A great communicator is a master of story and storytelling techniques.   

WHO'S THIS CHANNEL FOR?  

STORYTELLING IS A TRANSFERENCE OF EMOTION

STORYTELLING IS THE GREAT ENGAGEMENT TOOL Whether your story is a legend, a myth, a fable, or an anecdote, the purpose of your story is to engage others and elicit a response; be it laughter, tears, amazement or action. Storytelling does that.  

WHO'S THIS CHANNEL FOR?

WHAT YOU WILL GET OUT OF SUBSCRIBING

STORIES MAKE US HUMAN

I'm inviting you to subscribe to the STORYTELLING WORKS PODCAST  in Spotify or iTunes or your favourite podcast app and leave a 5 star review as often as you can. Mostly these podcasts are soundtracks from the YOUTUBE Channel, Storytelling Works.  Leaving a comment now and then helps me stay on the air because Mr Google likes that.

Selling isn't telling

In this live recording, I have a lot of fun with the audience as we explore most people's view of selling; i.e. you should have the gift of the gab.

I explore through stories and anecdotes why talking too much can waste time, exasperate prospects, confuse prospects, lead you off on tangents and bring up objections prospects hadn't thought of. Above all I explain how talking too much means you lose control of the conversation even though you think you are more in control if you are hogging the conversation.

Colin Pearce presents: 'G.I.DEON: A success story of a reluctant entrepreneur'

I've  given this presentation to countless audiences at business conferences, youth camps, teacher conventions, retail convention dinners, family church services, both in Australia and the USA. 

It is an adaptable story, always delivered in – I confess – my wacky narrative style – ridiculous in parts – generally inspiring faith and the enthusiastic pursuit of purpose in the hearers. 

On this occasion, I'm speaking to one of my largest audiences;  7,500 members of the IDA group members at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. You can tell they loved it. You should too. I was having a great time.

You see, the presentation captures the fundamentals of human endeavour where people are involved. Many of us suffer from imposter syndrome. The man in this story did. He had no idea people would follow him at the start. Then he experienced sudden growth. Then he lost 90% of his audience/followers. He, like many people (maybe you as well as me) often expect large numbers and a big following to bring us through to fame riches and glory. We hear of people with 1,000 Facebook followers of 10,000 or 100,000 and think we will never come to anything unless we push hard for that kind of number ourselves. 

The story illustrates that working with a select audience – a contained following – using a clear strategy, will give us a very satisfactory result. 

Sure, you can cite Alexander the Great, Artaxerxes, Augustus Caesar, Christopher Columbus, Walter Raleigh, Henry Ford, the Rockerfellers, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and other mass leaders and marketers who had (or have) millions of followers and customers. They are there in your history books. I know. 

But consider this: there have been 108 billion of us since the year dot and only a few hundred have reached that mega status.  A few hundred - maybe a few thousand. About a poofteenth of a percent. You might be the next one, but the facts and the mathematics show us that the other 107,999,998,021 of us, are, and will only be legends in our own lifetimes at best and only over a few years or less and we need to work out how to get to that status at least.

So listen to hear how Divine help, a bit of faith, a small crew and a simple plan worked out for a run-of-the-mill farm boy – and will probably satisfy your expectation for life too.

Colin Pearce presents live: 'You are ten times better than you think'

It is a well-established truth among counselors and psychologists that we all suffer from low self-esteem—a less than helpful estimation of our value. 

A few narcissists have an inflated view of their own value but the rest of us need encouragement, day in, and day out. 

Family and friends have set us back with put-downs, cautions, and apprehension. Our own interpretation of the events we've experienced and witnessed have turned into self-destructive stories we tell ourselves. We'd be kinder to a stray dog than we are to our inner child we should be loving and nurturing. So it is fitting that this live presentation challenges you to think bigger and better of yourself. 

This is one of my signature presentations and as I explain through a number of stories and anecdotes that you really already ARE ten times better than you think.

Use this solid GOLD marketing strategy

Nina Christian founded her business Braveda in the late nineties. In the Australian Marketing Excellence Awards Braveda was awarded Marketing agency of the Year. Nina notices in her business engagements that loads of people know how to start a business but never come to grips with a strategy to market it – especially in a way that feels authentic.

They tell her they are stuck with too many marketing ideas blocking their minds—media advertising, blogs, podcasts, email campaigns, articles, LinkedIn posting, Facebook posting, live video, pages, web sites—which one to tackle first or most or if at all.

In this episode Nina simplifies things a lot. Rather than leaving us to throw spaghetti at the wall and hope some sticks, she outlines the filters we need to apply to everything we 'put out there'. She says we should ask, will my proposed approach;

In Nina's marketing workshop called, How to create content that connects and converts she teaches;

1. Content must have emotional connection

2. 70% of people will do business with someone based on their thought leadership. 50% of people will pay a premium to do business with a thought leader

3. Consistency is significant. You need to build a rhythm both in timing and message. So social posts about Vaccination, the US President, local politics, the price of cabbage are all entertaning but they don't reinforce your brand. Discipline yourself to stick to the rhythm.  

4. Create and use your systems for efficiency to stop yourself  jumping at every new whim, fan-dangle and shiny object.

So what is Thought leadership' anyway? Lisa O'Neill explains.

You might be a thought leader and not know it. 

In Episode 30, the last in this series, Lisa O'Neill opens the book on thought leadership as perceived through the Thought Leaders Business School, of which she is CEO.

How would you ever know you are a thought leader?

The tests.

2. The best test is to ask whether your thoughts – your approach - comes from your own distinctive perspective. It won't be as an expert in Meyers Briggs assessments, Dale Carnegie Institute teaching, D.I.S.C. or any other field where the IP is prescribed by someone else. That would make you a thought follower.

3. Your field of expertise doesn't have to be unique though. There is nothing new under the Sun as the old sage wrote. There is room for many more thought leaders in your field. It’s a big world. 

4. Your expertise has to be in a field where people normally buy access. Money is proof that you;'re really good—you shift the energy of the people in a room—a measure of your releveance.

The opportunities

You'd need to be strong and capable in most of them, yet might elect not to practise in one mode very much.

The process

Write it up – in a blog, a white paper, a LinkedIn article, a newsletter, even a book. This leads to your credibility.

Be patient. Masterpieces take time.

Lisa is easy to reach at www.lisaoneill.co.nz

Colin Pearce speaks with Jim Cathcart about: Nature, nurture, velocity, intelligence

Jim Cathcart, National Speakers Association Hall of Fame inductee, Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame inductee, has authored an impressive 20 books, the most popular of which is The Acorn Principle.

In this podcast, Jim shares the highlights of his approach to the development of human personality, temperament and intelligence.

He explores the interaction between 'the nature vs. nurture discussion' in reference to who we are according to our DNA and who we become.

The acorn principle says that an acorn will always produce an acorn tree, never a spruce or an elm. That's our nature. How that oak is nurtured will have the major impact on who a person ends up being. This is why it is important to know our nature first.

Part of knowing our nature is to understand our unique intelligence. And yes there are multiple intelligences; a musical verbal mathematical, spatial, interpersonal etc…

However undergirding our intelligence is what Jim calls our personal velocity – the natural part of energy and drive. He gives a quick illustration of this by comparing the velocity of former US President Donald J Trump and current US president Joe Biden. Even a casual observer can see there's a difference in velocities. One is neither better nor worse than the other. It’s an example of the different velocities between a bear and an eagle.

Jim discusses values and says there are seven that are common to us all; however his top three values might be the same as your bottom three values. He says when we understand that, we will be a long way towards understanding and resolving conflict in families friendships, teams and workplaces.

Jim reminisces about some of his earlier personality type nicknames and they are worth hitting. He mentions Joe Bag’o’oughnuts, Buzz Constantly, Bill BottomLine and Tom Triplicate. Although Jim doesn't use these characters in his current speeches and studies they were very

formative in his earlier work.

If you're interested in pursuing more in any of Jim's topics you can refer to some of the books that have formed his thinking over the last 15 years

Howard Gardner, ‘Frames of Mind’ – about multiple intelligences. (https://www.howardgardner.com/books0

Robert Sternberg (www.robertjsternberg.com)

Carl Jung (see multiple www.Amazon.com references)

William Marsden (https://discinsights.com/william-marston)

Thomas Armstrong, Seven types of smart (see multiple www.Amazon.com references)

Kirryn Zerna's V.I.P. principle for getting known

Kirryn Zerna was the guest in BE SO GOOD PODCAST: Episode 23 in which she outlined the principles she used herself when starting out as an 'unknown' wanting to become a 'known'. 

These are the principles she teaches now that she has become a 'known'.

In this follow-up interview I ask her to explain what she calls the V.I.P. principle. These are simple ideas – packaged in her own distinctive  style – made to be memorable themselves.

You will hear her lay out the three ideas: 

V – Value: This is about the value of you, your offer, your brand.

She gives examples and discusses a number of case studies to give anyone, whether at work or in the private life, enough stimulus to 'get known'.

Steve Simpson tells Colin all about UGRs (Unwritten Ground Rules)

Two unarguable postulates stand out about today's corporate life:

1. Large numbers of people are not happy in the work place, and yet the vast majority don’t want it to be that way.

2. Everyone wants to be part of a positive, dynamic, and productive culture.

Many forces conspire against that being realised. Guest Steve Simpson says the one we can all fix is UGRs (Unwritten Ground Rules). They would be the unspoken beliefs, hoodoos, hang-ups, values, convictions, and traditions hidden in everyone's minds.

And don't you think they stand out in family life too? There are just some things you don't say to your in-laws, your (now-all-wise, all-knowing, all cynical) adult children, their souses and their children in turn.

Steve says it is possible to understand and eradicate your unhelpful UGRs and draw enormous benefit from the helpful and constructive UGRs.

There's at least a five step process.

First, and here's no surprise, lay out a picture of your ideal corporate culture, something entirely aspirational, that will make you happy, will make your workplace attractive to potential employees and will appeal to your customers/constituents.

Steve emphasizes that it's not about painting values and mission statements and goals on your walls.

Second step is to fish out the UGRs that don't match the aspirational picture. He says you do this by asking people to complete of his ten or so 'lean-in' sentences. These include;

• Around here when you need help ...

• Around here people are treated ...

• Around here when people have a new idea ...

The third step is to let the leadership see and cogitate on the ramifications of what see and let them compare the study with what they really want the organisation to be.

Fourth, Steve recommends the employees go through the same process of analysis and comparison.

And finally get commitments from all parties about the behaviours which will lead to the aspirational picture. These will be the enhancement of the helpful and the elimination of the not-helpful.

Steve concludes with a success story from his experience with K-Mart's CEO, Guy Russo