Sary's notes on Building A Storybrand

This means that if we position our products and services as anything but an aid in helping people survive, thrive, be accepted, find love, achieve an aspirational identity, or bond with a tribe that will defend them physically and socially, good luck selling anything to anybody.

When we start our elevator pitch or keynote address, or when somebody visits our website, they're burning calories to process the information we're sharing. And If we don't say something (and say something quickly) they can use to survive or thrive, they will tune us out.

Story is a sense-making device. It identifies a necessary ambition, defines challenges that are battling to keep us from achieving that ambition, and provides a plan to help us conquer those challenges. When we define the elements of a story as it relates to our brand, we create a map customers can follow to engage our products and services.

Our customers have questions burning inside them, and if we aren't answering those questions, they'll move on to another brand. If we haven't identified what our customer wants, what problem we are helping them solve, and what life will look like after they engage our products and services.

Just think about the incredible transformation that took place in Steve's life and career after Pixar. In 1983, Apple launched their computer Lisa, the last project Jobs worked on before he was let go. Jobs released Lisa with a nine-page ad in the New York Times spelling out the computer's technical fea-tures. It was nine pages of geek talk nobody outside NASA was interested in. The computer bombed. When Jobs returned to the company after running Pixar, Apple became customer-centric, compelling, and clear in their communication. The first campaign he released went from nine pages in the New York Times to just two words on billboards all over America: Think Different.

When Apple began filtering their communication to make it simple and relevant, they actually stopped featuring computers in most of their advertising. Instead, they understood their customers were all living, breathing heroes, and they tapped into their stories. They did this by (1) identifying what their customers wanted (to be seen and heard), (2) defining their customers' challenge (that people didn't recognize their hidden genius), and (3) offering their customers a tool they could use to express themselves (computers and smartphones). Each of these realizations are pillars in ancient storytelling and critical for connecting with customers.

Story in a Nutshell Here is nearly every story you see or hear in a nutshell: A CHARACTER who wants something encounters a PROBLEM before they can get it. At the peak of their despair, a GUIDE steps into their lives, gives them a PLAN, and CALLS THEM TO ACTION. That action helps them avoid FAILURE and ends in a SUCCESS.

The Three Crucial Questions So how do we make the story our company is telling clear? Remember, the greatest enemy our business faces is the same enemy that good stories face: noise. At no point should we be able to pause a movie and be unable to answer three questions: 1. What does the hero want? 2. Who or what is opposing the hero getting what she wants? 3. What will the hero's life look like if she does (or does not) get what she wants?

Just like there are three questions audiences must be able to answer to engage in a story, there are three questions potential customers must answer if we expect them to engage with our brand. And they should be able to answer these questions within five seconds of looking at our website or marketing material: 1. What do you offer? 2. How will it make my life better? 3. What do I need to do to buy it?

In fact, he removed 90 percent of the text he'd previously used on his sales page, and he also stopped using inside language like "f-stop" and "depth of field." Instead, he used phrases like "Take those great pictures where the background is blurry." He highlighted the aspects of his course that would help parents survive and thrive (build stronger tribes, strengthen family connections, and connect more deeply with life's greater meaning), and he did so in such a simple way (with fewer than three hundred words on his sales page) that people didn't have to burn calories to figure out what was in it for them.

Nearly every human being is looking for a guide (or guides) to help them win the day. Brands that position themselves as heroes unknowingly compete with their potential customers. Every human being wakes up each morning and sees the world through the lens of a protagonist. The world revolves around us, regardless of how altruistic, generous, and selfless a person we may be. Each day is, quite literally, about how we encounter our world. Potential customers feel the same way about themselves. They are the center of their world.

If we're telling a story about a man who needs to lose thirty pounds and suddenly decides to do it of his own volition, the audience will check out, Why? Because that's not how life works. There needs to be a reason. Our character has to run into a high school sweetheart who is now a yoga instructor, or he needs to lose a bet, forcing him to run a marathon. Characters only take action after they are challenged by an outside force.

We must tell our customers how great their life can look if they buy our products and services. Ronald Reagan painted a picture of "a shining city on a hill." Bill Clinton offered to help us "build a bridge to the twenty-first century." During the dark and dreary Depression, Franklin Roosevelt used the song "Happy Days Are Here Again" as his official campaign song.* Likewise, Apple provides tools that allow us to express ourselves and be heard, Weight Watchers helps us lose weight and feel great, and Men's Wearhouse guarantees we will like the way we look.