Tag Archive for: story

Gallery Furniture Will SAVE YOU MONEY!

Mar 12, 2021/in Advice, Marketing/by Jeph

Kawacatoose First Nation: an awesome school in a friendly place

May 22, 2019/in Community, Consumer Behaviour, Motivation, Presentations, Stories/by Jeph

If You Want To Be an Amazing (Blank), Study the Amazing (Blankers)

Jul 2, 2014/2 Comments/in Advice, Leadership, Strategy/by Jeph

It’s a simple thought that has profound consequences.

If you wish to be the best, you must study the best.

If you want to be amazing at golf, study the great golfers.

If you want to be an amazing comedian, watch the great comedians.

If you want to be a world renown hypnotist, you’d be wise to study the greatest hypnotists in the world.

Never before has it been easier to study the masters of our craft. Whatever you do, whatever you’re into, you can find someone in the world who’s amazing at it and better yet you can subscribe to their YouTube channel.

Start following people you’d consider a mentor in your line of work.

For the past 5 years I’ve been listening to some of the greatest storytellers of our time. They study their craft, they try different things and they keep their audience coming back for more every week.

I regularly listen to Ira Glass from the This American Life podcast. Ira is one of the best storytellers I’ve ever listened to. If Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour rule is true, I’d be willing to bet that Ira Glass has told stories for well over 10,000 hours. He’s simply brilliant to listen to.

Steven Levitt & Stephen Dubner from the Freakonomics series of books (Freakonomics, Super Freakonomics, Think Like a Freak), movie and now a podcast. I think Freakonomics should be one of the books you have to read in highschool, much like Shakespeare, but a new and improved fascinatingly remarkable Shakespeare.

RadioLab’s Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich

Another long time favourite of mine, RadioLab. You have to listen to it to believe it. But Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich entertain week in week out. The production on RadioLab is probably the best out of any podcast I’ve every listened to. The saying “you never get more out of something than what you put in to it” couldn’t be more true for RadioLab. They tell some of the most fascinating stories.

In the marketing world, I like listening to the Six Pixels of Separation podcast. The host Mitch Joel is Canadian, he run an agency out of MitchJoel, Six pixels of seperation podcast Toronto and Montreal. He always ends up asking the most interesting questions, he’s one of the smartest marketing minds in our world, you’ll see a lot more of Mitch Joel in the future. (oh yeah, and he’s CANADIAN! That’s awesome)

The BeanCast is another of my all time favs. Bob Knorpp invites 3-4 guests who’re are notable marketing minds from all over the world, you get a diverse opinion on many topics from Social Media to traditional advertising. Some of my favourite episodes are the ones with Peter Shankman, Edward Bouches, Scott Monty, and of course Saul Colt.

One last honourable mention goes to WNYC’s Planet Money Podcast. Always a new and interesting topic that the hosts seem to spin into the coolest story you’ve heard all week. You have to listen to Planet Money at least once, you’re guaranteed to learn a lot!

I want to be an amazing storyteller one day, I know that will take a lot of practice, but that’s the hard part you can’t fake past. But it’s never been easier to find our mentors, to follow our hero’s, and to watch the very people we look up to.

What amazing (blank) are you studying to be?

3 Must Do’s To Tell a Compelling Story

Jun 10, 2014/in Advice, Blogging, Innovation, Presentations, Research, Video/by Jeph

1. Start off with a big bang

Introductions mean a lot in documentaries. They set the stage for what’s about to come. The intro can either turn the viewer on, having them beg for more, or can work against the film by boring the $!%$ out of the audience.

Searching for Sugarman begins with the controversial story of how Rodriguez killed himself. Some say it was a gun to the head, some say it was the most gruesome suicide in history, where he doused himself in gasoline and lit himself on fire in front of an audience. The beginning of this documentary in incredibly captivating, you can’t turn it off or switch the channel. You desperately want to know what happens. A sign of a great story is you can’t turn away because it’s so spellbinding.

2. Introduce Controversy

K2 is one of the deadliest mountains the world, far more dangerous to climb than Everest, for every four people who summit K2, one dies trying. This is the story of the fateful day 11 climbers never returned home from K2. One of the deadliest expeditions in mountain climbing history.

There are conflicting stories on how some people made it off K2 that fateful day, not every agrees to what happened. Were some people hero’s? Or were they just trying to be selfish. In desperate times, people do some strange things.

You can’t help but be at the edge of your seat the entire time the movie plays. The camera shots, the epic story that changes back and forth, and the mysticism around this life altering mountain that is so very hard to summit.

3. Tell an emotional story that pulls on people’s heart strings

Whenever a movie or documentary comes out that features animals, it’s hard not to get emotional. Yeah, I cried in Babe, Homeward Bound, and maybe The Lion King, didn’t everyone?

We have a natural (biological) tendency to care for babies and animals (and animal babies). When a documentary like Blackfish comes out you know it’s going to be an emotional ride but what you don’t know about is how these beautiful creatures are treated in captivity. It’s horrible. It’s hard to watch. You’re going to get emotional.

The good news is is that this documentary actually is influencing change in how the public views SeaWorld. Several articles have touched on the protests and how angry people are over SeaWorld, and even a bill introduced in California that could introduce the end of Killer Whale shows in the state as well as importing and exporting Killer Whales.

All of these documentaries can be found on Netflix. I strongly encourage you to watch.

To recap, telling a compelling story in the media, to a friend, on your website, in a video, in an article, remember these three things:

1. Start off with a bang

2. Introduce controversy

3. Pull on peoples heart stings.

If It’s Your Customers You Wish To Delight…

May 5, 2013/in Customer Service, Regina, Research/by Jeph

Steel Mace Valkyrie

Carter from Strategy Lab designed my website better than I could have ever imagined. He took care of everything. Super professional and speedy! Thank you!

Jeff LS Security

We have worked with Strategy Lab for over ten plus years. Brandon has always been a true pleasure to deal with. He is very creative and made the design process very easy. I would highly recommend them to anyone looking for a New Design or Revamp of an old Website.

Doug Dimen

Brandon and his crew at Strategy Lab are amazing to work with. Not only are they very knowledgeable but they go out of their way to make sure their customers are beyond happy. Highly recommend!

Smb Construction

Fantastic experience with this company. They made things very easy and at a very affordable price. Will definitely continue to use this company in the future.

Carter Bezan

I honestly don't even know where to start with this crew over at Strategy Lab! We went to them on a whim from recommendations by a few other entrepreneurs in our city. We went to them over the big name companies who specialize in what Strategy Lab does because of the love that was being shown from people they'd worked with. To say we were blown away is an understatement!!! Jeph, David, Carter and Brandon took our social media and marketing to a whole new level and not just that but helped develop us into managing it ourselves in the end. They helped us create awesome content for our website and social media game as well as our advertising campaigns. Content the grabbed our audience and increased all of our viewing and impressions on everything we posted. Thank you doesn't cover the feelings of gratitude we have for the team at Strategy Lab. We cannot wait to see what they can help us do in the next year!! PS, we've only been working with them for 5 months!

Brenda MacLauchlan

Brandon and Jeph worked with Astonished! Inc. to create a beautiful website that reflects Astonished! and they are right there for any technical support we need. Thanks Strategy Lab

Jenni Bast

The Strategy Lab Crew will always be my GO TO for Marketing business and help. They did a (Real Estate) Business Video for me about 5 years ago and I am still proud to share it around the on-line world today. They are innovative thinking, creative minded, professional, approachable & a fun group of people. I have went to their past Social Media courses and have learned a lot. I have and will continue to refer anyone and everyone to them as I think very highly of them and their work!

Matt Robertson

Not all heroes wear capes. We wanted to make a difference in our community by undertaking an ambitious charity event. These things tend to be a lot more wok than anticipated and it was obvious the event would need a strong web presence to grow. That is where Strategy Lab became not a vendor, but a partner. Very quickly in our engagement with their passionate team, the vision of a website transferred from our shoulders to theirs. They took the ball and ran with it and the resulting website is incredible and much better than anything we could have envisioned. Thanks to their efforts, our plans for an annual charity event have grown quickly, and the impact in our community is significant. If you want an innovative and energetic team to make your online presence shine; look no further.

Nuit Blanche Regina

Tanisha, Marc and team do a fantastic job and are wonderful to work with :D

Mederic Lanoix

Jeph and all the crew are amazing to work with and provide a very high quality service. Highly recommended!!!!