The Impossible Story - West Shore Home
How do you tell one story 400 different ways?
It’s hard enough for a small, three or four-person firm to fundamentally agree on the same company story, let alone 400 times or 3,000 times over.
Just for fun, try asking a half-dozen people at your organization to describe the company in a single sentence. Challenge them to articulate the company mission and the core reason they exist. Beyond profit, what is the greater purpose being served? After this 2-minute exercise, bring all six people back together and start comparing notes.
Would it shock you to know how far apart the responses will be? Even when these people have sat in on the same management huddles, attended the same team meetings and read the same memos, there will be many more inconsistencies than commonalities. But, what if it doesn’t have to be that way?
Once upon a time there was a mechanically-inclined dreamer who started a one-man Pennsylvania company with nothing more than a toolbelt and a landline telephone.
Every day, many older, supposedly wiser people cautioned the young man not to dream too big. They reiterated there was no way he could create a national brand from his humble product/service category. However, this soft-spoken Penn State grad refused to heed those warnings. He dared to venture out in unchartered waters to see if he could achieve the impossible. Along the way, he learned that expanding a small family business model can be done – as long as you can get everyone to sing from the same song sheet while rowing in the same direction.
Keeping everyone aligned is damn tough for any leader, but that’s the job any captain of any business ship signs up for. How to share a common language and story is crucial in any competitive environment. But, to actually witness this being done prompted one of the world’s great storytellers to leave Canada’s Ocean Playground and head to Music City U.S.A. to see and feel the magic for himself.
Professional speaker, author and troubadour Dave Carroll broke the internet 15 years ago with his smash hit, United Breaks Guitars. A staunch advocate of consumer rights, Dave knows first-hand what it’s like to have a story go viral with over 30 million views. Which is why he is fascinated by West Shore Home and how they are living the impossible dream with The Impossible Story on this extended edition of Leaders & Legends.
“To dream the impossible dream; to fight the unbeatable foe. To bear with unbearable sorrow and to run where the brave dare not go. To right the unrightable wrong and to love pure and chaste from afar. To try when your arms are too weary, to reach the unreachable star”
MITCH LEIGH / JOE DARION, Man of La Mancha
It’s not a stretch to say that Dave and I first met through fire, blood and thunder. We were both scheduled to appear as opening acts at a 2011 East Coast branding conference starring Gene Simmons, co-founder of rock legends KISS as the headliner. More than 700 people purchased pricey tickets to hear a veteran rock star outline his secrets to business and brand success. With millions of albums, sold-out stadiums and more than 3,000 licensed products, Simmons had all the street cred you could ask for. But, in 2011, even the ‘God of Thunder’ didn’t know what Dave Carroll had just figured out about building brands in today’s world.
No industry, including the music business, was taking social media seriously. Impossible to bottle it, package and sell it through distribution gatekeepers, they blew it off.
Earlier this month, Dave’s original song and music video celebrated its 15th anniversary on YouTube. With a production budget of $150, United Breaks Guitars was an early tipping point; a harbinger of things to come for any brand looking to earn attention and expand its digital footprint. The global impact was something no one could have predicted, including Dave and the 700 people in attendance that night at Casino NB. Not even the Demon himself.
The lessons Dave shared that night still hold true today. Develop a message that looks good, sounds good and makes people tell their friends, you could amplify word-of-mouth advertising like a Marshall stack and soar over the stupefied heads of gate keepers in any competitive space. Dave Carroll’s ‘Impossible Dream’ through United Breaks Guitars has brought him to 34 countries as a keynote speaker and content creator. He’s published two books, written hundreds of songs and now 15 years later, an L.A. film company is showing keen interest in producing a 90-minute documentary about UBG that may one day reach audiences on Netflix, Amazon or HBO.
He also happens to be a terrific father of two boys, loving husband to Jill and one of the nicest, most forward-thinking guys I have had the pleasure and honor to meet on my own career path. When the Nashville project with the West Shore Home conference came up, my spidey-sense told me this story needed to be told in a way that only Dave Carroll can.
“20 years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - MARK TWAIN
p.s…. If you and your executive team are contemplating a change in direction with your brand strategy, you can always join us for BIG LITTLE SECRETS. Scheduled for 90-minutes, this Executive session is facilitated on ZOOM, and includes up to 3 senior leaders in your organization. An opportunity to discover:
· The Make-or-Break Leadership Mindset that sparks the creation of all Legends.
· The #1 Learned Skill required to grow and sustain any Magnetically Irresistible Brand.
· The Decisive 2% Factor that creates organizational buy-in.
Here is the Calendly link to register and learn more: https://calendly.com/gairmaxwell/big-little-secrets-private-session
Reach out to Chief Efficiency Officer, Maria Pegg for further details. You can e-mail her at maria@biglittlelegends.com.
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Your Brand. On Track.
If now is an opportune time to discover the brand story and strategy uniquely your own, consider exploring a metaphorical road trip called THE BRANDING HIGHWAY. Designed for larger companies and organizations, our Executive Bootcamps serve as a journey and destination to help your brand emerge as an undeniable, undisputed, "Category of One.” Along the way, you will discover how to create substantial Differentiation and strategic Relevance while aligning your executive team. Impossible to describe with its many twists and turns, it helps to take a quick peek at this video:
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