OUR APPROACH
Start from the center...
We work from your core story.
For many of our clients, finding that core story is the first step. We begin by drawing it out with questions and careful listening through ears that have spent a lifetime searching for stories, eyes that are constantly scanning for details and noses that can smell stories a mile away.
There is no simple formula for finding a core story. It's not a secret - just like the Gold Rush wasn't a secret - but finding the gold in your own story takes time. We generally begin by drawing out three types of stories - origin, impact and vision. In our first meetings, we begin to develop an understanding of just what you and your organization do and how you do it, which naturally leads to an exploratory brainstorming process. This often leads to interviewing other people, reviewing various media and a lot more questions.
Somewhere along the line, we discover the kernel of a story, a little gem that is simple enough to be accessible and complex enough to be intriguing, and that resonates with you. It is from this that we begin to build your core story. We keep working at it and polishing it until it becomes something easily told and memorable - the true measure of a great story.
then move outwards...
Once you have a great core story, it is as malleable as gold. It can be stretched to encompass your origin, impact and vision stories. It can form a basis of the elusive elevator speech, which quickly tells who you are and what you do and why your listener should care. It can begin to unite your team, helping them to know who they are and why they come to work each day. It can inform your strategic work and a vision of the world you are creating. For a leader, that core story can become the basis for an entire repertoire of stories, a tool they can draw upon in preparation for any meeting, interview or speech.
using the right vehicle...
With your core story in shape, branding and re-branding efforts flow much more easily and quickly. These may translate into development of a new logo or tagline.
Your core story may become the foundation for a social networking campaign; maybe you'll get audience members around the world to tell your story. Core story can also form the basis for all kinds of media, from web copy to books to animated films to videos to a Prezi presentation, all of which Wakingstar develops and produces. Check out some of our recent video/animation samples.
to tell your story to the world.
Once you have the right stories, getting your message out is much easier. You find yourself wanting to tell them, and those who hear them want to retell them. And this is what our work is all about.