What I learned from 20 years of strategic storytelling.
5 key lessons from working with 40+ companies.
In 1996, I walked into the offices of North Bridge Venture Partners and discovered the power of story. The meeting with partners Ed Andersen and Rich D’Amore couldn’t have started worse. My co-founder stood up to explain the target market size and was summarily told to sit down. My other co-founder explained what our product would do, and was shot down instantly. Finally, when the meeting was all but lost, I opened my mouth and told them why we started the company. We walked out with $4M and the company was born. I was 22 years old. Five years later, Thomson Financial acquired our company.
Since that day, I’ve spent 25 years starting, investing in and launching my own businesses. The common thread: I’ve leveraged a maniacal focus on crafting crisp stories that connect emotionally and move people to action. Far beyond just raising capital, I have experienced how strategic stories can create an enormous competitive advantage across product, marketing, sales and recruiting. Story aligns you with those passionate about what you believe. A strategic story achieves the single greatest ROI for a company.
I’m 46 now. Twice the age I was when I first walked into North Bridge. 5 companies, 3 design studios and 2 venture firms later; I thought it was time to jot down what I had learned from the experience. Maybe it’s a mid-life thing, but here goes…
1. Find your Yoda.
“You will learn from Yoda, the Jedi Master who instructed me.” says Obi-Wan to Luke in Empire Strikes Back. To learn how to craft and tell a story, find yourself a teacher. I spent my childhood learning by watching my father, Rabbi Kopikis, captivate his community from the pulpit. I discovered originality, character, struggle, climax and resolution through the works of Walt Disney, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. I studied orators like John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill.
In the business world, I’ve assembled my council of Yodas. Steve Jobs, John Lasseter, Guy Kawasaki, Elon Musk, Mike Troiano, David Cancel, Jeff Bussgang, Eric Paley, Simon Sinek, Gary Vaynerchuk. Individuals, who create companies and movements through the power of story.
2. It’s not about you.
Hands down, the biggest mistake founders and marketers make is to make their strategic story about themselves instead of their customer. Every time I meet with a company, I ask two questions: “what do you do?” and “why do you do it?”. Their answers tell me everything I need to know. Nine times out of ten, their response feels like a really bad first date. They spend the next 30 minutes just talking about how amazing and unique they are. They fail to express how they understand their customer’s situation and why they care about it.
The most powerful concept I’ve found in storytelling is empathy. Empathy is a muscle, and if you don’t exercise it, it atrophies. When you are able to connect with your customers through empathy, they will forgive your product flaws and shortcomings. As in a relationship, your partner doesn’t care what color your flowers are, they want to know that you are present and that you care.
Empathy = extraordinary brand.
3. It better be emotional.
In a sea of companies, if your story doesn’t connect emotionally, it’s over. Your narrative must provoke action. How do you accomplish that? There is no ‘Arousing Emotion 101’ class in business school. Luckily, we have our Yodas.
Emotional stories are rooted in common human truths: Love, Fear, Desire, Joy, Freedom, Confidence, Devotion. This is why there’s not a dry eye in the house when Elliot says goodbye to E.T.. Successful stories identify a core emotion, what Mike Troiano calls your ‘one simple thing’. They identify the emotion that the company desires the customer to feel. No matter whether you sell software, hardware, services or clothing, champion an emotion to break through.
Empathy + emotion = extraordinary brand.
4. Less is always more.
If your story has empathy and emotion, but you can’t make it crisp, you will stumble. As Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough”. I’ve been given hundreds of company presentations with 40+ slides full of words and venture hieroglyphics — 2x2 matrices, hockey stick graphics, Venn diagrams. When most people pitch me their companies, I end up glassy eyed and am forced to utter the same words, “Stop. What do you do?!”.
I spend a lot of time with teams helping explain why they exist and what they do in as few words as possible. As Voltaire said, “The secret to being boring is to say everything”. Try this. Think about how you currently explain your company. Now compare it to:
2 words: “Never again.”
3 words: “Enough is enough.”
4 words: “I have a dream.”
6 words: “May the Force be with you.”
10 words: “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.”
17 words: “Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.”
Empathy + emotion + brevity = extraordinary brand.
5. It’s how you ‘reveal’ it.
Your company story needs to be delivered as a narrative of a movie plot. The protagonist (Luke), the challenge (defeat the evil empire), the struggle (become a Jedi), the climax (face your father) need to be shared using a compelling narrative. Most company intros, websites and presentations are like horrible movie trailers. Please don’t do that. Don’t be like Memento, forcing your audience to work back and forth to understand what your company does. Awesome movie, the death knell to an investor and sales meetings.
Reveal your story as a sequence of events, simplifying each element of your narrative. If you use slides, follow the Guy Kawasaki 10/20/30 rule: 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font. Heck, make that 40 point font! Often I find the bigger the font, the clearer the message. Then practice and then practice again. No matter who you are, remember that Steve Jobs practiced until his presentation was perfect. You should too.
Empathy + emotion + brevity + narrative = extraordinary brand.
You may notice that this is my first post ever. I want to thank all of you (you know who you are) who inspired me to do it and who helped me with final edits. And thank you, for taking the time to read it. I hope this is helpful in some small way. I’d love to hear what you think.
