Most CEOs are not inspiring. After years of working with leaders in business, it’s hard to come to any other conclusion.

The 5 mistakes listed here are right on — I experience them all the time when working with my coaching clients.

Number 4 is — CEOs don’t tell stories. That’s for sure.

Number 5 is — CEO’s reading speeches instead of talking authentically with their audiences.

Number 3 is — they are too stiff (that comes from not telling stories or not knowing how to tell stories)

Number 2 is — they don’t write their own material. No one can write your personal stories for you, BTW.

Number 1 is — CEOs are not conveying a vision. Hey, we want to be inspired!

Well, for sure many business people of all types suffer from the same mistakes. So what to do? Find the stories you are passionate about telling, learn to tell them well and authentically, leave the notes at home, and please — don’t practice in front of a mirror! That’s the kiss of death.

There are many more insights here in this article about how these mistakes show up for people, so go grab them.

Review written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

I recently moved the delivery time of my beloved newsletter to be Sunday morning (well, that’s when it launches here, though my New Zealander and Australian friends all get it on Monday). In the process, I talked to people about sharing this information over breakfast, and with a “second cup of coffee” sometimes. I basically set a scene in the reader’s head that we were having a personal chat over breakfast.

Here’s what I love about this article: it clearly articulates a particular piece of successful story crafting and story sharing on your blog. Or in fact, anywhere. with any content you are creating.

Author Chris Brogan’s point here is all about how to leverage the story element of ‘setting’ to create an emotional connection with your readers.

Enjoy reading this article as Chris shares how he does this and why it is important.

Review written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

“How do I get more fans?” I hear this a lot. I’ve written about how to get more followers a few times, so instead of the same old, I thought I’d address this to folks who are working on growing themselves to be a person who has something of a growing (or huge) platform and is trying to understand how to use social platforms to build something better/deeper/more. And there might be a good place to start. “WHY” are you seeking to get more fans? And do you really want fans?

Why are you sharing your business stories? To get more fans (storytelling) or to build and engage with a community (story sharing)?

This article puts us all straight — fans are OK but the real gold is in building community.

Read this article for more insights and target your business stories towards building community. That means listening to the stories of and within your community in return!

Last month, I learned what Dian Fossey must have felt like in Gorillas in the Mist, surrounded by mysterious creatures and unknown dangers, and yet compelled to edge ever closer.

This article proves my point EXACTLY about my criticisms of framing storytelling as a war — or any marketing as a war or battle.

I just posted a review of another article on the ‘Story Wars’ material that has just hit the scene. The author makes great points, but the framing of war totally undermines his basic premis.

Here’s the article that explains why — and offers a different metaphor to use to shape our marketing.

How we think about our marketing and our business storytelling shapes our actions and the types of stories we tell. So read this article’s points about a better alternative metaphor to war. Everyone will benefit!

Editor’s NoteThis is the first of three excerpts that we’re running from Winning the Story Wars: Why Those Who Tell—and Live—the Best Stories Will Rule the Future by Jonah Sachs, the cofounder of Free Range Studios (the creative studio behind The…

Well, I am totally not crazy about this whole business of the ‘Story Wars’ and continue to find this framing about war and battles very limiting. And what I find amusing about the author’s premise here is that for all of us to be successful in business, we need to move away from appealing to people’s baser natures (like war?) and focus on empowering stories and advertising. Yet when you are in a battle, there are only winners and losers — and extreme debilitating costs.  So while the metaphor totally does not work here, the ideas presented do.

I hardly find war empowering. Nevertheless, this article makes some great points. Take some time here — between the text and the videos and additional links, there is lots to explore.

As a Folklorist, interestingly enough I am not wild about his Vimeo on “Winning the Story Wars - The Myth Gap”. I hardly find that advertisers have been the mythologists of our age. I think people from the advertising world may think so however! So take that whole notion with a grain of salt please.

What’s the bottom line here? Appeal to hope, courage, empowerment, community, and anything that enlivens us, expands our experiences, and calls us to something greater.

Surely we can all do this in our business storytelling!

“We are in a golden age of storytelling” was the message shared by the New York Times’s assistant managing editor Jim Roberts early on in a session at the News World Summit today named ‘Obituary: The death of the traditional news story”.

This article is slanted toward journalists. But think about it — if you are using content, or creating content in your business to drive sales, then in many ways you are being a journalist. Especially if you attend conferences or events and report on those later to your customers/community.

So these 7 tips are pretty interesting and I bet you can incorporate many of them as your develop and promote your content. Like, ‘avoid the 900-word valueless story’ and ‘incorporate live feeds’ into your content. Hmmm — that’s an intesting one to get your head wrapped around. But that could be a lot of fun to do, especially at conferences or events.

So check these tips out. They are not your typical ‘digital storytelling tips’ that are a dime-a-dozen on the web. And I hope you get some good ideas!

Review written by Karen Dietz for her curated content on business storytelling at www.scoop.it/t/just-story-it 

Is your brand focused on transactions or interactions?

Why is this article showing up in this collection on biz storytelling?

Because the 4 ways brands can build relationships gets done through effective storytelling.

I love the 4 points made here in this quick read: branding is about building relationships to generate business, not pushing messages to make sales.

As a result, the game is now about human interactions instead of product transactions. What is the most effective way to promote human interaction? Story sharing!

This leads to point #4 — relationships allow for organic discovery — about your product/service, customer needs/likes/wants, potential innovations, new markets, etc.. The best vehicle for allowing organic discovery is story sharing.

Read the rest of the insights here. They make tons of sense. And if you like the ideas but want to know how to implement them — then bring story sharing (telling your biz stories and listening to the stories of others in return) into your daily work life.

This is a game-changer.

The refrain’s all too familiar. We live in a time of radical transparency and thanks to the rise of social media, brands are now co-owned. Look no further than the recent twitstorms engulfing Kenneth Cole (spring collection causes Cairo uprising?

What is effective branding? It’s all laid out right here. And better yet — each one of these elements are also essential storytelling skills.

Hooray! No story, no brand. As my favorite storyteller Elizabeth Ellis says, “The storyteller’s role is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comforted.” That does not ALWAYS hold true for biz storytelling but this saying certainly applies here when the author advocates for “Be The Cause” and “Be A Catalyst For Change.” Frankly, I think if more companies took this advice there would be more win-win in the marketplace.

I also like the examples share in this post.

So grab these points, take them to heart, and create an awesome brand.

Metaphors, or vivid mind-pictures, carry meaning effortlessly and powerfully. As Johnson points out, a metaphor is embodied cognition. They are deeply imbedded in our thinking. They help us to make sense of, get closer to what may not be immediately understandable. A metaphor is no mere ornament of language. We live by metaphors.

Here’s what I really like about this guest post by Graham Williams of Halo and Noose on the Just Story It blog: it’s all about the power of metaphor to shape our world.

By writing this article Graham is doing a few things for us:

1. He’s suggesting a new metaphor to use in business that creates triple wins for the organization;
2. He’s showing us how shifting our business metaphors can directly benefit the bottom line.

There are a number of insights here and I hope it gets you thinking about using diffent kinds of metaphors more directly in your business!

If you want to learn to capture an audience, listen to those who do it for a living: The actors’ techniques shared in “The Pin Drop Principle” are sure to get you the reaction you want.

Actors and storytellers share much in common, and they differ in significant ways, too. But I really enjoyed this article because of the focus it brought to critical story crafting/telling skills for businesses:

1. Primary intention
2. Intention cues
3. Secondary intentions

In the rush to share our stories, these are often overlooked or not given enough attention in business storytelling.

So read this post, get with the program, and up your skills!