The Me-To-We Factor - Spawning a Multi-Billion Dollar Company

Peter Guber, Chairman & CEO of Mandalay Entertainment

One way to make your business a success is to tell a story, turning the "me" into a "we." Accomplishing this requires that the story that you tell shine the light on an interest, goal, or problem that both the teller and the audience share. The power of these stories stems from the strong me-to-we connection that forms as soon as it registers that the teller is talking about a feeling or situation that the listener personally has experienced. That connection ignites the audience's empathy, secures their trust in the teller, and guarantees their interest in the call to action.

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I am someone who is constantly learning and is always curious. At conclaves that I've hosted at my home, the best and the brightest have revealed how they've told purposeful stories to drive their success. At one such conclave, YouTube founder Chad Hurley shared a story, which he and his partner Steve Chen told to prospective backers, customers, and the media as they were struggling to launch their venture in 2005 -- just one year before they sold the company to Google for $1.6 billion. "We were having a party in San Francisco during the pre-YouTube era. We'd shot a lot of great videos of our guests, which we wanted to load onto the internet to share with other friends and family. Our problem was, we wanted to get it out right away. But uploading was time consuming and complicated, and the net result looked like garbage. It shot our enthusiasm, and the fun of the moment was lost."

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They realized that anyone in this situation would feel the same way, since the impulse to share positive experiences immediately is universal. This realization told them their problem contained an opportunity. If they could figure out a way to upload videos freely with speed, ease, and quality, everyone would want to use it.

Accepting the challenge, they got busy and created an efficient, fast, and simple-to-use vehicle that everyone everywhere could share, even if they all uploaded their videos at the same time. The story's happy resolution was the successful creation of YouTube.

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When the me-to-we factor is strong in a story, the primary benefit for the teller is empathy. Hurley and Chen's story told their listeners, in essence, "I'm you. I have the same problems and frustrations as you do." Their first audience of investors trusted that Hurley and Chen were "regular" people who understood the frustration that they themselves had experienced and that these guys really would make sure their YouTube solution was easy for anyone to use. When YouTube was released, the partners continued to tell their story, reducing customers' possible resistance to the novel technology and ramping up their audience's eagerness to try their new solution. By 2006, 100 million video clips were viewed daily on YouTube, and 65,000 new videos were being uploaded every 24 hours.

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The second benefit of the "me-to-we" factor is that it makes stories more digestible and accessible. The faster your story establishes common ground between you and your listener, the more of your story your listener will absorb, both emotionally and intellectually. If your audience can't identify with your problem, they likely will not care to hear the resolution of your story. On the other hand, once they feel the experience of your story as their own, their attention becomes automatic. Response to the YouTube story was virtually instantaneous, and because the story was so universal, it was repeated over and over among users and in almost all media coverage of the company.

References

• Peter Guber.com: Tell to Win