December 24^th, 2014 – Disney stock traded at around $95 a share

December 24^th, 2015 – Disney stock traded at around $105 a share

December 25^th, 2016 – Disney stock traded at around $105 a share

December 22^nd, 2017 – Disney stock traded at around $108 a share

December 28^th, 2018 – Disney stock traded at around $107 a share

At the time I’m writing this, on December 24^th, 2019 – Disney stock is trading at around $145 a share…

And I just bought 140 shares of Disney for roughly $20,000 in total.

Now, this isn’t investment advice. Maybe I’m an idiot, maybe it’ll be a great investment, I have no idea…

But here’s why I just bought some Disney Stock…

And, why I may buy significantly more if the price goes down…

Storytelling.

You see, I started this morning thinking about how Disney’s best days may be behind it…

How maybe it’s overvalued or how it will be hard for Disney’s next decade to better than its last.

After all.

The most recent Star Wars movie is underperforming and has mixed reviews, what if the Star Wars resurgence of the last decade is coming to a close?

And, with the end of the Avengers Franchise, what if Marvel Studios already peaked and the next several Marvel Movies tank?

Frozen 2 was a smash, but what if the next few Pixar movies don’t connect with audiences?

Or, what if Disney+ loses subscribers over time for some unforeseen reason?

These are all worries…

But there’s one simple counterweight that, for me, trumps all of these concerns…

Disney has a near-monopoly on the 21^st century’s stories and mythology.

Let’s remember something very important:

Human beings love stories.

And, especially mythical stories.

Ones that are easy to understand.

Full of good vs. evil…

And that impart some lesson without making us think too hard to understand it.

Well, after spending $71BN to acquire 21^st Century Fox…

Disney has got to be the largest “owner” of stories in history.

Not only do they own existing stories from:

Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, Walt Disney Studio, 21^st Century Fox, and more…

They own the rights to those universes and all of the lore that comes with them.

This means they have cart blanche to continue to expand our modern mythologies…

And they can retell and recast this existing mythology in infinite ways.

Disney has a limitless pool of stories to work with.

And, that’s why I’m betting that in the long-run, Disney is still massively undervalued…

Because as much as things are going to change in the 2020s… the 2030s… and beyond…

It’s hard to imagine a world where the human brain stops being wired to crave and respond to stories.

And Disney has a tremendous leg-up against all of its other competitors…

By owning the vast majority of the most recognized stories in human history.
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One more semi-obvious note on this:

Storytelling almost always wins in marketing and direct response sales copy too.

Meaning, if you have a story-driven lead for a sales letter and a fact-based lead…

The story lead will come out on top 95% of the time…

Provided it’s the RIGHT story.

That’s the thing with Disney – they have the “right” stories… stories that are proven.

But, when it comes to your sales copy…

If you’ve tested a story lead, and it bombed…

There’s a good chance that it’s not because your market doesn’t like stories…

It’s because the story you chose just didn’t resonate enough.

Semi-obvious, but the marketing tidbit here is:

Test multiple story angles for your offers whenever possible.

—

K that’s it.

Gonna go get Eden up in a minute.

I’m at my mom’s house in San Diego.

This afternoon more family is coming over…

And I’m really excited for Eden to get to play with her cousins.

In my family, we’ve always had our big holiday celebration on Christmas Eve…

And we have some traditions I’m also pretty stoked about…

Almost all of which are food-based LOL.

My cousin, Laura, makes Italian wedding soup using a recipe that’s my great-great-grandma's…

My cousin, Joe, makes an antipasto that’s a recipe of his great grandfather…

And my mom makes two types of lasagna, both following recipes that have been in my family for at least 100 years (probably a lot longer).

So, yeah…

I fully expect to be in a food coma later tonight…

And I’m really excited about it.

For those on my list who celebrate Christmas, I hope you all have an amazing evening with your loved ones as well!

– SPG

P.S. This post originally came from an email I sent to my private list. If you want to see more stuff like this from me, you can apply to join my list using this link.

The post Why I Think Disney Will Own the Next Decade (Hint: It Has To Do With Storytelling) first appeared on Stefan Georgi.