K. Sean Buvala

Three Secrets Storytelling Reveals About Your Business or Nonprofit Organization

Knowing storytelling techniques is not a “fluffy” or soft skill for your business. Just as your accountant needs to have strong skills in numbers and laws, so must all your staff and volunteers learn storytelling, both creating and listening.

As good accounting can be a barometer about your company so does storytelling give you a picture of your organization’s health. Like the ledger, business storytelling reveals truth about your organization. No matter if your company has just a single entrepreneur or a payroll of thousands, pay attention to these revelations.

1. Storytelling reveals what your customers really think. Gathering customer stories tells you what is truly happening. No matter what organizational myth you might have, the real truth comes from your customers. There is a reason the “Emperor’s New Clothes” is such a popular story for so many generations. Are you going to be caught naked someday because you did not truly listen to your client’s real stories?

2. Storytelling reveals who is really paying attention. Your company should make it a point to conduct regular sessions of story gathering from employees and management. Processes like my “Intentionality”(tm) activity help anyone in any company create stories about everyday experiences. Like a Board that cannot tell you about the company ledger, be very afraid of any upper management that never has new stories of the company. Stories of how the powerful are deposed are very common in world folktales. Is your CEO paying attention- even if the CEO and the janitor are the same person in your small business?

3. Storytelling reveals your organization’s ability to adapt to change. For survival, your ledger needs to show some reserve funds for your metaphorical “rainy day.” So, too, stories of change show how your company has the readiness and acceptance of the inevitable shifts in the market. Are you prepared for everything to change tomorrow? Are you stuck in the same old ways? Can you make a list, right now, of the stories that show how your nonprofit or business has adapted to change? You do not have past stories of change management and adaptability in your company? You are in for a rough future.

Corporate stories and skills in business storytelling, yes even storytelling for financial advisors, are as valuable to your group as good accounting. Are you giving storytelling the attention it deserves?

Corporate Storytelling Techniques: Five Ways to Convey Your Passion

Stories are being told about your company all the time. Unless you have never had a customer, someone somewhere is talking about your company. When they do so, they are speaking with passion either for or against your business. You need to have your passionate stories ready to add to that conversation. To create raving fans in your business, you need to be a raving business.

When a customer experiences your company, they leave with an impression. If they were offended, hurt or feel they did not get good value, they will passionately talk about (create the story of) their perceptions of your business. Likewise, if you exceeded their expectations, they will also talk about that story. When a person hears one of these customer stories about your business, do you have your own equally passionate company stories to counter or confirm? Can your customers find these passionate stories on your website via video or audio links?

Here are five storytelling for business tips to help you express your passion:

1. Do not be afraid to be full of passion about your product or service. For example, I am always amazed at the way small brick-and-mortar business owners can be so alive and excited about their offerings but yet have zero expressions of that anywhere on their websites, other advertising or in casual conversations. Real passion ignites real passion. Don’t tell me that you’re “passionate about the perfect cup of coffee” at your coffee shop. Rather, through business storytelling, show me your passion by telling me the story of how you spent a year travelling the country to find the best and most unique roasting machine. I want to see that look in your eyes as you tell me about the best/worst coffee you ever had that led you to start your own business. Let me laugh with you about your obsessive interviewing and auditioning in order to find the perfect baristas. Help me to feel your focus as you tell me about going through a dozen suppliers (and their unique personalities) looking for the perfect coffee beans.

2. Your employees are your best source of truth about your company. Train your employees in ways to gather and collect their own company stories. Then, on a regular basis, gather employees together to share these stories. The sharing of these stories must not be mandatory. Requiring employees to have a story results in faked stories. By the way, my coaching clients will sometimes hesitate to use this story-gathering process with employees because the session will generate “nothing but complaints” from the participants. All stories have value to your company and if you are getting lots of complaints, let those stories be the catalyst for internal change. Take the cue to understand: if your staff is producing uncomfortable stories, then you can be assured that your customers are unhappy, too.

3. If your company is very large with multiple locations or large departments, start your storytelling process in just one section of the company. Nothing squashes passion more than yet another management project that “we are all going to do.” Choose one department and let them be the first group to experience the power of business storytelling. Once they have learned and applied storytelling techniques successfully, then other departments or locations will want to join in.

4. The elevator speech is dead. For any size company, learn to tell each of your stories in a variety of time formats such as two minutes, six minutes or fifteen minutes. Always be ready to tell potential customers about your work. Your preparedness will help convey your passion.

5. Remember that storytelling is a person-to-person experience. Take every opportunity to be in front of customers or employees to tell your stories. Digital storytelling, print advertisements and social media are all fine tools, but they can never replace the benefits of experiencing your story passionately told live and in person.

Storytelling is one of your business communication essentials. Add passion to your public speaking!

***
Sean Buvala is a storyteller and corporate coach focusing on communication skills through the art of storytelling for business. He can be reached at www.seantells.net . You may also follow him on Twitter at @storyteller.

Storytelling for Business: Three Quick Fixes

Three Quick Fixes to Your Storytelling for Business.

Having done executive coaching and corporate storytelling training over the last 23 years, I have seen many common mistakes from folks wishing to use storytelling for business presentations. Here are three of my quick fixes for public speaking issues.

Fix Number One: Take your story seriously.
World stories, myths and legends have endured for many centuries because of their ability to carry powerful messages in the small space of well-selected words. Use this power carefully. When I work with clients, they will often have spent many hours on their appearance, their eye contact and the slides they will project. However, they only spend minutes on story selection and presentation. This is a big mistake. There is no such thing as a simple story. Stories are powerful tools and, used incorrectly, they will explode back at you. Stories selected with care, crafted with good storytelling techniques and told with an intentional purpose will create a long-lasting impact on your audience. Your listeners will remember your stories long after the memory of your nice tie, fancy dress or overhead slides quickly fades away.

Fix Number Two: Plan the gestures you will use.
Your hands do not always need to be in motion nor held clasped in front of you as if you were carrying a bouquet of flowers. Avoid making choppy hand movements with eve-ry syl-la-ble you speak. Plan your gestures to match your story and move effortlessly and smoothly from one gesture to another. Let you hands rest naturally at your sides in between gestures. Try to avoid the finger pyramids or hand clasping between gestures.

Fix Number Three: Speak in your natural voice.
One of the best time investments you can make as a public speaker is to watch a professional storyteller speak to your target demographic of adults. You will see and hear the differences between how one tells stories to adults and how one practices storytelling for children. You must avoid the “sing song” voice of the unpracticed storyteller, who, like revered hosts of children’s television programming, makes a lilting vocal pattern that sends adult audiences screaming out of the room.

Also, be aware that when you speak personal or “real” stories about your company you do not imitate or mimic the voices of others. Speak in your own voice. In most cases, do not change your voice to reflect your perceptions of the gender, race, regional origin or social status of those of which you are speaking. Mimicking another can quickly backfire on you, causing you to lose goodwill and trust with your audience.

Applying these quick fixes for public speaking will help your audience to be fully immersed in your presentation. Your storytelling, well prepared and well coached, can lower your public speaking anxiety and make you one of the best business speakers your audience has ever heard.

**
Sean Buvala ( Twitter him @storyteller) is an award-winning storyteller, experienced business speaker and executive speaking coach who helps businesses grow their bottom line and create employee satisfaction through the power of storytelling. His website is http://www.seantells.net. He offers private training and coaching. Learn about his small group, multi-day workshop at http://www.executivespeakingtraining.com .

Improve Your Communication Skills with Storytelling Techniques

Use Storytelling Techniques Improve Your Communication Skills

Storytelling is the “mother” of all communications. Every art form relies on Story to convey meaning. Despite this truth, many communicators only approach storytelling as an adjunct to their speaking and presenting. For this quick article, I am speaking about oral storytelling, not digital storytelling that does not rely or build on a presenter’s public speaking skills. I suggest that mastering oral or traditional storytelling should be at the top of every speaker’s list of priorities.

Here are three foundational reasons that storytelling helps you improve your presentation skills:

1. Storytelling teaches you to think on your feet. When you learn to be a good storyteller, telling stories to all sizes of audiences from 2 or 2000 people, you must learn to adjust your energy and pace to match the audience reaction. “Reading” or understanding the mood, energy and desires of your audience is a good communication skill at all levels.

2. Storytelling teaches you to be spontaneous. While you are learning to tell a story, you focus on thinking about your story in an outline form, or episode-by-episode. Good storytellers do not memorize their stories word-for-word and do not use notes or other ways of reading their stories. No matter how you are communicating, it is never a good idea to deliver a canned, memorized speech to anyone. As a storyteller, you learn to rely on your ability to “see” a story as it happens, letting different parts of the story take precedence at different times. You will never tell a story the same way twice just as you should never speak to an audience like any audience before it.

3. Storytelling helps you to think about the deeper meanings of your content. Almost all stories carry some type of moral or ethical message and understanding. As you adapt personal and world stories to your presentations, you will start thinking deeper about the meaning of your communications. Of course, you may or may not act on those meanings, but you will generally find your presentations more satisfying as you understand their impact on your listeners.

All cultures use storytelling. Storytelling is a universal language and a core-skill for all presenters. My best public-speaking tip: seek out learning and coaching in the art of storytelling and work stories into all your presentations.

***
Sean Buvala is a professional storyteller, the director of Storyteller.net and a nationally recognized storytelling consultant. Please see his website to learn more about his storytelling techniques for corporate training. You can learn how to tell a story through his Ebook at at www.storytelling101.com

Episode 4 of the “Storytelling and Business Podcast” Is Ready!

The next episode of our “Storytelling and Narrative for Business Podcast” is ready for you!

Episode Four: “Storytelling is Not a ‘Soft Skill’: Sure Looked Easy”
Sean brings you some tough-love this week to help you understand that storytelling is a “hard skill” for your business. Fail that understanding and things can go bad. Get real coaching and training to sharpen your skills.

Listen in: Episode Four

Find all the podcasts on this page here.

“Bobby Jindal’s Speech Demonstrates Business Storytelling Do’s and Don’ts.” says National Storytelling Expert

Press Release

Avondale, AZ- National storytelling expert and speaking coach, K. Sean Buvala, reviews Bobby Jindal’s “Republican Response” speech and offers four public-speaking tips gleaned from the Governor’s presentation.

Buvala, the director of the national storytelling resource site at Storyteller.net, says, “Regardless of anyone’s political preferences, the Governor’s speech illustrates that stories and storytelling can be used in any type of important speech. As a corporate storyteller, I was happy to see yet another national figure make use of story in their presentation. I also think that any person using stories can learn four things from Mr. Jindal’s speech.”

Use intentional hand gestures. Buvala says, “The Governor uses frequent, choppy hand gestures that are synchronous with the syllables of the words he speaks. It looks as if he is conducting an orchestra or cutting onions to the rhythm of his words. Speakers should plan the gestures that they will use with their stories. These intentional movements can then enhance the stories being told instead of being a distraction.”

Be careful when using “Me too” stories. Mr. Buvala continues, “While I appreciate and respect the Governor’s family story of struggling immigrants, his narrative immediately following his comments regarding the president’s family history both lessens and distracts from the power of the Governor’s background story. In order to seem less like a ’me too’ attempt at connection, the story might have served better at the end of the story. While it is a good thing that the Governor used stories, the placement of those stories must be carefully considered. ”

Use tone and pacing appropriate for your audience. Buvala notes that, “Bobby Jindal’s pacing, tone and inflection during his speech reminded me of a school teacher giving a motivational speech to young children rather than a thoughtful reaction intended for thinking adults. The constant head nodding, the sharp intake of breath between sentences and the higher pitch of his speaking took power away from his stories, perhaps making his narratives sound childish. I’d suggest that the Governor concentrate on slowing his pace, intentionally speak with a lower pitch and allow himself to breath deeply by using longer pauses more often.

Use stories to “frame” your presentation. “Finally,” says Sean Buvala, “although Mr. Jindal’s family history story might have been better placed in the speech, he does refer back to his opening story at the end of his presentation, when speaking again of his father’s words. This process, called ’framing,’ reminds the listeners of the central point of a talk, giving them a virtual ’frame’ in which to see the ideas painted with the speaker’s words.”

Buvala, who teaches monthly public workshops for business storytelling, knows that stories used in national conversations help unify listening audiences. “Governor Jindal’s use of personal stories allows the audience to understand the speaker as a human being rather than just a ’talking head’ for an ideology.”

For more information about group or private coaching in the art of storytelling for corporate or business use, please contact Sean Buvala via his website at www.seantells.net.

Contact Information:

K. Sean Buvala
www.seantells.net
(623) 298-4548
sean@storyteller.net

PO Box 392
Tolleson AZ 85353

“EXPERT CONSULTANT for the Press, Television and Radio”
Storytelling (both traditional and digital), performing artists, public speaking, corporate training, business coaching, non-profit organizations.

PROMOTIONAL PHOTOS
Promotional photos of Sean Buvala are available for download at:

http://www.seantells.com/seanbuvala_1.jpg

http://www.seantells.com/seanbuvala_2.jpg

http://www.seantells.com/seanbuvala_3.jpg

http://www.storyteller.net/sunwind/smallseanbuvala.jpg

http://www.storyteller.net/sunwind/largeseanbuvala.jpg

###

Three Foundations of Non-Profit Storytelling

(Submitted by K. Sean Buvala)

There are three essential stones needed to build a strong foundation of storytelling in business. Are you practicing them?

1. Corporate and Non Profit Storytelling must be gathered in an organic manner. The imperative of “come to the meeting with three stories to share” is always destined to fail. It is a very popular teaching right now to have company meetings where employees are required to share stories. Mandatory story sharing does not work. Most people, unless they are trained in the process of gathering stories as they happen, cannot produce stories on demand. It is much like the old game-show experiences where contestants say they can play the game great at home, but when they are there in the television studio, they cannot remember anything at all.

To gather stories from your employees and volunteers, immerse them in the techniques of story gathering. I teach several different methods including Trigger Words™ and Intentionality™. As people become more comfortable with finding stories, they will be better able to submit these story ideas via Email or perhaps in employee gatherings where storytelling is optional and fun. These types of stories, gathered in a natural and organic manner, make a much stronger foundation upon which to build programming and marketing.

2. Stories used in business storytelling must be used in an ethical manner. When you find a story, either from an employee or customer, you must get permission to tell that story. It is never ethical to tell someone else’s story as your own, as if it happened to you.

Several years ago, I was teaching at a corporate event. At the end of the session, members of the class began to share their stories that they had worked on all day. One participant began to tell a story about eating cookies while seated at the gate of an airport. As she spoke, I began to recognize clearly that her story was taken directly from one of those collections of sappy stories printed in mass market books. When she finished her tale, I asked her how it felt to have had that story published in a very popular book. After several moments of go-around, she admitted that it was not her story but one she found. Of course, her integrity with the group dropped a notch or two. What would the fallout be when caught telling lies with real customers?

In the non-profit world, the use of stories must be approached with special concern and sensitivity. Always have permission to use a story and never tell a story that did not happen unless you have clearly identified it as an amalgamation of the “typical” stories of your company.

3. Storytelling must be practiced from the “top down.” If the CEO and other senior staff members refuse to use storytelling, then you cannot expect the sales staff on the floor to embrace story. Unlike many management fads and ideas, story as a communication tool has been proven successful for centuries. Yet, many employees may find storytelling initially uncomfortable. To be successful in your organization, the most senior members of your staff must be the first to tell stories in meetings and events. As a trainer, I know that the first group I must train for storytelling are the folks in the corner offices.

Knowing these three essential stones to storytelling will improve your experiences in corporate communications.

***

About the Author: K. Sean Buvala

“I help entrepreneurs and non-profit leaders utilize the power of storytelling to increase their bottom line, secure funding, and recruit/retain staff and volunteers.” He is the founder and director of the “Executive Speaker Training” workshop, with focused, small-group training in the art and techniques of business storytelling.

Storytelling in Business Podcast #3

Our next edition of the “Storytelling and Narrative for Business Podcast” is now available. This time around, we respond to a listener’s email asking about the use of jokes, anecdotes and stories. Sean discussion the differences between each of these items as well as tells you the story of “Just Enough.” Sponsored by http://www.executivespeakertraining.com and presented by http://www.seantells.net.

Please send your questions and comments to sean@storyteller.net and be sure to put “podcast comments” in the subject line.

Click below to listen in!

Storytelling In Business Podcast #3

Storytelling for Business Podcast, Number 2

Our next edition of the “Storytelling and Narrative for Business Podcast” is now available. This week, we ask what makes a plumber worth what they are worth, talking about telling an old-hat or familiar story for your business. Sponsored by http://www.executivespeakertraining.com and presented by http://www.seantells.net.

Listen in:

Storytelling and Narrative for Business Podcast #2

Storytelling in Business Podcast, Episode 1

We’ve launched the “Storytelling in Business Podcast” presented by seantells.com and executivespeakertraining.com. These are short, easy-to-listen-to podcasts that last between 8 and 10 minutes.

We want your input, your questions. Maybe you do something interesting with Storytelling in your business? Send your comments to us at sean@storyteller.net and be sure your subject line reads something such as “podcast question” or “podcast comment.”

Storytelling in Business Podcast #1 (seantells.com)