Storytelling for Business
If your business was put to a referendum would your prospects vote YES?
Read on and learn how story telling will help your business win sales and investment.
I listened to Charlie Bird being interviewed about his new book on the radio recently. ‘A Day in May’ The book is a series of interviews about the Irish Equality Referendum.
Charlie’s message and the message of the book is that people’s personal stories are what encouraged people to vote YES. The personal stories as told by people on Radio, TV and in the Press is what swung public opinion. Personal stories helped people to connect with LGBT community and realise that these were ordinary people, who they knew and were often part of their extended family.
It’s always people’s personal stories that help us to connect.
So why should it be any different in business?
I coach people to tell the stories that are relevant to them and then go out and find audiences (customers) that will also find their story relevant and advantageous to their business.
For example:
- Tell the hospital/nursing home manager how your device will track (find) missing elderly and very young patients who go missing.
- Tell customs officials that your device can alert them to the likelihood that people are hiding in the back of a sealed container at a customs post.
- Explain that how needing to find accommodation for yourself, led to the establishment of Elder Homes Share, a great solution for elderly homeowners who needed some companionship and young people needing a place to live.
- How attending conferences and events with lots of uninspiring speakers led me to the belief that my particular skill set, can give people the confidence to be engaging and influential speakers and leaders.
Stories trump everything else.
That’s why books are still selling in vast numbers, people are still filling theatres and cinemas and I have grown to have a love for poets who can tell stories in a very few yet magnificent words.
Action
Remind yourself of the story that helped start your business and start telling it again. Then watch your audiences (customers) Vote YES to your business proposals.
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Here is a little more information on Charlie’s book:
“In ‘A Day in May‘ former journalist and broadcaster Charlie Bird collected 50 personal interviews with LGBT members, and their loved ones, at the time of the Marriage Equality referendum.
On the 23rd May 2015, the people of Ireland made history by becoming the first country in the world to introduce marriage equality by popular vote. The joyous scenes from Dublin Castle and across Ireland, as the historic vote was declared, made headlines across the globe. But more than anything else, the May 2015 vote was about changing the ‘Real Lives’ of the largest minority group in Ireland: the LGBT Community.”
P.S. All profits from the sale of the book are being donated to Pieta House
