Killing two birds with one analogy-stone is a neat trick to pull off. BedsRus has managed a wee bit of magic with its (bus shelter) ad, ‘How big are your dreams?’ It forces us to simultaneously ask ourselves two questions. An existentialist one in the form of whether what we want to achieve for ourselves … Continue reading How big are your dreams?
Category Archives: value proposition
Exactly how business changes and morphs as we come out of Covid lockdown is a very murky crystal ball. There is no playbook for the situation the world’s in, and we don’t know the ending…for individuals, for communities and for companies. One aspect which will evolve are the stories businesses tell of themselves and to … Continue reading Coronavirus will force a reset of our business stories (as well as everything else)
Ernest Hemingway was once apparently challenged (now believed to not be true) to write a story in six words. His supposed answer was: “For sale, baby shoes, never worn”. We fill in the dots, we figure out what must’ve happened, we feel a surge of sorry as we empathise with the parents. My partner brought … Continue reading A perfect story in four words – a true Million Dollar Message
As an individual, we are all many stories. From our sex to upbringing, religious and political affiliations, likes, food preferences…you name it, depending on your start point we can tell different yarns. Our businesses too are many stories. You could focus on many different aspects of what and how you provide a product or service. … Continue reading Why you can only tell one story (initially)
The great default word for businesses trying to describe their ‘what’ is…solutions. You see it everywhere, far too often. The trouble is, we all provide a solution of some kind. And by using the term, you then immediately have to explain what your particular solution is. So why not use the wonderful extent of english … Continue reading ‘Solutions’, a sign of desperation or lack of imagination
Words have power, and people have “an appetite for well-expressed wisdom, motivational or otherwise,” says Ward Farnsworth. He’s dean of the University of Texas School of Law, and author of Farnsworth’s Classical English Rhetoric. The book shows examples of rhetoric (the art of persuasion) from the famous such as Churchill, Lincoln and Dickens, and lesser … Continue reading The power of language
A good business story allows the viewer or reader to imagine themselves as part of the action. A great business story enables that person to be the hero(ine) in that story. Which means a Wellington bus-shelter billboard for Auckland University elevates itself into the realm of great. Make your future self proud Five simple words … Continue reading Wish I’d thought of it
Your first story must Ring true; unearth an aha. Use a metaphor.
Imagine a world without metaphors. In fact don’t even try…because it is impossible. We simply cannot function in a world without the power of description and understanding provided by metaphors. To remind us, a metaphor is a word or phrase that is used to describe something else to emphasise their similar qualities. A metaphor is … Continue reading A metaphor is a knot that ties a word to an image
We have seven words to propose an idea according to Andrew O’Keefe of Hardwired Humans. 7±2 words is about two seconds – which is our brain’s working memory with information says the Sydney based people-strategies- design author and consultant. Our human instinct when we propose an idea, delegate a task or make a request is … Continue reading Hardwired humans…first seven words