Sell the Idea — Online course from Ian Wharton

The idea is everything
the easy part.

Lack of ideas is the lowest-ranking cause of creativity not happening. The challenge is keeping an idea alive so it can find its fullest form. This is rarely done in private. It takes people. Occasionally, hundreds of them. An idea first chooses to live or die when told to others, and it is here where even the exceptional ones can be brought to a permanent stop.

If we want our ideas made, which is the most honest and respectable way to advance a career or company forward, they must be sold well and without deception. This requires an act of preparedness. Sell the Idea is designed around three short and widely applicable principles to help make individuals and teams prepared every time.

What's covered in this course?

A collection of three principles to help you get more of your ideas made through a memorable, easily understood and masterfully delivered sell where the potential and urgency of an idea are unmistakable.

Principle 1: Inciting Incident

The primary element of narrative structure that makes the articulation of an idea compelling. Specifically so it can be easily retold. Ideas are rarely bought by one person in a single moment. We not only need to capture the imagination of the people in the room but capture it repeatedly, over time, and when the idea is sold to others in our absence.

Principle 2: Context

Whether we like it or not, we are in one world, and our audience is in another. Both worlds have their unique frames of reference, distractions and motivations. ‘Context’ looks at how to close that gap. This is a simple exercise that, when neglected, causes the majority of unfulfilled ideas.

Principle 3: The Surgeon

A visualisation technique designed to help guide the delivery of an idea in both content and form. This principle helps free us from any latent caricatures of selling that obscure success and creates an exchange built from trust rather than transaction.