Last week I was talking a lot about the Boy Meets Girl story structure.

Remember, BMG is one up, one down, one up. Insert yourself and your product/service towards the end of the second leg.

Today I want to mention a second story structure, “man in hole.” Basically, man gets in hole, then gets out. Problem appears, then gets solved.

Man in hole’s structure is very similar to BMG’s — the main structural difference is just that it has BMG’s legs #2 and #3, but not #1.

It’s easy to think that since man in hole only has two parts, you can make it even shorter than BMG.

But in my opinion, that’s a mistake.

You see, in a business environment, man in hole is great for showing that you understand the client’s situation, and that you can describe the problem using the language the client uses, which builds trust. Also, it’s a great way to show off your solution, mapping out how it is going to unfold and what digging out of the problem is going to look like. And so trying to cram the whole thing into two sentences would be a mistake.

BMG is a great way to get someone feeling good about themselves and where they could go. Man in hole is a great way to relax while you unwind the problem and show the way out of it.

BMG is about envisioning a better world. Man in hole is about describing the solution.

BTW, never in a million years would I try to lay claim to BMG or man in hole. They are definitely not “Matt Originals.” They were already at work for thousands of years before I was born, I just show some people how to use them.