Ramzey’s Big Ideas #3: What’s the Story?

If I asked you what your business did, a normal answer would be that it sells products or services in some way. But I prefer the business of telling stories – and I want to talk about two aspects: the story of you, and, the story of your brand.

CHANGING YOUR OWN STORY WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

We are constantly bombarded by sights and sounds every day. And yet, our own inner voice is our  number 1 “propaganda machine” – always has been, always will be. So, if we have too many days where our inner voice is telling us we’ll never make it, we probably won’t – regardless of our support network.

How does YOUR inner voice sound? Do the stories it tells have happy endings? If not, it’s time to CHANGE your story – distance yourself from limitations and embrace the truth. In my 20s, I was telling other people’s stories by running franchise businesses for someone else’s vision. Eventually, I realised that no one else was going to change things but me. I had such a strong vision for The Grounds – a brand new, purer story to tell.

And this is important. If you’re surrounded by people who aren’t letting you tell your stories – they’re limiting them – then it’s time to turn the page and ease them out of your life.

YOUR BUSINESS NEEDS TO TELL STORIES TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

I talked a little about this last week – in terms of emotion driving the fitout of a physical store, and not the other way around. It’s so important to get your customers on board from the moment they enter. In fact, even before that – from the moment they see the door handle.

Door handle? That’s right. It’s that very first impression they get of a place, even before they walk through the door. Who says it has to be a knob or handle? For our Garden BBQ, we choose meat cleavers as the handles (blunt of course!) and I’ll occasionally catch a glimpse of someone snapping a photo of them when I’m walking past. That’s right – a door handle. You can tell simple stories everywhere.

If you can inspire your customers with many many small things, imagine the potential. What we are doing is identical to the “propaganda machine” but this time for our customers. The truth is that brands are more memorable when they have stories attached to them. If you don’t have something, invent it.

AND FINALLY

You have control over three things in life: The stories you tell, the images you visualise and the actions you take. If you focus on thinking positive stories, visualising more successful outcomes and taking positive action to achieve those outcomes, you are guaranteed to experience better results in your personal and professional life. At this point, I could talk more about restaurant/cafe design tips. But that’s another story.

“Don’t think outside the box; think like there is no box.”

Until next week.

R