Nothing motivates action like a time limit. It’s why sales and coupons don’t last forever. Deadlines seem to be hard-wired into our brains. It goes back to caveman days: “We get home before sun [...]

  We live in the “golden age of television”, we are told. First premium cable, and now streaming, unshackled us from the constraints of storytelling dominated by commercial breaks. Now we [...]

Now Christmas is a distant memory, how sad does winter look without the pretty lights and decoration?  At the height of the holidays, you barely notice the inclement weather. Now, without the [...]

  Over the holidays, I was watching one particular Santa-based movie with my family which delivered a powerful lesson about story and reveals what we need to make the sale. So before [...]

There’s one story principle that’s tough to execute, but very valuable if you do it right. This principle gives a story added depth. What does that mean? Simply, the tale penetrates deeper into [...]

J.R.R. Tolkien had a big problem. He loved the ancient, epic tales. He began writing his own (see The Silmarillion). But he quickly discovered that these ancient worlds of honor and vengeance, [...]

In Blake Snyder’s useful screenwriting how-to book, Save The Cat, he talks about two scenes you must have in your movie. An opening image. And a closing image. And one more thing: They should be [...]

You know the game is on when B.A. grabs the welding torch. I’m talking about the scene late in an A-TEAM episode when the gang needs to build something superfast to save the day. Usually involves [...]

Han Solo. Gilderoy Lockhart. Benjamin Grimm. These names of fictional characters are easy to remember. Why? For one thing, they are all examples of “sympathetic naming”. That’s where you name a [...]

As I write this, San Diego’s Comic Con just wrapped up. Fans were served tasty selections of their favorite fictional universes. Predictably, some offerings unleashed a flurry of geek-citement. [...]

We live in the age of Branded Characters. Leave no lunchbox unclaimed by a caped crusader or a spiffy cartoon. Thank goodness. Who wants a boring blue box when you can have a universe of [...]

There’s a simple story technique you can use to quickly build credibility and desire for your product. The best novelists and filmmakers use it, as so do the best ad-slingers. In fact, Eugene [...]

I used to work at a movie theater in high school. One of my best jobs ever. I could watch any movie for free, and eat all the popcorn and drink all the soda I wanted. But some days were bad. When [...]

You know when you’re sitting in a movie theater and hear all the noise before the film begins? The flash of phone screens, the chatter, the rustling in seats, the unwrapping of a big box of Red [...]

When I feel stressed out at the end of the day, and I need to relax, I’ve got something better than single malt scotch. I tune in to an artist with a big ‘fro named Bob Ross, and step in his [...]

Got a “productivity hack” for you today. Especially for all you procrastinators out there, as you sit down in consternation at your vintage Corona-Smith typewriter. (If you’re a hipster or an [...]

  Can you establish credibility while lying your ass off? Yep. Novelists and other storytellers do it all the time. And when you tell true stories as a marketer, you can copy their technique [...]

  I loved watching SNL as a kid. My favorite player? Dana Carvey. You might remember some of his best characters … The very special Church Lady. The dependable Garth. And, of course, the [...]

I’m watching The Crown on Netflix. The show follows the beginning of Queen Elizabeth II’s reign in the 1950s. If you’re into period dramas and stuffy British manners, it might be your kind of [...]

You will lose sales unless you hook your customer’s attention with the very first sentence. But what do you say? Well, to figure that out, let’s look at what not to do. And then just do the [...]

Sell on emotion, justify with logic? Yes, but … Stories teach us that emotions have a logic of their own. We may be irrational, unknowable creatures … But at least in stories, emotions must [...]

So the other day I was reading a book to my 4-year-old and I realized something strange: I want to know how this story ends. The storyteller had sunk his hook into me. So when it came time to [...]

The latest Marvel blockbuster ‘Dr. Strange’ makes you believe in magic. To the tune of $653 million and counting. And one of the secrets of the believability is a little storytelling magic trick [...]

Many blockbuster campaigns are built on the shoulders of the “Big Idea”. But before your customer will buy your product, she has to buy into that idea. How do you win her belief? You don’t want [...]

Do you like Green Eggs and Ham? Most people do – the book by Dr. Seuss, that is. It’s the highest-selling Seuss book of all time, edging out The Cat in The Hat and other favorites. It’s sold 17.5 [...]

When I was in 5th grade, I woke up extra early on Halloween morning and took a seat in the makeup chair. My dad had a plane to catch in a few hours but before he did, he smothered grease paint on [...]

It’s easy to bore your reader when you shift into science mode. Yeah, you often need some technical explanation to prove why your product works. But, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds of jargon [...]

My buddy John, a veteran cop, got kicked out of his house recently. He’s a tough guy, but I’ve never seen him so down in the mouth. Things don’t look good. His old lady just accepted a job on the [...]

I’m slowly introducing my daughter to the Disney movies of my youth. But it’s tough to get my hands on them all because of the dratted Disney Vault. You may know that Disney only sells their best [...]

My nephew recently asked me how The Flash got his super-speed powers. My answer: “Barry Allen was struck by lightning while standing in front of a shelf of chemicals. The combination of the [...]

When I was a teenager, I stood in a long line to watch the first Jurassic Park. I had just read the novel in one big gulp and I was dying to see real dinosaurs on the screen. I wasn’t alone. The [...]

A few years back I followed my buddy to a multilevel marketing event for a health supplements company. It was a big event, designed to bring curious seekers into the fold. Presenters talked up [...]

You can ramp up the intensity of the stories you tell when you insert one basic theme. My friend Michael Hauge revealed this to me recently. According to him, nearly all stories in the world [...]

My wife came across a story about a man who slipped a $1500 tip to a waitress at Denny’s. Why? He saw she was a struggling single mother. Plus he picked up the tab for 7 families to the tune of [...]

Walt Disney failed for years. Until he overcome a fatal weakness. First, he tried desperately to draw comic strips for newspapers. Rejected. Then he attempted to bluff his way into a job on a [...]

The 60 Second Sales Hook can ignite a timid prospect into action. Or it can freeze ‘em faster than the Ice Bucket Challenge – if you’re telling the wrong story. In a sec, I’ll give you a simple [...]

Ray Bradbury fumbled his early stories. They took him a long time and were boring to read. Until in his twenties he stumbled upon a “trick” that gave him an endless supply of story ideas … [...]

Wanna be happy in your work? Apparently, here’s the secret: Just do one thing well. That’s the message of Greg McKeown’s book Essentialism. When you pursue too many things at once, you burn out. [...]

I’m six years old and everyone is staring at me. The whole class is restless. Mrs. Brown, at the back, nods her head in encouragement. I see Eric in the third row fidgeting in his seat. He’s [...]

The STORY Let me tell you about my first lesson in marketing. (It was painful.) See, when I was a kid, I wanted to be in pictures. The moving kind. And one windy day in Chicago, I got my shot: an [...]

The STORY When I was 19 years old – the age of a man’s sexual peak, I’m told – I watched a play about inappropriate touching. The play unfolded during a religious retreat meant to mold young [...]

Want to engage your audience with story — but without breaking a sweat? We talked about the extreme short story, the parable. Parables make storytelling easy because you don’t need any [...]

You should always be clear in your marketing, right? Not so, my friend. Sometimes you want to throw a little confusion into the mix when you tell a sales story. Hollywood knows how it’s done. The [...]

The STORY After Steve Jobs got canned from Apple in the late 1980s, he was licking his wounds, deciding what to sink his fortune in. After buying a small computer division from Lucasfilm (called [...]

Last column I reprinted the Wall Street Journal’s classic “Two Young Men” story and talked about the power of parables. Brief, punchy stories. Short on plot but long on meaning. Another lesson to [...]

The STORY Last column I proposed you write a book to sell your message. I admit: that’s a lot of work. So today let’s be lazy. How does a couple of paragraphs strike ya? Very short stories – [...]

Stories are viruses. Once you’re exposed, you can’t unhear them. Over 15 years ago, my dad put in a request for his birthday – a book. Maybe you’ve heard of it: Rich Dad, Poor Dad. At that time, [...]

The STORY I went to a county fair last month. I love outdoor fairs. Mostly for the food. To me, the prize doesn’t go to a sleek palomino horse or a purebred pup, but to the inventiveness of the [...]

Warren Buffett’s name is magic when it comes to money. He’s the world’s greatest investor, neh? $66.7 billion net worth. His company, Berkshire-Hathaway, owns 56 different businesses, including [...]

In the last post, I talked about how gossip grabs immediate attention. The brain identifies a story as gossip if: it’s news, especially a story that’s being covered up or denied there’s a [...]

Legend has it that storytelling began in the flicker of a campfire … when the prehistoric hunters gathered round at the end of the day and wove tales of slaying the might beasts. In so doing, [...]

The STORY On the first day of my improv class, my instructor Mike Christiansen asked us what we wanted out of the class. One student offered what seemed like a no-brainer: “To be [...]

I know what you’re thinking. “Yeah, yeah, stories sell, blah, blah blah … “… but I have no story. “No earth-shattering One-Legged Golfer origin story. “No life-changing testimonials. “So … [...]

Last week I wrote about the “Tilt” — the event that disrupts your hero’s ordinary life and sets the story in motion. (Without that, you just have “one damn thing [...]

Here’s a story for you: “This morning I woke up and hopped in the shower. In the middle of the tub lay my green washcloth.” Wanna hear more? Nope — not unless you need [...]

Last post, I said you should pick one theme for your ad. Fine. Now that you have it, how do you make it punch? Let’s see how Hollywood does it. Ever seen Saving Private Ryan? The film cleared [...]

Six weeks ago my buddy Jesse convinced me to sign up for an Improv class. “It’ll be fun,” he said. “We get to perform again. Plus, you can probably write it off on your tax return.” You may know [...]

Master Persuaders lurk in the pages of many good stories. Think of King Henry’s Call to Action in the Saint Crispin speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V , when he must goad his English few into [...]

If stories work so well in marketing, why not put them to work in other areas of your business? After all, stories arouse attention, engage interest, and ignite feelings… so why miss out on those [...]

Video game designers know how to press your buttons – especially your dopamine response. They design little challenges and then offer the sweet rewards of “leveling up” and winning the “sword of [...]

The STORY You ever wonder how the internet came to be? Lean closer and I’ll tell you (no Al Gore jokes, I promise.) The internet was invented at the height of the Cold War so the U.S. Department [...]

Anyone ever force you to read a story? Like the books of Chuck Dickens, scribbler extraordinaire of the Victorian age? If so, that’s a shame (great way to kill a natural love for reading). It’s [...]

The STORY Ever watch Cinderella  — the 1950 Disney version? If it’s been a while since you’ve seen it, fast forward to the last few minutes, ’cause there’s a good [...]

My toddler has entered that special time of a young person’s life when her nose constantly drips with goo. Which I’m told will last for the next three years or so. (Walking petri dishes, [...]

Do all sales stories need happy endings? No. Sometimes the burned hand teaches best. (Or at least a story about it.) The STORY Did you ever watch the movie Amadeus? I remember when I caught [...]

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato certainly thought so. That’s why Plato – who, ironically, flourished under Athenian democracy – was all for censorship. In his book The Republic, Plato’s [...]

A few weeks back I set off a minor firestorm with a story about a magic stapler. The story and stapler were both fabricated. Completely and utterly, just to illustrate my point in the piece – but [...]

My parents had a great baby making strategy: Produce four strapping boys. That way, when they’re ready to pack up their house and seek greener pastures, they’ve got their own personal moving [...]

Transformation is powerful magic. We are drawn to stories about change. And that’s why it pays to learn how to tell a good transformation story. Perry Marshall knows this. In his book 80/20 Sales [...]

The STORY When I graduated from high school, my dad took me on a celebratory trip to New York City. This was a big deal – I never travelled much. But an even bigger deal was where we were bound – [...]

Back when I was tutoring English, one of my students told me a story about how she escaped punishment. My student — let’s call her “Susan” — was drinking vodka with some friends at an overnight [...]

Is a good story the only thing we need to make a sale? Well, no. A story is not an offer. But stories are a fast and effective way to prepare the reader for an offer. They help to establish the [...]

The Story One winter break from college many years ago, I was a bit depressed. I can’t remember exactly why. I think college wasn’t measuring up to be the adventure I had been looking [...]

Thank goodness for storyteller Mo Willems. He is the wildly popular children’s book author & illustrator of  Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!  and many other literary gems. Why am I so [...]

You ever wish movies would just get to the good stuff? Like cut out the first 63-odd minutes of Rocky and race right to the fight with Apollo Creed. Show us the scene in The Shawshank Redemption [...]

The Story I went to the zoo with my family the other week – and I noticed something very interesting when I paid for admission. When the cashier handed me my tickets and credit card back, she [...]

You ever wonder whether old sayings are really true? Like this chestnut: “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” Recently I put on my “myth buster” goggles and put the old adage to the test. I [...]

It’s time to talk about Mad Men. After all, how can I write about stories and advertising without mentioning one of the most famous stories about advertising? I know, I know. Hard-nosed direct [...]

Okay, I admit it. I’m a bit of a geek. I know what the “T” stands for in James T Kirk and it’s not the same as the “T” in William T Riker. I can recite Green Lantern’s oath from memory: “In [...]

Yup. Because that’s exactly what helped Disney acquire the hit-producing animation machine known as Pixar. Now, these two companies – Disney and Pixar – are both master storytellers. In film, [...]

The STORY Last night, when I settled on the couch to relax in front of a movie from Netflix that I hoped wouldn’t suck, I picked Bloodsport, the 1988 film that catapulted Jean-Claude Van Damme’s [...]

Sometimes we don’t feel comfortable telling our story. And other times we just don’t have a story to tell. But fear not, friends — we can still capture the persuasive punch of a good story. [...]

Do you remember the last battle sequence in Star Wars? Luke is strapped into his X-Wing, racing down the narrow metal canyon in the Death Star … … Darth Vader and a brace of TIE Fighters hot on [...]

This is a guest post from Scott McKinstry. Scott is a brilliant copywriter and really knows how to compel with story. Enjoy… Hey, Kev, thanks for having me. It’s an honor to share the mic [...]

The STORY On a recent Saturday I took a “how to write sketch comedy” class that made me cry like a baby. (And these weren’t tears of laughter, like the kind that come just before you pee your [...]