Very often when I start working with a new client they feel unable to find the „idea“. They struggle with their marketing activities and hope to get some kind of clarity with their marketing. When I started my business I was all over the place and ended up feeling exhausted. I didn’t know where to start unable to decide on my goals. To make a long story short, I wasn’t happy with what I was doing. I know you have just started reading but nevertheless can you guess what the answer was? You are right, my story was missing! Now what about you? After working with clients and developing my own story I could clearly spot two main difficulties that pointed towards a missing storytelling:

1 You feel invisible and not connected with your customers or clients

You put so much effort, time and passion into your ideas and online activities and never seem to get any result. You have invested a lot of time in setting up your brand new website or writing blog posts for example, or you produce podcasts, passionately curate your instagram feed, learn how to edit videos, write an e-courses and give away free downloads and so on… It is an endless list of activities yet you feel unseen online. Your work is not getting any feedback. You feel like you don´t get anything in return. Also your sales stats are not performing the way you had hoped. There is no dialogue with your people and this leaves you feeling frustrated.

If you agree on one or the other feeling described above, then it is most likely that your communication is not getting anywhere it should- namely to your audience. Your audience is a major part in your storytelling and you need to make sure your communication is getting to your audience. In order to be successful with your strategy make them pay attention. Make them  listen to what you are saying and further make them stop, think and change their behaviour. Make them rememeber you.

However there is no doubt you are creating lovely pieces of content for example helpful blog posts or the most imaginative photo creations but without a story in the background it leaves you behind feeling a bit disappointed. The engagement is not like you had hoped.  Your content doesn’t  have the impact and power it deserves.  

2 You feel overwhelmed when it comes to creating content that makes you happy

You don’t have a clear vision of where to go. Your product or service is great but you don’t know how to advertise. What kind of marketing activity is the right one? And whether you are a creative person or not you feel like your head is stuck in a big grey cloud of ideas and you are unable to focus. Nowadays we swim in a big sea of possibilities especially when it comes to online activities. 

All sounds tempting but you feel it is difficult to make a decision. What channels should you use for your business? A very common question is: can I create one piece of content for various channels or different purposes? For example to post the same photo for instagram and facebook. The answer is, you need to have a clear picture of what you want to say, who you are talking to and where you are talking. A well thought story has all the answers and cuts through all the clutter because creating your content after all is just a part of your big story.

Although there can be many reasons why you are feeling uncertain about generating ideas for your business I contend that in most of the times it is your missing story and your uncertainty towards your audience. Once you get that out of the way you feel clear, focused and able to connect with your people.

It is a perfect time to start. All the digital possibilities and developing technologies are there for you to use and once you are clear about your story it won’t take you long to decide where you need to be. Another good news is creating your story doesn’t require a big budget. You don’t need a lot of money to start rather a piece of paper and a pen and then get down to the nitty gritty. 

If you are still not convinced that storytelling could help sorting your struggles, this might also be interesting for you. And lastly remember it is your story. It is not carved into stone. If you feel you need to add a chapter or a missing bit, go for or it.

*from Joe Pulizzi: Epic content marketing //

Resources: Think content, Miriam Löffler

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Der Beitrag TWO SIGNS THAT YOUR STORYTELLING IS MISSING erschien zuerst auf Social Hut Cornwall.

The online world has become such a noisy and busy place, you might feel many brands are so similar to your business and you feel unseen. Storytelling is your chance to stand out in between all that noise and thousands of brands. Your story makes you unmistakably you. You dream of a business that has an anchored place in the heart of your people and engaging with them gives you all the joy? Then it’s story-time!

Stories have always been around for as long as we can think back in human life. People like the feeling of sharing their experiences. We post, we chat, we sit around a dining table, a campfire, we hold meetings. At the end of the day it is all about a good story. There are several more reasons why we need to stop simply selling something to people and start to really show what makes us special and furthermore invite them to be part of the story. I´ve written down my favourite four reasons why creating a story is inevitable nowadays, most importantly, if you want to connect to your people, stand out amongst your competitors and build a true relationship with your people.

1 Stories connect you to your people

Good stories connect people. People love stories. Therefore good stories will continue to be told. We all know the following situation – you hear something and think ”Yeah, I know exactly what you mean”. You can relate. You feel connected to a person automatically because you have had the same experience. The story stays in our minds easily.

2 Stories evoke emotions

Stories create emotions – that is a fact. We all know the situation when you are extremely well-prepared and open a meeting with various logical reasons presenting all the logical facts you could find. At the end, the opposite side says:” Sorry. We are not convinced”. This is the same with everyday situations. A very well-known situation for example is our children at home. It depends on your story if you want to make them do something they dislike. I know a mum who kept telling their children that deep-frozen peas are a delicacy and a real treat. They ever since loved peas, deep-frozen of course.

It is HOW you present your story which determines how enthusiastic the opposite side is – or not. The challenge is to create a vision, which the opposite side of your customer/ client recognizes and wishes to be part of. They do not make this decision because they are convinced by facts but because they have the feeling of having made a good decision besides which it gives added value to their life.

3 Stories are easy to remember

People who know what they are talking about don’t need powerpoint

Steve Jobs quotes this and he is so right. I don’t think he was ever seen holding a presentation with charts.  He much more preferred seeing people engage and he really understood what he was talking about.

Just count the number of presentations or meetings you have been to with hundreds of presentations, stats, graphs, and other things. How much do you remember? What are you taking home or telling others about it? On my phone, you’ll find a saved album with pictures of Powerpoint slides from a number of events I´ve been to. I thought I HAD to save them because the information they provide is helpful and informative and might be of use at some point. But how can something be valuable for me if I don’t even remember it an hour later? (Having said this, I might just delete the album.) 

In my early school days, I had a crazy teacher who would jump around with a banana demonstrating a life of a chimp. Those pictures will stay in my mind forever. Now, we don’t have to pretend to be a chimp to stand out but it is a good example of how stories work their way into your mind. The story that will stay in our minds has touched us in a certain way. That is why we will remember it.

4 Stories are authentic

A good story always comes from your heart. It is something that you have experienced, dreamed of something that you can relate to.

Don´t lie to your people. Tell them the truth. Nowadays people have the ability and know-how to uncover fake news within a snap.

If you tell them YOUR own story its very likely that they will love it and soak in everything that you are presenting.

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Der Beitrag FOUR REASONS WHY STORYTELLING IS A MUST FOR YOUR BUSINESS erschien zuerst auf Social Hut Cornwall.

Does this sound familiar to you? Well, let me tell you you are not alone with this. As Alex Mathers quoted „ You need to be ok with making stuff you don’t like“. We all end up doing that at times, its totally normal and even helpful as you get new insights and connections from everything you create. 

At times where you have free access to many sources of inspiration, like Pinterest, Instagram, or even offline sources like books, magazines, arts, it is more than helpful to really recognize if the inspiration will actually just be nice to look at (and maybe lead to another idea) or if it matches your style and storytelling.

It might take some practice but the more you go through the exercises the easier it will be to get an idea of how an inspiration could work for your brand and story the minute you see it.

Ready? So let’s take a look at the first step 

COLLECTING „The fun part“

I call this the fun part because at this beginning and first step you will not value your inspirations and ideas.

Let´s take a look at your sources of inspiration. 

Where do you get them from, where do you go if you seek out for advice or inspiration? Or it might be that you already have an entire pool of sources that you scoop your ideas from and are unsure what to do with them apart from keeping everything in a wonderful journal or the prettiest box? 

In either case make sure you collect everything that you instinctively feel attracted too. You’ve got a free choice, start big. So, everything that stays in your mind or evokes an emotion- put it into the collection box.

Here´s a little selection of sources I enjoy using:

My personal journals with drawings and sketches, Books, Magazines (cut out what attracts you, a colour, a piece of nice furniture, food, quotes, interviews, a flower, a summer dress etc)

Book stores, Postcards, Instagram (use collections for different themes), Pinterest, Photos, Music, Poetry, Quotes (if you like quotes you can also use quotes apps), Nature, Family and friends (meeting friends can be so inspirational but can you tell what it was that led to an inspiration? A good talk, someone doing a handstand, a good joke, a delicious meal, write it down, so you don’t forget.)

Inspiration can be found all around you. It doesn’t always have to be the big outstanding piece at this step. You may also use a mix of offline and online storage, that is totally up to you and what works best with your working routine.

Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, lightened shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to our should. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic.

– Jim Jarmusch from Steal like an artist: Austin Kleon

The collecting part is an ongoing process. It is very unlikely that you’ll end up thinking “ok, I am done. I have collected all ideas and think I don’t need any more“.

My box of ideas is literally a container but if I want to funnel my inspirations into a magic piece of content I usually stick to the most up to date ones.

Notes Collecting 

1. Have fun
2. Write down a list of your favourite sources of inspiration, what other sources could you add to your list?
3. Don´t judge your collection
4. Collecting inspirations and ideas is an ongoing process

Once you have your collection ready to work with, we will continue with the next step and that is

GROUPING CATEGORIES AND THEMES

This exercise will boost your idea generation and is very time saving for future creative projects. 

It is like organizing your saved posts into collections on Instagram. If you have a collection for example “holiday“ and you need to write about a holiday specific theme or want some photography inspirations you visit your collection.

We would be very confused and overwhelmed walking into a bookstore and finding all book genres mixed up. The same with magazines on a shelf. All organized neatly and sorted into categories.

Or imagine you are looking for a pasta recipe and would have to go through the whole book to find it, fish, meat, dessert- all mixed up. I would say there are better ways to spend your time, right?!

The aim of this step is to match your collection of inspirational snippets into categories.

If you are already working with categories for your brand or yourself use them.

Grab a sheet of paper and ask yourself:

What categories are there that come to your mind when you think of your collection?

Are there any kind of themes that play a big role in my life?

What instinctively strikes my mind when I think of my brand? 

Are there any reoccuring categories, for example in my social media like Instagram?

Think of themes for your categories? (For example season could include the themes: winter, spring, summer , autumn – You can go further into details for example winter: frosty florals, winter recipes, adventures in snow, …).

You don’t have to do this exercise all at once. Maybe put it up your wall or fridge and look at it again a few days later. 

(Examples for categories could be advice, helpful, nature, food, parenting, travel, working, sunshine, happiness or also life struggles, photography etc)

Once you feel happy with the selected categories and themes, allocate the collections into them.

Bear in mind that also in this section you don’t have to judge if this piece of inspiration will lead you to your eureka moment. We will come to that a little bit later, but for now be sure your subconscious is already going like a clockwork. 

Notes grouping:

1. Think of categories and themes that you connect to 
2. Don´t judge 
3. Match the collections into the categories and themes that you have chosen
4. Sticky notes is our friend

Once you feel you grouped all our inspirational material into matching categories and themes we will now continue to get more detailed in the next step

PRIORIZE

In this step it is now time to say good bye and eliminate material that doesn’t support our final idea.

We will use a number of criteria in order to rank them, not only how we feel attracted to them but also how they support and help your business and audience. 

To start with look at the different categories that you’ve nicely grouped and maybe added a few themes.

What are the top five categories and themes that you feel a strong connection too, that instantly sparks your creativity and matches you and your brand? 

(It doesn’t have to be five, if you can only decide on three, then just have three).

What are the top themes that could bring value to your project or business?

Try to rank your themes into an order of priority for your business. If you find it hard to decide on choosing your top five I have got some questions for you:

What category or theme helps my audience´s most, what are my audiences needs at the moment?

Is there a category that matches the season in a perfect way?

Do you have a channel that needs to be fed with a certain category?

Is there a category that I instantly know I can tell a story about?

Are there any external factors you need to consider? These could be dates, deadlines, holidays, budgets, weather conditions if it comes to photoshoots outside.

Notes priorize:

1. Choose your top five categories
2. Rank your categories 
3. Use the matrix
4. If sticky notes are all used up go and buy a new pile

Once you have decided on your top categories we will now continue with the final step

Making magic content

Congratulations, look how far you have come. You have chosen your top categories and you have thought about the category and content that provides most value to your audience. 

You have also spend some time on thinking about the implementation. Now it is time to go fishing for the big one- if it wasn’t there already. But don’t worry if not. You will get there. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer but allow yourself to give it a rest in between if you feel you are getting to dogged about it. You already know so much more than you think you do. 

You will now easily be able to chose THE ONE category out of your top five selection that you feel is the one that you need to work with. The one that brings the most value to what you are doing and that you really feel attracted to and so therefore will be the one that you enjoy working with.

Go through your favourite category and all the ideas that you have collected.

Is there an eye-catching piece of work that you want to pick out? Choose your favourite inspiration and then put it all away. Don´t look at it anymore and let your mind wander. Grab a piece of paper, empty your desk or go outside and make some notes: 

What is it that made you choose it? The colours? Why? Was it a special mood? What was the first thought about it? 

A quote that inspired you to write about a topic? 

Is there a special topic connoted to it that you might want to write about? 

It might also be useful to think of your own agenda and due dates. What is next on the list? 

A blogpost? Or a newsletter or you might also have an idea for a podcast Interview? 

Your category has now taken the whole journey through a very detailed process and has changed from simply being a category filled with collected ideas to a story telling piece of content that you can work with.

Feel free to mix up all steps. Go through it again. Leave it. Or just take what you need. There are as always no rules to using this. 

What is next?

You might experience a big fire of ideas- make sure to write them all down and if possible rank them. 

You might experience nothing at all – Grab a cuppa and give it another go. 

Go and buy some more sticky notes and treat yourself with a new journal.

Feel free to drop me a line to tell me about your creative process and how you are doing, maybe I can help you however I would love to hear from you.

Never give up, we all have those days when we think creativity has left us and with it our brain. But whatever it might be it is just a phase and it will go away.

If you need another creative boost this might also inspire you.

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Der Beitrag THE MAGIC IDEA FUNNEL – A GUIDE TO GET YOUR IDEAS BUBBLING erschien zuerst auf Social Hut Cornwall.

(That happens to me at least once a week, and don’t ask how many wonderful cook books I have in my kitchen).

Well, if all this sounds familiar welcome to the club. I was told this is true for all of us. Who can be non-stop creative? Not me, for sure. Take it as absolutely normal, that you can´t recall creative impulse as the touch of a button. Also it seems that the more we command ourselves to be creative NOW, the more unlikely it is to happen.

Having read all this, don’t pull the blanket over your head and wait for an idea to knock at your door, I have tried both and believe me it doesn’t work. With the suitable technique we can boost our creativity and give a little fire to our thinking process. Ready?

You probably won´t believe the fact that creativity and generating ideas can be trained liked your biceps but, like your muscles finding the strategy that suits you and your lifestyle best needs endurance and practice. You might need to try a number of things until you have found what it takes to boost your creative level up to a higher level.

I have worked out, what I think are my most effective activities and trainings. It might take a while to find out what is best for you, but once you’ve got it, magic unfolds.

BOOKS AND MAGAZINES

Put down your phone and hide it somewhere far away. For me it works best if I place it in the car or upstairs. Step outside your online world for a while and grab your favourite book or a nice magazine. You might want to pop into your favourite book shop around the corner, just go ahead. Browse through, grab a few books and dive into it. We keep forgetting that this was our main inspiration source a few years ago. Looking into apps might be tempting but there is a risk of getting sucked into a wave of visuals and ideas that makes it impossible for us to focus and funnel our own thoughts and ideas.

Instead of creating one idea from A to Z a variety of images pop up in front of our inner eye and we find ourselves creating several ideas at the time. In the end the results are zero. This is a small list of books I like to look at to get inspired

 http://darlingmagazine.org/

https://www.ad-magazin.de/

http://www.flair-magazin.de/

Steal like an Artist- Austin Kleon

In the company of woman- Grace Bonney http://www.designsponge.com/author/grace

Wanderlust – Cam Horan https://shop.gestalten.com/wanderlust-de.html

The Kinfolk Entrepreneur Ideas for meaningful work- Nathan Williams

99 x 99 Luke Stephenson´s http://www.lukestephenson.com/

The Big Magic- Creative living beyond fear  Elizabeth  Gilbert

NATURE

Go out. Simple as that. Go out with your dog, children, your husband or friend, you prefer going alone? Fine, as long as you make sure you leave your phone at home. Trust me, it took a while until it stopped feeling like you’re really missing something, it was rather the opposite.  There´s nothing more inspiring than a good walk in the countryside, a park, at a lake or the woods. I love this quote from John Cleese

We don’t know where we get our ideas from. What we do know is that we do not get them from our Laptops

Collect branches and leaves – build a den- make a mud pie- jump a puddle- climb a tree- use leaves conkers, sticks, mud, grass ,feathers, acorns or anything else you find and create wood art.

Make a wreath- walk barefoot- feel the breeze- inhale the scent of the woods

MAKE SOMETHING WITH YOUR HANDS

This does not include typing or scrolling.

Before I start with a concept or an idea, let´s say for a clients campaign or an Instagram post idea, I start with an oversize sheet of paper or my journal and a pen and jot everything down that comes to mind. I have a big kitchen table I  use for my desk and paper and pen being the only items on the table is usually how I start.

Try to include your whole body in this. Walk around, cut something out, make a collage, play with glue maybe glitter stick post-its all over the wall.

Other activities that won´t take a lot of your time and can be included into your daily routine easily could be looking at an image, listening to your favourite song, playing an instrument, doing some crafts with your children, singing a song (make sure to sing it loud) or taking a photo.

Sometimes even rather boring things can send an impulse, like ironing, sorting the washing, baking or cooking. As I mentioned before, you might have to try all of this to find out what suits you most. The artist Stanley Donwood says

Computers are alienating because they put a sheet of glass between you and whatever is happening. You never really get to touch anything that you´re doing unless you print it out

(this is taken from the book Steal like an artist, by Austin Klein, and it´s one of my favourte quotes)

MEET PEOPLE IN REAL LIFE

Pondering over a problem or task for a while? Are you looking for inspiration or trying to find an answer to something and feel stuck? That’s sounds like it´s time for your girl gang.

Invite your friends for a creative get together, have a glass of bubbly or a chai and nibbles or cook your favourite dinner for your creative task force. In short describe the question you have and add some rules if you wish, and then let them brainstorm and come out with all their thoughts.

I love hosting my friends for a meal and it was never just for my own benefit. Each guest left happily, inspired and with a new idea or stimulation.

Lastly, you may now grab your phone if you wish for and join PINTEREST for some inspiration. I love Pinterest but have set up some rules for myself while scrolling along. I set a time and make sure I define what I´m looking for in particular. (Of course there´re exceptions and I can also easily lose myself for hours in pointless scrolling but that wouldn’t be helpful, would it?)

What do you do to boost your creativity? Tell me, about the ONE thing for you that works like magic.

Der Beitrag FIVE EASY WAYS TO BOOST YOUR CREATIVITY erschien zuerst auf Social Hut Cornwall.