Anecdotally Speaking

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of Alice Stewart, a renowned physician who discovered a correlation between pregnant women having an x-ray scan and an increase in childhood cancer fatalities. Mark first heard Alice’s story on Margaret Heffernan’s Ted Talk, Dare to disagree, to watch her presentation click on the link below. https://bit.ly/3mlrXlp

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a short but impactful story that he read in Stephen Martin and Joseph Marks’ book, Messenger: Who we listen to, who we don’t, and why. The story follows a group of well-known psychologists who used a simple technique to increase sales for a London-based real estate business. For more information about Martin and Marks’ book, click on the...

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark tells the story of American violinist, Josh Bell, and his involvement in a Washington Post experiment. The guys finally agree on a rating, but was it a good or a bad one? You’ll have to listen to the episode to find out what they both thought! Mark also mentions the ‘chocolate cake’ episode of the podcast, which is called Icing breakers presenta...

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark and Shawn change things up and share a type of story—a strategy story. The pair give insight into how and why we help companies craft a strategy stories, and what structure we follow when crafting them. Strategy stories follow the below structure: In the past… Then something happened… So now… In the future… If you are interested in strategy stor...

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad, who completed a non-stop swim from Cuba to the US. It was the first without a shark cage. Last week was an exciting week at Anecdotally Speaking HQ, as we surpassed 50,000 downloads! Thank you for subscribing and downloading our podcast, we all love making it and hope you continue to listen t...

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares the late Harvard Business School Professor Clayton Christensen’s McDonalds milkshake story, which illustrates the value of knowing your customer and market. Shawn first heard Christensen tell this story in a YouTube video. You can watch the original milkshake story, by clicking this link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Stc0beAxavY Next...

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark demonstrates how to present research and data using a story structure, and how it can be highly engaging and memorable. He shares the story of renowned psychology professor and mindfulness theorist, Ellen Langer, and her research experiment into human behaviour. The story provides an insight into how small changes in language can result in a com...

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn recounts a story he read in Bob Iger’s book, The Ride of a Lifetime. The ex-CEO of Disney, Bob Iger’s book discusses the advancements he made but also reveals his business storytelling talents. The guys don’t often give high scores as they’re both tough critics, but this story impresses. We recently developed an online course called 7 Tips to B...

In this episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, and how they make a conscious decision each performance to bring their absolute best and ensure each fan has a memorable experience. As a short and punchy story, it is perfect for sharing with your customer-facing employees. If you do share it, let us know in the comments how it goes! You may...

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares the story of pioneer video game manufacturer, Atari, and how complacency resulted in the death of the company. Both Shawn and Mark are overwhelmed with nostalgia when this story is discussed, as it connects personally with each of the guys’ childhoods. This story reveals how putting all your eggs in one basket can be harmful to the longe...

On this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of 15-year old Jyoti Kumari, whose inspiring story has been shared in the media globally. Shawn discusses how this story reminds him of Gary Klein’s three pathways to insight, and more specifically the notion of creative desperation, and how when you are in desperate need of a solution you are forced to be creative. If you have...

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn and Mark discuss how small changes can have large outcomes. Shawn shares a story he read in James Clear’s book, Atomic Habits. The story is one that everyone should add to their story bank because everyone can relate and connect to it. Shawn and Mark reflect that, by using references to major worldwide events such as the Olympics and the Tour de France, we...

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn and Mark are thrilled to be joined by Jaya Machet, Founder and Executive Coach at Coaching Tiger. Based in Singapore, Jaya is a newly accredited Anecdote Storytelling for Leaders Partner. Instead of providing a story for your story bank, in this episode, we hear a connection story from Jaya’s. It is important to have your own connection stories...

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Mark and Shawn discuss how an analogy can be an effective story structure to use to show contrast and to connect with your team or prospect. Numerous resources were discussed in this episode, and are listed below: - Shawn’s online course, 7 Tips to Be a Better Business Storyteller—https://anecdote.thinkific.com/courses/7-tips-to-be-a-better-business-...

In this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story he read in Switch, another book written by the Heath Brothers, who always use stories as practical examples. The story is quite relevant given the current climate and the challenges companies are currently facing. You can use this story as a poignant reminder of what is most important in difficult times. At the end of June, we’re...

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares the story of an unlikely hero, Cliff Young, who may already be familiar to you. Mark discusses how conventional thinking can stop you from seeing a whole realm of possibilities, especially when it comes to performance. Mark has asked for feedback from our international listeners as to how you feel this Australian story would fare in your workplace. Wo...

In this week’s episode, Shawn shares a story he read in Entrepreneur Magazine, which delves into Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson and, his wife, Dany Garcia’s change in strategy after a particular experience with a fan. Our free Response Story webinar is coming up tomorrow, the 27th of May, at 8:00 am and 5:00 pm (AEST). Head to our website to register!

After having to adapt quickly when COVID-19 hit, Mark and Shawn share how they have adapted their training programs for virtual delivery, and how they are already seeing the programs being well-received with highly engaged participants. Mark shares a story he heard on The Tim Ferriss Show whilst doing research for another podcast interview. The story gives insight into how one simple mindset chang...

In this week’s podcast, Shawn and Mark explore how a simple miscommunication between Henry Kissinger and Winston Lord created an emotive and powerful story worth retelling. Shawn wastes no time and gets straight into this week’s story, allowing for a thorough discussion on how to make it even better. He gives the story one of the highest ratings he has even given on Anecdotally Speaking, so this o...

In this week’s episode, Mark shares a story from Chip and Dan Heath’s Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact, which explores a group of high school students’ invaluable experience delving into the ‘Golding trial’ curated by their teachers. Shawn and Mark explore how by creating meaningful and remembered learning experiences influenced by your teams’ interests, you will...

After a short hiatus during the Coronavirus pandemic, Shawn and Mark are back in our ears! In this new climate, we are trialling recording via Zoom, so hopefully the audio quality hasn’t taken too much of a hit! In this episode, the guys take a different approach to the normal story sharing structure we see in Anecdotally Speaking by including numerous personal stories surrounding the Coronavirus,...

We're changing things up this week, with Shawn sharing a parable instead of a story. The parable features in Dan Heath’s upcoming book, Upstream, and suggests we should tackle issues at their source. We are fans of the Heath brothers, Chip and Dan Heath, and particularly their book, Made to Stick, and its chapter on business storytelling.

Happy New Year! Anecdotally Speaking is back for 2020. To kick off the year, Andy Billings joins Shawn and Mark on the podcast. Andy, Vice President of Profitable Creativity at Electronic Arts (EA), shares a story about a senior VP who worked from a different desk, alongside a different team, every month. Andy is a huge fan of storytelling, and he tells this story in impeccable timing! 

2019 is drawing to a close. But before we close the office for the holiday period, we have another Anecdotally Speaking Special Edition to share with you!  Some weeks ago, Mark was lucky enough to spend an hour with John Sculley, the former CEO of Apple Inc. and former President of Pepsi-Cola, and interview him for our podcast. John shared five stories with Mark. Each story relays an experience th...

This week, we’re sharing a story that we often use in our workshops. The story follows Rob McEwen during his time working as CEO at Goldcorp Inc. Rob went against the advice of his colleagues when he launched the Goldcorp Challenge and made the company’s data freely accessible around the world. But, it proved to be the best decision he could have made at the time. You can tell this story to illust...