Last week I talked about how we need to be prepared for our businesses to change over the next decade when Gen Z, now high school and college students, become our clients. One of the traits of this generation is connecting with brands who tell a positive story, so today I’d like to share some tips on how to tell your business story. As humans we’re wired to listen to stories. It’s how we communicated our traditions and values before the written word so we could pass our history and lessons down from generation to generation. Clearly the printing press and the internet have changed the way we tell those stories. Today we can instantly communicate a story through a single photo we share on Instagram and we no longer have to wait for uncle Roko to return from his journey to tell the story of how he killed the Saber Tooth Tiger. There are actually brain chemicals that substantiate why we’re so wired to listen to stories. Cortisol is a stress chemical that makes us pay attention and get caught up in the story. Oxytocin, that same chemical released by women during childbirth, (but men have it too) is a brain chemical that stimulates feelings of caring & empathy and gets people to take the actions the story is leading them toward. Well told stories are able to take us to another place and to imagine a different world, and they get us to pay attention. I remember back in university I was taking an advertising class that had a huge textbook that covered such fascinating topics as how to calculate the value of an ad buy. Honestly it just wasn’t that interesting. But toward the end of each lecture, my professor would move around to the front of his desk, lean against it and tell us a story about what it was like being a brand manager at Procter & Gamble. We would all wake up from our boredom, and lean forward in anticipation of what would happen next. A great place to learn the art of storytelling, is to read great novels or watch movies that have become classics. Because each successful story follows a formula that goes something like this. And I share this with you giving full credit to Donald Miller and “Storybrand”, which is a book I highly recommend. The hero has a goal but some villain is preventing him from achieving his goal. This creates tension as we wonder if the hero will win. Along the way the hero meets a guide who gives him the tools or clears the roadblocks to achieving his goal, thus releasing the tension and leaving him to live happily ever after or to fight his next battle. Here are a couple of examples you may recognize: In the first Harry Potter book, our hero Harry finds out he’s a wizard on his 11th birthday and that the evil villain Voldemort killed his parents when he was a baby but was unable to kill him and so his powers were destroyed. He is trying to get his hands on a stone that would restore his powers and make him immortal so he can come back and take over the wizarding world. We have conflict. Fortunately, Harry has his guide Dumbledore to help him with his magic and he and his friends are able to thwart Voldemort until the next battle. In the first Star Wars, the galaxy is at war and rebels under the command of the evil Darth Vader have stolen the plans to the Death Star which can destroy entire planets. We have conflict. Our hero, Luke Skywalker, after seeing a holographic recording of Princess Leia asking for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi, seeks him out. Obi-Wan plays the role of the guide, teaching Luke the ways of the force so he is ultimately able to destroy the death star. These same principles can be applied when you are writing the story of your business. But there are some key points to remember. First, your business can never be the hero of the story. Your customer is the hero and you are the guide. Because of what you do, you will allow them to be the hero. When JJ’s firm saves someone a bunch of money on their taxes, he isn’t the hero. But he has enabled that parent to be a hero to their kids and take them on a surprise trip to Disney. When Emilio is able to find a business a faster, more redundant internet solution, he isn’t the hero. But perhaps he enabled a health insurance call center to keep operating in the middle of a storm so that one nurse was able to get an elderly woman the care she needed. Second, your customer must always face a villain. That villain could be real, or more of a concept. In JJ’s case, Uncle Sam is the evil villain trying to take our hard earned money and deprive a family of relaxing time together. In Emilio’s case, the villain could be unstable internet that interferes with the ability of people to help one another. But a villain could just as easily be time, for some businesses. Third, you and your business are the guide to help your customer be the hero. You are their Yoda, their Mr. Miyagi and their Dumbledore. To be a credible guide you need to show 3 things; empathy, authority and a plan. You need to convince them that you feel their pain, that you have the deep experience that makes you the right choice, and that you have a clear process to pull them out of their pain. This simple formula of using the hero, the villain and the guide can help you to write a relatable story that will allow your target customers to really feel that you understand them. Deep down, we all want to be heros to people we care about, so my challenge to you this week is to find a way to show how you can make your customers heros.

Telling Your Business Story

dianeliseBlog

Last week I talked about how we need to be prepared for our businesses to change over the next decade when Gen Z, now high school and college students, become our clients.  One of the traits of this generation is connecting with brands who tell a positive story, so today I’d like to share some tips on how to tell your business story.

As humans we’re wired to listen to stories.  It’s how we communicated our traditions and values before the written word so we could pass our history and lessons down from generation to generation.  Clearly the printing press and the internet have changed the way we tell those stories.  Today we can instantly communicate a story through a single photo we share on Instagram and we no longer have to wait for uncle Roko to return from his journey to tell the story of how he killed the Saber Tooth Tiger. 

There are actually brain chemicals that substantiate why we’re so wired to listen to stories.  Cortisol is a stress chemical that makes us pay attention and get caught up in the story.  Oxytocin, that same chemical released by women during childbirth, (but men have it too) is a brain chemical that stimulates feelings of caring & empathy and gets people to take the actions the story is leading them toward.

Well told stories are able to take us to another place and to imagine a different world, and they get us to pay attention.  I remember back in university I was taking an advertising class that had a huge textbook that covered such fascinating topics as how to calculate the value of an ad buy.  Honestly it just wasn’t that interesting.  But toward the end of each lecture, my professor would move around to the front of his desk, lean against it and tell us a story about what it was like being a brand manager at Procter & Gamble.   We would all wake up from our boredom, and lean forward in anticipation of what would happen next.

A great place to learn the art of storytelling, is to read great novels or watch movies that have become classics.  Because each successful story follows a formula that goes something like this.  And I share this with you giving full credit to Donald Miller and “Storybrand”, which is a book I highly recommend.

The hero has a goal but some villain is preventing him from achieving his goal.  This creates tension as we wonder if the hero will win.  Along the way the hero meets a guide who gives him the tools or clears the roadblocks to achieving his goal, thus releasing the tension and leaving him to live happily ever after or to fight his next battle.

Here are a couple of examples you may recognize:

  1. In the first Harry Potter book, our hero Harry finds out he’s a wizard on his 11th birthday and that the evil villain Voldemort killed his parents when he was a baby but was unable to kill him and so his powers were destroyed.  He is trying to get his hands on a stone that would restore his powers and make him immortal so he can come back and take over the wizarding world.  We have conflict.  Fortunately, Harry has his guide Dumbledore to help him with his magic and he and his friends are able to thwart Voldemort until the next battle.

  2. In the first Star Wars, the galaxy is at war and rebels under the command of the evil Darth Vader have stolen the plans to the Death Star which can destroy entire planets.  We have conflict.  Our hero, Luke Skywalker, after seeing a holographic recording of Princess Leia asking for help from Obi-Wan Kenobi, seeks him out.  Obi-Wan plays the role of the guide, teaching Luke the ways of the force so he is ultimately able to destroy the death star.

These same principles can be applied when you are writing the story of your business.  But there are some key points to remember.

  • First, your business can never be the hero of the story.  Your customer is the hero and you are the guide.  Because of what you do, you will allow them to be the hero.  When JJ’s firm saves someone a bunch of money on their taxes, he isn’t the hero.  But he has enabled that parent to be a hero to their kids and take them on a surprise trip to Disney.  When Emilio is able to find a business a faster, more redundant internet solution, he isn’t the hero.  But perhaps he enabled a health insurance call center to keep operating in the middle of a storm so that one nurse was able to get an elderly woman the care she needed.

  • Second, your customer must always face a villain.  That villain could be real, or more of a concept.  In JJ’s case, Uncle Sam is the evil villain trying to take our hard earned money and deprive a family of relaxing time together.  In Emilio’s case, the villain could be unstable internet that interferes with the ability of people to help one another.  But a villain could just as easily be time, for some businesses. 

  • Third, you and your business are the guide to help your customer be the hero.  You are their Yoda, their Mr. Miyagi and their Dumbledore.  To be a credible guide you need to show 3 things; empathy, authority and a plan.  You need to convince them that you feel their pain, that you have the deep experience that makes you the right choice, and that you have a clear process to pull them out of their pain.

This simple formula of using the hero, the villain and the guide can help you to write a relatable story that will allow your target customers to really feel that you understand them.  Deep down, we all want to be heros to people we care about, so my challenge to you this week is to find a way to show how you can make your customers heros.