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- 🌱 You’re writing your story right now (here’s how)
🌱 You’re writing your story right now (here’s how)
Before Jerry Maguire. The business of writing. Clooney’s failures.
Mitchell Cohen
March 17, 2024
Every story has a backstory.
The lead-up to where the story begins.
But we can get stuck in this backstory without realizing it’s exactly how our story starts.
Until now.
Here are 3 insights to live your best story. Starting right now (well, in the next 3 minutes as you read this).
📉 Living Your Story
My favorite stories all sound like this:
"I didn't realize it at the time but..."
When people spark a connection to an earlier event that seemed nonsignificant or like a failure at the time. But would later reveal as the necessary groundwork for the next chapter to unfold.
That's what happened with Cameron Crowe before he wrote and directed Jerry Maguire.
I love his quote about finding his thing on the set of Jerry Maguire in 1996:
"I knew when we saw the rough assembly that it worked and I wanted to do this for life—that I wanted to be a director for life."
But it was only because his prior movie (Singles) was a FLOP that carved his path:
"There was such a high premium on loyalty, because Singles had not done that well. All of a sudden I looked around and—it was a good thing—many false friends disappeared. The people that sort of stayed behind, who you realize were your true friends and would be your friends for life, were not the people I expected. That became one of the first ideas that drove Jerry Maguire: what if you lost everything, or lost a lot, and you looked around and all those people that you thought would be there for life are gone. Who’s left?"
TAKEAWAY:
The only controllable variable is to put in the work.
As outlined in The Tools, there are 3 realities no one can avoid:
1. Pain
2. Uncertainty
3. Constant Work
Having a movie flop is painful. Making another opens up uncertainty. But it was through the constant work (and not dwelling on the pain/uncertainty) that Cameron was able to break free and discover his life's work.
But of course, the cycle always continues. Keep putting in the work. 💪
📚 Writing Your Story
Friday morning I woke up at 5:45am. No alarm. Popped out of bed, grabbed a blank sheet of paper and started mind mapping (something I never do).
The idea came from the Business of Writing an AppSumo event we hosted this week for SXSW. It featured a panelist of (best-selling) authors giving practical advice on writing a book.
Chandler Bolt, Paul Millerd, Noah Kagan, Tucker Max, Nick Gray (left to right)
My first major takeaway was how applicable this was for creating ANY new endeavor. Here is how:
Lesson 1: Open the Doc
Not sure if you want to write a book? Paul Millerd says, just open the google doc and make the table of contents.
Similar to what Chandler Bolt said with his MORE writing method. (Chandler has 🔥 writing frameworks)
Mind map → Outline → Rough Draft → Edit
After the event, I was talking to our videographer Isaac. He's an entrepreneur with a growing video business tied to him and his time.
He wants to create a course on setting up a home video podcast studio. But has never created a course and was asking me where to start.
This was when it struck me. 💡
Whether writing a book or creating a course or creating anything new...The same principle applies. I told him the advice we just heard Paul say: open the google doc! Start mapping out a draft of the table of contents. Isaac doesn't need to finish the whole course. Just the first segment & get feedback asap.
Chandler's mind map approach made starting from scratch doable. Grab a blank sheet of paper and start jotting down ideas. (easy peasy)
Lesson 2: First YOU (then who)
The most actionable part of the whole event was when Tucker Max grabbed the mic and workshoped a live example.
The guy in the audience wanted to write a book on SEO.
Tucker asked why? "𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤?" Guy wanted authority and sales for his biz. Tucker explained this was completely fine, but to be honest & clear.
Next,"𝐖𝐡𝐨 𝐢𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐟𝐨𝐫?" Specificity is critical. The guy said "any e-com owners" which of course, Tucker challenged him to get more specific.
When you think about it, this makes complete sense. First consider what YOU want. (why else would you do it?) Then be clear who exactly it's for. The ideas then come alive. Objective → Audience → Ideas
Chandler shared another framework for this: PPP
Person - Who's one real person this is for?
Pain - What's the pain this person knows they have?
Promise - What's the clear & specific outcome?
A key point on the pain…
It's the pain THEY know they have. Not the pain YOU know they have. (Big difference)
A chiropractor may know a patient has a posture problem.
But to the patient, they just know they have back pain.
Speak to the back pain.
Check out my post and last takeaway here.
👣 Follow Failure
George Clooney grew up in a small town in Kentucky.
He tried to play pro baseball with the Cincinnati Reds in 1977 but was cut.
He went on to the University of Cincinnati but did not graduate. He dropped out to slang women’s shoes, sell insurance door to door, and work in construction.
Sure he figured it out later, but it was the failures that led the way.
“There's nothing you learn from success. You learn everything from failing and fear of failing is what holds people back from doing anything. When you don't try and you wake up at 65 years old, you're a lot angrier than if you'd failed.”
Follow failure.
Salud,
Mitchell