Have you ever struggled to get an important concept across to your peers? We’ve all been there. The powerpoint that sucked. The big idea that didn’t penetrate smaller minds. The blown story. The unfocused presentation.

There is a foolproof way to bring meaning to every pitch. It is the universal story pattern discovered by American mythologist Joseph Campbell called the monomyth, or the hero’s journey. This is the best animation I’ve seen that quickly takes you by the hand through the hero’s journey in just a few minutes.

This same formula that makes stories epic can make your presentations transcendent. I know that sounds like B.S., but it works. The hero’s journey creates a universal structure to your message and transformative meaning to your ideas.

After all, in our communications saturated life, what most people hunger for and rarely get is meaning in the stories they consume. Provide your audience with meaning, and you will propel your mission.

Don’t take my word for it. Hear from Matthew Winkler, the creator of What Makes a Hero?, one of TED-Ed’s most viewed and shared videos, as he joins me on this week’s episode of the Business of Story podcast.

In This Episode

• We unpack the universal story structure of Joseph Campbell’s monolith and why it’s important to business storytelling
• How the Hero’s Journey shows up in our everyday lives
• How you can use this story structure to better understand and have empathy for your customers
• How to authentically connect the brand story with the customer story
• Why change vs. status quo is the most important element in every story you tell

Resources

• Matthew’s TED-Ed Talk, “What makes a hero?“
• Matthew’s upcoming book, “Teenage Heroes“
• Joseph Campbell’s books, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” and “The Hero’s Journey“
• Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey