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@ttdemartini
I graduated from my MBA program!
I finished my final presentation at the beginning of August. Still waiting on the diploma but hey it's much easier to get stuff done without worrying about school. Now maybe I can turn this blog into a story update of my travel 😀
jesus DJ
Conversational Storytelling
So let's say that you are a great writer and you can tell amazing stories in a book. You know who your audience is and you can capture their attention with a well planned plotline. Can you quickly tell someone what it is about without stumbling or going into too much detail? Most of us can say that we have been to a wedding where the best man tries to tell some funny story about the groom but it gets to be an embarrassing mess that makes the whole room uncomfortable.
Well, I have been to several weddings where this very failure occurred. Everyone felt so bad for the guy, but at some point you can’t blame the alcohol. The real failure was in his lack of preparation. There are some things where “winging it” does not work, and wedding speeches are definitely in that category. So, conversational storytelling is important skill that requires practice and preparation, but here are three quick tips:
1. Tell the entire story in one sentence as an attention getter.
If you meet someone in an elevator and need to tell a story, how fast can you tell it? You will have maybe 30 seconds. The only way to master this is through practice but ultimately it comes down to preparation. Think through the story and focus on the climax. If you start at the beginning and tell the whole story in chronological order, chances are that it will be boring and you won’t get to finish it. It’s okay to leave giant questions for your audience to ponder because they will be engaged immediately. “Did I ever tell you about the time I woke up naked in Times Square?”
2. Nobody cares about the details.
If the details are what stick out in your mind as you think about the story, that just means you were there to witness it. Sometimes when we see something crazy, it’s hard to process all of the information, so we fixate on an unimportant detail as a reference point. That is unfortunately not helpful in storytelling. A better way to think about it is to re-imagine watching the entire scene of the story while floating above about 100 feet. What is happening? Ignore everyone except the key characters. Now eliminate the background. What are they doing? That will keep your story focused and direct to the point.
3. Engage your audience.
As I described in previous posts, nobody cares about what you are saying unless they can relate and feel like a part of the story. Feel out who you are speaking to and make a quick estimation of how you could “segment” them before you approach the story at all. If you are in the elevator with a stranger, the best approach is usually by telling the story with a touch of humor. If you are trying to tell a story that impresses your father-in-law, then make sure you understand what his political stance is first. After your one-sentence summary, ask your audience a question, “what would you do if you woke up in a bright intersection with everyone staring at you naked?” You will get an idea of whether the audience is in the mood to even listen to you. If they respond enthusiastically, charge forward. If your audience responds to the question dryly and uninterested, it’s okay to just drop it and say, “remind me to tell you all about some other time.” Maybe next time they will be in a good enough mood to listen.
Make Your Audience a Part of the Story
Last week I poured into the need to know the audience and stick to keeping the attention of that unique segment. But how do you develop a following audience that not only enjoys your story but recommends it to others? How do you make your audience so loyal that they become your brand ambassador? Make them a part of the story. Opening the story up beyond your media - into their world. If you start with a comic book that has a huge following, try setting up a website for the fans to discuss with each other. If that grows, try making a TV show. Then try starting a weekly podcast discussing the plot twists of the week and provide new insight to the audience. Keep going until the audience can wrap themselves up in the story so much that they feel like a part of it.
It’s amazing now how many forms of media we have at our disposal to captivate an audience. Traditionally, there was just printed media like books, newspapers, magazines, and comics. Even these old school methods could reach a dedicated mass audience wanting more each week. One of the biggest experiments in audience immersion started with a radio show. In 1938, Orson Welles caused a nationwide panic with his broadcast of War of the Worlds. The dedicated listeners knew that the hour of his broadcast was meant for a radio drama. Casual listeners just assumed that his story was a real life news broadcast -- the headline was “ALIEN INVASION.” A panic ensued before everyone realized that the story was not real life but rather the best story told in decades.
Today if you want to immerse yourself in the zombie apocalypse, the world could easily begin to start to smell like rotting flesh. You can wake up to a radio show trying to scare you in your boxers.
Then, for your morning run, put your headphones on and start-up the Zombies Run! app to hear the real world around you turn into an apocalyptic mission of running from zombies.
When you make your way to the bus stop for your morning commute, sit back and listen to other people fight off Los Angeles zombies in an episode of the podcast, We’re Alive!
When you get to work, your groggy co-workers will look like zombies as they lumber over to the break room for coffee.
If you want to survive the day, it might be a good idea to read The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks on your lunch break.
By the time you brave your way past all of the sick and coughing people in the subway ride home, you’ll be glad no one bit you because some of them will be running a 5K over the weekend with blood pouring from their face.
Finally, sit back and relax at home and laugh at how ridiculous the world could be in Zombieland. Stick to the rules and you’ll be just fine, Woody Harrelson’s got your back, because like it or not, you’re a part of the story now.
Good Storytellers use Market Segmentation
As mentioned in my post last week, I will be redirecting my blog to understand what traits make a good storyteller and how it can be used to develop a superior marketing campaign. A fundamental marketing strategy is segmentation. Instead of assuming all potential customers want the same thing, we divide the whole consumer population into smaller chunks that are easier to understand, then we tailor our marketing attention to those groups. A good story teller does exactly the same thing.
Much like a good business is thorough in segmenting their market, a story writer must know his or her audience. For example, there is no point in trying to write a story about zombies and expect everyone to be interested. Who likes zombie stories? What kind of person are they? Of course, they will like blood, guts, gore, and a feeling of fear aroused in them. They also are more likely to be people who have a need to not feel alone and seek human relationships. In the zombie apocalypse, everyone is alone unless they have a posse to help them survive.
Interestingly enough, if you watch a lot of zombie movies or TV, you’ll notice that when the pace slows down, the focus is always on the building relationships between survivors. This part of the zombie story may open up the market segment to a more broad audience. Those who are repulsed by the guts and gore may be able to close their eyes just long enough to enjoy watching a romance blossom between survivors.
A storyteller knows that in order to capture the attention of the audience, the scope of the story must match the targeted audience. It may be appealing to try and pull together many segments by including a little bit of what each group wants but that sets the story up for failure. It is easier to be the best in a very narrow field than many. So when telling a story, don't meander or fall off the topic.
Slipping off topic in a desperate attempt to hang on to the attention of your audience is what we call “jumping the shark.” The term comes from a scene in Happy Days when the Fonz couldn’t just be cool by jumping a ramp in water skis, he had to jump over a great white shark. The writers were trying too hard and they forgot that their audience was a family friendly segment that enjoyed corny wholesome humor - not adrenaline junkies. Many shows have “jumped the shark” including LOST’s ridiculous time travel, Jim and Pam getting married on The Office, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer being raised from the dead...twice. Viewers just stop watching during primetime and wait for the whole series to come back as a boxset.
Why hasn't The Walking Dead lost it's fan base? Because the story has always focused on the relationships between each character. There is no master secret after the first season. Just survive and hang on to the ones you love. It’s a simple premise, explore the strain and heartbreak people suffer, then sprinkle in some zombie heads rolling from decapitation as an emotional release for the audience, then at the end of the season, kill off half of your main characters. Everyone cries, then they come back for more to hopefully watch Rick lead his people to a new promised land. Stick to what you know your audience wants - a relationship with the characters.
Relationships Make Good Stories
When a company tries to reach out to its customers for business growth, they are seeking a relationship with their customers. The most common avenue by which advertisers try to spark this relationship is through storytelling. If the advertiser can convince you of a story when someone used a product, you will be more likely to buy the product. So why aren't more marketing professionals excellent storytellers?
I am an avid fan of story telling in all forms. Stories from conversation, stories from books, stories from radio/podcast, stories from comics/newspaper/magazine, and most importantly, stories from film/television. I have a really hard time stopping myself when I start a good book or a good movie. I crave that feeling of stepping into someone else's shoes during an extraordinary day. The excitement of a new adventure or the thrill of a dramatic twist always captures my attention. So I thought to myself, how can I capture this feeling in others and redirect it around a product?
I've decided that I am going to refocus my blog as a discussion about what fundamental elements of a story make people keep coming back for more. I intend to eventually wrap it all up with a re-application of those storytelling tools towards a marketing campaign. In the interest of scope, I am going to do a breakdown of the "zombie apocalypse" story genre. So, who's ready to talk about ZOMBIES?
I really like this podcast because there are many aspects that few people realize about starting a company ranging from the emotional toll to the structural reality of a business. This podcast is a real opportunity to hearthe thoughts of Alex Blumberg as he began his journey starting a business in August of 2014. I really enjoyed hearing the details of entrepreneurial life that no one in Hollywood has successfully been able to convey.
Last year, Alex Blumberg was working at Chicago Public Media producing the podcast show This American Life with his colleagues getting a reliable salary. There are many podcast shows out there ranging from gossip talk shows to music streams, but journalistic storytelling is Alex’s life passion. A good example of the storytelling podcast genre is Serial which is hosted by his colleague Sarah Koenig. Unfortunately, weekly podcast shows with consistently good storytelling require more money to produce and there are not many companies out there that are willing to invest the time and money required for this kind of broadcasting. Alex’s knew there was a major consumer demand for this kind of content, so he decided to start a company of his own that provides exactly that. Even as the idea was in its infancy of simple contemplating conversations with his wife, he recorded every step of his journey from pitch to product – Gimlet Media.
I also like that he has continued to podcast the inner workings of his company after a wildly successful launch. As one of Gimlet’s biggest investors said, their “unfair advantage” is that the world already knew Alex from This American Life and his fan base was fiercely loyal. He could have just stopped the podcast as a single season series, but instead he is getting ready to start a second season showcasing how his company started new shows like Reply All. His transparent chronicle as an artist turned new business man will teach business students of all experience levels valuable lessons of humility and practical insight.
I have been avoiding this unfortunate truth for a while. I have to become a morning person. Dammit.
I figured I would link to Dr. Zahn's blog just to confirm I am in his class this semester. Maybe someone searching for his class will find my blog.
I love movies so much I find myself replacing common speech with movie quotes.
