Stories Mean Business - Nick Warren

1144: The Frame Is The Game

November 01, 2022 07:26 - 4 minutes - 4.31 MB

In 2009, Pixar's Up brought my gnarly heart to tears. (My BIG tearjerker is still ET of course – when the flower blooms – but I digress.) Yesterday we talked about Psycho, and the attention storytellers generate when they show us that the world isn't what we think it is. But it's more than attention that's being created; it's opportunity. Opportunity for persuasion. Opportunity for change. The opening 11 minutes and 34 seconds of Up are a masterclass of storytelling, particularly the mo...

1143: The Twist In The Middle

October 31, 2022 05:00 - 5 minutes - 4.99 MB

In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock pulled his most famous trick. He hired a major movie star and placed her at the centre of drama about passion and escape. In Psycho, Marian Crane steals $40,000 and flees across the country to marry her lover in California. And you already know what happens next. She's stabbed to death enroute by a motel owner's mother. This is cinema's most famous mid-point twist, the PIVOT around which the story WE THINK we are watching turns into something strange and terrify...

1142: The Value of Unhappy Endings

October 30, 2022 05:00 - 3 minutes - 3.56 MB

Sometime in the mid-1980s, an episode of Cagney and Lacey blew my mind. Actually, I was furious. The writers DIDN'T bother to finish it! Inexplicably, we got to the end of the episode WITHOUT getting to the end of the story. The bad guy wasn't caught. Justice wasn't served. It was a ridiculous, shameful mess. ... and I COULDN'T stop thinking about it. Maybe that should have been a clue, but I've always been a little slow to work things out. Humans hate loose ends. In storytelling and c...

1141: What's Titanic About?

October 29, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.41 MB

Why does Rose Walker CHOOSE to go into the water? Yesterday, I described how two video games – animated pixels on a screen – stopped me like a slap to the face. They MADE ME care. How? Perhaps you cracked the case? I stopped because both those moments WERE ABOUT ME ... about who I was in that game (and in life). They were about identity. In The Icarus Deception, Seth Godin nails the connection: Myths aren’t about gods (real ones or imagined). They are about us. They are about humans ...

1140: A Shortcut To Caring

October 28, 2022 09:30 - 3 minutes - 3.66 MB

Meet Judy. If the FIRST COMMANDMENT of storytelling is 'MAKE ME CARE', she's the bomb. She’s one of the cool, capable badasses from Cyberpunk 2077, and yesterday, she asked me the question that MOST MEN FEAR above all others. "You know exactly what I’m tryna say. What did it mean, like, to you?" The possible answers: 1) The beginning of something amazing 2) A pleasant distraction. Hmmm. I spent way longer thinking about my answer than any adult should … at least while playing a vid...

1139: 3 Reasons That Your Clients Love Stories (and you should too)

October 27, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.33 MB

My favourite line from Jurassic Park is the god-level understatement that comes at the end. “Mr. Hammond, after careful consideration, I’ve decided not to endorse your park.” Alan Grant, Paleontologist But if there's one thing we learned from that epic movie ... life will find a way. Yesterday, we saw the power that stories have over attention, recall and reality – BUT WHY has evolution granted them such special status? Here's three reasons: 1. Stories Teach Without Risk Evolutionary...

1138: It's Just Science

October 26, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.13 MB

For a long-time, Back To The Future was my favourite time travel documentary. It's just ... science. Marty McFly was short (like me), uncool (like me) ... but still had a great-looking girlfriend. There we differed. At 15, I had no girlfriend of any kind. The movie 'transported' me in the sense I mentioned yesterday. When humans encounter stories that resonate, they become the characters. This isn't a metaphor. Nicole Speer and others have shown that stories activate neural representa...

1137: Humanity Beats Cool - Business Storytelling Techniques (10/30)

October 25, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.67 MB

It's time to talk about our favourite Christmas movie. Yesterday, we heard that the first commandment of storytelling is to make people care ... and saw how Andrew Stanton did that with a 22nd century trash compactor. He made Wall•E like us. This matters, because we humans are generally selfish, self-obsessed creatures. Evolution made us that way. We pay more attention to stories and situations that seem to be about us. Which brings us to Die Hard. In 1988, John McClane exploded into c...

1136: Why Most Business Communication Fails

October 24, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.3 MB

For the first 40 minutes of Wall•E, we watch a menial robot – a trash compactor – trundle through an abandoned world. There is no almost dialogue, and yet we are filled with emotion. The robot is industrious, creative and desperately lonely. He gazes up towards the heavens, dreaming of ... what? Connection? Companionship? Love? Andrew Stanton, the film's creator and director, called this dialogue-free opening the purest form of storytelling. When I first saw the film, it reminded me ...

1135: The Obvious Secret of Business Storytelling

October 23, 2022 04:00 - 7 minutes - 6.96 MB

Three days ago, I literally jumped with joy ... but I'll get to why in a moment. First, I want to talk about Iron Man. In 2008, Jon Favreau's superhero-spy movie exploded into cinemas and lit the fuse on the Marvel Cinematic Universe. How? With the exception of Sam Rami's Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 – the superhero genre had been patchy at best. But Favreau represented a different approach. He wasn't just a director for hire. He was a fan. He worked for Marvel, not just for some studi...

1134: The Best Story Wins

October 22, 2022 04:00 - 6 minutes - 6.29 MB

I'm going to take a step back today, to focus on why storytelling is so powerful... In The Usual Suspects (1995), Special Agent Dave Kujan struggles to uncover the identity of mythic underworld monster, Keyser Söze. If you've seen the film, you'll remember its final reveal... It's a movie about the persuasive power of story. As the agent picks his way through the complex, conflicting accounts of a shooting, he struggles to sort fact from fiction. But in a critical sense, everything in li...

1133: Create Contrast

October 21, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.08 MB

The Netflix juggernaut, Stranger Things, is built around the concept of the Upside Down – a dark, twisted reflection of our world. Yes – today, we're talking CONTRAST. In his first book, Maps of Meaning, Professor Jordan Peterson describes how contrast motivates us. "Our most fundamental maps of meaning – maps which have a narrative structure – portray the motivational value of our current state, conceived of in contrast to the hypothetical ideal, accompanied by plans of action." If you ...

1132: Ask Questions

October 20, 2022 05:57 - 8 minutes - 7.86 MB

Business storytelling techniques: 6/30 ASK QUESTIONS Friends begins when a woman in a wedding dress stumbles into a Greenwich Village coffee shop... The huge bestselling novel, The Lovely Bones, begins with the line: "My name was Salmon, like the fish; first name Susie. I was fourteen when I was murdered on December 6, 1973." Killing Floor, the first Jack Reacher novel, begins: "I was arrested in Eno's diner. At twelve o'clock. I was eating eggs and drinking coffee. A late breakfast, n...

1131: Start With The End

October 19, 2022 04:00 - 6 minutes - 5.57 MB

Business storytelling techniques: 5/30 START WITH THE END Most movies resolve their TENSION in the final act, but in 1999, a low-budget film swept to success by doing something different... The Sixth Sense had one of cinema's great, unexpected endings, but it didn't resolve all the tension. In fact, it created more. The audience kept talking long after they left the theatre, and word of mouth powered the movie to multiple box-office records. Here's the lesson... When we seek to influe...

1130: Tension

October 18, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.5 MB

Business storytelling techniques: 4/30 - Tension Yesterday, we saw the power of FLOW in storytelling. Without it, we sacrifice momentum and persuasion. But what creates flow? According to award-winning filmmaker and creative consultant, Robert Fritz, it's the force that powers all change. Tension. "A basic principle found throughout nature is this: Tension seeks resolution. From the spiderweb to the human body, from the formation of the galaxies to the shifts of continents, from the swi...

1129: Flow

October 17, 2022 04:00 - 6 minutes - 5.68 MB

Business storytelling techniques: 2/30 FLOW Season 1, Episode 2 of The West Wing is titled "Post Hoc, Ergo Propter Hoc". After this, therefore because of this. The episode opens with President Bartlet complaining that his staff are falling for this logical fallacy – assuming that one thing led to another just because it came first... Humans seem especially vulnerable to this mistake: She's angry because I said that thing. The vaccine caused my illness. I scored because of my lucky sh...

1129: Triggers

October 16, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.19 MB

Business storytelling techniques: 2/30 TRIGGERS I'm writing this the day after the sad death of Robbie Coltraine. Fantastic actor. For me, he'll always be Cracker, but as Hagrid, he's a fantastic example of today's thesis. Stories are about change. Yesterday, I talked about POINTS OF NO RETURN. Today, we're focused on where to start our story ... the triggers of change. Harry Potter learns he's a wizard Dr John Watson is forced to find a roommate The dead walk In each of these cases,...

1128: Your Point Of No Return

October 15, 2022 06:53 - 4 minutes - 4.6 MB

Business storytelling techniques: 1/30 THE POINT OF NO RETURN In the second season of Breaking Bad, Walter White crosses a line. It’s episode 12, and he’s standing over a young woman who’s choking to death. He could easily save her, but he does nothing. Because the woman is a threat. Bryan Cranston, the actor who plays White, describes the emotional aftermath of the scene in his memoir, A Life In Parts... "And then, somehow, as she was fading, she wasn’t herself anymore. I wasn’t look...

1127: The Unstoppable Storyteller

October 14, 2022 04:00 - 7 minutes - 6.65 MB

Here's something you haven't thought before. You are powerless to resist the storyteller inside your head This picture nails the point... If you've never seen Game of Thrones, it's a fairy-tale wedding. If you have, it's a visceral knot of tension and dread. And whichever is it, you have no choice. The voice inside you roars ahead, freighting the image with inference, meaning and story. And that story changes reality in a way you can't resist. Which is why storytelling is such a powerf...

1126: How A Story Saved My Buisiness

October 13, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.52 MB

A good story can save or make your business. Here’s a true example. It’s three lines long, but it changes reality… Back in the late 1990s, I had a problem. I'd quit my IBM job in a temper tantrum and accidentally started a web agency. In reality, "agency" was a pretty grand title for what we had. The company had just two employees. For most of the brands we wanted to work with, this was a problem. "How big is your team?" they'd ask. "Two." "Two?" The inevitable tone of surprise. "Uh...

1125: The Power of Tiny Signals

October 12, 2022 04:00 - 7 minutes - 6.54 MB

Here’s a puzzle… Most leaders agree that storytelling is powerful, but few can articulate why. Here’s a big clue >> In the New York Times bestseller, Pre-Suasion, Robert Cialdini demonstrates our vulnerability to tiny signals … His examples blow my mind: How writing down a big number makes us more likely to buy an expensive box of chocolates. How hearing French music makes us more likely to buy a bottle of French wine. How asking whether someone is adventurous makes it more likely tha...

1124: Promise and Wait

October 11, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.05 MB

Trust is the most under-valued and under-discussed quality in business. Here’s why … Four years ago, we brought Tala back from Battersea Dogs Home. She was our 3rd Collie, but our first rescue dog. I admit, I had doubts. She'd been found, tied up and abandoned near some derelict outbuildings in the north of England. For reasons I prefer not to think about, she was particularly scared of men. She hid beneath the kitchen table for days, eventually learning to trust my wife and kids. Wi...

1123: Do You Sell Simplicity?

October 10, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.8 MB

Do you sell simplicity? I only ask because... Google simplified finding stuff. Amazon simplified shopping. Hotmail simplified email. Apple simplified software distribution (among other things) Headspace simplified meditation IKEA simplified furniture Netflix simplified video rental Spotify simplified music Canva simplified design Xero simplified accounting. LinkedIn simplified networking. Two thoughts: 1) Simplicity on one side requires complexity on the other. 2) Business tha...

1122: 10% Less Good Looking

October 09, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 3.84 MB

It’s helpful to remind ourselves that EVERYONE online is: 10% less good-looking than their profile pic. 25% less together than they appear. 50% less successful than they secretly want to be.* But it’s equally important to remember that EVERYONE behind those pics is 100% real. Act accordingly. (*This figure comes via Will Storr’s great book, The Status Game. Studies show that however successful we are, we always believe that true happiness will arrive when we have about double what we h...

1121: The Profile Pic mistake

October 08, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.04 MB

Yesterday, I tried to take a new profile photo. Huge mistake. Huge lesson. "Just be casual", I told the grizzled guy staring back at me. "All you have to show is that you’re approachable, intelligent, creative, experienced, responsive, dependable, funny, understanding and amazing at what you do." 30 minutes later, I abandoned the effort when it (finally) reminded me of a decision I made years ago. Back in spring 1999, I was getting ready to phone my biggest consultancy client. He was o...

1120: Building the Muscle

October 07, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.54 MB

Last month, I put out my 1,111th daily podcast. This month, I’m writing 31 posts on LinkedIn (as a challenge to myself). Doing a podcast is easy. Writing a post is easy. Staying consistent is hard. First, it’s work. Then it’s a muscle. But eventually, it becomes your identity. Which is why you should do it. Don’t make podcasts. Don’t write posts. Do your thing. But whatever that is, go further than you’ve gone before. Become someone who builds their muscles, identity and brand....

1119: Two Businesses. Which Are You?

October 06, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.82 MB

Two businesses. Which are you? One is a hunter-gatherer. It grinds hard to sell, pushing out every day to chase opportunities, smash objections and make sales. The other is a blacksmith. It grinds hard to build a centre of gravity, establishing expertise, reputation and status. Both work, but only one attracts opportunity like water flowing downhill. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling...

1118: Persuasion in Brief

October 05, 2022 04:00 - 9 minutes - 8.52 MB

Persuasion tactics in brief ... Inspire: With this, you can fly. Negotiate: If you do this, I'll do that. Shame: No decent person could deny this. Appeal to vanity: This item is exclusive. Passive aggressive: Fine, don't buy it. Threaten: Do this now, or I'm taking it away. Social Proof: See, everyone's doing it. Dis: I'm not sure you're up to this. Compromise: Okay, how about half? Slipstream: My God, it's so you. or ... Empathise: And create something others want. Tactics have ...

1117: Where's the 'Why'?

October 04, 2022 07:57 - 4 minutes - 4.62 MB

Still amazes me that so many people struggle to give their 'why'. They have an offer, but if you ask them to talk about themselves, they stumble. "Buy my thing. It's good. Honest." Sure, but where's the depth? I need the origin story. And it doesn't mean being bitten by a spider or doused in gamma radiation. (Although that would be cool.) It's the story of how you ended up here. 250 words. 90 seconds of a conversation. That's all I need. It's not your offer – it's the reason I can trust your ...

1116: How Reputations REALLY Get Built

October 03, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.03 MB

For 1%, life works like this: Attention > Money For the rest of us, the reality is closer to: Effort > Attention > Opportunity > Work > Skill > Money > Trust > Reputation > Influence > Craft > Status > Wealth > Sustainable accelerants include: Consistent effort Long-term thinking Giving before you get Telling better stories To be clear. We are in the 99%. Act accordingly. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deepe...

1115: Do They Know You Are Serious?

October 02, 2022 09:37 - 6 minutes - 6.27 MB

60 seconds that changed my life. No exaggeration. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1114: Shallow or Deep?

October 01, 2022 04:00 - 2 minutes - 2.56 MB

Where do you fall, shallow or deep? Talking is shallow. Doing is deep. Tactics are shallow. Strategy is deep. Consumption is shallow. Creation is deep. Guessing is shallow. Testing is deep. Branding is shallow. Mythology is deep. Scaring is shallow. Attracting is deep. Knowing is shallow. Learning is deep. Telling is shallow. Asking is deep. Attention is shallow. Influence is deep. Money is shallow. Status is deep. Likes are shallow. Conversation is deep. Act accordingly.

1113: Octoberfest (But Not With Beer)

September 30, 2022 04:00 - 6 minutes - 6.33 MB

It's time to play a game ... ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1112: Why We Are Driven By Tension

September 29, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.58 MB

Contentment is all very well, but ... ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1111: The Greatest Life Hack

September 28, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 5.37 MB

Here's a fundamental truth of the human condition. If you get what you want, you’ll want something more. The greatest hack – therefore – is to learn to want what we have. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1110: House of Dragons versus The Rings of Power

September 27, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.97 MB

One thing we can learn and use as business storytellers. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1109: Hacking Cause and Effect

September 26, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.86 MB

Turning £10 into £20. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1108: The CD Baby Email

September 25, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.05 MB

Classic marketing example from Derek Sivers, who wrote this joyful email in 20 minutes. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1107: Beautiful Irrelevance

September 24, 2022 04:00 - 2 minutes - 1.85 MB

Here's the link I mentioned in the episode. Enjoy. Summer Swing - Electro Swing Mix 2022 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pFFdTgg9s4 ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1106: TL;DR

September 23, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 3.89 MB

Sometimes it's good to be short, as my Dad used to tell me. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1105: The Quest for Constraint

September 22, 2022 04:00 - 5 minutes - 4.93 MB

Kensington. London. 1984. A man held against his will ... ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1103: And the Piper Walks Away

September 20, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 2.82 MB

All will be well. The Queen said so. ------------------- The Stories Mean Business podcast with Nick Warren. One Idea A Day, Every Day. Get deeper into business storytelling: https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1102: Westminster Hall

September 19, 2022 04:00 - 8 minutes - 7.44 MB

As the Queen lies in state, we focus on the extraordinarily ancient building she's laying in. Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1101: Self Sufficient In Twigs

September 18, 2022 04:00 - 10 minutes - 10.1 MB

A good example and a bad example. Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1100: Shamefaced But Laughing

September 17, 2022 04:00 - 3 minutes - 3.3 MB

Well, it made me laugh, anyway 🤣 Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1099: Just Say It Already!

September 16, 2022 04:00 - 10 minutes - 9.39 MB

The 12 throat-clearers we hunted and destroyed. Actually In fact Just Of course Rather Really Pretty Quite So Surely That said Very The book I mentioned was Dreyer's English by Benjamin Dreyer. Great book, although he's wrong about the Oxford comma. It can harm a perfectly clear sentence. Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1098: Stable Diffusion Just Blew My Mind

September 15, 2022 04:00 - 8 minutes - 7.78 MB

Not much else to say. This is the first time I've really, viscerally understood the power that these models (already) have. Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1097: The Matthew Principle

September 14, 2022 04:00 - 6 minutes - 6.23 MB

“to those who have everything, more will be given; from those who have nothing, everything will be taken.” - Matthew 25:29 Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1096: Paratexts

September 13, 2022 04:00 - 7 minutes - 6.71 MB

How are you using the content that sits around your story? Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

1095: Story = Meaning

September 12, 2022 04:00 - 4 minutes - 4.59 MB

Yesterday, was my Dad's remembrance service. Get deeper into Stories Mean Business: • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/storybusiness/ • https://storiesmeanbusiness.com/podcast

Stories Mean Business - Nick Warren

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