1683 – Unleashing the Power of Storytelling: Transforming Marketing with Metaforce’s Allen Adamson

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0:58with us right now alan adamson alan you are the co-founder of metaphors you're found on the web at metaphors.com you're also the author of the book seeing the how transforming what people do not buy to gain market advantage alan thanks so much for being here thanks for inviting me Well, give us an overview of your work, both with Metaphors, and I definitely want to spend some time on the book as well. Well, Metaphors, we are a marketing and brand consulting and activation firm. So we try to help clients tell their story better because everyone has a story. And if you tell your prospect what you do and why it matters clearly and crisply, you're going to be more successful than if you ramble on.

1:44And then how do they get that story out there? Once you define the story, how does it live on social media? How do you do it in other forms of communications? It's really hard to break through today. And if you're not precise and to the point, you won't get through no matter what business you're in. And who do you typically work with or maybe what types of companies have you worked with in the past? C2B companies, enterprise or small businesses that are either their story is not sharp, it's mushy, and it's not people hear it but don't remember it because average is over. No one remembers an average story.

2:19Or they're not able to find a way to connect it because there's so much stuff out there they can't break through the clutter. And we help them craft a creative story that people say, hey, tell me more as opposed to click, click, next one. Hmm. So what would be an example of maybe a client that you've worked with? Or when we talk about having a pretty weak story, but it's just it's not compelling. Like what would be an example of maybe what a lot of companies do in regards to their story? And what might be an example of how we would transform that to make it a little bit more captivating? You know, typically the story is too long.

2:59You know, they got on and say, here's a great product, you know, this phone and it is this chip and it has this memory and it has this. They list 12 things about their product or service. And the hardest thing to do is communicate 12 things. So we help them say, what's the one? Where do you want to start the story? If you had to say one thing about this phone, what would it be? And once we define what that starting point of the pyramid at the point of the story, then we can, if you get their attention, you can tell them three other reasons. It's a great product or service. But focus and getting to a simple, crisp idea is really hard for a founder or an entrepreneur because they want to tell you so much.

3:43They've done so much thinking. They've been in the weeds. They've developed it. They're so proud of it that everything seems mission critical. And part of the challenge is how do you find where to start the story? um so when we think about um you know you're kind of like you're talking about like paring down uh to the most i guess it's almost like you know kind of the most critical part of the story we think about uh maybe the parallel with how this might seem for like a a movie or a movie trailer uh and you know again in a movie trailer you know we're gonna pull out the absolute most compelling stuff and something that's going to really grab the audience.

4:28Do you see a parallel there? Yeah. Movie trailers have a real benefit because most of them are 90 seconds long and most people will watch it for 90 seconds because it's sort of fun and visual. But with a business, you have eight seconds. Most companies can't afford to put out a 90-second message. They're lucky to get a 20-second or a 10-second soundbite. so it's more critical for businesses uh to have a handle on it you know uh yeah there was a great handle developed speaking of the movies for barbie hammer you know the two movies together and they what you want is a handle say i want to talk to you about barbie let me tell you why you're going to be interested in it but if you don't have that first 10 seconds right you'll never get to the remaining part.

5:15And my first book was actually called Brand Simple. And most businesses are so deep in their bubble of how many great things their company does, they want to tell you everything. And the most successful companies, if you look at insurance, is a great example. We're owned by this. We've paid our policies on time. But the most successful insurance company in the last 10 years has been Geico because they figured out one thing to tell you. So, you know, give me 15 minutes and I'll save you 15%. Now it is owned by Warren Buffett and they do motorcycle insurance. There are a hundred things they could tell you, but they were laser focused on picking one thing to start the story.

5:58And that's a big challenge today. That's fascinating because you're absolutely right. Someone like Geico could say, hi, we're Geico. We do car insurance and auto insurance. We do home insurance. We do motors. Look at all of these things. And we've been in business 30 years. And we have an office near you. And we're easy to be. There are 100 reasons. But figuring out how you start the story is a challenge. That's fascinating. Talk about your book. And we'll get back to metaphors in just a moment. But I want to share just a bit about your book. Again, it's called Seeing the How, Transforming What People Do, Not Buy, to Gain Market Advantage.

6:37Help me understand why that's so critical to focus on what people are doing and not buying. Yeah. It used to be you could invent a product, a phone, a lawnmower, anything, and you would have an advantage because you were the only one that had that. And it was so distinctive from everyone else that you could just tell your story and say, use this phone because it has A, B, or C. But today, you look in the marketplace, it's a sea of similarity. You know, there's so little difference between a product. You have to zoom out and say, all right, my product may be interesting today, but it won't be different tomorrow.

7:13You know, how does that product fit into someone's lives? You know, what are they living? How are they doing? So zoom out and don't start maybe selling your product by by just telling about the product, but fit it into people's lives. So the book talks about different lenses you can look through to see what problems consumers are really having. Maybe it's in getting your product. Maybe it's in returning your product. Maybe it's not related to it. Maybe it's in how to use your product because it can't understand the instructions. Zoom out and don't start selling your company always based on you've got a better mousetrap.

7:49And there are many examples that, you know, one of the lenses is to, it's just, we try to look at the market through fresh eyes. And for years, people have been taking their car to a service station or dealer, and they bring in the car and somebody looks at it and says, well, you need this, this, and this, and go away. And then they hand you a piece of paper and said, we found all these things wrong. You know, recently you go to a car dealership or a car repair, and all of a sudden they send you a video and say, look, we're under your car. Here's a video of your brake linings. They're no longer, you see how much worn, see how worn they are?

8:27And all of a sudden you get this video and you believe them versus them coming out and saying, you know, I think you need new brakes, Josh. So simple ways to say, look, we've been doing the car service business forever, but how can we make it better for our customers? How can we explain things? And don't need a new product. You can just do virtual things and look for ways to differentiate yourself. Not everyone repairs the brakes the same way, but maybe we can be friendlier with our customers or inform them better by taking an iPhone under the car and showing them what the problem is and then showing them the video again and say, and here are your new brakes.

9:01Look how much better they are. Yeah. And if you're a car service business, you would only talk about how we do great repair. Yes. Think about how you fit that repair into people's lives. Yeah. I love this quote here, Theodore Levitt. People don't want quarter-inch drills. They want quarter-inch holes. And everyone's selling drills. And you've got to say, well, my customer needs to get his or her car repaired. What's their biggest concern? The biggest concern is that I'm going to put a part in that they don't need. How can I solve that problem? Yeah. So metaphors, share just a bit about the company itself and kind of where you've come from and your work today.

9:48Well, everyone, the problems companies have are often because they are too close to the problem. They have been in the business. They don't have any perspective. So we have a series of partners with different skill sets, market research, helping them tell their story or position their product. And importantly, how do they get it out there? Because many people, if you say, what's wrong with the company? Some people say, well, you know, people, there's not enough awareness. I need to build my awareness. But just being aware of something, saying, I know Josh does a great podcast, doesn't make me want to listen to it.

10:30or have heard Josh has a podcast, you have to figure out what do you want to tell them about that podcast that, as we were saying earlier, that's going to say, oh, you know, Josh's podcast will help me be more successful in my company because he really talks to people who understand how to do business growth. So, you know, part of our team is to look at both what defining the problem is and then expressing it. And they're both are important. Many people just jump to the back end. Oh, I need more awareness. Get me on TikTok. Do some get me in it. Yeah. Help me go viral. And if you if you, you know, you watch the Super Bowl and you think, you know, lots of marketing experts.

11:14You remember some of the commercials and you remember the most likely because there was a great celebrity or there was a funny gag. You may not even remember the company name. And for those of you remember the funny gag and the company name, you may not even remember why you should care about it. So, you know, too many people are out there saying, hey, look at me. I'm great. And not spending enough time figuring out what they want to get across and then figuring out how to get across. So it's, you know, you can't just spend all your time thinking about what you want to do, but you have to figure out how to get clarity on both sides.

11:53That's what we do in MetaForce. Yeah. Ellen, we've talked about some really important, great principles today. What would be an example or what would be something that someone could do today to kind of take action on what we've been talking about, even if they're not yet engaging with you? I think the biggest challenge for businesses today is that if it ain't broke, don't fix it. You know, they go into their workplace, they do what they did yesterday, maybe they do it a little better. And the pace of change is incredible. So the biggest challenge I think marketers face today is just keeping track of what's going on.

12:26And so one of the things I talk about with our clients is you've got to, yes, being in front of a computer all day helps and talking to your employees. But get out of your bubble. Yeah. Get people around you who see the world differently. Get people around you that are comfortable saying, you know, Josh, that's a terrible idea. Do something every day that you didn't do yesterday, whether it's go to a different store, watch a different movie. We used to watch television to find out what's going on. But if you know what's going on with streaming media, they're just streaming exactly what you want.

13:01I went to visit my daughter in university last year and I stayed at a university hotel and I watched some streaming television on my phone. And all of a sudden I saw ads for 25 companies I never heard of because they thought I was a student at this university and everything. So even when you think you see what's going on because you watch on your phone or your stream, everything is so catered to you. They're just serving you exactly what you want to see, and you no longer have peripheral vision. So find a way to look around the corner, go to a different part of town, talk to different people every day.

13:40If you're not always curious and a little paranoid that what you've invented is going to be obsolete, you're going to get into trouble. Yeah. So your website for Metaphors, it's metaphors.com. Um, when, like when someone begins that engagement, who are they typically talking with? And what does that conversation typically sound like? Um, they typically, we're pretty flat partner only organization because this is really hard to do. And typically you go to a large marketing firm and you speak to the founder and then they hand you to the assistant who hands you to the assistant. We're senior level people and we're going to be just asking lots of questions and doing lots of observation.

14:23How do you sell your product now? What are the touch points? Can I go with you on a sales call? What are your competitors doing? So the first part is just really trying to see with what we call fresh eyes, what's going on? And oftentimes when you're wearing the same shirt every day, you think you look pretty good until your friend says, hey, Alan, you know, no one's wearing blue shirts anymore. Why are you still wearing blue shirts? You don't see it yourself. So step one of the engagement is just to look at fresh eyes with how you're going to market. What are customers hearing? Is that the right story?

15:01Defining the problem, because people come in and they often think they know the problem. Oh, we just need more awareness. I wish more people heard about us. Oh, we need a new logo or a new ad or a new, we need to find an influencer. Part of it is making sure you understand what is before you jump into, oh, we can fix that. Yeah. On the website, metaphors.com, what would you say? Someone's been listening to our conversation. What would you have them do right now? Call us up and tell us what your challenge is. Your business is not growing. You wish it were growing faster. Let us take a look at what's happening.

15:41and then we'll propose, hey, you know, have you ever thought of these three things? And if they, no, let me go look at it. They can go look at it. If they want help figuring out how to do it better, then we'd love to talk. Yeah. All right. Again, Alan Adamson, co-founder of MetaForce. Website is metaforce.com. Also, you can buy it on Amazon right now. And by the way, thank you so much for doing the audio book. I'm a huge audio book fan. seeing the how transforming what people do not buy to gain market advantage. Alan Adamson, it's been a great conversation. Thank you so much for joining us. Take care, Josh.

16:21Thanks for inviting me.

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