Make Your Idea Matter by Bernadette Jiwa, Book Summary

Have you had an amazing idea that you implemented and nothing happened? I hear you and it’s so frustrating. As a woman business owner, I want you to reflect on the following five questions, then answer them. The book, Make Your Idea Matter by Bernadette Jiwa offers some sound advice for you.Make Your Idea Matter

5 Simple Questions That Form the Foundation of Every Business

1. Do people want what you plan to offer?
2. How can you create and deliver at a price they are willing to pay?
3. Can your product or service do what you say it will?
4. How will you spread the word?
5. Can you generate enough money to build on the idea?

When you take the time to answer the above five questions, you can use the information to build the foundation for your business.To make your idea matter, you have to tell better stories. The idea that you have must matter to others, not just you.

Reading a book summary is an excellent way to get the key concepts from business books. It’s also a great way to decide which books to buy to explore more deeply. Click the Readitforme link to join. Think of this subscription as your speed-reading superpower. You read the summary, therefore, you can digest and process the book faster.

Book Pairing

 Make Your Idea Matter How to Get to Great Ideas

What is a Brand?

When people think of a brand, a logo often comes to mind. However, a brand is so much more. According to the author, here are the elements of a brand.

1. A promise.
2. The way you differentiate from others.
3. What customers believe about your company.
4. A feeling created.
5. Trust built between a customer and a business.
6. Your word.
7. Set of unique benefits.
8. Reasons to buy, or buy into, something.
9. Story we tell ourselves.

And a lot more. In fact, Bernadette Jiwa lists 20 elements of a brand. People often base their decisions off the way they feel. How will this impact your business? What exactly does this mean for your business? How can you make someone feel positively about your business, so she will take the action you want?

Every brand is built on the feelings and experience it delivers to customers. Focus on the foundation of your business: Inspire, Motivate, Educate. To sell your products and services, address the emotional needs of the people you want to serve. What are their hopes, dreams, fears, and aspirations?

Create What People Can’t Live Without

• What problem can you solve?
• Walk a mile in your customer’s shoes, then create a better version than what’s out there.

Create a product or service that’s a solution to a problem.

8 Questions to Answer Before Launching a Product

1. Why am I creating this product or service now?
2. Who is the product for?
3. What’s the competition?
4. Do you need to worry about the competition?
5. How is my idea different and better?
6. Do I research, test, and scale, or just go?
7. Should I research, test, launch, distribute, sell, build and scale my business idea?
8. How will I know when I succeed?

What’s your brand story?

Success is the result of tiny decisions you made over years. Daily practice of making small choices can lead to success. Many of the right life decisions take you to success. How do you hold people’s attention, so the message sticks? Talk to one person. Make your idea matter to one person. Speak to that one person.

Have you read?

Book Review – Little Brand Book by Kalika Yap

“Products can be similar, but missions are unique. Turn up the volume on the story of your mission.”

How can I matter to others? Who are my true fans? You want to matter to people. Get the people you care about to care. Sell your idea to 1000 true fans. Who are your true fans?

Have you read?

Own a Business? You Don’t Need Everyone, You Need 1000 True Fans

“The desire to change something and change culture over time is part of the brand mission.”

Amplify your uniqueness – your difference. And tell a better story than the competition. Successful brands and ideas are founded on  a great mission, a story that we want to believe in. Everything you do must tell your story. All communication must amplify what you stand for.

9 Elements of the Perfect Pitch

Why should people care about your products and services?

1. Preparation: Have a plan.
2. Emotions: Tap into emotions. Make people care.
3. Story and Substance: Deliver a great story.
4. Passion: Persuade people to buy into your idea. Communicate your passion.
5. A problem: Understand the problem you solve, and communicate it.
6. An Answer: You provide the solution to the problem, say what it is.
7. Simplicity: Focus on what matters and don’t overload people.
8. Confidence: Believe in yourself and your ideas, others will notice.
9. Practice: Practice your delivery.

“You are in business to acknowledge the significance of and create meaning for clients and customers.”

You’re in business to make people’s lives matter. Tactics help to promote your idea, but a clean strategy sells it. Why will people care about your idea? People don’t buy into your platform, they buy into the difference you make. Communicating a big vision powers successful brands. Show that you give a damn.

Your brand is a story. You need to show that you care about people. If you have a great idea, tell a better story and you can rally a tribe. What’s a story that only you can tell?

Think About Ideas That Matter

1. Why does the idea excite you? What difference will it make in the world?
2. Start with the end in mind. Visualize your end product, the book cover, the formatting, the texture of the paper. See how that works?
3. What does your target market want? What is their pain? Create a product that will make the biggest difference for them.
4. Write down your launch date.
5. Just do it.
6. Ask what if.

See the world from the customer’s world view. Stand for something. You can be everything to everyone. The purpose of every interaction is to foster the next interaction and build trust. What stories customers tell themselves when they visit your website. Editing is the key to pulling things together. What do you leave out?

Create products that people want to buy. Appeal to the client’s wants. Innovation starts with the root of the problem. Know your audience, then build the idea just for them. Understand the people you want to solve the problem for. Craft a single mission, have one goal, solve one problem, close one gap. Find one way to make your client’s life easy. Give people a reason to be interested in you.

“Ideas that fly are born from discovering neglected worldviews, and then creating something to fill the void.”

What neglected worldview do you know of? How can I build a product around it? And how can you satisfy it? What void are you filling?

Create significance for people on the sidelines. Investigate at the edges. Woo a handful of people. To get others to care about you, care about them first. They’re the hero of your story. What priceless shortcuts can you offer? What will make people connect to your brand. Give customers a great story to tell.

The most accomplished people read books every day. They carve out the time in their schedule. When they face a problem, they often find the solution embedded in the pages of a book. Let me help you to solve your own problems. Click the link MoreReads: Blueprint to Change the World to buy.

Have you read?

Book Review – The Innovation Stack by Jim McKelvey

Do good work over and over to get noticed. How can you turn a visitor into a fan, who wants to return? Create metrics about what’s important to customers. For me, I have to ask, “What do people want when they use books as a learning tool?” Deliver value based on what customer’s wants.  Solve problems and create something people value. Build a product for engagement, not attraction. How are you least like the competition, then tell the story.

Avil’s Story

I’m accustomed to being an outsider looking in. I’m never the life of the party or do I want to. This vantage point has served me well. I have developed the skill of seeing what others don’t. Following the information and ideas in Make Your Idea Matter, here’s what I came up with.

If you’re looking for someone who conforms, and does what others do, then I’m not for you. Or if you’re looking for someone who reads and summarizes the latest business books, then I’m not the one for you.

I like to take the road less traveled. Not because I’m a contrarian (I’m that too). But because I love the pauses that allow me to think. I’m not here to educate you, but you’ll learn a thing or two about reading effectively to solve the time constraint you have to reading more books.

Reading List: Make Your Idea Matter

 Make Your Idea Matter How to Get to Great Ideas The Innovation Stack Little Brand Book

Final Thoughts: Make Your Idea Matter by Bernadette Jiwa

Make Your Idea Matter by Bernadette Jiwa is chock full of goodness. You'll find lots of information that you can immediately apply. If you're struggling to come up with your ideal client, book will help you with that. If you're just starting out in business answer the questions to build a strong foundation.

Buy a copy of the book and take the time to digest the content. You and your business will benefit.