What anchors your brand in the minds of your investors, vendors, employees, and customers? Is it your logo, your slogan, your imagery? We think the most powerful brand anchor is your brand story! It is through your story, that folks learn about you, what you stand for, the challenges you’ve overcome, and the principles you used to over come them.
Identification
Your story can be the most compelling reason why they identify with your brand. Others see themselves in you through your story and your challenges, pulling for you to succeed! In that process your offering becomes more than a product, service, commodity, or label. It becomes a living entity with a history and a purpose. We like to say, “A brand is a movement, with a product to go with it.” How better to convey a movement than through your brand story?
Questions
Who came up with it? Where did it come from? What problems does it solve? How is it different? What challenges did it have to overcome? What were the major breakthroughs and “Ah Ha” moments? What were the seminal events in its history? What does the founder stand for? What are the key principles and take-aways from the story? These are just a few of the compelling questions that build the brand story.
Answers
Now let’s present that story in the theatre of the mind that is the magic of audio drama. Let’s create scenes that answer these questions. Let’s have actors play the parts and add sound effects and music. Each scene captures a seminal event in the brand’s history and demonstrates the thinking and lessons learned by the founder. Each scene leaves the listener wanting more. Each scene reveals what the founder stands for and the principles upon which the brand is built.
Experience
We created Business Audio Theatre (BAT) for our own story, The Barefoot Spirit, which, we are proud to say, was selected by the Audiobook Publishers Association as one of the Top Five Business Audiobooks of 2020. What really distinguishes it was that it isn’t just read to you, it is performed for you. In fact, we have received so much positive feedback that we decided to produce Business Audio Theatre for others.
Team
We were involved in every aspect of creating our own BAT, so we know what is involved first-hand. We have an excellent team including a New York Times’ bestselling author from Stanford, and an award-winning production company from Hollywood. Plus, it is so much fun! We get to meet other founders who, like ourselves, had to overcome challenges, objections, financial hardships, disappointments, and all the tough times founders encounter. And many of the same winning lessons were learned that brought about success! Now, that is FUN!
Ego?
But why would anyone want to go through the process of telling their story? Was it ego? Sure, they are naturally proud of themselves for succeeding, but a BAT production is ultimately more about building a brand with recognition, identification, and popularity. We all know we can’t be here forever. Why not seize the opportunity to capture your legacy and preserve it for all time while the details are still fresh in your mind?
Book Sales?
Did we create our own BAT to sell audiobooks? We know having written a NYT’s bestseller that both paper and audio books are hard to sell and getting harder. It’s not about quality anymore. It’s about quantity. There’s just so many books being published every day.
In our case, we had to make all of the book sales ourselves. In fact the cost of promotion outstripped any profits from book sales. So even though our paperback and audio books are for sale on all platforms, and even though more than 60 schools that teach entrepreneurship have bought our books, and even though our speaking hosts have purchased our books for distribution to attendees, we did not create them for book sales.
Door Opener
The paper or audio book, however, does give you credibility. Use the audio production as a “business card” to open doors for being a guest on podcasts and other media. For instance, we have been on 60 podcasts since releasing our own audiobook just one year ago. We have also gotten many professional speaking engagements from companies, organizations, and schools. The audiobook is a brand building tool for you, your company and your product or service.
ROI
Here’s a few other benefits to having a Business Audio Theatre produced for your company that can translate into ROI:
- Vendors are more likely to extend credit terms to companies when they know the story behind the company and the principles they practice.
- Customers are more likely to be loyal to a company once they identify with it by hearing their story. Now it means something much more than just a label. Now it’s a movement!
- Investors feel more secure when they know where you are coming from, what you’ve achieved, and why you chose to do it the way you did.
- Content is in demand for company websites; story in audio form can be down-loaded and is completely mobile.
- New employees are more likely to engage with and stay with a company that has a story they can identify with, especially when they hear the story when, or even before, they are hired. Attract the people that want to be part of your story!
- Existing employees and contracted services are more likely to connect with the story and practice the principles conveyed by the actions taken.
- Students and aspirers can be educated, encouraged, and motivated to stay on course and ultimately write the next chapter for your company and others.
In other words, Business Audio Theatre is a great way to anchor your brand in the minds of the folks with whom you have your most important relationships. It’s a fun and compelling way to make them say, “I know the story. I can identify!”
