The business climate has shifted towards storytelling for one main reason: it works. Storytelling is shown to be the most effective way of communicating with another human because it is the easiest way for our brains to process information.
Video marketing is a great place for storytelling. It is a highly engaging and visual form of content, and this is how many businesses are choosing to tell their brand's story today.
Before you can get started on creating marketing videos, you need to fully understand your brand's story. The best part about figuring out your brand's story is that it already exists, you just need to learn how to tell it.
All stories typically follow the same sequence of events. The main character of the story is faced with a challenge, stumbles upon a tool that will help them conquer that challenge, and then sets out with that tool to face the challenge and win the day.
With brand storytelling, your customer will always be the main character of the story. Your product is a tool that helps them face their challenge.
The biggest goal to accomplish with storytelling is to get your customer to see themselves as the hero when they hear your brand's story.
Storytelling experts are making a huge impact on the business sector today. They are teaching companies the best way to get their brand's story out in front of their audience and resonate with their customers.
From podcasts to workshops, experts are teaching companies of all sizes the best way to communicate with their audience.
We've compiled a list of the most value-packed resources out there to help you learn how to write out, fine tune, and tell people about your brand's story.
These resources will help you put your brand's story into writing and apply it to your company's:
• Website
• Social media
• Emails
• Sales pitch
• Company culture
• Business cards
• Product one-pagers
…The list goes on and on!
Disclaimer:
We do not receive any commissions or free product samples for mentioning the resources in this post.
Books
Story Mythos: A Movie Guide to Better Business Stories - Shane Meeker
What it covers
Every movie you’ve seen is a story. Directors and screen writers are some of society’s expert storytellers today. The foundation of every story can be applied to the business world as well. Shane Meeker is a corporate storyteller and keynote speaker, and he takes his on stage and off stage experience to teach us all how to tell our stories.
We actually use a movie style approach for the marketing videos we make, so we loved this read! This book offers practical exercises at the end of each chapter that help you build your story throughout the book.
Who it’s designed for
Corporate leadership teams, marketing teams, startups, keynote speakers, lecturers, and the list goes on!
Price
$10 - $19.99
Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die - Chip Heath & Dan Heath
What it covers
Have you ever noticed how quickly lies and "fake news" can spread around the world? Why is it that negativity can spread at the speed of light, but people with incredible and positive ideas need to work night and day to tell people about ideas that will make the world better?
This book explores and dissects the anatomy of how ideas stick with us. You learn about different cases of "sticky" stories that have happened throughout history - from rumors to sports to product launches - and receive in-depth analysis on how sticky ideas can apply to any situation.
Who it's designed for
Entrepreneurs, marketers, teachers, leaders, journalists, or anyone that has an amazing idea they want to tell the world about!
Price
$11 - $25
Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen - Donald Miller
What it covers
Get ready to change the way you communicate, in business and in everyday life. Donald Miller's method in the StoryBrand helps businesses clarify the way they speak with their audience and boost sales and business traffic.
After reading this book, you'll immediately want to redo your website, social media strategy, brochures, and business cards. While this book covers the concept of storytelling in business, the StoryBrand process will change the way you speak with everyone you interact with.
Who it's designed for
Startups, marketers at the associate to VP levels, politicians, musicians, people on the job hunt.
Price
$10 - $16
Resonate: Present Visual Stories that Transform Audiences - Nancy Duarte
What it covers
We've all sat through a presentation and thought, "That's an hour of my life I'll never get back. What a waste of my time." One of the biggest fears when making a presentation is putting in hours of prep work, feeling good about it, and halfway through your presentation you see half of the room nodding off, while the other half is checking their Instagram feeds.
If you want to grab your audience's attention, keep them on the edge of their seats, and see a line of excited fans ready to ask you questions afterward, this is the book for you. This book will help you connect with your audience and motivate them to take action after they hear you speak. It might even help you prepare for your Ted Talk!
Who it's designed for
CEOs, professors, non-profits, and motivational speakers.
Cost
$16 - $30
Wired for Story: The Writer's Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence - Lisa Cron
What it covers
You may have heard there is a science behind storytelling, and it's true! Being a captivating writer is challenging. I think all writers can attest to that. Knowing how to write well does not make you a captivating writer, storytelling does. That's exactly what Lisa Cron covers in Wired for Story.
This book explains the neurological responses our brains experience when hearing a good story. This lays the framework you need to write captivating stories that tap into the section of the brain that is hardwired with the desire read on. Igniting this curiosity in your readers will trigger a dopamine rush that keeps them engaged for the long haul.
Who it's designed for
Bloggers, journalists, novelists, website copywriters, and content marketers.
Price
$12 - $20
The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human - Jonathan Gottschall
What it covers
Children aren't the only people that enjoy make-believe; adults love it as well. How else do you explain the cult following for Game of Thrones, Starwars, and the Twilight series? We're biologically designed to listen to a narrative.
Jonathan Gottschall dives into the power of storytelling and how it helps us navigate life's most complex and rigorous social challenges. He backs it up with the latest discoveries in psychology, neuroscience, and biology. This book will give you the tools you need to use storytelling to make a positive impact in the world.
Who it's designed for
Philanthropists, keynote speakers, writers, marketers, and c-level executives.
Price
$10 - $25
Online Courses
Storytelling for Marketing and Entrepreneurship - Udemy
What it covers
This course teaches you how to apply storytelling techniques to your company’s selling and advertising processes. You are taught how to captivate your audience, close deals, and crank out more volume than you knew you could.
This is a 2.5-hour on-demand video course that includes downloadable resources plus a 30-day money back guarantee.
Who it’s designed for
Entrepreneurs, marketers, freelancers, and account managers.
Price
$94.99
The Story Course - Storytelling Masterclass - Udemy
What it covers
No matter what your walk of life may be, Story Course is designed to bring out your inner storyteller. This online course will teach you how to construct stories and tell them in a way that will capture attention and praise.
The Story Course is led by a professional filmmaker and story narrator. This is a 2.5-hour on-demand video course that includes downloadable resources and 30-day money back guarantee (just like the first online course on this list).
Who it’s designed for
Anyone interested in storytelling, entrepreneurs, marketers, c-level executives, motivational speakers, writers, and freelancers.
Price
$169.99
Pixar: The Art of Storytelling - Khan Academy
What it covers
Learn storytelling first hand from some of the world’s greatest all-time storytellers. This course leads you through the step-by-step storytelling process that is followed when creating stories at Pixar.
This online course is self-paced and includes the 6 essential steps of the storytelling process.
Who it’s designed for
Filmmakers, designers, freelancers, marketers, and novelists.
Price
FREE!
Captivate Your Audience with Transformational Storytelling - Udemy
What it covers
This course recognizes that stories are all around us, all the time. Most of the people that enroll in this course have a rough concept of storytelling and want to learn more to make themselves an expert. After you're complete, you will have a deeper understanding of storytelling and how to authentically engage with your audience.
This is a 5.5-hour on-demand video course with over 40 downloadable resources and a 100% money back guarantee.
Who it’s designed for
Keynote speakers, company leaders, entrepreneurs, marketers, and public speakers.
Price
$154.99
Storytelling for Influence - IDEO
What it covers
Although this is the most expensive course on our list, you certainly get what you pay for. You will be taken through the inspirational storytelling process, identify the best mediums for distributing your story, and how to create multiple versions of your story to find out what works best for your audience.
This is a self-paced 5-week course, with 14 video lessons, and coaching sessions from storytelling experts.
Who it’s designed for
Marketing teams (associate through c-level), upper leadership, and entrepreneurs.
Price
$399
Workshops
The Story Studio Workshop
What it covers
This workshop will transform the way you communicate your ideas. You will learn how to take an idea, boil it down to its bare essentials, and build it back up to a 3-6 minute pitch that gets people excited about it!
The Story Studio offers multiple delivery methods for their rad workshop. They offer corporate workshops, as well as open workshops in select cities. The open workshops are also offered online!
Who it's designed for
Corporate teams, small businesses, freelancers, consultants, and performing artists.
Price
Open workshops range from $95 - $150
Corporate workshops will be custom pricing
Jordan Bower’s Business Storytelling Workshop
What it covers
Get team-building and storytelling skills all in one workshop! Your team will learn how to get your listeners to buy-in to your ideas and become receptive to change. This engages your listeners and humanizes your company so your brand resonates with your audience.
Jordan Bower constructs custom workshops that are specifically designed for your organization.
Who it’s designed for
Executive leadership, sales teams, internal leaders, marketing teams, and cultural influencers.
Price
Custom pricing depending on the size and location of your group.
StoryBrand Workshop
What it covers
This workshop is all about clarifying your brand's message, aligning your team to your vision and goals, and scaling your business. StoryBrand helps your company identify internal pain points and put together an action plan using the science of storytelling.
StoryBrand also offers a book (mentioned above) and online course if you have a small/one-person team.
Who it’s designed for
Growing startups, mid-large size companies.
Price
$1,500 - $15,000+ per person (depends on delivery format)
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
And now, for the new! the latest and greatest - AI! Over the last 6-12 months, there hasn't been a hotter topic than AI. I'm sure you've heard of all of the speculations surrounding the topic - everything from the inevitable Matrix-esque society where robots rule the world to AI getting so smart that it decides to take off and go explore the universe on it's own and leave us in the dust. While those things could happen...we're more of the mindset that AI is "the new laptop" and a new "industrial revelution" if you will. With that being said, there are some pretty great AI tools for storytelling out there already - none of which are taking our jobs anytime soon but handy for the ideation process.
Chat GPT-4
What it covers
Leading the way and kicking all of this off is Open AI. Chat GPT is a language model that was designed to be interacted with - similar to that of a human conversation. While we've been using similar technologies like Siri or Google for a while now, this tool is response and can pull information from the internet to form a more conversational response. We've found this to be a valuable tool in our research phase - you can ask questions like, "summarize x technology as if you were talking to a 10yr old" or "what are the biggest problems that x technology solves and why is it so important to use". Play with your "prompt" (wording of the question you ask) to get a variety of results. We also use GPT as a brainstorming tool - with prompts like "what is a great analogy for how x technology works". This
Who it's designed for
Everyone! No really - it's designed for any industry, any profession, from students to seasoned pros.
What it cost
Get it here - Variety of subscriptions -from Fremium, $20/month, $25/month, to "enterprise" use. It's for those that have a desire to learn in a more conversational manner.
Claude
What it covers
Who it's designed for
What it cost
VISUAL STORYTELLING
Boards
What it covers
Who it's designed for
What it cost
Midjourney
What it covers
Who it's designed for
What it cost
DAL-E3
What it covers
Who it's designed for
What it cost
Adobe Firefly
What it covers
Who it's designed for
What it cost
Moonbuggy.ai
Yes, yes - we might have a trick or two up our sleeves. Stay tuned for more awesome tools built by seasoned brand storytellers.
