Anecdotally Speaking

This week, Mark shares a story he saw Anecdote Partner, Maria Marenco (https://buff.ly/3iCnihZ), share on LinkedIn to celebrate International Women’s Day last week. Maria was a guest on the podcast earlier this year, featuring in 173 – Knowledge can come from any source with Maria Marenco: https://buff.ly/3XCoVL8

If you’re a Masterchef fan, this is a story for you! And as you’ll hear, you could use it to make a variety of business points. Please feel free to share how you would use it in the comments below!

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! We were slow to record a new episode this week (our apologies!). Instead, we’re celebrating International Women’s Day by sharing one of our favourite stories about a phenomenal woman, a record-breaking solo sailor, Lisa Blair.

Shawn first heard this story in an interview with Lisa on ABC Radio. You can listen to the same ABC Conversations episode here: https://buff.ly/3Clcr1E. It makes a case for the saying, ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going.’ And in retelling it, Shawn showcases a storytelling technique where you bring the end of a story to the beginning to keep your audience interested.

This week, Mark has another aircraft story for us. But don’t hesitate over the play button. Indranil Chakraborty (IC), our Anecdote Partner based in India, recently shared this story on his website, and it was simply too good not to retell on Anecdotally Speaking! 

IC found this story in Todd Rose’s book, The End of Average: How We Succeed in a World That Values Sameness: https://buff.ly/3ZbKXWi. So if you’d like to learn more, we recommend you pick it up!

Having spent 20 years in the airforce, Mark is always intrigued by a story from the aviation industry. In 166 – Don’t let money be your purpose, he shared a story about how focusing on money made Boeing responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people: https://buff.ly/3DJKJh0

In this episode, he shares the story behind another crash, which has some valuable lessons. It suggests that because it’s easy to make decisions in isolation, we must ensure we don’t lose sight of their collective impact.

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story he heard Ron Howard tell on an episode of the SmartLess podcast: https://buff.ly/3XlDJgV

Similar to 173 – Knowledge can come from any source with Maria Marenco (https://buff.ly/3XCoVL8), it suggests that ideas can come from anywhere, so you should foster a culture that encourages sharing them.

Ron Howard directed Apollo 13 (https://buff.ly/30mC7eJ) and many other movies and has held over 80 acting roles since he started acting as a two-year-old in the 1950s. And throughout his entire career, he has remembered one experience he had as a seven-year-old.

Shawn and Mark mention our try-before-you-buy offer for our public programs. If you’re interested in evaluating Storytelling for Leaders (https://buff.ly/3R4bfqd) or Story-Powered Sales (https://buff.ly/2YcPRVS) for your organisation, we’d love to offer you a complimentary ticket to attend one of our upcoming events: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

To enquire, send an email to [email protected].

Shawn also mentions his Putting Stories to Work Discussion Guide, which you can download by clicking here: https://buff.ly/3YM2KTr

This week, it’s Shawn’s turn to tell a story! He shares one about idea adoption that he read in Billy Oppenheimer’s newsletter, SIX at 6: https://buff.ly/3HE0SFw.

Shawn refers to this video of the Run-DMC and Aerosmith collaboration: https://buff.ly/2TJoDBe

And he mentions the book, Walk This Way: Run-DMC, Aerosmith, and the Song that Changed American Music Forever: https://buff.ly/3lcCGlW

Shawn and Mark also refer to a story about Dr Everett Rogers and corn farming, which we featured in 109 – New corn idea falls on deaf ears: https://buff.ly/3hQWF68

And this blog post: https://buff.ly/3RzVfg1

This episode features a hip-hop-inspired surprise from our sound engineer, Dave Stokes! We hope you enjoy it!

Welcome back to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking!

This week, Mark shares a story that was told to him in a recent coaching call. It illustrates how we can miss the big picture when we focus on one detail, but you could also use it to encourage that person in your life to read the instructions!

As this story comes from a current Anecdote client, we have changed some details to deidentify the company.

This week, Shawn tells a 1-minute story shared by Kurt Vonnegut, the author of Slaughterhouse-Five, in a poem he wrote as a tribute to Joseph Heller, his friend and fellow author, after he passed away. The New Yorker first published the poem (https://buff.ly/3R1RDTP) in 2005. 

Despite its short length, the story prompts Shawn and Mark to discuss what makes a good story and how long stories should be. So we think you’ll get a lot out of this episode! 

Shawn and Mark also mention that we have released our 2023 events calendar! This year, we’re running public Storytelling for Leaders (https://buff.ly/3R4bfqd) and Story-Powered Sales (https://buff.ly/2YcPRVS) programs every two months.

Complimentary tickets are available for those wanting to evaluate a program on behalf of their organisation. And paid tickets are available for personal development and individuals who may have missed the opportunity to complete a program with their team.

To view the calendar, visit: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

And to enquire about a complimentary ticket, email us at [email protected].

Welcome to Anecdotally Speaking and our first episode for 2023! We kick off the New Year with a special guest, Maria Marenco (https://buff.ly/3iCnihZ). Maria is a member of the Anecdote Partner Network and describes herself as a Spanish scientist and storytelling trainer based in Stuttgart, Germany.

Mark first heard the story he shared in episode 170 – One person can change the world (https://buff.ly/3F8r8GB) from Maria, and in this episode, she shares a science story.

Shawn and Mark mention the movie Hidden Figures (https://buff.ly/3dwk2hb), the story behind which Mark shared in 037 – Fortran reveals Hidden Figures (https://buff.ly/2sUTWO7).

Welcome to the last episode of Anecdotally Speaking for 2022, our holiday special! We’re taking a short, three-week break, but we will be back to add more stories to your repertoire on Tuesday, the 17th of January, 2023!

This week, Mark shares a story about feedback featuring professional footballer Lionel Messi. He and Shawn were inspired to share it after seeing Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall’s article, The Feedback Fallacy (https://buff.ly/3VYv18c), listed as one of twelve HBR editors’ favourites in Celebrating a Century of Harvard Business Review (https://buff.ly/3BzodGd). Mark references this video of Messi: https://buff.ly/3FR5Hvm

Thank you to our listeners and guests for supporting our podcast. We were so happy to reach 150,000 downloads last Friday!

The Anecdote office will be closed for the upcoming holiday period from Friday, the 23rd of December and reopen on Monday, the 9th of December. We hope you have a safe and happy holiday period!