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Hey, !
I'm taking you back in time about 15 years, to my teen home in a small suburban court. It's after dinner and my maths notebook and textbook are sprawled across the dining table, along with a calculator, pens and pencils, and a dense atmosphere that has scared off the rest of the family.
My dad remains, mostly because he has to (I was homeschooled; he was my teacher) but he'd probably rather be watching Big Brother with the rest of the fam instead of consoling me. Coz there I am, body slumped over a textbook, eyes raw from crying.
This was a nightly occurrence, maths and I locked in a deadly battle. Maths always coming out on top, its logic always eluding me.
I've never been
good at maths. At least, that's what I always believed, especially in those late-night tutorials. The formulas never clicked into a logical place for me the way English sentences did. I didn't get why it was important to learn what I was learning. Didn't get why an equation on one side of those two parallel lines balanced out the way it did on the other.
So despite my dad's insistence that I was good at maths, despite his belief in the importance of the subject, I dropped it as soon as I had the chance. In Year 11, I bid it adieu and snarled at the mere mention of an equation thereafter...
... Until this year, when I decided that perhaps I needed to start challenging myself with what I believed I wasn't good at. Challenge my long held belief that math's secret magic would never reveal itself to me. That maths just didn't, and would never, make sense to me.
On the surface, it doesn't make sense that of the 22 books I've read this year so far, my favourite was one about maths.
On a visit to my parents in East Gippsland, I perused my dad's bookshelves and removed Fermat's Last Theorum by Simon Singh. It took me a long time to gather the courage to open the first page but from the first paragraph, I was hooked.
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(Sorry about the quality there - with the book returned to my dad, I relied on his jurassic phone and questionable photographic skills to send me this shot.)
Anyway, I devoured the book.
So how did the author Simon Singh make maths SO interesting that I spent an hour each morning, every lunch break, and an hour before
bed guzzling it up?
Every topic has a story behind it. Every story has a person behind it. And every person is drawn to other people's stories.
With that simple understanding, Simon Singh made a masterpiece.
But what is so good about the first page above? 👆 What are the specific elements that hook you in?
1. The story starts
in media res, which means we're thrown directly into the midst of the story. Right at the cusp of a climax. It builds the suspense you need for someone to read on.
2. It immediately makes us beg for answers. Why was the maths lecture so important? What historic occasion are we talking about here? Is it as momentous as promised?
3. It adds delicious detail that paints a scene.
"Two hundred mathematicians were transfixed".
"A dense mixture of Greek symbols and algebra that covered the blackboard".
The details are so specific that we feel a part of the action, invested.
Time and again, research has shown that we respond to the descriptive power of words in almost disconcerting ways. The taste part of our brain activates when we describe in detail a succulent meal.
In this fascinating article, Neil Patel says: "to read a story is to feel an experience."
In short, storytelling makes anything interesting. Even maths.
And I promise you, your brand is far more interesting than maths (unless you're an accountant 😉 thankfully, this book proves there's even hope for you!).
So my encouragement for you today is to brew yourself a nice cup of peppermint tea (I always find that's a good one for opening the mind!) and think about what story, what 'descriptive power', you can add to your website copy and captions to ignite the senses and stoke your readers' imaginations.
If you're a product-based business, what delicious
details can you add to make people feel like they're ALREADY experiencing your product? And if you're a service-based business, what stories can you tell to tap into people's emotions and build trust (because you're also showing you've been there too, right?).
Then come back and let me know what you came up with! Send me a link to your revised website copy or tag me in your descriptive new Insta caption!
Amanda x
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Little bits of inspo
Currently reading: A Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (a fun romp through 18th century Europe & the light read I've been needing this week).
Currently learning: I won't lie. It's been a rough few weeks and I haven't had a moment to spare for CEO work or learning (it's sheer determination to fulfil this one teeny commitment to you that ensure I keep delivering these fortnightly emails). But I am learning the importance of creating a life aligned to YOUR values and standards. More soon.
Best thing I digested this week: Your Brain on Fiction from the New York Times. A more in-depth look at how storytelling can stimulate our brain.
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