Tag Archives: simple

Simple stories are simply better business

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Simple works because we can only remember one thing at a time. Simple stories are better stories
Simple is better, less is more. Photo by Z S on Unsplash

The great temptation is to add more to our business narrative.

We’re afraid that if we don’t mention every last little additional detail, we’ll fail to attract the last little potential customer.

That’s like adding bling to an elegant suit – detracting and self-defeating

Simple is better because extra is superfluous.

This is because a straight-forward uncomplicated but elegant story makes it much more likely others, including your own people, will understand, remember and retell the core component of your product or service offer.

So, if you’re tempted to add…resist.

Instead look to subtract from your story and remove the unnecessary fat.

Less is more, because more is less.

Keep your story lean and keep your story fit for purpose.

(And if you’d like help in simplifying, and hence clarifying, your message, give Punchline a call)

Simple…succinct…resonating?

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Your first most important message must be succinct and appealing
The right story about your business rings true and is succinct. Is your’s?
Photo by Linus Nylund on Unsplash

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 your value proposition?

Does what you say sound fresh, because you’ve used familiar (though not overused) terms in a novel way?

If you’ve pulled this off by yourself, you’re magic.

However most of us, myself included, struggle mightily to unearth our own business story.

By ourselves we can’t sort the wood from the trees, spot the gem in the dross, narrow down to the one central truth of what I call your Million Dollar Message.

An outsider is (essentially) the only way to bring objectivity to revealing the essence of your first, most important story.

Writing 10,000 words is easy. Refining your story down to 10 words is arduous.

But get it right, and you’ve faceted the diamond of your story crown.

Why we’re afraid to be simple

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We all crave something as being simple. But we don’t want to be considered simple ourselves. A contradiction we live with. Photo by Fischer Twins on Unsplash

Unless you’re a psychopath it’s very likely you carry some ‘imposter syndrome’ on at least one of your shoulders.

We all live with the secret fear one day we’ll be exposed as not so clever or competent as we pretend to be.

The weight of our (self-imposed) expectations of ourselves forces us to be complicated.

Yet we crave understanding the core of something – whether it is of a business, a sporting team, a nation, a scientific theory, a philosophy or an individual.

The reason is because most of us struggle to hold more than one key concept about any of these subjects in our head at any one time.

Which means there’s a contradiction between how we like to simplify our understanding of something, and how we fear being thought of as ‘simple’ ourselves.

It’s all part of the wonderful complexity of the state of being human.

We crave simplicity because it makes our own life easier, but don’t wish to be defined with such an adjective ourselves.

Yet, as Albert Einstein said when describing a science theory, and which we should keep in mind when describing our business, “if you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.”

Simple’s good.

Simple is better…but hard to achieve

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David is simple...not
Michelangelo ‘simply’ removed the marble which wasn’t David

After Michelangelo sculpted his statue of David in Florence in 1504, he was asked how he created such a masterpiece?

“It’s simple. I took away everything that wasn’t David,” he replied.

Viewing the magnificent more than four metre David, it’s obvious Michelangelo is being slightly disingenuous.

But his ‘simple’ idea to remove the unnecessary bits should be kept in mind when telling a business story, and informing us as succinctly as possible.

Removing story clutter is deceptively difficult to do. Our temptation is to always add more – like adding another feature to already bloated software.

It’s one reason Subway’s ‘Eat Fresh’ story/slogan/value proposition is so good. There’s plenty of other fast food brands that could’ve claimed the label, but Subway got there first.

Like Michelangelo, Subway’s creatives cut away everything that wasn’t David.

‘Eat Fresh’ is simple, and Subway owns the idea.

The challenge for all of us is to own an idea in our own area of expertise. It will probably require more than two words, but shouldn’t be more than 15.