Such a simple a script, but the concept of friends, buddies, and down by the river are what make it so memorable.
Reveal
When exiting a local grocery store one evening, I saw a great bumper sticker on a car parked next to mine. It simply stated: “The shortest distance between two people is a story.” That’s powerful stuff!
Remember these two items the next time you start constructing a story. This is an approach that is encouraged by CEO of Parade magazine, Walter Anderson. Great stories are built off these main principles. Your story needs to have:
1) Tension - You need to create a problem. There needs to be some type of dramatic hook.
2) Discovery - This is the reason why you are telling the story. What is everything leading up to?
In essence, it’s all about the power of the anecdote – leading from one point to the next. Keep in mind,the best anecdotes are the most simple.
It’s amazingly captivating. The story builds from one point to the next. It doesn’t hurt that the character of Buddy is easy to love. After all, he would like to do nothing more than build snow angels for two hours and then snuggle.
Good news! We are all storytellers. You have stories. Your parents have stories. Your grandparents have stories. Your company even has a story. You should have plenty to write about, so what are you waiting for? Don’t be a cotton-headed ninnymuggins! Start writing. Maybe one day you’ll have book published about your own story just like Buddy the Elf.
Revamp
Storytelling produces results. It will change and grow your business. Here is the bottom line. (Highlight this or write it down somewhere. It’s the heart of this article):
Stories create emotions. Emotions create motivation. Motivation creates action. Action creates results.
Repeat. Reveal. Revamp. These three R’s will change the way you look at storytelling and your presentations moving forward.
So what are you waiting for? Go tell a story or suffer the consequences for procrastinating. Here’s a great quote from Stewie from Family Guy to help light 
your fire:
Stewie: “How you uh, how you comin’ on that [story] you’re working on? Huh? Gotta a big, uh, big stack of papers there? Gotta, gotta nice litte story you’re working on there? Your big novel you’ve been working on for 3 years? Huh? Gotta, gotta compelling protaganist? Yeah? Gotta obstacle for him to overcome? Huh? Gotta story brewing there? Working on, working on that for quite some time? Huh? (voice getting higher pitched) Yea, talking about that 3 years ago. Been working on that the whole time? Nice little narrative? Beginning, middle, and end? Some friends become enemies, some enemies become friends? At the end your main character is richer from the experience? Yeah? Yeah? (voice returns to normal) No, no, you deserve some time off.”
Be different than your competition. For starters, begin today. Second, go tell an epic story with your next presentation.
About the Author: Scott Schwertly is an epic storyteller. Scott works with a wide spectrum of clients that includes Fortune 100 companies, Silicon Valley start-ups, and various other organizations throughout the world. Scott is also the author of an awarding-winning blog – PresentationRevolution: Revolutionizing Presentations Through Storytelling - as well as a Top 100 ChangeThis.com manifesto. Scott has a B.A. in Communications and an M.B.A. from Harding University. Today, Scott owns and operates Ethos3 Communications at http://www.ethos3.com.
Original post:
Is Your Marketing Telling A Story
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