BOOK SUMMARY

ABOUT THE BOOK

WHO THIS BOOK IS FOR

STORIES THAT STICKHow Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Businessby Kindra Hall

Every person has a gap in their business they want to fill, and the bridge for that gap is a good story. Professional storyteller Kindra Hall shows business leaders the four unique stories they already have at their disposal, to more effectively captivate and convert audiences.

• Professionals in Marketing and Sales

• Leaders of Teams

• Entrepreneurs

• Any Business Leader Looking to Improve Their Communication with Employees,Clients, and Prospects

Kindra Hall begins her book, Stories That Stick, with, of course, a story . . . not one she told, but one she witnessed while taking a shopping break from a speaking engagement in Slovenia, with her husband, a confirmed non-shopper—that is until he came across a unique bottle of cologne:

“This . . . is Eight & Bob.

“In 1937, a young, handsome, American college student was touring the French Riviera. At twenty years old, there was something special about him. All who met him could sense a rising star.”

The young clerk paused to see if we were listening. We were.

“One day this young man was out and about the town when he encountered a Frenchman by the name of Albert Fouquet, a Parisian aristocrat and perfume connoisseur.

“Of course, the young man doesn’t know this. All he knows is the man smells incredible. Being quite charming, the ambitious American convinces Fouquet, who never sold his scents, to share a small sample of the irresistible cologne.” I glanced at Michael. He had yet to blink.

“As you can imagine, when the young man returned to the States, others were entranced by the scent as well, and if he wasn’t irresistible before, he certainly was now. The young man knew he was on to something, so he wrote to Fouquet, imploring that he send eight more samples ‘and one for Bob.’”

Though he didn’t say anything, Michael’s face asked the question the clerk answered next.

“You see, Bob was the young man’s brother. And the young man, well, you probably know him as John. Or simply J.”

The clerk’s voice trailed off before the end of the sentence, and Michael, as if he had just discovered

One-Eyed Willy’s pirate treasure, whispered “FK.”

“Yes,” the clerk nodded. “The young man in question was none other than John F. Kennedy. And the sample was for his brother, Robert.”

This story serves as the introduction to Hall’s assertion throughout the book that storytelling is a vital part of strategic marketing in business today. Storytelling connects the potential customer to the company in a very human way, creating a connection that sales figures, company FAQs, and assorted metrics could never do. Hall organizes the book into three parts and ten chapters:

Part 1: The Irresistible Power of StorytellingChapter 1: The Gaps in Business and the Bridges That Close (and Don’t Close) Them

Chapter 2: Once Upon a Brain

Chapter 3: What Makes a Story Great and BeatsPuppies and Supermodels Every Time

Part 2: The Four Essential Stories—The Tales Every Business Needs to Tell

Chapter 4: The Value Story

Chapter 5: The Founder Story

Chapter 6: The Purpose Story

Chapter 7: The Customer Story

Part 3: Create Your Story—Finding, Crafting, and Telling Your Story

Chapter 8: Finding Your Story

Chapter 9: Crafting Your Story

Chapter 10: Telling Your Story

BOOK SUMMARY

INTRODUCTION: SLOVENIA, JFK, AND THE STORY THAT KIDNAPPED

MY HUSBAND

“Behind every business, there is a story of the who and the how it all began. A story from before the

business was even a twinkle in the founder’s eye. A story about the

moment when an idea first struck. A story from the moment the

founder realized this might actually be a business.”

In the first chapter, Hall explains that “the goal of a business is to profitably deliver value to people, to get a product or service from point A (the business) to point B (the people who will use it).” However, she reminds the reader that “no goal worth attaining comes without obstacles.” She refers to these obstacles as “gaps.” A gap is “the space between what you want and where you are.” In business, “the void between the customer and the company” is the most obvious gap.

She introduces other gaps as well: “gaps between entrepreneurs and potential investors, between recruiters and prospective employees, between managers and employees, between leaders and executives.” The key to making a business work successfully is to bridge those gaps. Hall explains that no matter the type of gap, “you must master three main elements if you have any hopes of moving your intended audience—potential customers, key team members, investors, etc.—across the great divide: attention, influence, and transformation.”

Storytelling offers benefits that capture all three elements and close the gaps in business “with bridges that last.”

In this chapter, Hall cites a study done by neuroscientist Paul Zak on the impact advertising has on the brain. Any sort of impact requires the attention of the potential customer; however, they also must be captivated to become influenced. According to Hall, “Zak noted that people who watched public service announcements increased their donations to charity by 261 percent when their oxytocin and cortisol (which is correlated with attention) increased. Just one factor alone wasn’t

enough to get those results: you needed both attention and trust.”

This study showed that “the neurological basis for what storytellers have known for ages: stories focus your at-tention and forge bonds, based in trust, between people.” Basically, “story placed people at the intersection of captivation and influence.” People remember things better when they’re conveyed via stories. Hall reminds the reader that before computers, photographs, books, and even the written word, people used stories to hand down information and from generation to generation. She says, “A lesson taught in story was a lesson that could be recalled when it mattered . . . stories captivate and influence the brain, but they also transform it.”

Hall points out two key takeaways from studying the neural impact of story: (1) there actually has to be a story, and (2) not all stories are created equal.

Hall begins this chapter with observations on popular Super Bowl ads. She cites several memorable ads, including the beloved Anheuser-Busch “Puppy Love” ad, a continuation of the company’s “Brotherhood” ad, which follows the story of a Clydesdale who bonds with his trainer, played by actor Don Jeanes. “Puppy Love” continues the story, with Jeanes back at his Clydesdale farm. A Labrador retriever puppy from next door’s farm keeps sneaking under the fence to hang out with his horse friend. When the puppy is adopted and has to leave his heartbroken friend behind, the Clydesdales intervene. Hall explains that “there were a lot of great reasons to think the ad would score. None of those, however, were what made Johns Hopkins marketing professor and researcher Keith Quesenberry think the ad would be a winner. He accurately predicted in advance that the ad would be a favorite, not because it featured cute puppies and hot humans, but because it used a story.”

In 2018, Hall’s team at the Steller Collective, a firm dedicated to the study, creation, and education of strategic storytelling, “created a survey designed to test the effectiveness of different types of brand messaging.” According to their hypothesis, “Messages that include certain story components would be more compelling

Once Upon a Brain

What Makes a Story Great and Beats Puppies and Supermodels Every Time

2

3

The Gaps in Business and the Bridges That Close (and Don’t Close) Them1

PART 1: THE IRRESISTIBLE POWER

OF STORYTELLING

than messages that lacked these components.” Those components are: identifiable characters, authentic emotion, a significant moment, and specific details.

In the first chapter of part two, Hall introduces the first of the four essential stories: the value story. She says that the first gap in business in the value gap. Bridging this gap requires that the company get the attention of its potential buyers, convince them that the solution they seek is available via the company, and transform them into loyal customers.

Hall introduces the Steller storytelling framework: Normal, Explosion, New Normal. In the Normal phase, the customer’s problem, pain, feelings, life and business impacts, and concerns are revealed. The Explosion explains how a company’s product or service solves the customer’s pain or problem, how it makes their life easier, what the experience feels like, and how using the particular product or service is different from others. Finally, the New Normal tells how life is different after utilization of the service or product, the resultant enhancements and/or improvements, the customer’s new feelings, and an explanation of what pain points have vanished.

The second of the four stories is the founder story. The founder story bridges the customer gap, the investor gap, and the talent gap. Hall emphatically asserts that “every business has a founder story.” The founder story is “the who and the how it all began. A story from before the business was even a twinkle in the founder’s eye. A story about the moment when an idea first struck. A story from the moment the founder realized this might actually be a business.”

According to Hall, “The power of a founder story is its ability to humanize the business the founder started. To remind people that behind the building or logo or bank statement is a person who started it all.” She suggests that leading a founder story with fact, figures, or information is not the point of this type of story. Rather, “the story needs to start with the people behind the company. After all, if you don’t start there, you often don’t get a chance to go there at all.”

Hall warns that “one of the easiest stories to forget to tell is the founder story, because amid all the other drama of what it takes to get a company off the ground, it’s easy for this story to get lost in the shuffle.” The founder story needs to be viewed as “a powerful opportunity to connect with investors, to differentiate yourself from the competition, and eventually secure talent for a thriving team.”

The third story is the purpose story. The author explains that the purpose story is “one of the most versatile of our story types: purpose stories can bridge all kinds of internal company gaps. At their core, purpose stories are about alignment and inherent inspiration.”

The purpose story relies totally on “how strongly the story supports a specific message.” This is more important than the components, the details, or anything else. That specific message must be clear, and the story must illustrate the message clearly.

Hall explains that “all purpose stories start with this

“A little storytelling can go a long way in driving purpose in a

company, and that sense of purpose is what leads

to lasting success.”

The Founder Story

The Purpose Story

5

6

PART 2: THE FOUR ESSENTIAL

STORIES—THE TALES EVERY BUSINESS NEEDS TO TELL

The Value Story4

essential question: What point do I want to make?” She says that “the answer to that question is your North Star. It’s what will guide you when you decide which story to develop. It’ll determine which pieces of a story you keep and which pieces you cut because of time or relevance.”

Hall asserts that “when times are good, a purpose story can drive a business to better performance through better culture. When times are tough . . . it can mean nothing short of survival.”

The customer story is the fourth type of story. This is probably the most familiar one to people, with the popularity of customer review sites like Yelp, Trip Advisor, and Angie’s List. Hall explains that “customer experiences have a natural edge over traditional marketing because they come preloaded" with credibility.

Customer stories are referrals, and the author states that “studies consistently show that reviews and referrals have an enormous influence on customer behavior.”

Hall explains that customer stories offer a huge advantage in that they convey “authentic emotion.” The customer shares not only the emotions he or she felt after experiencing the product or service, but also their emotions prior to finding the product or service that filled their specific need. According to Hall, “There is nothing more authentic than what naturally flows from a customer whose life has been changed by what you offer.”

“When seeking and telling customer stories, remember this: the joy or relief they felt (authentic emotion) after finding you only matters when placed in contrast to how they felt before finding you,” she says.

The author contends that everyone has a story to tell—even if they think they don’t. To help aid people who may not recognize the stories they do have, Hall offers two distinct processes: collecting and choosing.

Story collection consists of “generating story ideas without regard for whether they’re any good or appro-priate or useful or even tellable. Story collection is good old-fashioned brainstorming, but with a few tools to help you avoid the intimidation of the blank page.”

Story choosing is the process by which people match up the stories they’ve collected with specific situations that would benefit from their telling. Nothing is worse than an inappropriately delivered story that has little or no relation to the situation at hand. In other words, “finding a story is one thing; choosing the right story is another.”

Hall suggests that if you’re having difficulty bringing stories to the forefront of your memory, try focusing on nouns. Other prompts include: thinking about firsts, making a list of customer objections and questions, looking for when you’ve seen your message in action, and asking yourself lots of questions.

In this chapter, Hall offers tips on how to write your story—even if you don’t count writing as a strong suit. She reminds the reader of the storytelling framework (Normal, Explosion, and New Normal) and of the importance of being open and authentic, no

PART 3: CREATE YOUR STORY—

FINDING, CRAFTING, AND TELLING YOUR STORY

Finding Your Story

Crafting Your Story

8

9

“The easiest, most effective way to build bridges that capture

attention, influence behavior, and transform those who cross

them, resulting in gaps that stay closed and bridges that last,

is with storytelling.”

The Customer Story7

gimmicks needed.

Hall tells the reader that daily occurrences are all potential stories. She says, “Small lessons, little events, collections of minutes where we learn something new or understand things in a different way. Minutes we might otherwise forget. Except now you’re a storyteller. Now you know that stories are what matter most. Now you know the more stories you can tell, the more effective you’ll be.”

Hall believes that you can tell a story when the framework and proven components, no matter the length, no matter the seeming smallness of the moment. If crafted well, any story is possible.”

Hall instructs the reader: “When in doubt, tell a story.” She suggests stories be told via emails and email campaigns, on voicemails, to an autoresponder, in meetings, in webinars and online—basically, tell stories as frequently as you can to create connections.

She cites a 2014 study conducted jointly by social ad tech firm Adaptly, Facebook, and Refinery29, a fashion and style website, that “concluded that telling a brand story—bringing customers through a sequential series of messages—was more effective than simply using traditional calls to action. But not just more effective, way more effective, with the storied approach leading to a ninefold increase in view through and subscription rates.”

She encourages the reader to “be the one who people look forward to hearing from, even if they can’t quite put their finger on why. You know why. Because people love stories. They want stories. So go ahead. Give them what they want. Tell your stories.”

Hall shares “one final, surprising truth about storytelling. If you look back at the times when things went well, it was often when you were telling a story. When you were happiest. When you felt the best. When you were rocking it out, closing the sale, winning the girl/boy, getting the gig, you were likely telling a story.”

Hall wraps up the book by reassuring readers that “every story needs to start somewhere. It needs a beginning.” She warns that beginnings can sometimes look like endings—“the thing fails . . . the end.” However, she reminds that “there is no greater freedom than recognizing a beginning disguised as an end.”

“I realize that storytelling can be daunting,” she admits. “Sometimes we don’t have a single idea. At other times we have so many that the paradox of choice keeps us frozen in place. It’s easy to be intimidated by the blank page or the full auditorium. There are days when even the best storytellers freeze.”

She says that the best way to move forward “is to simply begin.”

Telling Your Story10CONCLUSION:

HAPPILY EVER AFTER IS JUST THE BEGINNING

Connect with Kindra

ABOUT THE AUTHORKindra Hall is an award-winning professional storyteller and national speaker. She has been published at Entrepreneur.com, is a weekly columnist at Inc. magazine, and is a contributing editor to Success magazine. When not on the road speaking, she lives in New York City with her husband and young son and daughter.

Online: kindrahall.comBlog: kindrahall.com/blogInstagram: @kindrahallTwitter: @kindramhall Facebook: @kindrahallfan