Storyselling

Emotional hooks and triggers have always been a good way to compel people and engage them in your storytelling. For businesses, it's just as important to include some emotional rewards in the stories they tell to the market. 

In this episode, I talk about the 8 emotions that I always try to include in every storytelling campaign I create, as well as touching on the 8 emotions that I always try to AVOID.

Emotional hooks and triggers have always been a good way to compel people and engage them in your storytelling. For businesses, it's just as important to include some emotional rewards in the stories they tell to the market. 

In this episode, I talk about the 8 emotions that I always try to include in every storytelling campaign I create, as well as touching on the 8 emotions that I always try to AVOID.

The biggest mistake a small business or startup can make when considering what product or service to offer a market is to base that decision on some sort of 'gut feel' or to offer the market the story that YOU want to give or that you feel is servicing the market's need.

Much better to ask these 4 'why' questions:

1. Why would they want it?

2. Why would we offer it?

3. Why will they buy the next one?

4. Why will they recommend us? 

In this episode, I talk about the importance of reaching the RIGHT people at the right time on the right platform, how to get them, how to keep their records, and what the hell to do with all of that in the future.

I also go through my EXACT lead generation strategy for you to either take or leave. 

All great storytelling has some conflict. Sometimes the conflict IS the story. 

And it's no different for people trying to build their business or startup's storytelling, their own storytelling, or their public profile, there is always some conflict, and it's that conflict that so  many of us find interesting and compelling.

In this episode, I talk about introducing or highlighting this conflict in order to build your story and build your brand.

Where is the conflict?

Is it in your ideas? Your products? Or your characters?

And then once you find that out, ask yourself do you want the conflict to be resolved?

And if you do, is that resolution final, or is there an opportunity to introduce some new conflict, or re-introduce some old conflict in order to keep the audience engaged?

Story arcs are a storytelling device, mostly used in platforms like episodic television for instance, that helps a storyteller reach the right people at the right time, with the right voice, and on the right platform.

It's easy to get distracted sometimes, and without proper structure and planning - including story arcs well defined and mapped out - that distraction can mean that not only is the story not told effectively, but you might actually be doing more harm than good.

In this episode of the podcast, I talk about how to plan the arcs properly, how to ensure the right audience is being reached, how to visually pull all of it together so that everyone on your team can be on the same page, and what can happen if you don't get that right straight away.

Using story arcs with your storytelling is another way that small business and startups can reflect what bigger corporate businesses are doing every day. They are not making money by accident...

The concept of the 1,000 True Fans comes from the work of Kevin Kelly, and he talks about the fact that most creators set out to rule the world and have a million fans and make a million dollars, when all we really need is 1,000 TRUE fans.

The concept is that with 1,000 true fans who buy all your stuff, share every one of your posts, read all your work and, most importantly, share everything of yours, all you need to do is work out a way to make $100 of profit from these 1,000 fans and you have an annual income of $100,000.

In this episode, I talk about the 1,000 true fans. Who are they? How breaking it down makes everything seem more achievable. What do they want? How do you look after them? And how to create content that is shareworthy - both for the true fans and everyone else.

There is probably no greater way to compellingly tell a story than to tell that story in video form. It has loads of advantages over using text or using images, because it can really show who you are, what your message is, and make you a  lot more authentic, believable, and real.

In this episode, I talk about how video shows the REAL you, how unscripted and even live video wins over scripted and robotic video, how to be relatable in your videos, whether you need high production value or not, whether you need professional video equipment or not, and touch on using subtitles for your videos and why that's important too.

Most of us are - for some reason - terrified that people will find out what really goes into building our business, or creating our products or services, why we price them the way we do, where that money goes and so on.

But guess what? That's exactly the sort of thing that the market really wants to know about.

Giving people a 'peek behind the curtain' lets people see that you are fallible, that you are NOT lucky, that you work hard and so do other people involved in getting the product to market, and you become a real, authentic, truthful, and infinitely more likeable person in the process. 

In this episode, I talk about showing people what really goes into the production of your services and products, and your business itself, tell people what the first few iterations were like, the mistakes you made, the things you wouldn't do again, and what it means to you and your family and your employees' families when someone buys something from you.

All very engaging stuff, and all a missed opportunity for most of us.  

Which platform should you use to tell your story on? What's the easiest? Which one has the most people on it? Does all of that matter?

The short answer is: no, it doesn't. You need to go fishing where the fish are.