Focus Your Creativity to Produce Better BrandScripts In Less Time

Spreadsheets give us specific places for all the copy elements we work with. We use sheets for the cubby holes, not math and formula. Behind the scenes, your words and ideas show up where and when you need them rather than being scattered across multiple documents.

You could give me the same paint and brushes that Michael Angelo used, but I'll never paint the Sistine chapel. StorySheet is a tool, and the more skilled you are as a professional copywriter, the better you'll be able to use it. There's no substitute for the skill you've acquired, but a good tool multiplies the quality of your work. If you can produce the same result in a fraction of the time, then StorySheet puts more profit in your pocket. If you can produce better work, then StorySheet is an aid to building your professional image and reputation.

Yup. Mine too. As a Guide, our skill leads the client in the right direction. But sometimes they say something amazing that we're still determining where it belongs. Write it down anywhere in the sheet! You're not limited to writing in the shaded cubby holes; those are just the ones with automation. I'll often write extraneous notes on the side, and I come back and get them later. That's completely fine.

At the same time, this is not "my" process - it's the StoryBrand process. It's the one SB uses on every single LiveStream and the one we went through as guides. If you follow the StoryBrand process, this tool will be second-nature in no time. Rather than making you into a robot, it's a powerful tool to make you a better craftsperson.

Revisions are where StorySheet shines. You retain all your ideas where they are relevant to the components of a BrandScript. That means changing from one idea (or phasing) to another is pushing a button, and the new text propagates throughout the BrandScript automatically. When making changes is fast and easy, you transform a picky client into a customer you can delight.

StorySheet does NOT turn your BrandScripts into cookie-cutter output. Most cookies are baked, flat, and round, but the ingredients and preparation make them different. The love you put into decorating them makes them uniquely yours.  

StorySheet is more like shifting from mixing by hand to using a blender.  You fully own and control the copy that you work with.
It's not going to turn your BrandScripts into Oreos.

A quality BrandScript has a particular structure and methodology we are certified to work with as guides. StoryScript follows that structure. After looking at hundreds of BrandScripted web pages, the variety is staggering. StorySheet won't change that.

We all get fuzzy clients now and then. It's your skill as a guide to interview, understand, probe, and draw out the information that you need. It's part of what makes you valuable as a guide. Regardless of the process you use, the questions you ask, or how you get the information you need, you will still develop the elements of a BrandScript. StorySheet gives you the place and structure to organize your interview, clarify the client's thoughts, and formulate them into coherent messages.

Best of all, when a client jumps all over the place, and you're trying to keep up, the cross-checks in StorySheet will automatically alert you if you are missing the crisp articulations you need for one of the elements.

StorySheet is an aid to however you do your process.  It's not a mandate that you work in a given way.

Some guides use StorySheet during the interview process and write copy live with the client on the call. Others need time and reflection to produce the quality that they stand behind. There are some quick and easy fixes that StorySheet facilitates, and other areas, like the narrative, where you get to work your magic offline.

Think back to what we did during our live training, or what happens in every LiveStream.  We only need to articulate each element of the BrandScript enough to be confident that we understand what is essential and valuable, and then we can move on.  Later, on our own time, we can refine everything to our preferred level of polish.

StorySheet lets you thrive by providing a systematic way of selecting and promoting the best versions of each element of your BrandScript. This is when we "ship" a particular element forward, just as we did during our live training, or what happens in every LiveStream.  The difference is that revising our copy to ship better versions is literally the click of a button.  It's still your copy, but without the administrative overhead.

StorySheet structures your BrandScript notes, not just the copy you chose to ship. That makes it easy to review your copywriter's thought process, not just their final copy. It means you can support your staff in their development process, as well as their final output.

Plus, when the structure of your BrandScripts is more consistent, the review process is easier and more productive for everybody involved.

I've coached at least three LiveStream sessions so far. I set up each of my student's workbooks ahead of time with licensing and then give edit rights to files in a shared folder. Because they use sheets owned by my Google account, they don't have to copy their sheet or deal with activating the plugin, and it just works.

After the introductions in the LiveStream, it takes 30 seconds to explain to students, "Put your brainstorming in the blue boxes" and "Push the Ship It button when you are happy with your selected choice."

When students use a standard structure, I can review more BrandScript elements with less work. I get to see their thought process, not just their shipped text. That means I provide better feedback, service, and value to each student.

A separate module for the LiveStream coach makes it a breeze to view the progress of up to 12 students simultaneously. (Details upon request.)

As you become a better Guide, you will develop your style and interview script. You may have more than one, based on your client's industry. There is a template for entering your personalized questions so that they show where you need them inside StoryScript.

Additionally, during a LiveStream, I had one student who needed more guidance on what to write. I turned on the extra prompts for her, and she was good to go.

There are multiple ways of getting your data out of StorySheet and into whatever tool you choose.

• There is a SLIDES tab that organizes the data for search/replace in Google slides.
• There is a Variables tab that lists all of the variables from the sheet, and is used by Figma
  

The videos below show how to use StorySheet with a Figma template, and a Google Slides document.

Working with Figma

Working with Google Slides

Yes, StorySheet can work with OpenAI, but it's only as good as the data that it's trained on.  But what if you could have it write the first-drafts of your nurture emails, based on the copy that you already wrote for your client?

What we’re doing is using OpenAI in a way that sets it up to succeed with your help. 

1. We feed YOUR work and YOUR copy for YOUR client to OpenAI.
2. We ask OpenAI to perform a limited task with known constraints.
3. You get more done, in less time, which lets you be more creative with your clients to serve them better.

StorySheet has the ability to take your work from the BrandScript, and optionally from a "Before and After" grid, and randomize elements for social media. 

Generating the prompt will pick the elements, that you can then send to AI for creating the posts.  Tweak them to your liking, then save your work.  You can also have StorySheet create posts in bulk.

The Social components of StorySheet are also available for free as a stand-alone product.  You'll just have to fill in the blanks for the story elements manually, rather than having StorySheet generate those with you interactively.