Welcome back to the monthly Zander Media newsletter!

Whether you are recruiting new employees, selling customers on your product, or raising money - you have to effectively tell your own, or your company’s story, to be successful.

At Zander Media, we think a lot about storytelling and the underlying structures that shape a compelling narrative. In particular, we are fans of Dan Harmon’s 8-Part Storytelling Structure. (For reference, Dan’s the creator of the television series "Community" and co-creator of "Rick and Morty.")

Here are the 8 stages:

1. You: The character is in a zone of comfort. Everyday life is mundane and unchallenging.
2. Need: But they want something. The protagonist’s desire compels them to take action.
3. To Go: They enter an unfamiliar situation. Character crosses the threshold to pursue what they want.
4. Search: They acquire skills and learn how to survive in this new world.
5. Find: Get what they wanted. The character achieves their goal, but at a cost.
6. Take: Pay a heavy price for it. New and unexpected losses follow the victory.
7. Return: Then return to their familiar situation. The character goes back to where they started.
8. Change: The story’s resolution; the lessons they’ve learned stay with them, and the character has grown.

But what does having a successful story have to do with your business?

If you are trying to effectively communicate the benefits of your product to potential customers, pitching your startup to funders, or hiring new employees to work at your company, facts and figures will only get you so far. To really get people to fall in love with your product, you have to sell the story.

Here’s the origin story behind Zander Media, which also follows these component parts. You tell me how well I do!

The Story of Robin’s Cafe

1. You: I lived in the Mission District in San Francisco for a decade. While I’d tried my hand at several businesses, none of them really took off.
2. Need: In 2016, I was running a conference within a small theater in the Mission and I wanted to feed attendees of my event
3. To Go: In order to feed them, I opened a cafe on 3 weeks notice, with no prior experience
4. Search: I learned, over the course of 3 years, how to successfully operate the business, which I called Robin’s Cafe
5. Find: I achieved the successful operation of my restaurant, but it was extremely taxing.
6. Take: I lost friends and girlfriends, had little social life throughout those years.
7. Return: Three years later, I sold the cafe on Craigslist and I am no longer a restaurateur
8. Change: But I learned how to build that business, and realized an even greater need: to be able to do storytelling for other organizations.

Here’s a video I made about Robin’s Cafe:

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Here’s another story about our longtime client Shift.org, and their founder Mike Slagh

1. You: Mike Slagh was a bomb disposal officer in the US Navy.
2. Need: He was leaving the military.
3. To Go: As he prepared to join the civilian sector, he realized how difficult it was to translate his skills in leadership and problem-solving into the civilian sector.
4. Search: Mike realized that many other military service members are left out because of the inability to translate their skills.
5. Find: Mike founds Shift.org, a company helping military veterans translate their skills into the civilian sector.
6. Take: Shift.org struggles to find product-market fit, both with civilian companies and with the US military.
7. Return: Shift.org continues its work, constantly refining its programs and expanding its reach to support more veterans, ultimately becoming a well-established and trusted resource in the veteran employment space.
8. Change: Mike is now the CEO of a venture-backed technology company helping veterans navigate the same difficult transition he, himself, went through.

Here’s the first commercial we made for Shift.org

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When you are constructing your company’s pitch, it is worth taking a few moments to look through these 8-part steps, and double checking that you hit each of them.

Warmly,
Robin & the Zander Media team