Month: October 2012

One Thousand And One Nights (Of Media)

Garth Beyer

If you’re looking for a great story-teller, there is no one other to look to or compare to than the unbelievably talented Scheherazade (Shuh-Hare-uh-zahd). This goddess of storytelling delayed death by one thousand and one nights simply by telling stories. She did what every reporter, journalist, and center of the media dreams of, and for the same reasons; neither wants to die, be fired, or be humiliated. So what means of attack do they use against death in all its shapes and forms?

Storytelling.

How important is storytelling?

For the eBook I have written called Start Schooling Dreams, I had asked Karthik Puvada, creator and writer of BeThePurpleCow, if he could add just one class to the school curriculum, what class would it be? Immediately, he responded “Storytelling”. I was not satisfied with his single word response, so I pried more to get the following;

“Martin Luther King, Jr.  Steve Jobs. Gandhi. Mark Twain.  Pablo Picasso.

What’s one thing they all have in common?  Yes, they were geniuses in their own fields, but they also were brilliant in something else too.

Storytelling.

They told influential stories all throughout their lives. The stories that defined them. The stories that captivated millions of people around them. Some ended up as iconic books, some as revolutionary civil protests, some as incredible gadgets and some as legendary paintings. But they were all various forms of stories, more importantly ideas.”

You may now be wondering what this has to do with media. Since the introduction of media, the stories of Scheherazade and the incredible world changers that Karthik used as examples have only been amplified. That is what the media is capable of doing with a story – it amplifies it. Storytelling in the media takes on the cumulative effects theory in the sense that the urge for you to consume what the media is presenting is built up to the point of consumption rather than occurring immediately. Just as well, it can shift your views, beliefs, judgments and even your character as easily as it gets you to consume a product.

Like the stories of Scheherazade, the media uses all five elements of story to make a successful impact on your beliefs.

Exposition: the introduction of the topic the media is presenting

Rising action: the media provides specific information to the audience to build tension, suspense, and intrigue

Climax: what the media truly wants you to know and approve

Falling action: what the next steps are for you to take

Resolution: taking those actions and resonating them

Extraordinary storytelling and utilization of the media to amplify it can make you a legend, a millionaire, an artist, and a leader of social change.

My question to you is would you rather watch and listen to Steve Jobs tell a story or a misinformed underpaid reporter? Your answer shows exactly how good storytelling in the media affects what media content you consume.

The Writer’s Kiss

Garth Beyer

If you’re a writer, be a writer.

If you’re an editor, be an editor.

They are two different lifestyles and they have a peculiar way of, not entwining, but meeting each other.

Writing is like kissing a girl, you (the guy, the writer) go 90% of the way. You have the ideas, you put words to paper, you apply the foundation and build the structure of a story. The girl goes the other 10% of the way. She does the editing, the grammar, the mechanics.

You meet, you kiss,, you both leave each others lips stronger, more assured, more confident in it working out. The perfect kiss. The perfect writing.

Doing Selflessly Selfish Work

Garth Beyer

Isn’t it funny how the most selfless articles you read are actually selfish (not in the bad sense of course!)?

We write what we want to write, and that which benefits us most – at the same time, it benefits everyone else even more. The articles that really hit home are the ones where you know hit home for the author.

Let’s not feel guilty about following our passion, taking actions for ourselves, and doing what we really want to do. So long as it get’s shared with others.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like shrunken heads. However, if I met someone who was extremely, completely, passionate about making them, I’m much more inclined to change my view of them.

 

Stay Positive & “Why the long faces”

Garth E. Beyer

The Advertisers Mistake

Garth Beyer

Don’t spend more time updating your commercial than your service.

Advertisers want us to talk about them (the product, the company, the idea), but too often they forget they need to give us something worth talking about.

The Pen And Journal

Garth Beyer

Always, always carry a pen and journal with you.

Then you will never have the one that got away experience.

The idea, the girl, the license plate number, whatever it may be.

If you are a writer, you may understand more so, heck, you may even be wondering why the hell I was walking around without a pen and journal in the first place. The journal and the pen are vehicles, they are your confidence, they are everything necessary to making honest and accountable progression in your life.

 

Stay Positive & You Never Know When You Will Need Them … But I Guarantee There Will Be A Time That You Do

Garth E. Beyer

You Can’t Go Through Life Thinking

Garth Beyer

that the one occupation you want is the only one you can ever have.

Nearly every day I walk down E Gilman Street and am mesmerized by the view of the city between two apartment complexes. It’s something I know not a single architect, when designing any brick of Madison had thought of. Who would care that someone walking down a street could see a piece of the Capitol and nine other buildings, all beautiful architecture, between two apartment complexes? I’m fascinated by it. Every time I see it I think how I want to be an architect; that I can design – really, truly, passionately design. I catch myself thinking that if I were to restart my life, architecture and free style dancing would be my two passions I would build my life from.

Of course I mentally slap myself right after thinking that I can’t do those things during my life, this life. Despite my ambitions to become a well-known published author, Pulitzer prize recipient for my journalism, and world-renowned PR specialist and creator of the worlds best PR agency, there are still plenty of years in my life to study architecture and dance and to become really good at it.

We all get stuck with this preconception that the career we have is the one we have for life. There is no turning back, it’s too late to become great at anything else. We also think that to become great in one thing involves focusing on it, and only it, all our lives, and maybe, just maybe we will die a professional and be remembered for what we did.

Let me tell you how it is. If you want to be a professional, you must have experience, and experience comes from doing, not from reading a book. When you first start off down the road of your passion, you read books, then you take actions. Why do we not think that while we are taking actions, we cannot also be reading books on something else?

You can’t argue that it’s damn near impossible to study marketing, study skateboarding, study a second language, and study family sustainability and expect to be a professional in every area in a year. You can, however, study skateboarding then when you are finished researching and reading up on it, start doing it and gaining experience instead of studying about it. Then, you start to study a second language. Once you are done studying the second language, you keep skateboarding, you start using the second language (gaining experience) and then you begin studying your next interest.

We can do a lot in one day but we can’t study a lot in one day.

I’ll be a pretty good architect someday, a great freestyle dancer too.

What else will you be?

 

Stay Positive & Dream Big

Garth E. Beyer

A few days after writing this post I was walking home from the café and found someone standing off the sidewalk in the spot with the best view of Madison. She was taking a picture of this view, my favorite. I told her how remarkable it was that she was capturing the view and we both agreed it was a breathtaking sight and close to the best in all of Madison. I’ll have to snap a pic for you next time around.