Bring your ideas and passions to life

Starts the 30th of April. 6-week online program

Do you want to combine your different passions and talents into one umbrella business concept? Join the 6 week-discovery challenge.

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You have so many passions and skills to share with the world..

…If you don’t know how to combine them and put them to use, you will always be searching for the missing pieces.

Does the following sounds like you?

You have so many ideas in your head to choose from, it’s incredibly challenging to stay focused. 

✔ You find it hard to launch your new ideas into the world, because you are still looking for the ideal concept. 

✔ You feel that you are not maximising your talents.

✔ If people ask you what you do, you have a hard time answering this.

What if you can tackle these challenges in six weeks time? Join the online program and leave with a clear business concept ready to test on the market. 

Practical information

Online Sessions: 5 sessions spread over 6 weeks: 30th of April, 7th, 14th, 21st of May and 4th of June 

Time of each session: 18.30 – 20.30pm 

Location: Online through Zoom

Cost: One-of-a-time offer: to help entrepreneurs in this period we are charging a reduced rate of 349 euro excl VAT

Once you register, we will send you an invoice over email.

Trainer: Melanie van der Storm

Group-size: maximum 6 people.  

What does the program look like?

Week 1. Your story

In this first session we will dive into your skill-set as an entrepreneur. You will look into your own story and life experiences to map out what you stand for. Through a range of fun activities we will help you get answers quickly. 

Insights into your own personal blueprint and motivations serve as a great starting point when looking into ways how to create value in a business concept.

Results after session 1:

Clarity about own superpowers, specialties and motivations

Clarity about your unique added value and type of customers you want to work with 

Week 2 & 3. Your client

In this session we dive into the head of your ideal client you would love to work with. You will map out the stories and frustrations your ideal client might have. 

You will leave the session with a clear overview of your ideal client and an action plan on how to validate those assumptions you have about your ideal client.  

We will give you different creative ways to validate your assumptions so that you can gather input quickly. The action plan will be your homework for that week. This will be important input for week 3, where we will work on the solution. 

Results after session 2 & 3: 

 Clear view about your ideal client, including the problems and frustrations they have you would like to solve.

Experimentation plan to validate the ideas you have written down about your client.

Week 4, 5 & 6. Your concept

This is the week where all your previous insights come together. Starting from the client’s point of view will help you to create a concept that could really help your client further.

You will learn how to mix and match your skills and passions to create an umbrella concept.

You will then discover different ways to test your concept with the market so that you don’t waste time in building a company before you know there is demand for your solution. 

Results after session 4, 5 & 6:

Business concept that aligns with your passions and talents, while it solve read customer needs.

 A practical roadmap to validate your business concept.

Only a few spots left for this group, secure your spot now!

How does the approach work?

Clarity means power. Action provides answers.

This is not like the usual or standard career coaching or business creation program. We combine effective career crafting methods with proven lean start up tactics. Mixed together in the form of fun challenges to help you get results quickly.

No endless hours of talking. We believe that the answers you need come from taking actions and running experiments. We also believe that passions are found in experiences. In either past experiences or new ones. Through the different discovery challenges you will get full clarity what your passions are and how to combine them with your talents and mission to make a business out of it.

For who is the Discovery Challenge?

Professionals who have multiple passions, ideas, skills and “un-figured out” dreams.

Also called generalists, jack-of-all-trades, multi-passionates, career hoppers or passion seekers. Experienced professionals and freelancers who operate as a specialist in one particular field and feel there is more to it.

We work with:

– Professionals who had a few jobs or career changes already and are still looking for their ideal combination of passions and talents to kickstart their entrepreneurial journey. Backgrounds vary from marketing, hr, finance, creative agencies and more.

– Freelancers in the knowledge and creative industries who are looking to bring the spark back into their business.

– Typical age group: 28-40 years old from all kind of nationalities. 

Who is the lead trainer?

The lead trainer is the creator of Idea Shapers, Melanie van der Storm.

Nice to meet you here! I am a multi-passionate at heart. I worked for over 8 years as a Marketing team lead in different companies and locations like Madrid, Malaga, London and Kuala Lumpur.

In 2016 I moved to Amsterdam and pivoted my career to become an Innovation Freelancer to help companies launch new services in the market using design thinking and lean startup methods. I also work as a facilitator and trainer, clarity coach, event organiser and entrepreneur, speaking of multi-passionates.

During my career, people often came to me for direction and strategies to figure out what to do next in their career. To help more people solving this problem I am now dedicated to transform the way we shape our careers and help people find their unique added value. I experienced that combining career hacking methods with design thinking methods achieves answers and clarity quicker than the usual career coaching methods. I work with a team of innovators and modern career coaches to create the most effective discovery programs. 

FAQs:

What methods do you use?

We combine effective career crafting methods with proven lean start up tactics. Mixed together in the form of fun challenges to help you get results quickly. With every online session you will get assignments to work on your new business concept that week to help you make it happen for real! Besides you will get access to an online environment during the program to ask questions and connect with your fellow group members.

Why at this reduced price? 

As we are all currently dealing with a challenging time, we want to help people with a reduced rate.

What if can’t make those dates? 

We recommend you to follow all the sessions, however if you can’t attend one of the dates it’s fine. We will make sure to bring you up to speed and send you the corresponding to do’s of that week. If you have to miss more than one session, we recommend you to combine it with one-on-one coaching with the trainer. Send us a message at melanie@ideashapers.nl and we will discuss together how to make it work for you 🙂 

How much time will it cost me to participate?

We recommend you to allow about 3 to 4 hours to spend on the assignments every week next to our online sessions. The more work you put into this, the more results you will get 😉

What do others say about Idea Shapers?

Smart people with big dreams are usually the ones who struggle the most to achieve their goals because they get overwhelmed with all the details and the complexity involved in running a successful project.

However, if you are committed to achieving your vision and you are up for a challenge, I suggest you reach out to Melanie for fast and measurable results.

Cristian Fontanelli

Wealth Strategist

I would recommend Idea Shapers to anyone who, like me, is struggeling with focus and has many ideas but also for those who are looking for a new way in live that brings them joy and uses their potential. 

Melanie helped me to give shape to my business ideas. Through visualizing personal values ​​and goals I learned in which way I come to full advantage of my potential. Melanie made this very insightful, using illustrations and mind mapping, and it surprised me how she was able to complete me whenever I was a bit confused.

One of the most important surprising insights is that it’s okay if I work on several projects at the same time. As a multi-passionate – a term previously unknown to me – you are at your best if you can let your creativity run free and you stay sharp by constantly challenging yourself with variety.

I found this very surprising given that I was always under the assumption that it is better to focus on one project, while I had great difficulty with this and therefore had to constantly constrain my creativity. 

Jana Voyvodich

Freelance writer and Model