I read a book not too long ago.
It was a book of short stories written by a renowned author from China. He lived in the early twentieth century, and in the introduction, there were excerpts from an interview conducted with him.
He said that the worst thing that can happen to any thinker, writer, artist, thought leader, or anyone for that matter, is not whether one's opinions get overwhelming support, or overwhelming criticism, but complete indifference.
By that, it means a lost voice in the mire of voices. It means that whatever opinion that you have formulated, regardless expressed or not, is simply non-existent. It means that no one pays attention, no one reacts, no one gives a s***, no one cares. It's merely unseen, unheard, unfelt.
Never has it been more greatly felt than in today's world of technology. It is an age of information abundance. It is an age where nearly everyone can be granted a voice in one form or another and thereby be granted the ever-present element of choice and variety amidst all the offerings in our commercial world today.
It is easy to have an idea. It is easy to put thought to it and go around the groups and push through the social media channels or even go straight to the ground with physical surveys. In the sense, it is doable. Likewise it is doable- despite the competition- to get seed funding and incubator funding for the ideas and the processes and solutions that you have.
But let's be candid here.
Nothing ever prepares you for the moment for debut. Imagine, you've been there preparing for months, years even. You've sat there looking at your material and interacted daily with your team and your investors. And you think you've got some good dope there. You think this dope is exactly what people outside your circle need. You think that this dope is gonna save the world's issues.
So you debut.
And..... NOTHING.
Complete silence. Astounding silence.
It's one of the worst situations to be in. It's like... you stepping out onto a stage for your very first show. Now, by then you've gone through hours and hours of practice and your routine is perfect and you've worked out the kinks and you believe that everything is perfect and that right out there seated in the auditorium are people who are going to enjoy your performance and give you the applause and present you flowers after that. But then you step out, and to your horror, the auditorium is empty!
Devoid of a soul. No one in the audience, no one even from the janitorial crew. So you turn around and go backstage and check with your poster people, your marketing people, your event managers, your agency, your makeup and costume people, even your venue sponsors and venue reps and they're all scratching their heads there. They're telling you that they've gone through the motions and all... but..
There's always a reason, isn't it, when situations happen this way. Perhaps something else was going on. Perhaps people were too busy or they had other necessities. But let's say that there were fifteen auditoriums and there were fourteen other performers all debuting at the same time as you and with all the posters and advertisements going on, yours had got lost in the midst. Either they had simply ignored yours, or if they did see it, they let it slip away from their minds. In other words, with all the excitement of what was going on around them, there was simply indifference towards your painstakingly prepared, painstakingly rehearsed performance.
This is not a situation that anthropomorphic branding wants to land you in.
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| wynne: with wings |
Because we don't create the what. That's your product, your job. We create the Who. And the Who we create isn't you. The Who that is you is someone you can create for yourself. We create the Who and we place it in a Where and have it be involved in a How and Why and When- a story arc in a place and a setting and where there's a mission and purpose. Because if your product is meant to solve something, our Who is also meant to solve the same thing with the distinctive method that your product is using.
He or She IS your product, your service. He or She personifies your solution. He or She represents the solution that your product or service provides. He or She becomes the one your market will recognize, follow, watch and emote which leads to a call to action.
Your product ceases to be something that people don't understand. Your product grows a heart- one that is a person just like themselves and whom they can identify with and who, like them, faces limitations and has strengths and weaknesses. But there's just one distinctive exception. He exists for a very specific problem. And he is a very specific solution.
It doesn't apply with the first glance. But what it does is to create an impact, a response, and where He or She becomes your spokesperson and has the potential to be anywhere and everywhere at the same time, reaching out to different peoples with different likes and dislikes and all kinds of interests because simply, He or She is designed to be a Person.
There will be emotive responses. There will be criticism. There will be support. Or there may be none. There may be time lapse before they support. Or there may be time lapse before they change their minds. But whether they decide now or later, what is pretty clear is that because of this guy or girl, there won't be a nonchalant, cant-care-less attitude that merely increases the risk of your product and service being swept to the gutter.
