Why Story Power
Thereās a movie I like called The Muse. Albert Brooks plays a screenwriter named Steven Phillips who has lost his āedge.ā Everyone says heās past his prime. So Steven gets a Muse. Not a figurative muse. A literal muse — as in a real-life Greek goddess, a daughter of Zeus. Her name is Sarah Little (Sharon…
After his bookĀ The 4-Hour WorkweekĀ became an international bestseller, Tim Ferriss told an interviewer he wanted to name the bookĀ The 3-Hour Workweekā¦ …But, Ferriss quipped, āMy publisher thought ā3-Hour Workweekā was unrealistic.ā Ha! Iāve read the The 4-Hour Workweek a few times. Itās loaded with valuable lessons. But the most valuable lesson is one not even in the…
I had a blast visiting with the great Dr. PelĆØ on hisĀ Profitable Happiness Podcast. In this short clip, Dr. PelĆØ asks me to “help us understand the power of storytelling…” So that’s what I do. In < 5 minutes, I describe the wrong way and the right way to describe your business when prospecting and…
Hereās a fun fact that could win you a bar bet: Mississippi was the one-and-only state to continue prohibiting alcohol after the 18th Amendment repealed federal prohibition in 1933. Prohibition continued in āThe Magnolia Stateā until 1966. Another fun fact: A guy named Noah āSoggyā Sweat (you canāt make this stuff up) delivered the most…
Before he became a famous and wealthy editor of Ladiesā Home Journal, Edward Bok was just another depression-era kid trying to scrape together some money for his ill mother. He was standing outside of a bakery, watching as the baker put cakes and cookies in the window display. The baker asked young Edward, āDonāt they look…
In the 1920ās, a copywriter named Max Sackheim wrote an advertisement for a book entitled, āHow to Master Good English in 15 Minutes a Day,ā by Sherwin Cody. It was one of the most successful direct response advertisements ever written. The publisher hired other copywriters to try and outdo Sackheimās. But every time they tested…
Stephanie Michelle was hunting for a job, and she wanted an edge. So she dished out $29.95 for a 7.5 ml vial of āLiquid Trust.ā The product description on Amazon says Liquid Trust ācan help people gain the trust of others.ā Great for sales people, job hunters, and anyone else who wants others to āfeel…
Yesterday, I ran a group training for my Story Generator VIP members. I showed them how to boil down storytelling to a simple process of gathering the building blocks and then assembling them. āWe donāt write copy,ā I told the VIPs. āWe assemble it.ā When you learn the simple process (the gathering), the āhard partā…
When I was a lovesick teenage boy, I listened to one song more than any other: āDon’t Let Me Be Misunderstoodā by the Animals. It usually worked like this: I had a crush on a girl. She didnāt have a crush on me. That made me sad. Iād come home from school, close my bedroom…
Joshua and Rob bought 100 little thrift store objects because they wanted to prove a point. They wanted to show that one personās thrift store junk is another personās treasureā¦ …if you can attach emotional significance to the object. So, Joshua Glenn and Rob Walker enlisted 100 creative writers, assigned one of the objects to…