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I want you to play a a game with me.

Search for any word that you can think of on Google, feel free to consult the Oxford English you have stashed away on the bookshelf for when the neighbors come over to play Scrabble. If you pull up less than 1000 search results on that word, send me an email and I’ll mention your project here on the blog.

Chances are 3 to 1 that I won’t be getting any emails.

Abstract that to phrases, concepts, titles, products, I could go on and on but the point is that anything you could create, anything you could think of has already been produced in one form or another. This, I’d say, isn’t such a huge problem as long as you believe in the importance of the story.

Why is it absolutely critical for your company, client, friend, neighbor, or cartoon dog sitcom pitch to have a good story? For the answer, we need turn our gaze to the masters of storytelling — 24 hour news.

Every news station in existence today is fed from the same primary sources, and each reports on the same stories day in and day out. Why then do we care whether we watch CNN or Fox News? It’s because, as someone more clever than me once said, you don’t buy the steak you buy the sizzle. Said differently, you aren’t really watching the news, you’re watching the spin. You buy into angle they choose to tell the story from. If you wanted facts you’d read the AP feed, you watch the news because it’s more than facts.

Every great story is like that. They take the facts and paint something bigger and more exciting out of them. They give information context, they make esoteric data seem relevant and they accomplish the two critical goals of effective communication:

  • They give me a reason to care about what you have to say.
  • They make me come back and listen to what you have to say again.

Let’s bring it all together.

Why is it important for a company or an individual to have a story? Without a story your product, your project, your vision will drown in the sea of noise around you.

If you can’t differentiate yourself from the thousands of other people doing exactly what it is that you do, you’ll never be able to drum up the fervor that’s required for a great product to blossom? If you don’t give people some find of arc to follow and rally behind, it will be nearly impossible to develop a effective marketing strategy around it.

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If you enjoyed that why not find a job or read our guide to working in the 21st century. You can also join our Kiva team or hire me for your project.


Other Sites: Really Great Stories | All The Little Things (Book) | Twitter