About Lance Zaerr
I tell stories for a living. I light up the spectrum of human experience. I give words to people's heartaches, tell stories of their resilience, and describe their vulnerabilities. I share the power of their triumphs and write songs for their celebration. I speak to the monotony of life's routines and reveal the transformation experienced in a mid-life awakening. Through the power of these stories I help connect people to what is meaningful in their lives.
Through these stories, I help people to connect, connect to one another, to what is meaningful, to what they need, to where they want to go, to what they must to do. The stories I tell captivate the listener and motivate them to live differently.
Intentionality & Obstacle, per Aaron Sorkin
Aaron Sorkin argues every great story needs two elements, intentionality and obstacle. Intentionality relates to a reason behind a journey, while obstacle speaks to the things that get in the way. These elements form a compelling narrative that engages the audience and draws their attention.
Telling the Story in Business
In marketing, design, sales, development, or almost any other aspect of business, the story should captivate the customer and motivate them to engage the product or service.
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The product or service is NOT the story.
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Explaining a product or service merely shares a story without intentionality and obstacle. It's boring. It's uninspiring. It will never captivate and rarely will it motivate.
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Instead, the story speaks to the "Why" of the product or service. It narrates their existence in a way that motivates the customer. This is best done when the "Why" of the product or service is connected to the memorable stories of people's lives. That's what lights up the customer's passion.
The Story Lights the Passion
They will laugh, cry, worry, hope, dance, and sing when the story speaks to the passions of life -- the emotions of life. And so, the story must wrap itself in the passions of human life to captivate an audience in such a way they're motivated to engage the product or service. Through a word, or a look, or even a hand gesture, the story can be told with the emotions of life that are sure to invoke a reaction
Passions are Easy; Actions are Hard.
It's hard to motivate the audience. We can speak to their emotions and draw up a passionate reaction from them, but to motivate them to do something requires more than merely captivating them.
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We have to motivate them.
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To properly motivate the audience, we have open them up to being willing to change and engage.
Change & Engage
A good story can make people think about change. It can make them say, "You know, I need to do things differently" or "I should go and do that." Some will remember their thought about change and actually do it, but most will forget and fail to engage in the product and service. What we should be seeking is for the audience to say, "You know, I should go and do that, RIGHT NOW."
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We want the motivation RIGHT NOW!
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As we're telling the story and captivating the audience, we must motivate the audience to change and engage the product or service RIGHT NOW. By focusing on the "right now," we're able to engage a motivated customer to an immediate action, which leads a higher rate of engagement. The "right now" does not allow for the customer to forget, but provides a prompt response. It leads to the customer changing and engaging.
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A Story Told Well
When a story is told well, through the use of intentionality and obstacle, the customer will have experienced a passion worthy to engage and will have felt the motivation to do something in the "right now." And so, a story told well will deliver results worth celebrating.