Just Story It

This article is not about how to craft or deliver better business stories. But it is about personal qualities you the biz storyteller need to cultivate.

I don't see many articles like this, yet the topic is an important one. Author and content marketing Guru Brian Clark suggests 5 traits are essential to be able to find, craft, and share your biz stories in ways that grow your business.

The traits are:

1. Empathy
2. Curiosity
3. Observation
4. Packaging
5. Caring
6. The Why

I agree completely. To learn more about each of these -- what they are, why they are important, and how to cultivate them -- go read the article!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

I love this post! The story kept me engaged, it sparked many similar memories in me, and it's message is right on.

I'm teaching an MBA course right now in business communication/storytelling skills at my students just completed the assignment of creating both success and failure stories about themselves to use in job interviews, etc. They freaked. It's tough enough sometimes to talk right about your successes. Even tougher to open up and share your failures.

What I parlicularly like about what story colleague Limor Shiponi did was teach us how powerful failure stories can be -- and how to tell them in a way that demonstrates our value. That's the real key.

I've admired Limor's work for years --she's an amazing deep thinker about both storytelling and story in business. And I would like to point out that Limor is also one of the designers/speakers at the May 2, 2013 Storyevolution Conference that I scooped yesterday. This article gives us a peek into what is in story for us at that gathering!

Failure stories are one of the most powerful a business can use. And oh how I wish story professionals told more failure stories. Like the time I bombed at a prestigious MBA school :) My lesson: tell them what they really need to know about storytelling; don't try to fit what you know into what they think they want to hear under the guise of "being relevant".

OK -- here's how to read this article:

1. As a business professional who want to master failure stories so that even these stories can propel your business forward.
2. As a story professional who wants to learn lessons from others in the field.

This is a refreshing article -- and a topic sore neglected in our field. I hope you get a lot out of this article because it is a real gem!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

What a great article about influencing, moving people to action, and sales.

Biz storytelling is all about that. Yet there's ambivalence around it too. Who wants to be a snarky salesman?!

Enter Dan Pink, one of my favorite authors, and his new book To Sell is Human. The author of this article, Heidi Grant Holvorson, reviews Pink's book and makes fabulous points on her own.

As Halvorson points out, Pink says that moving people (selling, persuading, influencing) is an essential component of nearly everyone's job in the modern workplace.

Doing so well and effectively without being a slime ball means making sure the ideas and products with genuine merit do the moving.

This helps avoid the traps of manipulation and intimidation. 

I really like Halvorson's insights, her willingness to tackle the stereotypes of sales, and bring us Pink's latest work.

I've commented before on transactional storytelling (using stories for sales) -- not because I think it is bad, but because I don't want us to lose sight that there is much more to business storytelling than at the level of mere transaction.

Pink, I think, helps us frame influence and moving people to action as we tell our stories in sales/influence/persuasion functions (these are not synonymous terms, BTW) -- in a way that really works. Now I certainly want to get his book to add to the others of his in my library.

Anyway, thought you should see this article. Lots of good material here (and it is not long). I hope you gain more comfort with sales and storytelling, and be able to conduct your influence/sales work in your business or organization with more confidence.

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

Well here is a fab post that summarizes biz storytelling into 3 points of view so you can grow your business. If you need a refresher or just some inspiration as 2013 unfolds, you will enjoy this article.

The author Paul Jun sums it up the process of crafting biz stories into results as follows:

1. Be willing to be vulnerable. He cites Brene Brown's TED talk on vulnerability which is a masterpiece and must-view video for storytellers. Just search this site for Brene Brown and you'll go right to the link. Or click the link in the article :)
2. Share stories -- they enchant your audience. Yep! And I like Jun's story that he shares, along with a link to Seth Godin to explain why biz storytelling is so important.
3. Focus on the why -- not the what. Storytelling is about creating meaning. When you share the 'why' it inspires action. Anwer the few questions he poses and you'll be good to go for crafting stories that people re-share.

Now there are actually 4 parts to Jun's post, not 3. The last one is 'practice'. You get better over time at crafting and sharing your stories. So keep practicing! 

As Jun says at the end, "Remind yourself of two things: You can either write content that is dry, safe, and has no personality, or you can write something daring and transparent — something that will shake the floor beneath your reader’s feet. You have this power within you. All you need to do is use it."

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

Here is a example packed SlideShare presentation about 15 marketing trends for 2013 that Bhargava has identified.

As you can imagine, since it is the end of the year, I've looked at a ton of these kinds of lists. This is by far the best one I have found.

And 3 of the 15 trends have to do with storytelling: Partnership Publishing; Precious Print; and Back Storytelling.

What I love about Bhargava's work are all of the examples shared to back up his trends. Even for the trends that don't have to do with storytelling, this piece is well worthwhile.

I also really like that at the end of the slides he gives us his 2012 list and shares if the trends materialized or not. Even better, he then shares his own back story of how he identified the trends for 2013.

This is a very complete list and dense with material to chew on. It can certainly help our businesses in 2013. Enjoy!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

Well here's a thoughtful piece as we wind up 2012 that gets me thinking about the role of storytelling in business.  

This article is all about the ongoing shifts occuring in business and I think story dynamics and narrative work are both shaping/influencing these shifts, as well as being a vehicle for finding meaning. I am not sure if the popularity of biz storytelling is the cause, the effect, or a combo of both -- but it is fascinating to think about.

What I love about this article by Alex Pattakos and Elaine Dundon is they coin a new word -- anthrocapitalism -- and talk about how this is more than just 'corporate social responsibility'. And they educate us about the origins of the word 'philanthropy' and its role in rethinking capitalism. They go on to talk about how our economy is shifting away from transaction to engagement and what this really means.

Great food for thought. They also give examples of companies who are embodying 'anthroeconomics', creating meaningful work, promoting a deeper purpose, and increasing their profits at the same time.

As the authors say at the end: "The shift towards anthrocapitalism represents a new role for leaders and a new role for organizations. It’s time to ask what you as a leader and inspirational role model can do to focus on both doing well and doing good, making the world a better place."

So what is the role of storytelling here and its meaning-making abilities? Is storytelling the impetus, the vehicle, or both? Or are there better questions to ask? What do you think? Hmmmmm....... 

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

Author Tim Keelan of StoryQuest writes a great article here about ways for ANY business to think about its storytelling.

Namely, that stories are universal, but no story is universal.

That means creating really targeted stories.

Keelan has lots of insights to share with us about this truism, and ways to get it done.

If you want to be a sharper storyteller -- one who is able to grow their business through sharing stories -- then you will want to read this article and follow Keelan's advice!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

What a great article that goes a long way in de-mystefying brand storytelling!

I particularly like the emphasis on brand storytelling creating deep affinity if done right, that chemistry is part of the equation, and that it is a strategic imperative, not a promotional tactic. 

With these attitudes in mind, this brings brand storytelling out of the realm of mere transaction into an ongoing relationship between company and customer.

The authors Derrick Daye and Brad VanAuken then go on to talk about the drivers of brand storytelling: purpose, method, and opportunity.

I wish they had included company examples -- good, bad, or indifferent -- to illustrate their points. Nevertheless, their article does help us all know the steps we need to take to either create or further enhance our brand storytelling.

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

Here is a very thorough post with a number of resources to share about why and how stories matter in growing your business.

If you feel lost or overwhelmed with all of the Internet material available on business storytelling, this is a really good overview for you. And for the rest of us, it is a great refresher.

Enjoy digging into this over the weekend and the holiday. It's a perfect way to finish off the year.

And thank you to Alessio Manca @liveconnection for finding this article and sharing it with me!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

This article by Alan Snitow goes right along with the other article I curated today on Anthrocapitalism. 

Here Snitow talks about the massive shifts in consumer attitudes/behaviors that are creating shifts in marketing and branding.

The author suggests that one of these huge shifts is away from 'aspiration' marketing, where consumers aspire to buy their way into a better life, to 'inspiration' marketing. Inspiration marketing is focused less on what companies can give, and more on what consumers themselves can achieve. In other words, making customers the hero of the story.

But there is more here to the discussion and I encourage you to read the article. It's not that long and makes great points.

Even better, Snitow shares short videos of companies who have moved from aspirational to inspirational marketing. Perhaps this is what your business needs to do.

And once again, I wonder about the influence of storytelling. Of course stories fit exceedingly well into inspirational marketing.

Yet how much has the awareness, education in, and experiences with stories shaping the conversation and this movement? Maybe it is more of a chicken-and-egg syndrome.

In any event, I find it fascinating that this article and the one on anthrocapitalism show up on the same day but from different sources. And on the same day I received an email newsletter talking about how businesses are now in a post-Demming-process era and now in the era of valueing people in business. And the business was re-defining all of its work to meet this new direction. 

Well, certainly these discussions about the value of people over profits in business have been around for years. Only time will tell if trend watchers are actually seeing shifts that will stick, or if we are all just spitting into the wind again.

How will you show up in 2013? Your thoughts?

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it

Yeah -- what a great reminder! Craft your biz stories as sequenced content!

Better yet, plan a content campaign of sequential articles with a narrative arc.

Or serialize a narrative over several posts!

That is where my mind went after reading this article. Now the author here is really just talking about creating a series of posts over time all on the same topic that work together.

But my storytelling mind said "Woah! There is a lot more here that could be done." 

So this article presents a great idea -- but doesn't go quite far enough for all us biz storytellers. Yet it is still worth curating and reading because of all the tips and points it does make.

Dig in (it's not long), get the interesting stats showing how sequenced content gets results, and start connecting the stories together in a series of articles/blog posts, etc!

This review was written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling atwww.scoop.it/t/just-story-it