Archive for May, 2013

Using Your Personal Story to Inspire and Instruct: the Mound Road Story by Bob Terson

I first heard about Bob Terson, author of Selling Fearlessly, through Steve Lahey’s Small Businss Talent site. I was struck both by his wonderful use of stories and how his goodness and desire to help others was so evident.

In the interview, Steve Lahey noted that Selling Fearlessly was story-based, rather than a dry, techincally written book. Bob said he consciously chose that format.

Bob knows the power of stories.

I ended up purchasing Selling Fearlessly (loved it) in part because of the focus on courage and stepping outside your comfort zone and in part because, given Bob’s interview, it seemed like a great example of how to use stories to make your point come alive.

I wanted to share with you my favorite story in the book because its a message we all need to hear now and then…especially if we are going through challenging times.

It’s an example of what I call the “If I could survive THAT…I can survive THIS!” perspective and how to use a story to remind people that they have the courage and ability to prevail over the “dark night of the soul” they are going through.

OK…enough of the preamble…Here’s the opening of the story and then a link to the rest.

“The Mound Road Story”

Chapter 1 from Selling Fearlessly: A Master Salesman’s Secrets for the One-Call-Close Salesperson

– By Robert Terson

I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.” – Christopher Reeve (1952-2004)

In the Introduction I quoted Olympic pole-vaulter Bob Richards: “Every day ordinary people do extraordinary things.” Now I’m going to tell you about an extraordinary event, 41 years ago, which turned my life around forever; I call it “The Mound Road Story.” It encompasses all three sides of the selling Triangle (see Chapter 9, “The Triangle”). I’ve told this true story, maybe, a hundred times; and each time I tell it, a tidal wave of incredulity sweeps me out to sea and I ask myself: Would my professional life have been markedly different, would the success I achieved been lessened, if that remarkable event had never taken place? It truly makes me wonder.

Here’s some background to help you appreciate that improbable night and morning. I trained four weeks before going into the field alone that Wednesday; my first town was New Lenox, Illinois, approximately ten miles east of Joliet. I lost two presentations that first day and two more the following day, Thursday. I also set up an appointment Thursday to present to two women, partners in a beauty salon; forty years have faded their names into oblivion, but we’ll call them Margaret and Joanna. They were in their mid-thirties and, as I recall, quite attractive. So I was 0 for 4, a bit shaky mental-attitude-wise—my fantasies had foreseen instant record-breaking numbers—and a dark shadow of desperation stalked me as I drove over to that beauty salon.

Bob Trudeau, who taught me the telephone-book-cover advertising business, used to say, “The first olive out of the bottle is the toughest; they start pouring out after you get that first one out.” I craved that first olive out of the bottle.

My subconscious must have been working in overdrive, because when I got there, I re-qualified them to make sure they were the sole decision makers; it’s a good thing I did.

“Well, actually,” Margaret said, “we’d have to get our husbands’ approval, too; it takes all four of us to decide anything.”

The sound you would have heard was air exploding from my lungs via my agape mouth. You’ve heard about the deer caught frozen in the headlights? Well, that was me. I thought I’d properly qualified them earlier, but obviously not—a rookie mistake. I was making too many of them. Oh, God, what else can go wrong?

About Bob Terson: Robert Terson writes the Selling Fearlessly blog and is the author of “Selling Fearlessly: A Master Salesman’s Secrets For the One-Call-Close Salesperson.” He has retired from a 40 year career in sales, including owning his own company, to write, speak, and help others succeed; to give back for a lifetime of blessings.

for more about Bob…

May 30, 2013 | 1 comment View Post

How to Use a Pain and Promise Story to Tune Your Audience Into WII-FM

If you want to grab your audience’s attention and capture their interest, don’t do a long drawn out intro stating obvious facts about the topic you are going to speak on.

Don’t give a long description of your background.

Instead, try starting out with a Pain and Promise Story, a story that captures the pain your audience feels about a problem you can solve and then illustrates “the Promise”–a vision of what will happen if they listen to, and apply, what you are going to share with them.

This helps them dial into that all important radio station–WII-FM–“What’s in it for me?”

This video clip is of my opening story for a presentation I did called “Fascinating Inspiring U” for the CEO Club of Boston, whose membership consists of–surprisingly enough–CEOs, but also owners of professional service and financial services firms.

I chose this story to start off with because I knew the CEOs in the group would relate to the pain of trying to get buy-in from employees on something that to them is obvious, but ends up not being so obvious to employees…and how frustrating that is.

While I typically like to use stories from my own experience and own work, I often use this story from the folks at VitalSmarts, because it is so perfect. It comes from their book Influencer.

For the owners of professional and financial service firms, I knew that while they would be able to relate to that frustration, probably more frustrating for them would be when potential clients don’t understand the value of the service they provide. So for them, the area where they want to be more persuasive is more in the sales and marketing arena.

I wanted to make sure the professional service and financial service firm owners would dial into that WII-FM, but the story didn’t include that context. I could have mentioned that context while telling the story (if you want to see an example of how to make that transition, see the commentary below the video).

However, in the interest of getting them actively involved as quickly as possible, I broke them up into pairs early on in the story to give them the chance to connect with their individual sources of pain.

The more you connect your audience with their pain from the outset, the more they will care about what you have to say.

The Pain and Promise Story is a great way to do that.

NOTE:

If you know your audience has multiple contexts where they are feeling pain, you can mention those as part of your story. So, if I had chosen not to break them into pairs during the story, I would have said something like this after getting to the part where the leaders’ message had the opposite effect of what they intended:

“I’m sure everyone in here can relate to that unpleasant experience. For others…the place where you feel the most frustrated around others not being persuaded by your message might be when talking to potential clients…and when you’re trying to show them how your service could help them…and they just aren’t getting it…or maybe its situations with colleagues or partners in your firm where you would want to be more persuasive…”

This is a language pattern I learned from my hypnosis training. You offer a variety of possible connections the person can make, to help them connect with your message.

May 22, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

For Better Employee Testimonial Videos, Don’t Spout Platitudes, Tell Stories

In the program on using storytelling in talent management I did at the ASTD 2013 conference, we discussed one of the areas where most employers could hugely benefit from adding stories to their talent management efforts: the employee testimonial video.

If you go to youtube and type in “Employee Testimonial” and watch a few videos, you will notice something very quickly:

They are all rather interchangable.

While each video highlights qualities that employees are looking for–like the chance to grow professionally, work/life balance, the chance to innovate, etc.–they all come across as the same. There’s no differentiation.

There’s no differentation because they don’t offer anything but the “take away message”. There’s no memorable story to back up the employee’s assertion or illustrate why the employee says that their employer has a particular attribute like “encourages and enables us to grow professionally”.

Put yourself in the shoes of the highly talented job seeker that you want. Would you remember any of these testimonials five minutes after you left the site?

Differentiate Yourself, Make Your Company Memorable By Telling Stories

Here are two short videos I shared with workshop participants to illustrate how to use stories in your employee video testimonials. In this first one, you will notice that Lynne McGhee, from the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland, starts out by sharing in general terms why she loves working there.

But then, she gives a few examples (i.e. she tells some stories) of what she means. Notice how it makes the message more engaging and memorable. By telling stories you help the job seeker bond to your company or organization, because they’re getting to know you at a more real level than if your employees simply list positive attributes.

You will also notice in this video, that I put some simple commentary that was designed to speak to the things that their target audience cares most about. Also, since you want fun people to work at an animal shelter, a little quirkiness was thrown in to speak to that person.

In this next video, you will hear Whitney Duprey of International Association of Privacy Professionals share an exmaple of why she loves working there.

Notice how her short story communicates in a clearer, more memorable way than if she just said “I love it that they encourage you to grow professionally here”.

Notice how this short little story gives you a more intimate feel for the personality of this organization than slickly produced videos that deliver what could be perceived as platitudes and scripted selling points.

For other blog posts on using storytelling in Employer Branding, check out:

Storytelling in Employer Branding – Steam Whistle Brewery

Storytelling in Employer Branding – Avis Budget Group

May 22, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

The Real Power of Positive Praise: A True Story

by Bill Zipp, President of Leadership Link, Inc.

I had just taken over a small group of radio stations, and we were cash-starved.

Due to poor management of those who had preceded us and rapid industry de-regulation, creditors were knocking at our door on a daily basis and paychecks were routinely 1-2 weeks late.

A new surprise—not the good kind, like an IRS agent paying us a visit asking for unpaid withholding tax—seemed to pop up at every turn as sales swooned. Yet, amazingly, morale was high.

The staff understood the reasons why we had these problems, and, every individual was committed to helping solve them. At our first staff retreat, held at a hotel whose rooms we bartered for radio air time, I presented an award that through the years became one of the most coveted awards to receive in the company.

The Golden Sandals

In preparing for the retreat, I thought of the people who had worked extra hard to get us back on track. One person came to mind who had in the month prior really gone the extra mile. She worked extra long hours, took on extra responsibility, and shown an extraordinarily high level of commitment to our recovery.

A saying from the Bible popped in my head, “If someone asks you to go with him one mile, go with him two.” I was inspired! I took an old pair of my wife’s sandals, spray-painted them gold, and glued them to a wood plaque covered in red velvet I found in the garage.

The next day I made the presentation. I recounted the incredible things this person had done and presented her with, ta-da, The Golden Sandals!

This is the Corniest Story You’ve Ever Heard, Right?

All right, I know what you’re thinking. This is the corniest story you’ve ever heard. And I would agree with you, except … except what happened next. The Golden Sandals began to take on a life of their own.

At our social events every three months or so, each recipient of The Golden Sandals was given a chance to pass them on to someone else in the company who, like them, had gone the extra mile. In doing so, they had to tell why this person earned the award and what they appreciated about this person.

People would stand up, both men and women, and start talking with tears rolling down their cheeks what another person on our staff team meant to them. The recipient would take the award, display it proudly in their work area, and give it away with the same reverence with which it had been received.

At one of our events, as a complete surprise, a staff member gave a typically touching Golden Sandals speech and gave the award to me. I felt my throat tighten, my eyes well with tears, and thought to myself, “This is a stupid pair of sandals my wife never wore and a block of wood I found in the garage!”

But it really was more than that. It was a workplace revolution. It was the triumph of positive actions over negative circumstances by intentionally focusing on what people were doing right, instead of focusing on what had gone wrong.

The Real Power of Positive Praise

That’s the real power of positive praise, it brings out the best in people and energizes them to give 100 percent effort 100 percent of the time. When you consider the fact that disengaged employees cost businesses $350 billion a year, this is no mere “soft skill.”

And while it’s nice to receive recognition for being a great place to work, it’s even better to cash the checks that come as a result. Because, quite simply, leaders who consistently encourage their people create employees who are fully engaged who, in turn, win customers who become raving fans that bring significant growth to your business’ bottom line.

So go out to your garage, find a block of wood and a can of paint, and start your own revolution.About Bill Zipp

About Bill Zipp: Bill Zipp helps leaders in small and mid-size companies accelerate the growth of their business.

Since 2002, Bill has spent thousands of hours working with hundreds of business leaders worldwide, from Fortune 500 companies like Automatic Data Processing, Cisco Systems, and Agrium, Inc. to more entrepreneurial firms like Concur Technologies, Extra Mile Media, and Tunnel Radio of America.

In the process, the growth of small and mid-size companies has become Bill’s professional expertise and personal passion.

Contact Bill at:

BLOG: http://www.billzipp.com

EMAIL: bill@billzipp.com

May 17, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

What’s Your Africa: an “I didn’t think I could…but I did!” story by Martina Mangelsdorf

Note from David: This magical story is a wonderful example of what I call an “I didn’t think I could do it…but I did” story. Technically, it’s more of a cousin to this genre…it’s more of a “I didn’t think I would survive it…but I did!” story.

These stories are powerful vehicles for helping people facing major life challenges to remember that they are stronger than they think.

This simple reminder is one of the perspective shift techniques I encourage people to use in the programs I do on resilience training.

More specifically, I recommend that when you are going through hard times, to remember really tough storms you have already weathered and remind yourself:

“Hey…if I could handle THAT…I can handle THIS!”

While your “THAT” might not be as wild as Martina’s, I’m sure you have some experiences that, when recalled, can easily remind you of how resilient and resourceful you have proven yourself to be in the past.

You Can Use This Type of Story When Coaching Some Who Is Feeling Overwhelmed

You can use your own “I didn’t think I could do it…but I did!” story to help others you coach shift into a more resourceful, empowered state of mind while facing challenges.

Here’s the very simple process:

1. Share the concept of “You are stronger than you think” with them and how when we are facing challenges, its easy to feel small and overwhelmed. While in that state, we cannot see options and opportunities.

2. Ask them to list major challenges they’ve overcome in their life and to tell you about at least one of them. As they recount their story of overcoming, they start to shift them into a more resourceful, empowered state. Once in that more empowered emotional and mental state, they can see opportunities and options where before they could only see obstacles.

3. If they are too overwhelmed or distraught to come up with any examples–share an example from your own life–i.e. your version of Martina’s–and see if that helps them connect with an experience of theirs that revealed to them their true measure of courage and strength.

4. After they tell their story or stories, they will have shifted into a more reourceful state. Once in that state, they are far more able to look at their current challenge with a “Can do” spirit and see options and opportunities previously unnoticed.

OK…enough of how to use this type of story..let’s get to Martina’s magical story…

What’s Your Africa?

by Martina Mangelsdorf

When it comes to facing challenges and overcoming obstacles, it helps to have a mantra that you can call upon when you need encouragement, comfort and self-motivation. Mine is Africa.

I was fortunate to see a lot of planet Earth when, in my late 20’s, I fulfilled my childhood dream of backpacking around the world solo. In total, I spent 15 months on the road, travelling across five continents on a shoestring. This life changing experience not only shaped my view of human nature, it also provided me with an infinite number of lessons learned that I will be able to call upon for the rest if my life.

This one is about how getting the right advice at the right time can shape your destiny and how a moment of crisis and break-down can serve as a source of inspiration and strength later on.

I started my world trip crossing the African continent from Cairo to Cape Town, travelling almost the entire distance overland. A couple of months into my trip, I was about to leave Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, and planned to take a public transit bus to Lilongwe, Malawi. I arrived at the bus station a quarter past nine in the morning and bought my ticket for this 12-hour ride. The bus wasn’t there yet but the guy at the ticket counter assured me that it was about to arrive “just now”. Interpreting that as “in a little while from now” I took off my backpack and looked for a place to sit. There was only one small bench which was already taken by other waiting passengers. It was pretty cold – and when I say ‘pretty’, I mean I was freezing – but I thought, whatever, it’s not going to take long and I’ll be out of here.

Well, yeah, that was around 9:30 am. After about an hour, I understood from conversations of the people around me that the bus had a problem and would be late. The guy who had sold me the ticket actually came to tell me that a tree was blocking the road somewhere and that the bus was stuck but that it would be coming as soon as the road had been cleared.

Okay, I thought, it’s not their fault then, how nice he even cares to inform me.

So far, no hard feelings on my side – until a lady who sat close by told me a little later that what he had told me wasn’t true: the bus had a technical problem and had broken down in a town two hours away.

She claimed she actually knew that because that’s where she came from and she had just called her husband who told her that the bus was still there, waiting to be repaired. Wow, if the bus was stuck two hours away and still needed to be fixed, it meant that it would take quite some time before we would be picked up. I have no idea why the guy didn’t tell me the truth but instead, all passengers were assured that the bus was “on its way”.

I would have preferred to return to my hostel, where at least I would have been able to wait in the warmth of the common room, but I didn’t have enough Zambian cash anymore to pay for another taxi ride. So I thought, okay, what a nice opportunity to exercise my patience for three more hours and I continued to read my book – standing in the cold. By the time I finished it, it was passed noon and I realized that I was not only cold but also getting hungry. Still no sign of the bus and all that the people in the ticket booth kept saying was that it was coming. Well, it had been “coming” for quite some time now without ever arriving and by then, I wasn’t even sure if I could believe them anymore.

Time passed by and in the late afternoon, passengers started to get annoyed.

Some wanted to return their tickets and get their money back but the people in the ticket booth refused to do that, saying that the bus would be here “any minute”. Well, I am going to make a looong story short by telling you that by 6 pm, it got dark but still there was no bus. In addition to freezing my nose off and my stomach screaming for food, by then I also had to go to the bathroom. Not that easy, when you cannot leave your luggage unattended and hope for the bus to finally show up “any minute”!

In the meantime, people started to camp on the ground and mothers tried to keep their babies warm by wrapping them in all sorts of covers or blankets. I couldn’t believe that the ticket guys still had the nerves to say that the bus was “coming right now” each time someone would go and ask them how long it still takes.

If there had been any other way to get to Malawi, now I would have done anything to put an end to this waiting. I was cold, I was hungry and I was exhausted from not knowing how this day would end. The last thing I wanted was to spend the night at this bus station! More and more passengers argued with the ticket people, so in the end, they just left their booth unattended to avoid more stress and questions.

Last but not least, the bus showed up at 9 pm – 12 hours later than scheduled! As soon as the bus pulled up to the station, I was surprised to see that it looked pretty full and hardly no one seemed to get off. It didn’t take long for all the people who had been waiting with me to realize the same thing and all of a sudden, everybody started to rush and push, just to make sure they would get on. To be honest, I didn’t have the strength to go and fight for a seat. At that point, I almost didn’t care anymore. Hence, I didn’t join the bulk of fighting passengers but for whatever reason, the guy who was in charge of admitting people on the bus came over and pulled me through the crowd of angry pushing people. He got me on the bus and found me a seat and I didn’t know if I should be happy and thankful or feel guilty about it.

Somehow, I couldn’t help but think he did this only because I was the only white person in the crowd. I told him to give my seat to one of the women who were travelling with their crying babies but he didn’t even listen to me.

The chaos inside and around this bus is hard to describe but I was so exhausted and apathetic at this point that in the end I gave in and just stayed put in my seat. Even if I had wanted to move, it would have been very difficult and became increasingly impossible as the bus filled up. People squeezed in the narrow seats and the walkway, clinging to their bags and babies. Children got handed over people’s heads and found a place on someone’s lap.

In the end, I had the impression people were piled up in the corridor and yet more passengers tried to get onboard. I don’t know if ultimately anyone was left behind or not because I had closed my eyes and tried to mentally escape from this place, until we were finally on the road.

I can tell you that my understanding of a “packed” bus took on a totally new meaning after this experience. My big backpack had gone in the luggage compartment but I still had my smaller backpack on my lap. As the seat rows were very narrow, I basically couldn’t move my legs at all.

Besides, the lady who sat next to me was a huge woman who took half of my seat space in addition to hers – the fact that the woman next to her was of the same size, did not help to allocate their tremendous volume without squeezing me in. Seeing the other passengers though, especially those standing crammed in the walkway, I felt bad to even complain about my relatively comfortable position.

Since we only left Lusaka at 9:30 pm, we ended up driving over night but it was impossible to fall asleep: The bus radio was turned on all night and played on full blast. The music sounded like crying cats howling at the moon.

After a while I used my earplugs but the music was so loud, I could still hear it. The air inside the bus was awful, too – no wonder with a bunch of sweating people crammed together in an overloaded vehicle. I also saw some cockroaches and other weird bugs crawling on the seats in front of me.

Since I couldn’t move my legs, at least I tried to pull my socks over my trousers, so nothing could climb up on me… We drove almost non-stop but that didn’t help to make it a less unpleasant ride. Apart from the poking and pushing when someone tried to make his way from the back of the bus towards the only door at the front in order to get off at one of the few stops, I kept thinking of the frequent reports about overcrowded African buses involved in deadly accidents. For sure, no one would survive if this bus had an accident – which at the speed we were going, wouldn’t have come as a surprise.

When the bus arrived in Lilongwe, it was 10 am. I couldn’t believe that I made it: 24 hours after I had left, I finally reached my destination! All I wanted to do at that point was lie down and sleep. But before I could get anywhere close to whatever type of accommodation, I needed local money.

Since I had no Malawian currency to pay for any other means of transport, I shouldered my 30kg luggage and started walking. It was quite a walk but not enough with that: When I finally arrived at the first bank, it turned out that it only took local cards. I tried a second and a third one but their machines did not accept international credit cards neither (which makes Malawi the only country on my entire world trip where I could not use ATMs!).

There were a couple of foreign exchange bureaus but none of them was open on a Sunday. Some shady people offered me to change black money in the streets but this was the last thing I was ready to do and I felt increasingly unsafe. After one and a half hours of walking around town, I was done.

My last bit of strength was gone, my luggage weighed more than ever and all I could think of was not to faint. I hadn’t slept nor eaten since the previous morning, I had enough plastic money to buy half of the town but no cash to get me anywhere.

So I finally walked up to a nice looking taxi driver and asked him if he would drive me for US dollars. I probably looked so desperate, that he didn’t even take advantage of my situation and drove me for the regular local price converted into dollars.

I arrived at the hostel around 11:30 am and they gave me a bed in a double room for 12 dollars a night which was far above my budget but I didn’t care.

All I wanted was a space to collapse. And as soon as I was alone in my room, that’s what I did.

Until today, I call that instant my moment of crisis and if I ever had doubts about my trip or was ready to give up, this was the time I was closest to do so. I actually took my German mobile phone which I had with me for emergencies only and decided that this moment definitely qualified. I called my parents and as soon as they were on the line, I broke down.

I had reached my limits; I was shaking and crying, saying that I couldn’t take it anymore and that all I wanted was to come home. All the stress and exhaustion of the past hours, days and weeks seemed to unload and poured out of me in one big wave of tears.

Looking back, I must say that my parents’ reaction was great. Although they would have had every reason to freak out hearing me like this, they remained calm and serene. All they did was listen and trying to calm me down. Even when I said that I had enough and was ready to take the next flight home, they did not push me either way. Neither did they tell me off for being so silly to chicken out just because of a little bit of trouble, nor did they completely take my side and encouraged me to come back – although it would have been very easy for them to do so and I do believe that, to a certain extent, they would have been glad and relieved if I had come home. After all, they are my parents!

But because they are my parents, they didn’t let me give up that easy. Instead, we agreed that I would take some time to relax and then take a decision whether yes or no I would continue my trip. I gave myself a week from then to see how I feel. If I still wanted to come back by then, I would fly home. But was I really ready to give up on my dream? I had to think of a comment a friend had send me in an email early on during my trip: “If you cannot pull this off, no one can.” It was a compliment and a verdict at the same time. At that point, I didn’t know if I could measure up to it.

In the end, I did finish my trip from Cairo to Cape Town and subsequently around the world.

Consumed by its unique magic and fascination, I love Africa but travelling alone as a young blonde female isn’t easy over there. The good thing was, compared to Africa, any other continent later on seemed like a walk in the park.

So for the rest of my travels and ever since then, whenever I encounter a difficult situation, something I am afraid of or when I have doubts if I can succeed in something, I refer to my memory anchor and mantra: “I did Africa”.

I crossed Africa North to South and whatever the new challenge, it can’t be as hard. If I could do that, I can do anything! Actually, to this day, the silhouette of the African continent is a mental image I use as a symbol to give me courage whenever I need it.

So, what’s your anchor? The mental image that keeps you going? What’s your Africa?

Martina is a dedicated Human Resources professional with 13 years of experience in Staffing, Talent Management and Leadership Development. Influenced by her travels around the world and by the principles of gamification and positive psychology, she has developed unique concepts that initiate behavioral change and result in sustainable leadership qualities. Her energizing facilitation and personal style have touched and inspired numerous participants in various sessions.

To learn more about Martina and her work, check out her website Gaia Insights

You can also connect with her on LinkedIn

May 11, 2013 | 0 comments View Post

Soloshot Serves Up Marketing-with-Storytelling in Style

This morning when I checked out the surf report, I saw the above banner.

I was curious about the great tagline “Saving relationships since 2012”.

Why was something about saving relationsihps on a surf report site? Knowing how addictive surfing can be, I imagined that it had something to do with spending too much time catching waves and not enough time with your significant other.

Well…it wasn’t quite that, but once I clicked on the banner and the video started, I could see how perfect–and amusing–the tagline was.

Their very fun video started out by speaking to the dilemma any young hardcore surfer can relate to: Wanting to get some footage of them shredding–both for fun and to get feedback on their technique–but not wanting to lose their girlfriend because she’s tired of spending hours videoing him doing his thing.

After that hook, they then expand the view of who would want this cool product, how it works, and its overall awesomeness.

Check out the video as a great example of how to use video storytelling to connect with your customer and explain how what you offer gives them what they want.

It’s a great example of how do it so in a fun, cool way:

Way to go Soloshot!

May 04, 2013 | 1 comment View Post