A short recap: In my essay on storytelling, I had argued about the importance of the origin story of a startup, and using it to attract and hold attention. I followed that up with how story can strengthen and support a product launch, like Basecamp’s Hey.
But that’s not just what stories can do.
A friend sent me this Ben Thompson piece right after he read the essay I linked to above. You should read the whole thing, in which Thompson differentiates the strategies outlined by the CEOs of Apple/Microsoft as opposed to Amazon/Facebook. But what I’m interested in, and what he wanted me to see, was Steve Jobs’ famous Bicycle of the Mind analogy.
I’m surprised I didn’t remember this myself, but I’m glad he pointed it out so I can write about it now.
Watch. It’s only 56 seconds.
This is storytelling at its absolute best, and you don’t need me to say so. But just one thing: Jobs isn’t just making a lovely analogy. He’s using it to plant an idea in the audience’s head, and you know what happens when an idea like that comes packaged as a story?
No one forgets it.
Here’s something else. This is Girish talking about building a business and making biryani, and using that analogy to drive home something profound that leaders have to understand.
Watch. It’s about 4 minutes, and worth every second of your time.
Now I’ve heard this story before, in person, multiple times. But even now as I watch it, I’m astounded at how so deep an idea is concentrated into a story you can tell, even if just to remind yourself about what you are doing.
And there’s something in common here with the Steve Jobs video above.
You won’t forget this easily either.
Now Girish has more of these, and in my time with him I’ve seen firsthand how he uses these short analogies to frame situations and help younger leaders make better decisions.
I’ll be writing about a few of them later as part of a series, but I haven’t got the structure right just yet. The rough idea I have in my head looks like this:
1. The stories that made Freshworks - focusing on how the company’s strong internal culture is a result of the same storytelling that made it such a successful business.
2. The stories that made Wingify - focusing on the company’s strong adherence to an idea, and how that helped the company become what it is today.
3. The stories that will make Interview Mocha - focusing on what I learnt from my time at Freshworks and Wingify, and how I’m using those to frame Interview Mocha’s story and vision.
The first two essays will draw heavily on my experience working at these companies, of course, and the last essay will be framed, hopefully, as a how to, so it can help other marketers/founders think about how to do the same for their organisations.
I want to drop all of them at once, so it will be some time before I’m happy with all three. In the meantime, if there’s anything you want me to write about in this series, or any comment, or any viewpoint you’d want me to dwell on, please reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn.