Anecdotally Speaking

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Anecdotally Speaking for 2022! We’re starting the year on a high as we’ve reached over 100,000 downloads! Thank you to all our listeners for tuning in and helping us reach this milestone!

For those who are new to the podcast—each week, we share a business story, talk about why it works and discuss where you might tell it at work. We aim to help you build your story repertoire.

This week, Shawn shares a short story from The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present by Paul McCartney: https://buff.ly/34PAUyU

He also discusses why he took issue with ‘The power of storytelling – a cautionary tale’, an episode of the ABC’s Future Tense podcast: https://buff.ly/32bc0Jg

We'll be launching our 2022 events calendar soon, so keep an eye on our events page to find out how you can improve your business storytelling skills: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

You can also browse our online courses here: https://academy.anecdote.com

Welcome to the last episode of Anecdotally Speaking for 2021! We’re taking a short break over the holiday period but will leave you with one final episode!

This week, Shawn shares a story he heard from Mike Adams, our Head of Story-Powered Sales. And after discussing it as per our usual episode format, Shawn and Mark talk about stories and the festive season!

We hope you enjoy a safe and happy holiday period, and we’re looking forward to seeing what 2022 brings! Note that the Anecdote office will be closed from the 20th of December until the 10th of January.

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn is back! And a member of the Anecdote team you haven’t yet heard on the podcast joins him—Cynden Adams, our Head of Marketing.

Shawn shares a short but sweet story that he recently heard from a friend. It’s a great story for encouraging empathy and illustrating emotional intelligence.

Cynden mentions our upcoming public Storytelling for Leaders programs, which you can learn more about via our events webpage: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

She also invites listeners to tell the team what they’d like to see from Anecdote in 2022! If you have a request for Anecdotally Speaking, the Anecdote Blog, or anything else, you can contact Cynden at [email protected].

If you intend to reach out to us, keep in mind that the Anecdote office will be closed from the 20th of December until the 10th of January.

Rob Grundel joins the podcast this week! He’s standing in for Shawn, who’s on leave.

Rob shares a story that recently came up in an Anecdote team meeting. It’s from Hugh van Cuylenburg’s first book, The Resilience Project: Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness: https://buff.ly/3pyo8eT

Rob also mentions Hugh’s new book, Let Go: It’s Time for us to Let Go of Shame, Expectation and our Addiction to Social Media: https://buff.ly/3y0FXXS

And the pair discuss Rob’s debut on Anecdotally Speaking, which occurred for 122 – Grumpy maestros and all that jazz: https://buff.ly/3gN5yfp

Our podcast email notifications include a list of business points that you can make with each featured story. To subscribe, fill out the subscribe form on our podcasts webpage: https://www.anecdote.com/podcasts/

Trigger warning: This week’s episode touches on suicide, so some listeners may prefer to skip this one and tune back in next week. If you need help, you can call Lifeline at any time on 13 11 14.

Shawn’s on leave this week, so we’re re-releasing an earlier episode of Anecdotally Speaking! In episode 034, Mark shares the story of Southwest Airlines’ ‘Bags Fly Free’ campaign, which generated more than $1 billion for the airline.

The book Mark mentions as his source for this story is Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud by Lisa Earle McLeod: https://buff.ly/3xFaF8H

We like to say that there are three ‘buckets’ of stories: your stories, other people’s stories, and everything else—books, movies... You name it. You can pull a story from any of these buckets and use it to make a business point. 

This week, Mark shares a story that may surprise you. It’s from the third bucket of stories and a very well-known book and movie series, Harry Potter. Specifically, he shares an anecdote from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. You can watch a relevant 2-minute snippet of the movie here: https://buff.ly/3kFjiLr

Shawn mentions a previous episode (037 – Fortran reveals Hidden Figures) where he shared a story from the movie Hidden Figures. You can listen to it here: https://buff.ly/2sUTWO7

The pair also announce that we have just published the dates for our first public Storytelling for Leaders workshops of 2022. You can find more information and register via our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

This week, Shawn shares a scientific story. It’s a visual story that you’ll be able to picture in your mind’s eye. And it follows the reintroduction of wolves into the world’s oldest national park—Yellowstone National Park.

There are numerous examples of humans removing species from particular ecosystems and witnessing impacts. There is only a handful like the one in this episode—of placing a species put back into an ecosystem and seeing a ripple effect of impact. 

If you’re new to Anecdotally Speaking, you’ve joined us at the perfect time! Shawn and Mark start this episode by recapping our episode structure. Each week, Shawn and Mark take turns to share a story that you can add to your story repertoire. They discuss what they like about it, how it could be improved and, most importantly, how you can use it in a business context. They then wrap things up by rating the story out of ten. 

This week’s story gets a rare 9/10 from Mark and a strong 8.5/10 from Shawn!

This week, we’re taking a walk down memory lane and revisiting (and re-releasing) an earlier episode of Anecdotally Speaking! In episode 023, Mark shares an industrial design story, which you’ll find particularly useful if you’re involved in product, process or service design. 

The story follows Doug Dietz, who spent years designing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. When he finally went to see his machine in action on-site, he was shocked by what he saw, despite it functioning perfectly. 

Shawn mentions now Anecdote team member Mike Adams’ book, Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell, which he was still working on at the time of recording: https://buff.ly/3BDATtP

Doug Dietz has given a TEDx talk about his MRI machine. If you’re interested, you can find it here: https://buff.ly/2QmF07X

Thank you for joining us for another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Shawn shares a short but lovely story from the world of sport.

Shawn recently heard Evonne Goolagong Cawley share this story, a tennis story, on the radio. Evonne is an Australian former world number one tennis player. She was one of the world’s leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s.

We hope you enjoy the episode!

Welcome back to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a historical story.

The story follows Marie Curie’s actions during World War One. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. She is also the only person to win a Nobel prize in two different disciplines, physics and chemistry.