Curated Questions: Conversations Celebrating the Power of Questions! How Questions Create Instant Trust in Any Conversation! | Maury Rogow #47
"You were the most interested person in the room, and you're gonna get love." - Maury Rogow
Maury Rogow is all about storytelling. He is the CEO of the Rip Media Group and creator of the Story2Sales methodology that's generated over $150 million in trackable revenue for clients. I appreciate the tag line, "Your brand will thrive or die, based on the story you tell."
Maury's unique journey spans high-tech success and Hollywood storytelling. He built his business career at companies like Avaya, Lucent Technologies, and GeoTel—a startup that sold to Cisco Systems for over $1 billion. He then pivoted to Hollywood, serving as executive producer for feature films like "Bedrooms" and "Enter The Dangerous Mind," and working with industry legends including the creator of the Batman franchise.
Today, Maury combines business acumen with cinematic storytelling to help Fortune 1000 companies like Comcast, Kaiser Permanente, and Ben & Jerry's create compelling brand narratives. His approach recognizes that in our noise-filled marketplace, every company must master storytelling to survive and thrive.
Maury has proven that great stories don't just entertain—they sell. He's written several books, with his latest on the horizon being "Your Story Can Be Your Superpower - Selling in an AI world." He has been featured in Forbes, Inc., and Entrepreneur magazines.
In this episode of Curated Questions, host Ken Woodward engages with Maury Rogow, CEO of RipMedia Group, to explore the transformative power of questions in both personal and professional contexts. Maury shares pivotal moments in his career, from telecommunications to Hollywood, emphasizing how a single question can change a transactional relationship into a meaningful connection.
The discussion covers the importance of storytelling, the benefits of embracing unique traits, the impact of framing on emotional responses, and effective strategies for leveraging questions in sales and daily life. Maury also offers practical advice on finding balance in business, the role of AI in asking the right questions, and shares key resources and techniques for developing better questioning skills. Listeners are encouraged to take on an audience challenge to spend a day asking only questions and to reflect on the impact it has on their interactions.
Episode Notes
00:00 The Power of Asking Questions
02:44 Guest Introduction: Maury Rogow
04:17 Maury's Early Career and Sales Journey
05:56 The Impact of a Key Question
08:16 Transition to Hollywood
09:56 Learning from Sales Training
11:49 Developing the Story to Sales Methodology
14:35 The Stigma of Sales
16:02 Finding a Career Path
20:14 Influence of Early Mentors
23:00 Informational Interviews and Networking
24:54 The Importance of Asking the Right Questions
28:57 How Maury Used Mr. Greenberg's Questions In His Career
33:59 Story Over Features
42:10 Fostering Curiosity
43:07 Reframing Questions for Positivity
45:29 Crisis and Opportunity
46:19 Curiosity in Business
47:02 Reflecting on Success and Future Goals
47:50 Transformational Beginnings
49:04 Curiosity and Inventions
50:40 The Audacity to Dream
51:38 Connecting the Dots
52:07 Unique and Weird
52:58 Encouraging Creativity
53:45 Software Innovations
54:38 Early Entrepreneurial Ventures
55:48 The Importance of Questions
59:15 AI and the Future
01:01:36 The Skill of Asking Questions
01:04:56 Mirroring and Negotiation
01:08:05 Personal Growth Through Questions
01:10:23 Therapeutic Journaling
01:13:36 Community and Connection
01:15:31 Maury's Right Now Question
01:18:01 Ken's Right Now Question
01:20:21 The Entrepreneur's Journey
01:25:07 Final Reflections and Encouragement
01:30:36 Maury's Recommended Questions
01:36:42 Where To Find Maury
01:38:07 Takeaways and Conclusion
Resources Mentioned
Richard Grinberg
Your Story Can Be Your Superpower by Maury Rogow
Questions Asked
When did you first understand the power of questions?
Why is this important to you?
Was that a good answer?
Do you golf?
And that means what?
That does what, and how does that work for you?
How are things now?
How do you do it today?
What's the problem that you're seeing?
What's the problem we're trying to solve?
What does that mean?
What happens if there's that problem?
What's the need?
What's the payoff?
Where did you get that understanding?
How did you tie sales to I won't have to go hungry?
What job looks like this?
Can I tell the decent story?
Can I ask the right questions to get in the door if I don't know the answer?
Should I pursue this as a career?
Should I pursue it as even just a job?
How did they get into what they did?
What skills do you need?
What experience did you have?
What did your first 90 days look like?
What's your day-to-day?
What's the person you work with like?
Would you mind introducing me to someone else who does what you do, or something similar? I'd like to learn more.
That list of questions, were there one or two that you've found beneficial in various capacities as you've gone forward?
What do you like the most about this campaign?
What's this like? What's your favorite? What do you dislike? What's not going well?
How does that affect you?
What was the result of that?
What are you telling yourself about that?
Is this where you pivot and just come back to start asking questions in another direction?
Is that a good book?
What kind of questions are helpful for getting to a story?
Can you tell me about a time that this happened?
What keeps you up at night? What are you struggling with?
Have you tried to solve that? Have you tried to solve the bad microphone situation? How did that work for you? Did that work for you? Do you have any examples of it not working?
How do you foster curiosity?
Why am I asking myself the negative version of that?
Why didn't I win that project? Why don't I live in a bigger house? How can I be grateful for this amazing place to live in? How can I be grateful for x?
Can you run this?
Why is that amazing?
How is that interesting?
What's the opportunity?
Has there been any particular insights that have come out of that process that has just radically changed the business for you?
What can I do next?
How else can I frame this?
How do I do that at this point of a sales cycle? What story is needed here?
Who else could do this?
What's cool about this? What's great about that? How's that unique? How can I help? How can I use that to help you?
Do people really know how incredibly important this is?
What's the question I can ask my GPT Pro to get the best prompt? What's the question I can ask to get the best answer? What's the question I can ask to get the best result?
What kind of questions did you encounter today?
What [question] might you have been able to use when you're at school?
Who am I gonna talk to about this?
Am I gonna do an exit at my company?
Where should I focus my time?
How much time do I put on that?
How much focus do I put over here?
What does your body do when you are anxious?
Can you say I'm excited?
What would make this meeting the most effective use of your time?
What are you struggling with right now?
How are you currently solving that?
What happens if you don't solve?
Has there been a, persistent present problem, something that's recurring, that perhaps we could fix?
How important is this? Is this incredibly important?
What's your dream solution? What does success look like for you?
If I come back in a year and I chat with you, what does your life look like at that point? Or what does your business look like at that point? What's it look like in a year? Let's take that vision and what does that look like?
Where is the best place for folks to track you down and see the things that you're excited about?
What would change in your professional relationships if you consistently asked people why your work together truly matters to them?
What story could you tell about your work that would help people feel the transformation rather than just understand the transaction?
What unique combination of interests, experiences, or obsessions are you hiding that might actually be your greatest professional asset?
What situation that currently makes you anxious might actually be your body's way of telling you you're excited about the possibility?