#129: Why Your Small Business Needs Storytelling in 2023

Show Notes

Storytelling has become a business buzzword, and for good reason. Stories will never go out of style. Brand or business stories have the power to spark curiosity, make emotional connections, and persuade people to take action.
In this episode, co-hosts Nola Boea and Lori Vajda explore how the power of storytelling, whether shared in the form of customer reviews and experiences, analogies, metaphors, or personal experience, can elevate your brand in the minds and hearts of your ideal customers. 

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In This Episode You’ll Learn 

• What is business storytelling?
• How you can use stories to help your business stand out in a crowded market space, and win over customers.
• The elements of business storytelling.
• Why brand and business stories have the power to spark curiosity, make emotional connections, and persuade people to take action.

Key points Lori and Nola are sharing in this episode:

(03:11:70) How stories light up these specific (sensory or motor) regions of the brain when activated. 

(05:07:31) This is an example of how telling a story activates brain regions and somatic experiences.

(10:50:93) These are the five foundational elements to help you become a good storyteller. Best of all, they’re so easy to do, anyone can use them.

(17:42:13) This is how a listener can and will use your story and apply it to themselves.  

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Transcript

[00:00:00] Nola: When you are preparing to pitch your business to investors or sell your products to prospective customers, if you're like many professionals, you start by pulling together supportive elements. This often includes things like data, facts and figures. However, studies show that if you share a story, people are more likely to be persuaded.
The power of a story enables you to move people to action, help you progress in your career, or grow your business. Stay tuned, listener, because in this episode we're sharing some key elements of successful stories and how storytelling can help you stand out from the crowd.
[00:00:35] Lori: Welcome to Sticky Brand Lab, where we bridge the gap between knowledge and action by providing you with helpful information, tips, and tools from entrepreneurs and other experts so you can quickly and easily jumpstart your side business.
We're your hosts. I'm Lori Vajda, and this is my co-host, Nola Boea. Hello? Hello, NOLA. Hey, Lori. Nola, I read an interesting statistic on the power of storytelling, especially as it comes to taking in information. And according to cognitive psychologist Jerome Bruner facts are 22 times more likely to be remembered when they're wrapped in a story.
[00:01:18] Nola: Well, I guess that makes sense. I mean, that's certainly what we had learned as copywriters to always try to wrap your facts in a story. I mean, a good story can literally make or break a presentation, an article, a conversation, or even a marketing piece. Take for example, the co-founder of Buffer, Leo Woodridge, when he used stories to market his products, instead of just simply emphasizing the benefits and bullet points.
He reported that signups went through the roof.
[00:01:47] Lori: I can believe that because, you know, I explained that the 22 times more likely to remember a fact when it's wrapped in a story. That story, yeah. Yeah. That I shared Uhhuh. Here's the follow up on that one. In trying to locate the quote so that I had the resource available.
Mm-hmm. In which Jerome Bruner. Turns out there's a lot written on the fact that he never actually made that statement. Huh? However, it was remembered. It was remembered, and it has been used in articles, in webinars, in other podcasts. It's been used in research statements. People have used that fact wrapped it in their own story and regurgitated it out as though it's.
Now there is science to back up that facts are definitely remembered more favorably when wrapped in a story, but he never said 22 times more likely, there is suggested research that another person made that connection to his research and just tied those facts in together. But how many times that element has been repeated into other people's stories.
There's an example of just how powerful information can be.
[00:03:05] Nola: That's a great example of just remembering a fact or non-fact as a case may be because. Of the power of storytelling, and you just mentioned that science backs it up and this is what brain scans have said, and I love brain science. It's fascinating, especially since it comes with all these cool pictures where brains are lit up.
Well, the scientists, these brain imaging scientists are neuro neuroscientists.
[00:03:27] Lori: Thank you.
[00:03:30] Nola: Yes, no problem. Yes, those. Now what the scientists have found is that when somebody is listening to a PowerPoint presentation, and of course you have your bullets, you have your graphs, you have your stats, and you're listening to the guy, you're watching the thing, well, it does light up a part of the brain, that has to do with your language processing.
The part where you're decoding, meaning you're interpreting what this person is saying. Whereas when you're listening to a story, the entire brain lights up and actually it lights up based on what's going on in the story.
For example, if someone tells us how delicious a certain meal was at a restaurant, well our sensory cortex lights up that sensory part that lights up when we taste something. Whereas if a story is about movement, like climbing a mountain or going for a run, well our motor cortex gets active as if we are literally, we're vicariously doing that.
Isn't that wild?
[00:04:25] Lori: It is wild. So let's try a little experiment here. So play along with, Recently, you know, spring is in the air kind of thing. So I was looking for a new doormat for outside when people show up and one of the ones that I found was attractive. It was simple. It had a picture of a lemon on it and it said home.
I thought that was kind of interesting. Okay, now here is my story. I did a weekend course, actually, it was a five-day course on hypnosis, and one of the areas that we were studying was on doing self-hypnosis. So the way that you test out somebody's ability to be receptive to suggestion is you use an example of the lemon story I'm about to tell you.
Okay. Imagine that you are standing in front of a door and you open up the door and it opens to this white room. Mm-hmm. And it's beautifully lit. It doesn't feel too sterile. It feels kind of a white kitchen. There's a white granite countertop, white cabinets. White tile and on the white table is this beautiful, bright, perfect lemon.
You can almost even smell the lemon in the air. Just a hint of citrus, and you walk over to the table. And right next to the lemon is a knife and you cut open the lemon, and as you cut it open, it's so perfect. The juice kind of just drips down the inside of that lemon and all that. You're wondering now at this point is, am I gonna make a lemon custard or am I gonna make some fresh squeeze lemon?
Oh man. So what happened when I talked about
[00:06:06] Nola: the mat, I pictured a brown mat that had a kind of a yellowy lemon and said home on it. That's it. And what happened
[00:06:15] Lori: when I told you the story about the lemon, the actual fruit? Well,
[00:06:19] Nola: I was, Living it. And I wanna say I even started salivating a little bit toward the end.
Me
[00:06:26] Lori: too. I like those places in the back of your cheeks, you know? Mm-hmm. Like are salivating for me. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And that's a great example to me. How words can really impact your audience. Yes,
[00:06:42] Nola: that was a great example cuz you literally walked me through an experience and that is what storytelling does.
It walks a person through an experience and that's why storytelling. Is such a powerful tool to have in your business marketing toolbox.
I mean, just telling a good story can cut through the clutter, incite emotion, and motivate someone to take.
[00:07:07] Lori: Indeed. And when you think about in the digital world, we have TikTok and podcasts and SMS marketing services, there's virtually no limit to the places where a customer or your audience can consume content.
However, the trend to do brand storytelling perfectly aligns in those platforms because you can use the content to distribute it visually, orally in writing, basically through a variety of platforms, including email and social.
[00:07:47] Nola: There are a ton of channels where it can be used, and today, brands are fighting to grab just a few seconds of their audience's attention.
The other side of the coin, the audiences are drowning in a sea of marketing and advertising content. But what they don't have and what no one else can copy is your brand. Right, which makes you and your business unique, and here's why.
Hearing a story, like we said, puts your whole brain to work. What's even more impressive is when people tell stories about situations that have helped shape their own thinking and way of life. Those personal anecdotes can actually have the same effect on the listener. That's. Science has shown that the brains of a person telling the story and the brains of the listener can become synchronized.
So you had said that I heard your story and kind of began to salivate. You said as you were telling your story, you kind of began to salivate. So literally you were thinking through that image and going through, your brain was going through the same process as me and my brain listening to the story.
So if you can apply that to any story you're telling your listener is becoming synchronized with you. In the telling and listening to that story. Yeah. It's
[00:09:06] Lori: a shame that we don't have direct feedback from our listeners to know what their reaction to hearing the Lemon story as well, because then we would be able to get an even broader audience, but a Princeton professor of psychology.
Neuroscience Uri Hassan, I believe is how you say his name. Anyway, he shared an example in his research, and I'm just gonna read this. When the woman spoke English, the volunteers understood her story and their brains synchronized when she had activity in the insula, which is the emotional brain region.
The listener did too when her frontal cortex lit up. So did. By simply telling a story, the woman could plant ideas, thoughts, and emotions into the listener's brain. Bingo. When you think about it. This is where empathy, sympathy, compassion, all of those different emotions at different levels hit us when we hear somebody else's experience.
 It's like, where does it sit for you? Have you had this similar experience? And you can relate. It's gonna light it up and trigger emotions in you that are different than if you've never walked a mile in my shoes and have no idea. Then it might just be sympathy for my story, but it still elicits an emotion.
Speaking of which next week, we are interviewing a subject matter expert in the field, Limor Bergman Gross. She's a business coach who works specifically with women in the tech industry on their career growth, as well as provides workshops to companies on a variety of topics. Including presentation skills and as a subject matter expert listener, you are definitely gonna, wanna come prepared with a pen, pencil, or note taking app because she's gonna give out some tips and tricks to help with the how do you tell a good story even though that's not what today is about.
[00:10:57] Nola: Right, exactly. Today our focus is on five foundational elements to be a good storyteller. Now again, this is not to tell a good story. It's not the elements to construct a good story, but it's about being a good storyteller. We want to help you expand your marketing toolbox and optimize your skills so you can reach and connect with more of your target audience.
So shall we. Yes, let's do it. All right. The first element is, as a storyteller, is to embrace vulnerability. I mean, what do we mean by vulnerability? Well, in storytelling, you can do this by sharing a belief, a personal core value, or some other heartfelt moment in unexpected or a surprising way. Now, vulnerability has the power to turn conventional brand storytelling on its head.
Because it reveals a similarly shared or surprising connection, a creative insight, or an impactful solution. So it really helps people to better relate to your brand. Here's an example. Have you ever heard of Farm Girl flowers? I don't
[00:12:00] Lori: know, but it doesn't sound
[00:12:01] Nola: familiar. Okay. Well, the founder, Christina Stembel, founded Farm Girl Flowers to disrupt the whole teleflower industry and the whole online experience to make it completely very different and unique.
And most people, I guess, can recognize a farm girl bouquet. I guess their signature wrapping is burlap. Oh, instead of that cellophane. So there's a lot more to the whole ordering process that is just, like I said, disruptive. I recently heard her tell a.
So she was explaining the lesson learned, but she told in this vulnerable story, so she talks about how she was really trying to raise money round of investing to really scale her company, and these investors agreed to see her, but it was on their time. She was very busy. She was running the company and the next day she also had a commercial for her own business to shoot, and yet she did what she needed to do.
She put together her pitch deck. She had really good, solid research to show why this new business model was gonna be totally amazing. And she got on this plane. She went all the way across the continent on the east coast.
But she gets to this investor's pitch right on time when they said to cans out the pitch deck and before she can even walk them through it, they're like flowers. That is like so cliche. We don't aren't even interested in flowers. There is nothing you can do with flowers that Oh yeah. Really applies to us.
She describes that as the moment when she realized, you know what? Investors are not the smartest people in the room. If they had taken a minute to read the research or hear it, they would realize how disruptive it.
And it was such a change in perspective for her. And again, she flew back and she did her shoot, but after that, she stopped focusing on chasing investors and just focused on growing her business and she got what she needed and her business is now thriving. But it was such a sympathetic, Ride for me to walk with her on that airplane and go into that boardroom and feel the intimidation followed by the anger and followed by that epiphany, and then hear her get back and change her attitude.
So you have all those elements of the story, and it's from a personal perspective, but it's all because she embraced that moment of vulnerability as a startup.
[00:14:25] Lori: I think that's a really good example. It's also an example of the second element that I wanna bring up, which is be a creative shapeshifter. And what we mean by this is you wanna be able to evolve your story without limits.
So in this case, using your example, Nola of the Farm Girl flower founder, as a Shapeshifter, she would be able to tell her personal story to an. In the way that they would benefit from it. And by that what I mean is you wanna be able to tell a story on the preferred platform of where the listener is. So how do you adapt or evolve the story?
If you're telling it in a podcast, how do you evolve the story if you're telling it in a quick video or what if you're on stage when you. If you write it out and it's on your website, the point is that your story isn't going to be copied and pasted exactly the same. You wanna be able to adapt it and put the high and the low, and the drama and use your voice.
Accordingly, based on the platform you're at.
[00:15:30] Nola: That makes perfect sense. I mean, I happen to hear that story on a podcast, but I can so totally see it being modified for a stage presentation or even a blog post, so Yeah,
[00:15:42] Lori: like a TED Talk or
something.
[00:15:44] Nola: Mm-hmm. Exactly. Yes. So the third element of being a great storyteller is to inspire collaboration.
So in this case, you are opening up the storytelling forum to other people, such as artists, thought leaders, professional colleagues and experts. Collaboration lets others captivate your audience and amplify your brand's message by introducing new voices who share a similar purpose, passion, or interest.
So I know we're talking about you being a good storyteller. Here's where you can use other people's story to amplify your brand. I would say we do that every time we have a guest on our podcast, they come on. Certainly, we're bringing them on for a different perspective, but they all each have a story to tell that amplifies the sticky brand lab brand.
[00:16:30] Lori: That's a really good point here because if our topic is on branding and we have a subject matter expert come in, they may talk to us and the listener about one aspect. Mm-hmm. A second marketing person could talk about it from a different perspective and as a listener, depending on where you are. For example, if the idea of starting your side business is just an idea and it's germinating.
You are going to get one meaning from hearing the story. If you are about ready to launch your business, you're gonna get another aspect or be able to apply it in a different way. And if, yeah, you've already launched it, now you wanna build your business, you're gonna be able to apply the information in a different way, which brings me.
Element number four, deliver meaningful value. And what we mean here is you really wanna focus on your listener. So be customer audience-centric so that they can find their own path to success. And I gave the three examples of somebody who's thinking about starting a side business in the process of getting it ready to launch and somebody who's building it.
When a listener. Or your audience hears a story at a different stage, they actually apply a meaning to it. So when you are getting ready to tell a story, keep that in mind.
[00:17:55] Nola: And I think it specifically is relevant to storytelling because you can directly tell a listener, Hey, these are the five things you need to do.
This is what you need to do and here's why. And it's very direct and very concrete. But when you give that same message, In the form of a story where the listener is expected to draw those conclusions by themselves, they'll do it in such a way that it is most applicable to them. So it's a little more flexible and it makes owning those lessons learned or that message.
It makes them own it because they've applied that story to themselves.
[00:18:33] Lori: I think that's a really important piece of advice. I think that's why metaphors and allegories Yes, and all of those work so well because when we hear it, we're applying its meaning where we are in our own day, in our own stage of development in our own life.
It's how it resonates with us at that
[00:18:55] Nola: moment. Absolutely. And another reason stories are so effective is based on what we have as our fifth element. They create lasting connections. So at their core stories for millennia have had the power to motivate, educate, and delight. And we emphasize connection here because that's what happens when we bridge the gap between what separates.
And what unites us and storytelling does that it's a meaningful way for you to lean into the passions, interests, and heartaches that are commonly shared between you and your audience. And when you think about it, I mean, this is what specific subject matter keynotes do.
You might have people in the audience that are listen. Come from a variety of backgrounds and walks of life, but when that speaker, that storyteller emphasizes the commonality, it really can take all of those people and unite them. Yeah, and that's the power of a story.
[00:19:51] Lori: I mean, it really humanizes the speaker and the listener.
And I think from that standpoint, we like to think that we make logical decisions, especially as they apply to purchases, but it's that heartfelt connect. That is most important here. When we get to know the small business owner, we feel connected to them, and the more we like them and that we feel they like us, the more we're making an emotional decision and then we justify it.
Now I do this. Pretty much anytime I have a dessert that I've made in the kitchen, I might say, think to myself, that brownie looks good, but the logical part of me says, oh, this brownie's about to go bad. I should eat it now. Why don't throw it out?
[00:20:38] Nola: That's right. That's the logic to justify your decision.
The emotional tug for that brownie. Exactly.
[00:20:45] Lori: Which is kind of aligns with what Zig Ziegler once said. People buy based on emotion and then they. Logic to justify their decision
[00:20:52] Nola: That's right, right. Yeah.
[00:20:56] Lori: That brownie was calling me.
[00:20:58] Nola: Well, that totally, totally applies with that storytelling, providing that emotional tug, because as a copywriter I've learned that I can sell or I can appeal, I can write very motivating copy with a ton of statistics and facts that explain why this is the most powerful, most effective, most e.
You know, solution since Sliced Bread, but without a story that appeal's gonna flop. And if there is a story there, that is what is going to give that emotional tug to then tie to the statistics and allow the reader or whatever to make that decision.
[00:21:38] Lori: Stories, as we said, it helps separate you as a business owner from your competition, but it helps connect you as a business owner to a potential customer or client.
[00:21:51] Nola: Yep, absolutely. Well listener, we hope the ideas and thoughts we've shared here today have sparked your interest in curiosity about storytelling and inspired you to become a first-time entrepreneur in the second half of your vibrant life.
And remember, starting a business comes with its own set of challenges. So take time to determine if the risks as well as the rewards are right for you. Just don't let your analysis become your paralysis. And be sure to stick around to the very end of this podcast for a fun little.
[00:22:19] Lori: If you found the information we've shared helpful and want more tools, tips, and inspiration delivered to your inbox, sign up for News You Can Use, over at our website. That's stickybrandlab.com.
[00:22:32] Nola: Be sure to come back next Tuesday and every Tuesday for another informative and. Inspiring and motivating episode. And remember, action creates results. So tap into your desire to create a business and brand you love by taking 1% action every day. Small steps, big effects.

[OUT TAKE]

Nola: because when they visualize it, their brain lights up those parts of the brain.
[00:23:04] Lori: I hope their brain does light up those parts of the brain. I guess it does kinda work.
[00:23:20] Nola: I think they connected mine. I need to disconnect it.