Chief Goals Officer
Chief Goals Officer
Never Say "I Wish I Had"
  • About Wayne Kurtz
  • News and Events
  • Articles
  • Workshops
  • Accountability Mentoring
  • Chief Goals Officer Tools
    • Chief Goals Officer CD/MP3 Set
    • CGO Downloads
  • Contact Us
Menu back  

Storytelling – A Learned Skill Which can Help Your Business

April 14, 2016

“Storytelling is who we are”, Gallo

High-tech entrepreneur, investor and author Ben Horowitz stated that the most under-rate skill among new entrepreneurs is story telling. What names do you think of with respect to famous business leaders that delivered impactful and memorable,” take action” stories? One for sure at the top of the list to me is of course, Steve Jobs.

Storytelling is all about presenting our ideas, personality and business interests to another person or group.  Effective storytellers have the ability to use the examples and background to move people, organizations, and countries to change. Think about Steve Jobs and the impact he had when he walked on stage with his thought provoking stories with the launch of new products and the famous Stanford University speech.

IMG_0068

Let’s be clear – story telling is not making up a line of B.S. and promoting it to get to a specific objective.  B.S. and there is so much of it around the world will eventually blow up and all credibility is lost.

Effective story telling must be short – 15 to 20 minutes at the most. The shorter the better and consider writing it out, how many words is your best story – rework it and consider making it shorter. Fewer words always will be more effective to your audience.

The challenge is to keep the communication message to be clear and concise, but with “clear and concise” there is a greater opportunity to change thinking. Think of it as a different version of the elevator speech. How often do you attend a meeting listening to a presentation and the story telling is weak and not on point?  Immediately, the audience gets restless and everyone then moves concentration to their smart phone to check email or text a spouse.

Great storytelling requires emotion and the great storytellers do it so easily with almost no effort. Have you written down you most impactful, business, life and family stories?

Story writing – 2 Simple steps

Step 1. Simply write down the story in detail in a journal or word document

Examples:

  1. Worst job
  2. Biggest life or business mistake
  3. Greatest success on how you helped someone or an organization
  4. Mentor story
  5. School experience and the impact or a great book

Step 2. Consolidate the word count of each story (or just one story) to 5-7 words on a small index card and laminate it.

Review it often and the next time you are in a position an idea to persuade another person to take action you will have your stories in your mind.

Storytelling can change your business and life.

Leave Comment

Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

clear formSubmit

Latest Posts
  • Business Diversification
    April 25, 2016
  • To Outsource or Not To Outsource – Dilemma
    April 19, 2016
  • Storytelling – A Learned Skill Which can Help Your Business
    April 14, 2016
  • TAX Season Final Week – Riding Fun and Top 5 Challenges
    April 11, 2016
  • Entrepreneurial and Athlete P.I.S.C. – 4 Words For Real Change
    April 6, 2016
  • Entrepreneurial Journey – It’s Always About Making Sales Sales Focus = Sales Results
    March 29, 2016
Chief Goals Officer
  • About
  • Articles
  • Workshops
  • CGO Downloads
  • WAM
Footer Menu

© 2016 Chief Goals Officer. All Rights Reserved