Business Storytelling vs. Storydoing In his recent HBR article, Ty Montague calls great companies 'storydoing' organizations. The premise: great companies are story doers, not just storytellers. Specifically, this means they take action on stories, and run efficiently and more profitably as a result. Montague has also written a [...]
Sometimes Bad Messaging Happens to Good Businesses! On Thursday, July 11th, I talked about the signs - and fixes - for bad messaging. How do you know if you're off? The reality is most people won't tell you that your messaging sucks. Clarity is your burden; not your [...]
This is part II/II. Read Part I here. Show How Customers’ Situations “Change” Users don’t buy ‘value propositions’; they buy something bigger that helps them in their lives. The most important part of a story, therefore, is showing how the hero/protagonist of the story changes. What can your [...]
This podcast with Brian Solis from Altimeter discusses the future of business, the Human API, and why business must rethink shared customer experiences.
I am a marketer and improviser and that makes me a storyteller. And “digital storytelling” is critical today. Few things stretch your comfort zone (read: scare the pants off you!) like improvisation (Think: Whose Line is it Anyway?). Improvisation is a storyteller’s weight training. There is no safety [...]
Innovation and Culture On Thursday, June 13th, I had the pleasure of talking to my friend and colleague, Mary Beth Deans, about the importance of business culture in innovation. We're obsessed with innovation today. Yes, we need to innovate products, business models, experiences to stay relevant. Why aren't [...]
I've written about Hubspot before. The company has a great sense of humor and it shows in its content, videos, and social media marketing. All business happens between people. And small businesses have to have a sense of humor to make it these days. It's tough out there [...]
I gave a workshop recently about humanizing products and marketing, and we talked about why narrative and great stories matter during design and in our customer communications. Stories of empathy and customer needs inform the design process, and, when we know what challenge we’re addressing with our products, [...]
On Saturday, May 18, I gave a workshop to the SVPMA - the Silicon Valley Product Management Association - on how to use customers' human needs to design better products and craft marketing stories. That's how you humanize and align product with marketing! Stories don't just happen after [...]
As a stage improviser, I love playing with the audience and creating stories in real-time. As a marketer that often applies improvisational tools to improve client outcomes, being prepared and still knowing when to ditch the playbook is a very important balancing act. Improvisation does not mean “winging [...]
