10 Content Strategies for Middle Market Manufacturers to Slay the Big Dogs

I get this a lot: “We compete against a billion-dollar company. But we’re better.” How do the Davids of the world keep Goliaths in check?

Whether clients or colleagues, small to middle market manufacturers everywhere are talking about sharpening their stories to compete with the big dogs in the Fortune 500 (more on this in the excellent book published by IMEC this year called Made in Illinois.

Here’s how you do it:

  1. Content consistency is king, queen and the entire court. Your mail carrier is a great metaphor. They deliver (literally) no matter what. Consistently publishing content means more than even great writing (did I just say that!!??!!). Why? Because when you send your blog out on time (we get an F- for this at K+L) or you show up on Instagram three times a week (C-) or you share a LinkedIn post weekly (don’t ask), it’s like showing up for the neighborhood baseball game on a regular basis. It says you are in it for the long game. Start with a content mission statement. This is super easy to write. Fill in the blanks: Our content is for (audience) who can find (type of content) that will help them (what the content will help them do).

  2. Blogs inspire admiration which leads to trust. Blogs do not bulldoze into prospect doors and get them to sign on the dotted line. They do, however, solve problems. That’s the beauty of blogs. They answer the questions your customers struggle with. And, you, the noble small to midsize manufacturer show you are there for them with blogs that have real answers and heartfelt advice.

  3. Write like your hero talks. Too many people in this world say they can’t write. This is the tragedy of traditional grading systems. One “F” on an English paper, and it wrecks havoc on the creative writer inside us. But you don’t have to be Hemingway to write well, you just have to be a good listener and show empathy. When it comes to your website or email campaigns or sales decks, incorporate the language of your hero — your customers and prospects.

  4. Data science is your top super secret competitive advantage. Rich data surrounds you. Use this information as the “authoritative” differentiator in your messaging. We recently designed a survey for a locally-owned solar company, Independence Renewable Energy in Sandwich. The information not only will inform the brand work we are creating, it also netted the company four new newsletter subscribers, inspired social posts and provided an excellent reason to reach out to past customers. Original research provides content for press releases and blogs. Think exclusivity: what data do you have that you and you alone can share?

  5. Plan content around business objectives. Don’t just be an online content creator, be an online marketer. (more on content specifically at VIA’s Can-Do Content Marketing for Manufacturers roundtable on June 18 featuring Michael Lis from Speck Media, Nancy O’Leary from Custom Direct and Janet Viane from Red Caffeine, plus yours truly). The gist: give content a job. Make it work hard to achieve your business objectives. Like: creating a better customer experience, increasing leads, attracting investors, reaching revenue goals, converting prospects into customers and building community.

  6. Choose your worldview. This is where size is an advantage. Very large companies must overlay their values onto thousands of people. Small to midsize manufacturers, however, can plant their flag and share their values across the company with greater agility. Integrate your company’s worldview in your content and you become unforgettable or, at the very least, not forgotten in a noisy world.

  7. Treat your website like your dog. Feed it, love it, take it for a walk every few days. But, absolutely do not ignore your website or it will grow lonely and – I so hate to say this word as I live for style – shabby.

  8. Social media are databases, but your inside list is gold. There was the world before social media and the world after. The latter isn’t so bad if you think of it as yet another place to build community. Building an inside list, however, is not just a database; it is gold. Treasure it, respect it and, by all means, use it to stay in touch with your most important people.

  9. Social responsibility is the main course, not a side dish. If you believe in stamping out hunger or saving the planet or helping at-risk youth, then create a team of people who believe in that too and do something. Take one small step. As we saw with the VIA Spark Awards, it starts with one person who says: “Why not? This cause means something to us.” From there, invite people to volunteer to be on a green team or a social impact group. Big companies do not always have the agility to make bold moves. Be bold.

  10. Love first. This needs little expansion. Love is the place from which amazing things are born. Show the love in the words you share, mediums you frequent and lives you touch. That’s great content marketing - being a bright hope for others and staying with them so they succeed.

Sliding Down the Rope Headfirst: A Must Try

“Without pushing your limits, without occasionally sliding down the rope headfirst, without daring greatly, you will never know what is truly possible in your life.”

Admiral William H. McRaven, Author, “Make Your Bed”

That’s a much more eloquent way of saying “You need to step out of your comfort zone,” a tired cliché that typically garners an eye roll.

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I recently slid down the rope headfirst, and I’m still sliding. I’ve been doing Beach Body on Demand. There, I said it. But let’s keep this little fact between us friends. The truth is Michele got me to do this 30-minute exercise regimen that is absolute H-E-double-hockey-sticks torture.

I admire colleagues like Dean Petrulakis, who attack exercise like it’s a higher calling. My goal is to stop excusing my way out of a fitness routine. I am not looking to get the six-pack abs that I’ve never had, but I do want to strengthen muscles that would much rather atrophy than exercise. If I lose a few pounds in the process, it’s a win-win, but I keep my goals simple – focus on strength, the weight loss may follow.

This story is relevant because it’s easy to fall into a rut or routine. We often take the easy way out. Perhaps we’re afraid of learning new programs or apps that can help us at work, or our daily routine is predictable, or we sit in the same chair in a staff meeting (pre-pandemic).

As Admiral McRaven says, we occasionally have to slide down the rope headfirst. I’d welcome an opportunity to hear how you are sliding down the rope and what you’ve done to change your routine. (Near the end of our weekly family Zoom call, as our college kids are probably looking at their watches, I read an excerpt from “Make Your Bed.”)

So what has Beach Body on Demand done for me? I notice I’m not out of breath as much. My muscles are sore (I think that means they are waking up from their slumber). I have more energy (both mental and physical). I have lost a few pounds. And, I get to watch my beautiful wife exercise, although I’m mostly just trying to keep my balance and not keel over. (I’ve told the kids, if I pass, don’t put in my obituary that he died painfully doing Beach Body on Demand).

I plan on continuing this routine three days a week and bicycle 12-25 miles on the weekend. I’m curious to see how far down the rope I can slide.

Hey, Mr. Coronavirus, I'm Still Goin'​ to the Cemetery Even if You Canceled Mass: An Essay About Rituals


Frank Anthony LoDestro

Frank Anthony LoDestro

I don't remember the year my mother died. Numbers are not a writer's friend. I just remember all my children were under five and Jr. was 20 pounds of screaming baby that couldn't last more than five minutes in a moving car.

Funny, the mile markers we choose.

I didn't think my father was equipped for life without her. She cooked, kept the bills, turned Sunday pasta into an art form, made sure we went to Mass, and taught us that family dinners were more important than being valedictorian, star athlete or the lead in the school musical.

Then, one day, she went to heaven. On Memorial weekend, the cancer had won. Grief doesn't sit. My first inclination was to take care of my father but you don't do that for a soldier who served in the first Marine Division at Guadalcanal in WWII. Nope. Frank Anthony LoDestro was, as the other Italian Frank croons, going to do it his way. So we came to an understanding. We would grieve for my mother on equal footing.

That started our annual visits to the cemetery. Every year, my father and I would go to Resurrection Cemetery a few towns away to attend outdoor Memorial Day Mass. Sometimes I would snatch one child or another to attend. Always it was me and Dad. The sky was our ceiling, the trees and surrounding houses the pillars of nature's vast cathedral.

By the end of most of these Masses, I'm sure I should have gone straight to confession.

Inevitably, my father, like he did when we were kids, would snicker partway through Mass about the "pondaloon" sitting in front of us.

Dad's hearing was debatable so the pondaloon in question would sometimes catch my father's bass voice in the breeze, turn around, and throw back a stern stare. I begged Dad to stop as I pushed down that wild, deep-throated laughter that bubbles to the surface when you know something is wickedly fun in a completely inappropriate place.

Then we would fold up our chairs and walk to where my mother was. We brought flowers to lay carefully by her gravestone. Dad would get his pail and fill it with water from the faucet nearby, scrub off any white bird poop on the stone with a small brush, say three Hail Marys and kiss the stone three times. This was ritual.

Of course, my father had another reason to feel an edge over all the other pondaloons in attendance. Soon after Mom's funeral, Dad commissioned a 12-foot granite statue of Mother Mary to watch over my Mom's grave. Nobody in the Mass crowd knew that, of course, but that didn't matter to Dad. When he saw people praying the Rosary by the statue, he felt so proud honoring his wife of 40 years in such a visible way.

Oftentimes, we love people the way we wished we had loved them when they were with us. In this case, Dad's love weighed 700 pounds, built from a lifetime of moments both memorable and regretful.

After my father joined my mother in heaven a decade ago, I kept going to Mass each year. It was something I could do for him that he did for her. Roderick started coming with me and, together, we honored a great man, our red camp chairs in hand.

Ceremony and ritual give us definition. They shape our culture and allow us to celebrate shared beliefs. They are our life's mile markers.

My ribboned Holy Communion dress and veil, the gold ring around my finger, the white linen baptismal gown and tiny suits worn by my children. These are rituals no different than West African women of the Fulfani Tribe tattooing their mouth and lips before marriage or the ancient Romans sacrificing animals to the gods.

Rituals honor people, hope, love. These universal ceremonies give purpose across the continuum of time.

This year, Mass is canceled at Resurrection Cemetery because of the virus. This ritual was a pilgrimage with my father and then for my father. If there's one thing I could say to Mr. Coronavirus, it's this.

You're just a big pondaloon and you can't stop this Italian girl from breaking with tradition. Nope. I'm still goin' to the cemetery.

Stare up the Steps or Step up the Stairs

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Hilltopper senior picture 1981

I can relate to the 2020 college and high school graduates. They are being cheated out of that one big moment where they are publicly rewarded for years of hard work. They have stared up the steps and now, finally, can step up those stairs. Except, in reality, they can’t.

They will miss walking across the stage to accept that sheepskin AND to give the stink-eye to select educators who pushed and prodded them to that moment.

I too missed my college graduation ceremony.

Actually, I missed Senior Week, 10 days of drinking beer and saying goodbye to people I wasn’t sure I’d ever see again.

Here’s the story.

I was a senior at Marquette University, a Jesuit Catholic school. I needed a job after graduation in my selected profession, which was journalism. I identified 50 small- to mid-sized newspapers around the country and made my case for why they needed me on their staff whilst surrounded by dirt and dust on a cold weekend in January. A radio blared the Super Bowl while my frigid fingers typed cover letter after cover letter. That piece of equipment was my future livelihood so I lugged it to the foundry where I worked as a Burns security guard.  

I have no idea who would want to break into a dank, dark, dilapidated plant with no heat and no people, but, hey, it was currency for PBR six-packs and bowls of Milwaukee’s famous Real Chili. In between hourly rounds, I typed. In the weeks to come, my mailbox filled with rejections – 48 of them. My career was ending before it started.

Then I received an invitation from the Baraboo, Wis., newspaper. I was to take a writing test. I drove the two plus hours to Baraboo, strangled by a brown as bark striped necktie, and sat in a room with fellow aspiring journalists. The writing prompt was simple: a small plane crashed on a playground of a school.

Needless to say, I wasn’t the best writer in the room. I was not offered a job and began wondering if Dad was right -- journalism was a dead-end, second-rate profession. It was now early March, and my Senior Week was going to be about the joys of others.

And then one morning the phone rang.

Sight unseen and with no writing test, I was offered a reporter position at the Hibbing Daily Tribune in Minnesota for $9,500 a year. I was elated. My dream had come true. A Pulitzer Prize awaited me. But there was a catch. I needed to start on the very next Monday, two months before I was to proudly walk across the stage. The conundrum was real. I talked to my professors and reached an agreement with all but one. I could finish my work, papers, projects and tests, including the final exam, early in order to follow my dream. The one holdout was a philosophy professor who also donned a white collar. Father I-Play-by-the-Rules-No-Matter-What threatened failure if I wasn’t in my seat through Thursday, April 16 as well as on the scheduled day and time in early May to take the final exam.

I called Al Zdon, the managing editor of the newspaper, and pleaded my case. He graciously allowed me to start on April 17. Good Friday.

What I didn’t know was that new hires were not allowed time off in the first full year of employment. That included no paid sick leave. But Al was kind. He offered a day to fly to Milwaukee to take my final exam with Father I-Play-by-the-Rules-No-Matter-What.

I’m not sure what I scored on that exam, but I remember giving Father a sneer as I handed him my blue book.

I never said goodbye to my friends and fellow classmates. It still rubs me raw.

To that end, I congratulate all 2020 graduates. I truly feel your pain. When the time comes, reunite with your besties, hoist a beverage and salute each other.

Like many things in life, curve balls happen. To all the graduates, no stairs or stage define the journey you walk. You did it. I applaud you.
 
Ring Out a Hoya!

Roderick

My Meeting with Mr. Mantle

Mr. Mantle, can I ... um ... have your autograph?

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I was three weeks shy of my 9th birthday, and our family trekked the 3 ½ hours in our Town & Country wagon to Minneapolis. We were staying at the Radisson Hotel, where we always stayed on those rare visits to the "Big City." As we were checking in, the bell hop mentioned that the New York Yankees would be arriving soon after playing the Minnesota Twins at the old Met Stadium. I begged my dad to let me hang back for an autograph or two.

As the team shuffled into the lobby, I shyly approached a man in a suit and tie. I asked if he was a Yankee and if I could have his autograph. Third baseman Bobby Cox obliged. I did the same for the next man, Frank Crosetti. This time, I got a different result. Not only did he sign the hotel letterhead paper, but he said, “That’s Micky Mantle.” Aptly nicknamed "The Crow," Crosetti's arm lifted like a bird ready to take flight as he pointed to Mantle.

“You will want his autograph,” said The Crow.

I was shaking as I approached America’s iconic baseball player. Tongue tied in knots, I handed him my paper and pencil. He looked down, signed the sheet and was gone.

This was better than Christmas morning. My heart was pounding as my wobbly legs made their way to the elevators. When I got there, I looked up and saw Mr. Mantle. My shit-eating grin turned to shock and fear. I took off for the stairs and raced up to the third floor where I pushed the button to continue upward. The elevator doors opened. And there he was again. This time, alone.

I operated in panic mode as I stepped aboard and pushed the button. Up we went, together. A little boy and a whole lot of greatness. I sprinted out of there as if I was on fire. Mr. Mantle continued upward.

April is baseball month. But, right now, no one is sauntering on the field. No one is striking out on the Twins, giving me legit reasons to be grumpy around the house. No texts from my White Sox friends poking fun at the Cubs.

The good news: Baseball will come back. Like the sport itself, with 162 games a season, we have to play the long game. We have to believe. Like the little boy I once was who saw the chance in a lifetime.

Cheers,

Roderick

PS. The remaining autographs were obtained at breakfast the next day.

Manufacturers, Your Story Is Your Best Competitive Advantage

Your story is the best competitive advantage you have because no one, NO ONE in the entire world has your story. They never will.

Here are 14 story strategies specifically written for you during this time of immense disruption with examples from global manufacturing brands. You do not have to be a billion-dollar brand to be relevant. Every company, no matter the size, has an important story to honor.

Lastly, know this: You -- the manufacturer, noble maker and idea innovator -- will triumph. Your story endures.

|1| A story of stability. People want to know your company is stable. Gather the evidence: the number of new orders you have, new project overviews, number of runs, how you have ramped up and the speed of deliveries. Then share this information with your customers, in media pitches and with your entire team. If you are experiencing supply chain disruptions with parts arriving late or new suppliers coming on board, be transparent. Communicate delays to customers while communicating your continuity plan. Example: Koch Industries put out a story on how Georgia Pacific is meeting rising demand for toilet paper.

|2| Your team. Over-communicate. Fear comes from not knowing. Hold debriefs with direct reports about remote working challenges and successes. Some people in manufacturing like operations, might be more taxed at this time than others. Upskill those who may have more downtime. People care how you are treating your team too so share updates on how you are keeping your team safe -- physically and emotionally.

|3| Take yourself out of the equation. Truly, this is the most important story strategy of all. If you insert yourself first, you will lose sight of the hero: your customer. Take yourself out of the equation by talking to customers and asking how you can support them. Make sure people on the frontlines of sales share customer conversations across the company so people learn from one another. House a repository of that information accessible by all. Now is the time to tear down silos. Example: General Motors published a landing page on how they are handling COVID-19 with specific links to how it is impacting four key audiences: customers, employees, visitors and communities. One small detail that is really helpful: GM specifies when the information was last updated.

|4| Your leadership story. Classic basketball advice: don't hesitate. Industrialists today must be thoughtful, but not wait. Your customers, team, board of directors, investors, supply chain partners and strategic partners are waiting to hear from your top leader. Map out your plan to find a way through. Example: Caterpillar did an excellent job of explaining the measures they are taking to protect employees. Caterpillar's statement is written the way real people talk — in a conversational tone (not complicated legal jargon).

|5| Workforce/pay reductions. Every day brings a new set of circumstances. Communicate what sacrifices are being made at the executive level before any are demanded or disclosed from those working in the factory or office.

|6| Think beyond the standard conference calls with remote workers. The novelty of suddenly working from home wears off quickly. Remote workers may feel out of the loop compared to those working at the plant every day. Great communications is part of culture. If you hosted happy hours on Fridays before, consider bringing them back virtually. At K+L, we're being invited to virtual "coffee" chats and "happy hours" (It's kind of fun to hop on a video call while throwing back a glass of Ruffino Chianti.)

|7| Inspire confidence with your vision story. Your vision is the world you hope to create, but which is not yet formed. Your vision story might be changing now and that's understandable. What is the world you see? Share your vision story. Write a blog on this, put it on your website, include it in a handwritten note to customers, put it on the bottom of your emails. This is where hope for a better tomorrow lives.

|8| Focus on the customer experience. Ask your customers what they need, where they are struggling most and how you can support them. They are the hero of your story. Thinking about their success is one of the best ways to create great content. If one customer is asking the question, most likely many are. Write a blog addressing top customer questions, film a video or podcast, or conduct a webinar/growth call/town hall. Example: PMMI, Packaging Machinery Manufacturing Institute, just launched a Virtual Town Hall Series, inviting people to explore critical topics. You don't have to be a large company to communicate well.

|9| Reach out to the media as a subject matter expert. Manufacturers have a rare opportunity to take center stage. Media are looking for stories about business's response in this time of great change. Brainstorm with your staff on influential media in your industry. Write down two or three innovative ways you are adapting, then call or email editors and show hosts. Radio and TV are fair game. Look on news websites for the executive producer.

|10| Manufacturers are oftentimes family-owned businesses. As such, you have a remarkable opportunity to share your founder's story. What led to your endurance -- grit, courage and foresight to persevere -- will see you through this time. Don't hesitate to share your original "why" and how it ties to your purpose.

|11| Communicating new safety practices in tandem with ongoing measures. Communicate safety measures around COVID-19 while also pointing out the safety measure you've always practiced (i.e. FDA, SQF, OSHA, ISO, etc.). Align safety with your company values. Example: Global welding manufacturer Lincoln Electric leads with safety on their COVID-19 landing page. They talk about their role in critical supply chains and how they are moving business forward while keeping "employees, partners and communities" safe.

|12| Reassure prospects. Let prospects know you are there to support them! They may postpone buying decisions now, but if you stand by them through this crisis, they will remember you and trust you when it comes time to sign that purchase order. Even more importantly, they will remember the feelings you inspired in them: courage and compassion.

|13| Partner with your supply chain. A National Association of Manufacturing: survey indicates 35.5% of manufacturers are experiencing supply chain disruptions because of COVID-19 (this number rises to 75% for US companies, according to the Institute of Supply Management). Now is the time to stand together. Consider drafting an FAQ about any changes in distribution, logistics, inventory and delivery to inform everyone in your factory. Bring a larger solution to customers by hosting a webinar or virtual town hall with key supply chain partners. Collect insight and deliver greater business value to customers and prospects by showing your value chain strength.

|14| Celebrate your story. We wrote the following in chalk on our front sidewalk: "We stand together even when we stand apart." In this time of social distancing, we need to celebrate little triumphs: how we got an order out on time, how we made a customer smile, how we encouraged a colleague. These become the little victories that define us and our story for the long haul. Share them with your team. Post them on social media. Recognize them on the team call (or, better yet, over a Friday happy hour celebration that you finished the week strong!).

With tremendous gratitude,

Roderick and Michele Kelly

K+L Storytellers is the official storytelling agency of the Valley Industrial Association. Cultivate relationships and inspire trust with your story. K+L's Content-On-Demand connects you with a top notch writing team ready to write or review your content while Content Hubs offer ongoing content strategy and brand support. Let's talk about your story: (630) 697-2652 or email Roderick Kelly at roderick@klstorytellers.com.

Your Brand Story: 10 Events That Trigger a Review

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Change begets more change and oftentimes people in the middle (aka your team) are caught in no-man’s land wondering what is the new company story. Here are 10 events that trigger it’s time to review and rewrite your brand story.

1)        You’re targeting new industries or audiences

Companies in growth mode often look to new industries or vertical markets to target. Having a solution for customer needs in those markets is important, but equally important is how a company communicates its brand story to break through the messaging din with a content mission that aligns with growth strategy and business imperatives. Complete Merchant Services (CMS) moved from Payment-as-a-Solution platform for the health care industry to the direct sales companies and then to franchisees.

2)    Your business changes focus

Perhaps you’ve hired or acquired a team that fills a critical void. Maybe it even creates an additional profit center. With expanded offerings, your DNA changes. Sometimes this means a name change or sometimes it just means a fresh look at the solutions you’re bringing to the table. Case in point: Before the totally retro Chicago-based Build This entered the scene in 2018, it was strictly a web design firm. Then it adopted app development and, out of its trendy offices in the Chicago Board of Trade building, changed its focus – and its brand story. A fresh new website with technology imagery, an expanded offering including one-day websites, and a “We’re More Than An Agency” headline on the company’s about page was a successful brand story rewrite.

3)    Merger or acquisition

This is a biggie. We have witnessed first-hand the impact a merger has on a company’s brand. It’s understandable that company executives focus on the financial and tax implications when entering an M&A. However, a common brand story has to be developed and then introduced to clients, prospects and, most importantly, the people who work there. Reston, Va.-based Hinge Marketing offers a downloadable rebranding kit. In addition to a new name and look, changes also occur in business practices and employee training.

4)    Your business model changes to bring a fuller solution through strategic partnerships

Sometimes, it makes sense to form strategic partnerships to offer clients fuller solutions. Chicago-based Fortress Consulting, for example, pulls in marketing and creative experts as needed to show a more complete story. (Check out the new “life after pro football” branding project they did for Matt Forte. Cool stuff!). As your solution expands, so does your brand story.

5)    The customer journey changes (does life ever stand still?)

How does your customer see you? How do you view your company and what it does? Is how your customer buys products or services in your market changing? Customer journeys shift and companies that can stay ahead of the wave will thrive. The ones that don’t rewrite their brand story – Blockbuster, Sears, Montgomery Ward, American Motors Corp. – often find themselves out of business or a target for an acquisition.

6)    You choose to break away from companies in your industry and how business has “always been” done

Let’s say your industry is one based on price. It’s transactional, your product a commodity. But you don’t want to do business that way. You choose to step apart from the pack. We call this your unfair advantage, also known as your differentiator. When your company understands its unfair advantage, your story will set you apart from everyone else in your industry. It often is not what you think. Silver Spoon Desserts, for example, has an unfair advantage of employing single moms from Chicago’s distressed neighborhoods. Why? Because owner Tamara Turner was a single mom, and she understands women in that situation don’t need a handout, they need a paycheck. When customers hear her story, they become believers. What’s your unfair advantage?

7)    The last time you reviewed your brand story was when “Frozen” was the highest-grossing film of the year.

That was 2013. Six years is a long time in business. Technologies change. The customer journey changes. Global markets change. How has your company changed? How has your brand story reflected that change? Is it frozen in time?

8)    Digital transformation

This is the business buzz phrase, which really means the Internet of Things (IoT). From cloud-based computing to shopping online to software as a service (SasS). Digital transformation is designed to improve the customer experience, but it’s more than technology. Great piece in Harvard Business Review that talks about what needs to be done internally prior to and during implementation of digital platforms.

9)    The dynamics of the industry have changed

Industry change is often a result of several of the points made above – digital transformation, the fluid customer-buying journey, new technologies, etc. Again, staying in front of the wave, through professional development, attending seminars, reading forward-thinking publications and listening to industry podcasts can help you stay aligned with industry trends. Ask: how is your brand story adapting to the shifting sands?

10)  Your company’s vision goggles need replacement

If our vision in life stayed the same, there would be a lot more professional football players, fire personnel and professional singers in the world. These were my children’s visions when they were really little. Guess what? None of them are going into these fields. When a company’s vision – that altruistic destination that is not yet, but oh so desirable – changes, the brand story changes too. Because it’s not just about internal stakeholders. Your customers and other champions need to be part of your vision too.

 

A One Paragraph Essay On Story

Stories allow the human race to fold inward. We find a sanctuary, a common ground to care and give and love. Someone on the other side of the world —  a person you may never meet or ever know — hears your story, suddenly understanding exactly where you stand and what you stand for. Hope for all. Work is a happier place when people share stories. Sometimes we see a story in the way a person sighs or the tightness of their eyes. What does it take to reassure someone their story will have a happy ending? Our hearts and intellect are entwined. We learn from each other’s stories. Culture thrives in story-driven organizations and reminds people of their important contributions to a greater good. Story builds relationships and relationships are the basis for everything. Together, things get done. Good ideas get launched. Great companies are built. Problems get solved. Customers, investors, donors, colleagues, referral drivers, your own teammates all hope their story is heard. Voices in the dark help no one. When we share stories, the possibilities for creating new ideas rush forth like a sea of blue — endless and fervent and delightfully imperfect. We become believers in other people when we understand the story of a tiny start-up or a great big global enterprise or the old man up the street. Our story makes us us. What does story mean to you?

The Beats Behind Your Breathtaking Stories

A story without beats is the fastest way to make people fall asleep. (That was not meant to rhyme. Just putting it out there.) In fiction books or movie scripts, writers define a beat as the smallest unit of a story — something that happens that causes a reaction.

If the Titanic had been merely a fabulous ship reaching port in one piece, there would have been no story.

As corporate storytellers, we look at marketing as having beats too. A beat is an interaction — something that happens that causes a reaction. Your hero headline on the homepage creates desire. The visitor clicks on the call-to-action to learn more. There’s a beat. The average movie has about 40 beats. The average homepage? Anybody’s guess. BUT, strive to have beats throughout.

Here’s the big WOW: a great brand story is one long string of beats — one interaction that leads to the next one.

Less beats slows the action. More beats can keep you on the edge of your seat. Now switch the perspective to your story. Thinking in terms of beats, instead of mere content, changes everything. Website content becomes a path of engagement, sales decks become dialogue, and videos inspire action.

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Our own lives have beats. Our own lives are one long scene built upon another, conversation that evokes action, surprises that lead to unexpected roads. Our own story does not magically appear. You went from point A to point B, maybe even to point Z (thank you, alphabet, for having 26 of you). It’s never easy. The path was littered with fear and angst. But it was worth it because it landed you here, wherever here is — from one interaction after another.

There are many stories behind a company. How you saved the day for a customer. Why your company does what it does. Your vision for an amazing world. Your founder story.

Showing your stories to the outside world should captivate people in the same way you feel entranced watching a great movie. Stories are one-part emotion and one-part authoritative. People buy on emotion and justify the purchase with underlying authority or facts. The beats in the story keep the emotion and the relationship moving forward.

Consider your story one of your biggest unfair advantages — one thing that others don’t have and cannot copy.

Let’s end with the words from one of the most famous film directors of all time: Frank Capra: “There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness.”

Now, take your brand story to breathtaking heights.