Storytelling

Humans are innate storytellers. We use (sequenced) stories to enjoy life, relay ideas, and network experiences. Passed over generations, the willingness to tell stories has helped our species survive. When collided, shared understandings then summon diverse environments connected to thrive.

As we narrow the narrative into an entrepreneurial lifestyle, the values of storytelling are felt as we learn, create interest, unite, and take action beyond the shared moment. Over a brew, in the office, at events, out with friends, or on-stage, leaders must be able to translate the story of a business.

The environment, industry, audience, and format effects how a story is told. The sentiment can remain consistent, but your story won’t sound the same each time. Agility, preparation, and awareness will keep a story genuine, truthful, and engaging. Preparedness also boosts our confidence to share our stories in any situation.

Internal storytelling between owners, co-workers, mentors, advisors, and customers is guided by listening, curiosity, data, understanding, transparency, and all that’s found in the Team chapter of You Don’t Need This Book.

Let’s expand the repertoire with a focus on storytelling with strangers. This is done by playing with styles and formats for the story. What’s your style? How casual can you make it? How nerdy can you go? What feelings do you evoke?

Alongside different styles, timing helps to format the story. One sentence is a sharp conversation starter. 42 seconds is ideal in a small group. 6 minutes delivers enough details to support a valuable Q&A. 10+ minutes creates space for more depth, but don’t numb the audience. 45+ minutes is leading event sessions and keynote speaking.

Along with talk, relatable assets bring a story to life. Such creation uncovers the flow for a story, so embrace branding, social media, website development, slide decks, one pagers, and endless types of physical and digital materials that connects storytelling with an audience that cares.

No matter the situation, honest understanding, energizing enthusiasm, practice, transparent vulnerability, intellectual humility, and concise simplicity will serve you well. Nothing pushy, but pops of persuasion curate attention along the way. As a remarkable story comes together, feedback will sharpen the business and continue to tweak transmissions.

Isochronal

Repetition builds clarity for the stories of our quests. Isochronal means uniform in time, or occurring at regular intervals. Let’s think through why recurring reminders are needed to motivate awareness, action, and steadfastness.

The starting state, is how hard it is to get anyone to do anything. Motion requires force. We don’t know what we don’t know. The dance of an entrepreneurial lifestyle takes time and action calls for commitment.

That’s a heavy ask and attention is scarce. Whether it’s garnering early feedback, attracting customers, or in general, finding people who care while also maintaining momentum, there’s an art form in blending new ideas with repeated elements of your mission.

Along they way, playing with specificity helps to make a quest feel less intimidating. Recurring pieces of a puzzle act like stepping stones. The jumps may be short at first, but the size and distance become advanced on the path to scaling ideas. Scaling is hard and even a small audience is challenging to activate with consistency.

This is partly because consistency requires sacrifice. When it comes to business, consistency is what most people want. Passion is fine, but are you healthily obsessed? The sacrifice is worth it when discipline makes business an authentic experience. It can almost become a hobby that pays. We enjoy hobbies and it’s easy to be authentic when you enjoy something. No act required. It’s easier to be consistent when you’re authenticity feels normal. When consistency is then united with discipline, perhaps we find our own isochronal.

Your own version of isochronal is thoughtful repetition that helps to deliver on whatever the promise may be.

Extra Shot

When it gets repeated, the story grows.

True fans can stay in-tune, then steadfastness catches fresh awareness along the way. What’s your smaller, more specific target audience? It’s a moving target, but how can nimble calls to action resonate with the smallest viable audience?

To create intrigue alongside consistency, combine personal touch with true understanding. Humans can say less when something is understood, so tighten your vocabulary with fewer words. It must maintain reality, but fewer words can make things easier to repeat and therefore, remember.

When anything becomes worth repeating, the motivators of a mission can be passionately passed to future leaders with added clarity. This becomes critical for long-term quests that have ongoing rotations of participation. New leaders who keep innovating on what works can revitalize a team, support healthy succession in an organization, and keep dots connecting for the community. Without clarity, the fresh energy of future leaders can be misguided and may fracture progress. The story of any quest will always be evolving, but how might clarity on a foundation of constants support more lasting, recurring momentum?

For external communication, sequencing keeps each touchpoint lighter. Conciseness allows first impressions to be impactful, then content that rhymes over time can guide more isochronal action without hesitation. Repetition brewed with the staying power of sequencing keeps the narrative consistent and therefore more transferable. Transferability helps make onboarding newcomers sustained, bold, honest, and efficient.

Isochronal sequencing also bridges dips in clarity among different segments of existing stakeholders. It’d be nice if recurrence wasn’t a part of the equation, but it’s loud out there! Attention is hard to earn and harder to maintain. We also know endless reminders are annoying. The weight of too much at once is daunting too. There’s an art form in communication that guides lasting enrollment.

Be isochronal with a strategic cadence, perceptual learning, fresh consistency, and space for sequenced storytelling.

NOTE: This writing is an expansion on No Running, an earlier (and less thought out) writing on repetition.

Rock & Radio

Max Schaeffer is an Iowa Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame Inductee jamming on a new kind of mic. EP79 features a professional conversationalist sharing insight from 40+ years in radio!

This influencer is also an award-winning theatrical director, actor, and producer. Ben and Maxwell discuss timely vs. evergreen content, regulations of radio, metrics that matter vs. opinions of estimates, and curating dollowers beyond passive followers. After the break, we explore how to lead by doing, radical ways for radio to remain relevant, and then Max… as he’s done so many times, in so many ways, closes things down in style.

LISTEN on APPLE PODCASTS
LISTEN on SPOTIFY

BONUS MATERIALS

Maxwell’s Iowa CoffeeCast

https://BenMcDougal.com/content-creation

http://Rock-Radio.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

EP48 – Consistency Counts 🎙️ Michael Libbie

EP59 – Agents of Change 🎙️ Amner Martinez

EP69 – Generative Humans 🎙️ Chris Snider

http://YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

http://CollectorHardbackEdition.com

http://BENBOT.ai

Hobbies That Pay

Sarah Oyibo is a friendly founder and creative content creator. This influencer explores the realities of an entrepreneurial lifestyle by teaching others how to efficiently create lead magnets built on pillars of content.

In EP78, we hear how Sarah introduced herself to digital design as a student, then escaped a cubicle by leveraging paying clients to start her business. Ben and Sarah keep building with timeless insight on content creation, balancing a personal brand, and how creative initiative helps us all find work that feels like play.

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BONUS MATERIALS

https://StudioDeltaDesigns.com

https://instagram.com/soyibotime

http://Hobbies-That-Pay.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

You Don’t Need This Book: Entrepreneurship in the Connected Era

https://BenMcDougal.com/content-creation

http://YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

http://BENBOT.ai

Speak Up

Erik Dominguez equips leaders to confidently communicate. He transforms fears into fuel and speaks nationwide. Whether you’re interested in paid public speaking or working to unite a team, EP74 will inspire you to pause, listen, then come off mute.

After your friendly host narrates Anticipation within another classic break without commercials, Ben and Erik share a handful of specific terms to avoid, assets to extend your reach, and how to cut things to create space for storytelling to land. If your message matters, this is yet another timeless relic to savor.

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LISTEN on SPOTIFY

BONUS MATERIALS

https://ErikDominguez.com

https://ErikDominguez.com/youtube-2

http://Speak-Up.YouDontNeedThisPodcast.com

Roasted Reflections Break: Anticipation

Waukee APEX

http://BENBOT.ai