Contact

Book

About the Book

No matter your job title or the sector you work in, this expert guide shares practical, applicable secrets to delivering value-driven content for any and every audience.

Description

About the book

Paperback- $15.99
979-8-9857706-0-5

eBook- $9.99
979-8-9857706-2-9

Hardcover- $22.99
979-8-9857706-1-2

Audiobook- $13.96
979-8-9857706-3-6

No one likes to be sold to, but everyone loves a great story.

Corporate Storytelling is stronger communication. Combine your key message with a personal story, and you’ll turn any typical lecture into a meaningful conversation.

No matter your job title or the sector you work in, this expert guide shares practical, applicable secrets to delivering value-driven content for any and every audience. Learn to connect with personal passion, and your talk will last long after you’ve left the spotlight.

Long Description

ISBN

Paperback- $15.99
979-8-9857706-0-5

eBook- $9.99
979-8-9857706-2-9

Hardcover- $22.99
979-8-9857706-1-2

Audiobook- $13.96
979-8-9857706-3-6

Details

PUBLISH DATE
January 11, 2023

PAGE COUNT
250

AUDIOBOOK PREVIEW
Book Excerpts

You'll discover

How to maximize on the
speaker-audience
relationship
Effective ways to assure
mutual success and improve trust and confidence
Tips to suppress fear of public speaking by assuring value in every word and slide
Brand identity skills that
help you build a better
presentation story
Passion for your topic
 that inspires passion
in your listeners
A plan to open strong, close
strong, and never say goodbye
until you’ve set up the next hello

Long description

Every corporate speaker’s best friend for adding value, passion, and connection to any public talk you give.

No one likes to be sold to, but everyone loves a great story.

Corporate Storytelling is stronger communication. Whatever work you do or topic you’re asked to deliver, combining your key message with a personal story turns your typical lecture into a meaningful conversation. Learn to connect with your audience as trusted partners rather than captive commodities, and your talk will last long after you’ve left the spotlight.


This energetic and insightful expert guide will instantly uplevel your public speaking skills, making you a better communicator and more valuable representative for your company. Veteran Fortune 500 spokesman and executive speaker coach Steve Multer shares the secrets to delivering value-driven content that speaks to the heart as well as the head. Build your confidence and on-stage presence with fun, practical, instantly applicable message marketing strategies that weave effective corporate storytelling into all your presentations.

 

In Nothing Gets Sold Until the Story Gets Told, you’ll discover:

• How to speak from your audience’s perspective to assure mutual presentation success.

• What your audience wants and needs to hear, maximizing every business potential in the natural speaker-audience relationship. 

• Realistic ways to minimize your fear of public speaking through genuine value in every word and slide.

• Crucial rules for combining corporate content with personal passion that inspires equal passion in your listeners.

• A powerful sales plan to open strong, close stronger, and never say goodbye until you’ve set up the next hello.

• Brand identity skills that help you build a better story for any audience, any size, any topic.

 

Average brands pitch; smart brands communicate. Welcome to the power of corporate storytelling with Nothing Gets Sold Until the Story Gets Told.

 

 

“I wish this book was available three years ago.

Each chapter holds so much value. For anyone who wants to work smart and build the basics with the best available guide, you can go for this book without thinking twice.”

NetGalley Reviews

“I can't say enough good things...

If you want to connect with an audience, be it personal, professional or both, buy this book. I can’t say enough good things about the content Steve shares.”

Brent M.
LINDNER RECYCLINGTECH AMERICA

“A must read for anyone that wants to become a better storyteller.

Much more than a lesson on storytelling, this book will be a resource that I will continue to reference to better connect with my target audience.”

Terry M.
President and Owner
180 ENABLEMENT LLC

Subscribe

Subscribe to receive Steve’s Tuesday Tips & Tricks

Retailers

Previous
Next

Listen

Chapter 1

Figure 12.1 Thick Structure Template :
Baseline sample structure for a presentation

Listen

Excerpts

Chapter 1

The Power of Corporate Storytelling

View

Chapter 4

Understanding and Delivering for Your Listener

View

Chapter 8

Start Strong. End Strong.

View

Chapter 12

Scripts: Friend and Foe

View

Chapter One

The Power of Corporate Storytelling

As speakers, we get so wrapped up in satisfying industry analysts, quotas, and quarterly growth for shareholders that we never step back to consider the people we are actually speaking to. We don’t contemplate the myriad ways in which we and our brand might benefit from constructing a larger and longer-lasting relationship with those we are hoping to sell to. It’s hard to think beyond the sale, all the way to the individual, because that requires personal investment in our talk instead of simple, safe reliance on preexisting marketing documentation. But that personal investment pays off by establishing commonality with our audience, and commonality is where meaningful professional and personal opportunities take root.

Commonality with an audience can open doors to new opportunities and ongoing professional relationships. In order to know and understand your viewers, you first have to know and understand why you’re giving your talk and why you’re asking them to attend. If you don’t know why you’re speaking or don’t really believe in the value of what you have to say, your audience will feel that and check out. If you’ve forgotten what motivates you professionally or drives you personally, it’s very hard to demonstrate passion for your topic, which then makes it far harder to elicit a passionate response from your audience.

Start by remembering why you chose to do what you do. Think of why you have earned the right to deliver this talk for the benefit of others. Feel the pride of your team, what you’ve accomplished together, and how you represent them as you speak. Picture the hopes and dreams of your viewers and the ways your values and theirs align and intersect. Imagine how their success will lead to your success. Build your talk with a combination of content and commonality, and you’ll create a corporate story you can be proud to deliver. The content is the easy part; the commonality is what makes your message stick—and stick around.

These are the types of questions I ask my clients to ask themselves. Why was your brand created and what problem was it built to address? Is the original excitement and commitment to excellence that launched your company still clear and compelling? Where do your brand’s current pas- sions lie? How will those passions connect to and support any speaker you ask to deliver a talk on your behalf? Many companies can’t remember back to their brand’s founding or have forgotten the passion that first propelled them toward solving a specific market challenge. They still want to speak to an audience, but they have lost sight of their own narrative. I remind them that nothing gets sold until the story gets told, and then we get to work.

Chapter Four

Understanding and Delivering for Your Listener

As speakers, we get so wrapped up in satisfying industry analysts, quotas, and quarterly growth for shareholders that we never step back to consider the people we are actually speaking to. We don’t contemplate the myriad ways in which we and our brand might benefit from constructing a larger and longer-lasting relationship with those we are hoping to sell to. It’s hard to think beyond the sale, all the way to the individual, because that requires personal investment in our talk instead of simple, safe reliance on preexisting marketing documentation. But that personal investment pays off by establishing commonality with our audience, and commonality is where meaningful professional and personal opportunities take root.

Commonality with an audience can open doors to new opportunities and ongoing professional relationships. In order to know and understand your viewers, you first have to know and understand why you’re giving your talk and why you’re asking them to attend. If you don’t know why you’re speaking or don’t really believe in the value of what you have to say, your audience will feel that and check out. If you’ve forgotten what motivates you professionally or drives you personally, it’s very hard to demonstrate passion for your topic, which then makes it far harder to elicit a passionate response from your audience.

Start by remembering why you chose to do what you do. Think of why you have earned the right to deliver this talk for the benefit of others. Feel the pride of your team, what you’ve accomplished together, and how you represent them as you speak. Picture the hopes and dreams of your viewers and the ways your values and theirs align and intersect. Imagine how their success will lead to your success. Build your talk with a combination of content and commonality, and you’ll create a corporate story you can be proud to deliver. The content is the easy part; the commonality is what makes your message stick—and stick around.

These are the types of questions I ask my clients to ask themselves. Why was your brand created and what problem was it built to address? Is the original excitement and commitment to excellence that launched your company still clear and compelling? Where do your brand’s current pas- sions lie? How will those passions connect to and support any speaker you ask to deliver a talk on your behalf? Many companies can’t remember back to their brand’s founding or have forgotten the passion that first propelled them toward solving a specific market challenge. They still want to speak to an audience, but they have lost sight of their own narrative. I remind them that nothing gets sold until the story gets told, and then we get to work.

Chapter Eight

Start Strong. End Strong.

The opening is the most important part of any story. The truth of this ubiquitous trope is time tested and undeniable, equally applicable across all disciplines and circumstances. When you start strong, you buy considerable goodwill for everything that follows.

In chess, the opening move sets a strategic foundation for the series of attacks and maneuvers on a march to victory. In the news, a headline exists to make you hungry for the report to come. For novelists, the first paragraph sets the tone of the tale, sending readers on a journey of discovery and revelation. As a speaker, the way you open your talk can make or break your session. It could instantly connect you and your message to your audience, or it could instantly build an insurmountable barrier that’s difficult to overcome.

The conclusion of your story is equally vital; it’s your chance to leave a lasting impact on your viewers or to leave them high and dry. A movie that starts strong but ends weak sends us out the door feeling frustrated and dis- appointed. A restaurant that opens with a brilliant appetizer but concludes with a mediocre dessert is less likely to earn a return visit. A talk that opens with a bang but ends with a whimper is incomplete and quickly forgotten. There is no point in showing time and care for the opening pitch and then neglecting to deliver in the final chapter. You say goodbye and your audience thinks, “Wait … that’s it?”

Think of the beginning and end of your presentation as crucial book- ends, framing your story with value and purpose from the first word to the last. One pulls your audience into your world, while the other gives them wings to fly the moment you set them free. Without both of these bookends, the center has no structure and collapses. Let’s start with your opening bookend.

At the start of an average talk, the speaker will introduce themselves and the title of their topic, give a brief, business-card-style job description, and then race instantly into core content. Pay attention the next time you’re watching a speaker, and notice how rapidly they transition from “Hello” to their first content slide. It’ll give you whiplash. The faster they stop talking about themselves and dive into corporate speak, the less thought they’ve given to their viewers and the less satisfying their talk will be, guaranteed. You’ve seen this happen countless times but probably never knew the tell- tale signs; now you do.

As we discussed in the previous chapter, when your audience is given no opportunity to connect with you as the speaker before being hit with your content, your job becomes much harder. Remember, the opening of your talk is about them, not you or your brand. They’ve already read your name, session title, and bio and decided to attend. Open with a story, not with a sales pitch.

Your front bookend establishes value and demonstrates passion for them, in order to create connection, trust, and credibility for you. This setup can’t be skipped or minimized in a desperate rush toward product de- tail and data; without that foundation, the audience is left in the dust. And you can’t simply cut and paste preexisting content into a strong opening; you must discover personal, human moments from your own experiences to lay that foundation for your viewers.

I’ll reiterate that your audience won’t invest in you or your message until they clearly see the value for them in your talk, either personally, professionally, or both. This truth demands that you take real, dedicated time in the opening of your talk to focus on your listeners and their needs before introducing your own content messaging. This strategy alone will set you apart from the majority of speakers.

Chapter Twelve

Scripts: Friend and Foe

We will assume you have written your own script, one that solidly supports your topic and confidently tells the story you plan to tell. Now it’s time to learn that content in preparation for your upcoming talk, and to learn it just enough so your script remains a friend without slowly devolving into your foe.

Practice makes perfect. Some speakers worry about over-practicing, but I find that, for most of us, it’s a problem we don’t have the luxury of experiencing. More often, our calendars allow for too little preparation rather than too much. If you are a rare exception, consider that a gift rather than a burden. Take all the time you can to become highly familiar and comfortable with your script. Internalize it, record yourself delivering the talk, and watch your performance for clues to potential improvement. Present to others on your team or to your family and solicit their valuable feedback. Then, when you know the content and feel in control of it, and while your script is still your friend, PUT IT AWAY. Yes, I am yelling. Because this is a crucial step in the preparation process, and it is one that too many speakers fail to do.

Your script becomes your foe the moment you know its content but continue to cling to it like a life preserver. Remember, your script does not tell your story—you do. Once you have written your thoughts down in tangible form, organized them into a strong narrative, and learned the content, your script has finished serving its purpose. Tuck it in a drawer and keep practicing from your knowledge of the topic, communicating from the heart instead of from a memorized document.

Whatever topic you have been asked to speak on, you likely already know it inside and out. Under normal circumstances, you can tell your solution story in your own words, at any time, without a script, to any client or colleague. But, once a talk is “formal,” others will be watching and listening, and glossophobia starts to creep in. You suddenly worry you might stumble, forget an important point, or won’t satisfy expectations. This is why speakers fail to set their scripts aside, using them as reliable safety nets, sacrificing personality and relaxed delivery in order to get every word perfect.

Despite popular opinion, memorization is not your friend. Numerous studies show that memorized text stifles communication and suppresses connection and recollection.27 28 29 When you recite from memory or read your script off the page or screen, you run the risk of regurgitating content at your audience instead of communicating with them. This is a foe you do not need.

You know what you want to say. And you have slides to cue you along the way. That’s enough. Put down the script and tell that story in your own natural cadence, even if it varies from the exact words you wrote. You’ll free yourself to adapt as you go, interact with your audience, incorporate them into your talk, and add passion to your more free-form storytelling.

Perhaps you worry that, if you don’t follow your script to the letter, you may mistime the delivery. True, dumping the script means you may run short or long, but ask yourself if that really matters. (Remember the 3%–8% rule?) If you run short, you can always add another personal perspective or extend your call to action and conclusion. Better yet, give your audience a bit of time back to make a call, say hello to a friend, or get some fresh air before the next scheduled session. If you were scheduled to speak for 30 minutes and finish in 25, your audience will be delighted by the bonus break.

If you find yourself running long, that is a perfect opportunity to leave your audience wanting more. Bring the session to an end, let them know you still have lots of additional value to provide, and offer an invitation to set up a next point of contact. If you have to wrap quickly and cut something, the 3%–8% rule suggests it was likely something your audience would not have remembered anyway—no real loss. I promise you will never accidentally forget the most meaningful points of your presentation.