| INK STAIN BLOG |

Ink Stain creates the narrative and messaging for Colorado Health and Wellness Center

2010-07-17T18:23:47Z

Colorado Health and Wellness Center owner Michelle MacCarthy is working with Ink Stain to tell the entire story that begins with the spine and ends with total health.

Michelle MacCarthy works with NSA, Network Spinal Analysis combined with SRI: Somato Respiratory Integration.

NSA, Network Spinal Analysis and SRI: Somato Respiratory Integration offers an alternative to medicine as usual: the taking of so many medications and surgical procedures that may not be necessary with a healthier body. Ink Stain is excited to bring this narrative full-circle and create marketing messaging that tells the story about people finding health through techniques that inspire healing, parasympathetic responses in the body.

Ink Stain publishes ifculture #4: This issue - "War for the World": How Novozymes is saving the planet - by Joseph Coplans

2010-07-17T16:49:00Z

Ifculture is received by CEOs and mid-sized corporate company owners who use culture-change as tool for differentiation in the marketplace.

"As the world struggles to find answers for sustainability issues, Novozymes is providing global sustainability through bioinnovation. Let's begin with their enzymes: Novozymes enzymes help companies reduced their energy costs and reduce dependence on chemicals. Such enzymes are replacing surfactants; they're in detergents to enable lower temperature washes so less energy is needed to warm water. Their second-generation biofuel, an ethanol derived from the waste paper and cardboard supplied by the US Government, is fueling cars in Washington DC, and shrimp farmers are using microbes from Novozymes to produce higher yields free of antibiotics, a boon to the food supply. Add up the Novozymes bio-pharmaceutical, bio-organism and bio-agriculture offerings, and you'll get a 28 million ton reduction in C02 throughout the world. It's bioinnovation designed to help the businesses not deplete the resources they need to stay in business, a breakthrough company positioned to impact the industrial life of the world as we know it..."

Read the full article at ifculture.com

Before: unclear about what they offer. After: green building supply company gets people to understand what it is they do, with a little help from Ink Stain.

2010-07-14T19:26:53Z

Doesn't sound like big news? Well, it would be for most companies...

...most companies have a very hard time summing up what they do and whom they serve and why in a way that avoids words like:

"service" "solution" and "turnkey".

GreenSpot is a green building materials supplier that was having a difficult time explaining -- quickly -- what they do.

And they were looking for a way to explain what it is they do quickly, so they could spread that message in emails, print, letters, direct mail, email signatures, outgoing phone message, sales scripts...

They wanted a single paragraph, a consistent message, identifying what they do and who benefits from their market specialty.

It took two weeks to create.

2 weeks? Yes. The last line: "Guidance to get the LEED points your firm deserves" was the result of interviewing architects to find out what their pains were. They want LEED points. GreenSpot can deliver a way to get those points.

Becasue it wasn't what GreenSpot THINKS it does for others...

...it's about finding why their customers choose them over some other green building materials supplier.

The "before" was lack of focus and clarity.

Here's the "after":
(Did this messaging closed more deals, and shorten sales cycles? YES! After all, that's the goal).

GreenSpot gives builders and developers, architects and homeowners, easy access to the highest quality, environmentally friendly, sustainable building materials for all phases of construction -- from the foundation, to the final finishes.

Our products have an immediate and tangible benefit for the environment and economy: they provide builders sustainably harvested, recycled, reclaimed, repurposed, non-toxic building advantages.

And GreenSpot's knowledgeable green building and environmental science professionals, partner with builders who need:

-FSC chain of custody verification
-Confirmation and documentation of certified green products
-Clarity on critical, green cost-benefits for construction
-Guidance to get the LEED points your firm deserves

For the best performing structure, envelope and end-user reward.
GreenSpot is environmentally friendly, sophisticated building materials for all phases of construction helping you build with the values that meet the Earth's needs.

You know what your clients/customers really want? (so they can hire you?) They want to see what you do IN ACTION. FOR THEIR OWN BUSINESS.

2010-07-12T16:13:54Z

Turns out, people like to see the TRANSFORMATION. They like to see a 'before and after' presto-chango.

Last Thursday, after my second presentation at the Denver Metro Chamber, I walked away with new work and with new good business partnerships. I'm convinced it's because my audience could see my work in action.

I don't always get that good in my presentations, but this time I hit on something that really worked: I presented a before-and-after success stories illustrating the transformations several of my clients went through as result of my work.

I showed a before and after:
Before: I showed slides of the 'bad business poem', of an Ink Stain corporation using confusing corporatespeak to explain what it is they do on their web site.

The after:
I read new messaging I had created for that company. The new messaging broke down what they do into simple to understand benefits.

The contrast was dramatic.

I actually showed messaging "in action". I didn't think that would ever work, I thought messaging about someone else was too boring to present. Not true. Turns out, people like to see the TRANSFORMATION. They like to see the clarity emerge before their eyes (with the help of a PowerPoint presentation).

Advice: Don't use the nomenclature, "case study". It's too formal. They want to see a transformation, people want to see your work 'in action'. Just present what you do and an image of the results based on solving something important. People will get it. What they'll get is how you can solve that problem for them too. Post your work in action on your Facebook page. It's that simple. I'm going to post examples starting today, so stay tuned!

Left Brain, Right Brain, File for Divorce

2010-06-12T03:46:26Z

My left brain and my right brain haven't been getting along lately...

I think they are filing for divorce. The left side of my brain (logical, sequential, rational, analytical) is accusing my right brain (intuitive, holistic, synthesizing, looks at wholes) of having an affair with my superego. Now both sides are having a custody battle for my id.
All of this is absurd of course. They won't really divorce. The real issue here is that these two different sides of the brain have forgotten that they need each other.

But the meantime, my depressed left brain has climbed into a bottle of Excel spreadsheets to lose itself in a series of bottom-lined, calculations. Right brain, accused of being overly emotional and feeling the sting of being called a "dreamer", is medicating itself with a dog-eared copy of The Secret.

A brain counselor would sit each side of the brain down and tell them:

You need each other to make a business work.

Brain Therapist: "Right Brain, you are imagination, ideation and yes, an important dose of the dream of building a business."

"Furthermore, RB," she would continue, "your emotional intelligence, your empathy for the everyday problems your customers face, is what enables you to create new ways to solve problems for people. Your big-picture vision is essential for understanding how your business can discover ways to remain innovative."

Brain Therapist would turn to the other half: "Left Brain, you are the tactical glue that brings new ideas to the right audience."

"LB, you're sad now, but you are the literal interpretation of a business vision. You ensure things get done and are executed with systematic precision. You are the execution engine that drives the ideas -- so these ideas don't escape to the ether."

Reconciled, right and left brain would use their little brain arms to join in a total brain hug. "I missed you," each side coos in unison.

So the question is: are both sides of your business brain working together?

For entrepreneurs and business owners, ending the 'War of the Hemispheres' to create a business SuperBrain, is the key. Most biz owners are only good with one side.

The right side: Inspiration factory.
The left side: The tactical assembly line that markets your inspiration, your message, your story, your critical insights to your audience.
Working together, that's SuperBrain business mind collaboration.

The right side: a strong, viable vision that stays inventive and solves pain for buyers.
The left side: Processes, software, ROI, mentoring, infrastructure.
Working together, that's SuperBrain business mind collaboration.

The left side: The literal act of selling.
The right side: Marketing dedicated to understanding the emotional lives of your audience. That's marketing and sales working together to open new doors, to shorten sales cycles, to find more of the right kinds of qualified, interested buyers from the very beginning.

The Foundational Story That Killed the Wizard

2010-06-11T22:04:46Z

There are people that know more about Apple's rise to success -- and recent dominance over the PC market -- than I do. That's for sure. But I do know this, as you probably do too:

Apple's Foundational Message never wavered: Your life is interesting, your tastes are your own, your kids are beautiful and do charming stuff that will always melt your heart; you are waiting to tell stories, share music and photos in ways that celebrate your life with tools as beautiful and captivating as the most precious sea shell or modernist miniature sculpture.

Your life is most beautiful in an Apple Store, which closely resembles a West Los Angeles art gallery.

You are also the art. At the center of the affordable tech sculpture for sale is a hologram of your world.

Apple's Foundational Story was (and is) live a digital life that makes your life more meaningful and beautiful...

And PS, don't worry about anything, you don't have be afraid of what you don't know, you'll be so curious about what you can do with this, you'll override every technical challenge with your human desire to connect to something deeper -- in your own life -- and with the lives of others.

The keeper of runes, the geek, the one who used to be paid handsomely for all of his secret pc knowledge, was stripped of his wizard status...

He was tarred and feathered, was caught embezzling -- siphoning off for himself -- the joy of everyday life. So the PC was publicly denounced and humiliated in front of millions in Apple's commercials. "PC" might as well stood for "poor choice".

Apple's Foundational Story, at its core, has always been about killing the wizard, the know-it-all, the voice of authority.

Apple has always been about enticing people with beautiful things that capture the magic brewing in their OWN lives. They market using the emotive mind. And engineered their machines with the emotive mind, in mind.

It's no wonder Apple's web site is studied by so many companies about to revamp theirs....but of course it's NOT their web site that needs studying, it's their Foundational Story that makes it rock.

Banned! The only one you never invite to your sales meetings: Your website

2010-05-18T21:51:14Z

Roughly 80 percent of all company websites -- even today -- have little to do with how a company actually sells.

So it's no surprise there's little interest in creating compelling website content.

It's no surprise too that websites are considered a reluctant marketing expenditure.

Websites disconnected from the sales process are the many sites that still look like a page ripped from a 1970's phone book.

But your website is the sales soul of your company. It needs you. Actually, you need it. Why? It's worth huge amounts of UNTAPPED revenue.

How?

Just imagine this scenario: what if your best salesperson (you?) competed for new business with your website... I'd doubt your website would close very much business. Because your best salespeople speak to the pain of the people they help. They don't speak to people with a single canned speech behind a formal podium of corporate language.

Now for grins, (and for untold thousands of new revenue) just imagine hiring your website -- yes, your website -- as a salesperson. Base 75K. Commission too. Because it's one of the best salespeople ever -- that is -- if you had a sales system in place to ensure success.

You'd start with these 7 points before you hired your website (salesperson):

1.    What is the revenue figure the website is responsible for?

2.    How is the website presenting all of the other sales tools already created?

3.    How does the website contribute to the larger picture of the company's sales fulfillment plan?

4.    At what stage of the sale are clients in when they come to the website?

5.    Just like sales person infrastructure support: What plan is in place for perpetual content, new intelligence, new insights, new strategies to allure your buying audience?

6.    Is your website recognized in its field? Is it SEO smart and optimized for high Google rankings success?

7.    Does your new salesperson have empathetic humor to help buyers identify with the pain the company is solving for people?

What plan do you have to give your new salesperson the background that reflects the experiences of your buyers, the stories, the potential breakthroughs that are meaningful to your buyers?

Following those 7 steps (for starters) creates a website with sales soul, like a salesperson with a sales soul.

The goal: To create a powerful sales medium integrated with a powerful marketing medium.

Choosing marketing mediums (like a website infused with sales soul) ensures your marketing reflects your sales goals, and ensures marketing choices are never devalued as mere expenditures.

When spiders gallop, all eight legs leave the ground

2010-05-09T21:10:38Z

In 1877, Eadweard Muybridge, the famous English photographer, set up a never been done before system of trip wires and multiple cameras to prove that all four hooves of a galloping horse leave the ground simultaneously.

Little known, Muybridge used the same trip wires cameras to prove to the world that all 8 legs of a galloping spider also leave the ground at the same time.

Thomas Edison loved spiders too, and he recorded the spiders as they galloped across Victorian marching band snare drums.

For resounding audibility, their tiny feet were outfitted with minuscule, wooden shoes.

Tragically, a group of drunken loom operators -- weavers -- broke into Muybridge's studio and destroyed the spider photos. However, one sound recording of these galloping spiders still exists; one hears a perfect drum roll followed by silence and the ba-bash of a crash cymbal, as the exuberant spider most likely ran too fast and slammed into other parts of the drum kit.

Most importantly, Muybridge's early-era, photographic breakthroughs with spiders led to the creation of cinema -- and the genre of larger than life, spider-themed, kitsch, horror films.

And while these spider stars symbolized the terror of nature's ability to devour us, it was cinema that forever changed our awareness of ourselves by giving us the concept of "projection".

Teddy Roosevelt coined the phrase, "I think you're projecting." But for this era, I offer a better way to think of a projection:

The realization is this: established business owners have found success is by working with people that share their values or who are like them in some way.

Because the people you choose to work with that make you feel most comfortable, who inspire you to get through the hard part of being an entrepreneur, are YOU in some way. (Like my version of Muybridge and Edison and their shared passion)

The customer or client that is like you is doing the things that you really care about; they utilize your best offerings; their pains and prejudices are yours, as are their dreams. And, they'll open the door for you to give you access to the good work. In a way, your best clients are a projection of you. And if it seems hard to figure out who that customer is, just think of the people that really stand behind your work, your business idea.

And the pains you solve for others are the pains you probably want eradicated for yourself and FOR EVERYONE.

Obviously, I like to work with people who will at least snicker at the notion that Muybridge actually photographed spiders wearing tiny wooden running shoes. But that's just me.

(BTW, the real story about Muybridge from Wired Magazine: http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2009/06/dayintech_0615/)

Business owners: You're in competition with your own marketing

2010-04-29T22:53:54Z

Business owners:
You're in competition with your own marketing
Marketing robs the heroic business owner
of a sacred 'rags to riches' fantasy

I know that may sound odd. Yet, after 5 years of developing sales and marketing strategies for all kinds of budding firms, it's now obvious to me:

Marketing, PR, and Sales are not only misunderstood, these disciplines are genuinely resented by scores of emerging business owners.

Why? Business is a metaphor for the hero's journey, with pressure for the business hero to succeed in a 'pure' and innocent way. The true hero in American business always proves to the world that their vision, their product or idea, their decision to step into the marketplace, was met with instant success, an almost magical validation from others.

Without having to sell or market to others.
Unconsciously, marketing is a form of defeat, reserved for the weak, for the ones forced to beg for marketplace recognition.

It's not the fault of business owners -- that he or she forms an identity as an independent, marketing-less hero. Living deep in the psyche are influencers that perpetuate the American rags to riches myth of effortless, American business success. That myth teaches: anybody can and should make it big on their own. That myth teaches us that we're all a California roll of Steve Jobs, Clint Eastwood and Oprah -- underdog geniuses, tough, silent, and the last man standing, on a rocket to instant, television riches. Hey, you wouldn't be from this culture if you didn't think that way -- even a little. So marketing is the competitor that robs the hero of glory.

But then at some point, the adolescent hero gets killed.
And a new hero emerges from the wreckage.

The requirements for success change. The new hero discovers a deeper meaning in what they do. Business is less about 'making it big on their own' and more about the heroic process of stepping outside themselves -- to find ways to deeply benefit their buying audience. That hero slays the myopic self. Flying past the adolescent cultural or personal constructs, they have undergone a transformation -- though not an easy one. The hero's journey swings full circle, from a 'rags to riches' construct to something much more sustaining and important.

That's when the disciplines of sales and marketing are rediscovered. They become the business hero's essential allies, the voice and medium, the sword, the sacred ritual, for a higher business cause.

CEO, for once in your life, do something inefficient, ok?

2010-02-01T15:27:28Z

You never hear (unless they're feeling really down that day) an emotive entrepreneur describe what they do with deflated, rubber door-stop descriptors like "Manager", "Financial Planner", "Consultant", "Specialist", "Designer", or "Company Owner" -- or even "CEO".

I call the tendency -- the pressure to default to such everyday-speak -- "self-inflicted commoditization".

It's easy to explain. For most entrepreneurs and company leaders, the pressure to act efficiently every moment of the day causes them to conform to the shorthand vision of what they do.

Commoditization occurs like the freaky onset of a disease. The making of all things into commonplace things is a destroyer of value -- just like when something becomes commonplace for the masses -- and becomes an actual commodity like sugar or steel, wood or corn.

The emotive entrepreneur does some kind of essential Jujitsu on the commonplace. They make the common uncommon.

The emotive entrepreneur finds a way to turn everyday sugar into a nostalgic, neighborhood bakery; common steel into fabulous architecture; wood from the lumberyard back into a Redwood forest; and basic corn into a story that's a conversation about the Earth.

The emotive entrepreneur never competes with what's already commonplace. There's no point.

Their goal -- your goal -- is to stay engaged with that higher level, that higher frequency of thinking -- the place in the mind that is open to strangeness, to new possibilities:

A)    Emotive Entrepreneurs have heroes, and put their heroes to work
Every emotive entrepreneur, from bioscience company owners to green technology leaders, studies the people that have greatly influenced them. They find a way to shadow their heroes. They do things like get them on the phone and ask them questions about what they do, apologizing that they interrupted them on a Sunday, but press on in the conversation anyways.

B)    Emotive Entrepreneurs get in thick with their peers
People who are good at doing what you do, who you can exchange ideas with, who you can mentor or get mentored by, should never leave your regimen. They give you the inspiration to move out of bad headspaces; they give you the inspiration to find the structures; they give you the insights that keep you focused on the elevated cause and the details to see it through.

C)    Emotive Entrepreneurs perform deep-dives about what they do, to refine their relationship to what they do, to discover pathways to new ideas.

The best high-level entrepreneurs draw in journals and write pages about what they're thinking. They read their entries aloud to others in their master-mind groups. They get trusted feedback. They do things like call their satisfied customers and ask, "Wait, tell me again about what you like about working with us?"

They find ways to map out their vision; they draw colored maps on huge sheets of paper that span an entire wall; they host intimate sessions with mentors who pin them on the power and the validity of new ideas, who won't let them wiggle out of their path; they find the time to meditate on where the big picture begins and ends.

The whole point is to invent different ways to become less literal about what you do for a time so you can be literal more effectively.

Attacking everything with the hope of finding simple, straightforward and efficient answers cripples the unconscious mind. The unconscious mind is where all of the answers are. So ironically, hoping for quick solutions, wastes time.

Emotive Entrepreneur, you can feel what others can't yet feel. You've been feeling all along what your audience has not yet experienced. You're ahead of them, but not like in a race -- more like in the way a conductor leads an orchestra and who unconsciously moves first to guide others to the heart and cadence of conceptual and financial power.

You rescue others from the unconscious fight between the pressure to make literal and safe business decisions and the need for the empowered magic that inspires the imagination.

That's not easy to do. And at a certain point, that becomes an act of ritualized compassion.

Interestingly, your fight to not become devalued (commoditized) is the same fight you fight for your clients, or your customers -- so they don't become commoditized either, so they can find ways to become differentiated in the marketplace.

A rather RICH business/entrepreneurial irony, don't you think?

What do great businesses do to combat this conundrum? For some, it's going to see a man about a horse. A Trojan Horse...

Are you an emotive entrepreneur? Well, ARE YOU?

2009-12-08T00:20:32Z

At some transformative moment, consciously or unconsciously, and with or without the promise of good money, the entrepreneur becomes an emotive entrepreneur and falls deeply in touch with the emotional story about what they do for people.

His or her 'business life' and emotional life, fuse together.

For the emotive entrepreneur, it's bigger than simply leaving an oppressive job.

It's more than just an opportunity to call "their own shots".

The emotive entrepreneur works to uncover the symbiotic power--the affirming link--between what they do, and how they change the lives of others for the better.

For the emotive entrepreneur the experience of being one is what matters most when stacked up against everything else that is supposed to really matter.

Go ahead, dismiss the emotive entrepreneur as soft, I dare you...

On any given day of the week, the emotive entrepreneur experiences a heart that races wildly, or gets choked up when they think of how interconnected their work is to higher themes that matter beyond the literal nuances of generic business transactions.

They don't need extreme sports to feel alive, the connection to what they do pushes the boundary of what's emotionally acceptable, what's feasible, and opens a door to a world of meaning.

The emotive entrepreneur accepts the business world's aggression, and yet, their compassion for others is intrinsic, inherent. Wow, huh? After all, aggression is OK. Compassion too? Empathy even? Such duality is an asset and a liability, for most of the business culture, and is probably a switch hitter depending on what might impact the Profit and Loss sheet. And can aggression be fused with compassion? After all, compassion has got to get along with the idea of crushing competition, even though nobody says that in good company. (mixed meaning of "good company" encouraged).

Such contradictions are fun to watch play out in the shadows, don't you think? Nothing like a good unconscious contradiction in plain view and yet living in the shadows of the business culture at large...eh?

The emotive entrepreneur balances such dualities. Do they have higher themes? Emotive entrepreneurs never leave home without them.

For me, the literal side of business is a strategic foundation for something bigger. That foundation is the stage where the act of plunging a siphon into the heart of what's not considered safe or comforting, or average is essential for surviving as a business owner and helping others.

The emotive entrepreneur: powerful and feeling alive, bro. Sometimes believing in her audience more than her audience believes in themselves.

She's there to jumpstart an entirely new phase of life for her audience, her customers; the emotive entrepreneur is often the catalyst. And she feels more whole as a person as a result, to boot. Of course, there are those who would snicker at this Jungian notion. But I think snicker at Jung and you're a philistine bastid, ok?

Yet who could blame the anti-emotives for eye-rolling? An impervious cool head, strategically devoid of sentiment, is still a prized modus for business warriorism--so any form of "emotivity" has to learn how to stand up to the analytical

we're-so-busy-no-time-to-talk-
bottom-line-driven-better-faster-cheaper-
we've-got-to-post-big-profits-at-all-costs

part of our business culture.

Can you blame our pal, the business culture? Naw. We place a high price on straightforwardness. On efficiency. The contradiction of course is that efficiency needs a dose of inefficiency to be truly effective. Efficiency's yin is the yang of unadulterated, un-caged discovery.

A secret weapon that's no secret:

The emotive entrepreneur's secret weapon is the contradictory act of stepping into metaphor and the realm of emotion to help others see the literal more clearly. That's the whole point of empathy, (a key trait of the emotive entrepreneur) and the ability to think abstractly and symbolically (the tools for the work of empathy). Such tools help define the reason why we need to be so efficient in the first place, and help us see what is literal in another way, so we can do a better job-literally.

That's why she, the emotive entrepreneur, a believer in the higher meanings, the emotions behind and in front of what we do, always rings the bell. (That means she 'made the sale' in addition to feeling fulfilled, in addition to helping others in a deep way)
Ding.

To avoid others who don't understand her, she finds her tribe of people who appreciate what she does.
Da-Ding.

She knows this form of business spiritualism is what inspires the imagination in others, and her work is alive with possibility and housed in an infrastructure to make it all happen--for her audience, of course.
DADA-dingding.

Next: The key way for the emotive entrepreneur to have an impact is to learn how to express their differentiation in the marketplace. That's not as easy to do as it sounds. Most entrepreneurs or small business owners would have a hard time delivering a quality vision of differentiation on the spot. So what can the entrepreneur do? Next time!

Like a movie with pyrotechnic explosions but no script! Social Media, Blogs, Email Newsletters, and SEM will bomb without a foundational story.

2009-11-04T20:37:22Z

Entrepreneurs are especially susceptible to the hypnotizing buzz about new marketing mediums... cuz, magic bullets ARE cool, I know.

But marketing mediums (blogs, social media, your website) are just the special effects, the lure of a cinematic marketing explosion.

Said in another way, Facebook won't spread the word without the word.

It's easy to let the star power of the newest trends sell you on some Karate kicks or a cool high-speed car chase to a quick sale, but every marketing medium--including your website--needs consistent content based on a foundational story.

A web site and every other marketing tool under the sun is only a true marketing medium when you fill it with a meaningful, contagious, distilled and transportable story. That's "content." That story is what really explodes the benefits of what you offer. That story is the ongoing conversation these marketing mediums depend on: the story about how you greatly improve the lives of your audience.

That's your script. It's called: "When Meaningful Benefits Attack!"

Your web site--5,000 new words needed
SEO and SEM--400 search terms needed
Social Media--5,000 new words needed
Your blog--5,000 new words needed
Your Newsletters--Ditto, Ditto.

So, what exactly IS the foundational story?

It's a dozen scenarios to describe the accomplishments of your work and 20 benefits describing how you make a difference in the lives of the people you help; it's an in-depth knowledge of the "pain" people go though before they buy your offering; it's knowing how the lives of people are changed as a result of what you do. It's an insight into the character arc of the person you help.

That's what sets the sound stage for well-developed content. It's the heroic journey that all people can relate to.
You are the hero of this journey...what is it about what you do that resonates with others?

Without the story, websites are as useless as dead brochures in the sky. Search Engine Marketing (SEM and its sister SEO) is what's used to get higher rankings on the Google, and need hi-octane fuel--stories--to run their search engine.

Nothing has changed before or after Guttenberg: a good story made the fireside sacred, made the book important, made cinema mythological, made radio hypnotic, made TV a vehicle for advertising, and can make social media--yes, social media and your web site--meaningful to others.

Foundational stories aren't complex, just deep enough to keep you expanding on their core. Here's a few I've written just in the last week:

1. Some stories address "conflict" right out of the gate...

A new client told me that the software he had written in the 1980s as a teen-ager is still in use today in the furniture fabrication world. He solved automation problems, but his journey to automation led him to see the value of creating one-of-a-kind objects for urban homes based on engineering excellence.

That's his story, and it's the basis for why his new company provides thoughtful, hand-made products that will stand out in the market. Everything he creates comes from the realization that something can always be engineered in a better way. So, every piece of furniture has a story to tell about how it improves a small urban space without automation dictating the design. This story is the basis for his bio, his vision, blog entries...

2. Storytelling skills make the story interesting:

A psychologist came to me concerned that she had "over-thought" what she did for her patients. Her "over-thinking" paralyzed her marketing efforts. (Yes, psychologists get stuck sometimes, too.) She felt so mired down in academic ideas, she could no longer explain the benefits of what she offered without launching into a dissertation. Her story needed distillation. It needed trans-port-ability...
The emotional "pain" her clients came to her with became our focus for her story. Her clients often use their emotional pain as a doorway for new potential. The pain is the opportunity for understanding emotional patterns, patterns everyone feels trapped in at one time or another in their lives. "Pain" is also the gateway to true healing. Her work offers a sense of relief and deeper relationship to the meaning of emotional pain:

"Pain" is something most people avoid, but it's the springboard to greater learning for her patients. And, it's the basis for the story that leads to everything she'll use to talk about what she does in her practice, and on her web site and blog.

3. A story is often a break-through for creating your brand
An owner of a well-know specialty store for eyeglasses came to me because she wanted to find the common thread to unite her love of art and the one-of-a-kind eyeglasses she sells.

For my client, we discovered together that the art of seeing is an act of personal expression. She showcases eyewear that is "jewelry for the eyes...Because the art of seeing is the art of life." And her specialty eyewear store is the "art of seeing for a unique you."

"The art of seeing" is her campaign, her brand. It's the basis for every story she will tell about the originality of her handmade eyeglasses. It's the reason why art and eyeglasses go together, and it's the story that her demographic uses to justify spending a little more on original frames.
It's also the basis for every 'lifestyle' discussion that she creates for her blog and every other social media outlet she uses.

Writing a Foundational Story is how you get the content you need, the viable content for each marketing medium you use to spread your message.

There are quite a few movie star faces to get seduced by:

Yet, your story is more than a clever headline. Don't be held captive by headlines seen on any billboard or side of a bus, or corporate consumer web site. THOSE ARE THE FINISHING TOUCHES ON AN EVOLVED STORY THAT HAS TAKEN MONTHS TO FIND ITS VOICE. Much harder, is developing a story that could springboard itself to every kind of medium.

After you've built that foundation story, your script, you've got the ammunition--not popcorn--for every single marketing weapon under the sun--including your website. This is the way to compel people on a blog, with something to say on Facebook, or a series of search words for a Search Engine Marketing campaign destined to inspire clicks. And when the credits roll, the explosion should come from new sales, not the special effect of the latest marketing medium...

But here's the story: a well-done marketing medium is rare--without a compelling story.

So how do you start to build a Foundational Story?
How can you start to uncover a Foundational Story that champions the benefits of what you? I use a couple of key questions that always open the door to a Foundational Story:

What do your clients, or your customers, sincerely praise you or your company for? What do they tell you they are most grateful for concerning what you do for them?

What are you most proud of in your work?

The answers to these two questions are the gateway to what you feel is meaningful about the work you do. The answers you mull over in your mind--or declare adamantly--are the beginnings of your deeper story.

For my sequel, I'll have examples of more Foundational Stories with ways to get around the use of the first draft words, 'everyday-speak' words and 'corporatespeak' words that can trivialize and diminish the emotional power of a Foundational Story....

HEART ATTACK or ATTACK OF HEART? The Entrepreneur lives in a state of arrest between the two. Paradox, it turns out, is good for the heart...

2009-09-18T23:18:03Z

Entrepreneurs as soldiers of paradox:

While most sane people run out of a burning building, the entrepreneur runs into that metaphorical building of burning opportunity. That makes entrepreneurs both heroes and antiheroes; like daredevils for dollars and for deeper meaning.

Entrepreneurs are both celebrated and considered a little crazy--if not ridiculous--by non-preneurs; they're admired and scoffed at; put on a pedestal and at the same time, looked down upon.

So, entrepreneurs have an emotional tough skin. But what they really have, I've noticed, is a deeper relationship to contradiction. What's the contradiction? Entrepreneurs understand the opposite is true of what scares the bones out of everyone else. Entrepreneurs have a I've-been-there-and-back-and-lived-to-tell-the-tale relationship to the 4 scariest parts of the psychological stomping ground of entrepreneurialism.

1. Risk

Risk is a heart attack subject for most people. Our innate desire is to tame the wild beast of risk and live securely without the fear of losing everything. Everyday sales copy is written to talk about how safe risks are--an oxymoron as salty as the phrase, 'jumbo shrimp'. Imagine honest sales promotions with copy that read: 'Now you just might blow everything, so think hard about this....'
Risks for everyday people come with multiple airbags and soothing lite rock with a no-slip-grip tether to the mothership. Yet, the whole point of risking so much to find a reward that is bigger than what immediate security can offer. Risk is a relationship lack of security for a meaningful reward.
The attack of heart is the reward you can't get anywhere else. (hint: it's probably less about money and more about doing something meaningful for yourself, and for the world.)
So while most people have a heart attack in the face of 'risk', entrepreneurs thrive on imminent reward.

2. Failure

Consider the toxic threat of losing everything--including your self worth. That's a major heart attack. But ask any entrepreneur who has accomplished extraordinary things and they'll tell you that failures are blessings in disguise. Failures offer secret intelligence not discovered any other way. Failure is the fire for a new strategy, one that cuts the fat and transforms your thinking. Ultimately, failure's gift is resolve. Resolve is what entrepreneurs need to make a next move. Failure is actually knowing more than anyone else in the room and doing something about it.
Some entrepreneurs do not regard their disappointments as failures, but as new opportunities about to be born--attacks of heart spring-loaded to bring them closer to success.

3. Uncertainty

Uncertainty drives people slowly insane. Most people claim they can 'handle anything' as long they know what they're up against. (Good luck with that). Yet, whether they know it or not, entrepreneurs thrive on uncertainty. The attack of heart is a sudden new angle, a surprise breakthrough; an unexpected turn that opens a new door to a lucrative possibility.
Uncertainty is an attack of heart; it's the doorway where innovation leaps out of the shadows and into your arms.

4. Selling

One of the massive entrepreneurial heart attacks of all time is when entrepreneurs experience the dark sales epiphany: the realization that selling to others is a non-negotiable part of the entrepreneurial game plan for success. Most entrepreneurs don't count on that.
The heart attack begins with the thought of selling and...never really ends. The subject of sales is repulsive. Terrifying too. Hallucinations of becoming a Camaro driving, cologne drenched sales eel--slithering, manipulating, pressuring--squeeze the life out of...our...polite....entrepreneur protagonist...(gasp) forever paralyzing her ability to offer something that others need.

Entrepreneurs are soldiers of paradox who transcend the common blood-pressure raising sales paradigm.

Their attack of heart is their deeper knowledge--the irrefutable knowledge--of how they positively affect the lives of people. Entrepreneurs who find a way to access the deeper knowledge of what they do, have an in-depth understanding of how they--their products or ideas--bring good things to the people who buy them.

They don't pressure others--just the opposite--they help their audience tap into something significant about their lives.

Soldiers of paradox never stop redefining their relationship to their own ideas. Soldiers of paradox never stop learning about how they positively affect others. This emotional and strategic knowledge explodes entrepreneurial confidence.

For you, the entrepreneur, such imperative confidence is your gateway to a unique persuasion charisma--the core of what you use to attract people interested in what you offer.

An attack of heart: The knowledge of how you are meaningful to others and your ability to attract the right supporters--both inside your company and outside your company's walls.

So as an entrepreneur, part of your job is to have a deeper relationship to what really scares you and most everyone else. Ask yourself:

1.   Risk: What is your reward?
2.   Failure: Can you use it for your advantage?
3.   Uncertainty: Can it not drive you crazy, is there something waiting to   surprise you?
4.   Sales: Can you instead amaze people, and provide them a fascinating experience?

The Hilarious and Absurd, a Trojan Horse for the Burning Truth: How 'the Onion' Can Turn You Into an Authentic Hero for Your Company

2009-07-30T18:06:51Z

I think most people would agree... The Onion proves absurdity is just one inch from the truth that lives in the back of our minds. In less than seven words a headline forces us to laugh right past the hulking taboos of sex, politics and religion. Absurdity seems reasonable when you read the Onion. The real news seems just absurd.

The man on the street rarely seems to share my views, but I always know where an Onion news character is coming from. Always.

Please, feel free to laugh out loud if you are in a public place. These Onion headlines are my personal favorites:

"God Makes Surprise Visit to Local Church"

Can you just imagine the "big-guy" showing up to this church and saying, hey, don't worry about me...I'll just take a seat in the back...just pretend I'm not here...

Or how about:

"U.N. Acquires its Own Nuclear Weapon"

So, what's stopping the U.N. from getting together and simply deciding that they want to be on the wining side? Peace is hard, man. And if they all chipped in...

Going for ultra absurd:

"Headless Man in Topless Bar"

Actually, that's a headline from the New York Post published in the mid 1980s. How could a headline be so matter of fact, yet so implausible?

What are these headlines really capable of beyond the initial knee-slapping laugh?

The hilariousness is a Trojan horse, one that has stolen its way into the kingdom of your unconscious mind. There, an authentic story about religion, politics and sex is alive and genuflecting.

Using humor, a volcanic layer of unassailable authenticity about very controversial subjects bubbles to the surface--like molten lava transformed into to a glass of lip tickling, giggle inducing, sparkling wine. Absurdity shares a seat in the Trojan Horse too. Crouched in the corner and hiding, is the deep thinking that has gone into making each headline an ironic window into a deeper issue. Behind these headlines are some very real convictions. Compare these supposedly trivial headlines to the web site copy written for most company web sites. How many times have you read (or refused to read) about a company's claim that they are honest or leaders in their field...

Go ahead. Nobody is looking. Psychoanalyze those claims.

Unconsciously, are they afraid you--the reader--might think something else?

Where's the deeper story about why you came to visit that site in the first place?

I've written my own short piece for the Onion about the words many companies choose for their critical web copy:

Company Owners Stunned to Learn:
Bragging About Having 'Reliability', 'Service' and 'Integrity' makes their web copy just plain suck.

"We thought using these cliched platitudes in our messaging would actually lead to people buying from us," said fictional CEO Bobby Bojangles. "But we found out that everyone is reliable, has great service and has integrity. Now what?" he asked, flummoxed.

The 'now what' is to imagine the staff of the Onion showing up at your company to write a lambasting, fictitious article about your industry--or your company.

When everyone finished wiping the the pie off their faces, a hilarious--albeit absurd and truthful--story would uncover the true grit about what people really think about your industry or company.

You'd get some major laughs. Best, you'd wind up with some marketing gold. No posturing about being a leader, no fixating on being numero uno. That fictitious Onion headline, having poked fun about your company would open a gateway to authenticity and marketing power.

Question: What would the Onion write about YOUR company, or your industry?

Sit down with a cup of coffee. Make some serious fun of your company or what you do. Or how you do it. Do it brutally. Honestly. Without Integrity. Be prepared for a major guffaw.

Write it with a friend who 'gets it', and share the laughs. Let the laughs roll. Have some fun. (Seriously, many great sales letters have been written this way.)

Imagine this:

Your company sells big printer equipment for signage companies in your state. There are a thousand of these companies selling the same thing. Your headline? (hint: it's about something that causes deep--and unspoken--sales tension in your industry)

9 Billionth Company in the USA Continues to Sell Yet Another 'Me Too' Product!

"Wow!" exclaims a nearby elderly man watering his lawn in shorts and black tubesocks. "How will they do it?"

The article could go on to talk about how the company owners are so excited to have nothing that special to offer, really, just big printers like a lot of other competitors. The article would continue with the absurd proclamation that this company enjoys enacting the same business model as every other vendor because it gives them a chance to actually feel like they fit in. After years in the business, the pressure to be different was only 'making them feel like braggart outcasts, and that's not nice'...

"Yeah, we hate all the pressure to differentiate," one of the owners could say. An intervening customer's quote: "But they actually have better prices and they offer the best professional help I have ever encountered in the industry."

Aw, who quoted my mom for this story? the owner would ask. And so on. That would be funny article to read.

94 percent of all companies would scream bloody murder if somebody attempted this idea...the company brand for most companies is just is too sacred.

One has to ask: to whom is the brand sacred? To the CEO, or the buyers? That's the question.

--For the other six percent, an absurd and comedic article like this would actually stand the chance of getting read.

--If you wrote an absurd and self-deprecating article about your company, you obviously don't have to publish it to everyone. Such an article could become a great sales letter addressed to some very savvy clients.

--Writing an absurd sales letter performs a healthy 'absurdity inquiry' about your company offering. It's a doorway to new marketing exploration.

--Your customers will consider you an authority; only very secure and successful people can produce revenue generating marketing that champions hidden truths and escapes the doldrums of corporatespeak.