Are we hunting Dragons?

Here we go. Dragon’s Den came and passed, it was not that bad.

On the contrary, it was quite exciting. After working that hard on our idea and on how to handle the team work, then our product and prototype, materials and costs, the brand and experience, finance and price strategy – from stitching to Excel let’s say – we have been given the opportunity to speak in public about our vision. The purest and simplest thing ever if you believe in your product.

A Pitch is made of a mix of good objective arguments, like marketing  strategy and figures, and an emotional story; and to be honest my biggest fear was not to be able to connect with the audience, that the Dragons wouldn’t get how we feel and how we believe people would feel about flI. (this is the name of our “resting device”, you’ll have a whole post introducing our creature in a while).

“I don’t have kids but I would never spend money on something like that!”, this was the feedback from one of the Dragons as regards the LITTLE STEPS team‘s product “Ella”. A mattress for kids, targeting – obviously – concerned mothers traditionally willing to pay crazy amounts of money on their children well-being.

The question  – and it’s a pretty scary one – is: What if your investors are not your target?

You can still persuade them with great figures, a team with an untouchable reputation and an accurate market research, but where is the Magic then? And moreover, it would be much simpler to convince them if they could perceive the experience, the added value, behind the actual object.

As creatives we don’t do what we do just for money, there are things we value sometimes more then that, such as reputation, recognition  and attention. The Psychic Money is what makes our business OUR, it’s our motivation.

Probably, in the current scenario, we should look for investors that can appreciate and understand what we are doing, that are willing to be part of the team, not just part of the business. I guess it’s one of the main motivation to choose crowd funding on a traditional investor, but then you could miss the opportunity to have a mentor or just someone with a different background and expertise that can help your product and idea grow.

This is just one more question to add to the crowd of questions we already have about starting a creative business and I’m more and more sure every day that there is no right answer. We are living in the world of Today trying to follow the rules of Yesterday. How Money and Creativity can coexist is the biggest challenge and finding at least a path to follow – not a magic formula – will leads us closer to a Brand New Economy.

Today is as close to Yesterday as it is to Tomorrow. Just choose a side.

Tell your Story. Shape your Reality.

Hello!

The last term is coming to an end and December is already here, even though it has been a while since my last post I feel as if I’ve been writing everyday in my head. There are so many things going on.

One of the thing I’ve been thinking about the most is our Storytelling session with Rob Grundel and his amazing Paul Smith trousers.

Yes, I’m talking about the trousers because – as a Communication Designer – I believe that  storytelling is not just about words but moreover about the images we choose. Visual Communication goes beyond any language, it’s international (a part from cultural differences of course), and more straightforward then any speech. We tell a story with a picture, with a movie, but also with our house, a smile, with an outfit and an handshake.

We can fall in love listening to a story, but – if you think about it – it’s greatly easier to fall in love with something that strike us at the sole sight. It’s a bullet. It’s a feeling. And it’s a story.

There is no Truth or Lie, this is something I keep learning everyday from people. There is no objective story, everything we say, show or believe has a subjective meaning. Life is an endless storytelling session and knowing how to built our story could be a powerful weapon, not just in business but in our everyday life and relationships: a way to share our thoughts, our point of view and our feelings, to built bridges.

A good storyteller can also shape our perception of reality, that’s what makes storytelling dangerous sometimes. Should I mention some supposed “villains”? POLITICS, ADVERTISING, EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM, GOVERNMENTS, RELIGION… I could think about many more…

Just think about the famous quote “History is written by the victors”.
It has been attributed to Winston Churchill but there are no competent and recognised quotations sources. Someone sustains is from Napoleon, Machiavelli, even Hitler. But my favorite is still Captain Price from Call of Duty. Anyway, this quote tells us about Revisionism, first of all in History but in a broader meaning it tells us that who’s stronger and smarter sets the trend.

Have a look at the storyofstuffproject Channel on YouTube, you’ll have a taste of how a story can be told in different ways.
This is one of my favourite videos:

So guys, let’s be smarter and stronger to shape a reality we would like to inhabit. Do something with your life, with your business, and learn how to tell everybody.

If you let People understand your Story will become your Reality.