Asheville, NC 7:28 AM

If you’ve watched the news, then you’ve seen masters at controlling the narrative in their “marketing”. And before you say that the news doesn’t market anything, you’re dead wrong. They like to promote agendas for the Government and/or shadow Government (which may or may not exist). If the SWAT team raids my place, well… you’ll have your answers. Well, enough pitter-patter, let’s get into it.

What’s Controlling the Narrative?

So think of it like this… You and your brother (or sister) are playing, and they accidentally get hurt from falling on their own accord. They start to cry and bawl their eyes out, and here comes mama bear in a blaze of glory to save her precious baby. And when she asks what happened, you try to explain, and your siblings point their fingers at you and say you pushed them. Now, we both know it’s a lie, but Momma doesn’t know, and your sibling has the narrative in their head. In short, they get to tell the story first, which will direct the perspective of Momma (or the audience).

Now you can do one of three things.

One, you can sit there and accept that the odds are against you and not do anything, and take the unjust punishment.

Two, fight back and try to make mom see from your side that you didn’t do anything. But in momma's blind rage, she won’t listen.

And finally, three. Spin the narrative in your favor. How? Good question there, chuckle head. Admit to the lie and explain why you did. You see, if there was a dog, bee, bird, Uncle Fester, or even a ball headed towards your brother, you were protecting them from imminent danger.

Does this always work? For the most part, yes. The only way it doesn’t work is if you can’t tell a better story.

Here are a few tricks of the trade I’ve picked up to help you spin almost any narrative:

Reframe the Rubbish in Reality

The corporate media hacks call this spin, but really it’s survival. When the market punches you in the gut, you don’t sit there and swallow your teeth. You change the lens to grab the leverage. The media outlet does this all the time.

From failure to feedback:
“This suckes you shouldn’t be in business” becomes “Now I know exactly what the market rejects, thank you to them for allowing us to grow.”

Why it works: Because politeness and humility go a long way.

From loss to transition:
“I don’t want to ever be your client again” becomes “That is necessary for us to change to a new direction, so that we may adapt to the market’s evolution.”

From rejection to filtering:
“No, stop calling me you, you P.O.S. spammer” becomes “They filtered themselves out as a bad fit.”

From setback to evidence:
“You won’t believe what they did to me…” becomes “This proves I handle hard things in a manner that didn’t meet their expectations.”

From confusion to process:
“I feel like I’m still in the same place as before, your services didn’t work” becomes “We all go through the messy phase, they gave up too soon, before we could see results”

I knew this marketer, let’s call him Bob for now, sent a broadcast with a broken link and tanked his daily sales. Instead of hiding in a corner, he immediately sent a follow-up admitting the screw-up with a hilarious self-deprecating story. By doing this, he turned the mistake into his highest-grossing promo of the month… (It sounds like a bunch of Bull… but it’s not)

The Psychological Levers to Pull

People tolerate pain when it has a meaning attached to it. A stronger narrative reduces helplessness by giving your mind a clear next step and total control. The best spins are audience-aware, making the story useful to the listener.

Ethics Enter and Enduces Endearment

Never invent the facts… Don’t use the spin to deny obvious harm, because your credibility comes from acknowledging the hard part first.

The Four-Step Formula for Framing the Facade

1. 1. State the event.

2. 2. Name the cost.

3. 3. Extract the lesson.

4. 4. Point to the next move.

Example: “Our latest software update crashed and left thousands of users locked out of their accounts yesterday. It cost us massive customer trust and buried our support team in complaints. However, it exposed a critical flaw in our automated testing protocol, and we are already rewriting our launch checklist to ensure it never happens again.”

See how you can take a complete public relations nightmare and immediately turn it into a story about extreme ownership and progress?

The media wants to use your slip-ups to bury you. When you use this formula, you pull the rug out from under the vultures before they can even print the headline.

Everything you need to write better, sell smarter, & scale faster — it’s all here. Whether you’re a copywriter, marketer, or entrepreneur, I’ve packed this page with the exact tools, resources, & shortcuts that separate the pros from everyone else.

For more information: Check out www.ForbesCopy.com