The Storytelling Edge: How to Transform Your Business, Stop Screaming into the Void, and Make People Love You by Joe Lazauskas and Shane Snow
Joe Lazauskas is the editor-in-chief of Contently and its flagship publication The Content Strategist.
Joe has written for Fast Company, Mashable, Digiday, The Huffington Post, and Forbes, among other publications. He is the former editor-in-chief of The New York Egotist and The Faster Times.
And interesting fact: he is a proud New York Giants fan and the “Training Montage” from the Rocky IV soundtrack is his favorite song!
The Host’s Perspective:
If you’re in marketing, you’ve probably heard of content marketing, brand publishing, brand journalism, or one of its many variations.
But there’s a problem. There’s more content now than ever. According to the CEO of Google, we create as much information every TWO days as we did in human history up until 2003. Some call it content shock.
So how are the most successful companies breaking through to the audiences they want to reach? Storytelling.
Storytelling is still a somewhat misunderstood buzzword in marketing, and unfortunately it’s often not being properly implemented.
But that’s where this short and very entertaining book explains the fundamentals of how to properly harness the power of storytelling to reach the right people and get them to know, like and trust you.
The authors explain that humans have used stories since the beginning of the spoken word and definitely before the printed word. That’s a long time.
From a scientific standpoint, our brains are wired for stories. When taking in a story a lot more of our brains are working than when we’re being fed facts.
Stories surprise us. They make us think and feel. They stick in our minds and help us remember ideas and concepts in a way that a PowerPoint crammed with bar graphs never can.
Unfortunately, in this era of PowerPoints and status updates, many businesses have forgotten how to tell a good story.
This book is a must-read for anyone in marketing or sales looking to create profitable and sustainable relationships with customers.
Listen to the Interview:
Show Notes
The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall
Dream Teams by Shane Snow
The Creative Curve by Allen Gannett
Joe Lazauskas (LinkedIn)
Joe Lazauskas (Twitter)
Story Telling Edge (Book Website)
Contently (Blog)
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