The Storytelling Companion

Is storytelling important to sales? Or is sales just about making sure the customer is getting the right product at the right price? My guest this week is Justin McCarthy. Justin has been working in sales for all of his career, and believes that stories are critical to the sales process. In our conversation, we talk about the importance of salespeople understanding and relaying the company stories, how they build relationships with customers, and how companies should make sure their...

Few professions relay on storytelling the way pastors, priests, ministers, and other religious leaders do. They not only tell the stories from the scriptures of their respective faiths, but they also often use stories to make their teachings relatable and memorable. My guest is no exception. Rev. Mark Drengler of St. James Lutheran Church in Shawano, Wisconsin. Pastor Mark has a talent for using stories, including those about his favorite football team, to make his sermons memorable for his...

What do medicine and marketing have in common? Turns out, quite a lot. My guest this week is Dr. K. Patrick Ober, a physician and professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. Dr. Ober feels that storytelling is an important component of practicing medicine. Understanding the patient’s story, their values, beliefs, and worries, and their lives, helps healthcare providers demonstrate empathy for their patients. Empathy is also important in marketing, and Dr. Ober’s approach hold...

Sometimes, people get the wrong idea about your company or organization. They have a misperception, or subscribe to a stigma that is not true, and damaging to your reputation. Overcoming those stigmas is a huge challenge. The best way to do it, and the only way, in my view, is through storytelling. In this episode, I speak with Paige Humble ad Justin Brian Nicholson of the Lung Cancer Initiative of North Carolina. As cancers go, Lung Cancer has a stigma of being associated with smoking, but...

Standing out among your competition is the most important marketing task there is. Storytelling helps, but to tell better stories, you need to embrace what makes you special. Author and speaker Stan Phelps tells you how in his book, “Pink Goldfish.” In this week’s episode, I spoke to Stan about how companies can stand out. Stan Phelps’ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanphelps/ Stan Phelps website: https://stanphelpsspeaks.com/ Connect with me on LinkedIn:...

In some ways, the pandemic has changed the way companies and organizations need to communicate with their audiences. In other ways, it solidified what they should have been doing all along. In this episode I share my observations about communicating during COVID, and what it means for storytelling. Here are my observations and take-aways for storytelling during COVID: Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christhiede/ For more on this episode, visit...

This Week’s guest is audio/video producer Evan Staehle. In our conversation, we talk about how companies, organizations, and even individuals can and should use video to tell their stories, why video is so important, and what mistakes they sometimes make. Follow Evan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emstaehle/ Staehle Media Website: https://staehlemedia.com/ Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christhiede/ For more on this episode, visit...

With everything that’s happening in the world – a virus, an election, racial tension, riots – is a podcast about storytelling really all that important? In this episode, I reflect on that and share some examples of how storytelling has tremendous power beyond marketing. Link to Jocko Willink video: https://youtu.be/MBLji5dMS_k Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christhiede/ For more on this episode, visit https://storytellingcompanion.com

This week my guest is Shawn Draper of Draper DNA. Shawn is a marketing strategist who has extensive experience serving clients through good times and bad. With the current pandemic, social unrest, and uncertain economy, many companies are struggling with how to communicate to their customers and stakeholders. I talk with Shawn about communicating in a crisis. Follow Shawn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawndraper/ Draper DNA Website: https://www.draperdna.com/ Connect with me...

In this episode, I speak with architect Kavitha Marudadu of DMAC Architecture in Chicago. Kavitha says that as architects, they view themselves as storytellers. Their job is to create an emotional connection between the spaces they design and the people who use them, all the while building the brand of their clients. There are some interesting parallels between storytelling in architecture and storytelling in communication, and I explore them in this episode. Follow Kavitha on LinkedIn:...

The 5 Rules of Storytelling - A presentation given for The Frontier in June 2020. For more on this episode, go to https://www.storytellingcompanion.com/ Watch the video presentation at https://youtu.be/7UAsW31ZOm4 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christhiede/

As corporate communicators and marketers, we are usually charged with accomplishing some kind of goal – selling a product, building a brand, getting people to take some kind of action. Sometimes, we lose sight of what makes a story great. This episode’s guest is Heather Burgiss, producer, director and host of “My Home NC,” a documentary-style program on PBS. She shares her approach to storytelling, including finding stories and crafting them to be interesting and inspiring. Follow Heather...

One of the most important audiences you can communicate with is within your own walls. Your employees, teams, departments. Your people. They not only represent your brand, but they are the ones who help your organization achieve their goals. But simply communicating to them is not enough. You have to celebrate them. That’s the approach taken by this episode’s guest, Joe Phillips, director of technology for Kansas City Public Schools. Joe shares his approach in this episode. Follow Joe on...

After a nasty case of podfade, The Storytelling Companion returns with a new season. This season will be different in a few ways. But what won’t change is my commitment to bringing you interviews with interesting people who have important lessons to share about storytelling, communication, content, and more. Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christhiede/

Apologizing is one of the hardest things for companies and high-profile people to do. Everyone screws up every now and then, but the tendency is to non-apologize, deflect, and minimize their mistakes. This is a missed opportunity. Apologies let you be vulnerable and relatable to your audience, and forge a stronger relationship with them. For more on this episode: https://www.christhiede.com/storytelling-companion-025 Chipotle article:...

http://storytellingcompanion.libsyn.com/website Last week, we met attorney Tara Warwick, who introduced us to the idea of storytelling in the courtroom. This week we continue that discussion, as Tara shares her tips for using stories to connect with your audience and communicate important facts. And, I share my closing arguments. For more on this episode: https://www.christhiede.com/storytelling-companion-024 Carnes Warwick website: https://carneswarwick.law/ Tara Warwick’s...

Often, when communicating to an audience, the goal is to share certain facts so that they are remembered an understood. This is often true in marketing, but it’s also true in the legal arena. Lawyers have to present facts to a judge or jury, so the right verdict is rendered. Believe it or not, lawyers are starting to use storytelling to help them make their cases. This week, I talk to Tara Warwick of Carnes Warwick, and she shares her thoughts on legal storytelling. For more on this...

We live in a visually oriented media world. So photography has never been more important. Especially when they are used to capture events like weddings…or corporate gatherings. This week’s guest is photographer Kelli Price, who talks about the nuances of telling the story of an event through pictures. For more on this episode: https://www.christhiede.com/storytelling-companion-022 Kelli Price’s website: https://www.kellipricephotography.com/ Kelli Price’s Instagram:...

Purdue Pharma is in a lot of trouble, criminally, financially, and existentially. Their failures run so deep, that it’s likely nothing could have taken them off the course they were on. But if they had a culture based on a love for the customer, and storytelling to convey that love, maybe things would be different. For more on this episode: https://www.christhiede.com/storytelling-companion-021 Connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christhiede/ Follow me on Twitter:...

The Fyre Festival was a prime example of what can happen when marketers focus on themselves instead of what’s important – their customers. More importantly, it’s reflective of an aspect of our Instagram culture that’s not too flattering. One that we, as marketers, ought to be diligent about resisting. For more on this episode: https://www.christhiede.com/storytelling-companion-020 Wisecrack video: https://youtu.be/ASoaHKRGXu4 My LinkedIn article: ...