Leading by a Tale

The title of this post is actually the title of an article from the Toastmasters Interantional monthly magazine. The article was authored by Caren Neile, Ph.D, ATMS/CL. In this article Caren talks about her experience trying to convince business professors of the importance of story to business communications. Fortunately she did not give up but recognized the numerous profitable companys who do use story with a purpose.

If you can get a copy of the magazine and the article it is worth reading. It is a quick read and covers not only numerous reference materials but also covers the many ways leaders can use stories.

One interesting point that Ms. Neile makes is that we all tell stories and it comes naturally to us, however some of us are better at it than others. I beleive it is a skill that can be learned through practice and the learning curve can be shortened by finding an accomplished storyteller to mentor you through the process. There are lots of storytellers who can help if you are serious about improving. Find one at the national storytelling site or numerous other state sites. Do a search on coporate storytellers and you will find a host of tellers ready to help hone your skills.

Carol Mon
Story Professional

More Marketing Stories

This weekend, during the Oscars, I saw an ad for True North snacks, powerful and memorable. Why? The ad starts with a person telling a story of something that is important to her. In one it was a woman telling us how she started Inspiration Cafe, a restaurant for the homeless, serving them with respect and dignity. She tells this story with a lot of passion. When the story is done an announcer is heard saying Lisa finds her true north in helping the homeless, we find ours turning an ordinary nut into an extraordianry snack.

You can see this commercial and others at the web site for True North snacks. They had run a contest for stories and have collected over 2000. We all have a story to tell and smart marketers know how to use them to get their point across in an engaging and entertaining way.

Do you use stories? Think about how you can use stories more effectively to win market share. They can be your stories or your customer stories. It doesn't really matter. Remember to make your message memorable, STORIES STICK!

Newsweek Article

The My Turn page of the February 16th Newsweek Magazine has Ann Banks, editor of "First Person America", commenting on the importance of story in a down economy. Although the artcile is really talking more about personal stories and histories then business stories it still was an uplifiting article to those of us who feel the power of story is not fully understood.

Funny how this article came across my desk as I was looking at some information of the movie industry during the Great Depression. It seems that Hollywood and movies, one way to tell stories, had a huge boom during the depression. Experts say that people would save the little money they had to go see a movie as an escape from the tough times they were facing.

Telling stories is an inexpensive and proven method of entertainment. Spend some time with the family and tell stories. You bond with those you love and it costs nothing! If you get a chance check out Ann Banks article in Newsweek.

LinkedIn Groups

Social media is being talked about everywhere. So how does it help wtih Story? Well although I am more focused on oral stories I recognize stories come in all forms and so therefore I have started a group on LinkedIn for storytellers of all kinds to share their thoughts on story. If you have problems working out a story or finding the right story whatever it is, having others to "talk" to can help the process. SO.....

Check it out, join the group and get a discussion started.

Stories Everywhere

Is it just my imagination or are stories everywhere? It seems businesses are catching on to the power of story and are using stories in all kinds of marketing. More and more advertisements are either telling someone's story or asking people to submit their own stories. This is wonderful!

Recently I heard that ESPN is asking for employees to post personal stories or those of their colleagues on the intranet. What a wonderful tool for creating shared experiences and building teams. What can you or or company do to leverage the stories of your employees or customers?

Jokes about Storytellers

The other night I caught the very beginning of a Seinfeld show. In the early days the show always began with a stand up bit from Jerry. In this particular routine Jerry was commenting on some differences between the male and females brains. He was suggesting that it was genetically programmed that men would use the remote and continuously flip through channels, barely stopping long enough to see what was on. Women on the other hand would stop at each channel and check out what the programming was all about.

This got him thinking what life must have been like back in the day when STORYTELLERS were the main form of entertainment. He imagined the King would have 30 different tellers line up, the first would start a story and when the King had heard enough he would yell next and the second would start. The King would continue this rapid fire "next" moving through all the tellers and circling back again. Very Funny!

An interesting blog on Storytelling

A while ago I was asked by Katharine Hansen to answer a few questions on storytelling for her website. I answered the questions and then started following some of the responses she posted from other story professionals. The artilces are intersting and informative. If you are truly interested in the uses and importance of story in the 21st century I suggest you check out the following link
http://astoriedcareer.com.

Enjoy and let me know what you think.

Happy New Year. A new year to collect more stories.