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How to use stories to brand a business

Have you ever wondered about the best way to market your business? As I was reading Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller, he explains that branding your business as a story helps to clarify your message and make it much more effective. The book has lots of useful, concrete activities if you’re working on branding (or re-branding) your company, and keep reading this post for some overarching, key points from the book.

Photo by Maegan Martin | Accessed on Unsplash.com

Main impacts

  1. Stories are how we make sense of the world
  2. Stick to the structure
  3. Your customer is the hero

Stories are how we make sense of the world

We use stories to make sense of what’s happening around us. It’s a way of making music out of all the noise around us, and provides clarity.

Stories are an easy way for us to make sense of what we see and hear. We naturally put stories together even based on small details that we see – thinking naturally in terms of cause and effect.

Stories are also very easy for us to understand. We easily apply stories to ourselves and see ourselves within them. We tend to understand information better when it’s told as a story. Think of times when you learned about history as a story with clear cause and effect versus as a series of dates and names of people/places. It’s much easier to remember and understand the story version.

Since stories can powerfully and easily communicate information, they can also be used to improve marketing. If you can use stories to describe what you do and what you’re selling, you’re likely to be much more effective when marketing your business. The goal is to connect with a customer easily and clearly, and there’s no better way than through a story that centers them.

Stick to the structure

Stories can be applied to anything. They can convey any kind of information, it’s simply a matter of framing it in a way that follows a basic structure. Pretty much all stories follow a very similar structure, seen in the image below.

Basic story structure (Credit: Donald Miller @ Storybrand)

Generally, a character or hero has a problem and meets a guide, who gives them a plan and calls them to action. Then the stories either ends in their success or helping them avoid failure.

Once you understand the structure, you’ll start seeing it everywhere. You’ll see the structure in all the movies and even in advertising. Take a moment to think through some of your favourite movies, can you apply the structure to them?

Here’s an example from The Hunger Games. Katniss is the main character or hero, and has a problem. In the image it shows the various types of problems she’s facing (external, internal and philosophical), but they all stem from the external problem of having to survive the hunger games. Then she meets Haymitch, who is her guide, and has a plan to get her more sponsors by having people support her. She gets called to action by actually competing and doing her best in the game. Katniss avoids failure (dying in the games) and ends the movie by successfully winning the game. See the diagram below for a visualization matching the story structure.

Story structure shown through The Hunger Games (Credit: Donald Miller @ Storybrand)

This basic structure applies to all things story related. All you need to do is stick to the basic structure and your story will make sense. The more you see it in the content around you, the more possibilities you’ll see to tailor stories within the structure.

This story structure can also help you tell your company’s information. If you frame it as a story, it’s incredibly easy to remember and understand for both your employees and customers. A story can also be very effective and persuasive, especially if you are able to frame your product or service as the plan to overcome your customer’s problem.

Your customer is the hero

As outlined above, your story needs a main character or a hero. When branding your business as a story, the customer is the hero and you’re the guide.

Generally, the hero/main character has lots of good qualities, but doesn’t usually understand how to overcome their problem, which is why they need a guide. The guide is both how they learn to overcome the problem and are called to action (meaning they actually do something to overcome the problem).

The key to a successful business story is that you frame the customer as the hero, and most importantly, you show how you can fix their problem. Remember they are the hero with a problem and you are the guide who has a plan to help them.

Part of framing yourself as the guide, is proving that you have the authority and expertise to help solve the problem. You need to show that you understand the problem and can actually help them. You also need to show them a plan, outlining how to solve the problem. People are more likely to engage with you if they understand what’s going to happen next.

Just remember, your customer is the one with the problem, and your business is what’s going to help them fix it. Make sure your story (and all your content) is focused on them – not you. They don’t need your life story, they just need to know how you can help them.

Final thoughts

A fascinating way to think about branding your business. Framing everything as a story is such a good way to position the things you’re doing. It’s easier for people to understand and for both customers and employees to easily remember your business and describe it to others.

I personally haven’t studied that much about marketing, so I’m not sure if this is a common way to discuss marketing, but I found it very useful.

There’s also so many activities and concrete actions that you can use to apply these concepts directly to your business. If you found this at all interesting, it might be worthwhile to try out some of the activities for your own business.

I was also able to borrow this from my library on Libby (a mobile app), which can be a great way to get a taste of the book before buying it.

References

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The Blind Woman Without a Toe

Excerpt from Apple & Knife by Intan Paramadith

Photo by Nong V | Accessed on Unsplash.com

This is an excerpt from the book Apple & Knife by Intan Paramaditha, translated by Stephen J. Epstein. The book is a collection of short stories, and this is from the first short story called “The Blind Woman Without a Toe.”

Come. Come, child. Sit by me. Are you sure you want to hear how I became blind? Oh, it’s a scary tale, child. So much blood was shed, like when an animal is sacrificed. It was an awful event involving someone very close to me. You may know of her. I was butchered. Yes, you could say that. And I even butchered myself. My eyes were pecked out by a bird. They say it was a dove from heaven, but it was actually a black crow straight out of hell. I screamed. I begged it to stop. But my shrieks were drowned out by its caws. It got to the point that you could no longer tell what was flowing, tears or blood. The crow only heeded its owner and she wasn’t satisfied until my eyes were hollow sockets.

Long ago, before I became blind, I lived with my mother and my two younger sisters. The youngest wasn’t my biological sister. She was my stepfather’s daughter. Her name was Sinderlarat. You’ve heard of her, haven’t you? She is already legendary, so maybe you won’t believe what I’m about to tell you. Sin – that’s what we called her – was so dirty, she looked like she had powdered herself with soot. And she really did live in the attic. I won’t deny it (thought I regret it, since that’s where she colluded with the thing that granted her powers). What I want to do is correct history. History has killed me off in favour of her, who people say lived happily ever after. You want to know the real truth? Sin is dead. I’m the one who survives.

Yes, we were unfair to her. We ordered her to do the heavy work. When she wanted to go to the ball, we threw rice in every corner and wouldn’t let her leave the house until she had gathered all of it in a bowl. Of course, it was wasted labour, but at that point we didn’t know she was being helped by a spirit, that accursed Fairy Godmother. That’s the story you’ve heard? Well, now I’ll tell you something different.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

Apple & Knife – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

Inspired by horror fiction, myths and fairy tales, Apple and Knife is an unsettling ride that swerves into the supernatural to explore the dangers and power of occupying a female body in today’s world.

These stories set in the Indonesian everyday – in corporate boardrooms, in shanty towns, on dangdut stages – reveal a soupy otherworld stewing just beneath the surface. This is subversive feminist horror at its best, where men and women alike are arbiters of fear, and where revenge is sometimes sweetest when delivered from the grave.

Dark, humorous, and vividly realised, Apple and Knife brings together taboos, inversions, sex and death in a heady, intoxicating mix.

Note: It’s important to understand that some stories require a trigger warning.

Copyright © 2018 by Intan Paramaditha.

Translated by: Stephen J. Epstein

More details can be found here on Goodreads and on Storygraph.

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How to eliminate competition for your business

Have you ever wondered about the best way to strategically position your business? While I was reading Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborone, they talked about how to completely eliminate competition by creating your own market (a blue ocean). They talk about how successful it can be (with lots of examples), how to find a blue ocean, and the best way to position your business.

Photo by Anastasia Taioglou | Accessed on Unsplash.com

Main impacts

  1. Create a new opening
  2. Don’t focus on benchmarking
  3. Price it based on potential customers

Create a new opening

The main focus of this book is discussing the concept of a blue ocean, which is contrasted by typical businesses in a “red ocean” that has a lot of competition. A blue ocean is a place without competition because it’s a totally new concept, as it’s empty of other businesses. You’re not trying to fit in where there are already so many others doing the same thing.

One of the examples frequently discussed throughout the book is Cirque du Soleil. They created something totally new, it wasn’t a circus, a play, or any other live entertainment that was currently available. It is typically seen as a spin off of the circus, but they were able to reduce the overhead costs by removing the animals (which also reduced concerns about animal rights) and make it more expensive by comparing it to a play or high-end live entertainment. They were able to create something totally new, which allowed them to be so successful and well-known.

To find a blue ocean, look for what people need, but address it differently than currently being done. For example, when Ford developed the Model T, he wasn’t looking at the current automobiles of the time, but rather comparing against the horse and buggy. He wanted to market it to the masses, and make their transportation faster and more reliable. He was addressing their needs, not the needs of the elite with their highly customizable cars.

Finding a blue ocean requires a very different kind of market research. It also requires you to look at the world with an inquisitive mind to find a new way of addressing people’s problems. You need to start looking past what’s currently done to find what could be the solution.

The beauty of creating something entirely new is that there’s no one else doing the same thing. Obviously, this can be a good thing by having no competition, but it can also be more difficult to ensure the right people, those who would benefit from it, can actually find your product/service.

Don’t focus on benchmarking

Tying into the point above about your market research being different, that also means you won’t be doing the typical benchmarking exercise. Generally, companies do benchmarking to see what their peers are doing, where they are being successful, and how you’ll compare to them. If you’re creating a blue ocean, you won’t have any peers.

Without any peers, you’ll have to define a lot of things for yourself, such as what’s considered successful. By creating a blue ocean, you’re able to carve out your own space and do things how you want to.

You’ll also have to be creative when determining how to gauge your price-point and how to fit into the market. You’re doing something new, so you’re not trying to be better or cheaper, you just need to be different. To find a price-point, you’ll need to look at other markets and figure out how much value you can provide them.

Price it based on potential customers

Once again, tying in nicely with the points above, you need price your product/service based on your potential customers, not what’s currently available. You should base it on those you can give value to and how you may take away from other markets. For Cirque du Soleil, it’s priced as a very nice night out, comparable to a Broadway play, even though it’s completely different.

You’re looking at how to solve people’s problems and at what cost will the product/service be worthwhile to them. For Ford’s Model T, he priced it against the horse and buggy, not the fancy customizable cars of the time. He wanted to make it close enough to the cost of a horse and buggy, so that the majority of people could start considering and even justifying the switch to a car. Another example was the school lunch caterers, who simply considered how much would parents be willing to pay so they don’t have to pack their children’s lunches everyday.

The goal is to look around and find new problems to solve. Then determine how much your potential market would value the product/service. How much time, effort, and money does your product save them. It’s not the typical business planning, but it can be hugely beneficial if you do it correctly.

Final thoughts

The book was quite interesting. I enjoyed learning about how others have created a blue ocean, such as Cirque du Soleil. The book provided so much more context for these landmark inventions, most of which isn’t typically common knowledge. I feel like I learned both about business and history, which is always an insightful combination.

Overall, I feel like the idea is very simple and straightforward. Of course if you create a new market you initially have less competition. But the problem is finding a way to create that blue ocean. It’s an easy concept to grasp, but incredibly difficult to implement successfully.

But I do think the book provides a lot of food for thought on the power of being different and finding a new way to solve people’s problems. Especially in this day and age where there is always someone cheaper or faster. Now you really do need to be different or more creative to start a successful business. With the increased connectivity of the world, there’s just so much competition, it’s even more important to find a blue ocean.

References

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Achilles and Patroclus

Photo by Jocelyn Morales | Accessed on Unsplash.com

This is an excerpt from the book The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller.

You must not go. I almost said it, a thousand times. Instead I held his hands fast between mine; they were cold, and very still.

‘I do not think I could bear it,’ he said, at last. His eyes were closed as if against horrors. I know he spoke not of his death, but of the nightmare Odysseus had spun, the loss of his brilliance, the withering of his grace. I had seen the joy he took in his own skill, the roaring vitality that was always just beneath the surface. Who was he if not miraculous, and radiant? Who was he if not destined for fame?

‘I would not care,’ I said. The words scrabbled from my mouth. ‘Whatever you became. It would not matter to me. We would be together.’

‘I know,’ he said quietly, but did not look at me.

He knew, but it was not enough. The sorrow was so large it threatened to tear through my skin. When he died, all things swift and beautiful and bright would be buried with him. I opened my mouth, but it was too late.

‘I will go,’ he said. ‘I will go to Troy.’

The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered green of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or greying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious Death would drink his blood, and grow young again.

He was watching me, his eyes as deep as earth.

‘Will you come with me?’ he asked.

The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. Yes, I whispered. Yes.

Relief broke in his face, and he reached for me. I let him hold me, let him press us length to length so close that nothing might fit between us.

Tears came, and fell. Above us, the constellations spun, and the moon paced her weary course. We lay stricken and sleepless as the hours passed.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

The Song of Achilles – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

Achilles, “the best of all the Greeks,” son of the cruel sea goddess Thetis and the legendary king Peleus, is strong, swift, and beautiful, irresistible to all who meet him. Patroclus is an awkward young prince, exiled from his homeland after an act of shocking violence. Brought together by chance, they forge an inseparable bond, despite risking the gods’ wrath.

They are trained by the centaur Chiron in the arts of war and medicine, but when word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped, all the heroes of Greece are called upon to lay siege to Troy in her name. Seduced by the promise of a glorious destiny, Achilles joins their cause, and torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus follows. Little do they know that the cruel Fates will test them both as never before and demand a terrible sacrifice.

Copyright © 2011 by Madeline Miller

More details on Goodreads can be found here.

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How to be more proactive in life and business

Have you ever wondered how important it is to be proactive? As I was reading Upstream by Dan Heath, he discusses the benefits of being proactive and how best to identify and address hidden problems in a complex system.

Photo by Marc Zimmer | Accessed on Unsplash.com

Main impacts

  1. Aim to prevent, not react
  2. Think in systems
  3. Make it personal

Aim to prevent, not react

Ideally, we need to do more than just react to problems. The goal should be to try and prevent problems from happening in the first place. Dan describes this as going “upstream,” from the quote by Bishop Desmond Tutu.

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.

-Bishop Desmond Tutu

A good way to start with this is to notice what problems seem to be common, either with your customers, community, or just in your life. Once you’ve found the common problem, you need to figure out what’s going wrong to reduce occurrences.

For example, at Expedia, they wanted to reduce the number of customer service calls, so they took the time to look at what the common issues were. They noticed that a huge percentage of the calls were about the customer’s itinerary. So they put systems in place to help people access their itinerary, such as an automated option to resend their itinerary instead of talking to a service agent. Once they made it easier for people to access their itinerary, they noticed a huge drop in service calls.

Often times systems reinforce the issues as they are not a specific person or department’s problem. For instance, the customer service calls at Expedia were being dealt with properly – promptly and satisfactorily – so there seemed to be no need to change the current system. If anything they were showing that customer service was performing exceptionally, as they were addressing so many customer issues smoothly.

Sometimes it takes a shift in perspective to identify widespread problems, as they may seem normal.

Think in systems

In connection with the point above, often to be proactive you need to think in systems not just linear reactive pathways. System thinking is important for both identifying and addressing upstream issues. This section will talk more about how to address issues within a system.

Consider everyone

A key part of working within a system is identifying everyone involved or connected to the problem and engage them in finding a solution.

One way to do find all relevant people is to think of an individual experiencing the problem (ideally someone you actually know) and look at everyone they could interact with.

An example discussed in the book was dealing with domestic violence within a community. It discusses how someone handling a domestic violence case noticed that the woman had a cast on her arm, and the break didn’t match the story given in the medical record. That cast meant that the woman had actually sought medical help and no one noticed the warning signs.

When looking to make upstream changes to prevent domestic violence, they made sure to involve people from all aspects of society to increase the number of people who could notice the signs and be able to help.

For instance, they developed a risk assessment checklist for nurses and health care workers to see if a patient is at risk of violence from someone in their life. They also noticed that people who were being released on the condition of wearing an ankle monitor might not receive the monitor until a few days after release, giving them an opportunity to be in contact with and possibly attack someone. So they made sure that they received the ankle monitor directly upon their release. Also, if there is a household with a history of domestic violence calls, they had police drive by on a regular basis to make sure everything is okay.

The goal was to find as many ways to improve the system so that people didn’t fall through the cracks and to increase opportunities for people to notice the warning signs.

Complexity

Systems are complex, which means it can be difficult to predict how systems will react to changes. It also means that you may not see direct results from your changes.

For instance, if you have a police officer stand at a corner, it may cause people to drive more cautiously and might prevent accidents. But it’s very difficult to track or identify what has been prevented.

Since it’s near impossible to track what has been prevented, its also far less common to encourage preventative behaviour. It’s much harder to show results from having a police officer act as a visual warning to increase safety than another police officer giving out traffic tickets. It’s easier to track, record, and reward individuals based on number of tickets (reactionary) given out than possible preventative behaviour.

As it’s difficult to predict how a system will react to changes, you need to have a way to track feedback. The feedback will help identify if changes are improving the system or if you need to adjust your approach. Looking for feedback requires you to actively be looking for changes and be committed to continually improving the system.

An example of this would be to track the domestic violence rates within a community, or maybe within a school looking at graduation rates. It may take years to see an impact within these clear quantitative (numerical) indicators, so it’s also useful to see if there are also qualitative (descriptive) indicators that you can track.

Make it personal

The more you can connect the problem to a specific person, the easier it will be to start identifying solutions. So if you start thinking about how we can help Ariana, then you’re able to focus on improving that individual’s situation.

By narrowing in on specific people, you’re able to get more context and delve into the nitty-gritty of how interconnected the system is. It also gives you a clear example of how an individual is affected and an easy way to see progress firsthand.

Overall, when you make it personal, it also makes it more concrete and actionable. Then you can take all that you learn from an individual’s situation to start helping other people with the same problem.

One of the examples in the book was when teachers in the Chicago Public School system wanted to improve graduation rates. They noticed a good indication of how many students will graduate was how well those students do in freshman year, so the school and teachers all started focusing on the students in grade 9 (freshman year). They changed the system by putting the best teachers in grade 9 classes, and making sure that teachers were meeting with others that shared the same students rather than the same subjects (i.e., all of Ariana’s teachers would meet, rather than all of the English teachers). This way the teachers could all work together to identify ways to help each individual, like Ariana. It ended up being hugely successful, and after a few years, they had saw the graduation rate increase and stay at that level.

Final thoughts

I like how this reframed the concept of being proactive in a way that was very tangible. There were so many clear examples of how this worked and the immense benefits that come from identifying how to go upstream and remove the issue before it happens.

I don’t think the concept of “be proactive” is novel to any of us. But this went so much deeper and discussed how it can be useful for both individuals and businesses.

It was interesting how much it highlighted the complexity, and the importance of getting everyone involved. I think that’s a point that’s often overlooked when discussing the importance of being proactive.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

References

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Jellyfish and turtles in the sea

Photo by Benjamin Elliott | Accessed on Unsplash.com

This is an excerpt from the book The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

The strange light the sun made in the water, now that the sun was higher, meant good weather and so did the shape of the clouds over the land. But the bird was almost out of sight now and nothing showed on the surface of the water but some patches of yellow, sun-bleached Sargasso weed and the purple, formalized iridescent, gelatinous bladder of a Portuguese man-of-war floating close beside the boat. It turned on its side and then righted itself. It floated cheerfully as a bubble with its long deadly purple filaments trailing a yard behind it in the water.

‘Agua mala,’ the man said. ‘You whore.’

From where he swung lightly against his oars he looked down into the water and saw the tiny fish that were coloured like the trailing filaments and swam between them and under the small shade the bubble made as it drifted. They were immune to its poison. But men were not and when some of the filaments would catch on a line and rest there slimy and purple while the old man was working a fish, he would have welts and sores on his arms and hands of the sort that poison ivy or poison oak can give. But these poisonings from the agua mala came quickly and struck like a whiplash.

The iridescent bubbles were beautiful. But they were the falsest things in the sea and the old man loved to see the big sea turtles eating them. The turtles saw them, approached them from the front, then shut their eyes so they were completely carapaced and ate them filaments and all. The old man loved to see the turtles eat them and he loved to walk on them on the beach after a storm and hear them pop when he stepped on them with the horny soles of his feet.

He loved green turtles and hawks-bills with their elegance and speed and their great value and he had a friendly contempt for the huge, stupid logger-heads, yellow in the armour-plating, strange in their love-making, and happily eating the Portuguese men-of-war with their eyes shut.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

The Old Man and the Sea – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

Set in the Gulf Stream off the coast of Havana, Hemingway’s magnificent fable is the story of an old man, a young boy and a giant fish. In a perfectly crafted story, which won for Hemingway the Nobel Prize for Literature, is a unique and timeless vision of the beauty and grief of man’s challenge to the elements in which he lives.

Copyright © 1952 by Ernest Hemingway.

More details on Goodreads can be found here.

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The value of diverse personality types

Have you ever wondered about the diversity of personality types? In Susan Cain’s book Quiet, she discusses the power of being an introvert, and how we need to embrace all personality types. She highlights the strengths of introverts, but also emphasizes the importance of being yourself and focusing on your own personal growth and self improvement.

Photo by Alexander Grey | Accessed on Unsplash.com

Main impacts

  1. It’s a spectrum.
  2. Part nature, part nurture.
  3. Power in diversity.

It’s a spectrum

This whole book is about personality types, specifically introverts and extroverts. It’s important to understand what they are and the fact that they occur along a spectrum.

Most people are some combination of the two, with one typically more dominant than the other. No one really exists at the far extremes, meaning there’s no such thing as someone who’s 100% introverted or extroverted. But there are the special ones in the middle, called ambiverts, who have a big percentage of both.

“There is no such thing as a pure introvert or extrovert. Such a person would be in the lunatic asylum.”

– Carl Jung

Your level of introversion/extroversion is based on how you react to stimulation, including social stimulation like social situations. Generally, if you feel more rejuvenated or energized by external stimulation, you’re more extroverted. Then vice versa, if you’re more tired or worn out from stimulation, you’re likely more introverted. This isn’t about whether you enjoy it or if you can handle it (for example, social skills), it’s how you feel after going through it.

A good way to think about this is thinking about how you feel after leaving a party full of people that you love. You may have had a wonderful time with friends and/or family, but how do you feel afterwards. Do you leave the party feeling energized or tired?

Part nature, part nurture

One part of this book that was really interesting was how Susan delved into the idea of nature versus nurture for personality development. Basically the conclusion is that it’s part nurture and part nature.

A scientific study that showed the nature part – meaning the part that comes from your genetics – was done by looking at how sensitive children were and then re-evaluating them many years later as an adult. The study showed that sensitive children were very commonly also sensitive adults.

There were other studies that looked at the influence of parents on their children. Such as looking at how children were affected by having both introverted or extroverted parents. The environment (the nurture part) was also shown to affect the amount of introversion/extroversion. Which makes sense, your family environment shows you what’s considered normal and encourages you to act certain ways.

So, like most things, it’s partially genetic and also partially determined by our environment. Which is not too surprising, but very interesting to hear about the studies and how the conclusions were reached.

Cultural differences

You can also kind fo see this difference in the way cultures around the world view outgoing or extroverted personalities. Western cultures tend to encourage a culture of individuality and outgoingness, whereas other cultures can have more of a community focus and may discourage disruptive personalities.

An interesting example of a clash of cultures was when international students came to the USA for university. Professors were always encouraging class participation, even when people were not contributing any value. But for some of the international students they felt it was rude to speak up if they didn’t have something concrete to contribute and were surprised at how patient the professors were. Some even felt that it was disrespectful of the other students to waste people’s time when they could be learning things of value from the professor.

Susan thought it was important to discuss how culture can also impact personality types (nurture). I also really appreciated that the book had a disclaimer that general cultural trends are not absolute, and that there’s lots of individuality within every culture and country.

Power in diversity

Just like every other type of diversity, there’s power in our differences, including our personality types. We can learn and balance each other out. Two aspects that introverts and extroverts deal with differently are with risk and leadership.

Risk

Generally, extroverts tend to be greater risk takers, whereas introverts are more likely to be cautious. It’s not difficult to see how a balance of the two can be beneficial.

One example Susan talked about where an imbalance of leadership lead to significant damage was the 2008 financial crisis. It’s discussed that the crisis may have been partially caused by the culture of risk taking that was encouraged and enabled within the financial sector.

At that time, the people taking risks were creating profits and so more risk taking was encouraged. This led to having a certain kind of people (aka risk taking extroverts) making most of the decisions, and anyone who talked about being more cautious was removed from decision making positions.

It’s suggested that having more of a balance or diversity of personalities could’ve mitigated some of the damage.

Leadership

Leadership is typically thought to be a strength of extroverts, but in reality introverts can often outperform extroverts in leadership positions.

Introverts tend to encourage and enable proactive employees. This means they’re good at listening for good ideas and making sure they get implemented. They also tend to delegate more to those who can do it best, rather than making sure they get recognition.

Introverts tend to listen to others and make time for reflection or deep work. Both of these can be incredible strengths as leaders.

Extroverts can also be good leaders, and not all introverts are great leaders. This is only to highlight that leaders can come in all shapes, sizes, and personality types. Also, to show that things typically seen as being negative (being quiet) can be monumental strengths (listening).

Final thoughts

I found this book really interesting. Personally, as an introvert that sometimes crosses into the ambivert territory, I really enjoyed hearing all the scientific studies that challenge our thinking about personality types.

It was great to get a different perspective than what I grew up with, aka the idea that you need to be outgoing to be successful. I loved hearing about the benefits of introverts and personality diversity, and how we all have out personal strengths and value to contribute. This book was a delightful reminder that you just need to be yourself and that there’s no one way to do anything.

Like most things, the key is to find balance by encouraging everyone to be themselves and understand that you are enough just as you are. You don’t need to mask or pretend to be different than who you are. We, as a society, need different personality types to continue thriving, and encouraging diversity can also create positive side effects of becoming more accepting.

I know the book is not new, and people have become more accepting of introverts in the past 10 years. But there’s still so much that isn’t common knowledge, with lots of scientific proof to back it up. I would highly recommend this book.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

References

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You are the greatest woman I’ve ever met

Photo by Sai De Silva | Accessed on Unsplash.com

This is an excerpt from the book Mom & Me & Mom by Maya Angelou.

We reached the middle of the block and were enveloped in the stinging acid aroma of vinegar from the pickle factory on the corner of Fillmore and Fulton streets. I had walked ahead. My mother stopped me and said, “Baby.”

I walked back to her.

“Baby, I’ve been thinking and now I am sure. You are the greatest woman I’ve ever met.”

I looked down at the pretty little woman, with her perfect makeup and diamond earrings, and a silver fox scarf. She was admired by most people in San Francisco’s black community and even some whites liked and respected her.

She continued. “You are very kind and very intelligent and those elements are not always found together. Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, and my mother-yes, you belong in that category. Here give me a kiss.”

She kissed me on the lips and turned and jaywalked across the street to her beige and brown Pontiac. I pulled myself together and walked down to Fillmore Street. I crossed there and waited for the number 22 streetcar.

My policy of independence would not allow me to accept money or even a ride from my mother, but I welcomed her and her wisdom. Now I thought of what she had said. I thought, Suppose she is right? She’s very intelligent and often said she didn’t fear anyone enough to lie. Suppose I really am going to become somebody. Imagine.

At that moment, when I could still taste the red rice, I decided the time had come to stop my dangerous habits like smoking, drinking, and cursing. I did stop cursing but some years would pass before I came to grips with drinking and smoking.

Imagine I might really become somebody. Someday.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

Mom & Me & Mom – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

For the first time, Angelou reveals the triumphs and struggles of being the daughter of Vivian Baxter, an indomitable spirit whose petite size belied her larger-than-life presence—a presence absent during much of Angelou’s early life. When her marriage began to crumble, Vivian famously sent three-year-old Maya and her older brother away from their California home to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. The subsequent feelings of abandonment stayed with Angelou for years, but their reunion, a decade later, began a story that has never before been told. In Mom & Me & Mom, Angelou dramatizes her years reconciling with the mother she preferred to simply call “Lady,” revealing the profound moments that shifted the balance of love and respect between them.

Delving into one of her life’s most rich, rewarding, and fraught relationships, Mom & Me & Mom explores the healing and love that evolved between the two women over the course of their lives, the love that fostered Maya Angelou’s rise to the heights.

Copyright © 2013 by Maya Angelou.

More details on Goodreads can be found here.

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How to kick start your project

Have you ever wondered how to maintain your motivation for a project? I was reading Kick Start Your Success by Romanus Wolter, and he describes ways to both kick start your projects, maintain your motivation, and achieve your goals. He discusses the intent behind your work and how to inspire others to engage with your project. Your project can be any kind of goal you’re working towards, whether business, personal or anything else.

Photo by Etienne Girardet | Accessed on Unsplash.com

Main impacts

  1. Intent: Internal vs external
  2. Inspire others to help you
  3. Question of the day

Intent: Internal vs external

One of the first things Romanus defines is the idea of internal and external intent.

Internal intent is your personal purpose for this project. It’s the reason why you want to accomplish this goal or be successful. It also highlights the benefits you are hoping to achieve through this. Basically, what’s in this for you?

Whereas, your external intent is the purpose of this project for other people. It outlines how this will benefit and help others, along with why they should be interested in this project. Identifying this external intent is a great way to understand how to get others involved.

One activity that Romanus takes you through in the book is to craft an instant impact message. This is a short phrase, around 10 words, that succinctly outlines how you can help others and the external benefits of your project.

Understanding both your internal and external intent will help keep you focused, by understanding why you are doing this project and how you can help others. Both intents, when brought together, can make your project sustainable by balancing the benefits for yourself and others.

Inspire others to help you

A big part of this book describes how you can involve others in your project, as nothing happens in a vacuum. Romanus uses this phrase that I really like to “inspire others to help you.” This simply means finding ways to engage others in your project and have them be part of your success.

A good place to start is noticing how you speak about yourself and your project. If you speak passionately and positively about both, people will be interested to know more. It may also help you be successful by seeing the positive side of things and focusing on what you’re achieving.

Another way to involve others is to ask them for input. Ask people for advice (see below for your question of the day), you never know who might be able to help. Don’t hesitate to talk about your project and see what others think.

Romanus even encourages you to engage with the naysayers. Rather than just taking their negativity to heart, ask them how they would solve the issue they see with your project or how they would do it differently. Sometimes they just aren’t used to being listened to and would appreciate the opportunity to give you some advice. Their advice might be useful! Whereas sometimes they’re just negative and have nothing useful to say. If the latter is the case, then there’s no reason to give them any more time.

Question of the day

In combination with the topic above, one way to inspire others to help you is through a question of the day.

The idea of this activity is to craft a question you can ask people throughout the day. The question should focus on the current hurdle or barrier you’re facing, and simply asks for advice on how to overcome it.

It’s a great way to spark conversations about your project and to crowdsource ideas to overcome issues. Getting advice from a wide range of people increases your chance of getting a good solution, as well as making more connections that might benefit your project.

Plus the question focuses on a specific actionable item that you need to address and creates an opportunity for others to help you. It can also provide your close friends and family something to focus on, especially if they want to help and don’t know how.

Another great benefit of this is that you can change the question of the day whenever you have a new hurdle. Once you’ve solved the issue, then update your question to focus on the next issue you need to solve.

Final thoughts

I found the idea of connecting your project to its external and internal purpose was a really interesting way to think about it. It’s important to both provide you and someone else benefit, or else it probably won’t be successful. If you’re not gaining something from it, you won’t be motivated to keep going, and if it isn’t benefiting anyone else, then you won’t be able to make it sustainable, especially if you need to make money.

I’ll be honest, the book did come across as misogynistic and outdated. The examples used in the book were about a man looking for a job and the woman was looking for a boyfriend to complete her life. It just seemed so dated and unnecessary to reinforce those gender stereotypes. I get the idea that they wanted to show how the activities apply to a range of goals, but they could’ve easily switch the genders.

However, there were some interesting ideas and useful activities in this book, but maybe read it with a grain of salt just to find what’s useful for you.

Final tip

Here’s a life tip, if there are books that you think might have interesting parts but don’t want to support the authors financially (or don’t want to buy the book for various reasons), check out your local library! You can also borrow ebooks and audiobooks from your library by using the Libby app connected to your library card. It’s a great way access books and I use it all the time.

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

References

  • You can buy the book here.
  • You can get the Libby app here.
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Sharing the power

Photo by Nikhita Singhal | Accessed on Unsplash.com

This is an excerpt from the book The Power by Naomi Alderman.

‘Show me.’

Jos narrows her eyes. ‘I can’t…I’d hurt you.’

‘Have you been practising? Can you control it well enough so you know you wouldn’t kill me, or give me a fit?’

Jos takes a deep breath. Puffs her cheeks out. Lets the breath out slowly. ‘Yes.’

Her mother nods. This is the girl she knows: conscientious and serious. Still Jos. ‘Then show me.’

‘I can’t control it well enough for it not to hurt, OK?’

‘How much will it hurt?’

Jos splays her fingers wide, looks at her palms. ‘Mine comes and goes. Sometimes it’s strong, sometimes it’s nothing.’

Margot presses her lips together. ‘OK.’

Jos extends her hand, then pulls it back. ‘I don’t want to.’

There was a time when every crevice of this child’s body was Margot’s to clean and care for. It is not OK with her not to know her own child’s strength. ‘No more secrets. Show me.’

Jos is near to tears. She places her forefinger and her middle finger on her mother’s arm. Margot waits to see Jos do something; hold her breath, or wrinkle her brow, or show exertion in the muscles of her arm, but there’s nothing. Only the pain.

She has read the preliminary reports out of the CDC noting that the power ‘particularly affects the pain centres of the human brain’. Meaning that, while it looks like electrocution, it hurts more than it needs to. It is a targeted pulse which sets up a response in the body’s pain receptors. Nonetheless, she’d expected it to look like something; to see her flesh crisping and wrinkling, or to watch the arcing current, quick as a snake’s bite.

Instead, she smells the scent of wet leaves after a rainstorm. An apple orchard with the windfalls turning to rot, just as it was on her parents’ farm.

And then it hurts. From the place on her forearm where Jos is touching her, it starts as a dull bone-ache. The flu, travelling through the muscles and joints. It deepens. Something is cracking her bone, twisting it, bending it, and she wants to tell Jos to stop but she can’t open her mouth. It burrows through the bone like it’s splintering apart from the inside; she can’t stop herself seeing a tumour, a solid, sticky lump, bursting out through the marrow of her arm, splitting the ulna and the radius to sharp fragments. She feels sick. She wants to cry out. The pain radiates across her arm and, nauseatingly, through her body. There’s not a part of her it hasn’t touched now; she feels it echo in her head and down her spine, across her back, around her throat and out, spreading across her collarbone.

The collarbone. It has only been a few seconds, but the moments have elongated. Only pain can bring such attention to the body; this is how Margot notices the answering echo in her chest. Among the forests and mountains of pain, a chiming note along her collarbone. Like answering to like.

It reminds her of something. A game she played when she was a girl. How funny: she hasn’t thought of that game in years. She never told anyone about it; she knew she mustn’t, although she couldn’t say how she knew. In the game, she was a witch, and she could make a ball of light in the palm of her hand. Her brothers played that they were spacemen with plastic ray-guns they’d bought with cereal-packet tokens, but the little game she’d played entirely by herself among the beech trees along the rim of their property was different. In her game, she didn’t need a gun, or space-helmet, or lightsaber. In the game Margot played when she was a child, she was enough all by herself.

There is a tingling feeling in her chest and arms and hands. Like a dead arm, waking up. The pain is not gone now, but it is irrelevant. Something else is happening. Instinctively, she digs her hands into Jocelyn’s patchwork comforter. She smells the scent of the beech trees, as if she were back beneath their woody protection, their musk of old timber and wet loam.

She sendeth her lightning even unto the ends of the earth.

When she opens her eyes, there is a pattern around each of her hands. Concentric circles, light and dark, light and dark, burned into the comforter where her hands clutched it. And she knows, she felt that twist, and she remembers that maybe she has always known it and it has always belonged to her. Hers to cup in her hand. Hers to command to strike.

‘Oh God,’ she says. ‘Oh God.’

Have you read this book? I’d love to hear your thoughts in a comment below!

The Power – Summary

Here is the book summary from Goodreads:

In The Power the world is a recognisable place: there’s a rich Nigerian kid who lounges around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But something vital has changed, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power – they can cause agonising pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world changes utterly.

This extraordinary novel by Naomi Alderman, a Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year and Granta Best of British writer, is not only a gripping story of how the world would change if power was in the hands of women but also exposes, with breath-taking daring, our contemporary world.

Copyright © 2016 by Naomi Alderman.

More details on Goodreads can be found here.

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