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I’m often asked how I wrote Putting Stories to Work. People want to know about the writing process and how I did the research. I had similar questions before I started including, How many words do I need to write? How many chapters should it be? What’s the best word processor? So in this post I want to share with you what I learned.
First let me describe the type of book I wanted to write. First and foremost it was important the book was replete with stories. It’s a capital offence to talk about storytelling and not tell a story. I also wanted it to be a practical book, a bit like David Allen’s How to Get Things Done. It was important that it was research based. I didn’t want to just say, for example, that stories are memorable without pointing to research that backs up my statement. I also wanted to share this research as stories of the experiments. This meant I was on the hunt for experimental research rather than theories. I read a lot of business books and I was inspired by Adam Grant, Malcolm Gladwell, Dan Pink and the Heath brothers, to name a few.
I'm in the business of creating compelling stories. As a filmmaker, I need to understand how stories touch audiences—why one story is an instantly appealing box office success while another fails miserably to connect. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some of the world’s most talented storytellers—gifted directors, novelists, screenwriters, actors, and other producers—and from them I’ve gleaned insights into the alchemy of great stories. Make no mistake, a hit movie is still an elusive target, and I’ve had my share of flops. But experience has at least provided me with a clear sense of the essential elements of a story and how to tap into its power. The power of storytelling is also central to my work as a business executive and entrepreneur. Over the years, I’ve learned that the ability to articulate your story or that of your company is crucial in almost every phase of enterprise management. It works all along the business food chain: A great salesperson knows how to tell a story in which the product is the hero. A successful line manager can rally the team to extraordinary efforts through a story that shows how short-term sacrifice leads to long-term success. An effective CEO uses an emotional narrative about the company’s mission to attract investors and partners, to set lofty goals, and to inspire employees. Sometimes, a well-crafted story can even transform a seemingly hopeless situation into an unexpected triumph....
Business storytelling is becoming more and more important this year. You are constantly telling stories about your business. Whether that story is told in a speech, in ordinary conversation with co-workers or customers, or on your website or advertising or packaging, your story is aligned with the public face of your company and it must be carefully crafted from your DNA. So, once you have a clearly delineated DNA, you need to start to create business stories that embody that DNA. Here is a proven system you might employ. And of course, you can also invent your own methodology for business storytelling if you prefer. The key thing is not mine vs. yours, but to understand your Brand DNA and then systematically tell your brand story in a way that helps disseminate the message of your brand....
As a writer, you want people to pay attention to what you have to say…But with people processing over 100,000 digital words every day, you’ve got your work cut out. With so much clutter and noise, how can you possibly stand out and get your words noticed? Perhaps storytelling is the answer. Stories light up our brain and fire neurons in the same way as an actual physical action would. They arouse our emotions, stimulate learning, command attention and persuade action. The makeup of a well-crafted story comes down to interesting characters, relatable plots, and most importantly, a feeling of vulnerability and connection....
One of the most important tools in any salesperson’s tool kit consist of success stories that demonstrate capabilities, build credibility, and move the prospect closer to signing on the bottom line. Here’s a template used to describe the three parts of the commonly told success story:
Shield 5 is a captivating new thriller that follows a wrongfully accused man on the run, desperate to clear his name. It has a lot in common with shows like Homeland and 24, except for one tiny thing: Each episode is only 15 seconds long.
Shield 5 is a new dramatic and cinematic series being released on Instagram in installments, just one recent example of what is being labeled as "social cinema." It is the brainchild of British director Anthony Wilcox, who was looking for a quick project to work on while he finished developing a bigger feature. "I’ve done a few short things online as a director-for-hire, and the fast turnaround of those things excited me. I was looking for a way to do that, but telling my own story," Wilcox told Fast Company....
What happens when people use storytelling for deception? Or downright evil?In this week’s podcast, Shane and I talk to Maria Konnikova, a frequent New Yorker contributor and author of The Confidence Game: The Psychology of the Con and Why We Fall for It Every Time, to learn about the art of the con and the impact it’s having on the media world, from catfishing on Facebook to advertising that crosses the line....
An ad is an ad is an ad. Or is it? Millennials have grown up with a media diet far different than the generations that came before them. Has that changed their media taste? Do brands need different types of ads to reach people of different ages? Google partnered with L'Oréal Paris to find out....
In his new book The Storyteller’s Secret Carmine Gallo, communication expert and the bestselling author of Talk Like TED, explains why some ideas catch on and others don’t. Learn more at StorytellersSecret.com...
"The great writer's gift to a reader is to make him a better writer." “Stories,” Neil Gaiman asserted in his wonderful lecture on what makes stories last, “are genuinely symbiotic organisms that we live with, that allow human beings to advance.” But what is the natural selection of these organisms — what makes the ones that endure fit for survival? What, in other words, makes a great story?
Via Mary Daniels Brown
As Scott Donaton argued in a recent Co.Create post, other brands should learn this lesson as well as Coke has. "The challenge is clear by now," Donaton writes, "Intrusive, interruptive, self-centered marketing no longer works the way it once did, and its effectiveness will only continue to diminish in the social age. The question is what will replace the legacy model. There’s a one-word answer: stories."
Story is the answer for two reasons, both of them backed by compelling science. First, because people are naturally greedy for stories, they have a unique ability to seize and rivet our attention. Second, stories aren’t just fun escapism—they have an almost spooky ability to mold our thinking and behavior. In this post, I’ll describe the science behind the attention-seizing power of stories, leaving their molding power for a follow-up post....
What happens when you hire creative writers to make up stories about cheap trinkets, and they post these stories along with the items online for sale? This was exactly what Rob Walker and Joshua Glenn did back in 2009 as part of their storytelling experiment, Significant Objects.
Significant Objects was a literary and anthropological experiment that “demonstrated that the effect of narrative on any given object’s subjective value can be measured objectively.” For this experiment, Walker and Glenn asked 100 creative writers to invent stories about $129 worth of items and then sold them on eBay to see if the stories enhanced the value of the objects. In case you were wondering how the experiment went: the net profit was $3,6 million -- a 2,700-percent increase in final markup....
People believe that the culture of storytelling is coming to an end, but we believe that it is just transforming its shapes. A good story is always like a gift to the readers, listeners, or viewers. Taking advantage of this strong connection between humans and the art of storytelling, the web developers and designers are now incorporating storytelling in their designs. The art and science of storytelling on the web comes with countless benefits, some of them are listed here....
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We tell stories to our coworkers and peers all the time — to persuade someone to support our project, to explain to an employee how he might improve, or to inspire a team that is facing challenges. It’s an essential skill, but what makes a compelling story in a business context? And how can you improve your ability to tell stories that persuade? What the Experts Say In our information-saturated age, business leaders “won’t be heard unless they’re telling stories,” says Nick Morgan, author of Power Cues and president and founder of Public Words, a communications consulting firm. “Facts and figures and all the rational things that we think are important in the business world actually don’t stick in our minds at all,” he says. But stories create “sticky” memories by attaching emotions to things that happen. That means leaders who can create and share good stories have a powerful advantage over others. And fortunately, everyone has the ability to become a better storyteller. “We are programmed through our evolutionary biology to be both consumers and creators of story,” says Jonah Sachs, CEO of Free Range Studios and author of Winning the Story Wars. “It certainly can be taught and learned.” Here’s how to use storytelling to your benefit....
War has built empires, but it is empathy and love that has sustained the human species. Empathy plays a huge role in helping people and society function well. This is why empathy, and those things which foster it, have always been and will always be important. Stories are empathy workhorses. In this post, I’m going to share three main ideas related to effective storytelling....
Want to have more customers, opt-ins on your website and clicks on your “Buy Now” button? Do what Hollywood does -- use stories to sell your products and services. This makes sense: At some point, you've probably gone to a meeting featuring a PowerPoint presentation with charts and graphs . . . and wanted to poke your eyes out with a pencil. The reason: Stories, not data, are what inspire people. Stories, not bullet points, create customer loyalty, build social media platforms and increase sales. Stories create an emotional bond between your business and your customers. And today's technology helps us tell those stories in the many different ways it's given us to offer our message to millions of potential customers -- instantly. Yet, many businesses are losing customers because their methods of reaching them are outdated. Want to get people to buy your product? Then get them to listen. Here are three essential stories you need on your website to do just that:...
Unlike business storytelling, storybranding isn’t used to help audiences identify with events the way storytelling identifies events. Rather, storybranding is used to help brands associate with a strong and enduring value or belief system.. In brand briefs, this is sometimes mistaken for a description of the brand’s personality or how it should be portrayed i.e. bold, unique, caring, or responsive. But directing a brand to exhibit a personality trait is like directing a stage actor to show passion or be courageous. It becomes more natural for the actor to show passion, courage, or any other personality trait by helping him get in touch with his character’s belief system. Storybranding ratchets brands up to something more powerful than a display of certain personality traits. It does this by defining the brand’s authentic motivational thrust underlying its personality. This thrust could be the strongly adhered to the value placed upon scooping competitive rivals with technological advancements, the belief that being friendly is not the same as “doing” friendly, or the importance that is placed on being obsessive about quality control. In effect, storybrands internalize beliefs that more naturally manifest themselves in their outward appearances. The most important purpose behind storybranding is to help companies become identified with certain ideals. And it’s a purpose that comes with a very big reward....
Do you remember anything at all when you watch ads -- or is the experience a hazy blur? The fact is, consumers rarely remember a product -- they remember stories, which may inspire the use of the product. That element is what online advertising is lacking. Two weeks ago I talked about the value of complementary storytelling vs. disruption. For advertising to be as effective as it can be, ad stories need to align with the content so that it, along with targeting, ensures relevance of the message in a way that elicits a response.
I also want to remind advertisers to spend the extra time to tell a story that inspires consumers, rather than simply telling them about your product. I don’t mean that all ads have to move you to tears. I’m referring to inspiration in the manner of a quiet...
Learn How To Use Visual Storytelling For Your Brand or Content Marketing Strategy, by Following These 10 Simple Rules
We all know storytelling is one of the key aspects of successful blogging. If you can weave a story around your words, no matter what your niche or topic, it is more likely to entertain your readers and resonate with them.
Even if you think you aren’t much of a writer or storyteller, you can still find one of these story types discussed today that will be useful and relevant for your blog – following on from Episode 80 of the ProBlogger podcast where I discuss what to say when you’ve got nothing left to say, hopefully these should give you some ideas on how to craft your words so you can stand out as a unique and interesting blogger.
In this episode I discuss these story types and how to get the best out of them (with examples!)....
Most Popular Biz Storytelling Posts in 2015 + 2016 Trends
Each year readers tell me they want to know the most popular articles curated on the http://www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it site. So here are the top 10! They had hundreds of views and an amazing number of shares.
Data storytelling leads the way, but a variety of other topics made list. I've included their reviews so you can figure out which ones to explore....
In this article, we’re going to take a look at how you can implement a content marketing plan for a ‘dull’ industry.
We’ll analyze a few of the key beliefs you should have when it comes to content marketing for ‘dull’ industries, but also the specific tactics that you can put into action in order to generate results.
By the end of this post, you should be able to create incredible content for any industry you want to tackle now or in the future....
As digital video and streaming services continue to recast the viewing landscape, a handful of digital executives and Sundance Film Festival attendees pushed to have the burgeoning videosphere represented during one of filmmaking's highest-profile events—and Rick Parkhill, CEO of VMA Media, made it happen.
After securing support from sponsors Twitter, Fullscreen, Maker, Zefr, Above Average, Hulu and Naritiv, he persuaded festival organizers that this was, in fact, a viable extension, and Digital Storytelling was born. The event kicks off Thursday, Jan. 21, on the eve of the film festival, with additional sponsors including CNN's Courageous content studio, Fox Network Group's True(x) and The Huffington Post signing on....
It's advice we've all heard before: Want to be compelling? Tell a story. Tap into the eons-old human compulsion to craft a narrative, say what happened, spin a yarn.
That’s sound advice. But on a practical level, anyway, it's like telling someone, "Hey, be funny." And while just about anyone can go through the motions and tell you a joke, chances are you only know a handful of people who can really make you laugh.
It's much the same with telling stories in business environments. We tell stories all the time in social settings, just for the fun of it. But those run-of-the-mill narrative chops don't always serve us well when we step into meetings and give pitches and deliver presentations. And for leaders who've risen through the ranks for their analytical skills or happen to be second-rate storytellers even at cocktail parties, the challenge is all the greater.
These three techniques are for them....
Visual storytelling is simply the way most brands will decide to go in 2016 & beyond, as they try to tell their story to their customers. Why? Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, Vine… All these trendy social media sites are based on visuals.
“Facts bore, stories sell” is a common saying. But I will go even further (and probably annoy some master storytellers), by saying: “Stories in text bore, stories told visually engage — and sell”.
To drive home this point, and before I delve into the how-to, the numbers in this infographic should be more than enough...
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Shawn Callahan shares his writing process for his recent book on storytelling. If you're planning a book, it's worth reading.