Why Story Power

When Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were a couple, she bought him a star. Nicole broke open the piggy bank, dished out a few shekels to one of those star registries, and dubbed the celestial body, “Forever Tom.” I thought that was kind of amusing and interesting so I wrote an email about it several…

Yesterday, during a meeting of my Content Transformation Academy Mastermind, we were helping VIP member “L.D.” rewrite some bullets for sales letters she’d drafted. I shared with the group an email I wrote four years ago… …because it contains a quick and easy way to create story-powered content that attracts leads, keeps them tuned in,…

My last dispatch re: Perry Marshall’s Ultimate AI Seminar which I attended this week… Before I ventured to Chicago for the seminar, I read this in Perry’s “New Renaissance Newsletter:” “Everything’s a parable. Everything is a story. You are living the story you will one day tell, right now. This runs contrary to the prevailing world view that says,…

Happy World Storytelling Day. Let’s celebrate with a quick story about the client-attracting power of stories. At Stanford University, Chip Heath asked his students to give one-minute speeches that contained three statistics and one story. Some time after the speeches, Heath quizzed students on what they heard. Only 5% of the students remembered a single…

Come and listen to my story ’bout a man named Fred… …(named changed to protect the guilty)… …a poor marketer, barely kept his family fed. You see, Fred was one of those marketers who spouted unproven “rules” — as if they were commandments from the mountaintop. “Rules” full of more bullsh*t than the compost pile…

I bumped into a marketing agency owner who wants help finding new clients. He posted his cry for help in and online forum. He described his claim to fame: “What sets us apart is that we strive to offer quality services at affordable rates.” Ummmmmmmm, no. “Quality services at affordable rates” is not set-you-apart stuff.…

I bumped into a group of grumpy marketers this morning who think storytelling is worthless. Said one: “I have never understood the appeal of storytelling. I know people talk about the importance of it over and over again, but I really can’t give a f*%k. Story, mission, vision, it’s all bulls*%t; I only care about…

I hate HP printers. The one I owned with ink that disappeared faster than an ice cube in the Sahara. The next one which mangled forests of printer paper. And the one that NEVER kept a wi-fi connection. The endless, fruitless customer “support” calls with clueless overseas reps who read from scripts and dished out…

Here’s a new one. One of those appointment-setting firms spammed me yesterday with a twisted pitch that… …ummmmm… …impressed me with its wicked genius. The subject line was “Tom, referral candidate…” and the email started like this: “Tom, Do you guys work with smaller businesses? I run agency/consulting partnerships for Floor 9 Ventures, and I…

Want to watch a marketing master at work? Tune into Better Call Saul… …especially Season 4, Episode 4. That’s the episode when Jimmy (soon to rename himself “Saul”) works at the mobile phone store. Prepaid phone sales are slow. So Jimmy buys some yellow and red window paint and writes in giant lettering: IS THE MAN…