Story-telling - February 5, 2026

It’s Important In Business & Your Personal Life

Early in my career a Board member gave me some advice that I didn’t quite understand at the time. He said, “life is about the stories you can tell - the better your stories are, the more people will listen to you; you have to have good stories!”.  My initial reaction was, “Stories?!...Who cares about stories?! Who has time for stories?! Just articulate the value proposition and people will have to say yes!” Boy, was I wrong. And now, in this age of information overload, good stories couldn’t be more important for establishing a real connection with the person you’re speaking with. Stories help people understand the why behind what you're trying to tell them.  The why is the key to all connections.  

It took me many years to understand his advice, and I really didn’t get the lesson he was trying to impart on me, until I had to talk to customers and convince them to buy our products. But once I clued into that lesson, that advice, I became a big fan of storytelling, not only in business, but in my personal life…anytime I had to influence someone to do something:my spouse, my children, my friends, the better my story, the more influence I had, and the better my chances were of getting them to see my point of view.  

Many of you that are experienced business people, or long time parents, may be thinking, “I know this already. What’s the ‘so what’ in this!”. The “so what” is that in this era of sensory overload from the internet and social media, from constantly being subject to misinformation from the highest of elected officials, to being told regularly that this is fake news or that is fake news, we need and crave genuine connections that we can trust.  I’m a big fan of story-telling, but I received a good reminder of the importance of story-telling from some articles I recently read that brought this concept to the front of my mind. 

“The fastest way to grow your business ? Ask your best customer why they like your company/products; then repeat that story to all your prospective customers.” - Jay Abraham, Forbes Top Five Executive Coach, 2000.  When I read this statement recently, my reaction was, “of course!”. Tell a potential customer a story about how your other customers get value from using your product.  Intuitively, I knew of this approach, but I hadn’t thought about it in a while.  

This then got me thinking of the main concept of “The Challenger Sale”, from the book of the same name, written by Brent Adamson and Matt Dixon.  That being - help a customer understand a problem they didn’t know they had; then tell them how your solution will solve that problem.  Tell your customer a story about their own business that teaches them something they didn’t know; this will build trust in you, your company and your product…and you’ll make the sale!  An example of this was when I was the co-founder of an edibles company and we were developing and marketing naturally formulated, lab-tested cannabis-infused edibles in the legal California retail cannabis market.  Our customers were licensed cannabis stores, and the counter-staff serving their customers were referred to as “budtenders”.  In our conversations with budtenders, most of whom had lots of experience with cannabis, they would express their frustration at the lack of knowledge many of their patrons had, particularly the older customers.  A lot of these neophyte customers were in the store because a friend or relative had told them that cannabis products, especially edibles, could help them with a whole host of problems; that cannabis products were much better for them than consuming alcohol or taking prescription medication.  As a vendor to these retail stores we ran a lot of training for the budtenders, arming them with information on how to deal with inexperienced users.  “Tell these customers about how cannabis products help you sleep at night; tell them about how cannabis products help you deal with anxiety; and, tell them how some forms of cannabis products can help you with body pain, and have zero impact on your mind, ie - no feeling high.”  People don’t buy products; they buy beliefs, outcomes, and confidence. Storytelling delivers all three. This story is an example of the Challenger Sale approach at work, as well as how telling stories can help sales people with customers. 

If you run an organization, and haven’t read “The Challenger Sale” yet, I highly recommend it; I've read it many times, and  it’s one of my business bibles.  Also, have your sales team read it too.  

When you find yourself in a competitive situation and you’re trying to convince a customer to select your product/solution over someone else’s - tell a story.  Tell the story of why you started this business, or if you’re an employee tell the story of why you joined the organization - if it’s because you wanted to make money, your story isn’t great. But instead, if you tell the story of what problem you discovered that didn’t have a solution until this company started offering its products, that will resonate with a prospective customer and help you establish a meaningful connection.  Customers buy from other people, they don’t necessarily just buy a product from a company; every vendor says their solution has the best features, every vendor says their solution offers the best value for the money.  Customers hear this all day long, from every vendor.  Customers will buy from people they trust and know will stand by them when things go wrong. They get to know you and trust you through the story you tell.  With our cannabis start-up, our Production Manager was a professional chef who had earned a Michelin Star in a previous job.  When we told the story of having a Michelin Star-rated chef in-charge of our production team, it made our customers confident in our ability to deliver products according to the specifications we were claiming, and that we could do that with every order they placed with us.  Having a Michelin Star-rated chef in our team was part of our competitive story, but it was also the truth!

If you’re a leader of an organization, story-telling is your superpower.

The best leaders don’t just manage tasks, they narrate the journey. They help people understand setbacks, celebrate progress, and believe in the future.  This is done through story-telling.  It builds connections and trust. When you tell a story, you’re inviting someone into your perspective. That vulnerability creates empathy and credibility. It shapes identity.  

Sharing a strategy with your team answers the question of what we’ll do. But a story answers why this matters and where we’re going. This latter part is what the team wants and craves in order to believe in the mission. It aligns people emotionally, not just logically.  Leaders constantly ask their team to: accept uncertainty; make sacrifices; and change behaviour. Facts alone won’t do that. Stories help people feel the purpose behind the work, which drives commitment rather than compliance.

Stories also build trust and credibility. When leaders share stories, especially about mistakes, learning, or hard moments, it humanizes them. That authenticity builds trust far faster than polished corporate language. It turns leadership into influence, not authority. The best leaders don’t need to pull rank. Their stories shape how people think, decide, and act, even when the leader isn’t in the room.  An example of this, again drawn from the cannabis edibles start-up was our decision not to offer vegan products, and in fact use beef gelatin to bind our baked edibles together (beef gelatin is better at holding the ingredients together and provides a better tasting product than other binding agents).  Occasionally our sales people would hear from their friends that our company should offer vegan forms of our product…”Californians love vegan products”, they would hear.  Yet when we investigated how many retailers had customers coming in looking for vegan products, the answer was nearly zero.  Based on this market data, we decided against adding vegan products to our product list.  We explained why we weren't going to offer vegan products, and they understood that as a start-up we had to be precise and strategic with our spending, and our product decisions. I told them about examples in my career in technology, where we had invested millions of dollars in product development, for products that went nowhere, and didn’t generate a penny in revenue.  I didn't want to make that mistake again with this company.  Even though their buddies were looking for vegan products, our customers were not.  I shared many examples of conversations with our retail customers and how they said vegan would be nice, but it was going to influence their decision to buy from us.  With a story of why we weren't doing something, they were satisfied.  

Finally an example of the value of story-telling as a parent.  In my life I’ve had to deal with some health issues.  When I was younger I didn't have a disciplined diet and I drank more  alcohol than I should have; and, we have a history of health issues in my family.  I shared the story of my health issues with my sons, not to scare them, but to inform them of our genetic predisposition, and what could happen if you have too much fun in your youth and as a young adult.  They certainly have fun and enjoy themselves, but through story-telling they became aware of our family history, and hopefully will make better choices than their father did.  

Whether it be in business or in your personal life, story-telling is great.  Sharing stories is enjoyable to tell and to hear…but one piece of advice - be precise, be concise, and be on point…bad story-telling can be painful for all; but when it is done right, stories are a beautiful thing.