The Red Thread Podcast

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com

In order to close that gap of the Problem and get the audience from where they are to where we want them to be, we need to make sure they have everything they need: they need to think it's going to work for them, feel that it will work, and then they can do something about it. The Red Thread gives them everything they need, but at the end of the message, you need to remind them of that.

How do you do that? Go back to the Goal so you can show them that they have all the tools and that those tools add up to something bigger than they had in the first place. This is the Goal Revisited: the Goal plus the benefit that going through the Change will have for the audience, the bigger version of the Goal. This shows them that not only have they gotten what they wanted in the first place, but something more is possible with the tools you've already given them.

Find the Red Thread at TamenWebster.com.

We need to give examples to help people take action, but the challenge is that we're not necessarily giving our audience the specific examples or actions they need. A C-suite member and one of their team members are going to listen to you very differently, so the examples need to match the mindset of those you're speaking. So what do those actions look like? The three that work best are process, category, and criteria.

The process is the most obvious one: you give your audience a series of steps to take, one after the other. Categories, on the other hand, show you the different areas where the change can apply: to your sales team, your marketing team, your customer service, etc. Finally, there's criteria. Unlike process, it's things that don't necessarily have to happen in order but have to be there for the Change to happen. Mix and match these three to take care of everyone.

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

What is the Change in thinking or behavior that you need someone to make? If we've already figured out our Goal of an irresistible outcome for the audience, the invisible Problem of perspective that's getting in the way, and the Idea that makes inaction impossible, the Change is what it all adds up to.

A lot of times, when you're working on your Red Thread, you actually want to start with the Change. However, a common pitfall is to focus on the actions you want people to take, rather than the Change you need them to make that drives all those actions. The difference is between plans and intent. Your audience needs to understand what the overall purpose of the Action is if you want them to follow through and be flexible if (for some reason) that action can't or won't work for them.

• Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip and Dan Heath
• EP053: Focus on the GOAL: Why Your Audience Needs an "Irresistible Outcome"
• EP054: Focus on the PROBLEM – Why Your Audience Needs Both Context and Contrast
• EP055: Focus on the IDEA – The Difference Between "Understandable" and "Inevitable"
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

Great ideas aren't just found, they're built piece by piece. To make that idea irresistible to someone else, we have to do the same thing: build that idea piece by piece in their mind. This week, we're looking at the idea behind the Idea, the thing that makes the Problem impossible to ignore but also puts the Goal within the audience's reach.

To illustrate this at work, we look at Tamsen's work with Dheeraj Roy on his TEDx Cambridge talk about early-onset Alzheimer's.

Resources

• Do We Really Forget In Alzheimer's? - Deeraj Roy for TEDx
• EP053: Focus on the GOAL: Why Your Audience Needs an "Irresistible Outcome"
• EP054: Focus on the PROBLEM – Why Your Audience Needs Both Context and Contrast
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

We want to put an intractable problem in front of an irresistible goal for our audience because it creates context, but often the context we're providing is something the audience already knows. The trick is to focus on the Problem of perspective that's getting in their way.

Resources

• EP 013: How to Match Message to Mindset
• EP 045: The Counterintuitive Secret to Creating Change

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

When we're trying to share our irresistible idea with someone, we need to make sure that they have a reason to keep listening. The idea itself is not enough because our brains are focused on outcomes, specifically, outcomes that will help us. We're wired to be self-interested. This means we often focus on explaining why our ideas are important to us, rather than why they're important to our audience.

How do you make sure that you address the audience's goal? Make sure that you start with something that audience finds wants that isn't our idea: an irresistible outcome. Something they want that our idea will help them get, the audience's goal. It's not what you want for them, it's what they want for themselves.

Resources

• EP011: Who Are You For?
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

When we're trying to find our way through a difficult time, even when we're getting help from others, we're always trying to find new answers to help us change what's happening. A lot of times, however, the search for the new leads us to miss something that's been there all along. The muscles that we use the most are the strongest, so if we can find ways to reframe a situation to use the mental muscles we've already developed, we can find something that will work for us. We can find a new way of using our "old" ways of thinking.

Resources

• EP 018: The Key to Enduring Messages and Brands
• EP 037: How to Make the Most of Who You Already Are
• EP 045: The Counterintuitive Secret to Creating Change

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

We all need certain landmarks in our messages to help point our audience in the right direction, but are you telling your audience how those landmarks string together? To make sure those transitions between your point are present, Tamsen has developed the TraPIT method: Transition, Point, Illustration, and Takeaway. Start structuring your message in terms of TraPIT blocks, and you can make sure your audience is never lost.

Resources

• EP 050: Why Your Messages Break When You Say Them Out Loud (And How to Fix Them)
• EP 022: The Two Learning Styles You REALLY Need to Master
• EP 033: The 4 Message Mindsets
• EP 038: How to Create Your Own Memorable Quotes
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

Sometimes when we get up to give a big talk or presentation, the speech that sounded great on paper suddenly falls flat when we say it out loud. Why does this happen? It has to do with how we process language, which we do by taking in information from other people.

This ability to learn from two perspectives, both ours and our audience's, is called dialogic processing. We also have monologic processing, which occurs when we don't have that feedback, like when we're writing our speech.

How do we activate our dialogic processing? The next time you're writing something, say it out loud, or even better, to another person. That way your brain can get the additional perspective it needs to make your message effective.

Resources

• Dialogic Learning
• The Red Thread Worksheet

Find the Red Thread at TamsenWebster.com.

According to Goethe, all the rope the British Navy uses, from the largest to the smallest, is made with a red thread woven into it. That means that even the smallest piece of rope can be identified as the property of the crown. What's great about that story is that it represents a different approach to leaving your mark. A lot of advice revolves around stamping your work from the outside: using a strong graphic identity or naming something in a very particular way. While those things are important, they'll be even more powerful if the core of something is recognizably yours, if it's interwoven with the Red Thread.

Resources

• Find the Red Thread EP 003: Where Does the Red Thread Come From?
• The Red Thread Worksheet