Business Storytelling Instant Teleseminar: Captivate, Connect and Convince!

“Get Naked” Business Storytelling for Leaders:
For Stronger, Memorable Communication and Presentations

Learn at your convenience! Instant Teleseminar. Summer learning opportunity.

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Would you like your message to be remembered and repeated? Would you like to build trust and gain buy-in from all your audiences, from clients to team members to stakeholders? Would you like to feel confident that your presentations engage your listeners?

You can do all that and more with strategic storytelling. Strategic storytelling is nothing new. Scheherazade, the ancient storyteller of 1001 Arabian Nights, beguiled a king and saved her own life and the lives of countless others by telling stories. In our own times, Steve Jobs was a legendary storyteller, who engaged the imaginations of millions with his strategic, engaging storytelling skills—and helped his company make billions of dollars and build a brand mystique while he did it.

Their storytelling secrets can be yours.

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• 60-minute mp3 of the teleseminar
• 14-page reference workbook pdf
  
• teleseminar transcript pdf
  
• Bonus:  link to another 17 minute mp3 on Business Storytelling!

This pre-recorded teleseminar has the same content that Diane provided to a major training company which sells it for $229.  You are getting the same content at a $200 savings!

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Storytelling is a powerful way to captivate, connect and convince. If you want people to remember your message and to remember you, tell a story. Let Diane show you how!

Learning Objectives:

• Why storytelling is a communication tool that gets results
• The number one thing all stories must have
• How famous people, such as Steve Jobs, use storytelling to be more memorable
• How to uncover your own unique stories
• Which stories should you use in different situations?
• How to craft a compelling story that’s true to your personality
• Master storytelling techniques that ensure your audience doesn’t “check-out”

Who would benefit:

• Managers
• Directors
• Professionals
• Business owners
• Sales professionals
• Business speakers

Fast, convenient learning with no travel or out-of-office time lost!  

100% Guarantee:  If you are dissatisfied, you are entitled to a complete refund.

Presented by:

       Diane Windingland     

Diane is a speaker and the author of Small Talk, BIG Results: Chit Chat Your Way to Success!, and the co-author of Perfect Phrases for Icebreakers. Diane speaks internationally for organizations that want to help their people have better, more profitable conversations.

Audiences find her Small Talk Big Results presentations engaging and authentic. An engineer by training, Diane has owned several small businesses and has trained business owners, corporate employees and non-profit volunteers on how to become better networkers, conversationalist and presenters. She also has a presentation coaching business, Virtual Speech Coach

Only $29!  Register Now!

Mind Meld: Stories Connect Brains

Spock Mind Meld

Like many children growing up in the 60′s and 70′s, I sat glued to the TV every week for reruns of my favorite show, Star Trek.  Captain Kirk was dashing, but my geeky, 10 year-old heart belonged to Mr. Spock, the logical half-human, half-Vulcan science officer.  Mr. Spock had a particular talent, the mind-meld, that fascinated me.  Usually through physical contact, Mr. Spock would share thoughts, experiences and feelings with another being.  This power to connect with another mind was incredible, and as it turns out, not so far-fetched.

A 2010 study suggests that there is a brain connection between storyteller and listener.

Using fMRI, researchers recorded the brain activity of a woman telling a real-life story about her comically tragic high school prom experience.

Here’s an excerpt from her story, right after her family is returning home from a scuba diving trip that went awry on the day of prom:

“. . .we’re pulling into my house at like 6 o’clock, like two and a half hours late, just as Charles, who’s always on time, of course is pulling up.  We pull up together.  And, I don’t know if you’ve ever been scuba diving, but pretty much the worst you’ll ever look is after you go scuba diving.  You’ve been under 60 feet of water, which is two atmospheres of pressure, for an hour and a half.  You have a goggle mark permanently sketched into your face, which takes like 5 hours to get rid of that.  And um, just your hair, it’s just a mess, you’re just a mess.  And now I have approximately 5 minutes to get ready for the prom.  So I’m like trying to put on make-up while my sister is shaving my legs, while my mom is brushing my hair.”

I rather wish I could have been one of the 11 listeners who had their brain activity recorded while listening to an audio recording of that story!  The researchers found that most of the time the listeners’ brain activity mirrored the speaker’s brain activity with a slight delay of 1-3 seconds, which suggests that a listener’s comprehension slightly lags a speaker’s formulation of the story.

Application:  Story does connect with listeners; however there may be a slight delay between the conceptualization of the story in the speaker’s mind and the conceptualization of the story in the listener’s mind.  Too many details at once, especially if delivered too quickly (or on a bullet-packed PowerPoint) may confuse a listener.  There can be power in the pause.

The researchers also found a subset of brain regions in which the activity in the listener’s brain preceded the activity in the speaker’s brain.  The listener anticipated what the speaker was going to say.  This anticipatory brain activity, which is facilitated by the speaker using highly predictable words, may allow the listener more time to process the input for greater comprehension.  The extent of the listener’s anticipatory brain activity “was highly correlated with the level of understanding, indicating that successful communication requires the active engagement of the listener.”

Application:  Listeners anticipate what might happen next, if the story is one they understand or relate to.  Key words and structures that are predictable can enhance understanding and engagement.  This does not mean that the story has to be entirely predictable.  People, with years of conditioning for story structure, expect that there will be conflict and change of circumstance followed by some kind of resolution. 

The coupled speaker/listener brain activity resembles the action/perception coupling observed with mirror neurons.

Mirror neurons, first described in 1992 by researchers studying monkeys in Parma, Italy, are neurons that respond both when an individual performs an action and when the individual observes another performing a similar action.  Mirror neurons transform observed information into knowledge.  Mirror neuron research has far-reaching implications including applications in learning by imitation, predicting actions, and in empathy.  Mirror neurons are probably activated during storytelling, although direct proof remains elusive.

Applications: Story can engage a listener by causing an empathetic response.  This response is evoked by the speaker helping the listener create a vivid mental image (often with a strong emotional component in which the listener can imagine himself in a similar situation).  Thus, story can also be a form of mental rehearsal, a flight simulator for the mind.  Stories can be an efficient way to share knowledge.

Stories connect.  Stories engage.  Stories help transfer knowledge.  I guess we don’t need mind melds after all.

My Story in 4 Faces: Using Photos to Recall Stories

Almost any presentation, even business presentations, can be enhanced by using personal stories to anchor your points.  But, how do you recall and apply those personal stories?  One technique is to look at photos, specifically photos of yourself and try to recall where you were at in life and/or the story behind the photo.  Often one photo can result in multiple story ideas.  In preparation for a workshop that I’m giving on Saturday,  Storytelling for Business, I dug up my old photo albums (I’ve only digitized a few photos taken prior to 2001) and dug up some memories.  The four photos above and their brief explanations below will give you a flavor for the concept.  That, and you will see some of the very fashionable glasses that I’ve worn over the years!

Every face tells a story.

Age 11 I am in 5^th grade and am about 10 years older than my brother.  We are about to have a formal picture taken, probably at Kmart.  My mother took lots of pictures.  I think it was to preserve the fantasy of a happy family.  My parents were not happy together.  I would go to my basement room and tune out their arguments by playing my violin.

Themes:  Fantasy vs. Reality, Tuning Out the Negative

Age 22 This picture was taken right before I left for my first day of work as an engineer for General Dynamics in San Diego.  I look so young and innocent.  I had no idea about the realities of being a woman in a male-dominated field.  Or, how ill-prepared I was by college.

Themes:  Being Different, Discrimination, Experience vs. Head Knowledge

Age 27  I became a full-time mother and homemaker, while at the same time building an Amway business with my husband.  We were going to be rich and have perfect children.  I became an invisible woman—my husband’s wife and my children’s mother.

Themes:  Managing Multiple Priorities, Identity Crisis, Unrealistic Dreams

Age 48  This is my first photo for my professional speaking business.  I didn’t have much money to spend because our technology business wasn’t doing well.  At the end of the year, we had declared bankruptcy.  I smiled to hide the pain.

Themes:  Starting a business on a Shoestring, Dealing with Loss, Rising from the Ashes

Need a story to anchor your point?  Try looking at some pictures!

 

 

Super Bowl Commercials: Storyselling

I didn’t watch the Super Bowl last night, but I did watch most of the commercials this morning (it took me more than an hour).

Some of my favorite commercials incorporated storytelling.  The marketers applied “storyselling” to their brands.

One key to storyselling, or to any engaging story, is that there is conflict.  Conflict makes the story interesting.

Here are a few examples of conflict in this year’s Super Bowl Commercials:

Man vs. Man: Doritos Sling Shot Baby

A young boy taunts his grandmother and baby brother with a bag of Doritos.  The boy smugly seems to think that his snacks are safe as he teases from a backyard play structure.  But, Granny has an idea and launches the baby in his baby jumper.  The baby sling shots toward his brother and snatches the bag of Doritos.  Granny and the baby triumphantly enjoy the Doritos.

The other clever Doritos commercial—the one with the dog bribing the man with a bag of Doritos is also a Man vs. Man (the dog is personified)

Man vs. Self (Man as personified by a dog) Volkswagen-The Dog Strikes Back

An overweight dog wants to chase a car, but can’t fit through the doggie door.  He is inspired to action and begins exercising—throwing balls down the stairs to play fetch with himself, running on a treadmill and in the yard, pulling weights and swimming.  He also exercises will power and doesn’t eat scraps that fall to the floor.  Over time he loses weight and is later able to jump through the doggie door and joyfully run alongside a red Volkswagen car.  Then, the commercial takes on a twist by cutting to a bar scene with Star Wars characters watching the commercial and comparing it to last year’s kid-dressed-like Darth Vader commercial, calling back the feel-good commercial from last year’s Super Bowl.  It’s like getting a 2-for-1 story!

Man vs. Nature (sort of):  Hyundai CPR

I remember when the Hyundai brand cars were first available in the US in the mid-80s.  People made jokes about them being called Hyundai because people would die from the embarrassment of owning such a cheap car.  Well, now apparently Hyundai can save lives.  In this year’s Super Bowl commercial, a man saves his boss’s life with quick thinking and clever driving.

Man vs. Society:  It’s Halftime America America—Chrysler/Clint Eastwood

This is more inspiring speech than story, but it is the Everyman Hero Story of overcoming adversity and coming back stronger than ever.  I admit it, I teared up a bit on this one.

Have there been commercials that stick in your mind because they told a story?

Do People Tell Your Business Story?

“I realized the importance of having a story today is what really separates companies.  People don’t just wear our shoes, they tell our story.” ~ Blake Mycoskie, CEO and “Chief Shoe Giver” of Toms Shoes.

Shoeless children in Argentina inspired Blake Mycoskie to start a company with compassion at its soul (or, perhaps “sole” in this case).  For every pair of shoes a customer purchases, the company gives a new pair of shoes to a child in need.  One for One.    More than a million children have received shoes.

It’s a great story that is spread in multiple ways, across various media:  traditional media as well as social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc).  It is a transmedia story that engages customers in multiple ways so that they are inspired not only to buy Toms shoes, but spread the story of Toms shoes.

Special events, such as TOMS One Day Without Shoes, allow people to become a part of the larger movement.  They become coauthors in the story.  Below is a video that promoted the  2011 One Day Without Shoes event  (The next event is April 5, 2012).  It makes me want to go barefoot!:

Does your product or service have a story that your customers or clients want to tell? Is it a story that makes your employees proud?  It doesn’t necessarily have to be a cause-related story.  It just needs to be a story of making a positive, significant difference in the world.

Here are some types of stories that get repeated:

Credibility stories—chiefly testimonials, or evidence that a product or service makes a significant difference.

Vision stories—Set the stage for a better tomorrow (great for new business or taking a business in a new direction).

Value stories—Show the integrity of the business and the people in it, especially in difficult situations.

Identify the story opportunities for your business.  Write them out—hone the content and structure so that they are compelling.  Collaborate with others, maybe even your customers on your stories.  Then, put them out there—on your website, in your social media, etc. and find ways to help people interact with those stories, to become a part of the story and, maybe even influence the story.

As Mycoskie says, “Every person who wears our shoes becomes a marketer of our shoes.”  They tell the story.

What’s your story?

Talking to People About Your Business: Business Storytelling

On 3/14, Tanya Smith and Tai Goodwin interviewed me on their BlogTalk Radio show, Your First 20 Clients for a segment, How to Talk to Strangers (and Friends) About Your New Business.

This blog post is the eighth in a series based on that show (I’m transcribing it one question at a time).

Today’s segment is from 43:08 to 47:03 in the hour-long audio of the show.

Tai: You have to talk a little bit about your book, because I can’t believe it, but this hour is running by.

Diane: Oh, my . . .

Tanya: We’re having so much fun!

Tai: Your book has a chapter on storytelling.

Diane: That was one of my favorite chapters!

Tai:  Tell us about that.  What does that [storytelling] have to do with networking at all?

Diane: It has a lot to do with networking.  If you just think about yourself—when you’re talking with someone that you enjoy talking to, often it’s because they tell stories.