Anecdotally Speaking

In Episode 274 of Anecdotally Speaking, discover how a bout of tuberculosis led to the creation of an American icon. In this episode, Shawn tells … The post 274 – Illness to Opportunity – John Stetson appeared first on Anecdote.

This week, another special guest, Rob Grundel, joins Shawn and Mark on the podcast! Rob has just joined the Anecdote team, and we recorded this episode on his third day with us! Rob shares his background before launching into a story that you might use at work. The story is that of the Köln Concert, where American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded the best selling solo album in jazz and the best selling solo piano album in any genre. Shawn and Mark mention our upcoming virtual Story-Powered Data and Storytelling for Leaders programs. For more information and to register, visit our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

Mark is back after a 5-week outback adventure! Shawn welcomes his cohost back to the show, then shares the story of how Wunsiedel, a small town in Germany, tricked neo-Nazis into raising thousands of euros for EXIT Deutschland, an anti-extremist charity. To view the photo Mark mentions, visit: https://buff.ly/3goVrgQ And to view the video Shawn mentions, visit: https://buff.ly/3sIairI You can find out more about our upcoming events via our events webpage: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

Shawn and Mike host this week’s episode, and Mike shares a story about optimism and problem-solving. The story follows Fermat’s Last Theorem and the 358 years it took to solve it. The theorem holds a Guinness World Record for being the longest-standing maths problem ever: https://buff.ly/3sskvIE You can find the Wikipedia article Mike mentions here: https://buff.ly/3iMVZOX If you want to get in touch with the team and perhaps tell us how you’ve used a story, you can contact us via [email protected]!

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Anecdote Principal Paul Ichilcik joins Shawn as cohost. Shawn shares two stories that, although apocryphal, are useful in a business context. He also mentions his new blog post, Why would you share your point BEFORE telling your story?, which you can find here: https://buff.ly/3l6M9Jq You can find more parables and learn more about using them in the following episodes. - 114 – Tails with the Raj of mice and men: https://buff.ly/3qOxSll - 054 – Looking upstream for causes of downstream problems: https://buff.ly/2WFBafP - 017 – All about apocryphal stories: https://buff.ly/2jl942A

With Mark still on leave, Mike joins Shawn again as cohost. The pair talk about insight and discuss the role stories can play in helping people find, share, and gain acceptance for their insights. Mike mentions The Challenger Customer, written by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, and Nick Toman: https://buff.ly/2Wbn71i He also references his book, Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell: https://buff.ly/3BDATtP And Shawn’s book, Putting Stories to Work: http://puttingstoriestowork.com/

Mark is on leave this week, so Mike Adams, Head of Story-Powered Sales at Anecdote and author of Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell, joins Shawn as co-host.  Shawn and Mike discuss the effectiveness (or rather, the ineffectiveness) of case studies. They propose the use of success stories as an alternative. Instead of showcasing the seller, success stories showcase the client and the buyer’s success so that prospects can envisage the same success for themselves. Mike shares an example of a success story, a story within a story, and details the success story structure. To watch a video of Mike telling this story, visit: https://buff.ly/3wScvRu To access our eBook, The Ultimate Guide to Anecdote Circles, visit: https://buff.ly/3kB3qtW

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, another special guest joins Shawn and Mark, Anecdote Partner Mark Janssen: https://buff.ly/3wDFkRI Mark is based in Gouda, the Netherlands. He shares how he became an Anecdote Partner and a story you can add to your story repertoire. Shawn and Mark mention our upcoming public programs, including two Storytelling for Leaders workshops that we have just announced. For more information, visit our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

Shawn’s on leave, so Paul Ichilcik, Anecdote Principal, co-hosts this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking. Mark shares a story about a story (or, more specifically, a story about a fable—a short, fictional story with anthropomorphised characters.) We often have people say to us, “But there’s no place for storytelling with senior leaders. They’re just too busy. There’s no time for stories.” Well, this week’s story makes a case against that perspective, illustrating how a senior leader can use a story to effortlessly and effectively make a business point. The pair mention our upcoming Storytelling for Leaders and Story-Powered Data public programs. Note that the Storytelling for Leaders program is better suited to timezones in the Asia Pacific and the Americas, and our Story-Powered Data program will run in September. For more information, visit our events page: https://www.anecdote.com/events/

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, we have a special guest! Doug Keeley joins Shawn and Mark on the podcast. Doug is an Anecdote Partner and the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Stories Rule! He shares how he got into storytelling, met the Anecdote team, and his all-time favourite business story, which all three guys give a solid 9/10 rating. Mark mentions Dave Carroll’s 2009 YouTube sensation, United Breaks Guitars, which Shawn wrote about in this blog post: https://buff.ly/2ZRDePb If you would like to connect with Doug, you can find his LinkedIn profile here: https://buff.ly/3zFaLhl

Shawn shares the story of how BlackBerry went from holding a 50 per cent market share to a market share of less than 1 per cent. He heard the story from Adam Grant when listening to a Clubhouse conversation between him and Malcolm Gladwell. It illustrates that you shouldn’t get too stuck in your thinking but welcome opportunities to adjust.

It’s Mark’s turn to share a story, and he chooses to share the story behind the founding of Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a global event held on a Saturday at the end of March every year, where participants across the globe turn out their lights for one hour to advocate for action against climate change. Shawn and Mark first heard this story from Todd Sampson, who was part of the group that came up with the initial idea for the event. Todd uses the story to illustrate the importance of asking good questions.

We’ve had a busy few weeks here at Anecdote HQ, so this week, instead of giving you a new episode, we’re re-releasing our 7th episode! In this episode, Shawn shares an engineering story from the 1970s. This episode is one of Shawn’s all-time favourites, partly because Mark gave the story a low rating (4/10), but we’ve since had friends and clients tell us how useful it’s been! Shawn also recently reread the article where he first found this story, which he highly recommends. You can find it here: https://buff.ly/2SBRWKR We often have people ask us, “Does storytelling work with scientists or engineers?“ There seems to be an assumption that some professions only care about numbers and facts and aren’t interested in stories. We answer, “Of course!“ Everyone tells and listens to stories—it’s a human condition. But if you are talking to engineers, they will likely be most interested in engineering stories. Shawn mentions the Hidden Figures story he later told on the podcast in 037 – Fortran reveals Hidden Figures (https://buff.ly/2sUTWO7) and encourages us to look to movies as potential sources of stories.

This week, Shawn shares an innovation story. It follows researcher Dr Everett Rogers and the insight that led him to develop his innovation diffusion theory: https://buff.ly/2SjxVsj In the past, Shawn and Mark told this story frequently, but they forgot about it somewhere along the way. You’ll hear how excited they are to use it again, particularly to aid change management. Shawn makes another book recommendation. This time he recommends Change: How to make big things happen by Damon Centola: https://buff.ly/2TdPSsR

It’s Shawn’s turn to tell a story, and he chooses to share an analogy story gleaned from two scientific studies. Steve Jobs first told this story in the 1980s, providing a perfect example of taking something that has happened and relating it to an audience to make a point. Shawn mentions the Micheal Phelps story he heard from a sales leader, which he shared on episode 038 – Dolphin kicks out number one: https://buff.ly/2Gy0T0p

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares a story about mindset, which spurs the sharing of several other anecdotes that demonstrate how the expectation of an event can cause it to occur—the Pygmalion effect. Shawn mentions the book he is currently reading, Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman: https://buff.ly/3o27O4U

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares the story of Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the west coast of America, focusing on three specific journeys—the initial planning, the preparation, and the actual expedition.  Shawn found this story in Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage: https://www.amazon.com.au/Undaunted-Courage-Stephen-Ambrose/dp/0684826976 Shawn also mentions this paper that he wrote with David Drake: https://www.anecdote.com/2008/05/new-whitepaper-three-journeys-a-narrative-approach-successful-organisational-change/

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a sports story featuring National Football League (NFL) player Tom Brady. It illustrates that, despite our best efforts, our ability to assess potential is poor.  Have you been waiting for an opportunity to learn from Anecdotally Speaking's Shawn Callahan? Shawn is delivering our upcoming virtual Storytelling for Leaders program! For more information and to register, visit: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/storytelling-for-leaders-europe-apac-tickets-137546183337

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story he first heard more than ten years ago from his friend and fellow storyteller, Victoria Ward. It follows the events leading up to Gerald Ratner’s departure from his family business, Ratners Group, and shows how quickly you can kill a brand by using the wrong words. You can watch the speech Ratner gave, which Shawn mentions, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj9BZz71yQE. And you can listen to the episode of Cautionary Tales with Tim Harford which also features this story here: https://timharford.com/2021/02/cautionary-tales-martin-luther-king-jr-the-jewelry-genius-and-the-art-of-public-speaking/.

Welcome back to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a story from his time in the airforce. The story describes how a design fault caused a Macchi jet trainer to crash at the RAAF Base Pearce. Mark often uses the story to encourage others to ‘stop transmitting and start listening’. You can find an image taken on the day of the crash via www.anecdote.com/podcasts.

Welcome to our 100th episode of Anecdotally Speaking! In this week’s episode, and to celebrate 100 episodes, Shawn and Mark look back on some of the stories they have told on Anecdotally Speaking and discuss which ones they tell most frequently. For each story, they explain what it is, why they like it, and in what circumstances they find themselves telling it. If you are interested in listening to the full episodes behind the stories, click on the links next to the titles below: 1. 004 – Can’t see the bathroom from the grout https://bit.ly/3lsFCqs 2. 045 – Old oak forester beams https://bit.ly/3tpXyVA 3. 040 – Moving forward on a backwards bike https://bit.ly/30Q0COA 4. 037 – Fortran reveals Hidden Figures https://bit.ly/3bVcm8F 5. 029 – Paul revered while Dawes knocked https://bit.ly/3bWIkBJ Tickets are now available for our next Storytelling for Leaders public program! These workshops are timed for Europe & Asia Pacific participants. If you are interested in attending, visit www.anecdote.com/events to register.

Welcome to the final episode of our Anecdotally Speaking—Corporate Storytelling series! The series celebrates the paper we released at the end of October titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It is our definitive guide to corporate storytelling and delves into the myriad of ways you can apply storytelling in a business context. To access the paper, click here! https://bit.ly/3pe4FPU Thank you to Anecdote Principals, Mike Adams and Paul Ichilcik, for being part of this episode. To connect with Mike, click here. https://bit.ly/2KyoFMX To connect with Paul, click here. https://bit.ly/2Wm0xQl If you want to find out more about our Story-Powered Sales program, click here. https://bit.ly/2Wl3Ffm We would love to hear your feedback on Anecdotally Speaking and our Corporate Storytelling series! Click on the next link to fill in a quick 3-minute survey. If you have any further comments, feel free to send an email to [email protected]. https://bit.ly/2Wn7joU We will be taking a break over the holiday period and will be back in your ears on the 19th of January 2021. From Shawn, Mark, and the entire Anecdote team, we wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday season and look forward to continuing to help you build your business story repertoire in 2021! Until next time, bye now!

Welcome to the sixth episode of our Anecdotally Speaking—Corporate Storytelling series! The series celebrates the paper we released at the end of October titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It is our definitive guide to corporate storytelling and delves into the myriad of ways you can apply storytelling in a business context. To access the paper, click here! https://bit.ly/3pe4FPU Thank you to Tully Cashman for being part of this episode. To connect with Tully, click here. https://bit.ly/2JpgAKk Next week, Melodie Potts Rosevear, CEO at Teach for Australia, will join us. Melodie has built a not-for-profit from scratch into a sustainable force—something that is achieved only with insight and effective strategy. We are looking forward to sharing Melodie’s experiences in strategy development and communication. Make sure you tune in next week to hear one of our last guest episodes for 2020!

Welcome to the fifth episode of our Anecdotally Speaking—Corporate Storytelling series! The series celebrates the paper we released at the end of October titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It is our definitive guide to corporate storytelling and delves into the myriad of ways you can apply storytelling in a business context. To access the paper, click here! https://bit.ly/3pe4FPU Thank you to Paul Chapman for being part of this episode. To connect with Paul and find out more about Australian Turntable Company, click here. https://bit.ly/36iaXq8 Next week, we will be joined by Tully Cashman, a strategic transformation and culture change expert, who currently leads the regional Organisational Development team for APAC at Cargill. We are looking forward to sharing Tully’s insights on all things culture change and change management! Tune in next week to hear the conversation.

Welcome to the fourth episode of our Anecdotally Speaking—Corporate Storytelling series! The series celebrates the paper we released at the end of October titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It is our definitive guide to corporate storytelling and delves into the myriad of ways you can apply storytelling in a business context. To access the paper, click here! https://bit.ly/3pe4FPU Thank you to Bernard and Tracey Swanepoel for being part of this episode. To connect with Bernard, click here. https://bit.ly/2J2GwLc And to connect with Tracey, click here. https://bit.ly/3fqqjvF Next week, we will be joined by Paul Chapman, Executive Chairman at Australian Turntable Company and Chair of Bendigo Invention and Innovation Festival. Paul will share his experience in innovation and of using story within his own company. It will be an episode you won’t want to miss!

Welcome to the third episode of our Anecdotally Speaking—Corporate Storytelling series! The series celebrates the paper we released at the end of October titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It is our definitive guide to corporate storytelling and delves into the myriad of ways you can apply storytelling in a business context. To access the paper, click here! https://bit.ly/3pe4FPU Thank you to Indranil Chakraborty (IC) for being part of this episode. If you want to connect with IC, click here. https://bit.ly/2GPTETt Next week we will be joined by strategy and leadership experts and Anecdote’s partners in South Africa, Bernard and Tracey Swanepoel. The pair will share their knowledge of narrative insight. Stay tuned, you won’t want to miss this one!

Welcome to the second episode of our Anecdotally Speaking—Corporate Storytelling series! At the end of October, we released a paper titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It is our definitive guide to corporate storytelling and delves into the myriad of ways you can apply storytelling in a business context. To access the paper, click here! https://bit.ly/3pe4FPU Thank you to Darren Woolley for being part of this episode. If you want to connect with Darren, click here. https://bit.ly/2JLL7BX Next week we will have Asia’s leading business storytelling expert and Anecdote’s partner in India, Indranil Chakraborty, giving us an insight into values communication. Stay tuned!

Welcome to the first episode of our Anecdotally Speaking—Corporate Storytelling series! Last week at Anecdote HQ, we released a paper titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It is our definitive guide to corporate storytelling in 2020 and delves into the myriad of ways you can apply corporate storytelling in a business context. To access the paper, click here! https://bit.ly/3kPPMAC Each week until the end of 2020, Shawn and Mark will be discussing parts of the paper with a different guest, ranging from experts to clients to Anecdote partners. Thank you to Hannah Davies for being part of this episode. If you want to connect with Hannah, click here. https://bit.ly/34O6RFC Next week we will have Marketing guru and friend of Anecdote, Darren Woolley, talking all things brand communication. Stay tuned!

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story he first heard on the renowned This American Life podcast (Episode 668: The Long Fuse). The story details how a letter to the editor took on a life of its own and created a storm of incorrect information that people still swear by to this day. Shawn writes about this story in this blog post: https://bit.ly/3dZpIjC. We’ve just released a new paper titled Corporate Storytelling—The Essential Guide. It explores the use of corporate storytelling within fourteen different business contexts. You can find it here: www.anecdote.com/corporate-storytelling. To celebrate, we’re also releasing a special multi-episode series of Anecdotally Speaking. Each week from next week, Shawn and Mark will be joined by an Anecdote partner, friend or client, or an expert to discuss a topic covered in the paper! We can’t wait to get started!

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares a story he has been utilising in a business sense for a while now. Otto Rohwedder, an American inventor, created the first commercial bread slicer in 1917, but it took him some time to sell his first. We have some exciting news! A new multi-episode series of Anecdotally Speaking will begin on November 3. Keep your eyes and ears peeled to find out what we will be unpacking!

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story about American rock band Van Halen. Shawn first shared this story in his book, Putting Stories to Work. If you would like to read the book, click here.https://bit.ly/3iQJYFh Our virtual Storytelling for Leaders and Story-Powered Sales programs kick off next week! If you are interested in attending, click here for more information. We still have a few tickets available! https://bit.ly/3nHRDJq

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares a story of Howard Leventhal, a Yale University social psychologist, who used behaviour change techniques to encourage senior students to get their tetanus vaccinations. Mark first read the story in Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make A Difference. If you would like to read more about Gladwell’s book, click here: https://bit.ly/2Gz9G3E And a reminder that we are hosting a number of public workshops at the end of October for our virtual Storytelling for Leaders and Story-Powered Sales programs. If you are interested in attending, click the link below to find out more. We are looking forward to seeing some of you there! https://bit.ly/2Sod2sS

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story about Benjamin Franklin, whose idea to exchange rare books with one of his rivals built a friendship and comradeship he never before had with him. We will be hosting multiple public workshops at the end of October for both our Storytelling for Leaders and Story-Powered Sales programs. If you are interested in attending, click on the link below to find out more details. These will be our last Story-Powered Sales public workshops for the year so get in quick! https://bit.ly/3jaHSAK

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story he stumbled upon when visiting Italy a few years ago. Remember when we could travel?! The story follows Filippo Brunelleschi, the founding father of Renaissance architecture, and his involvement in the Duomo Cathedral in Florence. If you would like to read Brunelleschi’s Dome by Ross King, click on the link to find out more about the book.https://amzn.to/3mMws8T As promised, here is Mark’s video where he attempts the egg-periment !https://bit.ly/2ZTUS6p Shawn is co-hosting a new webinar that you might like to attend on how to bring face-to-face events online and ensure they’re engaging by using stories and techniques from TV production. Join us on 29 September to learn how to storify your events. You will receive a free 48-page eBook that describes the things you should consider. Click here to register. https://bit.ly/2FRLvNx

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of Alice Stewart, a renowned physician who discovered a correlation between pregnant women having an x-ray scan and an increase in childhood cancer fatalities. Mark first heard Alice’s story on Margaret Heffernan’s Ted Talk, Dare to disagree, to watch her presentation click on the link below. https://bit.ly/3mlrXlp

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a short but impactful story that he read in Stephen Martin and Joseph Marks’ book, Messenger: Who we listen to, who we don’t, and why. The story follows a group of well-known psychologists who used a simple technique to increase sales for a London-based real estate business. For more information about Martin and Marks’ book, click on the link below. https://bit.ly/3lYLyYc In the coming days, we will be releasing new details and tickets for our October Storytelling for Leaders and Story-Powered Sales workshops. These workshops will now be run online due to COVID-19. Keep an eye on anecdote.com/events or email us at [email protected] for updates. Shawn is hosting a webinar, 7 ways to use storytelling to foster innovation, at the Bendigo Invention and Innovation Festival (2020BIFF) on Tuesday, the 8th of September, from 10:00am to 11:00am. To find out more about 2020BIFF and to watch Shawn’s webinar, click on the link below. https://bit.ly/35bidnu

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark tells the story of American violinist, Josh Bell, and his involvement in a Washington Post experiment. The guys finally agree on a rating, but was it a good or a bad one? You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what they both thought! Mark also mentions the ‘chocolate cake’ episode of the podcast, which is called Icing breakers presentation matters. If you would like to listen to that episode or read the blog post, click on the link below. https://bit.ly/32HC1Mm If you are interested in finding out more about the Washington Post experiment, click on the link below. https://wapo.st/3bfg6Ae

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark and Shawn change things up and share a type of story—a strategy story. The pair give insight into how and why we help companies craft a strategy stories, and what structure we follow when crafting them. Strategy stories follow the below structure: In the past… Then something happened… So now… In the future… If you are interested in strategy stories or have any questions, please leave them in the comments below or email us at [email protected] Mark also sets a challenge for our listeners, asking you to tell us how many stories are told in the episode. Leave your answer in the comments on the post on our website or on any of our social posts about this podcast!

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, who completed a non-stop swim from Cuba to the US. It was the first without a shark cage. Last week was an exciting week at Anecdotally Speaking HQ, as we surpassed 50,000 downloads! Thank you for subscribing and downloading our podcast, we all love making it and hope you continue to listen to many more episodes to come! Our apologies for the audio quality at the beginning of this episode, we were having a few technical issues over Zoom (thanks to stage four lockdown in Melbourne). But we have found a new way to record and all should be fixed by next week! Thanks for the understanding!

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares the late Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen’s McDonalds milkshake story, which illustrates the value of knowing your customer and market. Shawn first heard Christensen tell this story in a YouTube video. You can watch the original milkshake story, by clicking this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stc0beAxavY Next week we are running a free webinar, Learn how to tell a success story that will help you sell, which will be hosted by Mike Adams, our Head of Story-Powered Sales and the author of Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell,. If you are interested in attending, click on the below link to register. https://ww3.anecdote.com/success-stories-public-webinar/

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark demonstrates how to present research and data using a story structure, and how it can be highly engaging and memorable. He shares the story of renowned psychology professor and mindfulness theorist, Ellen Langer, and her research experiment into human behaviour. The story provides an insight into how small changes in language can result in a completely different outcome. We are hosting a free webinar in two weeks, Learn how to tell a success story that will help you sell, which will be hosted by Anecdote Principal and author of Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell, Mike Adams. If you are interested in attending, click on the link below to register. https://ww3.anecdote.com/success-stories-public-webinar/

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn recounts a story he read in Bob Iger’s book, The Ride of a Lifetime. The ex-CEO of Disney, Bob Iger’s book discusses the advancements he made but also reveals his business storytelling talents. The guys don’t often give high scores as they’re both tough critics, but this story impresses. We recently developed an online course called 7 Tips to Be a Better Business Storyteller, which is the perfect introduction or refresher of some key concepts in business storytelling. If you are interested in joining the course, click the link below. https://www.anecdote.com/7-tips-to-be-a-better-business-storyteller/

In this episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and how they make a conscious decision each performance to bring their absolute best and ensure each fan has a memorable experience. As a short and punchy story, it is perfect for sharing with your customer-facing employees. If you do share it, let us know in the comments how it goes! You may have noticed that we have redesigned our podcast cover art! We hope you love it as much as we do. A big thank you to our amazing Graphic Designer, Kerenza Smith, who designed it! To sign up for our Anecdotally Sunday story trigger emails, click on the below link. Each Sunday, we’ll send you a question or image designed to prompt a story that you can add to your story repertoire. https://www.anecdote.com/anecdotally-sunday/

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares the story of pioneer video game manufacturer, Atari, and how complacency resulted in the death of the company. Both Shawn and Mark are overwhelmed with nostalgia when this story is discussed, as it connects personally with each of the guys’ childhoods. This story reveals how putting all your eggs in one basket can be harmful to the longevity of a company. This is a great story to share to a large group of employees or colleagues, as it is quite long and detailed. Let us know if you use this story and how it went! We would love to hear.

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of 15-year old Jyoti Kumari, whose inspiring story has been shared in the media globally. Shawn discusses how this story reminds him of Gary Klein’s three pathways to insight, and more specifically the notion of creative desperation, and how when you are in desperate need of a solution you are forced to be creative. If you have a story you think would be perfect for Anecdotally Speaking, email us at [email protected]. We would love to hear from you!

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn and Mark discuss how small changes can have large outcomes. Shawn shares a story he read in James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. The story is one that everyone should add to their story bank because everyone can relate and connect to it. Shawn and Mark reflect that, by using references to major worldwide events such as the Olympics and the Tour de France, we are able to tell this story in a variety of situations. No matter where you are from or your knowledge of sport, you most likely will have heard of the Olympics. Due to popular demand, we have decided to run another public virtual Storytelling for Leaders program. Anecdotally Speaking’s Mark Schenk will facilitate the program, which kicks off in mid-July. If you want to come along and share your stories, head to anecdote.com/events.

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn and Mark are thrilled to be joined by Jaya Machet, Founder and Executive Coach at Coaching Tiger. Based in Singapore, Jaya is a newly accredited Anecdote Storytelling for Leaders Partner. Instead of providing a story for your story bank, in this episode, we hear a connection story from Jaya’s. It is important to have your own connection stories in your story bank, so, this week, Shawn, Mark, and Jaya urge everyone to add their own! We will be back to our regular format next week!

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark and Shawn discuss how an analogy can be an effective story structure to use to show contrast and to connect with your team or prospect. Numerous resources were discussed in this episode, and are listed below: - Shawn’s online course, 7 Tips to Be a Better Business Storyteller—https://anecdote.thinkific.com/courses/7-tips-to-be-a-better-business-storyteller - Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk, Gillian the dancer—https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dewkj80G4as&t=1s Head to our website anecdote.com for more resources

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story he read in Switch, another book written by the Heath Brothers, who always use stories as practical examples. The story is quite relevant given the current climate and the challenges companies are currently facing. You can use this story as a poignant reminder of what is most important in difficult times. At the end of June, we’re delivering two virtual Story-Powered Sales workshops, hosted by Mike Adams, author of Seven Stories Every Salesperson Should Tell. If you are interested in registering, head to anecdote.com/events for more information. We would love to see you there!

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of an unlikely hero, Cliff Young, who may already be familiar to you. Mark discusses how conventional thinking can stop you from seeing a whole realm of possibilities, especially when it comes to performance. Mark has asked for feedback from our international listeners as to how you feel this Australian story would fare in your workplace. Would people understand the lessons even though this story is quite Australian? Leave your feedback in the comments below or send us an email at [email protected]. Starting next week, from the 8th of June 2020, we’re delivering online public Storytelling for Leaders and Story-Powered Sales workshops. If you have always wanted to attend one of our courses, now is the time! Visit our events page for more information.