Tag Archives: nutshell

Find a business story, its Million Dollar Message through question-framing
Dr Mark Bradford (L) and Peter Kerr after a successful Million Dollar Message unearthing exercise

BeWeDō founder Dr Mark Bradford has been developing what was originally his PhD thesis, into a marketable product for the past six years.

He’s about about to leave his role as a senior design lecturer at Massey University and take BeWeDō® to market. His methodology is a way that organisations can improve meetings, workshops, seminars and other events; backed by science and data.

In a word it’s about incorporating (facilitated) movement, since movement enriches conversation. Moving and talking together greatly improves outcomes and feedback from a meeting.

Like us all, having been immersed in his subject for so long, Mark’s created dozens of stories around what BeWeDō is, why it’s great (I’ve experienced it myself, it is) and how to go about it.

The fact there’s dozens of stories is the particular challenge. Because initially you can only tell one story.

What I helped Mark with was his BBQ line, effectively the same thing first read on a website. There’s a good reason I call this your Million Dollar Message (MDM). It’s 2-10 words that succinctly express your ‘promise’, and invite someone to find out more. A MDM causes people to go ‘aha’, rather than frown in incomprehension.

It is also extremely difficult to find your own MDM by yourself…we can’t see the wood for the trees.

Finding a MDM is about question-storming (and question-framing), rather than brainstorming. It’s about unearthing a story in a nutshell, rather than creating a fiction.

It is also hard work. It is also a heck of a lot of fun and helps solve a major headache that many businesses have.

BeWeDō, “new and improved” launches soon. Look out for its MDM, and think about trying this methodology. It is a simple but effective way to improve meeting results.