This isn’t your daddy’s marketing, today’s meaning of marketing has a totally new definition of yesteryears. With a new definition comes a whole new understanding, Operation The art of storytelling. Who are you? What is your sole purpose? Can you save the world? Well you maybe can not save the world but hey…..you just may have something that can make my life better and in a slight way that is changing the world. However in order to be granted the opportunity to show me who you are first questions comes to mind” Can you be trusted”? Are you really what you are paddling or are you the same as every other company and just want in my wallet. Regardless of all the numbers, professionals and consultants advising you, helping and painting pictures of an entrepreneur’s bliss at days end only way you can build a booming business is being trusted and a sure fire way to being trusted is tell your story.

Just think about this not as a business owner but as a client, consumer, human being would you want to spend your hard earned dollars with a person who is always manipulating this tweaking that? Not that I have a problem with having something and being able to measure but that just seem like now you are industrializing and in doing so I am just a dollar sign. Doesn’t make you feel good? Well me either in fact I am that makes no one feel good. Sandy Carter IBM Marketing executive e-mail signature used to read “ Tell me a fact and I will learn, tell me the truth and i’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever”……… Pretty deep isn’t it, now let that sink in. Now lets get back to getting this work, often times missed opportunities for small and new business is the lack of the ability to describe what they do in simple terms which leads to another problem…..THE MAIN PROBLEM actually bringing that description to life with WORDS. Not only have I come to a conclusion this is a serious problem after reading it but actually struggling with this very concept myself.

Now that we are talking about me lets use me as an example. One of the best experiences I have with storytelling is when people ask me how did you decide to get into marketing. If I am not asked this question I would never go into that story because of a fear of looking unprofessional because the story starts with me being 10 year old boy and exactly how professional can one be at 10 year old in 1992 (really laughing out loud) my point exactly. However some of the best materials is interwoven in that story you are not telling. We often feel that the story is inappropriate because its personal and have nothing to do with the business at hand when in fact it has everything to do with business because this is you letting the potential client/consumer in to get a glimpse of who you and your organization is without a dollar sign floating above their head. The power in the story is the way it illustrate value of you and your company when prospects are tellings others about what you can and will do. Lets think about this in the terms of music, your favorite song, your favorite album, why is it your favorite? Simple because you like the story that is being told. Do not sell yourself short and think for one moment that your story is not worth telling, I am here to tell you it is. So go ahead tell your story and remember the words of Sandy Carter “Tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever”.