Why I Love This Job

A Storytelling Moment With Kelly Swanson

Today's guest blog post is by Kelly Swanson. Kelly is an award-winning storyteller, comedian, motivational speaker, author of Who Hijacked My Fairy Tale? and creator of Prides Hollow and the wacky cast of southern characters who help you see beyond your obstacles, coach you through stress and change, and help you get from where you are stuck to where you want to be – laughing every step of the way.

Kelly left the world of professional storytelling to become a motivational speaker and comedian, where she was surprised to learn that her background as a professional storyteller would turn out to be her greatest asset as a speaker seeking to influence others.

 

I am constantly amazed at the power of stories – their ability to enrapture an audience, present a truth in a non-threatening way, and allow the attendee to experience the truth instead of just being told what to do. I am a firm believer that it’s not the relay of information that truly creates the magical experience – it’s the story. Stories show instead of tell. And whenever you can show your audience a new way it has far lasting results over telling them how they should live their lives. So, in this moment, I am simply going to show you the power of story versus the transfer of information.

 

Woman With A Mop
What a woman with a mop taught me about customer service, employee value, and happiness. 

 

Some sweet morning, when this day is over, I’ll fly away…

You could hear her singing all the way from the parking lot. Loud, staccato, jubilant notes of a life well lived. The automatic glass doors opened and I could see her standing there, holding her mop as if it were a beloved dance partner, as if her faded cotton dress were made of the finest silk.

I sat in the corner of the lobby, trying not to stare at this woman who was oblivious to everyone around her, as if it were the most normal thing in the world to be singing and twirling her way across the marbled floors of her hospital lobby, while the beeps of the monitors and the dings of the elevators sang to her in sweet harmony and I could smell the perfume of my changed perspective as I watched this woman turn her job into an art.

She didn't know I was in the restroom, close enough to hear her stop working to go pray for a stranger's wounded child. She didn't see me standing there watching her help that old man wrap the blanket tighter around his wife's shoulders. She didn't know I saw her give away her lunch. So many moments throughout that day, I watched as her songs, her smile, her very aura, affected everyone who crossed her path. I watched how in those cold unexpecting antiseptic corners of that hospital, pain found healing, sorrow found comfort, hopelessness found hope – all wrapped up in a faded cotton dress and comfortable shoes.

Some sweet morning, when this day is over, I’ll fly away…

You could hear her singing all the way to the parking lot when she went to meet her bus at dusk. I stood in front of that big glass window and watched her go, wishing she wouldn't - beside the large slick commercialized sign that hung beside me. It had no doubt been created by a group of marketing intellectuals, and the sign said "Excellence starts here." And I wondered if the CEO knew just how true that really was.

That day a woman with a mop showed me what it looks like to serve - our customers – our patients – our co-workers – and our communities. A woman who smelled of bleach and blessings reminded me that happiness is a choice. And she showed me how every single role in an organization is vital to the customer experience. You may be the only one they see who represents your brand.

If a woman with a mop can sing like that - why can't we?

Going Verbally Viral: The How & Why

Today's guest post is by Brian Walter, founder of Extreme Meetings.  He provides customized infotainment to make meetings memorable.

Last month Brian stopped into our office and our team agreed his humor made his visit one of our most memorable meetings this year!

 

 

 

 

Viral is now a good thing. And something you want to spread throughout your company, starting at your next large meeting.

Express key concepts in a way that makes them go verbally viral throughout your organization.

Thanks to the Internet, we have re-defined the rapid infection rates of a pestilence going viral to actually represent the rapid and people-generated dissemination of a YouTube video. That’s good.

Because as internal business communicators you want the same effect after a meeting. 

It used to be referred to as creating a “buzz.” That meant attendees were talking in the hallways about a topic presented at your meeting. But that’s no longer enough. A buzz is a positive, yet undirected and unfocused discussion. For communication impact, your aim is for a key idea or initiative to go verbally viral. 

A meeting concept goes verbally viral in your company if a meeting participant can hear it one time, get it, and then instantly share it verbally with someone else at the company using the same word or words. Then they do the same. It rapidly replicates in a decidedly positive way.

So why DON’T key concepts go verbally viral automatically? Too often leaders have an important initiative or concept that they want everyone thinking about and implementing. But that initiative or concept is never expressed via a snappy and memorable catch phrase.

Sure, employees can understand the idea when a leader spends 20 minutes explaining it. But they cannot RE-EXPRESS it verbally and informally.

"Trickle Up" is an example of a phrase/concept that has gone Verbally Viral within a company.

A banking client had a specific messaging plan for a leadership conference. What the CEO wanted was to give managers a specific challenge.

The concept was that the managers should stop looking for all the great new ideas to improve the organization to come from the top. The CEO wanted the managers to accept the responsibility to create and drive change from their level. Now, conceptually, could they “get” that? Sure. But would it spread? Unlikely.

But then he made a phrasing adjustment. He expressed the behavior he was after in a way that could go verbally viral. The solution: it was called “Trickle Up.”

Everyone knows what trickle down means. Trickle Up is therefore an instantly memorable and repeatable phrase to express the new concept. And after the meeting, everyone could, and did, start talking about Trickle Up. Ultimately, Trickle Up became a true call to action in their company.  It eventually made its way onto t-shirts and even company bottled water!

For your next meeting, intentionally craft the key message into a verbally viral phrase. And then watch as employees turn it into a positive pandemic in your organization.

Keynote on Unbroken's Biggest Question: Who Should Play Louis?

Today's blog post is a guest piece by Keynote's Marketing Assistant, Nicole Newton, who worked at a movie theater from 2007-2011 and, as a result, has seen almost every movie to hit theaters during her "career in the industry."

 

A movie rendition of Louis Zamperini's incredible life has been on the drawing board for over 55 years, but it's been gaining visible momentum since 2010, when author Laura Hillenbrand published "Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption." Since its publication, "Unbroken" has remained on the New York Times bestseller list for over 120 consecutive weeks, surpassing Hillenbrand's first novel, "Seabiscuit," and all but twelve other books in history.

 

In December Angelina Jolie was announced as the film's director, followed by news that Joel and Ethan Coen, who wrote the screenplays for No Country For Old Men and Fargo, will be re-writing the script. While this will only be Jolie's second attempt at directing a movie, following In The Land of Blood And Honey, she's clearly passionate about the film.

 

Angelina was quoted in an article on Deadline.com saying, “I read Laura Hillenbrand’s brilliant book, and I was so moved by Louie Zamperini’s heroic story, I immediately began to fight for the opportunity to make this film. Louie is a true hero and a man of immense humanity, faith and courage. I am deeply honored to have the chance to tell his inspiring story.”

 

With the announcement of director and screenwriters made public, the next question on everyone's mind is who will be playing Louis.

 

In a recent interview, both Hillenbrand and Zamperini seemed enthusiastic about Ryan Gosling portraying Louis. Zamperini mentioned he saw Gosling at the Academy Awards and thought he would be an "ideal" fit for the role, but also mentioned "Hollywood is full of good, young actors."

 

Other actors on the table, according to the same article, include James Franco and Jake Gyllenhaal.

 

According to Matt Baer, the film's producer, the most important part of selecting the lead boils down to finding "somebody who is charming, physical and someone capable of a great range of emotion."

 

While Gosling, Franco, and Gyllenhaal all fit the bill, I'd like to see Joseph Gordon-Levitt take the lead.

 

Gordon-Levitt fits Baer's criteria (charming, physical, someone capable of a great range of emotion) and has a striking resemblance to a young Zamperini. Look at this side-by-side comparison:

          

Gordon-Levitt has consistently chosen, according to one article advocating the actor as one of today's leading men, "strong, interesting movies with performances that showed a maturity and range that actors two decades his senior would envy… and while the nature of the projects has changed, his commitment to intelligent, compelling work has stayed the same. It's a combination of inventiveness and resolve for the modern age, and it's evident in nearly everything he does."

 

Gordon-Levitt has recently started taking on more leading roles, starting in 2009 with 500 Days of Summer and, most recently, with Looper. Whether he's playing a supporting character or the lead, he practically specializes in playing intelligent characters ingrained with a complex moral compass.

 

And who has a more fascinatingly complex story than Louis Zamperini?

 

Whether you agree or disagree with my choice, please leave your comments below!

TED2013: Keynote's Newest TED-Head Weighs In

Today's guest post is by Nicole Newton, Keynote's Marketing Assistant and newest TED-Head.

 

 

TED has transformed into a staple for spreading revolutionary ideas. TED2013 was a dramatic shift in the history of TED, implementing a different approach with its speaker selection to give a powerful voice to "The Young. The Wise. The Undiscovered."

 

In our business we work with inspiring and thought-provoking speakers every day, but we always look forward to hearing new voices at TED. In a recent interview TED curator Chris Anderson explains how he found new voices for TED2013 and why we should expect to be hearing from more undiscovered voices in the future.

 

"Often the best moments (at TED) come from people you least expect it from," Anderson explains in the interview. "The one thing you can't do is to look at the program and think, 'I haven't heard of these people, so I won't go to this session.' (That's the session) everyone ends up talking about."

 

"This year we decided to introduce a whole process to dial up the number of "undiscovered" speakers," Anderson continues. "We conducted salons in 14 different countries around the world, inviting anyone who thought they had a great TED talk in them to apply. We culled it down from thousands of applications, and 33 of the people on the program are from that process. We've seen them all in action, and they're amazing. They range from a 13-year-old kid from Kenya to brilliant but underreported professors. I think there are going to be a lot of moments when people go, 'Why have I never seen this person before in my life?'"

 

Ramping up unknown speakers is only one of Anderson's ideas for the continued growth of TED Talks. The TED Open Translation Project has contributed to a 350% increase in global traffic to the TED website, according to an infographic by OnlineClasses.org, NPR just launched the TED Radio Hour, and TED Books have become a popular way for TED fanatics to feed their continued craving for ideas.

 

Anderson sees TED's growth as "a hopeful sign for the future. It means there are new ways of absorbing multidisciplinary knowledge. You could argue that to tackle a lot of the problems the world faces, that's what is needed. (The world) needs a lot of people who are armed with wide-ranging knowledge about a bunch of topics and can engage in conversations to get some difficult things done."

 

What TED Talk got you thinking this past week? Or, if you've heard too much about TED in the last few days, sit back, relax, and let The Onion take the edge off!