Book review: How to to craft the story of your business

Stories can be powerful tools for businesses big and small. In her book, Stories That Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business, Kindra Hall covers why stories are effective and how to craft tales that truly wow your audience.

Fact is, markets are extremely competitive and organizations often struggle to stand out. Why should someone use your app or dine at your restaurant? Through proper storytelling, it’s possible to cut through the noise. Stories centering on products, founders, and other things can help you differentiate from the competition.

Hall argues that storytelling is essential for building bridges between different parties. This could mean a bridge between customers and the company. You can also use stories to close the gap between employees and the firm, with investors, and much more. And if your stories impact folks on an emotional level, there’s a good chance that any bridges built will last a long time.

On the other hand, burying people and organizations with stats and dry PowerPoint presentations often causes them to tune out rather than engage. Meanwhile, stories can invoke “narrative transportation,” encouraging your audience to forget about their surroundings and instead focus on you, your company, and your products.

So how do you craft brilliant stories that help your organization, founders and other stakeholders stand out? Pick up Stories that Stick and you can catch all the details. For now, make sure your tale contains the four essential elements of a story: identifiable characters, authentic emotion, a significant moment, and specific details.