strategicstorytelling

As you build a portfolio of business stories, business owners often come up against a challenge: you've got a story but the audience can't relate to the context. How do you get your audience involved in a story about an experience that feels unfamiiliar - even alien - to them?  

That's a daily challenge for Neil Bardhan, a Philadelphia-based business storytelling consultant. In this episode, you'll hear Neil's own story, which integrates his background in science, drama, and storytelling.

In a case study of a recent project, Neil explains exactly how he coaches ordinary people to tell their stories to an audience that's totally outside their world. He'll share very specific tips to make your story relatable to a broad audience.  Neil can be reached through his website, BardhanConsulting.com 

As you build a portfolio of business stories, business owners often come up against a challenge: you've got a story but the audience can't relate to the context. How do you get your audience involved in a story about an experience that feels unfamiiliar - even alien - to them?  

That's a daily challenge for Neil Bardhan, a Philadelphia-based business storytelling consultant. In this episode, you'll hear Neil's own story, which integrates his background in science, drama, and storytelling.

In a case study of a recent project, Neil explains exactly how he coaches ordinary people to tell their stories to an audience that's totally outside their world. He'll share very specific tips to make your story relatable to a broad audience.  Neil can be reached through his website, BardhanConsulting.com 

Noted business author and influencer Dorie Clark presented a thoughtful Ted Talk on December 21. We feel busy, she says, because we try to do the impossible, we want to feel "in demand," and (perhaps most importantly) we want to avoid dealing with something large or small. To illustrate the last point, Dorie illustrates with a story about her late cat, Gideon. 

In this episode, I analyze why the story works. I would classify Dorie as an "Educator" archetype (although of course she has no awareness of my framework and likely wouldn't care). However, I'm. constantly surprised at how many successful business owners conform consistently to one of the story archetypes.  

Here's a good example of a personal story that fits the brand of an Educator archetype, well-presented and successful on a number of dimensions. 

Noted business author and influencer Dorie Clark presented a thoughtful Ted Talk on December 21. We feel busy, she says, because we try to do the impossible, we want to feel "in demand," and (perhaps most importantly) we want to avoid dealing with something large or small. To illustrate the last point, Dorie illustrates with a story about her late cat, Gideon. 

In this episode, I analyze why the story works. I would classify Dorie as an "Educator" archetype (although of course she has no awareness of my framework and likely wouldn't care). However, I'm. constantly surprised at how many successful business owners conform consistently to one of the story archetypes.  

Here's a good example of a personal story that fits the brand of an Educator archetype, well-presented and successful on a number of dimensions. 

A lot of copywriting guides promise to give you a set of "power words" to jazz up your copy and get better results.

The truth is, you'll get more bang for the buck by starting with your power story. Not all "power words" will be powerful for your brand Stories  will help you relate directly to your clients and their stories.  

This episode gives you a detailed example of how to start with a story and then go on to write compelling copy for your sales pages and landing pages. Copywriting becomes infinitely easier and delivers more results when you start with your story. 

A lot of copywriting guides promise to give you a set of "power words" to jazz up your copy and get better results.

The truth is, you'll get more bang for the buck by starting with your power story. Not all "power words" will be powerful for your brand Stories  will help you relate directly to your clients and their stories.  

This episode gives you a detailed example of how to start with a story and then go on to write compelling copy for your sales pages and landing pages. Copywriting becomes infinitely easier and delivers more results when you start with your story. 

On this week's show, we will wrap up the series of shows on the innovation framework known as FIRE. We will discuss the part of the innovation framework known as execution. Execution is composed of making your best ideas into something real. 

Execution

I have used the FIRE (Focus, Ideation, Ranking, Execution) framework for more than 20 years, and thousands of organizations use it. Focus is defining where your problem area is. Ideation is the process of creating ideas to address your problem areas. The process consists of individual and team ideation, which, when combined, generates 30% more ideas than when done individually. Ranking is where you prioritize your ideas. This process is through dot/wow voting and criteria ranking.

Execution, the last element of the FIRE framework,  is how one turns ideas into innovation. Done through two phases; it involves testing and validation and launching the MVP (Minimum viable product). Execution is not easy. 92% of CEOs say innovation is critical to their organization, but only 35% of them have confidence in executing these ideas. 

What to Expect

In my opinion, innovation consists of ideas made real. One quote I repeat all the time is, "ideas without execution are a hobby, and I'm not in the hobby business." At this point, you've ranked your ideas, but need to figure out how to make these ideas a real innovation. Going into this, you won't know all of the answers. Expect a very messy process because there might not be a clear path from point A to point B.

It would help if you were adaptable and ready to learn things. It would be best if you innovated around the idea frequently. Be ok with an unexpected outcome, as it is an experiment. Innovation projects have to be measured differently than a typical product development project. One of the measurements of success is learning throughout the process. Stay away from innovation antibodies. Innovation causes conflict, prompting these antibodies to come out. These include ego response (stepping on someone's toes), fatigue (people who have tried and failed at it before), no risk response (CFO or legal counsel), comfort response (we don't need to change). 

Steps of Execution

The first step to making an idea real is creating the pitch. The pitch is your way to tell the story around your idea, also known as strategic storytelling. The key is to tell your idea's story so that they see what life will be like when your idea is delivered.

The second step is to create the funnel. There are four funnel gates: market validation, customer validation, limited launch, and global launch. The key here is to convey the point that not all the ideas will go forward. Market validation is where you ask if the problem exists. One way to do this is through gorilla idea validation. Talk to people you don't know to get brutally honest feedback rather than people you know, who might tell you what you want to hear. Customer validation is where you see if your idea solves the customer's problem.

I use the Michelle test. I would take a product we built at HP and bring it home and leave it on the counter for my wife. She would take it out of the box and use it, giving it her honest evaluation. My wife is not a technology person to receive some solid feedback from a different perspective.

A limited launch is where you launch in a limited space. I use the buy test to build a product and advertise it, putting it into retail stores like a real launch. When people try to buy it, you give it to them for free in return for their feedback. Global launch is where you put your pedal to the medal and push the product out. At this point, you've gone through all of the steps and should have confidence in your product's success. 

Summary

This week's show focused on taking all of your ideas and making them real. Many innovators have great ideas but struggle to find funding. There could be an issue with their pitch. Learn and readjust the pitch, and understand all of the elements that go into it.

When Steve Jobs and Apple worked on the iPhone, the product was ready three years before the launch. They knew that they needed to wait to get a faster processor and another generation of touch screens. They had the discipline and patience to wait, which paid off in the long run.

I use the lean canvas to help me and my team stay on track and stay focused. The innovation lean canvas is in place of a typical plan. It is an overview of the critical areas at a glance, which frequently updates as the product evolves. We will discuss the lean canvas in a further episode of the show, so stay tuned. 

Check out the Disruptive Ideation Workshop here to teach your team the FIRE framework.

Trine har fået besøg af Adam Abelin, der er Nordic Director og partner hos BuzzaNova.

I dette afsnit stiller vi skarpt på, hvordan native advertsing kan anvendes i praksis, og hvilke resultater det kan føre med sig. Adam tager os med på den rejse, BuzzaNova var igennem med anvendelsen af de forskellige annonceformater, herunder native ads. - En rejse der i sidst ende skabte banebrydende resultater for Coolshop.

Du kan læse mere om casen her: https://buzzanova.com/case/coolshop-case/

Trine har fået besøg af Thomas Stokholm, der er CEO & founder af Evil Pony. Thomas er tidligere Excutive Director hos Ekstra Bladet og har i mange år arbejdet med native advertising. 

Native advertising har været et buzzword for nogle - men totalt ukendt for andre. Native advertising er et resultat af reklametrætheden og derfor et format man, som med branded content, ikke kommer udenom. 

Derfor stiller vi nu skarpt på native advertising i dette afsnit. Thomas hjælper os med at forstå; hvad er native advertising, hvordan fungerer det i praksis, og hvorfor skal man overhovedet anvende det?

Trine har fået besøg af Martin Jensen fra Destination Fyn. Martin arbejder til daglig som social media manager og styrer alle Visit Fyns digitale aktiviteter på de sociale medier. De kører en marketingsstrategi, de kalder Fyn365, hvor branded content spiller en helt afgørende hovedrolle.

I dette afsnit stiller vi skarpt på, hvordan man helt praktisk kan anvende branded content, og hvilke resultater det kan indbringe. Martin tager os med igennem, hvordan de i Fyn365 anvendte branded content, hvilke erfaringer og konkrete resultater de fik med, og hvorfor Destination Fyn har valgt at opprioritere deres brug af branded content i fremtiden.

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