This week on Content Untapped we're peering back into ancient myth to see what secrets we can learn from these timeless tales.
We delve into the lives and exploits of gods like Zeus and Athena, throwing light on their human-like flaws that make them so relatable to us. Learn how you, as a content creator or business owner, can harness the power of these mythic elements to breathe life into your own narratives.
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If this episode sparks off any new ideas, we would love to hear them! Please email us at info@writebusinessresults.com OR fire us a DM on social media. Links to all our favourite haunts are below:
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This week on Content Untapped we're peering back into ancient myth to see what secrets we can learn from these timeless tales.
We delve into the lives and exploits of gods like Zeus and Athena, throwing light on their human-like flaws that make them so relatable to us. Learn how you, as a content creator or business owner, can harness the power of these mythic elements to breathe life into your own narratives.
---------------------------------------------
If this episode sparks off any new ideas, we would love to hear them! Please email us at info@writebusinessresults.com OR fire us a DM on social media. Links to all our favourite haunts are below:
LinkedIn:
Instagram:
Hey, what's up guys? This is Ivan Meakin and you are listening to Content Untap, sponsored by Right Business Results. This is the show where I go on a mission to unpack all those tiny little details that make up fantastic content. I report my findings back to you and I try and give you some practical tips that you guys can take home into your next project. If you do like what you hear, please do all those classic podcasty things you know like share, subscribe, tell your friends about us all that kind of stuff. It helps us spread the word and reach more people, just like you, which is awesome. Also, if you wanted to have a more in-depth conversation about what you're hearing today, just hit us up on LinkedIn. You can go to the Right Business Results LinkedIn page or you can go to my own personal LinkedIn page and FireSidium. We can spark a whole conversation there. Thanks, guys, let's just crack on with the episode.
Speaker 1:There's absolutely nothing academic or intellectual about creep mythology. It is addictive, entertaining, approachable and astonishingly human. Those great words come from the legend himself, mr Steven Fry, and written in his book Mythos Chronically in the Tales a great mythology, which I recommend to anyone. There's something about mythology that clings to us that we find utterly irresistible, if you think about how long the myths have stood the test of time, for they've been retold for thousands of years and they basically form the basis for what we now know as modern storytelling. But why have they stood the test of time? What is it that makes these stories so compelling throughout generations, throughout the context of times that we've lived in, throughout different ideologies and cultures and historical periods? And as a kid, I was utterly fascinated with mythology. Tales of mighty gods and brave heroes battling monsters and coming out on top. These tales absolutely enthralled me as a kid, and as I've grown and started creating content for business owners, I can't help but thinking that there's a specific mechanics in these myths that, if laid out properly, can help content creators and business owners write better, compelling stories. Because these myths have stood the test of time for so long, they're universally compelling, and if content creators like us and business owners can tap into some of the mechanics of these myths, we're going to be able to create more human and compelling stories for our audiences.
Speaker 1:If you think about this right, what do all of the great Greek myths have in common? Well, they have the gods right, these supreme beings blessed with immortality and supernatural powers, which sounds very unhuman, but there is something incredibly raw and human about them as well in the way that the interaction behaved. They were absolutely not perfect. They weren't even 100% trustworthy sometimes and made mistakes, very human mistakes, over and over again. Mantlifas was kind of like a sitcom that you would see today on Netflix A huge, squabbling family, all with their own flaws and quirks and human errors.
Speaker 1:You know, think of Zeus's right king of the gods. Normally, for someone like that, you wouldn't expect him to put a foot out of line, but he had a completely uncontrolled rage and temper, not to mention his myriad of different love affairs outside of his marriage to his wife, hera. And these makes us human and therefore relatable, albeit maybe not likable in a modern day context. But the stories about Zeus and a lot of the gods are as much about divine power as they are about human weaknesses, and that's what makes them so compelling. And so for Zeus, for all of his power, it was his sexual infidelity that made him flawed, made him human and open to human error, which is really interesting. But Zeus isn't the only one right. They all demonstrated these human flaws.
Speaker 1:Let's take Athena, for example, the goddess of wisdom and warfare, despite her intelligence, once acted out of pure jealousy. One of the favorite stories I remember reading at university was from a book called Metamorphosis by a Roman poet called Ovid, and in that book it tells the story of a mortal woman called Arachne who once boasted that she was a better weaver than Athena. So what did they do? It was a weave off. The muses themselves held a contest with Athena and Arachne to see who had the best skills at weaving, and Arachne's tapestry was flawless. It was an absolute, undeniable work of art. But what happened? Instead of congratulating Arachne, like he would expect an affair contest, what does Athena go and do? She acts out of pure spite and jealousy and transforms Arachne into the world's first spider, condemning her to weave webs for eternity, jesus. And what's really interesting is that's actually where we get the word Arachne from. So Athena was paged, just as we are, with human flaws like jealousy and bitterness and anger.
Speaker 1:So what's interesting here is Athena and all of the gods are demonstrating incredibly human qualities and human flaws. They're not just the best of humans, but they showcase the very worst of us too, which says the message that, yes, although the gods are supreme beings and supernatural. Their emotions are incredibly human, which makes them relatable to readers and which is why they've stood the test of time for so long. Now, why does that really matter for content creators? Well, it's kind of simple, because embracing vulnerability and perfections and, yes, human flaws can make our content a lot more authentic and a lot more relatable, because people connect with stories and narrative that reflect our own experiences, struggles and emotions. They don't just expect us to showcase the very best, flawless, polished versions of ourselves. People want to know the dirt. They want to know the grittiness. They don't only want to know about the winds and the polished, clean version of yourself. People want the raw, gnarly details as much as anything.
Speaker 1:But you don't always have to be the perfect image of yourself when you're creating content and sharing stories. You know, even the gods have flaws, so it's okay to show yours in your content, right? A great example of a podcast that we worked on who does this supremely well is a guy called Dan Kirby. He runs a podcast called Honey I Blew Up the Business, and Dan's created an entire show about one of the worst moments of his life, a time where his business came crashing down around him and he didn't know how he was going to get out of it. But what did he do? He starts chronicling his story and sharing it in a podcast and inviting other guests to come on and share their stories of failure too. And this is exactly what I mean by showing vulnerability and a bit of raw gnarliness when it comes to creating content is it's okay not to be perfect, and in fact, in most cases when you're creating content, it helps to show your human side.
Speaker 1:So the second thing I love about mythology and I think works great for content creation too is this essence of conflict. You know, when you think of myths, you almost instinctively think of those epic battles and conflicts, right? You think of the heroes playing the dragon. You think of Achilles fighting in the Trojan war. You think of Odysseus battling Cyclops is on his way to get home to Ithaca, or perhaps a Zeus battling Titans with Thunderbolts on Mount Olympus, or even Thor's endless battles with the ice giants. Most of the myths that have endured time have some form of conflict at the heart of the story, and that's because conflict draws us in. It's a list for change, for growth and resolution and, above all, it's just damn good drama.
Speaker 1:So in this realm of content creation, especially in something like a business book, showcasing challenges and conflicts is pivotal. It's not just a sense of fabricating that drama, but it's also about highlighting real challenges, roadblocks and struggles that your readers or your potential clients are going to be going through. Right, you know, nobody wants to read a story that skips to the happy ending, and the best storytellers in the world don't skip to the happy ending. Take Disney, for example. In a great tweet by Emma Cotes, who was a storyboard artist for Disney Pixar at the time, she released 22 storytelling tips that Disney Pixar leveraged when they make their movies, and one of them was coincidences. It reads coincidences that get characters into trouble are great. However, coincidences that get them out of trouble, well, that's just cheating right, so true, because what you need to do is you need to show the struggle, the process of adapting and overcoming If you're going to get an audience on board and actually wanting to read your story, and if you can do this really well.
Speaker 1:Do a few things to your stories. It will make it more relatable because people can see a human side to the story being told, with real human challenges and struggles. It will also give you the chance to provide a really valuable lesson to your audience or key takeaway in the book and distill some of your unique knowledge or solutions into your content. And the third thing that's going to do is just going to make it a lot more engaging. Because, look, everyone wanted to know how Odysseus was going to defeat the Cyclops, right? So if you can paint a big challenge in your story with the hero kind of coming face to face with it, people are going to want to know how that's resolved. And that's just a human trait of curiosity, right? We want to know how the story ends, especially when there's stakes and there's a problem on the line that needs to be solved. So the next time you're contemplating your content strategy or you're looking at creating a new piece of content, just remember to lean into conflicts a little bit more. Okay, it might just give you that extra edge that you need. All right.
Speaker 1:So the next thing that all the great myths have in common is the archetype. Okay, you're probably going to have heard this before, with authors like Joseph Campbell doing a lot of work on myths, especially with books like the Hero of Thousand Faces and the Hero's Journey. He talks a lot about it and this is translated into a business context by authors like Donald Miller with his book Storybrand. But I'm going to lay it out for you really simply here. Okay, because an archetype is essentially that one element that has always been present throughout all storytelling myth, folkytale, anything. There are always these archetypes that are guiding our narratives and progressing the story forward. Now, in storytelling, there are quite a few different archetypes that you can use for more complex stories, but I'm going to show you the three most popular ones that you can use and embed in any story to get a better reaction from your audience.
Speaker 1:The first one we want to talk about is the most obvious one. It's the Hero. This is the main character who faces the challenges, grows and eventually overcomes. You know he's talking about Perseus, jason and the Argonauts, odysseus, achilles. These are the heroes of a story that face challenges and eventually adapt and overcome them, or, in Achilles' case, it means a bitter end. These are the quintessential heroes from Greek mythology that have been replicated over and over and over again in many different stories throughout history and in the business context. Say, for instance, if you're writing a book, this could be you if you have a great story, but in a lot of cases it will work better if your hero becomes your ideal client or your intended reader or intended audience. If you can put them at the center of the story, showcase how they overcame the problem and a challenge with your help which we'll get to in a second it will become a much more compelling story for them. Remember, when you create content, it's not always about you.
Speaker 1:The second archetype that we can talk about is the villain. Of course, right, every good story has an antagonist, has a villain or, in a business context, it may be a challenge or a problem that needs solving right and in a lot of businesses and a lot of business stories and business copy, it's going to be the challenge that your product or service aims to solve or that can solve right. So if you think about what is the big villain or dragon or monster that you need to face in your story or your hero needs to face in your story, think about the biggest problems that your hero has or your ideal client has that your product or your solution can solve, and set that up as the big, scary monster that needs to be slain. And the third archetype that needs to be told and the third archetype that needs to be included in every great story is the guide right. It's the mentor who provides the wisdom, the tools or the training that helps the hero solve their problems. I think some of the great mentors in Greek mythology. You think of Cairo in the center, who nursed Zeus back to health so he could go back and fight the Titans and reclaim his throne and get his family back. Without the help of Cairo and the guidance and the mentorship of Cairo, zeus would have never been able to ascend the throne in Mount Olympus.
Speaker 1:So if you're like a brand trying to position your product, this is often the rule that you want to adopt when you're creating business content. Okay, you want to guide your hero to commercial success or guide your hero to solve a problem that they need facing. So when you're telling a business story, just remember these three archetypes you have the hero, you have the villain and you have the guide. And if you can include these in a business story say, for instance, a blog or a social media post or a YouTube video or even, yes, your book what's going to happen is that your content is going to feel familiar. The story is going to feel familiar to people who are consuming it, which is a good thing If you think about it. We've been bought up since kids reading about archetypes like this. Every story that we've read includes a hero, includes a villain, probably includes a guide as well. So if you can begin to tap into that storytelling mechanic that's hardwired in every single person's brain, your content is going to have more resonance with an audience. It's going to feel familiar, almost like a nice, warm hug.
Speaker 1:Every business we often play the role of the guide, right, empowering our heroes, which are thought leaders and business owners, to create powerful content, and what we do is we highlight the problems and challenges that these people face or, in the case of this podcast, the villains that they're fighting in order to get the result that they want, which is compelling content right. We highlight challenges like writer's block, time constraints, lack of confidence, bunch more we're really powerful problems that our clients face, and our job is to help empower these people to get around these problems and get the result that they're looking for. Okay, so the third part of this podcast is perhaps my favorite one, because I don't think this is talked about enough, and I think it's a really cool concept because, if you think about a lot of what you've read in mythology, a lot of the folk tales and tales of heroes or books or films. What do they all have in common? Okay, aside from supernatural beings and architects, they all have magical items, don't they?
Speaker 1:You know every great fantasy story has one, or, in fact, in many cases, several. If you think of Lord of the Rings, you know Frodo has sting. You know King Arthur has the legendary sword, excalibur, thor has the hammer of Molnir and Odin's. You know, all seeing eye, a lot of mythical tales revolve around magical items, and these items are tools that empower the hero. They grant them unique abilities to help them overcome immense challenges that they could have never completed without them. And guess what? Most of the time, these magical items are bestowed upon the hero by the guide of the story.
Speaker 1:So, if you think about the guide being you in a business context story and the hero being your ideal client, what is the magical item that you can give them that's going to help them solve their problem? And I get it right, In a business context. I know we're not wielding godlike hammers or drinking from magical cups or wielding magical swords although, yes, that would be awesome. But we can learn something from these items that we can use in our own content, because in today's digital world, what's really exciting is that we can offer a lot of really valuable tools and resources that can help bring our ideal clients closer to solving their problems, just like the magical shield of Athena can bring Perseus one step closer to slaying Medusa, right? Think of books, ebooks, webinars, templates, tools, checklists the list goes on and on and on. As a business owner today, you can create so many useful tools and valuable items that people can use to help solve their problems and bring them one step closer to their happy ending, and also one step closer to working with you, right?
Speaker 1:You know the word lead magnet gets used a lot today, but I do think that many people fail to offer real value in these items and only see them as, like a transactional tool to help get people into their lists. What about if we did a bit of a mindset shift here, right? How about we thought of these lead magnets as magical items, powerful magical items that can offer a huge value to your ideal audience or to your heroes, to help them along the quest to solve the problems that they want and get them one step closer to that eventual finish line, that point B, that's going to be the happy ending for them. And think about this right In mythology, just having these items isn't enough, right? You have to learn how to wield them. Just like Perseus needed to learn how to use the reflective properties in the shield that Athena gave him to defeat Medusa, your audience are going to have to learn how to use these tools, and that gives you a great chance to follow up with them. And emails, checking how they're getting on with that magical item or that tool that you've given them, giving them some tips on how they can use it or get the most value out of that thing that they've downloaded from you. Right? These are all ways to develop a genuine relationship with your audience in a way that feels authentic and genuine and from a place of giving value, rather than just trying to take email addresses and market to people and sell them products. So what you want to be doing is bestowing these valuable tools to your audience and then giving them instructions and giving them help on how they can get the most out of it. Great example of bright business results.
Speaker 1:We offer a bunch of tools and resources not just as a ploy to attract attention, but as a real means to empower our clients and our readers, to help them on their journey to create content, to finish that book that they started or to get started on that book that's just collecting dust in their head. So a few that we've created recently are things like the three routes to publishing for nonfiction authors. We've created one called Eight Steps to Planning a bestselling business book. We've even created an entrepreneur's writing guide to chat GPT, and you can download all those in the show notes below. So the main lesson from this part and about magical items and myths is that if you can create an equivalent in your business and create tools and resources that can offer and empower your audience, they're not just going to remember you but they're going to come back again and again and again because they can see you as that credible, trusted, respectable guide and they'll see you as a source of power that can help them on their quest.
Speaker 1:We might not be weaving tales of gods and monsters in our business content right, I appreciate that. But the essence of these stories and the emotions that they evoke and the lessons that they teach are very, very much real and very much applicable when it comes to creating any kind of content, okay. Plus, isn't it just so much more fun to think of content in this way? Think of it like a wonderful story for your readers or like a quest that they embark on, and your job as the guide is to help, give them items, give them advice, give them tools and assistance in getting there. So, just before we wrap up, here's a quick recap of what we discussed today.
Speaker 1:We've talked about how myth can expose human flaws and why that's so important for content, because nobody's perfect, and if you embrace authenticity and let your audience see your human side and your vulnerability, it's going to make you a lot more relatable, just as Zeus and Athena and Hera and all the other gods throughout mythology showed their human flaws and their human side too. The second thing that we need to think about is conflict. Conflict is key in storytelling, and every great story needs a good battle. Okay, so you've got to highlight the problems, the struggles, but, more importantly, show the solutions and the triumphs, okay, and the lessons that are woven in between on how your hero overcame that particular challenge. The third thing we talked about is we talked about archetypes. We talked about the hero, the villain and the mentor and binding, familiar characters and patterns that resonate with an audience.
Speaker 1:And lastly but not leastly, my personal favorite is magical items. What magical items or tools or resources can you bestow upon your audience to empower them along their journey and help them battle the monsters that they're facing? Now, if you're wondering how you can tie all this together in your next piece of content or that business book that you've been planning to write, just remember that you don't have to do this alone. Right At Write Business Results, we've helped hundreds of authors and thought leaders harness the power of storytelling to connect deeply with their audience. So if you've ever considered writing a book or need some guidance on crafting compelling content, on how this is going to work for you, just reach out. Just fire us a DM on LinkedIn and we're happy to offer any kind of free advice that we can. So I hope that was useful, guys. Until next time, keep creating content, keep telling awesome stories and I will see you soon.
Speaker 1:Hey, guys, thanks again for listening to another episode of Content Untapped. If you are interested in finding out what we're up to at Write Business Results, we create content to grow an audience Please do get in touch at info at writebusinessresultscom and we'll get back to you post haste. Secondly, if you wanted to continue the conversation about creating great content or anything that you're listening to on this show, give us a DM to the Write Business Results LinkedIn page, where you can DM my personal page, and we can spark up a whole new conversation about any of this stuff. We love having conversations about content. So thanks again for listening and I will see you next time.