In this short video, business networking expert Charlie Lawson demonstrates how powerful storytelling can be in relation to networking for your business and he does it by none other than . . . you guessed it . . . telling a story.
The fact is, you can tell someone what you do for a living all day long but chances are, that’s not going to make you stand out. You need to start relaying true stories about how your products and services have had a significantly positive impact on the way your customers feel and the quality of their lives.
As Charlie says, “The story is what gets us and the more we make our stories about what we do in business personal, the more results we’re going to have.”
Do you have a powerful, standout story about how your products or services have impacted your customers? If so, I’d really love to hear it–please share your story in the comment forum below. Thanks!
Over the past few weeks, I’ve posted blogs on how embracing quality, adding members, and seeking engagement are all things that will help networkers and entire networking groups achieve success. Today, I’d like to talk about an additional tactic for obtaining stellar networking results–sharing stories.
Listening closely to the information shared by those in your referral network will help you in telling positive stories about them when you come across potential opportunities to refer them. Conducting regular one-to-one meetings with each of your networking partners will also help you become more able to share stories when you refer others to them. Think about your many positive experiences with your fellow networkers and write them down.
A number of years ago, I met Robert Dickman, author of The Elements of Persuasion, and he taught me the formula for a good story:
A story is a fact
Wrapped in emotion
That compels us to take action
That transforms us in some way
The key here is that a good story compels people to take action and that this action transforms or helps them in some way. I always try to re-live a story, not just re-tell a story. Make it sound fresh and alive. That is an important aspect of storytelling.
Remember that facts tell, but stories sell. If you want to build your network in order to generate more referrals, overlay storytelling on top of your efforts.
The keys to success within networking groups which I’ve previously posted blogs about (embracing quality, adding members, seeking engagement) can combine with sharing stories for a powerful formula that will help members of networking groups obtain optimum networking results and business growth:
3+1 = Member Success
1-Embrace Quality
2-Add Members
3-Seek Engagement
+1 Share Stories
Understanding this formula can improve your business networking success in amazing ways.
If your networking group already employs this formula, I’d love to hear about the impact it has made on your group’s performance and results. Please share your feedback (and stories) in the comment forum below. Thanks!
In this short video, I’m joined by Deanna Tucci-Schmitt, a successful business owner and master networker, who shares the reason why storytelling is such an integral part of business. She reminds us that stories are much easier to remember than statistics and facts. When you tell your business’ facts in story form, your “story” is retained, retold, and often referred.
After watching the video, please share how telling some of the key stories about your business has gotten you more business in the past, or how they might possibly help you obtain more business in the future.
Just last month I posted a blog about how to grow business and derive identity-building, brand-boosting benefits through writing (CLICK HERE to view the blog post) and today I want to piggyback on that concept.
Whether you’re an experienced writer or you’re just beginning to dabble in writing in an effort to build your personal or business brand, understanding the importance of storytelling can transform your writing into highly effective material.
In this video, professional editor and author Jeff Morris and I explain why storytelling is so important in writing and we reveal the four key factors that define an effective story.
Get ready . . . you’ll want to have a pen and a piece of paper on hand for this one!
By the way,if you’ve had some experience (whether just a little or a lot) with writing to achieve brand recognition and business growth, I’d love to hear what tactics, writing venues, etc. you’ve had the most success with as well as some of the best stories you’ve used to make your most important points. Please leave your feedback in the comments section–thanks!
Peter Guber, Chairman and CEO of Mandalay Entertainment, has a powerful new book coming out on March 1st called Tell To Win.
This book is not only an extremely interesting read, it is also an important resource for networkers in every part of the world. Peter is a master storyteller and, with this book, he teaches readers how to achieve success in business and life by connecting with people and engaging them on an emotional level through the power of stories.
I met Peter at one of his storytelling symposiums which he conducted in preparation for this very book and, I can assure you that if there is one person in the world with the expertise to teach others how to change lives through the power of stories, it’s Peter. Tell To Win offers dynamic storytelling techniques that are greatly beneficial in a face-to-face networking setting. Below I have pasted an excerpt of Peter’s words, specifically discussing the importance of telling your story in a face-to-face environment. If you find this material useful, which I have no doubt you will, I strongly encourage you to pick up a copy of Peter’s new book. Learning how to connect with others through storytelling is an ability that will continue to serve you well throughout your entire lifetime. It is an invaluable skill that you will be endlessly grateful for obtaining and, as you can tell from Peter’s words below, he is the ultimate teacher.
The highest and best use for telling purposeful stories in the room, face-to-face, breathing the same air and reading each other’s micro-expressions–something you can’t do in any other medium. In writing my new book, Tell To Win, I conversed with the foremost folks in technology–people like Chris Kemp, chief information officer at NASA Ames Research Center, Phil McKinney, the chief technology officer at Hewlett Packard, Arianna Huffington, founder of the Huffington Post, and many others–and asked them if digital or state-of-the-art technology could replace what I call state-of-the-heart technology. Their response was an overwhelmingly consistent “not at this time.” In fact, Arianna said it best when she asserted in front of one of my masters UCLA classes (I’ve been a professor at UCLA for over 30 years), that the more time we spend in front of screens, the more we crave the intimate in-person interactions where we tell our stories to realize our dreams. And, she didn’t stop there! She exhorted my students that if there’s something incredibly important upon which everything depends, you always want to be in the room.
You can’t yet duplicate the same effects of telling oral stories in the same room, breathing the same air, pressing the flesh. However, many of the critical elements of telling purposeful stories work in other mediums. Always motivation comes first which starts with you–your intention. This authenticity must shine through. The trick is not to try to be interesting, but to be interested–know what your audience is interested in and deliver what’s in it for them. All good telling of stories has a goal–the action you want your listener to take. Don’t hide it. Interactively engage your listener, your audience, so it’s not a monologue, but a dialogue. It is a conversation in which the telling becomes a “we” experience rather than a “me” experience. A critical marker is the willingness of the teller to surrender proprietorship over the story so the listener can own it and viral market it as her own. The story content is lurking everywhere–first person experience is best, but equally powerful is an observed event, a movie/book/artifact, or even a metaphor or analogy.
