In a world where we seek to separate ourselves from others, compete with information overload and get a slice of the precious attention of your audience, we continue to seek new ways to stand out.
One thing I think isn’t given enough thought is: What is the most unique thing in history?
Well, you are.
So shouldn’t we understand ourselves enough to be able to inject ourselves into our business? This way, our business can become as unique as we are.
Ok, sure. That makes sense BUT that doesn’t always work all that well.
Fair, but I think I know why.
WHERE WE MISS THE MARK
It’s not that it doesn’t work, we just go about doing it the wrong way. We attempt to tell or convince our audience why we are unique and it comes across as a sales pitch.
If there is one thing I know about marketing, it’s this: I hate it.
A sales pitch makes me get the taste of vomit in my mouth and makes me want to stop, drop and roll out of there.
Uhh, so why are you in marketing, Frank?
Because I want to change it. Here’s how:
TELLING
People don’t want to hear about you.
Why? Because they don’t genuinely care about you. They’re more focused on ’What’s in it for me?’ It’s how we’re wired biologically. To conserve calories and focus on the important things to ensure our survival.
When we tell our audience about ourselves, most people’s biology tune you out because it doesn’t appear to be something worth spending their calories on.
Do you want this?
In order for our brain to remember something, it creates images from information.
You can transform all complex information into something meaningful and memorable by turning it into images. [Location 440] Unlimited Memory by
It takes work to remember something. Our mind must take the information its given and create images in order to remember it.
When we give information to our viewers, you put that work on their shoulders and most won’t risk survival to do it. You task them with applying the information you hand them to their specific situation and decide if it’s something they want to pay attention to and digest.
Therefore, you are asking your viewers to:
1. Pay attention
2. Input the information you give them
3. Apply it to their life to see if they want to keep the information you are giving them
4. Draw conclusions from it
Phew!
Battle Against Biology
When it comes to marketing, changing someone’s perspective is often, if not always, the goal.
The issue is that our biology, our brain, views challenges to our way of life as a threat. If you propose to change their way of life, they will show up ready to defend themselves.
So how do you go about changing your audience’s perspective if all that happens when you challenge their way of life, they just get pushed farther and farther away?
the story you create has to tap into their story, so they feel why the fact, the product, the cause, matters to them. Do that and you can change more than minds; you can change lives. Even save them. [Location 84] Story or Die by Lisa Cron
SHOWING
We want to be swept away in a good story. It’s what we look forward to doing after a long day of work.
Sweep me away!
Here, Let Me Do That For You
We must place our message into context. Show them why they should care. You can’t create change in anyone by telling them they need to. They must make that decision on their own. You must create voluntary change.
When we have a brilliant idea, instead of making others think it is ours, why not let them cook and stir the idea themselves. They will then regard it as their own; they will like it and maybe eat a couple of helpings of it. [Location 834]
Put it into context and they will feel what you are trying to tell them. They’ll be more likely to accept the information because it doesn’t feel forced. It’s their emotions and feelings guiding them to make voluntary change in their life.
your audience won’t act because you told them to; they’ll act because they want to, because it feels right. That is the power of story. [Location 178] Story or Die by Lisa Cron
When you sweep someone away in story, you’re doing the hard work for them.
1. Oh a story, I’d love to be swept away!
2. They pay attention
3. They relate because the information is placed in context to make it much easier to digest
4. They draw their own conclusions making it more likely to create change
Your viewer is just along for the ride, vicariously living through these characters, viewing life from a perspective they otherwise never would have experienced while taking in what you want to give them.
HOW TO SHOW, NOT TELL
There’s a book called Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald. He talks about ways to go about writing “invisible ink”, aka show and not tell. Let’s discuss three of these tools.
Clones
The first tool is called clones.
Clones are characters in your story that represent what could, should, or might happen to the protagonist if he or she takes a particular path. Two of the Three Little Pigs are clones. It is the failure of the first two pigs that allows us to measure the success of the last pig. [Location 626] Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald
Let’s say you’re called to wake people up, like I am.
I can’t go around telling people why they should want to wake up because it’s a challenge to their way of life. It’s like I’m approaching people saying, “Bro, you are doing this all wrong. Let me tell you about waking up.”
NO way. I feel defensive just thinking about it. Like, “Bro, you don’t know me!”
So to give this message to people without raising defensive walls, I could use clones to show them what I want to tell them.
To utilize this tool, we would have two characters.
One makes a decision to wake up in a certain area of their life (Character #1) while the other decides not to (Character #2).
Character #1 constantly battles this new introduction of this new reality into their life. Every day is a battle.
Character #2 isn’t battling. They ignore and attempt to forget that there’s an area of their life they are pretending doesn’t exist.
At this point, the life of Character #2 seems more comfortable and therefore more desirable, yet over time, Character #1 begins to see a new narrative emerge from their struggles. They begin to overcome their struggles and begin to become someone they never thought they could become. The begin to start enjoying life like never before. Waking up to a beautiful life they never knew was possible.
Character #2 has put all their effort into forgetting about waking up, attempting to stay comfortable abiding by the norms they have spent their whole life creating. What starts to become evident is that they’re putting in the same amount of energy trying to forget it as Character #1 was overcoming it. Character #2 no longer has the ignorance they once had that provided them their past comfort. They begin living in the past wishing for those days to return. It eats them up inside and it begins to corrode every aspect of their life.
Simply by showing how a difference in decision creates a drastically different outcome allows your viewers to feel the information you are giving them. It makes it more digestible for your viewer’s brain to take in what you’re giving them and improves the chances of creating voluntary change.
It’s not my idea that I’m giving them, it’s their idea based on what I am presenting.
Superior Position
This next tool is called Superior Position.
It’s when you give information to your viewers that the characters of your story don’t have. By doing so, you can give things to your viewers that may otherwise be near impossible to articulate.
You can reveal hidden motives, reasoning behind character’s actions, show the struggle a character isn’t even aware of, etc. It even invites your viewers to involve themselves more into the story that can achieve a deeper level of impact.
Let’s say we see a character walk into their house and open some mail. As they begin reading the letter, they grow more and more concerned as they read through the letter. They slowly place the letter on the counter and walk away.
The camera reveals that the letter is from a doctor informing the patient that they are sick and describes how this sickness effects motor function, making everyday activities difficult to perform.
We cut to another character at work. It appears they are having a rough day. Someone walks up to them and places a stack of papers on their desk.
As they open the first folder, paper come flying out of the folder onto the floor.
After a calm, deep breath, the character picks up the papers, setting them neatly back into the folder.
Again, the papers come falling out of the folder onto the floor. This time the character gets frustrated and begins to shame themselves for not being able to keep it together. They grit their teeth and pick up the papers once again.
As this character goes through their day, we see how this character is struggling and fighting an internal battle. They continue to berate themselves with attacks.
This level of shaming begins to effect their relationships and eventually ends up destroying many parts of their life.
Can you see how by knowing what a character doesn’t know, we are able to provoke the viewers to ask themselves, “Wow, could I be struggling with something I don’t even know I’m struggling with?”
Quarter Model Comparison
Now, the last tool is called Quarter Model Comparison.
When you take a quarter and place it next to something, it serves as a guide to understand the size of the object next to the quarter.
Let’s say there are two children (Child #1 and Child #2) sitting on the front steps of a school looking out toward the street with their backpacks on. Two cars pull up and Child #1 waves.
We follow Child #1 into the car and they begin to tell the driver, which we assume is their mother, about their day and the funny thing that happened during science class.
We cut and follow Child #2 into the second vehicle and nothing is said. The child doesn’t seem unhappy or scared. Just nothing happens.
Quarter Model Comparison deploys the power of contrast between what is expected and what actually happens.
If we are only given the side of the story with Child #2 getting into the car without anything being said, we may not think much of it. When shown in contrast to Child #1, we expect Child #2 to do the same. When that doesn’t happen, we step into the scene and become more involved with the story, becoming more curious as something doesn’t seem to add up.
THEREFORE
By understanding why we do what we do and injecting that into the cause of our business, we can set ourselves apart.
It’s not an easy task to articulate what makes us unique but that’s why when you are able to do that and show people, they will be attracted by it. They connect on such a deep level because who you are reveals to them who they are. When someone asks them what they believe or what they stand for, they can point to you and say, “That’s what I believe.”
That’s what you call loyalty.
There are more of me out there
I was diagnosed with a neurological disorder called IH. It meant I never knew what awake was because I had been tired my whole life without knowing it.
I had always enjoyed the arts but never really knew why. I always craved to create a feeling and a vibe.
I think the reason is because when you’re tired, you have a hard time feeling.
I wanted to create a feeling and a vibe because it is so deeply ingrained in us, as humans, to express ourselves, be known and understood.
There are more of me, pre-”waking up” out there that we need to get your message to, to wake them up to why it is that you do what you do and show them what they may have trapped inside and are unable to articulate for themselves.
By doing so, you’ll tap into something that can change lives, including your own. Not only in business but also in your personal life.
The biggest hindrance to achieving what you were born to do may not be in understanding yourself but in how you express it to the world. To express it effectively, you must show, not tell.
