Stories Mean Business - Nick Warren

Yesterday, an article on [[Narrative Fallacy]] caught my eye, and reminded me why we need to focus on showing our uniqueness.

Narrative fallacy – you'll remember – is our propensity to create [[Cause and Effect]] connections where none really exist.

An example that applies equally to ancient humans and our dog, Tala, would be the assumption that thunder in the sky indicates the anger of some divine entity.

But it also happens a lot in day-to-day life too. Our brain is constantly trying to fit the people, situations and contexts we come across into pre-existing patterns.

Because it saves time, energy and attention – and saving those things is wired DEEPLY into each of us... in case you need us them something important.

This is why we need to be DIFFERENT. This is why we need our niche.

Refs:

I've been sitting on Zoom a tonne today, which of course can be crazy draining.

But this wasn't like that.

Both the people I talked to were funny, enthusiastic and deeply passionate about their subject.

(THANK GOD and all the little fishes.)

We talked, we laughed, we went off on wild tangents that led to gold.

Time flew by.

The lesson here is obvious ... but it's definitely NOT common sense.

If you aren't excited about your thing, how likely is it that anyone else will be?

(Note: Excitement is infectious, but apathy is more so.)

I was chatting to a potential client who was READY TO GO!!!

He had the seed of an idea, and was ready to put a logo on it, write a tagline and get it out into the world.

He was ready... but the idea wasn't.

It was one of those situations where he wanted to pay me, but he wasn't ready. Thankfully, I've not had to take that kind of business for a long time.

I bring story and copywriting to my clients, but also strategy.

And strategy comes before tactics, every time. Thinking matters.

I've talked before about the value of creating a true 'mythology' around your business and brand.

These tales revolve around your Origin Story and your Value Proposition, but speak to both your audience (marketing) and your employees (culture).

But perhaps nature is a better model for this analogy.

Perhaps a tree.

Each story – each leaf – is presented in a unique way and captures a unique sliver of light (attention) and brings it back to the trunk (value).

The origin story is the seed, of course ;-)

In which we link Robert Fritz's three foundational principles to the power of storytelling. To summarise:

1. Energy follows the path of least resistance (ha, like humans).

2. The path of least resistance is defined by the underlying structure.

3. You can CHANGE the underlying structure.

And of course, story is all about underlying structure. Stories are a simplification of the real world... that create (and recreate) structure by assigning value.

At the time of recording this episode, I'd been fasting for 40 hours, and was focused on the insanely addictive nature of before and after photographs... where people have dramatically improved their bodies.

This is like mainlining change, the fundamental force of story.

We also touched on the Structural Dynamics of Robert Fritz, and the book Maps of Meaning by Jordan Peterson.

I just spent 30 mins getting back to Inbox (almost) Zero.

You know the feeling ... that small sense of peace you have when you have momentarily mastered the onslaught.

I aspire to a minimalist life, but the truth is that we're always battling against complexity ... so much of which we invite into our lives.

So here's to our small victories.

Where would you go if you could go deeper? What would you teach?

Often, we seem to be living in a world ruled by summaries, hacks (haha) and bullet-points.

And it isn't just other people's content, it's our own.

Hell, I created the world's shallowest podcast. Why go deep when you can go long?

Because deep is where your best clients are ... and where your super-fans live ... and because deep is likely to win you the most valuable traffic ... and because ... hopefully ... you love what you do.

You know how it is ... you turn your back for 676 episodes ... and suddenly your podcast isn't what you thought it was.

Don't panic. It will probably be fine.

www.StoriesMeanBusiness.com

Let's expand our time horizons.

https://storiesmeanbusiness.com