We’ve all been told that websites should tell a story
Why? Because that’s how people engage with, and learn about, the world, it’s how our minds work situation -> something changes -> new situation
Stories also make use of a vitally important human characteristic. Empathy: when a story has a human face it allows and invites an empathetic, engaged response.
Here’s my story
Two years ago I slipped a disc for the second time. I was in pretty constant pain. I had one pain-free position, and it wasn’t sitting on a chair. Meetings became very uncomfortable.
One afternoon I met with an art therapist who thought she might like help with her website. I asked her to tell me about what she did, and why.
She told me a fascinating story. She would spend time in a garden and commit all the flowers to memory and reproduce them in perfect detail when she got home. This was partly an innate artistic ability but also a result of an unusually profound connection with plants and trees.
I felt sure this connection was the key message she needed for her website. We talked about how it might be done and what visitors should feel when they arrived on the site, how to express this very lovely and unusual affinity, how it connected to the work she did.
In the middle of our conversation I became aware that the pain in my back had gone
The reason? When I’m asking somebody about their business I’m completely in the flow.
I’m very curious and I like to make sense of things. I need to know what is at the heart of everything. I want to know what this person is all about and I’m asking myself How will we do this?
I am truly happy at these times because I’m doing what I’m absolutely designed to do - problem solving of a very specific kind, the kind that a synthesises a number of discrete systems of communication into one. A website.
Many small businesses begin with a passion but the thing that lies behind that passion is often the most interesting thing of all, what it is that you need to do
What’s behind what you do?
If you’re a therapist you’ll probably love helping people. Why?
If you’re a milliner, you’ll be excited by shape, form and colour. When did you first know you wanted to do this, where were you? Why millinery?
If you’re a baker, how does it feel when you’re baking?
If you’re a jeweller, what’s your first memory of jewellery?
If you’re a gardener, or a garden designer, can you remember the moment you recognised that’s what you wanted to do?
Try writing a short paragraph, or two, about WHY you do what you do. You will rediscover or perhaps discover for the first time (as I did) what motivates you.
Whatever you discover will be your unique value but more than that it will feel as though your business has heart and people will trust you
What’s your story?
