# Not Fast, But Permanent By [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2) · 2022-09-29 --- I had the good opportunity to talk with [Ted Wright](https://www.linkedin.com/in/ted-wright-3266b73/), the CEO of [Fizz](https://fizzcorp.com/) (and of the [book](https://amzn.to/3HONoqc) by the same name), and one of the world’s leading experts on Word-of-Mouth (WOMM) marketing. I’ll spare you all of the statistics, as I’ve referenced them many times before, but WOMM, even and _especially_, in our over-saturated media world is the single most important type of marketing. As I tell my team….”no one cares what we say about ourselves. They care about what other people say about us.” Stories Sell and People Love to Tell Them ----------------------------------------- Here’s why WOM works. About 10% of the population are big-time storytellers and they share stories at a significantly higher rate than everyone else, so much so that the downstream impact of their storytelling is 40,000 more people per year who hear their stories than those who don’t. 40,000 more people. Who hear a story…for free. That’s how word spreads. These people share stories because they love to do so, are intrinsically motivated by a desire to share, and they love to hear about and share NEW things. The challenge for marketers is two-fold. \-where do these people ‘co-locate?” (in other words, how do you find them?) \-does your story pass their AIR filter? The AIR Filter -------------- Ted gave me a process and acronym to figure out if the stories I was telling were any good. First, the process. List ALL the story ideas you can possibly come up with. Doesn’t matter how crazy. Then, ask yourself * are they AUTHENTIC? * are they INTERESTING? * are they RELEVANT? A lot of times, we think things are interesting, but we don’t necessarily check the relevancy angle…like when I go crazy about how Bitcoin/crypto will revolutionize our financial system to my mother-in-law. She doesn’t really care. And there’s a different AIR filter for different audiences. My mother-in-law doesn’t care, but my cousin does. 10 Years to an Overnight Success -------------------------------- In marketing, we all hope/secretly wish for overnight success, but the fact is that great brands and great WOM take time. As Ted said brilliantly, “the Pyramids took a long time, but 3000 years later, they’re still here. WOMM works that same way. It’s not fast, but it is Permanent.” Find the story. Find the storytellers. Repeat. --- *Originally published on [jer979](https://paragraph.com/@jer979-2/not-fast-but-permanent)*