome that is like nothing else can deliver. So instead of focusing on the mechanism, when you go to the outer circle of people who are both less informed and could care less about the mechanism itself, focus on what they really want, which is the outcome. So let's say you have, you want to be able to drive to work and read your newspaper at the same time. You want to be able to drive to work and get an hour's worth of work done in your commute. Both ways, that gives you two hours of your day, you get more work done, or you just chill out or you do whatever you want to do. Right? So when somebody introduces self driving cars, there will be a very small number of engineers

and technologists and mechanics who are just massively inspired and they want to they want completely geek out about the mechanism. But 99.999% of the rest of the world just wants to know wait a minute you're telling me that there's a car that i can buy where i can basically just set the destination and then kick back and game or read or do work that is profoundly cutting edge that's the desired outcome and i don't really care about or need to know about the cutting edge, the innovative mechanism, even if it gets the person who's behind it massively excited about it. So I don't know, because I don't know the details behind this question, what the truly cutting edge thing is that that is being talked about here. But what I do know is somebody who has taken a lot of ideas

from concept to product to company, and worked with has taken a lot of ideas from concept to product to company and worked with and advised a lot of other people doing the same, not just in technology, in fact, mostly not in technology, in a wide variety of endeavors from business to art to life, is that very often the scientist, the creator, the inventor gets massively connected to and lit up by the mechanism, the question, the experiment. And that's the thing that they want to sell as cutting edge and truly innovative. And what people outside of that sphere really care about is how will this change my life in some kind of meaningful way? What's the desired outcome that will really like, what is the cutting edge desired outcome for me?

That's what I want to hear about. That's the story that I want to hear about. And then from there, most people will never ask about how I got to that place. But some people will then get curious and say, well, this is like crazy cool. I want to geek out on how this is actually happening. And those are the people who will then spark an interest in learning the cutting edge mechanism, the question, the experiment,

and that's probably the conversation that you're going to want to have. So just something to think about when you're in a place where you're trying to bring something, and you know that in your heart, it's cutting edge, you know, the technology, the mechanism, the biology, the, you know, the genetics, the epigenetics, whatever it is that's behind it. Gene editing with CRISPR is this astonishing breakthrough that a lot of people in the science community are massively, massively inspired by. And there's so much work going on now. But your average Joe on the street, Joe or Josefina, they really don't care about that. They care about how is this going to make my life profoundly better?

Tell that story. And if you tell that story, a certain percentage of people will then want to know, huh, well, how does this work? And at that point, you can have that conversation. But meet people where they are. That's, I think, the big lesson here is don't try and turn every person into a mechanism-interested individual. Most people aren't and won't ever be.

Meet them where they are, which is how will this affect them, and then tell the story backwards from there if and when they want it told. Hope that's helpful. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you found something valuable, entertaining, engaging, or just plain fun, I'd be so appreciative if you take a couple extra seconds and share it. Maybe you want to email it to a friend, maybe you want to share it around social media, or even be awesome if you'd head over to iTunes and just give us a rating. Every little bit helps get the word out, and it helps more people get in touch with the message. I'm Jonathan Fields signing off for Good Life Project. or playoff season meditations, whatever your vibe, Peloton has thousands of classes built to push you.

We know how life goes. New father, new routines, new locations. What matters is that you have something there to adapt with you, whether you need a challenge or rest. And Peloton has everything you need, whenever you need it. Find your push. Find your power. Peloton. Visit Peloton at onepeloton.ca. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more

comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generation, Getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman.

I knew you were gonna be fun. On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk.