Unlock the Magic in Your Story Now
Get the Free 20 questions to Ask Before Launching Your Idea workbook when you sign up for occasional updates.
Get the Free 20 questions to Ask Before Launching Your Idea workbook when you sign up for occasional updates.
The Fortune Cookie Principle™
Every idea, innovation, product and service has two elements.
The cookie…. the commodity, the utility, the tangible, the facts, the logical benefit. The cookie is the thing you put in the shop window which has a fixed inherent value.
Then there’s the fortune, the intangible part of the product or service which is where the real value lies. The fortune is the abstract, the thing that changes how people feel. The real reason they buy the product in the first place. It’s your story and purpose, your vision and values manifested. The fortune gives the product an acquired value or a different perceived value.
People don’t buy fortune cookies because they taste better than every other cookie on the shelf. They buy them for the delight they deliver at the end of a meal.
Marketers spend most of their time selling the cookie, when what they should be doing is finding a better way to tell the story of the fortune.
Bake a good cookie but spend your time working out to tell a great story about the fortune.
Image by Rachael.
Share this article
The Hard Part
filed in Entrepreneurship
The hard part of becoming a personal trainer isn’t learning which muscle does what. There are plenty of study guides and anatomy books to help an aspiring trainer to get a Certificate IV in Fitness.
No, the hard part is the art of telling a story that people you hope will sign up for your training want to believe. The hard part is standing out amongst all of the other trainers who understand the theory too.
It turns out that the mechanics, the thing we think will be the uphill struggle is actually the easy part. And yet that’s where we focus all our energy. Getting the piece of paper, coding the app and writing the copy.
There is no formula for the hard part. No checklist for telling a story that moves people to act and draws them to you. That’s why it’s scarce and exactly where you should put your focus.
Image by JRP.
Share this article
Tomorrow
filed in Entrepreneurship
Tomorrow there will be another social network to choose from.
Tomorrow your competitors will be selling a similar app.
Tomorrow there will be ten more books to buy at the bookstore.
Tomorrow you’ll get to inbox zero.
Tomorrow interest rates might come down.
Tomorrow you’ll know for sure.
Tomorrow there will be another podcast to listen to or one more tweet to send.
Tomorrow you’ll have more time.
Tomorrow that tweak will be made.
Tomorrow there will be one less meeting.
Tomorrow the website copy will be just right.
Tomorrow you’ll be really ready.
Tomorrow the holidays will be over.
Tomorrow will be a better time to start.
Tomorrow the rules will change.
Tomorrow ————————————.
Why are you waiting for tomorrow?
Image by Dave Sutherland.
Share this article
The Easy Way Out
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
A $6000 full page advert in a magazine with a readership of 200,000 people might feel like a bargain. All those eyeballs connected to all those credit cards just waiting to discover you.
Now all the advert must do is convince people to pick up the phone.
Buying ads feels safe, but handing over advertising dollars and waiting to be picked is only guaranteed to buy you hope. The promise of new customers is a maybe.
What if the shortcut (the billboard or magazine advert) is not the easy way out at all?
How much goodwill could you create with just 10% of your advertising budget amongst the customers you already have?
There are a thousand different ways to get noticed, and most are a gamble. The easiest way to convince people is to do it one person at a time with truth and connection and love.
Image by scion cho.
Share this article
People Don’t Buy What You Do
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Michael and Phil Farrell knew how to sell steak. They didn’t do it by having an abundance of tasty cuts in their shop window to tempt strangers or passers by who might fancy a t-bone for dinner that evening. No, they did it by knowing the name of every single customer who walked through their door.
The brothers sold thousands of kilos of steak at premium prices even when times were hard, because a housewife was prepared to juggle the budget to afford them. A trade that was worth it for the amount of joy she experienced when they remembered her name and some tiny detail in her life. She was prepared to ignore the supermarket specials in lieu of the feeling she got when Michael went in the back and brought out a cut of meat he was saving just for her.
The steak was good but that’s not what the customers were there for. They were there for the whole story, not just a good product.
People don’t buy what you do. They buy how it makes them feel.
Image by yooperann.
Share this article
The Elephant In The Room
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
John (not his real name) was discussing the features and benefits of a new product he’s bringing to market with me yesterday.
He had a niggle, a way which his product worked that other products in the same category didn’t. An elephant in the room. He wondered if this might be a problem.
What if your problem was actually a benefit?
Your weakness could be your strength.
The elephant, that thing you don’t do might be your story.
Image by express monorail.
Share this article
A Better Way To Say It
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
There’s a little funeral chapel a few kilometres from where I live. A place that’s a far cry from the draughty stone churches I remember from my childhood in Dublin. A beautiful warm room with skylights that allow the sunshine in. It’s surrounded by bush and a cemetery where kangaroos roam and eat the flowers left by mourners who know, and don’t seem to mind.
Then there’s the lovely little cafe right next door with a shaded terrace overlooking the gum trees.
And then there’s the A4 paper sign taped in several places to the walls, that says it all.
Café for paying customers only.
Waiting area outside chapel.
There’s probably a better way to say what you want to say to the potential customers who pass by your door every day.
If there is you should find it.
Image by Jordan.
Share this article
You Scratch My Back
filed in Entrepreneurship, Worldview
The suited up guy approached me at the end of the meeting saying he wanted to find ways to promote my business. He was that impressed!
“There is a quid pro quo though.” he said.
The old you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours routine. A transaction. This for that.
The most valuable relationships I’ve built never started with the limited thinking of what’s in it for me. If you do something for someone out of self-interest or for an eventual return and the payoff never comes, what are you left with?
If you do something because it feels good to be generous and to build trust you’ve got the feeling and the trust.
Meaning can’t be transacted.
Image by Stuart Richards.
Share this article
No Strings
filed in Marketing, Storytelling, Strategy
Alexx saw the sign outside the local gym and decided that there was no excuse. It was just a hundred metres from her front door and was advertising a six week membership for just $99. An opportunity not to be missed.
As she signed up Alexx tried to overlook the quiet desperation of the owner. The headphone jack that didn’t work. Not to mention the dated posters advertising extinct products in the toilet stalls.
When she asked about rush hour periods that she should avoid the gym owner told her that there were none, because things had been a bit quiet lately. He explained the options for extending her membership, the plans and the monthly rates once her initial six weeks were up, then went on to tell her that as long as she didn’t broadcast it he would keep renewing her membership at the $99 rate… “no strings”.
Alexx being a real food low tox living guru asked if he would consider stocking coconut water as an alternative to the high sugar energy drinks that glowed out at her from the fridge.
He said he’d think about it.
Fast forward six weeks and as she passed the fridge Alexx remarked, “Still no coconut water?”
“Hmmm, yeaaaah. Not really at the top of the list I have to be honest. There’s obviously quite a bit to do in the day, as I’m sure you know.”
She did. But despite the convenience and the bargain Alexx didn’t renew her membership.
If you’re going to go to the trouble of losing money to get your customer through the door. Why not go the extra mile to keep her?
‘Strings’ are exactly the reason you’re in business. Connection with your customers is the reason you exist. Your job is to find ways to create as many strings as possible, by going out of your way to make them feel like you care and that they belong.
More strings are your emergency.
Image by Bethan.
Share this article
6 Questions Every Startup Should Ask
filed in Entrepreneurship, Strategy
1. What problem are we solving?
2. What need are we fulfilling?
3. Who are we solving the problem for?
4. How are we least like the competition?
5. How do we tell that story?
6. Why this, why us and why now?
What questions have you asked yourself?
Image by dasmart.