What Can True Love Stories Teach Us About Crafting Content?

From the archive. First published February 2021.

I was a tiny thirteen-year-old brown bird when it happened the first time.

Most nights I would pass out texting her on my brown leather living room couch, the phone dropped on my chest, the sheets drawn around the curve of my head.

I would ask her to repeat why she loved me, why it had already been three days since we last saw each other, and whether she wanted to meet the next Saturday.

It was always about me, like most of the directionless writing on the internet, which keeps its cycle going so it can get whatever it can out of its readers.

I would grow up to realise that this is not love.

My proper love story didn’t appear until I was 23, when I started an entry-level job at a multinational company.

I first fell in love with her walk, the way she would pass by my workstation, swinging from east to west and then west to east.

I spent the first few months listening to her story and matching it with my own experiences, so she knew I understood her. I asked her if there was anything I could help her with, and I promised and over-delivered, every time.

And three months later, when my actions had proved that I truly cared for her, I asked her out.

One afternoon in the studio, I felt that a woman there had been left out of the conversation for a few hours. So I asked what she listens to when she is alone. Portuguese? Spanish? Mostly Spanish or English, she said, and rarely Portuguese.

I put on a Latino playlist of sad songs. The first track was a Mexican ballad, and she knew it within three seconds. She waved her arms and told me to turn it off or she would cry. We left it on. She went red, and she did not cry.

I had not planned any of it. I asked one real question and then played what she had told me. That did more than any playlist I could have chosen for her.

That’s what we need to do when we craft content for our brands.

Give attention to your audience’s needs. Understand them. Listen to them before offering solutions.

You have to display your genuine desire to help.

Prove that you understand their struggle through your own stories.

True love can teach us how to be more thoughtful about our actions, and how to carry that intention into the other parts of life, like our craft.

Happy Valentine’s.

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