How To Pursue A Big Idea

How many of us are not pursuing our big ideas and dreams out of…well, out of a number of reasons. Fear of failing, worry over what people will think, lack of support, low confidence, all the ‘who am I to do this?’ feelings. But you know what? Very often these come down to just not knowing where to start. If you don’t know where to start with something, and the subsequent steps you’ll need to take, it becomes overwhelming easier for all those other fears to creep in.

But you have a choice here. A huge percentage of people let the fear take over and don’t follow through on those ideas and end up, I know this because I’ve been there, feeling unfulfilled and resentful. Or, you say you know what? Trying this idea, giving myself a shot at the life I want, is just more important than that fear. It doesn’t mean the fear and worry goes away, but it means you have a chance. That’s exactly what happened when I started this blog two years ago, and that decision changed my life.I’m not going to bang on about this, but that’s why I came up with Make It Real. I had this idea for some sort of group offering, it wasn’t specific yet but it kept nagging at me, even when I told it ‘wait until next year’ or ‘now’s not the time’; it wouldn’t leave me alone. I looked around for a group programme to join but couldn’t find the one that would help me get this idea out into the world. So I made Make It Real because it was the programme I needed to make an idea a reality; if I was taking Make It Real, the thing I’d be making would be this programme.

All this to say that in this post I’m going to take you through the steps it took me to get this idea out and into the world, to help give you a fighting chance and making your idea real.

Define and refine

Right at the start your idea is kind of big and blurry around the edges. With mine, I knew I wanted to do something that was in a group context, expanding out the impact that I’d seen in the workshops I’d done. But I was stumbling at the logistics – what actually was it? How would it work? And I let those boggy things dominate my thinking for a long time.What changed was moving away from thinking of it as just ‘a group programme’ and getting specific about the concept. I realised that I hadn't started at the beginning - I was worrying about what software to use before I'd even defined what this thing was going to be.When I went back to the beginning I knew that 'group programme' was too broad - it couldn’t be a group that anyone could join because then it would lack focus and direction, so I had to get to the point of the product. Where would people start, and where would I want them to end up? Once you start to ask these questions to specify the idea, it begins to focus.I think we tell ourselves that if we don’t know all the answers right away then it’s not a good idea and we should shelve it. Ideas take work, we can’t expect our unconscious to do all of it! Ideas never come fully formed in a flash of inspiration, certainly not for me, and it is in this define and refine stage that we actually get the measure of them.

Who is it for?

When I knew that my group programme couldn’t be for everyone (because nothing can), I had to think who the ‘someone’ was. Now in the case of Make It Real, I really wanted to stick to what I know, and what I know is helping people start their businesses. Sometimes I help them start from scratch, sometimes from a couple of months in, and sometimes I help them re-start a business that’s frustrating them.It was this person that I wanted Make It Real to be for – the person who, like me, had this idea that they wanted to commit to but didn’t know how. It didn’t matter whether the idea was for a brand new business, a re-launch or a new income stream in an existing business – the feeling is all the same.So with your idea, get clear on who you want to help. Who will this be most valuable to? Who is searching the internet frustrated that they can’t find this thing? And how do they feel right now?

Write it out

I am someone who thinks by writing, so for me actually writing down all my thoughts about this programme and what steps people would have to take was so helpful to take it from an idea into something that could actually be real. It helps you to see the value you can provide there in black and white, and for some reason it’s harder to deny it when it’s physically in front of you rather than a bundle of thoughts.This is the point where you start to address the logistical issues that have been holding you back. Without thinking about it I found myself not only outlining the programme, but working out the best time to do calls, and ‘if I move the exercise about financial planning to this week it will mean we have more time to talk about content strategy’ kinda thoughts. Without wanting to sound corny, it really did make it real.I often get clients to write their sales pages early on in our work together because that exercise truly helps you to focus in on the specifics of your offering, and frame it for your target customer. So why not try writing a sales page for your idea?

Give it a name

Giving your idea/service/product a name is talismanic – everything flows from there. I agonised over the name for Campfire and once I’d worked out it finally felt like I could begin. Similarly, with Smoke Signals the name came to me almost before I’d fully define the idea, but as soon as it was named the clarity just came.So rather than thinking the name is something inconsequential that can come later with the rest of the marketing, it’s not. It’s a crucial step in you taking this thing seriously, and it taking breath.

Set your milestones…and stick to them!

Once your idea is named, fully formed and there on paper, you need to do something with it. It’s one thing to have an idea, another to make it reality – and the difference is action. So set yourself the big deadline of when you want it to be released into the world and move backwards: what emails need to be sent, blog posts written, social postings? Who do you need to connect with and how?In other words, you need to make a marketing plan, with lots of little objectives and milestones to hit along the way. And more than setting them, you have to hit them. We’ve all written plans we’ve never looked at again, so find a way to make you stick to this one: set yourself up with some accountability to see it through, start talking about it publicly so that it actually happens.This is the scariest bit, especially when you’re right back up at the top of this post at the define and refine stage. I promise, once you get to the point when you’re ready to market this thing, you’ll feel so ready. You just have to commit to getting there. This is what we do in Make It Real.

In a group of like-minded creative women with all sorts of businesses, we start to take your idea seriously. We define it, we set up a business model around it, we work out who it’s for. We build your confidence in it, we face the fears together, and get everyone to a point where they feel confident clarity in what their new thing is. And then we get it out there. We build marketing plans, we discuss content ideas, we support each other through our channels. And we Make It Real.

If that sounds like the accountability and know how you need, you can find out more and sign up here.