Self portrait where I'm only visible from the eyes-up and hanging upside down from the top of the frame.

From the Desk of Brian Richards

A collection of thoughts and Ideas from Brian Richards, creator of WPSessions.com

Made to Stick

I have recently finished reading a book centered around making ideas “sticky”. This has provided a lot of insight as to why certain ideas were successful and others weren’t. It is for far simpler reasons than you may think.

Every successful idea follows the same type of structure – Simple, Unexpected, Concrete, Credible, Emotional, Stories. Every idea that fails does so for it’s own unique reason.

Simple -You need to get to the core of your message. Reduce it to the point where it is memorable and powerful, not to the point of uselessness. Simple ideas are short and profound.

Put that down! Grab people’s attention by an unexpected means.

Concrete elements allow for the reader to conceptualize your message. Use terms they can understand.

Credibility makes your message more believable, more trustworthy. Citing facts, authorities, anti-authorities (someone you wouldn’t expect, like a former smoker talking about the dangers of smoking), etc. will help gain support.

Making the message emotional gives people a reason to act, a reason to care.

Stories make the message memorable.

Every successful idea in history has worked because it took advantage of one, or all six of these guidelines. Remember them.


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