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High-Leverage Storytelling
Episode 31
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Today at a Glance:
Storytelling is a foundational skill for supercharging all human endeavors.
Disney was arguably the first company to prove that storytelling can create a durable competitive advantage that builds pricing power and a legitimate long-term business moat.
The key principles of high-leverage storytelling: (1) Suspended Reality, (2) Multisensory Experience, (3) Details Matter, and (4) Make It Shareable.
High-Leverage Storytelling
Storytelling is a foundational skill.
Humans are storytelling animals—our species developed around fires, telling tales of successes, failures, and fantasies, of hopes and dreams. It is woven into our DNA.
If we study the lives of the greatest humans, we quickly find that the vast majority were exceptionally strong storytellers. This is no coincidence—effective, high-leverage storytelling is a supercharger for all human endeavors.
The problem? We don’t study or teach storytelling in the same way we do other foundational skills.
Therein lies an opportunity, however—with few understanding the principles of storytelling, those who do are likely to capture tremendous career and personal upside.
In finance terms, it’s (basically) free alpha…
So in today’s piece, I’d like to talk about the principles of high-leverage storytelling, brought to life by a real world example of these principles in action…
Disney World.
Disney World
The Walt Disney World Resort—Disney World for short—opened on October 1, 1971. It was the second major theme park under the Disney umbrella, following Disneyland, which was opened in Anaheim, California in 1955.
Disney World celebrated its 50th anniversary on October 1, marking a major milestone on a historic run for the company, which now operates theme parks around the world.
Importantly, Disney was arguably the first company to prove that storytelling can create a durable competitive advantage that builds pricing power and a legitimate long-term business moat.
Storytelling is ingrained into the DNA of the company—its founder, Walt Disney, was history’s most obsessive storyteller.
So it is no surprise that storytelling is a superpower that's on full display at Disney World. The park—which covers 43 square miles (or 2x the size of Manhattan!) and has 77,000+ employees—can teach us valuable principles for enhancing our own storytelling.
This piece deconstructs the principles of high-leverage storytelling that make Disney World so magical (and that you can start using today):
Principle 1: Suspended Reality
Walt Disney was famous for his focus on suspending reality for his audiences—allowing them to fully experience a new reality he was creating while still being grounded in the safety of their own reality.
It is a balancing act—too cold and you never capture the audience, too hot and people retreat to the safety of their reality and disappear.
The Imagineers—a brill
Published on 4 years, 2 months ago