Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

What’s your prospect’s Boogy-Man?

There’s tons of rules for great storytelling.  

There’s the classic books by Joseph Campbell and his ‘Heroe’s Journey’.  

And a butt-load of other books based on Campbell’s work too.  Which is saying something because Campbell’s books are already pretty plump…

The bottom line is this… 

There’s one super-important story element you need to always have.  You can get rid of almost every story “rule” and still have a descent story.  Everything but this one thing. 

It’s what I use in my marketing.

And my comic books.

It’s what I taught my college students (and Girl Scouts by the way…).

Your stories need a VILLAIN.  

Your bad guy is what powers your story.

Crappy villain=mediocre hero.  Mediocre hero = mediocre story.

Cliffhanger was a great movie because  John Lithgow was a great bad guy.

When we talk about Silence of the Lambs, do we talk about Jodie Foster?  Nope.  Hannibal Lecter, baby!

When you tell your story you better have a good villain.  Your story is only as good as your defeat.

When you speak to your audience, who is their villain?

The gurus say to ask, “what keeps them up at night?”

F*#! that!   

What pisses them off?  What boogy-man is lurking in the dark that is going to get them?

Don’t believe me?  

Ask someone who hates “The Vid” vaccine, what they don’t like about it.  They will talk your ear off.  

This would happen if the topic was medicine.  

What to eat.

Religion.

How to raise kids.  Whatever.

Don’t be milquetoast.  Find what gets under your avatar’s skin and talk about it.

Need help?  https://adamstreet.net .

Adam

When fishing is good and the catching is bad

Some people treat studying like some wussy soft skill.  

Not quite sure why studying gets such a bad rap so I googled it.   

Here’s the definition I found:

“Devote time and attention to acquiring knowledge on (an academic subject), especially by means of books.”

Ah, I see where this ‘pop culture’ definition is different than my version.  

Knowledge is not power, the application of knowledge is power.  You can read about how to fish all you want.  Until you bait your hook and plant your fishing pole into some water you’re not really going to KNOW fishing.

Knowing is about conscious contact not theories.

That’s our goal.  

It’s how we will understand who we serve and to KNOW them better and better.   That way when you write copy for your website or ads or whatever you can lead with what resonates with your audience the most.  

As Gary Halbert would say, you don’t want to sell the best hamburgers, you want to find “a STARVING CROWD”.  

If you don’t, you’re pushing the rope instead of pulling it.

You’re gonna work WAY too hard for lackluster results.

Eugene Schwartz put it like this:

“This mass desire must already be there.  It must already exist.  You cannot create it, and you cannot fight it.  But you can—and must—direct it, channel it, focus it onto your particular product.”

Yes, you want a fancy USP and all that jazz but make sure you are tapping into a desire that is already there with your products and services.

To learn more on how to find and market to a hungry crowd, subscribe to my free daily emails at https://adamstreet.net .

Adam