Ep. 21: FireStory Communication Academy CEO Jason Jordan on the Importance of Storytelling for Leaders
In this episode, Darren Reinke chats with Jason Jordan, CEO of the FireStory Communication Academy. Jason discusses why powerful stories are an untapped resource for leaders and how you can gain confidence telling authentic stories both personally and professionally through creating a FireStory.
The FireStory Communication Academy helps individuals and businesses discover and develop their FireStory into a compelling message that captivates audiences and inspires them to act. They define FireStories as narratives of the moments that shape our lives, provide direction, and fuel our passion. These stories can be incredibly powerful; changing lives and helping you achieve the results you have been striving for.
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SHOW NOTES
How Jason was Introduced the World of Story Telling [1:18]
The Power of Stories in Leadership [2:27]
Why Emotion is the Key Differentiator between a Story and a Narrative [6:45]
The History of Storytelling [9:35]
Practical Tips for Creating a Great Story [14:53]
How You Can Prevent the Biggest Story Telling Mistakes [19:08]
How to Overcome the Feeling of Selfishness When Telling Stories [20:32]
How You Can Create Clarity and Tell a More Powerful Story [24:20]
Why You Want to Use a FireStory that Communicates Your Why [30:22]
How Great Storytelling Can Generate Sales [34:46]
SHOW LINKS
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For additional leadership tips, be sure to check out Darren's book - The Savage Leader: 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader from the Inside Out.
POCAST TRANSCRIPT
Darren Reinke: Welcome to The Savage Leader Podcast, where I interview leaders from all walks of life so that you can walk away with tips to apply to your life and your career. But this isn't your traditional leadership podcast because I believe that leadership tips come from successful entrepreneurs and business executives, of course. Still, they also come from unexpected places, like Navy SEALs, successful professional athletes, sports coaches, musicians, entertainers, and more. So let's dive right into today's episode; my hope is you walk away with something tangible that you can apply immediately to your life in your career. Today's guest on the savage leader podcast is Jason Jordan. Jason is the CEO of fire story communication Academy, a company that teaches communication skills for the modern world. Jason, thanks for coming on today.
Jason Jordan: Thank you so much for having me, Darren, and thank you, especially for giving me the encouragement to get a set of ear pods so that I don't have to steal my son's gaming headset, so that people in a video podcast can hear me alright, so yeah. Next up is to Costco for a pair of earbuds.
Darren Reinke: So Jason to talk to me for a little bit. So storytelling is something I'm really interested in. Now our listeners are interested as well. How did you get into this whole world of storytelling?
How Jason was Introduced the World of Story Telling [1:18]
Jason Jordan: That's a great question. I've always been a speaker always been a storyteller. You know me for a while now and have seen me speak and a lot of people would ask me, you know, what tips and so forth, can you give me on how to be a more effective speaker. And the more I thought about it, the more it occurred to me how heavily I rely on good storytelling techniques. And then lo and behold, I started digging a little deeper into the storytelling world, and really learning not only what I had been doing, but what I could continue to improve upon. I mean, this is the case always in these types of situations, the light switch goes on, and the lights in the room come up, and you hear the angel saying you're like, oh, my gosh, this is what I need to be spending all my time concentrating on. And so that's, that's really how this all came about.
Darren Reinke: So just thinking about stories is, is talk to me about people talk about stories and the importance of stories. But from your perspective, why are stories so important? And like what potential does it offer to leaders?
The Power of Stories in Leadership [2:27]
Jason Jordan: I think that's a fantastic question. You bring up leadership, I did read your book, The Savage leader. And one of the things that I thought was fantastic about it, not only the stories that you use to exemplify each of the points that you brought up, but that it's chord here a message for great leaders to really examine the stories that have shaped and influenced their lives that they know and understand the values that they're bringing to the table and that are important to them. And so that's really why fire story are well stories in general. And I'll talk about fire stories here in a minute. But that's why fire stories are so critical in my mind is we all every one of us kind of have a worldview we have our own set of values, we have our own lens that we see the world through and and that lens is primarily almost exclusively shaped by experience, experience that we've had from the day we exited our mother and entered the world, lots of different experiences constantly coming up. But largely in the world today, especially adults in the business leaders and so forth, we rely on data. And funny thing about the internet is the internet has made data ubiquitous, right? We we used to all have to go exploring to find some little nuggets of data and and there wasn't this ocean of half truths and total non truths and that sort of thing. But if you look around everybody is preaching data. And what happens when we hear data that is different from what we believe that's different from our worldview, right? We separate ourselves, we go over here, and we just re embrace all of the data and information that supports our worldview that we currently have. And so it's really preventing people from engaging with each other listening to each other. And the more data that's out there, really you can believe whatever you want to believe if you want to believe that the world is flat, you can find data to support that if you want to believe we never landed on the moon. You can find data source that you can find data to support anything you want to believe. So why should we still connect if we have different opinions While it's because we need to hear and understand each other's story. And it's changed every part of my life, not only in business, but also in the family. I've got a teenage son and a teenage daughter, and taking the time to really listen to their stories, even though I think I already know and understand these are my kids I know and understand their stories. But when I hear them tell it, it opens my world up to understand completely different things about what's really bothering one, what's really affecting them. And so all around listening to people's stories is so fundamental to human interaction. You may remember Fred Rogers, do you remember? Did you watch Mr. Rogers as a kid? Of course, of course, wonderful. He used to carry around a quote in his pocket. And a lot of people attribute this quote to him, but he didn't make it up. It was another guy, I forget his name. But he wrote that down and carried in his pocket. And he, the quote, said, frankly, there isn't anyone that we couldn't learn to love, once we have heard their story. Now, I think that's more relevant in today's world than ever before.
Darren Reinke: Yeah, it's so interesting, because when you're talking through things, you're interesting, you're saying my kids stories, I think about people's perspectives, and everyone wants to listen to perspectives, but I like that additional layer. And there's so much more in a story than someone's point of view than the data. Obviously, a narrative can be connecting the dots for the different data points. But that brings me to a question I'm thinking about is like, what makes up a good story? So a lot of people go, Well, story, if this nebulous concept, I think about great storytellers. Maybe it's the crazy uncle or the funny and who has all these just hilarious stories from the past or family anecdotes or jokes. You see some just great operators, politicians, regardless of your political affiliation. I think most people would agree Reagan and Obama, but incredible, or writers, but like, what makes up a great story? What are those elements?
Why Emotion is the Key Differentiator between a Story and a Narrative [6:45]
Jason Jordan: You brought up? A great question. And I want to take a step back to the beginning of your question, when you said, you brought up a couple of terms of people's narrative, their perspective, and how is that different from their story? And I think that's a great question. And I think the core that at least I put that makes a story different than a narrative is emotion. Right? If we're just hearing the details, just the facts, you know, even though it's a narrative, even though it's running through the situation that happened, we are still applying our own emotions to that story. And so the understanding is lost. It's only when somebody in the context of a story that they're sharing shares, also how it's affecting them, what are they feeling in that moment, and why that's what opens up the Connect, that's what opens up the empathy, so that we can not only hear what they're saying, but also understand the feelings behind what they're saying. That makes it possible for us to connect with another person, even if we don't 100% agree. You know, maybe I don't see the world the same way somebody does. But if I hear their story, and I understand how it affected them emotionally, and how it changed and shaped their lives, now I can have empathy and connection with that person, even if I don't totally agree with them. Yeah.
Darren Reinke: I appreciate you pulling out that first point. Because I think it's something that we don't want to step over. Because that is so important. If I'm telling you my point of view, he may not be open to that different perspective. But if I'm telling you my story, it's just that whole idea of creating empathy, which, you know, I think some people confuse sympathy for empathy. Obviously, empathy is like, so I can put myself in your shoes. I think that's a beautiful way of how to bridge the divide, how to bridge to create less conflict, frankly, in any kind of environment, whether it's business or political, or just even in our personal lives. But it's a really important point. But yeah, the second piece was just like, what makes a great story. So I just I love to break things down into how to because I think it's, it can be a little bit of a nebulous concept, and hey, I'm going to try to tell a story. Does that mean it has to be funny, I think that's what probably a lot of people think. But just like what makes up a great story?
The History of Storytelling [9:35]
Jason Jordan: That's a wonderful question, because every story is different, right? There are some stories that we tell over and over again, when we get together with some friends, maybe around a campfire or something like that having a beer or two and we tell these classic funny stories. And that's the connection that we get there because they're funny. Other stories are deep and and we're being vulnerable, right we're we're revealing some things that we've struggled with in our lives and and the bare emotions behind what we're struggling with. And so that's a different type of story, but also has people on the edge of our seats has people connecting, what I do a lot of discussion of is actually those, those hormones and the chemicals that our brains give us that really tie directly to long term memory, they tie directly to empathy. There was a guy actually, believe it or not, named Walter Fisher, who I've done a lot of study on. And he was the first one because, you know, back as far as Aristotle, everybody thought that every communication or or oration or whatever you're going to do should follow the same kind of pattern. And it should be kind of grounded in what was called logos or logic, that's your data. And then you should have a little bit of pathos, just sprinkle some, you know, some fun in there. And then you would have ethos, which is why should I listen to you, ethically, right? Then, in the 1980s, long came this guy, Walter Fisher, and I didn't know but he was actually the communications chair at USC. So he was just down the road, he retired just down the road from us here in Carlsbad, and passed away a few years ago as a local boy, but he started studying what our brains do when we hear stories. And he was, you know, we finally had the technology to map the brain and see what was actually going on. And it's fascinating to see, like, if somebody tells us data, you know, very few parts of the brain are triggering, a lot of it is based on either a quick connection, they just gave me a piece of data that I agree with, or I've heard, this is familiar, I trust this person, or I disagree with that. My data says differently. And so it kind of triggers different levels of that fight or flight, right? This is exactly what we see on the internet. Somebody posts an opinion on Facebook. And what do we see several people going yeah, that way, do you tell them? That's exactly right. And then a whole bunch of people? I mean, letting go with the flame thrower right there. They're on fire and angry instantly. And that's that fight or flight just being triggered? And of course, since it's online, hey, let's fight. Because sticks and stones right? So Walter Fisher was the one who really started examining, okay, when we hear good stories, and these are stories with emotion, these are stories with connection, where we really understand some humor, to release some oxytocin, some vulnerability, to connect people together. That's the dopamine, you know, getting people on the edge of their seats, twists and turns, and all the things that keep us engaged with these great stories. And what he found was, you know, when one person was sharing a good story, the other person's brain, the same parts, the experience, parts would trigger in the other person's brain. And so you ended up with this wonderful situation where somebody could have the same experience mentally, as somebody who experienced it telling their story, if they do a good job, they could experience it as well. And so they would feel that connection, that empathy, and more often than not, the understanding, and the connection would lead to the same conclusion. Whatever that experience changed in the one person's life, this person over here could accept it, internalize it, and move forward with the change in their own life as if they had experienced it themselves.
Darren Reinke: Fascinating, just the power of story.
Jason Jordan: Yeah, it was it was incredible watching just people's brains trigger in these early experiments. There's even a few videos of Walter Fisher and unfortunately, his paradigm he called it the narrative paradigm came just write on the on the footsteps, the information age, right, all of a sudden PCs and laptops, and then iPhones in our hand and everything like that. And so the narrative paradigm was largely forgotten, as the Internet became the ocean of data that we could always pull from. And so I love seeing that it's coming around, it's getting the attention that it deserves.
Practical Tips for Creating a Great Story [14:53]
Darren Reinke: Yeah, and interesting in terms of highlighting the power of story just has interesting just being able to feel this story experienced it firsthand. But so, in terms of how you break that down, I mean, you talked about a lot of different things by what makes up just practically speaking, a good story. You know, a lot of people think about you know, vertical takeoff is how you start It's a you mentioned logic, it's about passion, emotion, empathy, like what are the different components of a really powerful story?
Jason Jordan: Well, I like to start off with the message that you want people to get right? If you've got a good story, what do you want people to get out of this? And sometimes it's the answer is just a good time, right? Sometimes, it's just we're kicking back. And all let me tell you this funny story. And the whole point is to just get a good laugh. And so you know, you need to set things up, you need to set the scene, you need to build some of that tension, and then and then get to the laugh. And that's the big release, the details aren't nearly as important as the build up to that poignant point, my wife is so funny, she says, she's a terrible joke teller, right? I don't know if anybody if you've run into anybody like that, but they say that they're terrible joke tellers. And what I always discover is that they're bad joke tellers, because they become too concerned with getting the details exactly right, leading up to the punch line. And so they get caught up there in the details, and they get tripped up, and then they lose focus, when really the only thing that's important is the punch line. But if your talk is about something different, right? If you are leading people somewhere important, if you're trying to change people's ideas, change people's perspective, get them to hire you, for some reason, or get them to take your class, whatever it may be, get them to buy your book, you gotta have an idea of a message. First, you probably have a story, a big experiential story that you want to share. But get clear on that message first, then you you can rewind the clock, and you find that connection, right? Like how do you open the scene, connecting with people keep it light, keep it funny, keep people laughing. But you start to build that tension, right? As you lead to that aha moment, that moment where you're like, I see the world differently now. Right? And that's where your message comes to light. That's the the excitement that the climactic end of your story where, where you hit that, and then we all feel that connection, we feel that understanding. And then you wrap things up finally, with actually what do you do about it, if you have a meaningful story, and you've shared it, and people are on board, and they believe you, a lot of people leave without saying, Well, if you believe me, here's something you can do about it, and give them a first easy step. So that's a little bit more formalized storytelling than just hanging out with some people. But you and I are both in the business world, you work with business leaders, you coach business leaders, I spent 25 years out in the field and sales and marketing. And so story became very core to me, and so that that was a bit more of a practical approach to storytelling, rather than just human connection.
Darren Reinke: But I really appreciate that. And I think it's also interesting to just to distinguish between having a good time a funny story, but you make a great point, it's just about the punch line, and probably how fish stories start to get more and more exaggerated, because they're really focusing on that punch line. So the details become more or less irrelevant. But I like the distinction between, I'll call it persuasive story, you're getting someone to move from A to B changed their mind to buy a product, to believe your point of view. But some really powerful points is the idea of starting with a message first, just that connection with people making it human, you're not just talking at people, this build the tension. And I'll think people think about obviously, tension in a funny story is different than the tension the way you would build it in some sort of persuasive conversation. But then that, that aha moment, I love that call to action, because that's what we're trying to get someone to do, whether you're trying to get some if you're a salesperson, or if you're a manager or a leader, you're trying to get them aligned in a new strategy or whatnot. But those are really, really powerful points. But what uh, what are some of the mistakes that people make in terms of when they're going about creating their story when they're telling their story?
How You Can Prevent the Biggest Story Telling Mistakes [19:08]
Jason Jordan: I mean, it's the opposite, right? We skip over the important emotions, we skip over the idea of how did I feel about this? How did this affect me? What was my reaction to that? And we just assume that people had the same reaction that we did, but most of the time unless we tell them, we don't know where they are different people handle things differently. You're married, you know what I'm talking about, right? Guys and girls, we accept things very differently most of the time. So explaining not only what was happening, but how you felt about it. That is what most people leave out. So there's that and then the other pieces if you're not clear, on that message, sometimes we have storytellers who are too short, you know, they don't include any emotion. They don't include any details or connection. Some people are way too long, because they're not clear on their point. And they meander all around and all around and end up with Grandpa, Fred, come on over here. Let me tell you a story about the war, you know, and they'll go on for 25 minutes. So getting clear on that message critically important.
How to Overcome the Feeling of Selfishness When Telling Stories [20:32]
Darren Reinke: Yeah, two really great points, just to the point about sharing your most and sharing what you were thinking. I think for me, when I first was even aware of that ideas, it to me, it felt like I was being too selfish. In my story. I was the point for me, it's just the point of the data or the ideas or the perspective, and not so much making about myself, me. How can you talk me through that in terms of how you can get someone to think more about that, because that to me, that feels like or felt like, I'm just talking about myself? And I don't think I have the permission to share my thoughts what I was feeling to me, I felt like maybe that's not important.
Jason Jordan: You are not alone, you are not alone at all. That's one of the reasons why I formed the FireStory communication Academy and why I'm so insistent on this being an in person school, we do some stuff online, do some stuff over zoom. But a lot of it has to be done with actual humans live and in person. And one of the reasons for that is we need the feedback, right to gain our confidence. Because a lot of times, just like you a lot of people are like that. They feel like well, I'm being selfish, I'm going on and on. Why do I have the right to monopolize the conversation. And it's not until they actually get out and do it and share their story. And they sit down. And oftentimes, at first they hang their head, and they say, oh, gosh, that was, that was terrible, that was too long, or whatever. And it really takes the rest of the people coming up going, that was incredible. You moved me, I haven't thought about that forever, you've totally changed my perspective, I'm going to take a different approach to this. And the more they hear that, the more people start to realize that their stories are important. And their stories are worth sharing. And that you can change people's lives with the power of your story. And you don't have to be 75 years old with a notion of experience. You don't have to be Bill Gates, or, you know, some other huge business leader. I know 13 year olds who come to my academy 1213 year olds, whose life wisdom could change me at 13. That's powerful, right? And they have no idea that their stories have that much impact. But man when you're 13, are those stories raw? Are they huge in your life? So Sharing care in those? It affects everybody?
Darren Reinke: Yeah, I think that also points to the whether it's the naivete of youth, or maybe it's the wisdom of youth that we're not so overly influenced by what people think of course, kids and teenagers are become worried about that. But just more raw, more true. Versus like, it gets to authenticity, you know, meaning what are people what I think people want for me versus actually what does that message? What does that story that actually want to put out to the world?
Jason Jordan: That's right. That's right. And getting people used to being good storytellers often involves the same questions you probably ask when you're coaching business leaders is probably the same kinds of questions that a therapist or a psychologist would ask, which are things like, how did that make you feel? What did you do about that? How did that affect you, when you heard that information? And sharing those pieces in a story is everything that's all the depth, otherwise, you have just just data, just a narrative, just something that people will hear and quickly forget?
How You Can Create Clarity and Tell a More Powerful Story [24:20]
Darren Reinke: That’s just facts just running through a series of facts? Like, where's the power on that versus actually, the thoughts, the emotions, the ideas, that's just such a great example, I appreciate just how to make a story more powerful. But what about that second point, you talked about clarity of message? How can people get more clear in their message that they can tell a more powerful story? I think probably some people think, oh, a singular point, it just isn't interesting enough. I need to tell five points or 10 points, like how do you get to that clarity of message to tell a really impactful story?
Jason Jordan: Yeah, I hear that a lot. A lot of programs will teach you know, you got to have three main points or something like that. That's that's what we all hear up front. But if you have a powerful enough message, one point is plenty. And one point is enough for us to remember to internalize feel like we can take action on. I don't know if you've ever heard a lecture with 10 or 15 points, and they're powerful. But they get to the end, and I feel helpless, I feel so overwhelmed by all the different things that I have to think about or worry about or do something about, it's much easier to break that down. And just let me have one thing. So I've actually got a couple of different rules that I use when you're shaping a message when you're getting clear on that message. And so you should be able to write it out, first of all in one sentence. So it should be just one sentence, clear message. And it should be written from the perspective of your audience, whoever that is, even if you're just talking to your kids, they're your audience. So your your message should be one sentence, pretty clear. It should be experience based rather than database. So if you're looking back, did I build this message based on data or findings or facts or figures or whatever? Or did I build it off experience, because experience is something that people have an impossible time for good reason arguing with. But if it's a true experience that you had, and true emotion that you're sharing, I can't argue with that. So experience based rather than database can't be self serving. If your message comes out the other side that, hey, I want people to buy my product. And that's where a lot of people go. Very quickly. I work with a lot of technical teams. And I'll give you one example, I worked with a company that was doing a trade show, and it was they were a Microsoft authorized reseller. They were doing a trade show and everybody that would come in, they had all their engineers doing these one hour keynotes. And I would say, Alright, before we get started, what is the message of your talk? And they would say, I want to tell people the 35 new features of Microsoft Office in the cloud? No, that's awful. Because maybe one of those is important to me, do you want me to check out for the rest of the time? Because I'm probably not going to pay attention waiting for that one thing. And we, we would dig and dagger, what do you really want? What do you really after? And they go? Ah, okay, all right, I got it. The point of my message is that they need to hire our firm, to install Microsoft Office 365 in the cloud, and say, No, because that's self serving that sales, right? People are going to see that from a mile away. And boy, these days do we have our defenses up, I spent 20 plus years in the field selling, I can't imagine how tough it must be right now. Because everybody's on the defensive, I can sell. So if it's self serving, people will sense that a mile away and will instantly begin putting up their barriers. And the final thing, your message should move people either towards pleasure or away from pain, one of those two directions. So what we ended up with usually in these talks, was that it would be something more like having office 365 in the cloud, will make your team more efficient, so that you don't have to hang around in the office till 930 at night anymore, or something like that, getting into that pain of spending those long hours in the office, you know, away from your family and that emotion that pain drives the decision that, yep, we need this product. And your expertise tells me you're the people that we should have do it.
Darren Reinke: Great example, I appreciate you taking through the continuum of the first message, you know, 31 35 points or benefits or features, all the way to how do you help someone avoid pain? Or how to you know, more pleasure, obviously, and from a business context, but making it about them? That's just so fundamental the communication anyways, so many times we just assume that, you know, it's about us requests really not about you, it's about them. It's about the other person, I think about a lot of being a coach, and it's about that person, it's not about you.
Jason Jordan: Absolutely. And that's what makes you an effective coach, is you really have to be selfless to be effective. You have to want to give yourself completely to helping them become the best leader that they can be. And some people have difficulty taking that down some people the ego says no, wait, this is about me, ah, I was successful. They should just want to line up and learn from me. That's not really what it's about. It's about them.
Darren Reinke: Absolutely, I'd love to shift gears a little bit, because I think people might be thinking because storytelling, that's for CEOs, he did give a good example of sales folks of technical organization going to a trade show. But they may think about keynote speakers using stories or just or just other sizes, funny jokes in, you know, at family reunions, or parties or whatnot. But can you give me just a few examples, like some practical examples of how storytelling can be used either from a sales perspective, from a manager's perspective, just to just to bring it home in terms of like, some of that utility of storytelling beyond just the examples that I provided?
Why You Want to Use a FireStory that Communicates Your Why [30:22]
Darren Reinke: Sure. I'm a big fan of Simon Sinek. Are you a fan of Simon Sinek? Did you watch the starting with why and yeah, big fan of why big fan of purpose? Anyway, I could go on for days about that. But yeah, absolutely.
Jason Jordan: I remember watching that. And I think 65 million people have have seen that particular TED talk. And I thought it was just brilliant, this idea of why starting with why, and I got very excited about it until it finally occurred to me, because he was saying, you know, well, I just I just give this away. And here, here's this idea, watch my TED Talk. But I'm like, how do how does this guy make money? And then I finally realized, oh, wait, most people have no idea what their Why is, or, or even how to get there. And he's got some tools to kind of help people a little bit. But most people don't know, which is why you end up with company mission statements that don't make any sense. I don't know if you ever worked for a company that had one of those run on sentence mission statements. That was like three paragraphs long and, you know, had all the right jargon in there talked all about equity, and capital, and stakeholders, and profit and all, you know, all these wonderful terms in there. That made no sense to me, as an employee, right? I never understood the why behind any company I ever worked for. And I actually wanted to know that because I wanted meaning in the work that I was doing. If I was out there, busting my hump traveling 80,000 miles a year in my car, I wanted to know why I wanted to know the deeper meaning behind what I was doing. And nobody ever gave me that. All CEOs want to do is stand up there and talk about the this month's financials, this quarters, where they are how the competitors are doing what we need to be doing better. That's all you ever hear. But some were in that past, especially if the leader of that company started that company, there is what I call a fire story. A fire story is a story of change, or creation. It's a story where the trajectory of your life changed forever. And in the business world. What that means is, I can't stand the way this is done anymore. I have to go out there and put my money, my finances, my time, my family, everything on the line, with very little chance of success. By the way, small businesses fail way more often than they succeed. huge risk. But there's a story that made it impossible to say no, sharing that story. And the message behind it is the why sharing that story. And being in touch with it is to put in your term, what makes a leader a savage leader. It's that self awareness, that self understanding that drives the engine, if it calls the right kind of people into your organization, not just people, trading hours for dollars, but people who are truly committed to your cause to your walk, they can only get there if they understand your story, your fire story, and why it's so mission critical. So from a leadership perspective, that's the example I would give you if you want a practical sales example. I can share a good one of those as well.
Darren Reinke: Yeah, I mean, I love that just in terms of you allude to so many things, which is if you have that story, that fire store, as you call it, it's going to attract employees, it's going to engage them and can retain them is going to give them that sense of purpose. So that they're they're just screaming so much more effective to but also so much more joy and so much meaning out of their work, but I actually would love appreciate that. How do you translate that externally into a salesperson and using stories from a sales perspective?
How Great Storytelling Can Generate Sales [34:46]
Jason Jordan: That's awesome. For that I get to reach back to my sales career. I spent Gosh 15 years I worked for a company called Reynolds and Reynolds', we sold the computer systems that run car dealerships. So if you want to talk about a challenging sales world, try selling to car dealers. Those guys are tough. Let me tell you. And my territory was the Deep South. I had Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, and Arkansas, by car. That was a lot of driving to a lot of very rural areas, some dealerships that had 10 cars on their lot, like total. And it was fascinating meeting all these people and getting to understand them. And so over the years, I had just collected stories just listening, because people in the south man, they love telling stories, and they, they don't mind if it's long. They're just love and telling these stories. So I collected them. And one of the things that we did as a company, we would attend what was called a dealer 20 Group, which is a regional group of 20, dealers who would get together, and they would sit in and post companies would sponsor it, and they would be a speaker, and then a couple other people would speak. And so I was brought in to be the speaker in Knoxville, Tennessee at this 20 group. And so, I mean, the program was the dog and pony show, I don't know if you've ever been in sales there. And but anybody in sales knows the dog and pony show, which is you pull out your product, and you demo it and you show the bells and whistles, features, advantages, benefits, right? You throw those out there. And so we were in this restaurant, we put up the screen. And it was still early days of technology. But I had this big laptop. And it was plugged in to the projector and we're all set. And I began my dog and pony show and it caused a power surge in the restaurant. And so all the lights in the restaurant were in went out everything in the kitchen, all that and say managed to go back and find the breaker and turn the breaker back on. And so I started my dog and pony show again. And the lights all came down again. And so of course predictably, the angry manager showed up, he was like, Do not turn that thing on again. Now my boss had spent like 1000s of dollars he had flown in, and he was buying everybody's dinner, we shipped all this stuff. He was going to get his dog and pony show no matter what. So he and the manager went off to argue, leaving me at the age of about 24 standing in front of a group of 20 car dealers with nothing, nothing prepared. No dog and pony show nothing. And so I cleared my throat and I just started telling some stories. So I just shared the stories that I had heard from all these little small towns in Alabama, and Mississippi and Arkansas and Tennessee, and how our product had affected all these people, how it had changed their world, their lives. Most of the stories were just funny. Some of them were a little dramatic, but I told stories for like a half an hour. And then I said, I don't see my boss, I'm gonna let you guys eat dinner, you guys will all make the decision to buy a product sometime. I think you should buy mine. And then I walked off and sat down. The next day. I had 20 voicemails all 20 dealers had called me up independently. They didn't collude on this, they called me up independently to say, we're buying your product. They've never seen the product. They didn't even know how much the product cost. They just wanted it. Why did they want it they had heard the stories, all these other dealers and they connected to it. They were like I feel that pain. I want to feel the benefits that these guys out there these other dealers felt, I'm sure it's a reasonable price. I'm sure it's a great product. So I want it I want to buy it. That had never happened before. And my boss about died. It's like but they didn't see it. So I guess they didn't need to. They heard the story.
Darren Reinke: That's incredible. And if anyone can get 100% close rate from any kind of event, they'd go for that but I just love the examples you made it about the avoiding the pain, the pleasure, you've made it about them just to play back some of those elements of a great story, but just like what a great example I think because sales people I think probably tend to get stuck in that the features and benefits conversation versus actually the story how they can really benefit from it. So I appreciate all those details. Oh Jason This is a been really really fun, really, really insightful. Appreciate your time today, where can people go to find out more about you? How about fire story about the academy? Where can people go to find stuff out?
Jason Jordan: Well, fire story.com is my website. I'm also on Twitter a lot at your fire story. So I'm not a big social media guy, but at your fire story is Twitter. We have a number of programs, we're actually opening our physical location coming up this fall, and big change for us. We're actually going to start working with kids. I have always worked with professionals and with companies. I've been doing that for years now. But over COVID I had the opportunity because there were a lot of homeschool moms who hadn't planned on being homeschool moms, and they were kind of thrust into it. And so they asked me if I could teach public speaking and communication skills to their kids. And it went better than I ever imagined. And so I I needed a physical location to start teaching kids so the fire store communication Academy will be right here in North County of St. North San Diego County. This will be our first location. Hopefully, there will be many more to come by you can always find me at fire story dot com.
Darren Reinke: Beautiful. Thank you, Jason. Appreciate your time today.
Jason Jordan: Thank you so much, Darren and thank you for all that you do helping leaders become savage leaders. I think it's critically important.
Darren Reinke: Thanks for listening to today's episode of The Savage Leader Podcast. My hope is you walk away with tactics that you can apply to become a better leader in your life and in your career. If you're looking for additional insight in tactics, be sure to check out my book titled The Savage Leader 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader From The Inside Out. Also, be sure to subscribe to the podcast and I would truly appreciate it if you would leave a review and also rate the podcast. Thanks and see you in the next episode.