Everyday Business Storytelling: Create, Simplify, and Adapt A Visual Narrative for Any Audience

Janine Kurnoff

You've been working for days, maybe weeks, on your next big idea or business communication. You've got ONE shot to influence, be credible, and come across authentically...yikes. Is it really all possible?

Surprisingly, it is.

Presentations (among all types of business communication) are daunting. To get through it quickly, talented business professionals will default to what they know best--LOTS of data, bullet points galore, and random slides borrowed from colleagues. When they are greeted with a sea of stony faces (or worse, the tops of texting heads) they realize (too late) their message wasn't clear, meaningful, or easy to digest.

The Conflict

So what exactly does a muddled message amount to? Huge missed opportunities. A missed opportunity to show value in your ideas. A missed opportunity to influence decisions. And ultimately, it leads to the biggest missed opportunity of all--the chance to move your career forward.

How Business Storytelling Comes into Play

How does storytelling--a skill generally reserved for movies, books, and advertising--make sense for business? Simple. Storytelling is a universal method for humans to share ideas and make them memorable. Whether we're at work, a barbeque, or a ball game, we are constantly telling each other stories.

Amazingly, business storytelling follows the same basic structure as anything we see outside the office. Even when presenting complex, technical information like a quarterly business review, new product rollout, or an onboarding program (read: dry, boring, unsexy stuff), we can still structure our data, facts, and recommendations around a story.

And when done right, it truly motivates people to listen, act, and make decisions.

So how can talented people quickly gain this indispensable skill? To be able to develop memorable, easy-to-digest narratives in a reasonable amount of time? It starts by applying the right tools and a story framework. It starts by making storytelling a common language within your organization.

But before you invest another moment in this book, here's our promise...

This is not a book about theory. We'll arm you with practical, applicable, and relevant steps you can immediately apply to your next business communication. This is not just for presentations. These concepts can apply to emails, marketing collateral, voicemails, etc. We get your reality...we've walked in your shoes. We'll address common business scenarios such as presenting to varied audiences, coordinating team presentations, and adhering to the ins and outs of different corporate cultures. In a concise, skimmable, and visual read, we'll set you up to successfully:

Develop authentic, audience-centric, narratives that are relevant to your world Improve your executive presence Catapult you career with visual storytelling This book is intended for anyone from entry-level to top executives, entrepreneurs to corporate team members. It is relevant to businesspeople working and communicating in any industry.