Business leaders should follow three steps to make sure people listen to their stories, said Will Guidara, author, co-producer of The Bear, and former co-owner of Eleven Madison Park.
Write your story like you talk to the people in your life.
Guidara, speaking on an Inc. panel for National Entrepreneurship Month, said he notices when someone sounds entirely different when speaking out loud than they do in written communications for their business.
“They’re almost trying to impress their customers with their professionalism as opposed to connect with their customers through their humanity,” he said.
Instead, he recommends speaking in the voice you would use if you were speaking to someone you cared about. There’s certainly a line of professionalism to maintain, but that doesn’t mean you should become a version of yourself that isn’t genuine.
Say less, and say it more impactfully.
Way too often, people are desperate to tell their audience every detail that they never get to the important part, Guidara said.
“The more brief you are in articulating an idea, the more likely it is that people will consume all of the information you’re trying to convey,” he said.
Your customer is the protagonist.
You are not the protagonist, Guidara said. Your customer is. Write the story with that in mind.
Entrepreneurs can control the stories that are told about them, too.
He said staff at Eleven Madison Park went out of their way to do things for guests that may have seemed unreasonable. Like grabbing a guest the street hot dog they were hoping to try before they rush to the airport, for instance.
“You can control what stories people tell if you give them stories that are good enough to tell,” Guidara said.
From Vision to Voice: How to Tell Your Story
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Ava Levinson
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