| Friend,
In the book, "Wired For Story", author Lisa Cron makes a very compelling case for applying discoveries in neuroscience to make your stories more compelling and immersive.
Throughout the book, Cron mixes scientific research with tips on writing. She also shares several guiding principles she has gleaned from research on how the brain interprets the stories we hear and read.
(Despite the fact that the book is intended as a writer's resource, it's actually one of the best books on marketing I've ever read, and well worth a read if you have the time...)
Here are some of the tips that Cron shares in her book that I think apply directly to telling your story to your customers: - Keep Them Guessing - You want people to be involved in your story from the get-go. So, you need to avoid long preambles, and find a way to hook the audience early on. In copywriting, we use something called open loops to keep people involved in the story. This is where you start a story and then switch gears before you tell the reader what happened. The mind doesn't like it when things are incomplete, so it makes the person want to stick around to find out how the story ends.
- No Unnecessary Info - If you're telling a story about how you won the world championships with a broken wrist, don't tell your audience about how your Aunt Ethel got sick while you were there. No one cares. Stick to details that are relevant to the story.
- Avoid Facts, Focus on Emotion - If you say, "I was in pain," that does nothing to add tension to your story. But if you say, "My arm was on fire from my shoulder to my fingers, and every movement was agony. I didn't know if I could continue, but then I looked up at my little girl in the stands, and I knew I had to do it for her..." BOOM! You just used an emotional hook to draw your audience into your story.
- Know Your Goal - You gotta' have a reason why. We already covered this, but remember your audience needs to know your motivation. In any story, be it a novel, short story, or play, characters need to have motivations, or they end up appearing one-dimensional. Let your audience know WHY you overcame.
- Use Imagery - "I got in the car and drove to the tournament." BOR-ING. But how about this? "As I walked out to the driveway, butterflies were dancing a jig in my stomach, and I actually dropped the keys as I fumbled for the ignition because my hands were shaking so bad. The whole drive over, I kept thinking to myself, 'You have this, you've prepared, you're meant to win.' And as I thumped out the drum line to Survivor's The Eye of the Tiger on the steering wheel, all my nervousness faded away, to be replaced with a peaceful calm and the knowledge that today was my day." Cheesy, yes. Boring, no.
- Conflict Is The Heart Of Every Story - Every story needs a hero, a bad guy, a prize to win, and struggles to overcome. Conflict is what makes a story fun to read. Whether it's between you and a rival, you and a disease, or you and your parents, let it be known.
- Follow A Standard Story Pattern - All good stories follow a variation of the three-act story structure: Conflict, Climax, Resolution. Take The Karate Kid, for instance. Daniel moves to a new town, and is bullied by the local karate school thugs. That's conflict. Then, he meets an old wise karate sensei, becomes his student, and enters the annual karate tournament against the Cobra Kai. That's climax. Daniel wins, gains respect, gets the girl, and Mr. Miyagi puts Kreese in his place. The end. That's resolution. Make sure your story follows this three-act story structure, so it makes sense to the audience.
Now, you might think that the ability to tell your story in a meaningful and compelling way has nothing to do with marketing your dojo. How wrong you are. How very, very wrong.
Think about this scenario: You're invited on the local T.V. news station to do a segment on self-defense. Before the segment, the news anchor or show host asks you to tell the viewers a little bit about yourself. You can either...
a. Do what most everyone does and say, "I own ABC Martial Arts and we teach yadda-yadda-yadda, a style that blah-blah-blah 3,000 years old blah, deadliest system blah, learned from grandmaster Yadda blah."
Snore. I guarantee by your second sentence, the viewers are already reaching for the remote. And that means you've lost a prime opportunity to reach a new audience and make the phone ring.
OR
b. You could say, "When I was a young child, I had terrible asthma and was sickly and weak. I got picked on a lot, and it damaged my self-esteem. On a whim, my mother took me to a local jiu-jitsu, and lo and behold, not only did my asthma improve, but so did my confidence. Two years later I won the Pan-Am Jiu-Jitsu championships in my division, and now I help others by teaching kids how to have greater confidence and become bully-proof through the art of jiu-jitsu."
Alrighty, now you have people reaching for a pen so they can write down your contact info.
See the difference? Now do you understand why it's so important to be able to tell your story in a meaningful and compelling manner?
So, master the art of telling your own story. And the next time someone asks you, "What makes your dojo different from XYZ down the street?", you'll have a ready answer for them.
Until next time,
Mike Massie MartialArtsBusinessDaily.com
P.S. - Of course, I made up all the stories in this email for illustrative purposes (except The Karate Kid, of course). So don't think you have to be a competition champion to have a compelling story. For a lot of people, simply earning a black belt in the face of personal challenges is a major achievement.
P.S.S. - Avoid the temptation to embellish the facts, and simply tell your story truthfully and authentically. That's what counts.
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