Depending on your walk of life, you may know one or more of these. This article has been triggered as a result of seeing the Indian stand-up comedian Papa CJ last week. I will touch on the other two individuals after talking about him.

Papa CJ performed at the annual Holi festival event of the UK’s Rajasthani community (The Rajasthani Foundation). He essentially performed the same show that has already had over 600,000 views to date on YouTube (see his show here). While his show was extremely funny, I received a mix of comments from people who saw him live at last week’s Rajasthani event, ranging from, “Oh I saw it before on YouTube so it didn’t have the same spark”, to, “I have seen it before but he was even funnier live,” or “It was the first time I saw him and it was really good”.

You would expect this spread of comments in an audience of about 400 people; and despite the 600,000+ views on YouTube, there are bound to be people who have not seen the show.

What is the relevance of this to the other two names I mentioned at the beginning of this article?  Well, I remember having this same thought when I saw Lord Billimoria give his presentation to a TiE audience in London some six or seven years ago, and when I heard it again at another event; it was the same kind of thought taht crossed my mind with Sir Robin Saxby when I first saw him give his presentation at an IEE (now IET) event at Savoy Place, London, and again at some other event, in that same time period. I have now seen them both give their presentations on numerous occasions, and in the early days at least, it was exactly the same presentation over and over again. Over the years, they have refined and tweaked it depending on their audience.

Although I haven’t seen either of them speak recently, my memory of Lord Billimoria’s story is of his Reliant Robin and how he was parking it away from view whenever he was delivering his beer in the early days; and of Sir Robin Saxby’s – well it is about how 12 engineers and he started out in a barn and then progressed to become a successful UK electronics company globally.

Taking the same show on the road – again and again

The point of commenting on these three personalities and how they built their story into one that is universally recognized is that they continuously repeated the same story over and over again, without any qualms about worrying if someone has already seen it. It is a particularly British trait to worry about repeating something in case someone has already seen it – I have seen this in many a marketing department, where they fret about saying something that has already been said, for fear of repetition and annoying the audience.

It’s important if a story needs to be told, that it is told over and over again.  I remember working with one American CEO – Bob Terwilliger – who never tired of telling the same story over and over again, 10-12 times a day (yes he had tremendous energy and would set up as many meetings in a day!), to anyone who he set up on – whether it was investors, press, trade show visitors, conference delegates, or potenitial customers. The result of his efforts was truly rewarded, as only those who have worked with him will know.

So don’t be afraid – be bold, and tell that story.