K. Sean Buvala

New Storytelling in Business PodCast: The Elevator Speech is Dead!

Episode Five: “The Elevator Speech is Dead”
Sean talks this week about the archaic concept of the elevator speech. The elevator speech: when you learn a singular “speech” to talk about your business with new clients and customers. Rather, Sean talks about learning the power of your story to be used in different time frames. Sean also tells you the obscure Grimm tale of “Not Much.” You’ll also hear from a listener who called in to tell us his reaction to these podcasts.
Listen in: Episode Five

Non Profit Leaders: Do Your Volunteers Know Your Story?

Non Profit Leaders: Do your volunteers know your story?

Yesterday, on my way into the grocery store, a woman sitting at “animal rescue” table asked me if I would like to donate to their rescue shelter. As I made my way into the store, I had both the time and the inclination to listen to her ask for a donation as my family has been connected to the work of rescue shelters for more than six years. (You can see the website at 3lostdogs.com.) As well, we have three “rescued” shelter dogs in our life. So, I am open to the idea that these volunteers were promoting. I also know that these impromptu tables are an important non profit funding source.

I asked her, “What does your shelter do?” The volunteer was not ready to answer my question. She did not know the story of the shelter she was representing. Her only answer was, “We do the adoptions at the (name of pet store).” Outside of that, she did not know what to say.

So, unlike most people passing her table, I stopped long enough to actually talk to her. I was a prime-candidate to donate money to her cause. However, she had not been trained in how to talk to potential donors. Either she did not know the story of her group or she had not been trained to speak about her organization.

This, of course, is not her fault. Her lack of preparedness was the fault of the director of her non-profit organization. It is possible that she had been trained on where to find the table that she needed, what to do with the money she collected and where to turn in the forms at the end of her shift. She was not trained in talking about the mission of her organization.

How about your volunteers and employees? Have they been trained to tell both their story of why they volunteer as well as the story of your organization? I am not talking about elevator speeches here. These elevator speeches, also know as unique selling points, are static anecdotes used to snare others. Rather, knowing the multiple stories of your organizations and how to adapt them to both casual and formal situations is a key skill for your staff, both volunteer and paid.

Here are three steps you need to follow to prepare your staff to use the power of story in your non-profit organization.

1. Collect the stories of your group.
There are a variety of techniques available to aid any organization in the collection of their stories. However, the best method is the oldest method: listen. Train your staff to think about stories. Ask them to think: what is happening/has happened that others need to know about? Find a way to share these stories at regular gatherings. Never make story sharing mandatory in any setting. Although many trainers advocate this, the pressure of “I must have a story” results in poor stories shared when your staff is under pressure to come up with anything. Stories should always be gathered in an organic or grass-roots process.

2. Train staff in the essential skills (the how-to) of storytelling.
The best investment you can make in your organization’s future is to enlist the help of an experienced storytelling coach to teach your staff and volunteers to tell stories. You want your team to be able to know and tell your core or essential stories in a variety of time formats. For example, the volunteer I encountered outside the grocery store might have known the 20-minute story of their organization but had not been trained to tell it to me in a two-minute setting. She would need to know both the long and short versions. You also want your team to be able to use stories as frames for presentations that require quantities of data and shared information. Teach storytelling techniques first and save the high-level theories of storytelling for advanced classes once your staff has had success with storytelling.

3. All non-profit leadership must use stories at every gathering.
In every public speaking setting, from formal board meetings to casual walk-arounds, the leadership of the organization must fully immerse themselves in the use of story. Despite the glut of storytelling-for-business consultants available, the idea of storytelling for adults in a business setting remains challenging for many. Your leadership team, from the top on down, must clearly demonstrate the importance of story in all settings.

In even good economic times, a non-profit organization must have a strong command of their past, present and future stories. Your potential donors are interested in what their money can do in your organization, assuming your mission aligns with their values. Are your volunteers ready to speak your mission statement, not in overused mission “statement-eese,” but rather in the geniune stories of your group’s daily experiences?

Expressing your organization’s story should be a skill for all of your staff. It is a requirement for business communication today. Consider everyone in your organization to be public speakers. Your experiences, expressed in story, are the unique features of your group. Be sure your donors can understand them.

I did explain to the volunteer outside the grocery store about my family’s history and thanked her for the good work she was promoting in defense of abandoned animals. Her work was important and I hope she had some success in collecting funds for their rescue project. However, I knew that she was unprepared for real conversations about the work and mission of her group. I hope that the leadership of her group soon gets a chance to teach their staff to tell the real stories of the challenges and successes of their charity.

Good stories, willing listeners and a staff trained in public speaking skills are tangible assets for every non-profit group must have.

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.

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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 .

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.

Advice for New Twitter Users: 5 Tips

As a working artist and speaking coach, I have found Twitter to be an effective tool for producing a greater quantity of interested contacts and providing thought-provoking conversations. Here are a few basic tips you need to know.

1. Add in your photo, your location, bio and URL.

Those little pieces of information help you to become a “real” person to those who might be interested in following and getting updates from you. If you are using Twitter just to play around, then put whatever you want in those slots. If you are using Twitter to build relationships around your brand or company, then put real answers in there. A photo is necessary if you want your profile to be taken seriously. I do not follow (have the regular updates of others directly posted to my page) those who cannot complete their profile.

Hint: After you have logged in to Twitter, you will find the place to make all these changes when you click the word “settings” in the upper right-hand corner.

2. Frequently check the “@Replies” and “Direct Messages” for your account.

@Replies are messages that are sent to your attention that everyone on Twitter can read. Direct Messages, usually abbreviated as DM, are messages that are sent only to you and can be read only by you. Once you are logged in, you can find the links to both of these sections on the far right-hand side of the page.

3. Use the @ feature to engage in conversations.

Twitter is no longer a one-way posting system. There are conversations taking place. Please participate. You have two ways to respond if someone Tweets (sends) a message that interests you. First, you can use the built-in feature to reply. Next to the Tweet (the short message) to which you want to respond, to the right edge of the message, are two symbols that appear when you mouse over the edge of the Tweet. Click on the round arrow that points to the left. This will automatically put the original poster’s name in the “what are you doing” box at the top of the page as well as provide a link back to the original post. You then just fill in your comments right next to the name of the original sender and then press the “update” button.

The second way to respond to a Tweet or initiate a conversation is to directly address an individual. You do this by using the @ and the user name. For example, if you wanted to send a message to me with the user name of “storyteller,” the first thing you would type in the message box is: @storyteller. Notice there is no space between the @ sign and my user name. A message to me would look like this:

@storyteller Thanks for the Twitter Tips!

Remember that the @ function is public. Always keep your postings professional and civil. Twitter is not the place for schoolyard fights and name-calling. Always let your postings reflect the best of who you are and what you do.

4. Grow your followers naturally instead of playing the “counting” game.

I follow people on Twitter because what they say interests me or somehow applies to my work. In most cases, I will also follow anyone who sends me an @ message as that means they have actually read my postings. I do not follow everyone who follows me nor do I expect that everyone must follow me back. I think it is also disingenuous to say you are following thousands of people. There is simply no way to keep track of thousands of followers. “I have more followers than you” is a game that you do not need to play. Your followers will build slowly and naturally as you Twit (post) your ideas.

5. Tweet about what you know, sharing links and resources rather than trying to sell something.

You will frequently read about “adding value” to the Twitter conversations. Be a Twitter giver. Be an expert in your field rather than trying to get the rest of us to buy something from you. Ask real questions and watch the answers flow back @ you. If you are adding good content in order to build relationships and conversations, you will hear from those who will want to know more about your work and career.

6. Bonus Tip: You are not limited to answering Twitter’s “What Are You Doing?” question.

Spend some time watching how others use Twitter. You will find very few folks who are only talking about their activities. You will find lots of good conversations, interesting links and growing relationships.

You will find that Twitter can is a way to improve your communications and even create new opportunities. There is so much more to the Twitter service than I have touched on here and I hope this article gives you a way to get started.

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Sean Buvala (www.seantells.net) is a full-time, professional storyteller and presenter coach who will teach you to use the power of story to increase your bottom line and increase employee satisfaction and retention. He also trains other working artists how to create their own effective marketing campaigns via his ‘Outside-In Artists’ Marketing Boot Camp.”

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.

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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 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)