Business of Story

Why is happiness elusive? Why can’t it be as easy as knowing what makes you happy and doing exactly that? Think about it. Later, you’ll come to realize your important role in resolving this dilemma. In the pursuit of elusive happiness, we can use stories to connect even the greatest divides. It is a privilege to have Jonathan Haidt on this week's Business of Story podcast. Jonathan is an American social psychologist who wrote the book The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom. In this book, he explored the relationship between modern science and ancient philosophies like Buddhism and Stoicism. Using the metaphor of the elephant and the rider, he rationalized that the subconscious mind is constantly at war with our conscious mind. That's the reason why our actions are often the exact opposite of what we're thinking or feeling. What is it that divides us? Jonathan touches on the subject in his book The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided By Politics and Religion, showcasing how moral judgments arise from gut feelings, and why many of us have such different intuitions about right and wrong. In his new book, The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure, Haidt, with his co-author Greg Lukianoff, the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, reveal how we can overcome the polarization we’re now seeing in universities as the iGen. Or Gen Z, kids born in 1995 and beyond. How can we conquer this division through storytelling and link our worlds together? In this episode, find out how the stories we tell ourselves influence the varying truths we live in our everyday lives.  How can you use storytelling to connect our internal and external divides? Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

In 1995, a convict of a federal drug case was given a reduced sentence of probation. Why? The judge saw a video of him taking care of his wife who was very sick. The video showed how his wife's entire life depended on him. Most importantly, it showed who will be affected most by the judge's decision -- the sick and dying wife who didn’t have anything to do with the crime. That alone influenced the judge’s decision because it appealed to his human side. That’s the power empathy has. In this episode, hear more of these stories from my guest, Doug Passon. Doug is a defense-attorney-turned-filmmaker and founder of The Sentencing and Post-Conviction Film Festival. He shares how a story and a picture, when combined to bring out the truth, can lead to reduced sentencing. Even if sentencing doesn't pertain to your life at this moment, Doug will entertain and enlighten you through his documentaries that will make you look at some of the convicts in a different light. It reminds us that we don't have the whole picture; they are often depicted as "bad people", yet they are also humans with stories worth hearing. Learn how to induce empathy in your audience, which could persuade your listeners to make different decisions. Doug also shares the 3 primary elements to make a story cinematic. By knowing these elements, you can find a more compelling way to tell stories. Tune in to this week's show and learn a thing or two on how we can speak the truth, show the truth, and live out the truth surrounding people’s life journeys. In doing so, we’ll find out how to be more understanding and empathetic, helping us arrive at fairer judgments and sounder decisions. Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

Back in 2013, I was working with different executives for the Sustainability Leadership Program for Arizona State University. I was one of three speakers and after I was introduced, the executives’ reaction was, “Oh, the soft skills guy!” Little did I know, there was already warfare between technical hard skills and communications soft skills. A recent report from the World Economic Forum revealed the 10 most in-demand skills in business according to LinkedIn. Hitting the top spots are creativity, persuasion, collaboration, adaptability and time management.  Apparently, as technology advances, the employers' need for soft skills from their employees also advances. At the core of each of these skills is the ability to tell a clear and concise story. Our guest this week teaches us how to be an emerging, victorious voice in a noisy market by clarifying our message. Steve Woodruff is a professional coach and author of the book, Clarity Wins: Get Heard, Get Referred. He provides consultation services to professionals who need help discovering their perfect fit. Famously known as the King of Clarity, he believes that every business or professional needs focus and clarity of purpose. This is essential to advance in a noisy market. Steve teaches professionals how to have fresh focus and develop clear messaging. His goal is to get your voices heard and emerge. When you are truly heard, you captivate the right audience who will eventually refer you to new opportunities. The great news is that in order to master a critical soft skill, you only need to build on your communication capabilities through storytelling. When you master storytelling, you’re hitting the jackpot in building on one of the most in-demand soft skills in these modern times: communication. Tune in and let’s apply clarity in our messaging and business storytelling. Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

This week, we’re doing something different from the past 179 episodes. It's my turn to be on the hot seat and my guest, Wanita Z-Fourie, will be the one asking the questions. In this show, we discuss how to use storytelling to grow your following. Wanita is an African Kiwi and a social media professional who founded The Online Business Academy and an annual Social Media Conference New Zealand, where I'm honored to be a speaker. She tours the world to speak and teach different businesses and organizations about social media marketing. Her travels became a great medium for her to experience the world first hand, which enabled her to learn different ways to tell a story with authenticity and integrity. Both qualities are essential in ensuring the success of storytelling in social media.  On this show, Wanita will share how authentic storytelling is essential in growing your online following. She’ll teach you how you can be genuine in your communication and still get your points across. You'll also learn how to tell stories based on what your heroes (aka your customers) really want and need, as part of your business branding.  As we discuss how I grow my following on the Business of Story, I share the origin story of the Story Cycle System --  the 12 Steps in Campbell’s The Hero’s Journey, which I refined into 10 shorter steps to fit into the business world.  Because when you focus on using the steps of the Story Cycle System, your social media marketing and communications can become easier  by using your power of narrative intuition.  Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

Have you ever been telling a story and your words failed you? And I don't mean that you didn’t have a word for what you’re thinking or feeling. Oh, no. You thought of the best word you could possibly think of. Still, it wasn't enough to express exactly what you wanted to communicate, or your audience wasn't understanding the message. Maybe you should have drawn it out. It turns out that doodling lines and shapes make an even more meaningful and unforgettable story.  If you're like me, you probably think you don't have the chops to draw. Or, you're probably thinking, "How can shapes and stick figures add relevance to the words I’m saying? Or writing?" Fortunately, my guest this week, Lisa Rothstein, is a published New Yorker cartoonist and a featured author and illustrator in several best-selling books. She's an award-winning ad agency copywriter and creative director best known for the famous “Just Wait’ll We Get Our Hanes on You” campaign that changed America’s favorite underwear brand. Currently, she's co-author of the blog and upcoming book, The DaVinci Dilemma: How Multi-Talented People Can Get More Done And Get More Joy Out Of Life. She uses unique methods like cartooning to help corporations and entrepreneurs see their ideal clients, products, mission and brand stories in new and unforgettable ways. Today, she's guiding our hands to doodle with confidence.  Lisa will help you discover a unique way of telling and expressing your story. Consider this a new option and means of expression. This way, we are able to explore different styles and techniques that can help us capture the most meaningful stories of our lives.  Bottom line? It really doesn't matter if you're good at drawing. Words or pictures alone aren't as meaningful, so get out there and start doodling to help your audience truly understand your stories. Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

Sometimes, what should be a source of pride, financial security, and wealth for the family becomes a source of heartache, dysfunction, and conflict. The want for power and control is what separates families. This is why it is essential to have leadership coaches who can teach the essence of storytelling in building a successful family business. Years ago, I was a football game watching my son, where I met this week's guest, Pete Walsh. I was at a point in life contemplating whether I was stuck or if I was being nudged to a deeper calling. Little did I know that the universe was listening to my subconscious desires. Sometimes, you meet someone who can light the path for you and show you the way. Pete was that person for me, and has been instrumental in my transition from the advertising world to speaking and brand story workshops with Business of Story. Pete Walsh is a leadership coach who came from a prominent family business. He's also the author of the book Coach To Win The Leadership Game. Pete is a firm believer that a family doesn’t just happen in the bloodline, it can also be in small groups: a group of people caring about one another, believing the same thing, pursuing the same goal, is a family. He also believes that when people come together and learn to have “productive conflict”, build off each other’s unique styles, then they can make a powerful team. Pete will teach us how to become a detached observer and a reflective practitioner so we can listen to the stories we are telling ourselves. He can push you out of your comfort zone and make you say, “That is not my story. This is my new story.” In this episode, understand the important role of leadership storytelling in the attainment of success in business. Life is indeed short. And because it is, we are all encouraged to stop telling ourselves the wrong stories. Take responsibility for your happiness and live on the tagline: “destroy the competition, not the family.” Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

This episode holds a special spot in my heart because my father, Keith Clinton Howell, passed away recently. We recorded this episode three days after he was buried and I felt he was the one who led today's guest to the show. My guest is someone who went through severe losses –family members, a job she really loved - and came out kicking. Surprisingly, hitting rock bottom and going through the lowest point in our lives can help unravel our most powerful story. Let’s welcome 2019 as warmly as we welcome our guest today, Andrea Cadelli, author of Life After This. Andrea is a storytelling coach dedicated to helping people achieve positive transformation. She is also a director, producer, and the founder and CEO of Newcastle Media.  As she talks about that one point in her life when she was at her darkest, she aims to impart the 6 steps she took to rise above the pit. She calls these steps the 6 heart fire stories. Andrea will also teach us how to write our own heart fire stories, how to live into those to achieve just about anything you wish to achieve – which is our goal for 2019.  Life is filled with inevitable events. When we deal with difficult times, all we can do is to try to get through and overcome them. Through this episode, we hope to ignite emotions, inspire change, and influence results simply by sharing our stories. Learn how to write your own "Be statements" and internalize that one thing we all have within ourselves that can push us over the top.  Let’s all start the new year living out our own self-narratives. Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

Many sales and business professionals ask themselves questions every day. "How do I earn the trust of my audience?" "How can I become an effective salesperson?" The answer? Ask your audience and customers questions. And after hearing their questions, offer a solution through your own story. Because you can earn trust through storytelling. When is a particular story applicable for a specific type of audience? Mike Adams joins me on this week's episode to share the different stories we need to tell in order to effectively sell. Mike is an engineer-turned-salesman who also authored the best selling book, Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell. He is currently managing a team of salespeople from different parts of the world for corporations like Schlumberger, Siemens, Nokia, and Halliburton. In the show, we'll go through a little discovery process together to find each story. Some of the stories may come as a surprise to you, but they are all interconnected to one another. As a matter of fact, we’ve already been practicing them. All we need is to identify the story that works for us and how to tell it.  And if you're not a salesperson, don't worry. Any profession needs to sell their services in some way. Mike believes that our backgrounds are not a hindrance or a limitation. After all, whether you’re an engineer, a doctor, a pilot - you can also be a salesperson. Just like our guest today, Mike Adams.  Tune in to find out how to use storytelling for sales by mastering seven different stories for your business.  Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.  

One of the most fearful words that has ever existed is "failure". It hinders even the most ardent dreamer from pursuing their dreams. This fact made me thoughtful of an important question: if we remain fearful, will our dreams ever come true?  Before recording this week's show, I was reminded of an old dream of mine to become a Spring DJ for KUGR radio in the 1980s. It was the craze back then before the internet came into existence. When I was asked to audition, I chose not to. To me, not trying at all was a better approach than trying and failing. This fear made my dream of becoming a Spring DJ unrealized. It was only later on when I realized the lesson out of that experience. And we do things like this every single day. Conflict and failure are in the heart of every story we tell. So if you’re avoiding it, you’re choosing not to take the journey that can change your life for the better forever. My guest on this week's show, Andrea Waltz, co-author of Go For No! Yes is the Destination, No is How You Get There, shares how to reframe your story about failure so you can gain more confidence in pursuing your dreams. Andrea is an expert at fun, fabulous failures. Yep, that's right. Failing doesn't always have to be scary. Andrea will teach us how to turn our stories of failure into stories of success. Starting with the mindset, she will change the way you think, feel and respond to failure. Then, you'll be liberated from the fear of failure and rejection. Once that fear is gone, only then you can unleash your most extraordinary story. My goal with this episode is to help listeners understand the important role of failure in the attainment of success. Today, find out why embracing failure and rejection is important in crafting and telling your story. Learn about the 5 levels of failure, how to deal with these levels, and how to combat the fears that are hindering you from telling your stories. Now, who has a connection for a college radio station that needs a new DJ?  Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.

The actual aesthetic of our voices is something many of us have worried about at some point or another. We've all seen or heard a recording of ourselves and thought, "Is that really what I sound like?" The good news is that perception can be changed. Yes, we can even change how we hear our own voices through simple exercises and mindset changes. And more importantly, we can change the way others hear and understand our communications through vocal awareness. In this week's show, we're diving into how to use our voice as an instrument to become a better business storyteller. How we tell a story vocally is just as important, perhaps even more important, than the story itself. Your voice's pitch and speed contribute to what others perceive as inauthentic and what we trust. That's a skill that must inherently be ingrained into our primal minds. It takes some serious vocal awareness, disclipline and dedication to master it. My guest is Arthur Samuel Joseph, founder and chairman of the Vocal Awareness Institute. Arthur is widely recognized as one of the world’s foremost communication strategists and authorities on the human voice. He’s coached talented individuals like Angelina Jolie, Sean Connery, Tony Robbins, Stephen Covey, Jerry Rice, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, and many more. His voice and leadership training program, Vocal Awareness, teaches Communication Mastery through a disciplined regimen of specific techniques designed to cultivate an embodied and enhanced leadership presence and personal presence.  Tune in to hear Arthur Samuel Joseph, world renown voice coach to the stars, teach you techniques on how to use your most powerful but underutilized instrument (your voice) to bring sincerity, depth and persuasion to your business storytelling. Become a Master Storyteller Grab your free copy of The 5 Stages of Grief in Telling YOUR Business Story: http://bit.ly/StorytellingTools Like what you hear? Bring Park to your next event.