Every major company has a great story that you probably know, and you definitely know if you are a fan. Steve Jobs starting Apple computer in the garage, Bill Gates leaving Harvard to launch Microsoft with Paul Allen, Thomas Edison and General Electric, Colonel Sanders and his suitcase of chicken that… Continue Reading... Your Story Is The Mojo
As you try to live a more exciting and helpful Lifestory, you will inevitably make some decisions that simply don’t work. Some of those decisions might have consequences that seem too big to overcome.
They’re not.
Heroes are quite dumb. They have to be. In order to experience pain, conflict… Continue Reading... Failure is Great
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I read a tweet saying there’s not enough stories about people connecting, coming together, and fighting a common enemy. The context was community stories and wanting more stories about coming together as a group.
That got me thinking, did the writer mean that there was not enough true stories about such things?
Because the… Continue Reading... Is Truth Better Than Fiction?
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Every morning on Twitter, I ask people how I can help them. A recent request asked for more stories about communities of people persevering, more stories that share the gift of groups. The Tweeter thinks we’re addicted to lone hero stories, and miss out on the gift of groups.
This of course got me thinking, can a story focus… Continue Reading... The Group vs The Individual Story
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Human beings are designed to focus on the individual, therefore stories focusing on individuals are the ones we connect with and enjoy. But how often do we tell stories that have no focus, or focus too broadly on general ideas or groups of people?
Apply this to your business.
Does your marketing focus on groups or… Continue Reading... Are you telling the right story?
Read MoreIn stories, anguish or pain can only be effectively dealt with if neither are the exclusive focus of the story. Anguish is better introduced as a temporary state, something that must be overcome.
In the same way we must deal with pain, as a temporary situation, a signal that the enemy has besieged us or attacked.
It’s also our signal to strike back.
 … Continue Reading... Why Anguish Is Good
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I told my friends that they needed to make up an imaginary friend named Bob.
People could relate to a big guy named Bob.
My friends own a small dance studio in downtown Tacoma, WA and their students were slow to commit to anything more than a few classes at a time, so money was tight.
We… Continue Reading... Your Story Sucks, How To Tell Great Stories
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Once upon a time, I wrote a piece about how an artist stood out at a local street fair by being interesting and unique. As a consequence, that artist sold more than her peers and connected with several new clients. By offering unique and interesting products, both she and her customers… Continue Reading... Is Your Art A Hobby Or A Business?
Too often we tell small stories without connecting to some larger story. When that happens, the audience loses interest.
Without the larger story, the small stories don’t have meaning.
People need a “why”, a larger, better story to follow. That’s called context.
The small stories you tell are the content, what people hear or read. The larger story is the context, what people will feel and understand… Continue Reading... Why the Why is the Story
Read MoreMy friend unfollowed me on Twitter. Not the sort of thing a friend does, I thought to myself, but apparently she had a good reason.
You see, I was hurting her heart.
All my talk about the Church and the Christians that make it up, all the pointless questioning and vitriol, it was causing others to stumble.
I had become what Paul called a stumbling block, what… Continue Reading... Unfollowed For Being Unfollowable (or Why I'm a Terrible Christian)
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