CONTENTS trccom ea What Are You Talking About? Persuasive talkers tend to do well in business, and yet we don’t typically think of storytelling as a professional discipline. Hollywood producer Peter Guber is an a crusade to remedy that Inhhis new book, Tel to Win, the CEO of Mandalay Entertainment lakes a look at the way people use stories to do business, He spoke with Inc.com's Mike Holman, Your book looks at the power of purposeful stories, So, what exactly is a purposeful story? Astory you tell with 2 specific purpose in mind. So when you tell a joke, you want to make someone laugh, or if you tell story about someone ha had a heart attack, it may be because you want listener to exercise. Stories are tools to 8 Inc. warcH 20) create social cohesian and to get humans to strategize together, You believe the best stories are interactive. How so? You have to try to engage an audience. You cannot just talk at them: you have to talk with them ‘and modify your story as you tell it, Based an their feedback. If you do this successfully, your listeners are more likely to metabolize the information you wish to convoy, to change behavior, and to repeat your story to others. 0K, s0 how can someone insales or marketing turn a garden-variely pitch into 2 purposeful story? Ws 50 simple, i's embarrassing, and yet 2 lot of people overlook the basis. First, when you walk into a raom to sell { product or pitch an investor or whatever, you absolutely have to know what your intention is. ‘What do you want from your listeners? You have to understand your objective ‘and be transparent about it in order to establish trust Second, you have to figure ‘out a way to capture your listeners’ attention, It can be a physical movement or asking someone about the pictures on his desk in a ‘ay that builds mutuality. Finally the goal of your story must be to show what is init for the listeners. The audience must win. You teach at UCLA. Do your students have well-honed storytelling skills? No. Most young people haven't used their storytelling skills since they were Bor9 or 10 and wanted to persuade Mom ‘and Dad to take them to the ball game. Was there a moment in ‘your business career when ‘you suddenly realized the power of storytelling? There was.a series af moments that could look back on—l could follow the bread crumbs—and all of them involved my failures. So I started to wonder why had failed in some instances when | had succeeded in others. And I realized that | failed when I neglected to tell a purposeful story to the audience or to my employees or to my shareholders. | looked inside myself and saw what had worked for me, Who are the most effective storytellers around? Go to ‘wwveninc,com/how-to-lead to see Peter Guber's list.