You may remember Seth Godin wrote a book titled All Marketers are Liars, then he crossed out ‘are Liars’ and wrote ‘Tell Stories.’
In my experience, storytelling is important in all effective communications, not just marketing – to engage, connect, persuade, inform, teach, and manage.
I’m currently doing presentations to fellow entrepreneurs and writers on my storytelling journey from Entrepreneur to Author-preneur and how I’ve used stories in both my non-fiction books of advice for entrepreneurs and my crime fiction novels about an entrepreneur fighting crime and corruption in business.
I’ve used the same stories in both!
Always with the personal and business names changed to avoid identifying the bad managers and the bad actors, but the stories are helpful in sharing the lessons learned for entrepreneurs and for generating some sympathy and understanding among general readers for hard-working, enlightened entrepreneurs.
Consider some true-life stories related to two business issues:
Financing and Business Valuation
In the Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans and DON’T DO IT THE HARD WAY:
Financing: The consultant reviewing a client’s draft business plan says, “Don’t take that to the bank.” After revision and presenting a solid business plan, the banker says, “The answer is still NO!”
Valuation: The potential investor says, “Your business is worth how much?” The owner says, “$6,000,000.” The investor replies, “What you want is not what you’ll get.”
And in the Dale Hunter Thriller Series of crime fiction novels:
Financing: “No way,” says the banker. “It’s suicide to take on that much debt.” So Dale Hunter looks elsewhere. “We’ll give you the two million,” says the gangster. “Just don’t be late paying us back.”
Valuation: “At three million, you’re dreaming in technicolour. Wake up!” says the potential corporate buyer. “We think you’re worth five million,” says the gangster, “but you gotta hire my boy, Lenny.”
Lessons learned.
Be a storyteller for better communication. Attract and hold your target audience, engage and connect on a personal level, deliver the message, and make it memorable with a good story.
Be better. Do Better. Be an Enlightened Entrepreneur.
Del Chatterson, your Uncle Ralph
Learn more about Enlightened Entrepreneurship at: LearningEntrepreneurship.com
Read more of Uncle Ralph's advice for Entrepreneurs in Don't Do It the Hard Way & The Complete Do-It-Yourself Guide to Business Plans - 2020 Editions.
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