Anecdotally Speaking

In an Anecdotally Speaking first, this week’s episode is a solo episode with Shawn as host! He shares a story from Gina Keating’s book, Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America’s Eyeballs: https://buff.ly/2U3LKMR

The story follows the period in which Blockbuster went from being at its peak with some 9,000 stores worldwide to declaring bankruptcy.

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Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Anecdote Principal Paul Ichilcik joins Shawn as cohost.

Shawn shares two stories that, although apocryphal, are useful in a business context. He also mentions his new blog post, Why would you share your point BEFORE telling your story?, which you can find here: https://buff.ly/3l6M9Jq

You can find more parables and learn more about using them in the following episodes.

- 114 – Tails with the Raj of mice and men: https://buff.ly/3qOxSll

- 054 – Looking upstream for causes of downstream problems: https://buff.ly/2WFBafP

- 017 – All about apocryphal stories: https://buff.ly/2jl942A

With Mark still on leave, Mike joins Shawn again as cohost. The pair talk about insight and discuss the role stories can play in helping people find, share, and gain acceptance for their insights.

Mike mentions The Challenger Customer, written by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, and Nick Toman: https://buff.ly/2Wbn71i

He also references his book, Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell: https://buff.ly/3BDATtP

And Shawn’s book, Putting Stories to Work: http://puttingstoriestowork.com/

Mark is on leave this week, so Mike Adams, Head of Story-Powered Sales at Anecdote and author of Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell, joins Shawn as co-host. 

Shawn and Mike discuss the effectiveness (or rather, the ineffectiveness) of case studies. They propose the use of success stories as an alternative. Instead of showcasing the seller, success stories showcase the client and the buyer’s success so that prospects can envisage the same success for themselves. Mike shares an example of a success story, a story within a story, and details the success story structure.

To watch a video of Mike telling this story, visit: https://buff.ly/3wScvRu

To access our eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Anecdote Circles, visit: https://buff.ly/3kB3qtW

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, another special guest joins Shawn and Mark, Anecdote Partner Mark Janssen: https://buff.ly/3wDFkRI

Mark is based in Gouda, the Netherlands. He shares how he became an Anecdote Partner and a story you can add to your story repertoire.

Shawn and Mark mention our upcoming public programs, including two Storytelling for Leaders workshops that we have just announced. For more information, visit our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

Shawn’s on leave, so Paul Ichilcik, Anecdote Principal, co-hosts this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking. Mark shares a story about a story (or, more specifically, a story about a fable—a short, fictional story with anthropomorphised characters.)

We often have people say to us, “But there’s no place for storytelling with senior leaders. They’re just too busy. There’s no time for stories.” Well, this week’s story makes a case against that perspective, illustrating how a senior leader can use a story to effortlessly and effectively make a business point.

The pair mention our upcoming Storytelling for Leaders and Story-Powered Data public programs. Note that the Storytelling for Leaders program is better suited to timezones in the Asia Pacific and the Americas, and our Story-Powered Data program will run in September. For more information, visit our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! Mark is feeling a bit of pressure this week after hearing such a great story from Doug Keeley in our last episode (https://buff.ly/3xFF1Xz). He shares a sports story following the actions that led Svetlana Khorkina to win a gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Shawn mentions this study of professional golfers and how they react to their hole-by-hole play: https://buff.ly/3hidULM

We’ve just announced a series of virtual public programs to run in July, August, and September. Whether you’re a leader, a salesperson, work with data, or in a school, we have a program for you! For more information, head to our events page (https://www.anecdote.com/events/). We would love to have some of our listeners along!

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, we have a special guest! Doug Keeley joins Shawn and Mark on the podcast.

Doug is an Anecdote Partner and the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Stories Rule! He shares how he got into storytelling, met the Anecdote team, and his all-time favourite business story, which all three guys give a solid 9/10 rating.

Mark mentions Dave Carroll’s 2009 YouTube sensation, United Breaks Guitars, which Shawn wrote about in this blog post: https://buff.ly/2ZRDePb

If you would like to connect with Doug, you can find his LinkedIn profile here: https://buff.ly/3zFaLhl

Shawn shares the story of how BlackBerry went from holding a 50 per cent market share to a market share of less than 1 per cent. He heard the story from Adam Grant when listening to a Clubhouse conversation between him and Malcolm Gladwell. It illustrates that you shouldn’t get too stuck in your thinking but welcome opportunities to adjust.

It’s Mark’s turn to share a story, and he chooses to share the story behind the founding of Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a global event held on a Saturday at the end of March every year, where participants across the globe turn out their lights for one hour to advocate for action against climate change.

Shawn and Mark first heard this story from Todd Sampson, who was part of the group that came up with the initial idea for the event. Todd uses the story to illustrate the importance of asking good questions.