Want to capture the world and land your dream gig? Here’s how you use creative storytelling to express your authentic personal brand in your professional resume. Just now, our youngest son, Caedon, sent me his resume to print on our color printer. I didn’t really want to be bothered with it, so I had him download the print driver and do it himself. “It’s good to be self-sufficient,” I coached. Then, OMG, I opened his resume PDF. And I found…
Archive for Business Storytelling
How to persuade any audience with the power of storytelling
Business storytelling is how leaders change beliefs and shape behaviors. I just returned from Amsterdam working with our Arizona State University Master’s students in the Executive Masters of Sustainability Leadership program. On this trip, we met with many important Dutch companies, like Philips and KPN, the AT&T of the Netherlands. The Dutch, although brilliant storytellers over a pint, primarily use assertions and opinions when they are talking business. On Thursday, June 22, I presented my fundamentals of storytelling training to…
How to use small stories for huge impact in your business communications
The shovel, piano and teapot handles that groomed me as a story marketer Often in story marketing, you think you have to be epic in your storytelling. But most of us don’t have those stories at the ready. So don’t forget about or underestimate the power of your small stories to own a room. Can you think of a moment that has shaped you or your brand? That was the question I posed to our 13 executives in our Storytelling for Leaders workshop last…
How instinctual storytelling catches the biggest fish
You cannot resist the lure of a good story When making a business point, or sharing loads of data, wrap your content in the adventure of a story. Our reptilian brains can’t resist a good yarn. And your audiences, beleaguered from endless Powerpoints, will love you for it. But enough of me telling. Let me show you. Our seaplane banked over a pod of Killer whales on approach after a bumpy four-hour flight from Seattle. We landed in the aptly named Blackfish Sound…
What you can learn from the Sock Club’s fashionable brand story marketing
I thought I’d do my family a favor and email them my Christmas list this year. Yep, one of the items was socks. I got my first pair yesterday from the Sock Club. And the added gift was the story that arrived with them. I knew it was smart story marketing when I dove into the accompanying letter. Welcome to 2017! This year, we aim to continue innovating, and as we designed our first sock of the year, we were…
Did we just elect P.T. Barnum to the White House?
(The following is an article written by pop culture historian and author, LeRoy Ashby. You can hear our discussion about how Donald Trump used the same hustles P.T. Barnum employed over 170 years ago to win the White House on this episode of the Business of Story podcast: How Popular Culture Affects the Way We Tell Stories.) Donald Trump in many ways has forged himself from American popular culture. He has participated in and sponsored various entertainment forms: beauty pageants, casinos,…
Brand storytelling is not about what you make, but what you make happen
I was in Washington D.C. on Nov. 2 and 3 hosting a Business of Story mastermind class for the American Marketing Association. Nine of their member brands were in attendance to get their brand stories straight, and they all had the same challenge. Their brand storytelling was focused on what they make versus what they make happen. Do you do this: focus on your features and not your benefits? It’s ok. You’re not alone. But it’s NOT ok if you want to take that…
Have you had business storytelling up the Wazzu?
Then create a brand story you can celebrate with your customers The new president of Washington State University cringed at the school’s legendary nickname: WAZZU. V. Lane Rawlins took the helm of WSU in 2000, and apparently didn’t want to run a major university with a brand story associated with that part of the anatomy. So he decided to ban it. Gone were the coffee cups, beer mugs and t-shirts emblazoned with our WAZZU call-to-arms. “Inconceivable!” I thought. What would the Tom Tuttles from Tacoma, WA do if…
The 3 story elements that will humanize the brand of your professional services firm
How to define your brand’s promise, gift and personality Recently, I found myself in a 19th century barn in Haarlemmermeer, a suburb of Amsterdam, delivering a Business of Story masterclass. Ilknur Donmez, the town’s Director of Economic Development, grabbed my arm after the event. She leaned in and in her warm Dutch way said, “Thank you, Park. You’ve given me a present today.” The gift, as she described it, was the ability to envision a new story that she could live into as both a…
What are the villains, fog and crevasses in your professional services firm’s brand story?
3 antagonists you must vanquish for successful B2B marketing The conference room at the Sheraton LAX was cold as a morgue. Two hundred screenwriter wannabes sat like zombies enraptured by Robert McKee. After all, he is the world’s legendary screenwriting coach, and this was his famous, if not grueling, four-day screenwriting Story seminar. I was in attendance not to write the next epic movie, but to learn what Hollywood knew about crafting and telling compelling stories that sell. I shared my experience in this post: 10 Screenwriting Tips…
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