Stories Mean Business - Nick Warren

In his book, The Bed of Procrustes , Nassim Taleb writes: "Decline starts with the replacement of dreams with memories and ends with the replacement of memories with other memories." Three days ago, I came across a photo taken in 1992. It's me, with my girlfriend at the time, snuggled together on the edge of Timanfaya National Park in Lanzarote. It's a few weeks before I'm due to sail across the A...

Yesterday , I talked about the power of telling stories within stories. Today, I want to relate that to our world – to business. Why bother? What's the value? It's a good question, but I want to turn it around and ask you one. How do you show up in the world, right now? Here's how a lot of people do it. "I'm Nick, and I do X." If you jump onto LinkedIn and do some searches you'll see this all over...

I've talked about the power of callbacks before, but today we're talking about another way of layering meaning into your mythology ... telling tales within tales. You can find this in The Bible , Harry Potter or ... our subject today ... The Canterbury Tales. What is the power of stories within stories? Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/753:-I-Beg-Your-Pardon

In Superman 2 (1980), Kal-El, does something that is both brilliant and terrible. And it shows why we need to bring our real selves to our work, day in and day out. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/752:-Supermans-Biggest-Mistake

A quick note to say that the Tell Your Story course is live ... and I'm really proud of it. It embodies 3 principles I’ve built my businesses on:  Storytelling ,  Simplicity , and  Momentum . And I know that some people are really going to hate it. There are no pretty worksheets, no video lessons, and no walled gardens to make us all feel cliquey-special. This isn’t about that....

In my origin story , I talk about the realisation that I'd built my first business by telling stories. You might think it a little weird that it took so long – given what I do now – but the truth is that ’our story’ didn't feel that remarkable at the time. We were a web design agency that built websites. You may also remember the metaphor I've mentioned before ... that a great brand is like a bell...

Yesterday, a friend of mine sent me a link to a book called The Extended Mind, by Annie Murphy Paul. The subtitle was "The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain". I haven't read the book, but I will. I have a long history of manipulating the spaces about me to support whatever the work is – and I bet you do too. As this is the World's Slackest Podcast, I also talk about the process of creating the a...

30 years ago, The Freshers’ Fair felt like a seething cauldron of possibility. It was my first week at university and all the clubs, cliques and societies were vying for my attention. But the other thing I remember – my clearest memory actually – is the huge stalls selling posters. Hundreds of cheaply printed, mass produced images of bands, movies and memes. But of course, they weren't really sell...

Short-term thinkers focus on tasks. Smart people focus on asset building. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/747:-Building-Your-Assets

Here's a couple of reviews I just read on Amazon: Izzy wizzy, let's get bored really quickly. Three hundred pages of derivative, shallow and turgid prose for seven year old children from an author who seems permanently to wear a medium weight chip on her shoulder rubbish stuff them posh wizards going to a fancy school if only they would see proper english school personally i would take their wands...

A year ago, I saw my Dad for the last time. And today, we're taking our youngest to start her university career. In both cases, I was lucky. I had the time and space to get myself ready for the loss, and enjoy them while they were around. 2,000 years ago, Epictetus, the slave and stoic philisopher, wrote: At the times when you are delighted with a thing, place before yourself the contrary appearan...

After yesterday's universes, today we focus down on something much smaller ... the gap between frames in a comic. 25 years ago Scott McCloud introduced me to the idea of the audience – the reader – as a critical part of the storytelling process. This is about contrast and closure (a different kind of closure). It feels like I'm circling an insight here, but I'll get it... Episode home: https://Sto...

As a kid, Roald Dahl was my favourite author. From James and the Giant Peach and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, to the heady grown up mysteries of Henry Sugar. Yesterday, Netflix announced an extension to the deal they struck with the Dahl estate in 2018. Back then they paid (a reported) $100 million for the rights to selected titles. Now they've decided to spend some real money, and it's easy...

When you control the middle of the squash court, or the middle of the chess board, or the device that people read emails on, or the way your story is told ... you have a lot of power. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/742:-Controlling-the-Middle

We like to think we are special, but as Steven Taylor knows, we are all powered by the same stories. Taylor published a book – The Psychology of Pandemics – a couple of months before COVID was first seen in China. He predicted the empty shelves, the backlash against masks, the conspiracy theories and more. Because it all happened before, in 1918, with the Spanish Flu. This is why stories are so po...

Although the full Hero's Journey has 17 stages, the "Nuclear Unit" of the Monomyth is – according to Joseph Campbell, "a magnification of a formula represents by the Rites of Passage: Separation–initiation-return ." As I've said before on this podcast: The world changes, which forces the hero to change, so she can in turn change the world. David Kudler, Campell's long time editor, wrote a fascinat...

None of this is real 😉

One of the things I've added to my Origin Story Course is this concept of your story as a slope. Ideally, it should look like this:  But in reality, it often starts by looking like this: ![](https://firebasestorage.googleap...

Yesterday, Apple launched preorders for the iPhone 13. I haven't ordered a new phone in years, but I smiled when I saw that the whole Apple Store was down for hours before the launch. Not just iPhones. Everything. Twenty years ago I used to laugh at them – how ridiculous for a company to have to take down its whole store just to update a couple of products. How little I knew. They are masters of t...

When people tell me they can't tell stories, I ask them about times when they are in the wrong. When it comes to shifting blame, we are fantastic storytellers. Also in this episode – we return to the difference between looking good and being good. Episode home: https://StoriesMeanBusiness.com/podcast/736:-Guilt-Tells-Great-Stories

In his book, 📓The 48 Laws of Power , Robert Greene coins the 5th Law: So much depends on Reputation – Guard it with your life. The book is intentionally Machiavellian in style, but Greene is a fascinating guide, drawing the 48 insights from amazing historical sources. I first bought the book in 1999, but a recent reread had me looking at the 5th law in a new light. Reputation is, of course, relat...

Yesterday, I got an email from a car mat company asking me to review a recent purchase. The email – and indeed the whole buying process – had been good up to the point where they offered me a False Choice . A False Choice is a logical fallacy where the persuader intentionally offers fewer options than actually exist. In this case my options were either that A) I LOVED THEM, or B) I NEED SUPPORT ....

Plato said, "He who tells the stories rules society." At least, the internet thinks he did . It certainly sounds like something Plato might have said in The Republic , but here's the thing ... he never actually said it. At least ... I can't find the source anywhere. "Why does this matter?", you might ask. "It's a perfect quote for you. Who would know?" Actually, I know you'd never say that because...

Super quick iPhone only podcast.

Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is everything you'd expect from a Marvel movie: fast, funny and full of action. I loved it, but I also understand that it lacks what most Marvel movies lack ... a sense of consequence and emotional weight. Which is why the end isn't that memorable. But – in classic SMB style – let's contrast it with something else, from Captain Beaky and his Band. P.S. Her...