Pitch Like a Natural Using the Power of Storytelling
BEYOND SEX, STATUS & CONVENIENCE
“One danger in our time of social media and cable news is that we start to accept the media’s narrative as all-pervasive and correct. The complex chore of imagination is to say: it’s not! The world is not a complete fabric of misery. There are pockets of beauty; there are pockets of joy.”
George Saunders
If you struggle to get other people (friends, family, investors, partners, recruits, customers, casual acquaintances) to see WHY your business matters, it can be wildly frustrating -- especially if you feel personally invested or identified with what you’re building.
But you also have an advantage over other types of businesses, in that you are uniquely positioned to use the power of storytelling to bring the key themes and aspirations of your business to life -- to bypass our inner critics, activate our imaginations, tap into our heart-guts, and inspire us to take action.
This quick exercise (adapted from the book Winning the Story Wars by Jonah Sacks) is designed to get you thinking about how YOUR story may relate to a shared human quest -- and even provide clues to your brand story.
It starts with the observation that modern advertising, for roughly the past 100 years, has largely focused on pushing the buttons surrounding our “deficiency needs” -- those ones at the base of Maslow’s hierarchy -- i.e. our drives for physiological and psychological safety, sex, security, and social acceptance. Buy this car, a behind-the-scenes Don Draper suggests with a devilish raised eyebrow, and you’ll be the envy of all your friends.
But consumers are smarter now; we see that we’re being manipulated, and we can’t help but resent it. To protect ourselves, we hit mute, fast forward, or click on to the next thing.
This is why today’s most beloved companies, conversely, build their brands around the very top of Maslow’s pyramid -- to elicit and evoke our noble human impulse toward self-actualization.
Think of Apple’s “think different” or Dove’s “true beauty” campaigns -- they found a way to embody and represent one of these “higher being needs;” our drives for things like “uniqueness” and “beauty” and “truth” -- which we only have the luxury of pursuing AFTER our basic needs have been met.
To take a page out of their playbook, scan the list of “9 Higher Being Needs” below, and choose 1-3 that resonate most with you.
WHOLENESS
The need to feel sufficient as an individual, and connected to others as part of something larger; to move beyond self-interest.
PERFECTION
The need to seek mastery of skill or vocation, usually through hard work or struggle.
JUSTICE
The need to live by high moral standards and to see the world ordered by morality; to overthrow tyranny.
RICHNESS
The need to examine life in all its complexity and diversity; to seek new experience and overcome prejudice.
SIMPLICITY
The need to understand the underlying essence of things.
BEAUTY
The need to experience and create aesthetic pleasure.
TRUTH
The need to experience and express reality without distortion; to tear down falsehood.
UNIQUENESS
The need to express personal gifts, creativity, and nonconformity.
PLAYFULNESS
The need for a joyful experience.
Now: For each of the 1-3 you chose, reflect on the following questions:
What does this idea mean to me?
Where do I see it showing up in my community?
How have I personally experienced it, or the lack of it?
How do I strive to embody or enact this -- in my life, and in my business?
Remember: Within every human being lives the seed of heroic potential.
Your job, as a storyteller? Is to remind us of that.