The most obvious statement now is: we live in a storytelling world. How can companies be better equipped to participate in this world – regardless of our business or our products? My answer is: think much more clearly and strategically about the story scenes you create.
Humans understand scenes. We live them every day. We wake up, we start our day and we move from scene to scene. Some scenes require our focused attention, some less so. Successful films, plays, books, songs…are created by people who created emotionally compelling scenes. Long or short, the scenes moved us through a story and we were happy to be “in those scenes.”
Many of my clients use PowerPoint (or similar) to try and articulate their messages to clients and investors. PowerPoint slides are scenes. If the scenes fail to pull in my distracted brain, I may move on to other scenes that need attention from my distracted brain (like the email on my phone). Thinking like filmmakers can make us far better PowerPoint producers. If the scene you created bores you, why would it excite your audience? The curiosity for the scene starts with you. Share that with people who have come to discover something. Scenes are the fastest way to discover one thing that might just hold your attention (another reason why we must have uncluttered PowerPoint scenes). And it only takes one great scene to build great dialogue.
Facebook is a company that takes our scenes and sells them. We post our scenes (for free) and they use that scene content in a variety of monetizing ways. That business is growing because our willingness to give them scenes is growing. We can all learn something from that.
I do extensive client work that takes existing scene content and structures it in much more compelling ways. My advisory role as a storytelling content coach drills down on scenes so that those scenes tell a story that any executive feels confident to take into any room, in any language. This is not limited to PowerPoint. Leadership communications is always about setting the scene for your team. Too often we try and drive home facts and information as a way to create those scenes so that they “convince.” Facts are important…but there is always a narrative behind the number. Something to make the scene (and the facts) more memorable. We remember scenes, we share scenes. How was your meeting with that company today? Well, they said this one thing…it was really interesting. We should meet them again.
Set the scene in 2017. Great scene content creates great business opportunities. And it’s a world we know well. Very, very well.
Happy to discuss it with you at anytime.