Business Storytelling – the number 1 question

The number 1 question I get asked is, ‘Do all my stories have to be about business?’

Is that the gold standard in Business Storytelling?

Yawn🥱. Sorry, I zoned out there.

Looking for stories just from business is very limiting. And frankly often (there’s no polite way of saying this) boring for your audience.

Sadly, the term ‘business storytelling’ creates the false assumption that your stories must be about business. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Successful storytellers occasionally use work stories, but they know 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥.

Here’s an example:
𝑀𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑡𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑣𝑒-𝑦𝑒𝑎𝑟-𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑛𝑖𝑒𝑐𝑒 𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑎 𝑤𝑎𝑙𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑦𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑑𝑎𝑦, ℎ𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎 𝑟𝑖𝑝𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑒𝑎𝑐ℎ ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑. 𝐼 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑏𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑓𝑒𝑐𝑡 𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑟𝑜𝑙𝑒 𝑚𝑜𝑑𝑒𝑙 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔!

𝐼 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟, ‘𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑎, 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝐼 𝑝𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑠𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑎𝑛 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒?’ 𝑆ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑡 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑖𝑚𝑚𝑒𝑑𝑖𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑙𝑦 𝑏𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑟𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑎𝑠 𝑞𝑢𝑖𝑐𝑘𝑙𝑦 𝑠ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎 𝑏𝑖𝑡𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑. 𝐼 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑠ℎ𝑜𝑐𝑘𝑒𝑑. 𝐵𝑢𝑡 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝐼 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑠ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑑 𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑖𝑛 ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔, ‘𝐻𝑒𝑟𝑒 𝑎𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑦, 𝑡𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑜𝑛𝑒 –𝑖𝑡’𝑠 𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑒𝑡𝑒𝑟’.

𝐼’𝑚 𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑠 𝑏𝑒𝑐𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒 𝑠𝑜 𝑜𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝑤𝑒 𝑗𝑢𝑚𝑝 𝑡𝑜 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑐𝑙𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠. 𝐼𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑖𝑛𝑒 𝑖𝑓 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑤𝑒 𝑡𝑜𝑜𝑘 𝑎 𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑝 𝑏𝑎𝑐𝑘 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑎𝑢𝑠𝑒𝑑. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑓𝑓𝑒𝑟𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑚𝑎𝑘𝑒 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑐𝑢𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑟𝑠.

Storyteller: Bernadette Iskander
Source: Story Mastery: How Leaders Supercharge results with Business Storytelling

The minute you use stories from outside business, but link them to a business message, you will have your audience at hello.

They will remember and retell your stories.

Do you want to hit this gold standard consistently? I can help – check out my Business Storytelling Masterclasses for more.