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Marketing

HOW TO SELL YOUR STORY

Four plot lines you can use to build your business | by Nick Nanton

D

o you remember the story loved his work so much . it all became part of the underdog fabric that
of how Sylvester Stallone brought people in. Period. They just totally bought into it.”

became a star? He was a Now wouldn’t it be great to have people buy into your business with
young actor down to his the same level of enthusiasm? Without you having to make up a story?

last dime. He hocked his It can be done.
wife’s jewelry and he even The currency of the marketplace is storytelling—the best companies

sold the dog to survive. But then he had are tweeting, posting, and hashtagging their brands and building their

an idea for a movie. He knew a producing business in the process. These are the four StorySelling plotlines the
team that would read it when it was done, Italian Stallion’s handlers keyed into that made his publicity campaign a

so he wrote the screenplay. champ—and how you can make them work for you.
They went crazy over it. They ofered

him more than $100,000 for it and Stal-
lone demanded he play the lead.

The producers looked at him like he All four of these plots share an
was nuts. He was a nobody. But Stallone,
important attribute that makes
who wasn’t quite sure where his next
meal was coming from, wouldn’t budge.
them effective in story selling:

After months, the producers inally they are all about overcoming
backed down and they decided they could
obstacles to achieve a
make the movie for a small enough
budget that they could at least make their rewarding conclusion..

money back. They made the deal, Stallone

starred in the movie, and the ilm’s suc-
cess took the world by storm.

Now do you remember the rest of the
story? The story I just told you about is PLOT NO. 1: OVERCOMING THE MONSTER
In Stallone’s StorySelling scenario, the monster he overcame in was

almost completely fabricated.
Hollywood itself—the massive entertainment industry was not going to
When the irst Rocky ilm was released let a virtual unknown star in a ilm and damage its box ofice fortunes.

in 1976, Stallone’s career diiculties How you can use it: There are plenty of “monsters” that your potential
were a major part of the movie’s publicity clients and customers want to see destroyed—it’s just a matter of identi-

campaign. Rocky Balboa, the underdog fying the ones that it into your profession or life story. Perhaps you took
boxer, was seen as an amazing parallel to on the establishment in some signiicant way to come

Stallone’s actual life.
out on top. Or you’re a inancial advisor who saw what
For that story to work, however, it had the crash of 2008 (another monster) did to innocent

to resonate with the audience—which it people and you set out to build an investment strategy
did, big time. And nobody questioned it that safeguards against that happening. There are

until 30 years later when Gabe Sumner, many ways this plotline will pay of for your business.
then marketing director of United Artists,

spilled the beans in the book The Untold
PLOT NO. 2: RAGS TO RICHES
Story: Rocky Underdog Origin a Studio The publicity machine portrayed Stallone as be-
Myth. As Sumner said of the efort, “The ing so broke that he had to sell his dog. He was

press . they ate up the idea that this actor
also portrayed as rejecting a six-igure payday to

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