This is the ‘Win with Stories’ newsletter focused on helping founders, entrepreneurs and business owners. Every week I send an email with a business or life message wrapped in a short story. I also share one actionable tip to help you enhance your business storytelling skills.
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Quick announcement: The next edition of my free webinar ‘The 30-Second Pitch’ is scheduled for next Wednesday, 14th June, 6 pm IST. You can register for it here.
Brevity is not always good.
Airbnb’s Brian Chesky could have launched Airbnb Trips and Experiences like this.
‘Airbnb Trips will offer a variety of experiences that are more interesting and fun than tours offered by other companies.’
Nothing wrong with it. Most companies and CEOs use some version of this statement while launching products.
Every corporate communication and marketing department would recommend this kind of brevity.
But Brian Chesky didn’t stick to a short statement.
His presentation told a fairly long story instead.
👉 Travel is magical:
He said, ‘When I was a little boy, I experienced a meaningful, magical moment with my mother not in front of a famous tourist spot. But in front of Lake George.’
👉But it’s hard to create this magic:
You either take tours where you feel like an outsider and are always in queues doing things locals never do. Or you have to undertake a mammoth research project to plan a trip that can deliver meaningful and magical moments.
👉That’s why Airbnb Trips are about ‘magic made easy’:
And we’d like to fix this by offering curated experiences that take you underneath the skin of a place. We have set out to make magic easy.
Then he goes on to explain what Airbnb Trips were all about. As an audience member, you’ve understood why Airbnb Trips matter.
You are now looking forward to what the product is all about.
In this case, a short statement about the product would have generated much less interest than Chesky’s story-powered presentation.
Off late, I’ve been sharing such insights and practical tips with corporates, startups and agency teams. I do this through my 90-minute webinar ‘Lessons From Airbnb’s Storytelling’. And this webinar gets a NPS of 70+ on a regular basis(which I am told is quite good).
I’d like to offer this webinar for free for companies or teams of the community members of ‘Win with Stories’.
Just reply to this email to get that conversation started.
Now, how to keep your audiences engaged when you are pitching or presenting something.
That’s the communication tip for today:
A well-formed narrative with conflict, suspense, reveal and reward can make your pitches and presentations interesting.
Here are three structures you can fall back on:
- Inverted Pyramid: You could also call this the ‘Most Important Point Upfront’. It involves sharing a key insight or even action with the audience and building an argument supporting your suggestion. For instance, I could say – ‘Indian founders must learn storytelling. Here’s why.’
- 3C or Character – Conflict – Change: This could be Brian Chesky’s talk structure. Character – we all love love travel cos its magical, conflict – but the problem is that magic is either not available or takes many many hours of research, and change – Airbnb Trips makes magic easy with curated experiences that make you feel like an insider.
- **Old Vs New: ‘**This is how things used to happen, but in the future they will be done like this. And if we want to stay relevant, we need to….’
Hope these help.
Btw, I am also facilitating a free webinar called ‘The 30-Second Pitch’ on Wednesday, June 14 at 6 pm IST. If you are a founder, entrepreneur or business owner who wants to create a simple, clear and compelling elevator pitch, then do register. I will be helping you improve your 30-Second pitch in this webinar.
That’s it from me this week. Tell me one thing that will make you share this newsletter with friends and colleagues 🙂
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