Anecdotally Speaking

Shawn touched on today’s story in last week’s episode, and now we get to hear it in full! It follows Fermat’s Last Theorem and the 358 years it took to solve it. The theorem holds a Guinness World Record for the longest-standing maths problem ever: https://buff.ly/3u57zL6 If this story sounds a bit familiar to you, it’s because we also heard it in 120 – How to love a maths problem: https://buff.ly...

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, we’re celebrating the release of our new paper, The Science of Storytelling, which details what scientific studies show and what businesses need to know about the power of story.  Anecdote Principal Rob Grundel, who led the authoring of the paper, joins Shawn and Mark to share one of his favourite stories from its six sections. You can...

Later this week, we’re releasing some exciting new content—an article exploring the science of storytelling! We’ll discuss this topic in our next two episodes of Anecdotally Speaking, but as the paper won’t be available until Thursday, today we’re replaying one of our favourite past episodes!  In this episode, Mark shares a story about mindset. Shawn and Mark then share several other anecdotes tha...

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a story that’s quite popular with the Anecdote team and gets a 9/10 from both of our hosts! Cynden shared this story with the team after hearing it on Sarah Davidson’s Seize the Yay podcast. You can listen to Sarah’s episode with Richard Harris here: https://buff.ly/3qf8jLv And you can find Craig Challen and Richard Harris’...

Today is International Women’s Day (https://buff.ly/2l7t2x1), so we thought we would reshare one of our favourite stories from Anecdotally Speaking about an inspirational woman. That woman is Dr Alice Stewart, a renowned physician who found a correlation between pregnant women receiving x-rays and increases in childhood cancer fatalities. Mark tells the story, having first heard it in Margaret Hef...

Thank you for tuning in for another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a small but impactful story. Communicating important concepts is challenging, but this story does an easy job of illustrating the importance of good customer service. It occurred at a Reece showroom in Bendigo, Australia. (Reece is a plumbing and bathroom supplies business).

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a space story that you can add to your story repertoire! He first heard this story in 2005, when attending a conference in Las Vegas. It follows the 2004 crash landing of the Genesis space capsule.  Shawn mentions a YouTube video of the event, which you can find here: https://buff.ly/3uSifgV

This week, Shawn shares a story that occurred a few weeks ago in Howlong, a regional town in Australia. It documents our recent Ambulance shortage crisis, brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Shawn and Mark mention a past episode, 124 – When the stakes are sky high, and the story of Rick Rescorla, whose meticulous planning saved almost 3,000 people on 9/11: https://buff.ly/3nwgXnZ We’d love to...

The latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die, has hit cinemas in Australia: https://buff.ly/32LdVEu So this week, Mark shares a story—his first on Anecdotally Speaking for 2022—from the franchise! He mentions Becoming Bond, the documentary drama where he first heard this story: https://buff.ly/3rZuncY Thank you for listening. We’ll be back next week!

Hello! This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a historical story that he came across reading The Status Game by Will Storr: https://buff.ly/3qTXtuY It provides an example of using a pull strategy rather than a push strategy: pulling people into a solution rather than pushing it at them.  Shawn also mentions his upcoming webinar with Tim Baker and Meghan Ede, Five Story Rich Conversations...

Hello and welcome to the first episode of Anecdotally Speaking for 2022! We’re starting the year on a high as we’ve reached over 100,000 downloads! Thank you to all our listeners for tuning in and helping us reach this milestone! For those who are new to the podcast—each week, we share a business story, talk about why it works and discuss where you might tell it at work. We aim to help you build y...

Welcome to the last episode of Anecdotally Speaking for 2021! We’re taking a short break over the holiday period but will leave you with one final episode! This week, Shawn shares a story he heard from Mike Adams, our Head of Story-Powered Sales. And after discussing it as per our usual episode format, Shawn and Mark talk about stories and the festive season! We hope you enjoy a safe and happy hol...

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn is back! And a member of the Anecdote team you haven’t yet heard on the podcast joins him—Cynden Adams, our Head of Marketing. Shawn shares a short but sweet story that he recently heard from a friend. It’s a great story for encouraging empathy and illustrating emotional intelligence. Cynden mentions our upcoming public Storytelling for Leaders programs, wh...

Rob Grundel joins the podcast this week! He’s standing in for Shawn, who’s on leave. Rob shares a story that recently came up in an Anecdote team meeting. It’s from Hugh van Cuylenburg’s first book, The Resilience Project: Finding Happiness through Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness: https://buff.ly/3pyo8eT Rob also mentions Hugh’s new book, Let Go: It’s Time for us to Let Go of Shame, Expectation...

Shawn’s on leave this week, so we’re re-releasing an earlier episode of Anecdotally Speaking! In episode 034, Mark shares the story of Southwest Airlines’ ‘Bags Fly Free’ campaign, which generated more than $1 billion for the airline. The book Mark mentions as his source for this story is Selling with Noble Purpose: How to Drive Revenue and Do Work That Makes You Proud by Lisa Earle McLeod: https:...

We like to say that there are three ‘buckets’ of stories: your stories, other people’s stories, and everything else—books, movies... You name it. You can pull a story from any of these buckets and use it to make a business point.  This week, Mark shares a story that may surprise you. It’s from the third bucket of stories and a very well-known book and movie series, Harry Potter. Specifically, he s...

This week, Shawn shares a scientific story. It’s a visual story that you’ll be able to picture in your mind’s eye. And it follows the reintroduction of wolves into the world’s oldest national park—Yellowstone National Park. There are numerous examples of humans removing species from particular ecosystems and witnessing impacts. There is only a handful like the one in this episode—of placing a spec...

This week, we’re taking a walk down memory lane and revisiting (and re-releasing) an earlier episode of Anecdotally Speaking! In episode 023, Mark shares an industrial design story, which you’ll find particularly useful if you’re involved in product, process or service design.  The story follows Doug Dietz, who spent years designing a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. When he finally went...

Thank you for joining us for another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Shawn shares a short but lovely story from the world of sport. Shawn recently heard Evonne Goolagong Cawley share this story, a tennis story, on the radio. Evonne is an Australian former world number one tennis player. She was one of the world’s leading players in the 1970s and early 1980s. We hope you enjoy the episo...

Welcome back to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a historical story. The story follows Marie Curie’s actions during World War One. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. She is also the only person to win a Nobel prize in two different disciplines, physics and chemistry.

This week, Mark is our storyteller. He shares a story about Nelson Mandela which lies at the intersection of sports, politics, and leadership. You might have heard this story before, but Mark adapts it for telling in a business context. He suggests that he might use it to, for instance, illustrate the importance of leading by example.

Last week, Mark shared a short but impactful scientific story, and this week Shawn does the same! Shawn first read the story in The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson: https://buff.ly/2WZu1Yi It follows the actions Jennifer Doudna, an American biochemist, took to have her team’s paper published and illustrates the impact of gender constructs.  Shawn and Mark mention our upcoming public programs. You...

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares a short but impactful scientific story about Alexander Fleming’s 1928 discovery of penicillin. The story prompts Shawn and Mark to consider what a world without penicillin must have been like and how to best foster creativity. They mention a John Cleese video, which you can find here: https://buff.ly/2KxoUXZ

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! In this episode, Shawn shares a values-in-action story from Mars! You’ll hear how Five Principals—Quality, Responsibility, Mutuality, Efficiency, and Freedom—guide decision-making within the international organisation and an example of what this looks like in practice. Shawn first heard this story from Mim Gaetano. Mim was Corporate Ombudsman at...

This week, it’s Shawn’s turn to share a story. He shares one about Franklin Roosevelt using an analogy to get an idea across, which he found in Erik Larson’s book, The Splendid and the Vile: https://buff.ly/3AqdbQS In discussing the story, Shawn and Mark encourage us to be aware of things that often happen to us that we can use as analogies. Mark mentions our upcoming Storytelling for Leaders prog...