Wise Guy: Lessons from a Life

This post is derived from concepts highlighted in “Wise Guy”. If you want to read the full book, you can find it here .

This post is derived from concepts highlighted in “Wise Guy”. If you want to read the full book, you can find it here .

I’ve always enjoyed Guy Kawasaki’s books. I’ve read many of them and I’ve also interviewed him on my Success Story podcast.

He’s a very down to earth, no nonsense individual, who has an edge, but an air of kindness and honesty to him.

His honesty in character has always been what I’ve enjoyed about his personality, however this book takes it to another level. He writes this book in the way he does business, and markets (which I think we can all agree, he does quite well).

‘Always tell stories. Use them to illustrate your key points. Stories are ten times more powerful than bullshit adjectives such as “revolutionary”, “innovative” and “cool”. I believe in stories so much that this book is a collection of stories.’

As a career long salesman and marketer, I cannot reinforce this sentiment enough.

Storytelling allows you to build a connection with a group of complete strangers.

It enables you to build connections and drive narratives, tying your message to fundamental human experiences, which we can all share, understand and relate to.

When we all aim to be understood and connected, yet we find ourselves feeling isolated and misunderstood by brands and marketers, we need to continue to tell stories in order to teach, engage and connect a brand with an audience, and ultimately build a relationship of authenticity and trust.

As humans, we learn through experience.

This is how we understand the world.

When we tell stories we can tie our own personal experiences to others.

We need to market and sell the way we learn and experience.

This allows the message we want to relay to others to be well received, and in the way we like to learn and consume.

Remember this next time you’re trying to get a point across.

Be like Guy Kawasaki, and tell a story.