Retirement stories are just one example of stories that can lead to adverse business and career outcomes. We all hear stories that “everybody knows” are true. But often they turn out to be false…and that leads to bad outcomes. For example, many (most?) people walk around with either or both…

Someone asked a famous marketing guru (clearly a celebrity archetype), “What’s your secret of success?” Her story was, “I invited my women friends over to my apartment in the city. At the time I was into a form of wellness coaching. From those meetings came group coaching.” She could have…

Business storytelling portfolios should include a story like this, even if it’s not about business. As a business owner, you need a portfolio of stories — and not just “how I struggled to get here” stories. …

Copywriting sometimes means keeping things simple and remembering clarity beats persuasion any day of the week. Did you ever hear the advice: “When you introduce yourself, don’t say I’m a life coach,” or “I’m a massage therapist,” or, “I do aromatherapy.: Say, “I help business executives deal with stress.” The…

Talking about sensitive topics doesn’t mean you’re “vulnerable.” It means you’re comfortable with the topic at that place and time. Attending a dinner with people from one of my alumni groups, gathered to plan an event. I’ve seen these folks before but don’t know them well. We were talking about…

Business storytelling is a story genre. Here’s how it’s structured for success. We know how fairy tales end: they live happily ever after. We know murder mysteries end with “case closed.” In romance novels, two people become a couple. Never mind political correctness. It’s what the audience wants. These are…

Storytelling creates an experience for your audience. You wrote your story. You created characters. Now give them some lines to say. This is one of the most powerful strategies you can use, whether you’re telling a story to a live audience or writing a blog post. For example: Marilyn had…

You’re telling a story and you want to get attention, respect, and followup. Here’s the one BIG mistake a lot of storytellers make…especially if they’re veterans. You’ve got your story. Maybe you wrote out the whole sequence or you took bullet notes on 3×5 cards. Now you’re getting. ready to…

If you use a LinkedIn message template, it’s just that…a suggestion. Fill in the blanks or come across as cheesy. Does someone want to connect with you on LinkedIn? Do you get messages like these: “It looks like you’re doing some pretty amazing things with storytelling.” “I’d love to learn…