Why does the President Elect of America need to tell stories?

Hello, and you can't have helped but notice today is Election Day in America. And that just makes me think about the great American story. And I was listening to Joe Biden this evening talking as he was there with 253 college votes. And I was struck by his speech in which really he starts to articulate the story of what it is to be American, what it is to have democracy and the binding forces that will bring the nation together after the fairly tumultuous 4 years that America's gone through. And I was interested in this not necessarily from a political perspective, although of course that's interesting, but from the context of telling a story. And the American story, the American dream, is one of the greatest narratives in the world. It binds people of all nationalities and all types together in in a common sense of vision and hope embodied in the expression of being the land of the free and the brave. Now, from a public relations point of view, this story, the narrative around America as the land of the free and the brave, is perhaps the ultimate when it comes to showing how stories can create vision. And those people that play the role of mentor or president or leader are the guardians of that vision and the role they can play in leading the country. Now I'm working on the SPEAK PR Mastermind, and SPEAK stands for Storify, Personalize, Engage, Amplify, and To Know. And the Storify part of the program really looks at the need to create a narrative around a particular cause. And I want to drill into that a little bit more today because actually storification, as I call it, is central really for companies now and organizations to be communicating around the core values that they have. Now, Seth Godin, the marketing guru, says that marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make but the stories that you tell. And I've had Park Howell on this podcast talking about the business of story, and I thought listening to Joe Biden, that this idea of story and how it can lead not just companies but nations is really very powerful. So I want to just drill down into the elements of a story that we can all use as business leaders and that we should be thinking about using as this structure for our communications program. So first of all, what we have is the context So when we're looking at creating a story, first of all, we need to think about the context. What was the situation that did exist? What was happening before there was a disruption of some kind? So the disruption could be a technology disruption, it could be a political disruption, it could be a medical disruption, as we've seen with COVID So something was taking place before Then there was a disruption, and then there was a solution. And the solution would be the entrepreneurs. The entrepreneurs would come along and see how we can fix that problem and would build then a business or an organization, an NGO, in order to move all of the characters within the story along their journey. And in the context of the American election, it has been Donald Trump who's been the disruption. And Joe Biden today was talking about the need to reunify the country and to be not just a Democratic president, but rather the American president, and that the offices of a president are for the people, not for one party. So it transpires that really there are a number of consistent patterns in stories, and the most popular are threefold. There is the fall and then the rise, such as Harry Potter. Then there's the rise and the fall, which is Icarus. And then there's the fall, the rise, and the fall, which would be Oedipus. Or possibly what we might see is Donald Trump, who has struggled and then risen to fame, and after the election may struggle and fall again. So these core story narratives are ones that in fact all great stories and movies are written around. And what Randy Olson then calls this ABT, the and-but- But therefore, which I'm translating into the the context of what was happening, then the problem, which was the disruption, and then what comes along as the solution. Now, of course, in the solution is what we as organizations and as entrepreneurs create to solve the problems. But when we come to public relations and to communications, that 3-part story is really only the framework, but it's not actually the detail, and that's what we need. So I just want to look at that now, because if we look at these different elements that Park Howell has described, and I'm going to describe now, when we're creating the, the marketing materials and the narratives around our own businesses, we can use these different elements Because they create the context and the vocabulary and the framework for our own communications, be they public relations, advertising, social media, and so on. So let's just look at the elements that go into the overall narrative. We have a backstory. The backstory is what was happening, for example, in the life of the founders of the company. What were they doing before deciding to start the company? What was the context that they were living within politically, geographically, socially, demographically? So setting the context. The second part would be the hero or the heroine, and these are the people that are impacted by the problem that has arisen. So the hero in the business is actually the customer or the member of staff or the partner. It's not the CEO. So this is perhaps a modern take on the story, and this is where the hero is somebody going on a journey of discovery, and the CEO is not the hero of the book. They are more like the mentor or the coach. And in the same way that the President of the United States is not the hero normally. They are the facilitator. They're the person who creates the structures and the policies that enable the American people to get on and live the American dream. So the hero in modern stories and in our own business is the people that the business serves. Not the person who runs the business. The third element are the stakes. So what is at risk, or what do the heroes want? What do the customers and the staff and the partners all want from the business, and what's it worth to them? And importantly, what do they have now that they're willing to either lose, or will they lose if they don't change? This leads us on to the fourth element, which is the disruptive forces. So how has a market changed, and what does this mean for the heroes? Remember, the heroes are our staff or our customers. How great are these disruptive forces that will enforce change? In other words, if it's, for example, like COVID, or if it's a war, or if it's a political change? What are the people in the story going to lose if they don't change? And what are those forces and how are they going to manifest themselves? The next elements are the antagonists. So these are the people or the policies or the companies that are limiting the companies from making the changes that they would otherwise need to make. These can be regulatory technology or science or legal or financial barriers. And in a movie, these would be the bad guys. They would be the people stopping the young couple eloping or getting married. These would be the people denying the, uh, the young athlete the opportunity to go to college to study sports, for example. The next element is the mentor. The mentor is the person that creates the organization, and indeed in the organization itself, that helps to overcome those challenges. So if we think of our organization and the leadership of that organization as facilitators of the hero's journey, We become, for example, like a Yoda in Star Wars. So it's important then to recognize that each customer or each member of staff or each partner is on a journey. So when we are thinking about our communications activity and the narrative of the story, we want to think about when and where is our hero in their journey. I like to think of it from their journey from ignorance through to evangelism about the brand. But before that, we need to solve the problem that they are trying to solve. So as an organization, we are there to help them on their way. We help them to overcome the challenges or to get the joy or to achieve their goals by providing the goods or services that we as a company provide. The next part then is to identify what victory looks like to our heroes. Are they standing atop a large mountain? Are they collating assets without stress? Are they helping their loved ones to feel safe or to have gone to college? Are we reducing their impact on the environment? So the heroes are on a journey And the victory is when they've passed through the various challenges that the journey will have on its way. When they've overcome the obstacles thrown at them by the antagonists, then they will have victory. If we can articulate what the victory looks like for our heroes, then these become the images and the words and the infographics and the videos that we are using in our marketing. And if we look at emotion as the final part of the story, how does our hero feel once they have fulfilled their journey and once they have attained their victory? Are they feeling relieved? Are they no longer afraid? Are they ambitious now, or are they confident? Do they no longer have fear? So if we can start to identify the emotions that they will have as a result of buying our goods and services, we get closer to knowing what kind of words we should be putting in our public relations and advertising marketing content. So this is why it's important for the hero to be the customer or the team member or the partner, not the CEO of the company. Therefore, as any mentor would know, or even a parent would know, that the joy comes from watching the success of your mentees or your children. That's really what the business of storytelling is doing. It's starting to cast the customers and the team members and the partners as the heroes of the story. So when we talk about Speak PR, the storification of our business, we talk about breaking down the company journey into chapters so that it can be articulated through the different formats of content. But what I'm also working on in the Speak PR Mastermind is helping people to look at the timing. Because quite often companies really talk about the here and the now, and they maybe forget about the past and don't project into the future fully enough. So it's an opportunity that's missed when it comes to communications. So what we need to look at is the journey, and we need to look at the company's chronology, and we need to look at the chronology in the context of where the business has come from and what was happening before for the business and for the market, the problem that the entrepreneurs saw in the marketplace and why those people were not able to accomplish those goals that they want to accomplish, and the solutions that the entrepreneurs and the company or the organization has created. So in the Speak PR methodology, the first part is Storify. And we do that by looking across these different elements that we have: the backstory, the hero, the stakes, the disruptive forces, the antagonists, the mentor, the journey, the victory, and the emotion. It's not supposed to sound complicated. It's just a structure that you can use when you start thinking about the kind of content you can create And this is important because I talk to many entrepreneurs and they have very much a product-focused approach to their communications. And what we really need to do is to broaden out the scope of the communications platform because then the content can be more expansive, more consistent, and also more engaging. So we need to think then about stories and which storylines that we can create for our customers. There was a list made by a chap called Foster Harris all the way back in 1959, and he claimed there are only 3 stories: the happy ending, the unhappy ending, and the tragedy. Now obviously what we're trying to create for our clients, who we believe are our heroes, is a happy ending. And we can do that by creating a narrative which shows that we understand what they're going through, we've created a solution to help them to take their journey through to its conclusion, to victory, and that we will give them happiness if they work with us. And that's important because we want our customers and our team and our partners to become evangelists for the brand, and they'll only do that if they have victory with our brand. Now, coming all the way back to the presidential conversations tonight with Joe Biden talking possibly prematurely but certainly sounding as though he believes he's won, really talking about getting America back on track. And I saw one comment saying that America would be pleased if Joe Biden won just because the last 4 years has been exhausting. So we talk about the emotion that the heroes have at the end. So in the case of the American election, the emotion may well be one of relief, certainly for one half of the American population. But as we tell our stories about our own businesses, let's think about the journey that we're helping our clients, our heroes, to take, and what we can do to facilitate that journey, to make them into heroes, to make them feel supported and special. And in doing so, our own business will become an essential part of their lives. Be they a consumer or a business. So storification is the first part of our 5-stage methodology, and I think it's really important to start with this part whenever I'm talking to clients, because the product story itself is too limiting, but it also misses out much too much of the conversation. And people need stories because it's how they manage large amounts of information, but it's also how they get a sense of loyalty to another person. And ultimately, it will be the sense of trust in the individuals running the company, then the mentors that the company provides, that will create sustainable value and great communications content. So certainly the American election has shown us an amazing amount of content And President Trump has taught us many new communications tools over the last 4 years, some of which will be productive for your organization, some of which will not. The main message that we have is that the American people are the heroes in this election, and in the same way that the American people are the heroes, your customers, your partners, and your team are the heroes of your business. So let's create stories around them and let them feel special tonight.