the-strategic-storyteller
According to online reviewers, the best thing about "The Strategic Storyteller" is its practical insights and actionable strategies for enhancing storytelling skills, making it valuable for both beginners and experienced storytellers. The worst aspect noted by some reviewers is that certain concepts may feel repetitive, and the content could have benefited from more diverse examples.
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Highlights
asset: its brand. Stories are the base unit of reputation. Not to tell your own is to have no reputation or to cede its construction to others. — location: 259 ^ref-25479
They aren’t effective because they force ideas, but because they awaken our vital needs for wisdom, wonder, and delight. — location: 337 ^ref-8134
providing a steady stream of truly useful information is a surefire way to differentiate yourself and elevate your brand. — location: 339 ^ref-14539
To be loved, an ad only needed this basic structure: a beginning, middle, and end, with some conflict and tension along the way. — location: 351 ^ref-9138
When we are caught up in a good story, our minds are exactly where advertisers want us to be: paying attention and full of good feelings to attach to the focus of that attention.2 The more empathy we have for somebody, fictional or otherwise, the more we trust that person. — location: 358 ^ref-52408
in the moment can rewrite the pathways of memory. To reset a conversation, he didn’t need persuasive ideas or even any ideas at all. He just needed a mechanism to disseminate delight. This is a strategic insight that will never go stale. — location: 446 ^ref-59460
Content marketing is about convening people around an aspirational idea, one that delights them and inspires them. — location: 466 ^ref-18361
Don’t underestimate the power of content to convene and to activate far‐flung networks simply because of the promise of wonder and delight. — location: 469 ^ref-59286
how company changes are sold within certain Japanese corporations. The change is announced autocratically from on high, and then all employees are required to handwrite and turn in a document detailing exactly how that change will affect them. And the process is considered done. — location: 487 ^ref-10607
When you want to change your company’s reputation or sell an idea, content plays the role of all the characters talking up a star part. — location: 500 ^ref-34658
Content, because it is inherently sharable, acts like a surrogate member in the various networks of influence within your company. Give them a succession of boring e‐mails or, worse, a presentation deck glutted with clichés, and the idea is dead on arrival. But give them stories, and change will spread with all the speed and delight of a particularly dishy rumor. — location: 501 ^ref-45675
you’ve got to get the right knowledge about your brand out there in the form of stories that people absorb and share. — location: 542 ^ref-64995
having a master brand narrative in mind—one that everybody in your company can use—is crucial. — location: 544 ^ref-25443
think of the guiding narrative as a living document, something to be revised yearly or quarterly. We’ve seen it function as something of an informal company newsletter, but one that employees actually want to read. — location: 572 ^ref-39528
In the world of long‐term brand building, the only winning strategy is one where you smarten up, never dumb down. — location: 741 ^ref-1082
can’t create desire without understanding what humans desire, and you can’t shape a reputation without understanding how people think. — location: 904 ^ref-41060
iPod as “one thousand songs in your pocket” rather than “a tiny 6.5‐ounce portable music player with 5G of storage.” — location: 968 ^ref-24924
speaks directly to her soldiers, without using ostentatious rhetoric, which the most authentic storytellers are skilled — location: 1012 ^ref-37079
For ages, the most skilled storytellers have empowered listeners to take action. — location: 1039 ^ref-24114
“If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And here I made a rule—a great and interesting story is about everyone or it will not last.” So make it about human nature. — location: 1050 ^ref-7291
More than 75 percent said they were willing to share data with a brand they trust, and 80 percent said they would share nonrequired data for reward points, product recommendations, or for a tool to help them with complex decisions. — location: 1181 ^ref-61032
Serialization is the art of targeting audiences with the same message repeatedly but in a way that still feels fresh. — location: 1591 ^ref-24433