Book - Lead With a Story

Tags: books

This book almost lost me several times. Paul told stories. I wanted tactical advice on crafting great stories. Paul kept telling stories. There were just enough tactical nuggets throughout the book that I kept reading.

I read so many uplifting stories about Procter and Gamble that I momentarily doubted my own career path. Is this a part of a P&G propaganda machine? The Manager Tools and Advanced Selling Podcast crews both have experience with P&G as well. Am I missing out?

Stories are persuasive. Got it.

Paul recommends putting any surprise element at the end of a story to cement the story into the audience’s memory. In the very last chapter he got me. My consternation over writing my own stories melted away as I read:

The richest source of stories you’ll ever have are the stories you hear other people tell. There’s only one of you, but about 7 billion other people in the world. Even if you never create a single personal story of your own, you can have an endless supply of great stories by just paying attention to the stories you hear from others.

All of those stories that were stealing stage time from tactical tips? They really were the meat of the book. I have a cache of effective stories now. I should still write my own stories, but I don’t need to write every story I tell.

Chapter 30 also provided a number of solid tips and lists for getting started. The tips and lists I craved, but I would have never acted upon them had I devoured them on their own.