Telling stories isn’t just for bedtime

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Updated: November 3, 2011 11:48PM

As children, many of us were lulled to sleep by our parents who read us fairy tales and other bedtime stories. We created in our brains towering castles, fire breathing dragons to lords and ladies dancing. Through hearing these words, we envisioned brilliant pictures that in many cases resembled our own 3D movies.

Storytelling also followed us into grade school where teachers would read a story and encourage us to read one as well. We found ourselves writing short stories and then illustrating then with simple pictures. These experiences demonstrated the value of storytelling in that it “reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it.” (Hannah Arendt).

Fast forward 20 to 30 to 40 years later and storytelling is finding an incredible resurgence. Forward thinking business leaders from small business owners to sales professionals are creating powerful stories to grab their potential customers’ interest and begin to build a relationship. These individuals realize the words of Jean Luc Godard who said “Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.”

Today’s storytelling comes in many forms from education based marketing, content marketing, elevator pitches to YouTube videos to ongoing threads within various social media sites. Individuals are learning the incredible power of words and how they can begin to create a specific picture in their potential customers’ minds eye.

So what is your story? What words do you share with your potential clients? Are those words compelling where someone is actively listening almost ready to fall off his or her chair? Or are your words sounding like everyone else out there at those business-to-business networking events?

For example, if you are on LinkedIn, what message comes up under your picture? Here is the perfect place to tell your story. Now, if you share that you are a Realtor, a manager or an attorney what does that mean to someone? Probably nothing because they have lumped you together with all the other Realtors, managers or attorneys they know.

My headline on LinkedIn reads “Executive Consultant and Coach who supports crazy-busy, forward-thinking leaders wanting to push the envelope.” Rick Gosser of Gosser Corporate Sales, wrote, “We help YOU Brand Your Business from company logo wear to business cards and everything in between,” for his headline.

Every time you meet someone, there is an opportunity to tell your story. The very essence of this message is its emotional value that can be traced back to the early childhood. Since people buy first on emotion then justify that buying decision with logic, using emotions is critical to business and sales success.

Maybe the words of Studs Terkel will encourage you to create a powerful story. “People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality, too. It goes from one generation to another.”

So once again, I will ask you what is your story?

P.S. Shout Out to Geisen Funeral Home in Crown Point where their community room is open to business owners. Bartholomew Funeral Home has been serving Porter County residents since 1892.