Make Your Ideas Remarkable and Relevant | with Tamsen Webster
Brand to Fan EP11
The world is a noisy place. If you have a good idea, how can you be sure the right person will hear it?
Episode 11
One common theme in our conversations on the Brand to Fan Show is that brands must demonstrate their core values and tell more stories so that consumers can identify with them. This is what creates the types of connections that develop into fandom.
But if you haven’t noticed, the world is a noisy place. If you have a good idea, how can you be sure someone will hear it?
Joining me on the Brand to Fan Show is my friend Tamsen Webster. During our conversation, we dove into the importance of being relevant and remarkable in a world where attention is fleeting. Tamsen emphasized that every idea has a story beneath it, but it's crucial not to lose the core message in the storytelling process.
Storytelling is an art that can help bring your big ideas to life and make them relevant and remarkable. However, it is important to remember that attention and affinity are two different things. Remarkable stories may capture attention, but relevance keeps them engaged.
While stories can be a powerful argument for ideas, it is easy for the idea to get lost in the story form. This is why focusing on the message and how it aligns with your brand values is important.
We touched on the risks of brands paying lip service to values that don't align with their actions, leading to dissonance and loss of trust. Tamsen shared her thoughts on bridging the gap between brand and fan beliefs.
Your behavior sets the tone for your brand. It is a strategic choice that requires intentionality and purpose. Your words and actions must align with people's experiences with you over time. By staying true to your brand values and consistently delivering on them, you can create a brand that people trust and believe in.
Tune in to this insightful and fun episode to hear more about Tamsen's Red Thread Method and her perspective on making your brand stand out in the crowd.
“The whole philosophy behind the Red Thread is we’re already going to build these stories. Let’s build those stories on behalf of our audience. Let’s tell our story in the concepts, language, etc., of our audience rather than ourselves.”
The Guest: Tamsen Webster
Part strategist, part storyteller, part English-to-English translator, Tamsen Webster helps experts drive action with their ideas through their Red Thread, the universal tie between how people see the world and what they do in it. Tamsen uses her proprietary Red Thread method to help audiences, organizations, and individuals build and tell the story of their big ideas, resulting in real, transformative change.
WHERE TO FIND Tamsen:
Tamsen’s Website
Subscribe to Tamsen’s Newsletter
In this Episode
4:05 - Tamsen’s connection with Diane Von Furstenberg
11:14 - The key to getting people to pay attention to our brand
14:00 - Attention vs. affinity
16:33 - What is the red thread?
22:45 - The dangers of storytelling
36:41 - Getting a brand back to basics
39:32 - Connecting the divide between brand beliefs and fan beliefs
47:13 - TL;DL (too long; didn’t listen) Recap with Lauren
What are you a fan of?
Diane von Furstenberg – she is a brand. I always aspired to the iconic piece of clothing that she designed, what's known as a wrap dress.
The wrap dress was designed in the same year that I was born. I felt a lot of connections to it. But it was out of reach for me financially for a long time. I am lucky enough to have a mother who sewed and taught me how to sew. For many of the years before I was in a position to be able to buy DVFs, I would make them. Back in the 70s and 80s, she sold dress sewing patterns, and I could find them on eBay. So I would make my “TVFs,” my Tamsen von Furstenbergs. Sometimes I would go to New York and find leftover actual DVF fabric, and then I would make my own dresses with that.
I got my first job that paid me enough for one, and the thing that I did to celebrate was I went to a Diane von Furstenberg store in New York (I like to call it the Mothership) and bought myself my first official DVF dress. Now they're almost exclusively the brand I wear on stage because they're practical. I love them. I love what they stand for; it’s my go-to brand. It's embedded in how I see the world. It's like nice, clean lines, relentlessly pattern-driven, just like me.
What is your favorite piece of Fanwear you own?
It's a so well-worn Red Sox hat that it's splitting [in the brim.] I don't know what I will do when it does; I may continue to wear it. But part of why I love it is because it's lived in.
But there's also a very practical reason why I love this hat…I have a tiny head. My husband says I have a tiny bird skull. Many hats have a distance from the bottom hem to the top that is actually long enough that it starts to push my ears down, but this is a shallower hat. It’s a much more comfortable hat because it actually fits my tiny bird skull! I think it's probably at least 15 to 18 years old, this hat.
Show Credits
Brand to Fan Show is produced by Teague FC and supported by FanWagn
Audio production by Bryan Griggs / Griggs Production
Producers: Kimberly Voorhis, Ashley Ruiz and Carrie Hellbusch
Video Editing by Garrett Teague
And I’m your host, Lauren Teague.
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