Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM MAY 2019 46 Mario Juarez Business Mindset Mario Juarez is an organizational consultant, coach, and motivational speaker. He focuses on helping organizations and individuals achieve better business results through strategic storytelling. An award-winning former journalist, Mario led a series of innovative communications initiatives at Microsoft before founding his company, StoryCo, which serves clients across a range of industries. Visit www.mario-juarez.com. T he enjoyable art of storytelling is as old as the first cave dwellers who built a campfire and started talking about their lives. Our love for good stories has only grown with the passing centuries and especially with the wide-open portal of modern media. Yet, scanning the crop of business guidebooks on telling stories for advertising and marketing, you'd be tempted to think it's some newfangled idea. Storytelling is a tool. Powerful for sure, but it's just a tool. And, like any tool, it needs to be cared for, learned, and used with skill. A poorly told story can hurt your business as much as a good story can help it. Let's cut to the chase – here are three storytelling inspirations that are guaranteed to flop and help you fail: • Mistake #1: Focus on your fabulousness — You've spent tons of time and money building your successful business. Naturally, you expect everyone to care, to admire you and to want to spend time with you. Because really, all you have to do is tell the dramatic story of your success and the customers will come running. Here's the hard truth: Your customers and investors don't care nearly as much about you as they care about themselves. Moral of the story: stop talking about yourself and start talking about them. Don't worry if it's hard – hey, it's the hardest – and best – lesson anyone in business has ever had to learn. For your story to capture your customers' hearts and minds, it needs to be fashioned to resonate with their values. The best marketing campaigns are always built by doing the very hard work of learning about the customers' aspirations. Do whatever it takes to learn about and demonstrate your deep understanding of their pain, and where they're feeling held back. Then tell them how you can ease their suffering and help them reach their dreams. Only then, when they care, should you start talking about your products and services. • Mistake #2: Make yourself the hero — In 1949, Joseph Campbell introduced the idea of the Hero's Journey, based on his study of mythology and literature. The Hero's Journey is the universal story of the hero who embarks on a great adventure, defeats the forces of evil, and returns transformed. Luke Skywalker and Wonder Woman are excellent examples. When you're writing the story of your business, it can be tempting to cast yourself as the hero. But this is a mistake. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but the sad fact is that you're never going to be the hero, straight out of the box. Not one of your customers – not one! – will ever go breathless at the story of how your products and services bravely overcame the competition, discovered their inner power, and wound up trending on Twitter. Sadly, you don't get to be Luke Skywalker. But the good news is you might get the part of Obi-Wan Kenobi. That's because there's always a wise mentor in the Hero Story who shows the hero the sure path to success. Your customer is the hero. And if you're wise, you can serve the customer as a mentor. That's the role you need to cultivate. • Mistake #3: Turn your buzzwords into stories — "Everyone needs to hear our catchphrase, tagline, and mission statement!" No. While these things matter, they aren't stories. They're the last line of the story. They're the roadmap that guides your business, but they don't solve the customer's problems. A great business story tells the customer how someone faced a difficult challenge like theirs, and how your products or services helped them. Great stories are grounded in real-life experiences and filled with people, places, challenges, and victories. Microsoft's mission statement is: "Empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more." On the face of it, it's almost meaningless. Yet Microsoft was smart enough not to plaster its marketing communications with corporate drivel. Instead, they translated the statement into action, challenging their communicators to get off their butts and do the hard work of getting to know their customers' real-life needs and solving them. Microsoft's corporate mission statement was the back story of its wildly popular 2019 Super Bowl ad for the new Xbox Adaptive Controller. It told a beautiful story of a bunch of wonderful kids who happened to have disabilities, and how they could now join the world of gamers as full participants because of the product. It was a profound and memorable human story that brought Microsoft's mission beautifully to life. Where are your stories? THREE WAYS TO BOTCH YOUR BUSINESS STORYTELLING RO

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