Tag Archive for: story

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Are you in control of your story online?

story_google_ed

 

Who are you?

If someone wants to know who you are, they type your name into Google.

Before the meeting,  you have been googled.

Before the interview, you have been googled.

Before the pitch, you have been googled.

What is Google saying about you?

What did you give Google to say about you?

It's an interesting exercise to Google oneself ... interesting and sometimes surprising!!

Right there is a little window into how people might be seeing you.

That is the story people are seeing and reading about you - your personal brand story, your business brand story.

Did Google put it there?  No.  But Google chose which parts of it to put in front of searchers as the first thing they saw.

Did other people put it there?  Yes.  Your clients comment on your business and connect with you.  Your friends comment on you and connect with you.  You listed yourself on other websites, and commented or interacted there.

So to some extent, this is happening without you.

Consider, though ...

You gave your clients something to comment on.  What was that?

You connected with them.  What impression did that give?

You gave your friends something to comment on.  What was that?

You connected with them.  What impression did that give?

You associated yourself with other websites.  What impression does that give?

Everything communicates.

My mother said to me often and often, "Put your words on the palm of your hand before you say them."

She probably said that as I grew into a teenager with attitude, and not much thought for what I said, or what the consequences might be.

Everything communicates, especially words, but actions too.

So everything we do on the internet communicates something and it's not always what we might expect.

Google, and the internet as a whole, gives us an unparalleled opportunity to communicate, to share and to build a brand, and there is nothing so challenging, nor so rewarding as to to watch that brand build and grow.

Enjoy!!

Author:  Bronwyn Ritchie.  

If you would like help telling your story on-line, please contact me.  I have a "Connecting the Dots" programme that helps my clients find the story they need to tell.  

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What are you really selling?

What exactly are you selling?

What exactly is your client or customer buying?

The obvious answer, of course is, "your product or service".

And that is true,

until you actually have to persuade someone to buy,

until "sell" involves something more than the physical exchange of money or value.

Then it becomes fairly obvious that there is something more involved.

Let me say, right now, that what you are selling is a story.

A story is

the story of a change,

the change that your customer or buyer goes through when they use your product or service.

And that is the story you have to sell.

And while that change will have physical aspects and outcomes that might involve things like health, wealth, relationships; ultimately the result your client or customer wants is the emotion, the feeling.  They want to feel free, valued, better than, at peace; all sorts of things.  And they may not articulate that, but the want will be there.  

There is a saying that people buy based on emotion and justify based on logic.

And that is why stories are so valuable.  They can tap into the subconscious level of emotions.  We are wired for story and stories are inherently built on emotion.  

So your client story is vital in your marketing.  

Where are you telling your client story - that story of change?

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Would you let your son dive into this pool? Would a story change your mind?

I love visiting waterfalls and creeks and swimming holes in the rainforest.

There is beauty. There is  peace.
But also a  sense of activity as the water moves through its environment, trickling or roaring, making music of its own and changing the landscape as it goes.

This was a river, one of many, that we visited on our holiday, with all of the beauty and peace and movement. It is a popular tourist place, with facilities for visitors including beautifully maintained walks and lookouts. The river runs through huge rocks and the place is actually called “The Boulders”.

At many of the places we had visited before this one, there were swimming “holes” where people were swimming in the rivers, cold though the temperature was at the time, and other places where tour guides showed their clients how to inch across the rocks and slide safely with the water to a pool below.

It’s something that people do.

I have never swum in these water holes,  but I like to see the joy and fun that people have who do.

At a lake we visited there were the usual young men daring each other to feats of daring by diving backwards with a somersault into the lake, off a pontoon.

And in watercourses all around the country on any given day, there are children swinging out over lagoons and waterholes on an old tyre attached to a rope and jumping off into the water.

And all around the country, in any given year there will be accidents – people who want that fun, carefree joy and challenge – but who dive into shallow water or land on something submerged in the water.

There are people absolutely incapacitated because of such accidents or even worse.

In many places there are signs, just like this one …

and on the whole, people abide by them. Not always.

If I were a young man (or woman, though it seems to be young men who are more tempted), would I abide by them?

If I were a young man’s mother, would I want him to abide by them? I know the temptation is strong for the fun, carefree joy and challenge, and I know it is not always resisted.

But at The Boulders, the signs were different. And here’s where the story comes in.

 

I had never ever before seen a sign that said “Many people have died here”, and it was repeated on signs throughout the area.

People have died here.

That is a four word story.

I like to think it would have more impact than the standard sign.

If you were a young man (or woman), would you be more likely to abide by the rule?

If you were a young man’s parent or friend, would you be more likely to persuade him? I would like to think so.

I know as a mother … I would.

I was caught by this thought every time we passed such a sign.

But then when we walked out of the rainforest into the car park, I noticed this plaque on a rock.

Did he dive … and die?

Perhaps not, but if the story is that he did, imagine his mother, his father, his friends, his family, his community and how they felt when he did not return – forever – just because of that daredevil impulse.

That is a heartrending story of a young man who did not live out his life as he could have and whose death must have caused waves and years of anguish.

If you were a young man (or woman), would you be more likely to abide by the rule … knowing that story?

If you were a young man’s parent or friend, would you be more likely to persuade him?

I would like to think so.

I know as a mother … I would.

 

Corporate Storytelling – Three Things You Must Know

Storytelling in your organization is taking place every day regardless of its official status as a "program." However, you will find that with focused training and implementation, storytelling will raise the bottom line of any company. Before you begin adding the power of narrative to your workplace, there are a few things you need to know.

1. Storytelling in Corporations Requires Time to Grow

For many years, I was involved in a variety of companies that jumped from one fad management idea to another. First, we were Moving Cheese. Then, we were tossing stuffed Fish around the room. And we were doing it all in just One Minute. While some of the ideas of these management romps may have been momentarily implemented at my workplaces or yours, it seems that most of these programs have moved on.



Corporate Storytelling is not a fad. Everyone person who has contact with your company has a story to tell about that contact, both the good and the bad. Storytelling has been around since the beginning of time and the first moments of oral communication. It will work for your company if you are willing to think about long-term implementation of storytelling to your corporate communications. For best results, the power of story needs to be understood as a tool for all departments in your organization, not just sales and marketing.

I suggest that when your company does want to invest in storytelling for their internal and external customers, they begin with a small and dedicated group of employees who are first taught the art and science of storytelling. Our "Executive Speaker Training" Workshop is a great place to get this initial training for your employees who already have a basic background in public speaking.



2. Storytelling in a Business Must Come from the Top

One of the people on this initial team should be a member of senior management. I have worked with companies who originally conceived the idea of storytelling in one department and then set out to find a great trainer. They assured me that the "bosses" were in line with this new program. Then, as the training sessions started, the folks with their arms crossed at the back of the room or otherwise practising "active non-listening" were the senior management staff. You cannot expect that the average company employee will adopt a program that the leadership will not embrace.

3. You Must Integrate Storytelling, not Just Talk About It

Your new storytelling must be practised at every business gathering, from the smallest meetings to company-wide events. Be sure that your training sessions include plenty of time for practising storytelling instead of presentations all on theory.

When you are developing this program, be sure to look for trainers and presenters who have extensive experience in actually telling stories. Does your trainer actually know how to tell (not write) stories? Did they just recently begin to add storytelling to their work or do they have a lifetime of expertise?



Learning to share the company stories is financially and personally rewarding. Please take some time to learn this fundamental communication skill for your workplace.

For more information about Sean's workshop that teaches you to harness the power of business or corporate storytelling, please visit our website at http://www.executivespeakertraining.com You are also invited to follow Sean via his Twitter account at http://www.twitter.com/storyteller today.

 

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Your story. Your role. Your gift

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Video: Similar Story Telling

three simple, yet very powerful ways to use similar story.

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Those who tell the stories. Which storyteller will you choose?

Those who tell the stories.

It's a powerful statement this.

There's a mystical, mythical element to it, being a native American saying.

I find it interesting that Plato said much the same thing "Those who tell the stories rule society."

 

Tose who tell the stories rule the world

Two such disparate cultures and societies recognising the power of story.

Just about anyone who writes about story, talks about story, ends up using this quote.

And certainly at the level at which most people think about this statement ... anyone who tells the stories will make money in business, and rule the world that way.

Story is a currency recognised the world over.

It is a powerful marketing tool, the difference, sometimes, between a profit and a loss.

But looking at it a different way - looking at the leaders, the rulers, those who rule the world.

They lead, they rule because they are able to tell our stories for us.

We need a story to make sense of life.

We need a story to make sense of our culture.

We need a story to make sense of our world.

We need someone to lead us forward by telling our story, what is really happening, how things are going to be.

When there is a movement for change in our culture, a mass discontent with the way things are, in our world, it will succeed because someone is able to lead it forward by articulating for that mass of people, what is really happening and how it will progress, tells the story about it.

What story are your leaders telling?

Let us choose the leaders who tell the story of our highest aspirations, not our lowest common denominators of fear and greed, ego and power.

Let us then buy from the marketers who tell the story of our highest aspirations, not our lowest common denominators of laziness and competitiveness.

Futurist Rolf Jensen said "The highest paid person of the 21st century will be the storyteller."

Let's choose whom we pay to tell our stories, and choose well.

Story Quotes

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