Content Creator’s Creed Line 7

February 2, 2015 7:55 pm

We Believe…sharing your wisdom through story is your best legacy

This conversation was used as the source material for a corresponding blog post.

Grab the entire Content Creators Creed series (9 short episodes) on iTunes.

Transcript:

Shayla: We’re talking today with Dave Young, the founder of Shortcut Content and, Dave, we’ve been talking the past few podcasts about your Content Creator’s Creed. We’re wrapping it up in the next couple. And today I’d like to talk about why it’s important as a founder or an innovator of a company to share your story.

Dave: Well, part of that creed it is “we believe sharing your wisdom through story is your best legacy.” Everybody starts a business for a different reason. Typically, it’s some combination or variation on, you want to make a name, you want to make money, or you want to make a difference. And if you just want to make money, Shortcut Content and blogging in an authentic way may not even be the best strategy because people smell that, right? It’s like, I don’t really want to read the story of somebody that just wants to make money. Although, that may just be me. There are plenty of people out there that want to and we see that all the time. There’s all kinds of internet marketing gurus that all they talk about is how to make a big pile of money. Usually it’s by dragging people into the same financial mistakes that they made and charging them for it. That being what it is, still, if you can relay that your legacy is that you want to help somebody make a big pile of money, then more power to you.

We typically aren’t going to help with that just because there’s not a lot of story there. But if you’re trying to make a name for yourself and what you’re doing, or you’re trying to make a difference, ya know, Steve Jobs said that he wanted to make a dent in the world. I think that’s where sharing that kind of story really helps you leave that legacy. For a small business owner, a lot of the times, that just means, I want to leave a company that can survive on its own and my children can step in and carry on and it can become a good living for them as well. And so when you pass down your wisdom through story-telling, those are the kinds of things that stick around.

Back in the eighties, yes, I’m that old. When I was in college I did an internship at IBM and Thomas Watson Jr. had been gone from the company for over a decade by then. So anybody that knows the story of IBM it was started by, well, it was actually purchased early in its days by Thomas Watson Sr. who ran it through the fifties and then Thomas Watson Jr. took over and a decade later, the stories about those two guys were still being told person to person, inside that company.

Shayla: Wow.

Dave: It wasn’t stuff that was written down somewhere. It was when you went to work for them, man, you heard stories over lunch. And they left a legacy that was still being followed then and, I think, is still probably at the core of what IBM is today, although, I have no direct experience with the company. They’ve changed a lot since the eighties, but that legacy sticks around.

Steve Jobs has been gone now for quite a few years, but his legacy is still echoing in the halls of Apple.

Shayla: Absolutely, you wouldn’t even really realize he was gone. He still feels very much alive.

Dave: Yeah, the company still very much has his DNA embedded into it. You work at lululemon and one of the things you and I were talking about before we started recording was that that’s a company that’s steeped in story.

Shayla: Absolutely, I think what they do best is making the guest feel like they’re part of a community because the faces of the company are actually them and the people working there live the creed, rather than sell them something.

Dave: That’s great. And so my assumption is you know the founding story.

Shayla: I do, yeah, I know a lot about it. I know why it was created it, what his purpose was. And I don’t think he planned for it to get this big. He wanted to leave that legacy and because he focused on the legacy, it grew beyond what he had ever set out to do.

Dave: How long have you been working for them?

Shayla: Just about five months.

Dave: Okay. So here’s the interesting part. Somehow, intentionally, they’re training people who are working in their retail stores, to do more than just understand the product and work the cash register.

Shayla: And they’ve done by telling us over and over about the story of the company.

Dave: They’re sharing the story and that’s where you create a bond with the customer. It’s not about, oh, yeah, I can ring thing up, do you have anything else you want?

Shayla: Right, it’s not about going to the gym. Although that is the end result, hopefully, is going to the gym. It’s really about so much more.

Dave: Our advice to a company that’s looking to create content is do it in a way that’s going to establish your legacy. And the best way to do that, to share that wisdom, is through story-telling. And that can be inside your organization, it can be public facing in the form of blogs and podcasts, and, in fact, Shortcut Content can help you create those stories, whether you’re going to aim them inside the company or aim them at the public. We can help with that. We’ve worked with people who have created content with us that have no intention of sharing it with the public. It’s content that’s just being shared with their organization so that that legacy can be established and everybody knows the stories.

Shayla: So how do they get started, Dave?

Dave: It’s super easy. Just go to ShortcutContent.com and read a few of the things we have there. If you want to talk about it, pick up the phone and give me a call or fill out one of our forms on the site.

Shayla: Alright. Thanks, Dave.

Dave: Thank you.