What is your Story?
Too often I run into business owners that think they sell a product or service. “I clean carpets”, “I sell insurance”, “I provide apartments”, “I sell cookies”. This is no longer enough. There are hundreds of people that do what you do. Sometimes thousands. You no longer can just “sell books”, “take photos”, or “sell hamburgers”. You must have a story and be willing to tell everyone what that story is.
When I sit down at a restaurant, not some fast food joint or fancy steak house, but a regular mom and pop diner type restaurant, the first page I flip to in the menu is the story. I want to know who the owners are, when they started the restaurant, and what making food means to them. This, to me, is the most important page. If a restaurant doesn’t have a story, I am often anticipating a mediocre meal with mediocre service. And I’m usually right.
What is even more a tell of an involved owner, is when the waiters and waitresses know the story as well and they breath it. I’ll often ask them, how long has the restaurant been there? How long have you worked here? I learn so much more about the organization before I ever put in my order.
I am always making sure that the people I work with know our story. I had the opportunity to sit with a prospective collaborator awhile back. Our team had already started the meeting, I entered the room a tad late and sat down. He…
