The Zone Archives - Rettew Creative

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What does it really mean to tell a story? Finding the Zone!

What does it mean to really tell a story? What does it mean to be in the zone? To feel totally connected with the idea you are trying to reach into, understand, taste, smell, iterate? What is the zone…that common place that we feel extremely connected to something not beyond our reach, but beyond our discourse, the language that describes.

Telling rich stories is finding the zone of understanding, comprehension, imagination…and turning that realization into pieces translated so others with like minds comprehend and give language. Language is symbolic. Opposing arguments create connected drama.

I am always in search of a good story. One that puts me in the zone. I am in search of people that want to tell their story, regardless if they admit it or not. I am in search of people and organizations that have a story to tell but yet have no discourse by which to translate so others can see their viewpoint through their lens.

I am looking for layers. Stories with layers engage and are memorable. It is easy to tell the beginning, middle, and end…but what about the stories that are not that simple. Stories, layers, richness that require thought, context, and multiple viewpoints to bring the audience into the zone of complete and utter comprehension. Connection.

What is the zone…the true commonplace. The space that is closed between your idea of comprehension and the place where the orator brings you to see his/her viewpoint. You know that place. It is the place similar to the movie theatre when slowly but surely you loose your peripheral vision and you are totally and completely engaged with the storyline. You forget your surroundings so much that you can almost smell the flowers in the screen, you can feel the water around you. Have you been there before. What does it take to create you own theater? An emotional connection.

The zone is the place where the author/orator meet the audience and they dance to this merry little song where you can recite the words just the way the writer meant for you to sing. That moment at a concert where the singer on the stage pauses during a common part of the song and the audience sings without skipping a beat…you know the zone. The place where audience and author/writer/orator are in complete cadence.

What does it mean to tell a story? Well…it is helping the audience find your zone, their zone and see the same red-string, the same theme in complete agreement.

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Efficient Storytelling Increases Connectivity

One of the hardest things I think I have ever taught or created was the “Elevator Pitch”. Have you ever tried to sit down and write your elevator pitch for your business, your message, or your cause? You know what I am talking about, when you walk into a room of people (whether large or small) and you shake hands and they ask, “Hey there, how are you…tell me about yourself.” Can you recite that perfect message, that one piece that not only peeks someone’s interest but has one major characteristic: it is repeatable. Why repeatable? Well, you want that person to remember your pitch, and be able to have that person turn around and introduce you to someone else and be able to repeat that pitch for you…increasing connectivity.

The same thing is true for creating an effective 30 second television spot. Think about it for a second, it is a company’s elevator pitch. You have only one shot to grab someone’s attention, relay and efficient and effective message that pulls someone off the couch or from across the room to pay attention, understand and comprehend, then be able to remember to repeat it. Why repeat, so they can go find your product/service/cause or tell someone that might need or want that product/service/cause.

As I discussed in the my blog entry Building Communities Around Media | Stories of Connectivity, communities are not connected via relationships, yet stories are the connectivity between relationships that build communities. These stories have to be efficient so that the connectivity increases. If you can tell a story, deliver a pitch, create a effective/repeatable spot; people are much more willing and able to repeat that story…and their connectivity increases via those stories.

Imagine walking in a room filled with 500 people. If you had a story to tell, a pitch to give, or an introduction to present; and this story can’t be told efficiently and effectively. The people that you are there to meet loose interest, change the subject, and less likely to connect you with other individuals (their friends in the room). The same is true with that television spot. If the message is not efficient and the story gets lost, then audience is more likely to TiVo past this spot or just not pay attention.

What do I mean by an efficient story, it comes down to understanding purpose, brand, audience, and delivery. You have to recognize that core message for that story and deliver in a fashion that is repeatable. There is a litmus test I like to use; the power of this Social Media Tool called Twitter. Have you ever written a script for a spot or that elevator pitch, now see if you can write in 140 characters. Yes, so you can Tweet that message. But if you want to make it repeatable, then write it in 120 characters just incase someone wants to Re-Tweet the message which usually takes up 20 characters.

The point of this discussion comes down to one example…Super Bowl Television Spots. These are crucial time slots where companies invest millions of dollars in placement, messaging, research, and production. Do you think they better create a message that is efficient enough, effective enough so that one time it runs during the Super Bowl, you will remember it and do exactly what they want you to do. Most of these companies have one shot to increase connectivity in the communities they are trying to attract…by creating a memorable, efficient, repeatable message. The more efficient, the more memorable, the more repeatable, the more it will reach more ears…thus increasing connectivity.

One of the hardest things I think I have ever taught or created was the “Elevator Pitch”. Have you ever tried to sit down and write your elevator pitch for your business, your message, or your cause? You know what I am talking about, when you walk into a room of people (whether large or small) and you shake hands and they ask, “Hey there, how are you…tell me about yourself.” Can you recite that perfect message, that one piece that not only peeks someone’s interest but has one major characteristic: it is repeatable. Why repeatable? Well, you want that person to remember your pitch, and be able to have that person turn around and introduce you to someone else. Be able to repeat that pitch for you…increasing connectivity.

The same thing is true for creating an effective 30 second television spot. Think about it for a second, it is a company’s elevator pitch. You have only one shot to grab someone’s attention, relay an efficient and effective message that pulls someone off the couch or from across the room to pay attention, understand and comprehend, then be able to remember to repeat it. Why repeat, so they can go find your product/service/cause or tell someone that might need or want that product/service/cause.

As I discussed in the my blog entry Building Communities Around Media | Stories of Connectivity, communities are not connected via relationships, yet stories are the connectivity between relationships that build communities. These stories have to be efficient so that the connectivity increases. If you can tell a story, deliver a pitch, create a effective/repeatable spot; people are much more willing and able to repeat that story…and their connectivity increases via those stories.

Imagine walking in a room filled with 500 people. If you had a story to tell, a pitch to give, or an introduction to present; and this story can’t be told efficiently and effectively…then the people that you are there to meet loose interest, change the subject, and less likely to connect you with other individuals (their friends in the room). The same is true with that television spot. If the message is not efficient and the story gets lost, then audience is more likely to TiVo past this spot or just not pay attention.

What do I mean by an efficient story, it comes down to understanding purpose, brand, audience, and delivery. You have to recognize that core message for that story and deliver in a fashion that is repeatable. There is a litmus test I like to use; the power of this Social Media Tool called Twitter. Have you ever written a script for a spot or that elevator pitch, now see if you can write it in 140 characters…tell that same story in only 140 characters. Yes, so you can Tweet that message. But if you want to make it repeatable, then write it in 120 characters just incase someone wants to Re-Tweet the message which usually takes up 20 characters. The point here is to drill it down to the core message and make it so it is replicatable.

The point of this discussion comes down to one example…Super Bowl Television Spots. These are crucial time slots where companies invest millions of dollars in placement, messaging, research, and production. Do you think they better create a message that is efficient enough, effective enough so that one time, ONE TIME it runs during the Super Bowl, you will remember it and do exactly what they want you to do. Most of these companies have one shot to increase connectivity in the communities they are trying to attract…by creating a memorable, efficient, repeatable message. The more efficient, the more memorable, the more repeatable, the more ears it will reach…thus increasing connectivity.

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Building Communities Around Media | Stories of Connectivity

Telling stories has to have a purpose…there is a reason why you want to tell that story! You want to reach an audience, you want someone to listen to your story. We have been telling stories as long as we can remember. Whether it is around the kitchen table, in the car, wherever there is someone to listen.

We need a medium to deliver the story; whether it is our voice, the written word, or some piece of technology. These stories are told to create a group of listeners, ones who are attracted to these stories, and sometimes in a way so that they can repeat them. Whether it is the printing press, a website, video, pen & paper, radio, or even the cave walls…technology takes these stories and creates a community around the distribution method.

From one perspective, communities are built around people and relationships. The communities grow as the relationships grow, and as more and more people cross paths, the level of connectivity increases. But for those people to connect, there must be a “red string” that connects these relationships, so a piece of communication that connects is the common place. That common place, that “red string” are stories. The stories are the ties that bind communities.

Think about LinkedIn, which has the different degrees of connectivity between relationships. But how is that relationship formed? What story was told to connect those people together, or that layer of connectivity, that “red string” that ties those people together? The lines that connect the dots represent that story of connectivity.

Those who have larger layers of connectivity have the ability to use some distribution method (voice, technology, etc.) as a shared place to continually transmit those stories.

So this brings me to the thesis of this discussion, stories of purpose that have found the right method to deliver and so create the connectivity in the communities in which we exist. So how are we really telling our stories, how are we really relaying our passion? Are we sharing to a mass audience or a small group of people?

Think for a second…remember when you are trying to remember a conversation you had or how you arrived at a particular thought. You start back-tracking though the stories you heard, the stories that were told. You identify the conversations you had…those conversations take place between people. Can you remember the stories that have had the greatest impacts on the people you told? Think…what story have you told that created a reaction then was repeated to another?

We want to know how stories are reaching people right now. We want to measure it through tracking mechanisms, whether it be Google Analytics, Neilsen Meters, number of magazines sold, or even the number of people that sign up to hear us speak. Is it tracking the connectivity via technology? What it’s really tracking is the effectiveness of the story. We all want our story to be told, we want someone to repeat that story in its complete authenticity. We want to connect with those who identify with our stories. Are we more focused on the reach or the story itself?

Technology is a commodity, the distribution point is a commodity, but the story has an equitable value beyond the value associated. There is value in the means to reach the audience, but the true value lies in the heart of the story. The stories are those that connect us to others, not the technology, not other people, but the “red string” of connectivity that lies inside our stories.