“You will never, never be powerful unless you stop hiding your defects.” Nassim Nicholas Taleb
One of the communication skills I’ve been trying to work on is storytelling. Communication is one of my weaknesses as it is with storytelling. Storytelling has become a key communication between my son and I. My son is my number one audience.
“Everybody has strengths and weaknesses. The key to success is understanding one’s weaknesses and successfully compensating for them. People who lack that ability fail chronically.” Ray Dalio
School rewards the same set of hard skills. Financial modeling. Operations. Excel. In the real world, none of these are the most important skill. And that skill is Storytelling. Here’s why…
We live in a digital age. Technology is eating everything. Skills are more commoditized than ever before. And business is more competitive than ever before. Storytelling is not & will not be commoditized.
Storytelling gives us an opportunity to prove who we are as entrepreneurs, particularly in a competitive space. We work with clients and business owners of various backgrounds. Helping them secure a location to build their business that generate income for them and their family shows we are doing the right thing. When we secured a listing with a prominent landlord, we told the story why handing us the listing was worth it. Sharing the stories and the obstacles each business went through give us legitimacy.
Great storytelling is the crystal key to make things happen for yourself as a builder.
Grow audience requires preparation and repetition. Think about your audience the same way a business thinks about a potential customer. You are solving a problem for someone. Your goal is to take them from inaction to action. Great storytelling helps them understand why action is in their best interest.
What value and incentives are you adding to your audience. Catering your story to your audience is about understanding:
- who they are
- how they like to be spoken to
- what incentives drive them
I remember being super nervous speaking in front of 200-300 audience on a conference at a trade mission. It was nerve-racking and intense. But with preparation, you built confidence and skill to hone your talk. Two ways to achieve nervous equilibrium:
- Preparation
- Bulleted notes, simulate your exact environment, anticipate audience questions.
- Perspective
- It is an incredible privilege to have a captive audience & even if you bomb it, it’s an amazing learning experience.
For now, my number one audience is still my son. Who’s your number one audience? Let’s start from there.
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