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Stories sell forever.
Hi I’m Brian Pombo welcome back to the Brian J. Pombo Live here in Grants Pass Oregon. Coming to you from the soon to be new office and headquarters of BrianJPombo.com.
Today I’m going to introduce you, if you have not met my plastic hand chair. I know it looks like it’s made of concrete. That’s why I got it. I love it. I love the look of it. It is hollow. It is nothing but plastic.
There’s a story behind the hand chair.
I was living in Chico, California, going to a college there and my father came to town one day and just to come to visit me. We went out and about just kind of looking at stuff. We ended up in this antique shop and downtown Chico. We started talking to the owner and he was showing us on the outside.
He had a whole lineup of these big plastic chairs that are shaped like hands. They all looked identical except they were all made on different colored plastics. So some of them were speckled and neon colors. And this one particularly looked like it was made of concrete, which is why I liked it.
I don’t even remember how much we paid for it honestly.
My dad bought it for me, but I remember it being really expensive for the time, for a large chair shaped like a hand.
But the owner had this big long story about it and we didn’t ask for a story, or anything else. We were already interested in it. But for some reason the story stuck in my head. And the story was that this hand chair that it was, that these were the last of the molds that he had made, uh, that he had these hand chairs made out of.
He originally had these, he was the inventor of this mold and that these hand chairs and it was him and a partner had a business where they were building out these hand chairs. What they ended up doing is they ended up splitting up the partnership, and ended up getting rid of the molds.
So these were the final vinyl molded hand chairs available. He more than likely would never make any more ever again. Not only that, he was going to be closing up shop pretty soon and probably moving away.
He was pretty much done with the business and so he was looking to get rid of these hand chairs.
They were normally somewhere between double and four times the price of what we were getting at four. But this big long story all around this hand chair 20 years ago this thing was bought.
That story is still in my head.
I didn’t want to hear the story. I wasn’t interested in the story.
I still remember what the guy looked like and his story about the silly hand chair and for some reason I wasn’t interested in it. Yes, it would have caused some interest. Yes, it caused the concept that these were rare, you know, that they were tough to find.
That maybe quite possibly we were getting a good deal. All that you can say one way or the other could have been useful to us. Over time you’ll notice, you could see these things, just not anywhere. You could probably get one extremely cheap, they’re probably manufactured in mass in China nowadays, but at the time that guy had a story.
I don’t know whether the story was true, but it got stuck in my head.
It still sells me on this thing. I’m still happy I have it. I’ve stuck with it long-term. I find it comfortable, even though it’s just made out of plastic. But the story sticks.
You got to think about what the story is behind your product or service.
Whatever you’re trying to get out there, make sure there’s a story attached to it or multiple stories. If you want to follow up more on this concept, one of the best books out there that I’ve seen on this so far, I’ve got a load of books that I haven’t even read yet that I know that I know talk about this. But this latest one I got an audio book on and it’s called Story Selling, it’s by Nick Nanton.
There may also be another author with it. I apologize for not bringing it up right away because I haven’t been looking at a physical book.
I’ve been listening to it being read and it’s only being read by one narrator. So I know Nick Nanton was the one on the commercial that sold the audio book that I bought.
The whole book is all about how to use stories in business, in your advertising, in your marketing, in your ability to sell what you have going and how example after example, after example throughout history, how stories have been able to sell things.
I mean if you think about all the way from Jesus to just about any major character person throughout time that has stood out, told stories to get their point across. There’s a reason why is it unlocked something in the brain and allows people to be able to attach onto an idea or concept.
So keep in mind the story, don’t forget about it. Tomorrow I’m going to be on the road in the air.
Who knows where you’ll find me and what we’ll be talking about. I think I’ll be telling you a little bit about a piece of mail that I received and how it can help you to with your marketing and advertising.
So we’ll talk about that tomorrow. Y’all get out there, let the magic happen. Don’t forget about DreamBizChat.com the link is in the description. If you are a business owner or an executive that’s in the self-reliance field, go to DreamBizChat.com dream Biz chat.com link is in the description. Go and check it out. Let me know what you think.
You all have a great night. Get out there and let the magic happen.