Quick question… what’s the #1 skill you need for business and career success both now and in the future?

Storytelling 🙂

You need to know how to tell stories that captivate and hold your audience’s attention not just ‘till the end of an email or video… but through email after email, video after video and product launch after product launch!

So today, I’m sharing the story of 2 of the world’s most recognized movie franchises — Star Wars and The Marvel Cinematic Universe (or MCU) — and the 2 mega moguls behind them.

One used his storytelling chops to build an incredible movie empire while the other left a lot of deeply disappointed fans in her track…

I’m talking about Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios and Kathleen Kennedy of Lucasfilm.

Something That’s Never Been Done Before

Let’s start with Kevin Feige of Marvel Studios…

He was put in charge of bringing all the Marvel comic characters to the silver screen. And he did something extraordinary, something that’s never been done before in Hollywood…

He created a series of overlapping, intersecting and connecting stories with all of the characters

Some of these movies were gigantic blockbusters (like Iron Man) and others were minor hits (like Ant Man and the Wasp).

But because Kevin understood the power of storytelling and wove all of these characters together into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, what happened is that true Marvel fans went to see all 23 movies — even the minor ones — so they wouldn’t miss any storylines or plots that were being set up in each movie for the next one.

This incredible storytelling technique — connecting each movie plot with the next — turned every, single one of those films into a worldwide blockbuster hit.

Kevin knew how to get people super-duper interested and to stay to the absolute end of each film — all the way to the end of the credits — because that’s when he’d share juicy footage to set up the next movie in the series. 

It’s clear that Kevin’s superpower is storytelling and while he stayed true to the original comic book stories he loved as a kid, he didn’t stop there…

He built up all the storylines and characters so they’d be even bigger in the movies.

And his incredible storytelling skills turned a bunch of comic book stories into one of the most successful movie franchises in history!

Creating a Legend Vs Launching a Lame Duck

Now let’s move on to our other movie mogul — Kathleen Kennedy.

She inherited Lucasfilm from the legendary George Lucas of Star Wars fame. 

Lucasfilm has this extraordinary legacy with the Star Wars movie franchise… and you’d think it’d be pretty hard to mess up something that’s so established and so loved by countless fans around the world.

But as Kathleen rolled out new movies or “episodes” to add to the original franchise which started in the 1970s, she made a major mistake: she focused primarily on the business side of things.

She was way more focused on maximizing profit for the studio than she was on making decisions based on the storylines… or staying true to the characters that hold such a special place in people’s hearts and minds.

The result? Most fans were left deeply disappointed by the new Star Wars movies.

So the ability to tell stories — to entertain, to create curiosity, to grip people’s attention and hold that attention for a long period of time, like over a 23-movie narrative arc —  is a skill that’s beyond valuable and it just can’t be replaced.

It’s the difference between creating a legend and launching a lame duck!

Casting a Spell That Hooks ‘Em

These days, most people turn to Google when they need a quick hit of instant information.

And when it comes to hiring someone for their expertise, a lot of people now look to hire freelancers from other parts of the world where labor is way cheaper than it is stateside.

But when you’ve got an irresistible personality, when you’ve got charisma and when you can tell a damn good story you simply cannot be outsourced…

You simply cannot be replaced!

If you look at influencers on YouTube and Instagram who have a gazillion followers, they’ve mastered the ability to tell stories through the written word, spoken word and visual language.

They’ve mastered the skill that will give them career and business success in anything they want to do because it’s the skill of the future that cannot be automated.

AI cannot touch human creativity and entertainment.

So if you don’t learn the skill of storytelling and if you don’t learn how to cast a spell that hooks your audience and brings them back to you again and again…

I’m sorry to say that you just might be forgotten.

The Superpower of the Future

People will always be drawn to great stories and great storytelling because we all want to be mesmerized by a powerful story.

We all want to lose ourselves in the movie theater and we all want to binge watch a  YouTube channel that features someone who’s great at telling stories…

Even if it’s about how you bought a Tesla for just $78 a month. (And by the way… that video is actually on YouTube and has over 5 million views!)

The key skillset — the superpower of the future — is the ability to tell stories that hold your audience’s attention for a long period of time.

And that my friends is the superpower that I’m working on here at Live Your Message and I hope it’s working on you right now as you read this 😉

So before you go, let me know…

What’s one of the “hookiest” YouTube channels, Instagram feeds, Netflix series or whatever it might be, that you watch or follow, where the person behind it has the number one skill of the future — kicka$$ storytelling?

Who’s got the creativity and the power to mesmerize people through incredible stories?

Share in the comments below… I read and personally reply to each one.

Now, go out there and Live Your Message 🙂