Brand Storytelling is not About What You Make, but What You Make Happen
I was in Washington D.C. on Nov. 2 and 3 hosting a Business of Story mastermind class for the American Marketing Association. Nine of their member brands were in attendance to…
Why you should think like a screenwriter to humanize your B2B content marketing
I love this poster for Justin Trevor Winters’ new movie. It depicts Richard Dreyfuss’ character as a retired high school gym teacher willing to do whatever it takes to leave…
5 storytelling resources to help hone your business and brand communication
Every week, I will share the five stories that I have found useful to help our clients and my students sharpen their business storytelling skills. Some are new articles, while…
Cartman’s Storytelling Secret Every CMO Should Steal
I teach business storytelling workshops around the country and taught in the Executive Master’s for Sustainability Leadership program at Arizona State University, and the impact these newly story-empowered executives have when they…
What happens when you don’t own your brand story?
I showed this one-minute video in one of our storytelling workshops and asked the room what they saw. The woman sitting directly to my left turned to the other 12…
How our survival (and your success at a party) is based on three-act stories
In her excellent book, Wired for Story, Lisa Cron describes how we can go weeks without food, days without drinking, but only about 35 seconds without finding meaning in something.…
How to Excite the Moral Molecule in Your Audience to Make You More Trustworthy
When you tell a good story, you change the chemistry in your audience’s brain. For instance, when you create conflict in your story, the steroid hormone cortisol is released to…
How UPS’ viral story has our brains hopped-up on oxytocin and why it matters to marketers
I have been studying neuroeconomist Paul Zak’s work on storytelling and how it actually changes the chemistry in our brain. When we’re seduced by a good story, we produce cortisol,…
Cool new tool for creating a quick video story on your iPad
Pick a template. Upload an image. Record your voice in snippets. Add music. Then post your video. It is that easy with Adobe Voice. Let’s face it, if content is…
What social marketers can learn from a common man’s story on NPR’s StoryCorps
Once I learned about the Hero’s Journey from Joseph Campbell’s work, it started appearing everywhere. This universal pattern to story permeates all of our lives. It’s not only in the stories…
