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This quote is an excerpt from A Win Without Pitching Manifesto by Blair Enns. It reminded of a related conversation I heard. It was on a video interview I worked on with a CEO of an integrated Architecture/Construction firm. There are two things from that interview that I’ve thought back to many times and one ties in the idea of difficult business decisions.

First, someone thanked him for making the time to be at the shoot. It was something to the effect of “Thanks for making the time for this, I know you’re a busy man.” He responded with “I’m really not that busy.” Although that may sound counterintuitive, I have heard that this is often true of many of the most effective business leaders. My suspicion is that it is because they figure out the aspects of the business, the difficult decisions that they need to make and that is what they focus on.

The executive mentioned the difficulty in simply making the choice to become an integrated firm or not. This means that they chose to handle both the design aspect of projects and the implementation. Many in the building industry only do one or the other.

This is not something that takes up a predefined amount of time. But it is difficult. That decision could have meant that some other firms might not want to work with them because of feeling threatened (ended up not really the case). Yet making this decision created new project opportunities that they could now handle in a better and different way.

These kind of questions: What business am I in? What is my focus, my specialty? These are questions I am choosing to wrestle with, and am finding clarity as well for moving forward.

This post is about how Gary Vaynerchuk answered the question.

I’m curious to know, what makes a good storyteller?

This is from the GaryVee Audio Experience, September 3, 2017 A Business Meeting with VaynerProductions | Expanding What Vaynermedia is Built On. It starts at 8:56 into the meeting.

What I think is really interesting here is both the answer, but also the context. The meeting he is having is with a group from his own company that is built on being digital storytellers. And specifically, it’s VaynerProductions, a division that produces the creative. Their roles are firmly in the storytelling space.

And yet, even storytellers need to be reminded how to tell a good story.

This weekend I met with a lot of small business owners. They were professionals in their space and running their businesses well. And most of them were thinking about this as well. They used different language, but they knew they needed to tell their story. They wanted to be better at communicating with their audience and potential audience.

I’ve transcribed/edited/paraphrased the audio slightly for clarity. So here is Gary’s answer to the question: What makes a good storyteller?

The person who has the least ego. That’s genuinely my belief. The person who actually cares about the person on the other side of it way more than they care about themselves. And we have a whole industry of people who care about themselves. It’s why I’m good at what I do for a living. It doesn’t matter what I think. It matters what the other person thinks. That trumps anything that I think. And then all my behavior and work goes into trying to figure that out. Humility makes a good storyteller.

… but now, people who are great storytellers, who do have empathy for their audience and do understand their space – they make it, they put it out, and they have leverage. And you don’t get to judge if it’s good content. The market does.

That’s what I think makes a good storyteller. Someone who’s got a pulse of culture, and then deploys the audience’s point of view, not theirs.

Everything I think about, I take my eyes out and put my audience’s eyes in. That’s why I read all my comments. That’s why I only have time for that. Because that allows me to get the qualitative feedback to understand where I need to take things.

It’s easy to make them…

ORGANIC
FRESH
SUSTAINABLE
LOCAL

There are plenty of things where we can choose to control multiple variables. It’s just a matter of choosing which things and then doing it.

I was talking with someone about “Chinese Food.” We talked about American “Chinese” dishes and dishes that are actually from China.

I’ve only had a handful of authentic Chinese dishes. Some were passed down in my family from my Chinese grandmother. Another was a simple meal with a grad student from abroad. And then a meal at a great place in Beijing, China.

MOST of what I’ve had, though isn’t a dish that would be recognized in the East. Things like General Tsao’s Chicken or Cashew Chicken – the latter of which was invented in Springfield, MO.

And then, of course there is the fortune cookie, which is an invention made in San Francisco.

When you take one concept and apply it to another field, there is always more possibility of it becoming a new entity. Maybe better, maybe worse, or maybe just different.

What’s fun to see is that the new version is something someone created for a new market. Someone saw something new and tried to apply it in a relevant way in a new place.

One hiring strategy that scales. This is from Michael Lang.

Here’s one thing I’ve learned that works great. Grow slow in beginning to grow faster later. This is my formula for building great IT teams: In the beginning do this: a) hire someone, indoctrinate them with your values/expectations and coach/prep them to onboard the next person. b) hire next guy once you no longer have to directly oversee first employee’s every day activity — i.e. at the point you trust them to “just run with it” Now two of you can hire and train the next, but use the new hire experience to further develop the first hire and solidify the culture you want. Keep doing that as you hire and scale and everyone should learn to take care of each new recruit and bring them into the culture. Your job after the first two or three hires is basically to detect and cut the B.S. to keep everyone honest with each other.

One of the things that is useful here is that the idea starts to work when the team first expands beyond one person. The core concept of defining and spreading the team values and culture is beneficial immediately.

And taking it a step further, the initial idea of needing to define your values and expectations is needed even for a team of one. You still have to define your own values and expectations for yourself. And then be able to carry them over to your clients and strategic partners.

As far as scaling, I’ve heard another method of using the group to help match new employees to the culture before they are hired. (I don’t recall the source) The concept is simple. A group of ten people go to lunch with the potential new team member. If all ten agree that there is a good match, it probably is. Simple.

The jumbled up mess in your own head might be completely clear to someone who is not you.

Perspective is a great thing. Sometimes it needs to come from other people.

 

 

On our own, we all have a measure of self awareness. We gauge our abilities, potentials, contributions and places where we missed the mark.

Good teams and friendships expand how we see. It’s like we let others borrow our iris. The new angles open up considerations of possibilities to come. They also challenge us dig in a little more to our callings.

Empathy and participation are paramount to this. An internal research project at Google found that one of the markers of high performing teams was equivalent amount of speaking time by all team members. Such a simple way to check the pulse of the team. Kind of like licking your finger and putting it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.

As a bonus, Google offers a look at how their teams are thinking about work.

 

A small A/B test in 1:1 interactions.

Test 1: Say hi to a person while you walk past them.

Test 2: Say hi to a person, but stop before you do (even if it’s just for a moment).

Reflection: What difference did it make to you? To the other person? In what contexts can you change interactions by choosing one or the other greeting?

 

The market doesn’t care how you feel about it.

That thing.

You know, that idea that you think is so great.

But, the market can tell you if you’re right at this moment about whether the market cares.

An example from songwriting: You might think you have a hit song. But how do you know? Release it. Does it spread on it’s own? Does it resonate? If it takes off, then it’s a “hit” song. It doesn’t mean it’s any good, but it does mean it’s a hit.

What about that great business idea? Has anyone offered money for that product or service? A great example here is one that Ramit Sethi tells. He and his team spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a course that teaches people how to find the best healthcare plan for their situation. It was a wonderful course that could save people money and help them navigate the murky waters of finding a good healthcare plan. The problem was that although it sounded like a good course, in final testing they found out that no one cared enough to actually to pay for a course on that topic.

Questions for self-review:

1. What service/product that I offer is the one that people keep asking for more of?
2. What is something that I think is a great idea/service/product, but the market doesn’t seem to care.
3. What is an idea/service/product you have that the market would accept more if you could tell its story better so that it actually understood the value?

Update: Ramit’s team reached out and suggested that if you’re reading this article, you may find value in this post.