Storytelling is a superpower.

A key to unlocking growth in your writing, startups, marketing, business, or career.

THREAD: 10+ principles of effective storytelling (that you can start using today):

Clarity of Purpose

The best storytellers always define a clear purpose prior to crafting their story.

What is the story trying to achieve? What does success look like with this story?

Commit to answering these key questions before doing anything else.

Define the Audience

Every great story begins with a well-defined audience.

Who is the audience? What do they consciously (or subconsciously) want from the story?

Be deliberate with this exercise.

Be honest with yourself. The audience may look different than you expect.

Establish Structure

“People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don’t have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.” – Steven Spielberg

Stories need structure.

Clear narrative arcs (like Pixar’s “hero’s journey”) work well.

The Story Spine

Playwright Kenn Adams created a neat framework - “the story spine” - for establishing structure:

Once upon a time there was [blank]. Every day, [blank]. One day [blank]. Because of that, [blank]. Until finally [bank].

Fill it in and watch your story take shape.

Writing Emails to Professor; Important tips & Samples for your consideration

Every year, Profs get several emails from students & difficult to accept all. You want to ensure yours is concise & deserve a response. This thread will provide insight & some samples you can use.

1/n

Your opening statement; Here, please briefly introduce yourself & connect your interest with the Prof's own (refer to sample attached). Mention one or two of the Prof's research areas that you've checked and find interesting.

2/n

Following this, let them know what you've done in the past: Demonstrate your experiences & tools you use (this is important for them to gauge your fit). E.g: I have good experience working with neural networks, ensemble forecasting & published a paper in ABC Journal.

3/n

Lastly, quickly summarize what you'd like to research & state again the skills you've got that will be a good addition to their lab. E.g: I'm interested in conducting research on improving model prediction in AI (the Profs interests). I use Python, ArcGIS & R for modeling.

4/n

SOME IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER

1. Your email should not be verbose. Ideally, I'd keep within 3 paragraphs (something one can read in 2minutes)

2. You can attach CV & Transcript, but not in a drive or folder. Have it there as an attachment, they decide to open it or not

5/n

I don’t want to put anyone on blast, but I’ve seen a few people saying, erroneously, that superhero comics sell more by the numbers, that they have the biggest sales overall and (most wrong of all) that they are the best selling comics globally. And, uh...Shounen Jump called. 📞

I’m not saying this to detract the historical and global importance of B2 comics... they were once huge. They are also old, so as far as historically, yeah they have decently big numbers. They are not doing those numbers now, or anytime in the past decade.

The best selling series, ever, by a Big 2 is Spider-man, selling 650 million since 1963. You can tally up all their series together but that’s a bit unfair so let’s stick to individuals. 650 is VERY respectable.

One Piece, Japans top selling collected manga, has sold 470 million....since 1997.

But that’s collected volumes...manga magazines are really a more equitable competitor to floppies, although not exact because, in fairness, they contain several series. That said, shounen jump has sold 7.6 billion. There are several other shounen magazines in that range.

1/13

Successful enterprises do not relish in the faults of competitors.

They relish in competition.

They relish in a market with multiple use cases.

Rising tides lift all ships.

I am ashamed of the ETH community today.

2/13

We fault the close mindedness of Bitcoin maxis, but then mock any project that takes a new approach and hits a snag?

If you want to mock rip off grifter scams like Tron, that’s one thing.

3/13

If you take pride in “dunking on” legitimate projects who have differently philosophies and approaches to our industry then you are now better than the foaming-at-the-mouth BTC maxis you denounce.

4/13

Worse still you forget the faults we had along this journey. The times ETH went down, the times we had forks.

We sit high and mighty on some judgmental ivory tower, when most of you have never worked on consensus problems or chains.

5/13

I do not own any SOL, but I recognize that there is room in this industry for a range of products with different use cases and different trade-offs.

This blind cultish commitment to one implementation is childish and short-sighted.

In your business, how do you handle the sales and price and T&C parts of the sales?

Specifically, when clients try to haggle, or try to make you play by their rules - what do you do?

It’s very common to then start to appease the buyer - and it's a grave mistake.

[Thread]

When you start to reduce your price, or you agree tot terms you’re not happy with, you’re setting up for an experience that will disappoint your buyer and you as well.

In fact, the more you let go of your own rules, the lower level of customer satisfaction, no matter how good of a job you do.

Saw this tweet the other day:

“Just said goodbye to a potential client because they wanted me to go against everything I've learned and start work without a deposit payment.

"But we're BIG and you're small. You can be flexible."

"No. It's because I'm small that I can't be."

Now this is a correct and true response - but it’s also the wrong one.

Because how big a client is doesn’t have to affect your terms and conditions, and shouldn’t.

Because with that reply, the client heard ‘you’re right, you’re bigger and therefore dominant.

Marketing is the ultimate meta skill.

Lifehack: Most people are awful at marketing.

The best marketing affects a human's behavior.

It leverages psychology to impact people's perceptions and decisions.

Understand it and you'll influence consumer's buying decisions.

Use these 12 psychology tips to influence your audience 🧵

1. Theory of reciprocity

As humans, we’re more likely to do something for someone after they’ve done something for us.

When you consistently provide value to your audience -- they’re more likely to reciprocate by supporting you.

This builds brand advocates.

2. Too many choices

Too many choices means too much confusion.

This affects a consumer's ability to make a decision and demotivates them from doing so.

Reduce your options.

Increase your conversion rate.

3. Decoy Effect

Perspective influences decisions.

With the decoy effect, you alter the consumer’s perspective by making the highest ticket item look like a deal.

Ex:

Small Popcorn: $3
Medium Popcorn: $6.50
Large Popcorn: $7

The large feels like a great deal.

4. The Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon

This phenomenon is when you see something for the first time then feel like you start seeing it everywhere.

Once you become aware of something you start to look for it unconsciously.

This then convinces you that it really is everywhere.

How to grow on Instagram reels?

I went from 1000 followers to 215,000 followers in 8 months and here is what I learnt!

If you're just starting out, this is a great time. With recent changes to the algorithm, Instagram is promoting smaller pages more than ever. (1/n)

1) Pick a niche. Something that hasn't been done before. Create your own style, the accounts that have grown the fastest have had a first mover advantage in their niche. (2/n)

2) Quantity over Quality. Trust me the algorithm loves small accounts. Even if the content is marginally good IG algorithm will promote it. Upload twice daily if possible until you get a viral video. This doesn't mean you compromise a lot on quality though. (3/n)

3) Trends. The algorithm understands trending music and heavily promotes videos on trending music! If you can use those trends with your niche. (4/n)

4) Now lets talk about Content:
4.1 Entertain as much as possible. No one comes to Instagram to learn. Package information with entertainment. (5/n)

10 sales tactics that work:

1/ Stage out the conversation

One conversation is just that: another conversation.

Land a second, and now you’re being “evaluated”.

Don’t try to jam through everything in the first convo.

Do just enough to pique their interest and land that second meeting.

2/ Do your homework

If you’re pitching a customer, use their product,

Read about the company and the person you’re talking to.

Ultimately, this proves that you will do the work to make their lives easier.

It’s so powerful yet so easily overlooked.

3/ Ask about the decision making process

Who is required to make a decision like this?

What would you need to see from me to be able to buy?

How long will it take to make a decision?

These questions give you the roadmap on how to close the deal.

4/ Don’t always demo

Sometimes it’s habit to jump straight into a demo.

If someone wants to talk first, do that.

This could consume a whole first conversation.

Which gives you a great excuse for that second meeting: going thru the demo.

@jayhuffmandotco @alexgarcia_atx Was it Tiny Grocer??

'How To Get More Followers & Engagement Using Hashtags Without Being Spammy' 😱

A lot of you have been asking how I was able to grow so fast over the last month so I thought I'd share with you how to grow using Hashtags!

This is a long one so keep reading...

1/7

So I’ve been getting asked a lot..

“i was wondering if you have any tips on growing a small twitter account”



or

“you got like 100 followers in 2 day. HOW?”

This made me want to start sharing different tips with you so you can grow your own profile at ease!

2/7

To keep things short, here's how to select your 'Top 5' hashtags that you should be including in your posts so you can grow your profile.

Just remember, this is all new to me and I could be completely wrong..

Do not hold me accountable if this doesn't work for you

3/7

Step 1: Search a main keyword on Twitter (i.e. #ROBLOX)

Step 2: Navigate to the 'Top' filter after you search

Step 3: Start scrolling and identifying 15-25 posts that are similar to what you want to build and have high engagement (i.e. likes, comments, etc.)

4/7

Step 4: List all hashtags from the posts you identified and a number next to them that will tell you how many times you see that hashtag (i.e. #RobloxDev 12)

5/7

Tips From 15 Newsletter Writers On How To Build Your Own

A group of newsletter authors with a combined audience of hundreds of thousands shares advice on writing, promoting, and community

Full post at the link; read on for

Credits to the team for putting this together:

@lennysan @nbashaw @nbt @JayCoDon @thatguyBG @ataussig @SarahNoeckel @sariazout @ljin18 @sidharthajha @DruRly @Kantrowitz @TurnerNovak @iankar_ @bradwolverton

2/18

Do awesome work:

“Above all else, it’s all about your content. If it’s valuable, people will read it and share it. Produce great content, consistently, and your audience will grow.” @lennysan

3/18

Do awesome work:

"When someone subscribes to your newsletter, you enter into a contractual obligation with your readers. Your #1 job is to honor your readers’ time and write like nobody wants to read your sh*t” @sariazout

4/18

Do awesome work:

"Write something that is 10x better than anything else out there on this topic. If it doesn’t meet this bar, don’t publish.” @ljin18

5/18

With digital advertising getting tougher and too many choices for consumers, it's important to have a website that is:

• story-first
• easy-to-navigate
• made to convert

If your grandma can't use it, you've already lost.

Here are 11 tips to build a high-converting site 👇

Have a compelling story and brand narrative on the homepage.

Your homepage should have a good balance of explaining WHO you are, WHY you exist, and WHAT you sell.

If someone doesn't go further, they should walk away with an understanding of all 3.

Focus on driving a customer journey.

Whether you're selling skincare or cookware, point the customer in the right direction with CTAs.

When merchandising, you should have a hierarchy of what you want your customer to buy. This helps reduce a customer's analysis/paralysis.

Incorporate social proof across the website & Google search results.

The latter: makes sure you stand apart in Google searches (search "non-toxic cookware" and you'll see)

The former: gives perspective from different POVs to potential customers.

Don't use full-bleed websites

From the data I've looked at, most people don't scroll when the website is full-bleed and you can't see the next section.

If you must, add a floating arrow or indicate there's another section to scroll into.

Always show there's more!

Compelling copy combined with good storytelling is an unfair advantage.

An unfair advantage that the Wall Street Journal used to drive $2 Billion in revenue over 28 years using the same sales letter.

Here are 7 copywriting tips to help you write sticky stories 🧵

1. Use Familiar Words

Every audience has words familiar to their interests.

Injecting these words into your stories connects the familiarity gap.

And unfamiliar words create seclusion.

Gary Provost with a great example:

2. Inject Real Stories

Your story is your social proof.

The more a consumer can see that you were once in their shoes, the more that consumer will see you as the guide they’ve been looking for.

Customers want to know you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.

3. Your Brand Isn’t The Hero

The customer is always the hero.

And their goal is the destination.

Your brand provides the map.

The visualization from start to destination is how you sell them.

4. Use Emotional Tones

Emotions are your best friend.

They’re what get people to take action.

And the best writers use emotional tones to transfer information through characters, plots, and conclusions.

“Targeting” doesn't mean what it used to in the marketing world - the days of targeting different ages etc are GONE - algorithms do that now.

“Targeting” means crafting messages that resonate with your customer.