neuromagnetism

October 3, 2013December 23, 2016

Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling

We say quite often that entrepreneurs need to become business storytellers.

The brain is wired for narrative and we must lead with stories.

Here are the 22 rules of storytelling according to Emma Coats:

You admire a character for trying more than for their successes.
You gotta keep in mind what’s interesting to you as an audience, not what’s fun to do as a writer. They can be very different.
Trying for theme is important, but you won’t see what the story is actually about til you’re at the end of it. Now rewrite.
Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.
Simplify. Focus. Combine characters. Hop over detours. You’ll feel like you’re losing valuable stuff but it sets you free.
What is your character good at, comfortable with? Throw the polar opposite at them. Challenge them. How do they deal?
Come up with your ending before you figure out your middle. Seriously. Endings are hard, get yours working up front.
Finish your story, let go even if it’s not perfect. In an ideal world you have both, but move on. Do better next time.
When you’re stuck, make a list of what WOULDN’T happen next. Lots of times the material to get you unstuck will show up.
Pull apart the stories you like. What you like in them is a part of you; you’ve got to recognize it before you can use it.
Putting it on paper lets you start fixing it. If it stays in your head, a perfect idea, you’ll never share it with anyone.
Discount the 1st thing that comes to mind. And the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th – get the obvious out of the way. Surprise yourself.
Give your characters opinions. Passive/malleable might seem likable to you as you write, but it’s poison to the audience.
Why must you tell THIS story? What’s the belief burning within you that your story feeds off of? That’s the heart of it.
If you were your character, in this situation, how would you feel? Honesty lends credibility to unbelievable situations.
What are the stakes? Give us reason to root for the character. What happens if they don’t succeed? Stack the odds against.
No work is ever wasted. If it’s not working, let go and move on – it’ll come back around to be useful later.
You have to know yourself: the difference between doing your best & fussing. Story is testing, not refining.
Coincidences to get characters into trouble are great; coincidences to get them out of it are cheating.
Exercise: take the building blocks of a movie you dislike. How d’you rearrange them into what you DO like?
You gotta identify with your situation/characters, can’t just write ‘cool’. What would make YOU act that way?
What’s the essence of your story? Most economical telling of it? If you know that, you can build out from there.

February 21, 2013December 23, 2016

NeuroMarketing and Storytelling

The human brain is wired for narrative. This is why business storytelling is so important.

People make most of their decisions based on unconscious emotions as opposed to rational logic. Data dumps, dense PowerPoint slides and pure stats do not emotionally connect people with your idea. The best way to do that is with “Once upon a time…”

When absorbed in a story, people detect fewer inaccuracies and inconsistencies. More importantly, they don’t seem to care about the errors. However, when reading dry and factual content, people seemed more critical than when reading a story.

By linking your ideas to commonly known stories, you are leveraging a previously established neurological path in your audience’s memory. They will be able to more easily associate your ideas with that known path provided by stories. This way your ideas become more meaningful and memorable.

February 16, 2013December 23, 2016

The Art of NeuroMagnetism

First let me tell you what is NeuroMagnetism
NeuroMagnetism is a combination of strong self-positioning with NeuroMarketing. It helps the individual or company become desirable to the market and to inspire the desired reaction in person’s perception as deeply as possible.

Neuromarketing is a new field of marketing research that studies consumers’ sensorimotor, cognitive, and affective response to marketing stimuli.

Sounds complicate but this shows you ways to hit the consumer’s brain buy buttons.

In one sentence, it is the art to inspire desire because desire leads to action.

NeuroMagnetism goes beyond this and beyond persuasion because it also deals with your brand identity and how you are perceived.

Why is this the age of NeuroMagnetism?

Old models of selling like AIDA- Attention- Interest- Desire- Action struggle in a world where adults have an attention span of less than 9 seconds.
A much better way is to understand NeuroMagnetism, become irresistible to an audience and have the approach of Feel- Think- Do which shortens significantly the sales cycle.

The important part to understand is that there is a process you need to follow in order to get results. It is not about a bunch of tips on how you influence people.

I do relate this process to being a secret agent because if you stop to think about it, there are many commonalities.

The steps are:

Embrace your identity. You have to be aligned with your mission in marketing and in sales. The right mindset helps a lot as does the way you position yourself in front of prospects and customers.

2.Canvas the area. There is always a conversation already taking place in the mind of the consumer and it is your job to figure what is going on and what is wrong.- Find the pain

3.Infiltrate: Once you have the key points you should engage in that conversation, create connections and lead the process.

4.Reveal the assets– Here is where you show your value, show possibilities and solutions. What they gain by working with you. Show the gain.

5.Covert close– Where the sales happens without strong calls to actions and most of the time, the prospect will ask for the purchase.

This process can be applied to a number of scenarios but has always to be applied in marketing messages, copywriting and negotiations. All sales scenarios

If you’d like to go deeper in this topic, watch our webinar on NeuroMagnetism