A conversation with Matthew Dix, author of “Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Grow Your Business and Brand”
Matthew Dix is the author of Stories Sell and eight other books. A best-selling novelist, nationally known storyteller, and award-winning elementary teacher, he teaches storytelling and communications at universities, corporate workplaces, and community organizations. Dix is a multiple-time winner of the Moth GrandSLAM story competition, and with his wife, he founded the organization Speak Up to help others share their stories. He is also the co-host of the Speak Up Storytelling podcast. He lives with his family in Connecticut.
What first drew you to the field of storytelling in business?
I met a man named Boris Levin, CEO of Mott Corporation, who convinced me that the storytelling I was doing to entertain audiences could help his business. I didn't believe it at first, but after a meeting at a coffee shop, he convinced me I could help. It started with meeting Boris, then connecting with a local engineering company, then a local nonprofit, but within a year I was working with Fortune 500 companies, Olympians, tech startups, and more.
The business world desperately dragged me into its world, convincing me that my understanding of storytelling could be useful in sales, marketing, branding, leadership, as an entrepreneur, public speaker, and more.
good.
What are your top tips for creating compelling stories that resonate with business audiences?
It's only natural that no one wants to listen to what we have to say, so everything we say and do must entertain. Storytelling can achieve this through elements such as stakes, suspense, surprise, humor and vulnerability.
There are many ways to entertain while still getting your message across, and while few choose to do it this way, those businesses and leaders who do can easily and effectively differentiate themselves from their competitors.
It's the difference between reporting, listing, explaining, describing…
…or telling a compelling story that makes the audience trust, believe and love what is being said and the person who is saying it.
How did you turn your storytelling career into a business career?
To my surprise, I discovered that storytelling is storytelling, meaning the same strategies and techniques I use to entertain an audience on stage or a reader on paper are the same strategies I can use to build a marketing campaign, design a pitch deck, write a commercial, develop a sales pitch, create a keynote speech, revise a demo, and so on.
There is no personal storytelling or business storytelling — it's all just storytelling. I'm simply bringing what I've learned on the stage and on the page into the business world every day, and the results have been amazing.
What sets you apart from others looking to bring storytelling to their businesses and brands?
A few points:
I work every day. I'm a writer of fiction and non-fiction, a storyteller, and a comedian who regularly takes to the stage to entertain audiences. I've written columns for magazines, plays, musicals, and even comic books. I write a popular blog that I've been writing every day for 20 years without missing a post. I work and I keep entertaining audiences in theaters, art spaces, museums, bookstores, on the pages of books and magazines, and on the Internet.
I understand the business world well, having owned and run my own business. In 1997, I started a wedding DJ company and built it into one of the most respected in the industry. I also started a storytelling business selling asynchronous learning and workshops to people and businesses around the world. I am currently a founding member of a technology startup. I also managed McDonald's restaurants across New England for 12 years. I am a stock market investor who follows companies and industries closely, and I understand the business world. I build, manage and run businesses every day. I can really understand and empathize with business people.
I've been a school teacher for over 25 years. I know how to break down big, complex, difficult, and hard-to-understand topics into small, repeatable, understandable, and actionable pieces. I don't just help businesses tell better stories; I teach businesspeople to be better storytellers. And I can do this because I know how to teach. I have a quarter century of methodology, pedagogy, and teaching experience.
To sum up, I am a professional, nationally recognized, award-winning storyteller, a best-selling novelist, have started and managed several businesses, and an award-winning teacher.
In today's world, that combination is hard to find.
In your experience, what are the biggest challenges companies face when trying to incorporate storytelling into their communications?
In storytelling, companies need to do something different, but being different is hard. It's much easier to take the safe route, stay within the boundaries and comfort of the collective, and not take risks. Storytelling requires vulnerability; an attempt to be interesting, compelling, and personal.
Everyone craves storytelling, but when they find out what storytelling is, they feel scared.
What are some of the most common mistakes companies make when using storytelling?
There is a fear that telling a story will be a waste of time, or that it will make the audience feel like it is a waste of time. Businessmen are apprehensive about telling stories to entertain their audiences because they fear it will be unnecessary, when in fact it is all about “entertaining.”
People are afraid to share personal or compromising details about themselves, their business, and their products because these details can have a huge impact on perceptions, brand, and sales.
Companies shy away from humor for fear of coming across as too serious, even though we know that humor produces huge changes in brain chemistry.
Companies overinvest in the “how” of their products, but not in the “what” or “why.” When Steve Jobs introduced the first iPod, he described it as “1,000 songs in your pocket.” He didn't explain how it worked to consumers, because consumers rarely care how it works or what effort and investment went into designing and manufacturing the product. What consumers want to know is what it is and why they need it.
This can be done most effectively through storytelling.
Most of today's business communication is round, white, bland and completely forgettable — to be memorable and make an impact you need boldness, but boldness is hard to find.
How can you use storytelling to achieve specific business goals, like increasing brand awareness, driving sales or building customer loyalty?
Storytelling enables a company to make a lasting connection with its customers, makes messages memorable, and helps explain complex processes. Storytelling makes leaders more relatable, more understandable, and more influential. Storytelling taps into the part of the human brain designed to process and retain stories. Storytelling can make your brand stickier, your sales pitch more compelling, and your investment request more persuasive.
Steve Jobs said, “The most powerful people in the world are storytellers.”
You've given us several examples of companies that are using storytelling effectively. Can you pick one example that you think is particularly impactful and explain why?
I've always been impressed by the way Domino's launched their campaign in 2009: admitting that their pizza was bad, publicly reporting customer negative feedback on their product, and promising to improve. They told the story of a company that put its weaknesses on the line and decided to take bold action in the face of overwhelming evidence and a desire to improve. Analysts were against it. Investors were horrified at the idea of a pizza company admitting that their pizza tasted bad. Yet since 2009, Domino's has overtaken the S&P to become the fastest-growing pizza restaurant in the world. Many factors played into their transformation, but it started with a story.
Can you share any specific examples of stories that resonated with you or that you felt were ineffective?
The protagonist in my book is Boris Levin, and his stories are amazing: He tells the story of how he took his father, who was battling a slowly progressing cancer, on a trip to the Caribbean but didn't take into account the little details: schedules, food, hydration, sleep.
As a result, his father underwent emergency medical treatment on the flight and the flight was diverted to Miami.
The story has a happy ending – the father survives and the couple manages to go on holiday – but it serves as a lesson to Boris.
Small details, if ignored frequently and for long periods of time, can lead to bigger problems. In planning the trip, he created much bigger problems by not taking into account the small but many needs of his father.
He sees the same thing happening in business.
Even a small problem, if left unattended for a long time, can turn into a real disaster. He tells this story to his employees, full of vulnerability, suspense, surprises and humor. He then moves on to the lesson he wants to impart to his employees. It's a great way to entertain, be memorable and impactful.
There are tons of stories like this about Boris. He's a great guy.
How do you use storytelling in your professional life?
always.
I use stories to engage, entertain, and educate my students, and I also use stories to inform parents about their students' achievements.
I used storytelling almost exclusively to build my DJ business and continue to use it to build my current business and the startups I'm helping launch.
I use storytelling whenever I speak publicly: TEDx talks, inspirational speeches, keynotes, lectures, book talks, etc. I tell stories constantly as part of the marketing for my book: podcasts, appearances, written materials, etc.
Stories sell: Storytelling strategies to grow your business and brand
By Matthew Dix
Foreword by Marcia Cressaria
work / Personal Growth • $19.95
Trade Paperback • 336 Pages • 6 x 9 • Publication Date: June 11, 2024
978-1-60868-904-0 Publisher: KADOKAWA
Also available as eBook
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