03 July 2008
My little girl, Abbey, was five last week, so we had a party. Five is a big deal birthday so the boat was duly pushed out... big hall, lots of friends, and a Magician! I don't know who was more excited, Abbey or I.But wait, why am I wasting time telling you about my five year old's birthday party, and her magician?
• It isn't that the magic show was brilliant, although it was.
• It isn't that AndyCadabra was polite and cheerful, although he was.
• It isn't that Abbey had a lovely time, although she did.
These are all things that you might have guessed, or taken for granted. We expect a magician to be good, polite and cheerful. We expect a little girl to have a good time at her birthday party. These are nice details and utterly unremarkable. For AndyCadabra, doing great magic shows for kid's parties is an everyday thing.The problem is that "everyday things" don't spread. I might tell a few interested people that Abbey had a great time, or that the magician was fun. But not many. On it's own it's unremarkable.
But here's the thing. Andy did do something other than put on a great magic show. He spent an hour (an HOUR!) entertaining Abbey and her brother before the party even started. He laughed with them, joked with them and even (God help him) let them help! It was way beyond the call of duty. While Wendy and I ran around with balloons and cakes (and yes, some degree of panic) he took the kids off our hands.
That was something we didn't expect, and because of that it's remarkable.
For most of us, web developers included, being good at what we do is just the price of admission. If we want our name, our reputation or our brand to spread, we need to be remarkable. No one tells stories about "good web developers".
And stories are the magic ingredient when it comes to spreading ideas. Humans rarely share facts, but we are story-telling machines. We'll tell stories all day, and the Internet has magnified this a thousand fold. Now, when a remarkable story gets told online it gets blogged, or dug, or linked to, or commented upon.
AndyCadabra is telling a great story, and because of that I've been telling it too. The question is what stories are your clients telling about you?
Posted by Nick Warren at 3:36 PM
