Anyone familiar with the Bible and Aesop’s fables already knows that stories are the oldest persuasive tool since the dawn of time. And now everybody from the The Wall Street Journal to LinkedIn is saying that storytelling will be the number one business skill needed in the next five years. That’s why you should run, don’t walk, to see the hands-on business storytelling workshop with Cynthia Hartwig, fiction writer and co-founder of Two Pens.
Over the course of her career in advertising and social media, Cynthia Hartwig has honed the act of telling stories into a fun and practical art. She’ll lead you in a series of practice-makes-perfect exercises that will help you to persuade, excite, sell and sway people to your point of view.
You’ll see how stories can be used in all kinds of business settings to communicate and connect with employees, customers, colleagues, partners, suppliers, and the media.
You’ll learn the mechanics of telling a story with a beginning that hooks you, to a middle that builds tension, to a satisfying end.
You’ll learn how to weave rich information (even numbers) with personal insights and emotional power and then experience the thrill of having an audience remember what you’ve said. Many writing exercises are included to help you tap into the mind’s unique hard-wiring that can create a story out of almost any experience.
3. “Every few minutes, a new buzzword rips
through the business world, skids, gets a few
quick books written on it, and ends up in a pile of
tired terms next to "synergy." Today, one of the
biggest corporate buzzwords is "storytelling."
Marketers are obsessed with storytelling, and
conference panels on the subject lately have
fewer empty seats than a Bieber concert.”
--Shane Snow, Linked In
4.
5. Class day is roughly divided
MORNING: HOW TO TELL A STORY
TUTORIAL
1. Introductions via story
2. Mechanics of telling a story
3. Group review; then story practice in front of
class
AFTERNOON: STORIES “LITE” IN
BUSINESS SETTINGS
6. AFTERNOON:
STORIES “LITE” IN BUSINESS SETTINGS
1. Exercise: telling a lightly personal story to set
up a presentation
2. Customer story: how to quickly organize and
whip out a customer story
3. Exercise: “Origin Story” that sets up your
expertise and establishes credibility to new
people
4. How to tell a story with numbers
8. Ed Gavagan: Business Bio
• Design/builder of sustainable homes, buildings
& furniture at PraxisNYC
• Work now featured on the cover of Elle Décor,
in Architectural Digest, the NY Times,
Architectural Record, Global Architecture and
books worldwide
• TED Video seen by 600,000 people, Moth
stories by double that
• Business has seen double digit growth since
first Moth appearance.
9. WRITING PRACTICE 101
1. Keep your hand moving. No stopping.
2. No crossing out, no editing, no
worries about grammar or spelling.
3. This is about thinking on paper.
12. “… the brains of participants were scanned as they read
sentences like “John grasped the object” and “Pablo
kicked the ball.” The scans revealed activity in the motor
cortex, which coordinates the body’s movements. What’s
more, this activity was concentrated in one part of the
motor cortex when the movement … was arm-related
and in another …when the movement concerned the
leg.”
--Veronique Boulenger,
Laboratory of Language
Dynamics
13. “… a team of researchers from Emory
University reported in Brain & Language
that when subjects in their laboratory
read a metaphor involving texture, the
sensory cortex, responsible for perceiving
texture through touch, became active.”
NY Times: Your Brain on Fiction
14. What Stories Do to the Brain is Akin to
What Touching Does to Other Parts of
the Body.
Pleasure Centers light up!
15. When you submit to a story, you submit
cognitively and emotionally.
18. “We don’t pay attention to boring things.”
--John Medina, biologist, author of “Brain Rules
19. “We don’t learn without emotional thought.”
--Antonio Damasio, USC Professor of
Neuroscience,
author of Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason, and the Human
Brain
20. Words like “lavender,” “cinnamon”
and “soap,” for example, elicit a
response not only from the
language-processing areas of our
brains, but also those devoted to
dealing with smells.
New York Times: Your Brain on Fiction
21. Exercise: write for 3
minutes about a
word that “moved”
you in a story you
read or watched.
New York Times: Your Brain on Fiction
22. The technology of story changes—from
oral tales, to clay tablets, to medieval
codices, to printed books, to movie
screens, iPads, and Kindles. But the
stories themselves don’t ever change.
Jonathan Gottschall, The StoryTelling
Animal
23. Studies have shown that readers of
fiction are more empathetic, have better
social skills, and are generally more
understanding than their non-fiction
reading counterparts.
24. Story Hasn’t Diminished.
It’s Morphed.
Average American now reads 20 minutes
a day. We spend 5 hours/day watching
TV or movies.
27. Story Hasn’t Diminished.
It’s Morphed.
• Daydreaming is the mind’s default
state.
• The avg. day dream is 14 sec. long.
• We have 2000 per day.
• We spend 1/3 of our lives
daydreaming.
28. Throw out examples of storytelling that is
masquerading as something else:
• Pro Wrestling
• Televised sports i.e. Olympic “backgrounders”
• Television “docudramas”
• ? Your ideas?
29. This is a universal story where everyone
puts themselves on the time line.
30. Fiction has always shaped our attitudes,
actions, and values more than we admit.
• Hitler’s fascination with Wagner mythology
influenced his thinking on Aryan purity
• Harriett Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin
drove public opinion against slavery in the US
• E.L. James Fifty Shades of Gray is affecting
mainstream attitudes to S&M and bondage
44. The afternoon session is devoted to techniques
useful for telling “smaller” stories that are not so
emotionally charged and suited for business.
45. Let’s connect the dots between
business and stories.
1. It’s a myth that business and purchase
decisions are rational. They’re
emotional.
2. Stories play on our emotions.
3. People connect best to personal stories:
most powerful, most convincing.
4. Customer stories, employee stories,
vendor stories, are all good but none
trump the personal story.
60. Let’s mind-map a variety of customer stories
that have impressed you.
61. ANATOMY OF A QUICKIE CUSTOMER STORY:
1. Who?
2. What Do They Do?
3. What Makes Them Special or Different?
4. Results That Sum Up Their Success
62. LIMOR FRIED OF ADAFRUIT
1. Who?
Limor Fried, who earned her masters in electrical
engineering and computer science at MIT, runs
Adafruit industries, which sells do-it-yourself
electronics kits.
2. What Do They Do?
For every kit Adafruit sells, Fried posts design files,
schematics for circuit boards, and any software code
needed.
63. 3. What Makes Them Special or Different?
"People want to see the world become a better place
through science and engineering," Fried says. "We're
going to need the current and future generations to get
inspired.”
LIMOR FRIED OF ADAFRUIT
64. Forty years of research says that
if you use pictures of people, your audience will remember
your information longer and relate to you better.
Visualization 101:
IN A CUSTOMER STORY, THINK OF “WHO?” &
“WHAT DO THEY DO?” AS METAPHORICAL LONG
SHOTS. IT’S A MACRO VIEW OF THE PERSON.
65. Forty years of research says that
if you use pictures of people, your audience will remember
your information longer and relate to you better.
Visualization 101:
“What Makes Them Different?” is a Close Up.
66. LIMOR FRIED OF ADAFRUIT
4. Results That Sum Up Their Success
She welcomes people to use the information,
and sees it as a way to foster innovation.
"People want to see the world become a better
place through science and engineering," Fried
says. "We're going to need the current and future
generations to get inspired."
67. Lizzy O’Leary on
“How to Tell a Story with Numbers”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kMydB5l9Ns
69. You now work for Starbucks. You have been asked
to develop a campaign to sell coffee during the run
up to Halloween.
Think of a story that relates.
70. You work for Monsanto and you are
introducing a new environmentally sensitive
pesticide that doesn’t hurt the native fruit
bats. Tell us a story about how you were
introduced to nature.
71. You are marketing for Sharpie. You have been
asked to create a viral (ha!) video showcasing the
best street graffiti artists in Chicago. Tell us a
story about what makes you relate to them?
72. YOU CAN RUN ANY COMMUNICATION THROUGH
THE PRISM OF STORY
1. Does it tell the story that you are out of touch with
the latest technology? … that you understand
mobile technology?
2. Does it tell the story of professionalism or that
you used a DIY website builder…
3. Does it help you spread the ideas associated with
your products and services or is it just a list of
what you do?
--Robert McKey, author of
STORY
73. Tan Le’s Immigration Story
Why does this kill us?
http://www.ted.com/talks/tan_le_my_imm
igration_story
78. 1. One day, there was ___.
2. Every day, ___.
3. One day ___.
4. Because of that, ___.
5. Because of that, ___.
6. Until finally ___.
--Pixar’s 22 Amazing Story Rules
79. To lock your story into progressive action,
do these three writes:
1. In the beginning of my story, my
character has to…
2. By the middle of my story, my character
is forced to…
3. By the end of my story, my character
has learned…
80. DETAILS
The smallest details usually carries the
largest emotional load. Focus on the gum
wrapper on the hall floor versus the
amputee sobbing.
81. DETAILS
Write about a time that something hurtful
happened to you. Describe just one detail
of the scene where it happened in the
language of sadness.
93. Tony Hsieh, CEO of ZAPPOS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CD0PC
nFRFc&feature=share&list=PL041175D98
FDFF815&index=30
Hinweis der Redaktion
Cynthia starts class with a story about how she wrote Carla’s obituary hoping to tell the story of her short life within the
Frame of a traditional obituary.
Cynthia starts class with a personal story about how she learned to present.
The night Gavagan told his story the first time, “It felt, as one of our frequent storytellers, Bliss Broyard once said about the best Moth nights, “like the entire room was holding hands under the table.” His stories on The Moth and on TED have catapulted his career and reputation.
The night Gavagan told his storythe first time, “It felt, as one of our frequent storytellers, Bliss Broyard once said about the best Moth nights, “like the entire room was holding hands under the table.”
Pass out Ed’s bio
When we do routine stuff like driving to work, reading the phone directory, listening to a dry PPT as these folks at Starbucks did, we tune out.
When we do routine stuff like driving to work, reading the phone directory, listening to a dry PPT, we tune out.
Includes novels to newspapers!
Reading Includes novels to newspapers!
Music includes country western songs like “Take This Job and Shove It” to The Devil Went Down to Georgia to… (shout out story titles)
Reading Includes novels to newspapers!
Music includes country western songs like “Take This Job and Shove It” to “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” to Bob Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay”. Shout out song titles that tell stories.
Consider your most recent round of daydreaming. What do you dream about? What stories do you tell yourself during a meeting?
Alt. day dream writing exercise: write for 2 minutes on your favorite daydream. Then write for two minutes on what it means to you.
This is an example of a universal
Pick out the place where Elizabeth Gilbert explains the meaning of the wedding toast anecdote and makes it into a real, touching story.
Watch for where the music comes in to alert you to meaning.
Kay Allison uses a personal story to lead off her LinkedIn Profile. The story makes her immediately relatable and accessible.
She includes a CTA plus uses keywords well.
This art director at Starbucks presented her work on the World Soccer Cup by telling the story of her journey to become a professional soccer player in Brazil.
The World Cup poster created by the Starbucks designer who grew up in Brazil and became a designer, after she wrecked her knee.
The World Cup poster created by the Starbucks designer who grew up in Brazil and became a designer, after she wrecked her knee.
Always ask questions when you’re presenting. Figure out where your personal anecdote or story will go to resonate with the audience.
Even though the video is from 2006, Lizzie O’Leary’s demonstration of how to tell a story with numbers is a classic.
Tan Le uses the metaphor of a puzzle piece to tell the story of immigrating in a rickety boat with her mother and grandmother.
How to tell a story using time to move the story forward. Every story has a clock that starts at the moment the story starts and without
Time continuing to press forward, a story loses momentum and stalls.
Write for five minutes on each prompt. Goal is to make your story move forward in time and action.
Write about a time that something hurtful happened to you. Now describe one detail of the place where it happened in language that denotes sadness.
Write about a time that something hurtful happened to you. Now describe one detail of the place where it happened in language that denotes sadness.
“The paint wept. The linoleum sagged. The wall was so scuffed and pockmarked, it looked like people had been full body wrestling in the exam room and someone had died.
We are hardwired to think metaphorically. If you find an unusual metaphor in your writing, it will often reveal your deepest feelings.
Self-evaluation is part of becoming a better storyteller. You have to identify what you do well—and what you can do better.
Cynthia starts class with a personal story about how she learned to present.
The night Gavagan told his story the first time, “It felt, as one of our frequent storytellers, Bliss Broyard once said about the best Moth nights, “like the entire room was holding hands under the table.” His stories on The Moth and on TED have catapulted his career and reputation.
Watch the use of the puzzle piece metaphor used throughout Tan Le’s talk to provide a collage-like structure.
Supplementary ex. of storytelling
Supplementary ex of brand storytelling
The night Gavagan told his story the first time, “It felt, as one of our frequent storytellers, Bliss Broyard once said about the best Moth nights, “like the entire room was holding hands under the table.” His stories on The Moth and on TED have catapulted his career and reputation.