The Five Ps of Your Business Story
My daughter and about 40 other tween and teenage girls participated in local STEM event a week or so ago.
Lured in by swag bags and brownies the girls were highly encouraged to stay for the remainder of the program; a keynote, panel and group activity.
I’m not sure they were into the panel and keynote, but they were all about the activity.
The girls had thirty minutes to design a product that provided a solution to a common problem.
Once the time was up, the girls got to describe their product to the audience.
All of the ideas were good.
There was a box that recycles Amazon boxes, an insulin pill and an umbrella with a drop down shield.
There was one product, however, that was the clear standout.
A cane — Built from PVC pipe and duct tape.
The girls who designed the cane came from the same school. They made it for their friend Riley, who’s blind. They told us they wanted him to have more than “just a regular cane” and him to feel like the other students.
(who run around with iPhones).
They showed off all the features;
“It has a GPS so he can program exactly where he needs to go in the school.”
“And speakers so he can hear the directions and play music!”
“It also functions as a phone, so he can call or voice text his mom.”
You could hear people chatting with excitement.
It was a great idea and it had a great story to go with it.
In less than five minutes, the girls covered what I call the five Ps of business storytelling.
Here’s how they did it;
1.) Person
They described the person (Riley) his roughly his age (7th grade). A picture gets formed in our minds.
2.) Passion
They cared about Riley enough to want to make his life easier and more like his friends. My heartstrings were tugged. You?
3.) Problem
He’s blind and has to use a cane to get around. His cane works, but they could make it easier (and more fun) with an “upgraded version”.
4.) Product
A multifunctional cane he can use as he travels throughout the school.
(I wish you could’ve seen it, with the duct tape and colored markings)
5.) Process
The showed us step by step how the product would work.
It was simple.
It was memorable.
It was effective.
Isn’t that what we’re looking for when we’re talking about our businesses?
You can use the five Ps to tell the story of your business too.
Go ahead, give it a try. . . let me know how much better your story is because you did.
PS
Thanks for reading along!
If you found this helpful share it with someone you know right now! (before you forget because sometimes we’re human and we forget *sigh*)