#7 How to Pitch Your Idea to a Friend
Become the follower… of your own dreams. (Challenge included)
Hello, dear idea-heads! In the last episode, you've learned that you shouldn't overdo your idea pitch with many unimportant details. You might have done a lot of work with your idea already (having a lot of details, having a whole project strategy for all the idea details… yeah sure), but your active listener should understand the bigger picture first. That being said, in today's lesson, we leave the past in the past, and take a glimpse of the future instead. This episode is all about your vision and dreams.
Why is having a vision so important for your idea? And why is it a good idea to involve it in the pitch anyway? Read on to find out.
#7 Dream on!
Of course, your idea is a solution to a current problem. You and some others are struggling in particular situations and your idea can help make things easier or even solve the issue completely. But it doesn't need to end there. And it usually doesn't. This is where the long-term vision comes to the rescue.
A long-term vision is something like your dream that can be achieved many years from now. Decades even. It's very motivational and it sets the course of all the lesser goals you will have on the way (even putting your current idea into praxis).
“You’ve got to think about big things while you’re doing small things so that all the small things go in the right direction,” said Alvin Toffler and I agree with him.
It's really good to have a vision prepared so your idea has even bigger potential. Active listeners do love seeing potential. It makes you look very confident in achieving your goals and going even beyond. Like you really thought it through and you're ready to give it a full run. Also, some people might find your idea too simple to be important or successful, but once you introduce them the bigger journey, they might find it more attractive.
So imagine your idea comes to reality and everything is perfect. What's the next long-term step? Where would you even start? Well, try to look at your vision and find some answers there. I gathered together some questions that might help along creating your idea vision:
- What other issues might your idea help solve in the future? Are there some other fields you can enter? How can you modify or expand your idea to enter those fields?
- What values do you have? In what other ways can your idea and your values meet?
- What social issues do you find the most urgent? How can your idea play a role in improving the world through solving these social issues? Is there some aspect you can add to your idea to help?
- What partnerships can you build with your idea? Are there some other companies, projects, or people you would like to contact for cooperation? What would both sides gain from this cooperation?
- Are there some meaningful technological trends that you can use?
Answering all these questions might give you a good start to building your long-term vision. It's great to present your listeners the bigger picture of your idea, it's even better if you can go beyond. The motivational aspects will increase rapidly.
However, be careful. People tend to get involved too much in the long-term vision, but remember, it's called long-term for a reason. Your main focus is on presenting your current idea. The vision is just a small peek at your dreamy future. That's why you shouldn't invest too much time talking about this during your idea pitch. You should make it in under one minute.
Having all these plans will help you shape your idea even more and of course, you will feel more motivated and confident about your dreams. Hopefully, your active listeners will feel it the same way. If not, don't worry, that's good feedback too.
#7 Challenge Time!
Your challenge for this episode is to answer the questions from above and create a long-term vision for your idea. When you're done, try to fill in the next sentence: In the future, my idea for _______ will cooperate with _______ to help _______ with _______. (You may have more than one answer)
Complete the challenge and help other friendly idea pitchers by sharing your answers in the comments. We all might learn something new from your answers, or just have fun with it.
Congrats! You finished the seventh episode of how to become a great and friendly idea pitcher. Hopefully, you found something useful by reading this and I’ll look forward to seeing you on the next episode!
For all the idea-heads, you’re more than welcome to try our Dayllo ideas app which was created for all the OCD idea makers such as I am: click meee, I’m useful! So far on Google Play, but we are working on the iOS version as well and of course, we continue to make the product better on both platforms.
Thank you very much, have fun with your mind and stay tuned for the next episode — I’ll try to publish #8 on Monday!
Thank you and “Say day to your hello”!
