Realisation in Stories
The Art and Science of Business Storytelling
Posted by Chris Sissons on Oct 9, 2024
Stories in Business ยป Chris Sissons
Most of us do not have a single massive story. Stories are about change and the good news is that the change does not have to be massive.
Indeed, it could be argued the smaller the better. These are not stories of transformation, which are about huge irreversible life changes. Stories of realisation do not result in major change but simply a new insight.
One objection to storytelling I hear occasionally is ”I’m boring, nothing interesting ever happens to me!” You might be bored by your life but that doesn’t mean everyone else is. Only you have lived your life and so it is interesting by definition. You need to find and develop your stories. Your life is the raw material, unique to you.
Despite your unique life, there will be aspects others recognise, even if they come from a different culture to yours. The fact you’ve recognised something others identify with can make a compelling story. Indeed, for marketing these points of identification are important. If you specialise in helping people with insomnia it helps if you have experience of insomnia, (if not suffering from it, perhaps living with someone who suffers).
This leads to an essential sales skill, your ability to summarise a prospect’s problem. If you can transform your everyday experiences into stories, you can do the same for your prospects or clients. This will usually be between the two of you but the aim is to show you’ve listened and understood their problem better than they do. Impossible? Perhaps but consider this, when you have a chronic, overwhelming problem such as insomnia, you’ve tried everything and nothing works, then you need to hear an alternative perspective.
Returning to stories for sharing from your life experience, remember you are the protagonist. What does that mean? Sometimes you hear storytellers talk about the hero’s journey. I don’t find this helpful because sometimes, I’m the villain in my own story. We make mistakes, behave badly, lose track of what’s happening around us. Your audience needs to hear your vulnerability, you’re just another person coping, not always well, with whatever life throws at you.
Most traditional hero’s journey stories begin with the hero inadequate to face the task before them. On the journey, they pick up the skills and alliances they need to deal with the main problem they face. A story of realisation is a slice of this story. Maybe one day you’ll be a hero but in the meantime, you have stories to tell about what it’s like not to be the hero. And these are the stories that count.
This is the twelfth in a sequence of posts about business storytelling. The first post was Marketing: Art or Science? The last post was Transformation in Stories and the thirteenth post will be Problems and Solutions.
To try out one of your business-related stories and receive feedback from me plus a few other business owners, please comment below to arrange an informal conversation. I run these sessions free of charge on the second and fourth Thursdays. Visit my website to find out about the Telling Stories Autumn meetings.
Minerva decided to demonstrate her prowess in combat with a mighty dragon. I'm not sure where she found the dragon or what the owl is doing. Any road, Minerva wants you to know she is good at defeating dragons and is happy to assist should one of them prove troublesome for you.
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