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I recently realized that stories are at the heart of all the work I’ve done and the companies that I have built.  I wish I could say this was intentional – but the reality is my childhood made storytelling it a natural part of my process.  My grandma is a storyteller.  Everyone in the small community I grew up in knows her as “Mrs. English” and most can still remember going to story hour at the pubic library to listen.  I heard her tell most of her stories so often that twenty-five years later I still know most from memory. Great stories stick with you forever.

At Dorthy.com we’ve raised over five million dollars and attracted over 100 of the industries most talented collaborators around a simple story.  While our search technologies still haven’t matured – our story has – and it drives our shareholder’s current value. I think it’s our companies greatest asset and the only reason we’ve weathered the recession as well as we have.

Most people today don’t understand that no one care’s about their brand or company or whatever it is their offering.  The average consumer will forget about you in three minutes if you don’t have a story they like and that they can join. Today’s markets are made by consumer driven conversations ( or stories ). I’ve met with 16 Venture Capitalist in the last twelve weeks who each reminded me that the power of your brand is not in what it’s called or how it looks but rather in the volume of stories it is able to tell.  Money is flowing to businesses who can architect their communication in a way that fascinates consumers and gets them to join in shaping ( and paying for) their trajectory.

As Facebook matures we’ll see each consumers personal story become more and more pubic and more and more important.  Every industry is about to experience exponential change.  Businesses and marketers can no longer craft their own stories but must learn how to let consumers shape stories for them.  Hugh Macleod recently blogged “People will always, always be in the market for a story that resonates with them. Your product will either have this quality or it won’t. If your product fails this test, quit your job and go find something else. Just making the product incrementally cheaper or better won’t help you.”  Today’s best creatives and technologist understand that their “revolutionary new blah blah blah ” will only succeed if it’s able to join the narrative of consumer life.  Ideas are commodities – stories are forever.