One powerful tip to unleash your storytelling

The number 1 question I get 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, it is sometimes boring for your audience.

Let’s define business storytelling: Storytelling with a purpose and for results to serve an audience.

Sadly, the term ‘business storytelling’ can create the assumption that your stories have to be about business. Nothing could be further from the truth! You can use stories about work, or business, but please don’t limit yourself to those.

Business storytelling is about humanising us and making H2H (human-to-human) connections at work. There is no more powerful yet simpler way to do this than through personal stories. Stories about dropping your kids off to school, moving to a new country when you were 18, starting in a new school in grade 7.

Successful storytellers occasionally use business stories, but they know to go personal too.

Here’s an example.

STORY TITLE: CRASH AND CURTSY
When I was 22, I became a travelling saleswoman. I’d won a big promotion to work in Australia. After spending the previous few weeks selling in Utah, you can imagine my desire for a fancy international business trip. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I landed in gorgeous sunny Sydney.

I started at the University of New South Wales and pitched to class after class, slowly working my way up to the larger lecture halls. Finally, I was ready to hit the biggest 1000-seat hall on campus. I was so excited. I ran into the room, up the ramp, jumped across to the stage and BOOM! I promptly missed the stage and landed flat on my bum.

Turns out there was a gap I’d missed. A thousand soon-to-be engineers burst out laughing. Now I had a choice to make: run, freeze or keep going. I climbed up onto that stage, curtsied to all (everyone clapped) and began my pitch. You may wonder why I’ve shared this story with you today? AMP Capital is changing, rapidly. And not all of those changes will land perfectly. But it’s the power to pick ourselves up, to keep going, that’s what matters.
MICHELLE SANIT, AMP CAPITAL

Source Story Mastery

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

They will remember, share and even retell your stories.

And that’s the gold standard in storytelling.