2024 November: How to Tell a Brand Story

Overview: 

If you have a business, you have a story. In fact, let’s take that a step farther: if you have (or have ever had) a pulse, you have a story. Odds are, at least part of that story is worth telling, worth hearing, and likely to have a direct and lasting impact on the listener.

What other marketing or leadership tool can you say THAT about?

Join us for two days and learn how to 

• Understand the neuroscience of storytelling and how to use it to become a better leader of a more successful business.
• Harness the power of storytelling as a motivating force for action.
• Use Hollywood character techniques to craft memorable brands using Character Diamonds
• Deconstruct the stories of the world’s most famous brands

“Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell,”
-Seth Godin

Science of Storytelling

Ten years after discovering the neurochemical oxytocin was the key to fostering cooperation, safety and empathy, Paul Zak’s team started wondering if they could use storytelling to “hack” the oxytocin system and motivate listeners to take certain actions. It worked. Learn about this and other cool science stuff about storytelling and how to use this superpower (for good, not evil).

Elements of Story 

A well-told, compelling story has certain elements. Each element contributes to the strength of your connection with your audience. Learn about each element, how to weave them together, and the risk of leaving one out.

• Audience Assessment
• Point of View
• Plot
• Characters
• Conflict/Raising the Stakes

Telling Story with Data

There is a BIG difference between data and information. Data is simply a collection of observations assembled into a single view or set of views. Information requires insight, understanding, and the ability to weave a narrative with a story the data tells. Learn to recognize the difference and create meaningful, informative, and compelling visualizations of your data. 

Data is the ingredients of the pie. Information is the recipe. Data is a big sloppy wet kiss in the middle of the night. Information is realizing it’s your dog.

* Apple used storytelling to launch Mac vs PC and increased revenue 39% in one year.

* A study of 42 publicly-traded companies showed that brand storytelling increased revenue by 70% from 2007-2011.

* Roy Williams, the founder of Wizard Academy, has used storytelling his entire career to turn small business owners into millionaires.  

* Daniel Whittington and Rex Williams used storytelling to create the two largest whisky focused youtube channels, the world’s first crowd-sourced whiskey distillery, and the largest community of whiskey drinkers in the entire world. 

What’s the Story?

Understanding how storytelling creates magnetic business marketing  is the goal of this class. 

You’ll have the chance to practice creating, writing and telling stories. 

You’ll learn how to bring together everything you’ve learned, and walk out of this class with an understanding of stories that you can use immediately with existing and potential customers, your team, and others.