Restricting yourself to 10 words, tell me about your business. Is it simple? Have you described why someone should be interested in your product or service? Is it succinct? Have you given me a what and a why? Does it resonate? Is part of the heart and soul of who you are evident along with … Continue reading Simple…succinct…resonating?
Category Archives: punchline
Well-known author of 19 best selling non-fiction books Seth Godin knows a thing or two about writing. He reckons we scan 10 words the first time we read a page, post, ad or memo. He recommends highlighting the 10 most important words of the 1000 (or 100 or whatever) words you originally write. Then start … Continue reading We scan a page and see 10 words
Sometimes, out of the blue, a song will trigger a memory. “The Otherside” by Breaks Co-Op came on the BizDojo co-working space Spotify playlist the other day. I can picture Jeff, a former work colleague and friend singing it at the top of his voice over a decade ago in an office we worked out … Continue reading A song triggers a memory of a friend who died far too early
We’re a self-interested species, and we’re driven by story. As much as we might care about others, it’s our own now and future which more concerns us. The lens with which we view any advertisement or offer is naturally biased towards what we see is in it for us. What might be non-interest today could … Continue reading Why you should make your story appealing, succinct and problem-solving
As much as we like to think we’re rational, coolly evaluative creatures, at our heart, we’re ruled by our heart. It is what we feel that counts. Sure, we’ll justify decisions we make, pointing out why something’s features and benefits are useful to us. But that’s after the intuitive gut-response. This comes first. This heart…felt, … Continue reading How does your story make someone feel?
It’s not about your product, it’s about the story of how it benefits its buyer. It’s not about your performance, it’s about the story behind doing something better, and as a result, someone else is better off. It’s not about your profits, it’s about the story of how helping your customers, by default, provided a … Continue reading Why a story-driven business is better business
We all get so wrapped up in our own business we can lose objectivity, lose perspective of what we actually do. It’s the not being able to see the wood for the trees phenomenon. Having someone else with which to bounce around your idea of ‘business self’ is an invaluable resource. Preferably you need a … Continue reading The power of another person’s perspective
Adding words is easy. But more words don’t necessarily add to more clarity. As the Occam’s Razor principle implies, you should use as few words as possible to explain – and no more. More words = confusion. More words are likely to be filler fluff. More words = potential to lose your reader or viewer … Continue reading Anyone can add words, few can remove them
When someone asks “what do you do?”, they’re (mostly) not simply asking for a job description. We want to know if your ‘what’ has a direct relevance to me when expressed as a why – and whether it is pertinent to myself or others I might know. It may not be that you want their … Continue reading Your story is your sell and your sell is your story
Advertising is often the art, or deception, of putting a gloss on what we do. That is, trying to make a product or service bigger, or better sounding, than it really is. There’s an inherent danger in this approach. In the same way that if you tell a lie, you then have to remember what … Continue reading Tell an authentic story, not an imaginary one