I’ve spent the last two years writing, speaking and consulting about how to succeed by making your ideas resonate with the people you want to serve.

My new book Meaningful: The Story Of Ideas That Fly is the culmination of that work.

Our new digital landscape has spawned an entrepreneurial culture and the belief that anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection has the power to change the world—to create an idea that flies. But for every groundbreaking business that started this way, a thousand others have stalled or failed. Why? What’s the secret to success? What do Khan Academy and the GoPro camera have in common?

After years of consulting with hundreds of innovators, creatives, entrepreneurs and business leaders to help them tell the stories of their ideas, I have discovered something: every business that flies starts not with the best idea, the biggest budget or better marketing, but with the story of someone who wants to do something—and can’t.

We don’t change the world by starting with our brilliant ideas, our dreams; we change the world by helping others to live their dreams. The story of ideas that fly is the story of the people who embrace them, love them, adopt them, care about them and share them. Successful ideas are the ones that become meaningful to others—helping them to see what’s possible for them.
Our ideas fly when we show others their wings.

This new book includes the stories and case studies of businesses that have become beloved brands by beginning their innovation and marketing journey with the customer’s story. It also introduces a new tool—the Story Strategy Blueprint to help you to do that too.

I hope this book enables you to get clear about the impact you are creating, for whom and that it empowers you to build the business you always wanted. Thanks for giving me a reason to write it.

Image by Karishma Kasabia. Book cover design by Reese Spykerman. Book layout by Kelly Exeter. It takes a village!