I published my first post on July 10, 2008.
With “Call Me Ishmael” already used, I went with:
Business people tend to associate storytelling with fiction.
Herman Melville I’m not (though we both have beards).
Rather than tackle weighty topics like revenge and how to fish, I envisioned a blog that would look at storytelling through a business prism. Even back in 2008, one thing was clear to me. The world did not need another PR blog.
My view today is no different than when I started the blog —
The concept of storytelling is counterintuitive to many business executives, particularly those coming from engineering orientations where science rules the day. I’m not suggesting you need to lose an appendage to a large mammal before anyone will notice you, but the ability to build some drama in business communications is a means to capture attention.
That’s what the blog set out to accomplish, to tackle the challenge of communicating to the outside world in a way that causes people to care, or least devote precious attention to the communication.
Naturally, the blog has evolved, today addressing the intersection of traditional communications, journalism, digital media and branding as well as storytelling.
But the basic premise hasn’t changed.
Given a choice between dull or interesting, 99.9 percent of people will gravitate toward the interesting.
Which is a vote for storytelling over corporate speak.