SEARCH

Search

Explore

Blog
Podcast
Free Live Event
Self-Assessment
Manifesto
Book

Work with me

Connect

SUBSCRIBE

Search
Close this search box.

The two kinds of suspense

There are two types of suspense: artificial and intrinsic.

Artificial suspense is what TV casting shows do to you right before an ad brake. They could tell you but don’t – because they know that as soon as they’ve told you, tension falls apart and you walk away (possibly disappointed because the reveal fell short of the promise).

Intrinsic suspense is the opposite. It’s what great stories do. They do tell you! Because that’s precisely why you want to know more.

Revealing the information opens up your curiosity as opposed to shutting it down. It’s much more the start of a new thread rather than the end of the previous one. Rather than walk away because you got what you wanted, it makes you stay because you want to know what happens next.

The same can be achieved with a great marketing story – when your story is so relevant that your audience absolutely needs to hear more about it.

It could e.g. be an eye opener … exactly what they wanted to hear … just what they’ve been looking for all along without even realising it themselves.

And so they beg you to tell them more: How does that work? What would it cost? What would we need to change? What are the requirements? Is there more to it? Can this be applied to other problems? When can we start?

If your product is that good, if it’s exactly the product your customers have been waiting for, then you can skip artificial suspense. You don’t need to hold the best part back. You can reveal it because it’s precisely the thing that makes them want to know more.

In essence, the relevant question to ask is not “How do you make your topic exciting?” but “Why is that crucially relevant for your audience?”

And if it isn’t … then, sure, you can reach for artificial suspense. But the better approach would be to work on relevance.

Inciting action

The beauty of books is that you can live other people’s lives. The beauty of dreams is that you can live a different version of your own life.

None is the life you actually live.

If you want to change that, you’ll have to take action.

This is the point where great stories deliver more than good stories.

They encourage – if not require – us to take action. Great stories don’t stop at just showing us a different life. They lead us to a point of no return. A point where we can’t unsee what the story made us see. A point where the desire to live that different life has grown tremendously – to a degree that it creates tension. Tension that can only be relieved if we take action.

I would love to hear which stories did that for you.

Good marketers vs. great marketers

Good marketers tell stories.
Great marketers tell true stories.
True stories about the things they deeply care about.
True stories that make it obvious for our audience what to do next.

Great marketing is grounded in three things:

  1. Work that matters – because it is the result of caring deeply and sweating the details.
  2. Empathy – because the work is super relevant and aligns with what matters to the audience.
  3. Respect – because it trusts in the audience’s ability to make the right decision.

Therefore, great marketing doesn’t need to rely on sneaky tactics, click-baity language or promising the blue from the skies.

If the product is actually great, then all we need to do is tell a true story about it. If it deeply resonates, our audience will make the right decision.

For the first time ever, on October, 26th I’m launching a public masterclass to help you achieve that. It’s designed to help you craft messages that resonate so strongly that it incites action and creates movements. You’ll find clarity about your message, trust in your own voice, and gain confidence to tell your story in a way that feels like this is the way you always wanted to tell it, this is the way it’s meant to be told. The beauty of it is this: it’s always been in you. We’re just letting it out.

Find more information about the masterclass here.

Caring on behalf of your customer

When you’ve got an important story to tell, it can be super-hard to focus on a clear and concise message. It really hurts to leave out the details. After all, it’s precisely because you care for the details that your product is so extraordinary.

It’s also the reason we buy from you. We buy from you because you care for the tiniest pieces and sweat the details.

But I myself don’t need to know all the details. I don’t need to become an expert in your craft myself to appreciate your craftsmanship. I don’t need to become an artist myself to admire your art.

On the contrary: I want you to be the expert so that I don’t have to become one. I want you to tell me the essence of your story so that I can decide for myself whether I want you to dig deeper. What’s easily overlooked: If I don’t want you to dig deeper, it might not mean that I don’t care. It might just mean that I trust you to care on behalf of me.

Why crime stories work

The human brain is basically a prediction machine. At any given time, it tries to figure out what happens next. Tension comes from the uncertainty about the prediction: Will the prediction match the true course of events?

That’s e.g. why criminal stories are so popular. It’s also why we love a good riddle or puzzle. We love to figure things out (and be right about it).

Tension increases when hope joins the party. When we hope for a certain outcome, it hurts even more when that outcome doesn’t come true – e.g. because we sympathised with one of the parties involved in the criminal story. Or we rooted for one side in a tennis match.

Movies make shameless use of this. Great movies let us anticipate how the story unfolds only to leave us in the uncertain about whether we’re actually right. Worse: Even if they resolve part of the story, they will leave at least one piece open so that there’s always something to anticipate and predict.

Great communicators create tension by using this principle, too. They trigger our prediction machine and then use our anticipation of the resolution to keep us hooked. They might e.g. show us a clever way to solve one of our problems and then use our desire to figure this out and make it work for us to lead us to listen to them, glued to their lips, for more than an hour.

(PS: If you want to learn how to make use of this in your own communication, you might want to consider joining my masterclass “Leaders Light the Path” which launches this fall. Get notified here.)

12 angry men

In my keynote speeches I often ask people what’s so different about movies that we find them entertaining for 2+ hours while most presentations are boring as hell so that we start looking for an escape before reaching the 2 minute mark.

Among the top responses is music. And it’s true. Great music makes great films even greater. But it misses the point – if only because it would be an easy fix to include some music in a presentation.

The movie “12 Angry Men” creates tension from the first to the last second. We witness 12 men in a room. With no music! (And, of course, no special effects.) It’s pure story. It’s a great movie that grabs our attention (Well, mine at least).

If our story is great, we don’t need any music. Nor special effects.

Great stories are great because they resonate – not because we decorate them. They grab our attention and never release it because we can relate to the characters and their struggles. Music – and special effects in general – can make the experience even greater. But they are never the reason why it’s great in the first place.

And they never turn a lame story into a great story. They are an amplifier of greatness, not a rescue to lameness. If the story is lame, it will still be lame despite great music and great special effects.

Granted special effects can get you a short burst of excitement. They can wow your audience. But that’s about it. Most wow-effects fade quickly.

The thing is that – most likely – you don’t have the budget to produce special effects that do that trick for you. Effects that will provide that level of excitement to your audience.

(Not only) therefore, it’s much better to get the story right before we start working on the special effects.

A million ways to tell our story

Today, we’ve got a million ways to tell our story. We can tell it on video, audio, or write it down. We can publish it on YouTube, LinkedIn, or Instagram. We can record podcasts or chat live on Clubhouse. We can tweet with 240 characters or write long-from blog posts. We can call on the phone, meet in person or give a speech.

Yet, no matter how we choose to tell our story, one thing always comes first: Making a connection with our audience.

This is not about technology, nor about the format. It’s about empathy, clarity, and caring for our cause. It’s about understanding what matters to our audience and finding the words that make them see.

The beauty of it is this: When we get this right, our story becomes independent of the platform, the format, and the technology. When we get the story right, we’ll be able to tell it on any platform, using the format that fits us best with the technology that we have.

We need a hero but it’s not you

… and that’s good news!

Here’s why: Trying to play the hero is one of the major causes why people feel uncomfortable on a stage (and in front of a camera).

When people try to give the impression of being the hero, they tend to be focussed on themselves. What’s worse, it exposes them to the judgement of their audience: “Will I live up to their standard?” It puts a weight on every single action and every single word. All eyes are on them.

The sad part is that that’s not even what the audience came for. They are not looking for a hero because they already got one: themselves. Every single person in the audience cares much more about themselves and their own problems than they do for the speaker and her hero problem.

At the same time, that’s an easy solution for a speaker’s hero problem: Step down from the podium of the hero and grant it to your audience. It makes your life much easier because if you show up as the guide who lights their audience a path, you’re in a completely different situation. Now, your job isn’t to make yourself shine in the brightest light. To be the perfect star of the show.

Your job as a guide is to offer your help, your expertise, your opinion, …

By giving your speech you’re giving your audience a gift. One that they are free to take to solve their hero problem.

If you’re doing this from a posture of generosity (rather than as a trick to get the deal), it’s highly unlikely that they will be harsh to you. Generosity is seldom the source of frustration for our audience. What a difference to the people who try to steal the role of the hero from their audience …

The stories we make

“I don’t tell stories.” the restaurant owner said, “so that’s not relevant to me.”

Which is half the truth. Because while he doesn’t tell stories, he surely makes stories.

By the name he chose for the restaurant. By the way he designed the interior. By the way, guests are greeted when they enter the restaurant. The way the tables are laid out. And the menu looks. What’s on the menu. What music is playing. By the smile on the waiters’ faces. And many more details … all of which turn into stories that his customers tell.

And it’s a lot of stories.

Even if we don’t tell stories, we still have a story by the things we make and the way we make them. Everything we do influences our story. And the stories that people tell about us.

Magic happens when we get conscious about it. When we see the story we make. When we understand and feel why our audience feels welcome at our place. Why they enjoy the interaction so much. Because then we can adjust the tiny details to make it even more enjoyable. To attach even better to what our customers love. And influence the stories our customers tell. Make them consistent. So that others recognise the stories’ origin.

What’s the story you make?

These fascinating communicators who have their audience glued to their lips

Some people believe that tension is something you have to create artificially. Something that needs to be added to your story. Something that only Hollywood has really mastered and that they certainly don’t think about when it comes to telling customers about their topic.

And yet there are these fascinating communicators who have their audience glued to their lips after just a few sentences. How do they do this? They can’t possibly have the only exciting topic there is, or can they?

No, certainly not. But they understand a crucial factor of tension: relevance. What they say is relevant to their audience and they say it in a way that the audience can relate to.

Just like Hollywood does.

Hollywood understands that the key element to excitement is relevance. All the ingredients that we think of when we think of increasing tension in a movie depend on it. Action in a movie is boring as long as we don’t care for the people involved in the action. An elaborate soundtrack is just nice music as long as we don’t care for the people.

Movies create tension when we relate to the characters in the story. Everything else is just there to enable and amplify that. Great acting makes it easier to relate to the character. Great soundtracks focus our attention on key moments and set the mood.

The same is true for our own story. The key ingredient to create tension is relevance. If our story matters to our audience’s lives, then we can tell it in an exciting way. If it solves a problem that our audience has, or if it fulfils a desire they have, then they will want to know how. If it’s relevant, they will want to know more … and that, by the way, is the definition of suspense: wanting to know what happens next.

So, if you want your audience glued to your lips, ask yourself this: Why is it relevant to them? Why would they want to know more?

Spread the Word

Dr. Michael Gerharz

Dr. Michael Gerharz