The Story of your business runs the ship
Whether you run a Fortune 500 company or you’re a sole proprietor, your story matters more than ever in the open seas of the Internet. It is your propeller, the driving force customers and media will love or hate about you. Your story is what people share about you and your business, for better and worse. Whether you mean to or not, you do have a story. If you’re not carefully constructing and filtering all your actions and messaging through your story, you run the risk of confusing, boring or otherwise losing your audience. Corporations acting as faceless entities have struggled recently (e.g. McDonalds and Sears), while those who have attempted to become personable and socially connected have scored big (e.g. Chipotle and Zappos).
Interconnectivity and our proximity to it – read: always – means expectations for authenticity and transparency are at a premium. Customers want information so they can feel educated and empowered; more than that, they crave relationships.
Relationships are founded in the stories we are told or tell ourselves to be entertained and emotionally moved. So why not give customers both information and relationship in one story package? And, not to call up all of your teenage insecurities but, if you’re not giving it to them, someone else is.
Buddy Valastro, owner and operator of Carlo’s Bake Shop and star of the reality television series, “The Cake Boss”, gets it. What he does as a baker is, no doubt, masterful. Simply put, he has been delivering the best in sweet treats from his family bakery for decades, as the perpetual line out the door of his Hoboken, NJ location indicates. That, alone, has a tangible and meaningful value. But what takes an excellent baker and makes him into a burgeoning international superstar across multiple media platforms is his ability to spin a worthy story.
In all his media, Valastro engages the viewers personally, sharing stories of his father, the bakery and other colorful and funny family members that sometimes pop into his kitchen while he’s working. It’s an informative, enjoyable and very specific environment that encourages the viewer to engage and become a better baker, working side by side with a master craftsman and storyteller.
Some academics agree. Columbia University Professor of Strategic Storytelling, Jane Praeger, says “Well-crafted stories bring issues and concepts down to earth so that people can literally see and feel them.” This connection is the Trojan Horse that allows new and sometimes difficult information to penetrate a skeptical viewers mind. While the business crowd traditionally likes to regurgitate facts and figures, Praeger says that’s actually a backward approach.
“[We] like to believe we are logical,” Praeger says, “but, in fact, we use data and facts to post-rationalize the decisions our emotions have already driven us to make.”
The bottom line: your story matters, perhaps more than you thought. If you don’t know your story, actively design it or it doesn’t engage your audience, be aware that your audience is steering your ship. Love your customers as you may, that’s a lot of faith and power to put in their hands – particularly when they lack the stakes and insight for steering you clear of the icebergs that you do.
