Mementum

One of the greatest pieces of sagely advice ever bestowed upon my impressionable ears was this:

When you run into that black hole of a social situation where your conversation dead-ends, simply ask, “So what’s your story?”

Finally! Finally I had my first weapon to wield as I navigated the social jungles of college. It served me well. The kicker, I learned, was that you always, always get similar return fire. You gotta have your own answer, and if you seek to impress you’d best have a totally rad one. I learned that the hard way, but I owe Brady a beverage for many salvaged conversations.

Interestingly, what I’ve found is that as we’re moving forward, this question is getting asked not just of social mavens, but of products as well. And if you don’t share your story, someone else will. I’d imagine that marketers thoroughly enjoy it when someone else tells their story.

The takeaway is that you’d best identify your story, build it into your identity from Day 1, and be ready to share it. Make it worth telling and that story becomes legend, and legend becomes lore, and suddenly you’re marketing is taken care of.