Storytelling
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Brand Storytelling: Your Customer Is the Hero. Be the Guide.
Stop having heroes. Be one. For someone else. I want to dispel a myth about heroes. Heroes aren’t necessarily super. They’re people. People like you and me. And this matters because the way we think about heroes shapes the stories we tell—and the roles we ask other people to play in them. The hero isn’t you. It’s them. Heroes are often thought of as courageous, strong, and exceptional. That isn’t wrong. But for those of us raised on Hollywood superheroes, this is only one version of the story. The extraordinary, deeply flawed hero—Batman, Supergirl, or the protagonist of the latest Marvel movie—takes it upon themselves, sometimes with the help of…
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The calm before the story
The power of storytelling Everything is a story. The “self” is a story. The past, the world, thinking, the internet, and even your family are all stories, also. Some stories are more concrete. Others theoretical. Some stories span the test of time. Others ephemeral. You get the idea. The point is this: the capacity for storytelling makes us human. (Second source: Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. Are you familiar? More on this later…). In fact, it’s this power of storytelling that enable humans to work together (again, see Harari). It’s also this capacity for storytelling that enables us to think in terms of “us vs. them.”…
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The October past personas project
Awkward Sam-ily Photos: October past personas A lot has happened in 2023. My daughter was born. My mom and dog died. Outside of my personal sphere, I also witnessed many other entrances and exits with friends, family, and former college classmates. In total, a significant year of death and (re) birth. And what a time to acknowledge this: October, the month of Halloween – a time of disguises, the living dead, and changing personas. In October, we’re given license to be someone else. But if adding a dash of makeup and a dark outfit is all one needs to be someone else, it makes me wonder – how solid was…
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How to improve your content strategy
One tweak to improve your content strategy Many companies send emails as a piece of their content strategy. But many of these same companies don’t seem to consider their content strategy before marketing. Marketing, unfortunately, tends to come first – and then sales quickly thereafter. Of course, these two strategies aren’t mutually exclusive. They go hand-in-hand. But tell me, is your content strategy playing third-string to your marketing and sales efforts? I’m wiling to bet that without a clear content strategy, your engagement rate is lower than you’d like. And if your numbers are low, here’s a quick way to improve them. Take Amazon Prime Video’s content, for example… When…
