914. Are Your Story-telling Or Story-selling?

Today, I am rocking out of Bryan Eisenberg's new book, "I Think I Swallowed An Elephant," and it is about storytelling vs. story-selling. 

We are wired to tell stories. The question is, what kind of story are you telling? Your narrative navigates your life. Where it leads is up to you. 

Today, I'm challenging you to story-sell, don't just story-tell. 

Get a copy of his book on Amazon. 

Transcript

0:01

You know we are hardwired for storytelling. We are. In his new book, I think I swallowed an elephant author, Bryan Eisenberg. writes that your brain is wired for storytelling, but the question is, are the stories that you're telling leading to success? See, you have to think of yourself as a brand and to Bryan's point, if you wanna grow your brand, then you must create a story that others wanna be a part of. And it's the kind of story that they tell themselves when they think about you. How do you wanna be thought of? It's all dependent on how you tell a story. See, everybody's a storyteller, but most people tell stories that consist of the three Ps, people, problems, or politics. It's what they talk about. They talk about others. They talk about their personal problems, or they talk about administrations, governments, if they were king for a day, this is what they would do, but here's the problem, what they're not doing, And they get trapped in this loop. Of telling that story. And if you think back to, I mean, go back to when you were a kid, You didn't complain, you didn't talk about people, politics or problems. All you were trying to do is just play. Even if you were grounded and you were confined to your room. You may have complained for a few minutes, but after that you just adjusted and figured out how to play by yourself, and you made a day out of it. But somewhere along the way, probably as responsibilities started mounting up and you had to pay your own way through the world. You had rent, car note insurance, and what started off as minor annoyances. Now you're just perpetually talking about people, politics, and your own personal problems, and that's all you talk about. You probably don't even realize this. As I was writing this this morning and really giving it reflection, I was like. Man, pay attention to what you're talking about. Pay attention to the kind of stories that you're telling., the line that grabbed me and just maybe just run with this whole thought, was, does your storytelling lead to success? Basically, does your storytelling lead to your desired outcome? See, you're stuck. Because of your stories. And if you'll change the ongoing narrative, you'll change the eventual outcome. See, there's traditional storytelling, which is what most people do. They talk about people, politics, problems, they absolve themselves of any responsibility. So that's the traditional storytelling, or you can move into something more productive. It's storytelling, but with a twist. It's story selling. See, you should be selling a story all the time not only to yourself, but others who are around you. Story selling. Sets standards and becomes standards for you to live by. And I love story selling. Because, see, selling is active. It requires your participation. It requires a lot of effort, so you'll put in a lot of effort but it's not a hundred percent. You're selling a hundred percent of the time, but the result shake out more like 30, 40%, but in that 30 or 40% more than compensates. For the other 70% that you put in there, because you're building skill sets, know-how, collaboration connections, you're building these things. Commitment, all kinds of different things. So you can't do that when you're just storytelling. Storytelling by itself is passive. It's easy to just point the finger that person's the problem that administration's the problem. Man, lemme tell you about all the hardships I've had. Lemme tell you about my ongoing problems right now. Lemme tell you about the unfairness. That's storytelling. That's a passive sport. Yeah, it's easy to say that, but the story selling requires you to put in the effort and so you're constantly selling a story of desires, of goals, of possibilities, of outcomes. Of projects, of visions, that's what you're selling. That's what story selling is versus just traditional storytelling. Everything that comes outta your mouth should be selling a story to yourself and to others that you're gonna figure out a way to succeed. And lemme tell you something, when you continuously tell this story. Of desires, of possibilities, of projects, of dreams, of goals. When you're telling that story all the time, and that's all you talk about, the wrong people. The people that only want to talk about gossip and don't want to talk about growth, they'll fade away. They don't want to be around you because you're talking about movement forward. And shit, they're just stuck in the past. When you're story selling, you're figuring out a way to be a success. That's what you're selling success. And success is a mixture of both wins and losses. You need the wins to push you through these losses to keep going, but you also need the losses. To improve your skills, your know-how, your efficiencies, so that way you can win again, but at a higher level. Now, it doesn't mean that you're not gonna get stuck. You're gonna get stuck. You're gonna get blindsided. There are gonna be times where you just don't have any answers. But no matter what, when you're facing these challenges, when you have the mindset of storytelling through story selling. But in instead of reverting back to the traditional way of storytelling, passively talking about people, politics problems, You keep storytelling, seeking a solution. So the problem that you're facing, you just haven't found a solution yet. Yet you stay committed. You stay faithful. You keep building your skill sets. Sometimes that delay is just a layer of protection. It is, and you won't realize that until things kind of play out. It doesn't mean you just sit there, doesn't mean you complain. You work while you wait. That develops that faith, and then sometimes that delay, these challenges that you face. Because you're story selling can constantly iterating, evolving, challenging, looking for solutions, figuring things out, asking yourself good questions. Not sitting around commiserating with a bunch of bullshit, low energy people, not turning devices to escape. No, you're figuring things out, man. You're in the lab. And so when you get challenged with these things and you have this delay, you build that infrastructure so that way some of this is an internal game, even though you can't see the result yet. You gotta have that foundation, that infrastructure. So that when you succeed, you can handle the success too. So you can have success, but can you handle the success? That's two totally different skill sets. Having it. Most people can have it, but can you handle it? Can you work with it? Can you make it grow? Not if all you're doing is storytelling talking about people, politics, or problems, you must always be story selling. Pay attention to the storytelling today. Not only. In yourself, but also in others. You're gonna be shocked, but you can't control them. You can only control you. So pay attention more. To your storytelling, what's that style or you complaining about people, politics and problems. Or will you shift over and start story selling? Selling your goals, your dreams, your possibilities, your projects, your desires? And so when you're not around, what's the story people think about you? Is it a story of. Sorrow. Oh, poor guy. Or is it a story of success? Man, that cat was challenged, but he figured it out. That's the kind of person I wanna be around. That's you. Be sure and grab a copy of Bryan Eisenberg's book. I think I swallowed the elephant. It's gonna be released on June 2nd. He's a great guy to connect to on both Twitter, LinkedIn. Instagram and TikTok. He's on all of them. Thanks, Bryan for the inspiration for this piece. Let's get outta here. Keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough peace.