I picked up a copy of Gary Vee’s CrushIt! on Monday night and have been reading it during my workouts on the aerobic deck at the gym this week. I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting, maybe another me too social media book, but I have to tell you that the book has been a real surprise. It’s a quick read, weighing in at only 130+ pages. But he packs a lot of wallop into those pages. I thoroughly enjoyed it and have a feeling that you might too. If you get a chance to, pick up a copy. I’m sure he’ll appreciate it. I’ve heard he needs the money. Those Jets won’t come cheap you know?
He talks a bit about story and stories and there are two passages I’m going to quote here. The first one comes when he’s talking about starting a business in good times or bad. Here’s the relevant part: “Yes, we’ve seen a lot of people close up shop in the past years, but if they had offered a relevant and differentiated product or service, had been adaptable, and most of all had known how to tell their story, they wouldn’t have had to close.”
Notice that he feels it’s not the fact that the product or service is not “relevant or differentiated” that is the most damaging to the business. It’s the fact that they didn’t know how to tell their story.
Here’s the second passage. It takes place while he is talking about learning the family business when he started to work the retail floor. He noticed that the Johnnie Walker and Absolut fans knew what they wanted when they came to shop at the store and couldn’t be swayed come hell or high water, but that the wine buyers would sometimes come into the store looking a little lost, and hope that a bottle would just jump off the shelf and sell itself. “…people want to be told what’s good and valuable and they enjoy feeling like they’ve been turned on to something not everyone can appreciate.”
“Storytelling is by far the most underrated skill in business.”
Business requires a lot of skills. This one is, he feels, the most underrated. Think about that a bit.
Can you picture Gary Vee in that retail scenario? If you’ve seen him do WineLibraryTV I’m almost certain that you can. Imagine being that somewhat lost wine seeking customer. You’re busy looking through the selection, hoping to find a bottle that you know, an old friend you can bring home to dinner. But in front of you are all of these potential new friends you know nothing about. You pick a bottle up and examine it. Should you or shouldn’t you? Your hairdresser’s not going to help you here. And then suddenly, out of the blue, bounds this guy who says “Hey, let me tell you about that.” And what follows is a story about the wine that you’re holding. A humdinger of a story I’ll bet. This is a guy who likes to talk about wine. Hell, this is a guy who just likes to talk!
I know a little bit about that. I used to do the same thing in tennis stores and software stores when I was working retail. A customer picks up one of the items in the store and begins to look it over. You can see the questions that he’s asking reflected in his facial expression. And if you’re a story teller, the magic begins and it all just all starts to flow. “Hi there. How are you today? Hey, let me tell you about that.”
If you’re thinking about stories and wondering how you’ll work them into your corporate culture, “Let me tell you about that” is a great place to start. What is about one of your products or services that lights a fire under you, gets the magic going and makes you want to blurt out “Hey, let me tell you about that”? Or, what about one of your employees or customers? What event or happening in their life, that might be connected to your business, makes you want to say the same thing?
If you can start to think about the things that trigger the “Oh, let me tell you about that” response, you’ll be well on your way to developing the mind set that will help you to establish an effective storytelling culture within your business. Can you think of any right off the top of your head? Would you like to tell us about them?
