Transcript:

So if you think your story is told, no it's not. And even if you think you've told it too many times, guess what, keep saying it because people will hear it differently at different times.

Happy December first 2018, it is Monica here and it's the first day of December, the last month of 2018. And so you got 30 more days. So, 30 more days to really accomplish your 2018 goals and I'm pretty excited about that. This morning I did something that I don't do a whole lot. I actually watched an entire movie. Now that may seem strange. I mean I'm not a big TV/Movie watcher, especially lately. I've just been so busy with all the things changing and everything happening. And my adorable little two year old that I would much rather play with him in my free time than watch a movie or sleep, frankly. These are my priorities. Play with toddler and sleep. They weren't covered any movie. But this morning we have a little bit of downtime and we watched that new Kurt Russell movie on Netflix called, I think it's called Christmas Chronicles and it was a super cute movie.

But here's the thing, two minutes into the movie well, not even two minutes into the movie, probably even from the trailer, I knew the whole storyline, right? Because I've been practicing telling stories and writing stories for a long time now and I spent 10 years living in Hollywood and you could see the same story pattern over and over and over and over. Right? And so the movie starts out with these like awesome montages of this video of this amazing family and Christmas right through the years. And my poor husband who still loves movies, I was like, “Someone's dying, right?” And I'm not spoiling it. That's really all I'm telling you about the movie. And this happens in the first like three minutes. And sure enough, sure enough, the dad died. Here's the thing I want you to know about that.

Even though I knew that was happening, I knew the whole storyline, everything, I still really enjoyed the movie because even though you know what's going to happen, the ways that it happened, you don't know. Right? So you know that in the end, stuff's going to happen and Christmas is going to be in jeopardy and they're going to save Christmas, right? That's true of any movie, right? Something's going to happen. The story is stuff's going to happen to them, but in the end they'll save the day because in our lovely western society, our movies all have to have a happy ending to be really good hits. This movie was super cute and even though, I knew the ending- by the way, I cried through a ton of it because I was like, “the dad's gone!” which by the way, gets me every time. If you want to make me cry, like, have somebody die, a mum or dad, which by the way is another good storytelling thing.

Like, have you ever noticed Harry Potter is an orphan or for nanny? These kids are orphan for a reason because you immediately bond with them. So the reason I'm talking about this story is because when you're watching Netflix or you're doing whatever, for me when I'm reading or watching Netflix, it is really hard for me to turn my marketing brain off. Right? So like, I just think about all the things that I know and I'm like, this is how the story is going to play out. And I know this because I use storytelling a lot in marketing. So if you're just chilling out and watching your Netflix, like start watching how the story is structured.

It actually happened to me one other time. I was at the Business Boutique Conference by Christie Wright, and I was with Tabitha and I looked at her and I was like, “Here's what's going to happen…” Because the speakers were all trained by the same person, so it was literally the same structure of everything. They all had a prop out at the same time. They all had this happening at the same time. They all had this other stuff happening at the same time and so I noticed these patterns. So if you're paying attention to movies and stuff or like even like the series of speakers that I was at this event and I was like, “Here are the patterns,” so just start paying attention. If you want to start picking up really good storytelling, then try to think about how you can put your stories into that structure.

Now, you know, hopefully you're not an orphan, but if you are, then people will immediately like you. And it was funny because I was telling a marketer my story about how like my friend knocked on my door to serve me papers because I was so annoyed that I couldn't pay the credit card company back and I was getting sued and I was really sad about it. And you can always tell when a marketer hears a story because they're like, “Oh, that's a great story.” Like everyone else in the world was like, “Oh my God, that's terrible. Right? But a marketer knows that a story like that that's true, helps people bond to you because other people have gone through similar things. So, that reminds me of something that I've been saying that I first heard Stephen Larsen say, I'm not sure if he got it from somewhere else, but your mess is your message.

So if you're in the middle of the mess, know, that one day it could be a message. And it's not the first time I've heard that, by the way. I heard that several years ago from a woman called Dr Pepper. That was her name and she was speaking at a conference in Poplar Bluff. A long time, like 10 years ago, but I didn't quite understand that then. But she was basically saying your mess that you're in the middle of is how God is transforming you to create a message to help others. So I hope that helps. So that's what I want to talk about today. Storytelling, how my Netflix and chill that even though I knew the story. And that's the thing too, if other people, still think that they know your story, but they're still going to pay attention. So even if you think the story's been told over and over and over, think about how many times he watched the same movie or somebody knows, watch the same movie or even if you've watched the same kind of movie, I mean, how many romantic comedies, have we all seen?

Well, all of us ladies, I don't know if the dudes are emotional as we are, but you know, I'll watch a movie knowing the storyline. and so will you probably. So if you think your story is told, no it's not. And even if you think you've told it too many times, guess what, keep saying it because people will hear it differently at different times.

All right. Have a happy Saturday night. I will be back here tomorrow and happy December. Let's go get your goals done. Alright, bye