The Guide, Not the Hero

The most common error many marketers and engineering professionals make when telling their company’s story is placing themselves in the role of hero. I cannot emphasize this enough; 

THE CLIENT IS THE HERO OF THE STORY!

When you make yourself or your firm the HERO, the client loses interest in your story. Besides, when most other competing firms are making themselves the HEROS, you simply sound like everyone else. Nothing differentiates you or makes your story memorable. You are the GUIDE who assists the HERO.

​You are Yoda and the client is Luke Skywalker. You are Itzhak Stern, the Jewish accountant, and the client is Oskar Schindler. The Scarecrow is an Architect; The Tinman is an Engineer; and the Lion is a Contractor; and our clients are Dorothy.
 
So when you are telling the stories of your projects, the challenges and obstacles you have overcome, the problems you have solved, turn the story toward the client and talk about the challenges they overcame and the problems you helped them solve.

​This may take some extra courage to present to your leadership. For decades, the stories of A/E/C firms have been ego-centric placing our brilliant technical professionals as the HEROs of their own stories. This must flip! Besides, who doesn’t want to be Yoda!

I highly recommend Donald Miller's, "Building A Storybrand" for more about this topic.

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