“The Metaphor Minute” is a brief monthly note with examples from business, media, or politics that illustrate the power of metaphors and analogies to make a point, solve a problem, and get results. Use these stories to stimulate high pay-off metaphoric thinking in your business.
What do you spend your marketing time thinking about? When you ask life insurance marketing guru Lynn Lavender that question, she’ll tell you she spends a lot of time trying to create compelling social media posts. She knows that compelling posts strengthen her brand and help bring in business. How does she make them compelling?
“I think of creative analogies and then create a graphic that reinforces that analogy or metaphor.”
The sources for Lynn’s metaphors and analogies are all around her (and us). You just have to make the connections between them and your content. Lynn’s examples below may inspire you to do the same for your business.
Confused by cryptocurrencies? Baffled by the Blockchain? Bewildered by Bitcoin? You are not alone–which is why Sonia Dumas is so much in demand.
Sonia Dumas is a cryptocurrency educator who regularly shares ideas about how to leverage the digital wealth shift powered by crypto, or better known as Web 3.0. No surprise, metaphors are her go-to communication tools for explaining this complex phenomenon to clients and readers. She knows the quickest way to help people understand something new or complex is to help them “see” it and what are metaphors if not words that create instantly understood pictures in our minds?
See how she does it.
A phony check is cashed. Who wrote it? An anonymous bullying letter is found on a desk at work. Who left it there? A suspicious Last Will and Testament is contested in court. Is the signature legitimate? Plots from CSI? No. These are the daily (and fascinating) challenges faced by forensic handwriting analyst Jacqueline Joseph, who is often called in to do analyses in cases that can involve millions of dollars, jail terms, and even career life or death. In her work Jacqueline frequently uses metaphors to explain what she does.
As the new year begins, it is common to identify target accounts. When marketing guru Jim Nowakowski was asked what is the optimal number of leads to shoot for, he says he was reminded of this (true) story which both literally and metaphorically made his point. See if you agree and what the implications may be for growing your own business in 2022.
(First appeared December 2018. Still timely.)
If the holiday season is, as the song says, the most wonderful time of the year, this year, it can also be one of the most treacherous. Why? Because as we get together with our families, politics in these contentious times is likely to come up in discussion. Rare is the family (or group of friends) where everyone agrees on current events. So, how do you avoid turning political discussions into deeply entrenched battles that leave everyone bloodied, angry, and defiant?
Some prospecting emails win business and some just disappear into the ether. Clients of serial entrepreneur Yassin Shaar happily fall into the former group. His compelling persuasion tool that helped one client land $400,000 in sales? Metaphors! Here’s how he did it.
Some prospecting emails win business and some just disappear into the ether. Clients of serial entrepreneur Yassin Shaar happily fall into the former group. His compelling persuasion tool that helped one client land $400,000 in sales? Metaphors! Here’s how he did it.
What would you do if a colleague (let’s call him Joe) came to you with this problem? “I don’t know what to do. I was appointed to this new job as manager of eleven people and, in the beginning, everything was going well. However, it is now six months later and, I can see that the team is unmotivated and is putting in only the bare minimum effort to get our jobs done.”
“I have tried various carrot and stick methods to get them to work harder, but that has only led to short- term improvement. If this situation continues, I am afraid I may lose my job.”
See what you can learn from this unexpected source about the power of metaphors to make what you say most accessible, interesting, and persuasive to your listeners. Between looney conspiracy theories, extremist social positions, and questionable qualified office holders on both sides of the political spectrum, you could be forgiven for questioning the wisdom and …
When was the last time you “stepped up to the plate” or had an event come “out of left field?” To all-star third baseman Nathan Brenowitz, who grew up in Brooklyn in the 50’s and who fondly recalls watching baseball for many, many hours with his father, baseball is life itself! Now, Nathan teaches how baseball relates to everyone’s life regarding how we deal with failure, defeat, fear and joy. I had the pleasure of interviewing this avid baseball fan for whom baseball is life’s best metaphor. Here are some examples.
No one likes to lose or, as Izzy Martinez, a sixteen year-old beach volleyball Olympic hopeful put it, “Losing sucks.” That said, demonstrating wisdom beyond her years, she has come to see how losing can become a metaphor for ultimate success, not only in sports, but in life (and, I would add, business) as well.