[UP 006] - Rats & Email / Storytelling Frames / 5 Levers of Change

Had a good week?

I hope so.

Welcome to edition no.6 of ‘UP’. A little weekend email where I share something on personal growth, audience growth and business growth and help you make a little progress along the way.

Let’s go!

Personal Growth: Rats & Email

Got another rat experiment to share with you (Shall we make this a weekly thing? Haha!)

Ok this one’s not as empowering but more of a warning of how we need to better think about our tech use.

“The psychologist B.F. Skinner came up with an idea of random reinforcement, where you give a rat a lever and every hundred times it presses the lever, it gets a piece of food.

For the rat, that is exciting. But if the number is a random number -any number between one and one hundred -it actually ends up being more exciting. 

And the rat keeps working much, much more, even if you take the reward away altogether.”

Remind you of anything?

For me, this is a needed reminder to think about my use of my phone while I’m working and my totally unnecessary constant email checking.

Note to self: ‘Dude. You’re being a lever-pulling rat!’

Audience Growth: Storytelling Frames

I’ve been thinking much more about using stories when it comes to content online to grow my audiences & eventual community. Both for UP & my start-up brand ASN.

Sure little helpful facts and tips are great but they aren’t as well received if they’re not wrapped up in a story frame.

So what are some story frameworks that are commonly used?

Well, we’ve got:

• Hero’s Journey (e.g Star Wars)

• Pixar’s framework (e.g. Toy Story)

• And then whatever the fuck Christopher Nolan does (e.g Tenent)

(Just because we don’t get it doesn’t make it any less enjoyable right 🤷‍♂️)

And what about then for our content marketing? Well this diagram shows one approach we can take. Overlaying the classic stages of a cinematic story onto our brand.

How I’m using this? Well, I’m not just yet.

But what I’ll do is play with ChatGPT and the stages of awareness model I showed you last week by Euege Schwartz to come up with suggested stories. I can then think about how to turn these into real content pieces.

Think that’s a decent enough plan. I’ll update you with things when I have some pieces ready.

Business Growth: 5 Levers of Change

I haven’t managed to have any breakthroughs with other manufacturers this week for ASN (the high protein, low sugar snacks brand I’m developing) though I have some calls coming up.

But in this slower week, I had some time to think about how do you change behaviour?

Not in a sneaky way (though some industries try!) No, I mean in a way that a customer wants to and is a win-win.

The answer is by design - You turn your desired behaviour into an easy, effortless and enjoyable experience.

Which leads us into the world of behavioural science!

And back to some more levers.

Unilever in trying to ‘nudge’ their consumers to take up more sustainable practices undertook a wide-ranging study on behaviour. With the help of academics and psychologists, they concluded that there are 5 key levers to pull;

1. Make it understood

2. Make it easy

3. Make it desirable

4. Make it rewarding

5. Make it a habit

Read this great article for the full breakdown.

And if you think about that’s what great brands have managed to do over the years. Which names come to mind for you?

Anyway, that’s your lot for this week.

I appreciate you! Have a super week.

Speak next Saturday!

Always Forward,
Utkarsh

P.S. That’s my new sign-off. And no ChatGPT didn’t decide it 😆