Podcast

Rener Gracie

#422: How to Win Over Audiences With the Jiu-Jitsu of Business Communications: Storytelling

I’ve often said that storytelling is the Jiu-jitsu of business communications because when done well, you can persuade even the most adversarial audiences and win them over to your way of thinking and doing.

But if you roll into these kinds of awkward and difficult conversations with a zero-sum, winner-take-all mindset through the brute force of your intellect and voraciousness of your argument, you will take a pounding.

After reading Rener Gracies’s new book, The 32 Principles: Harness the Power of Jiu-Jitsu to Succeed in Business, Relationships, and Life, which he co-wrote with Paul Volponi, I realized that every one of these principles can be applied to your approach to persuasive and influential leadership storytelling.

You can roll with my 32 principles of effective leadership storytelling inspired by Rener’s insights in a blog I just shared on businessofstory.com.

Given that I have never taken Jiu-Jitsu, I invited our son and fellow storyteller Parker Howell to co-host with me today. Parker is a purple belt in Jiu-Jitsu and like me was excited to meet today’s guest from the legendary Gracie family, Rener Gracie.

Discussed in this episode:

Who is going to win in the Mark Zuckerberg versus Elon Musk cage fight?
How the 32 principles of Jiu-jitsu apply to business communications and storytelling.
Demonstrate several of the principles in action with business storytelling.
Rener’s Shark Tank appearance with his QuikFlip Apparel line.
Rener’s Sleeper Hold travel pillow