Ep. 29 – Ty Hunt, Story Telling Part I
5 Minute Rants by THE a.m.
A podcast predicated on the journey of business and life.
Ep. 29 – Ty Hunt, Story Telling Part I
Tapping into your story is one of the most powerful steps you can take to grow as a business. Revenue reflects how well your story connects with your audience.
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Tapping into your story is one of the most powerful steps you can take to grow as a […]
July 12, 2023
Episode Transcript
Michael Abernathy 0:00
Hey what’s up everybody? Welcome back to THE a.m. Welcome back to 5 Minute Rants. I’m your host, Michael Abernathy. and I got a special guest on the show. I got Ty Hunt with me master storyteller, master at movies and film and just documenting life and creation. What’s up Ty?
Ty Hunt 0:30
I’m doing well, Man, How you feelin?
Michael Abernathy 0:31
I’m doing pretty good, man. Pretty good. So I know, we talked before about all this, and about actually running over storytelling? Can we jump into that?
Ty Hunt 0:41
Yeah, like, where do you want to start in your storytelling? it’s such a broad kind of topic, like, you know, what do you want to specifically talk about?
Michael Abernathy 0:48
Talk to me about how we, as people are built to hear stories and how powerful storytelling is?
Ty Hunt 0:55
Yeah, you know, honestly, think about it from the very beginning of human society, you know, we’ve been documenting life, right? So if you go back and look at caves from the, I don’t know, anthropologist, don’t don’t quote me on this. I don’t know, to be exact human evolution, period, but like the very beginnings of that, I’m gonna say the end goal, but they’re probably wrong. But they were sitting there drawing on caves. and you know, saying, hey, this is how we, you know, got that bull, or we, you know, you know, attacked this other civilization, whatever the case may be, we’ve been documenting stuff from the very beginning of our civilization. And so it’s definitely innate within us, and so taking that from, you know, just drawings on a cave to motion picture, that’s a lot of progress in between the two, but the core concept hasn’t really changed much. It’s how do we get across, you know, the information that we’re trying to convey to the next person, right? So looking at it from that perspective, story is so important, because that’s how we communicate, that’s how we’ve always done it. and that’s how we need to look at everything that we do, whether it’s you know, selling a product or service for your business, or, you know, entertainment or Just entertaining your kids, whatever the case may be, you have to find a way to to connect the story with the audience that you’re trying to reach.
Michael Abernathy 2:15
Wow. It’s like storytelling is everything. He says the way we communicate, bro that’s amazing. How, Ty can you like, help me connect this like to companies and like, company’s success or failure at this point connecting with their audience?
Ty Hunt 2:30
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, when it comes to selling something, whether it’s a product or a service, or anything, the most important thing is how is this going to affect my life, right? Because seriously, think about all of the mega giants out there. You got like, Apple is a great example. You know, you look at the iPhone. It wasn’t like, hey, here’s this great new smartphone. It was like, how can I make, how can I make your life better by using this iPhone, right? So Apple is a great example. Because what they do is they really honed in on, how does this make my life better? And they do that through the storytelling. You know, so for example, like some of the new stuff that they have with like, the camera for example. You know, they’re like, okay, you want to create memories with your family, great, use my iPhone to do it. You want to, you know, document your life, and then stick it onto YouTube. Great do it with my, iPhone. So it’s all these different things. It’s not about the product itself, it’s about how is it making your life better. And if you can tap into that side of it, then you can really start capturing these stories to really sell that idea.
Michael Abernathy 3:37
Wow. Wow, that makes sense. Because it’s like, the whole reason why I want to use the product is because it connects me personally through that story. How did you get into storytelling Ty?
Ty Hunt 3:49
So you know, it’s funny, I’ve been doing this for like, god knows how long. Like I can probably go back to being like, knee high to a troll, right? So, like, I get to blame this on my father, because we used to watch movies all the time, like when I was growing up, and stuff like that, and we would literally break down, what was it about the movie, in the TV show, whatever that we that we really, really loved? And it always came back to two things. One, who are the characters? Do I relate to them in some way? And then what are the characters going through, and that is the basic essence of of storytelling. And so, we would literally break down all of these different things, you know, these big giant films like Star Wars and aliens and that kind of stuff. And it really kind of ingrained in me how important these things are. Because one that was the way I connected with my father, you know, and I cherish those moments to this day. But also it kind of put me on This path of if I can truly understand this, then I can truly understand how to connect with other people as well. And so taking that perspective, you know… I was actually an actor first, you know, it’s working in front of the camera. Yeah, doing all all kinds of stuff. And I was like, well, my whole reason for being in front of the camera is to actually be behind the camera and tell the story. And so after I kind of did that, and I was like, okay, I’m getting old, and there’s not old people in movies and stuff like that, but forget about it. But anyway, I was like, well, I wanted to be behind the camera. So I went to school, for film, knocked the school stuff out of the park, and then my very first job out of school was doing a Budweiser commercial and that went on to win an Emmy. Now, granted, I wasn’t on the creative team, I was just on the production team. But that kind of put me on the path of like, yeah, This is kind of the path that I need to go into. Let me let me pay attention to this. and so I did a lot of commercials for like Disney and Universal and like all the big name companies in Orlando. And one of the things that really stood out to me was again, it wasn’t so much about, like, just use Disney as an example. It wasn’t so much like okay, Disney is promoting their new park and promoting the new service yada, yada, yada. But it was okay, what can you get out of coming to the park? You want to again, go back to creating those memories, you want to have a great time and you want to create these fantastic lifelong memories with your family. Guess what you can do it at the parks. We have this new show, this new offering. We’re offering whatever but it was always if you look at the commercials, it’s always about connecting with your family, that’s their brand right? And so understanding the the brand and what the point of your product and your service is. That’s where you can really fine tune what your story in your messaging is.
Michael Abernathy 6:26
Wow, bro. Okay, cool. Wow, that I have so many questions, these are short episodes. We got 30 seconds. What is the most important factor of storytelling?
Ty Hunt 6:37
Know your audience.
Michael Abernathy 6:39
Okay.
Why know your audience because you have 15 seconds?
Ty Hunt 6:42
Well, if you don’t know what they care about, then how can you tell the story to them?
Michael Abernathy 6:46
Wow, that’s a true. Alright bro. Man appreciate you. Thank you for coming on. Thanks for your time, Man.
Ty Hunt 6:52
Of course. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it. This is fun, bro. You
Michael Abernathy 6:54
got that you there’s so much cool stuff about you. it’s not even funny. Anyways, thanks, guys for joining. We’ll catch you next time. Peace.