What is your story?

Many have written about storytelling as a way to have an impact with your marketing message. Seth Godin has. So has Drew McLellan, and I am sure many others have. Please share others in the comment section, as I love to learn more.

I think they are correct and so do others with which I speak. Therefore, I wonder, why don’t more of us market by storytelling?

Of course I can only speak from the experiences and discussions I have had. What those two things tell me is that getting to the core of what your own story is can be difficult. Time to think and the ability to articulate your ideas are real barriers for some.

Beyond that, finding an effective way to tell your story is also a barrier. Although communications options abound, so do the filters people use to shield themselves from messages, however well intentioned.

What it comes down to then is getting others to participate in your story or maybe to retell it – or in today’s terms ReTweet your story. They need to connect to your story in a real way…to feel it. Your story has to be compelling enough for them to relate to it or, even better, to feel like it is happening to them.

So, how do you distill your story down so you can figure out how to tell it in a compelling way? That will certainly be different for different companies and people.  A starting point however is knowing what you (or your company) are passionate about AND what you are NOT passionate about. It is hard to tell a good story without passion.