I have a confession to make: I love reading business books.
I can’t recall exactly where or when it started. But, I now currently spend much of my reading time alternating between business books and fiction. The combination always strikes me as interesting – I feel like novelists and business gurus could learn a lot from each other to improve each of their respective crafts.
Here is a round-up of five of my current favorite books that can help businesses discover and tell their stories. Which other books would you add to this list?
Stories that Stick: How Storytelling Can Captivate Customers, Influence Audiences, and Transform Your Business by Kindra Hall (HarperCollins Leadership). Not only does Kindra Hall offer some of the best business storytelling advice I have read, but she also crafts an entertaining story to share her expertise and insights. Filled with examples of businesses of all sizes and in different industries, this is one of my favorite books to reference when I need to clear my head and think of a new angle for a project.
The Storyteller’s Secret: From TED Speakers to Business Legends, Why Some Ideas Catch on and Others Don’t by Carmine Gallo (St. Martin’s Press). Bite-sized lessons offer ideas on how to improve your public speaking. Each chapter focuses on one person or company’s story followed by an explanation of the concept. I find this to be a great resource for ideas when I’m stuck or when I just want to try something different.
Story Dash: Find, Develop & Activate Your Most Valuable Business Stories…In Just a Few Hours! by David Hutchens (BenBella Books, Inc.). A workshop between two covers, this book helps walk you through planning your business stories and building a big stack of ideas. It is a great resource when I am experiencing writer’s block, or just want to try to look at the same problem or situation in a new way.
Let the Story Do the Work: The Art of Storytelling for Business Success by Esther K. Choy (Amacom). A great resource to dig into the foundational elements of business storytelling, this book dives into what a story is and how to tell different types of business stories. I especially like the chapter on incorporate simple visuals into our stories. It’s a great reminder of how to think like a storyteller when we are at work.
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald Miller (HarperCollins Leadership). Don Miller has a great framework to set up marketing messages in a way that follows the “hero’s journey,” perhaps the most classic story form. This book is written for writing digital copy but can be applied to other areas. If you’re looking for some basic story details on the power of storytelling in business communications, this is a great read for inspiration.
Take Action
Pick one of these – or another book of your choice – and commit to reading one chapter this week. Pick out one idea from it that you can try out in your business.
