Imagine walking into someone’s home, looking around and seeing a family photo on the wall.
Not a posed family portrait. More of a goofy shot. Not terribly well composed. Maybe even a little bit out of focus.
Seeing you study the picture, your host comes over and says, “Oh my goodness, let me tell you the story behind that photo!”
It isn’t the photo that has the true power… it’s the story behind the photo.
It’s the story that carries the true emotional punch.
People write to me with gentle challenges like, “Hey Nick, I love your enthusiasm for stories. But honestly, I don’t see how simply changing the story I tell can improve my future as a freelancer.”
OK… so you doubt the power of stories to influence your life?
You don’t think stories have the power to create change?
Let’s try a short experiment…
We are all exposed to a wide range of narratives that are often accepted as truths.
But for the most part they are not truths. They are opinions. Stories.
And we’d do well to question them.
Let me share a couple of examples I have bumped up against recently.
One from my work life and one from my personal life.
Narrative #1: To get stuff done, you need to focus, distraction-free.
Sounds reasonable, right? I’ve told this story myself.
And then…
Some of the most powerful stories we hear are the ones that support the narratives that define the countries we live in.
As I’m Canadian, I’ll use one of the dominant Canadian narratives to illustrate my point.
One of the stories that defines “being Canadian” is that we’re really, really nice.
We’re polite and friendly. We love animals and the environment. We welcome refugees with open arms. We make sure all our citizens have access to health care. We say please and thank you.
Really… we’re just super-nice people.
So goes the story.
Recently I’ve been seeing a surge in the number of companies jumping on the “story” bandwagon.
A few days ago I was traveling back from the UK. At the airport I saw three references to story. One on a poster, one in a duty-free flier that was thrust into my hand just after I got through security, and the one you see in the photo above, on the pages of an in-flight magazine.
All mention story, but not one of them actually told a story.
It’s as if the writers believed that just using the word “story” would make some kind of difference.
It doesn’t.
If you want to tap into the true power of storytelling in your marketing, you have to actually tell and share a real story.
And to give your story power, it has to get three things right…
(What follows is the outline I wrote in advance of recording the video. They’re my talking points. Not a regular post or article. Just an outline.)
This question is from Julia, who took my course on Selling With Stories.
She asks, “You say a business story has to be true. But can’t a good fictional story be used to teach a valuable business lesson?”
Ouch… Julia, you’re right. You got me.
As you say, I have said that a business story should be true. And I say that to discourage people from making up stories that are obviously false and manipulative.