Business of Story

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.

Richie Prynne, a young street performer (also known as a busker) formed CC Smugglers in his early twenties. He knew it was hard to make it as a band these days, and that they'd have to get creative with their marketing to really stand out. Their idea? 'Guerrilla Busking.' They'd pop up and play to queuing crowds waiting to go into similar shows. The long list of targets included the fans of SeaSick Steve, Old Crow Medicine Show, The Devil Makes Three, Jools Holland and more. And it seemed to be working, so the strategy became fundamental to their innovative brand promotion. In 2013, their journey took a drastic turn as they decided to create careers as touring stage performers. In their usual innovative fashion, they used their well-rehearsed approach of 'guerrilla busking' to create a media splash and reach more fans than ever before. Cue their most daring 'Guerrilla Busking' mission to date, the eventual success of which would elevate them to national recognition. The stunt was picked up and reported by The Sunday Times and triggered a series of events that saw them eventually touring across the world. The aim of that mission was simple: Busk their way on stage with two-time Grammy award-winning Nashville band 'Old Crow Medicine Show'. How? Follow them to every date of their UK tour busking to their audiences on the streets and sleeping in a small van in the freezing depths of British winter in the hopes of earning the band's respect and eventually getting invited on stage. The whole thing was filmed for a self-made documentary that never got released. Now, on the brink of their first official debut album, they are releasing that documentary footage as a part of a new docu-series that documents and compares their struggles to forge careers in the music industry then & now. The new album is set to release in Spring 2019 and is being produced with the help of their fanbase. CC Smugglers started off as young British street performers. Over the years, their infamously engaging live performances and innovative brand of self-promotion saw them take the show on to stages and audiences across the world. 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.

As a business storytelling speaker, a customer relationship management (CRM) system is pretty important for me to organize my prospects. But I find my relationship with the CRMs I've tried to be frustrating, cumbersome and not particularly effective. I recently heard about another up-and-coming CRM called Nimble and decided to give it a go. I was pleasantly surprised with how easy it was to use. Yet I wondered what their story was. How were they able to stand out among the other CRMs? I thought I'd challenge Nimble's CEO to see if he could use the Story Cycle System™ to define his core advantage and humanize his technical offering. On this week's episode, Jon Ferrara, founder of Nimble CRM, shares how they used the Story Cycle to help clarify their brand story, amplify their impact and simplify their lives. Jon is an entrepreneur who made his mark in the business world by creating and ultimately selling GoldMine, a Sales Force Automation and CRM software. But after a near-death experience, he realized early retirement wasn't for him. Instead, he set out to redefine customer relationship management by creating an online platform that grows organically with the growth of its users' social communities and email contacts. But can Nimble really be that effective and separate itself from the competition? Jon and I explore the brand story of Nimble using the Story Cycle System™, and how he has differentiated Nimble in a crowded market to be an award-winning CRM used by 140,000+ professionals worldwide. You'll feel inspired to work on differentiating your brand too. 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.

I love wordplay. You've heard me say things like, "storytelling is the Velcro of collaboration" or "an anecdote is the antidote". I'm just using the storytelling powder keg of proverbs to make an explosive impact. But I never realized the power of these tiniest of stories until I read Ron Ploof's new book, The Proverb Effect: Secrets to Creating Tiny Phrases That Change the World. What's the difference between a parable and a proverb? And, how can you use them in your business? Ron has spent decades using the power of storytelling in business, and in fact was one of our first guests on the Business of Story a few years ago sharing how to create a pitch-perfect story. On this week's show, Ron is going to show you how you can use proverbs, the tiniest of stories, to make your points stick. After all, there's something to be said about the fact that proverbs are remembered for centuries: Two wrongs don't make a right. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. Fortune favors the bold. Short and simple, yet so impactful. That's something we should work harder to apply to our own business storytelling communications. Tune in to hear how you can create your own proverbs to convey your stories with less words. And don't forget "the benefit rule", meaning the proverb is always useful for the listener immediately. 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.