Anecdotally Speaking

This week, Mike Adams joins Mark on the podcast, while Shawn has a few days off. Mike shares Rick Rescorla’s heroic 9/11 story. Saturday marked 20 years since the devastating 9/11 attacks. We had a different episode planned for you today, but Mike shared this story in our weekly team meeting on Friday morning. We quickly decided to record another episode, given the story is both topical and touchi...

Welcome back to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week’s episode is dropping into your feed a little later than usual (our apologies), but we hope you enjoy it, and we’ll be back to our regular schedule next week! Mark shares his first story since returning from his 5-week holiday—one which reveals some important insights about human nature. Trigger warning: Shawn and Mark discuss a mu...

This week, another special guest, Rob Grundel, joins Shawn and Mark on the podcast! Rob has just joined the Anecdote team, and we recorded this episode on his third day with us! Rob shares his background before launching into a story that you might use at work. The story is that of the Köln Concert, where American jazz pianist Keith Jarrett recorded the best selling solo album in jazz and the best...

Mark is back after a 5-week outback adventure! Shawn welcomes his cohost back to the show, then shares the story of how Wunsiedel, a small town in Germany, tricked neo-Nazis into raising thousands of euros for EXIT Deutschland, an anti-extremist charity. To view the photo Mark mentions, visit: https://buff.ly/3goVrgQ And to view the video Shawn mentions, visit: https://buff.ly/3sIairI You can find...

Shawn and Mike host this week’s episode, and Mike shares a story about optimism and problem-solving. The story follows Fermat’s Last Theorem and the 358 years it took to solve it. The theorem holds a Guinness World Record for being the longest-standing maths problem ever: https://buff.ly/3sskvIE You can find the Wikipedia article Mike mentions here: https://buff.ly/3iMVZOX If you want to get in to...

In an Anecdotally Speaking first, this week’s episode is a solo episode with Shawn as host! He shares a story from Gina Keating’s book, Netflixed: The Epic Battle for America’s Eyeballs: https://buff.ly/2U3LKMR The story follows the period in which Blockbuster went from being at its peak with some 9,000 stores worldwide to declaring bankruptcy. If you would like to receive an email every time we r...

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Anecdote Principal Paul Ichilcik joins Shawn as cohost. Shawn shares two stories that, although apocryphal, are useful in a business context. He also mentions his new blog post, Why would you share your point BEFORE telling your story?, which you can find here: https://buff.ly/3l6M9Jq You can find more parables and learn more about usi...

With Mark still on leave, Mike joins Shawn again as cohost. The pair talk about insight and discuss the role stories can play in helping people find, share, and gain acceptance for their insights. Mike mentions The Challenger Customer, written by Brent Adamson, Matthew Dixon, Pat Spenner, and Nick Toman: https://buff.ly/2Wbn71i He also references his book, Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell...

Mark is on leave this week, so Mike Adams, Head of Story-Powered Sales at Anecdote and author of Seven Stories Every Salesperson Must Tell, joins Shawn as co-host.  Shawn and Mike discuss the effectiveness (or rather, the ineffectiveness) of case studies. They propose the use of success stories as an alternative. Instead of showcasing the seller, success stories showcase the client and the buyer’s...

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, another special guest joins Shawn and Mark, Anecdote Partner Mark Janssen: https://buff.ly/3wDFkRI Mark is based in Gouda, the Netherlands. He shares how he became an Anecdote Partner and a story you can add to your story repertoire. Shawn and Mark mention our upcoming public programs, including two Storytelling for Leaders workshops t...

Shawn’s on leave, so Paul Ichilcik, Anecdote Principal, co-hosts this week’s episode of Anecdotally Speaking. Mark shares a story about a story (or, more specifically, a story about a fable—a short, fictional story with anthropomorphised characters.) We often have people say to us, “But there’s no place for storytelling with senior leaders. They’re just too busy. There’s no time for stories.” Well...

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! Mark is feeling a bit of pressure this week after hearing such a great story from Doug Keeley in our last episode (https://buff.ly/3xFF1Xz). He shares a sports story following the actions that led Svetlana Khorkina to win a gold medal at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. Shawn mentions this study of professional golfers and how they react to their h...

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, we have a special guest! Doug Keeley joins Shawn and Mark on the podcast. Doug is an Anecdote Partner and the CEO and Chief Storyteller at Stories Rule! He shares how he got into storytelling, met the Anecdote team, and his all-time favourite business story, which all three guys give a solid 9/10 rating. Mark mentions Dave Carroll’s 2009 YouTube sensation, United...

Shawn shares the story of how BlackBerry went from holding a 50 per cent market share to a market share of less than 1 per cent. He heard the story from Adam Grant when listening to a Clubhouse conversation between him and Malcolm Gladwell. It illustrates that you shouldn’t get too stuck in your thinking but welcome opportunities to adjust.

It’s Mark’s turn to share a story, and he chooses to share the story behind the founding of Earth Hour. Earth Hour is a global event held on a Saturday at the end of March every year, where participants across the globe turn out their lights for one hour to advocate for action against climate change. Shawn and Mark first heard this story from Todd Sampson, who was part of the group that came up wi...

We’ve had a busy few weeks here at Anecdote HQ, so this week, instead of giving you a new episode, we’re re-releasing our 7th episode! In this episode, Shawn shares an engineering story from the 1970s. This episode is one of Shawn’s all-time favourites, partly because Mark gave the story a low rating (4/10), but we’ve since had friends and clients tell us how useful it’s been! Shawn also recently...

This week, Shawn shares an innovation story. It follows researcher Dr Everett Rogers and the insight that led him to develop his innovation diffusion theory: https://buff.ly/2SjxVsj In the past, Shawn and Mark told this story frequently, but they forgot about it somewhere along the way. You’ll hear how excited they are to use it again, particularly to aid change management. Shawn makes another boo...

It’s Shawn’s turn to tell a story, and he chooses to share an analogy story gleaned from two scientific studies. Steve Jobs first told this story in the 1980s, providing a perfect example of taking something that has happened and relating it to an audience to make a point. Shawn mentions the Micheal Phelps story he heard from a sales leader, which he shared on episode 038 – Dolphin kicks out numbe...

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Mark shares a story about mindset, which spurs the sharing of several other anecdotes that demonstrate how the expectation of an event can cause it to occur—the Pygmalion effect. Shawn mentions the book he is currently reading, Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman: https://buff.ly/3o27O4U

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares the story of Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the west coast of America, focusing on three specific journeys—the initial planning, the preparation, and the actual expedition.  Shawn found this story in Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage: https://www.amazon.com.au/Undaunted-Courage-Stephen-Ambrose/dp/0684826976 Shawn also mentions this paper that he w...

Podcasts are great places to find stories. This week, Mark shares a story he heard on an episode of Invisibilia (https://www.npr.org/transcripts/817977005). The story follows 71-year-old Joy Milne and how she discovered she had an unusual ability.  Shawn also mentions Sudhir Breaks the Internet, another podcast (https://freakonomics.com/sudhir-breaks-the-internet/), and Gary Klein's Triple Path Mo...

Welcome to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a sports story featuring National Football League (NFL) player Tom Brady. It illustrates that, despite our best efforts, our ability to assess potential is poor.  Have you been waiting for an opportunity to learn from Anecdotally Speaking's Shawn Callahan? Shawn is delivering our upcoming virtual Storytelling for Leaders pr...

This week on Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story he first heard more than ten years ago from his friend and fellow storyteller, Victoria Ward. It follows the events leading up to Gerald Ratner’s departure from his family business, Ratners Group, and shows how quickly you can kill a brand by using the wrong words. You can watch the speech Ratner gave, which Shawn mentions, here: https://www....

In this episode of Anecdotally Speaking, Shawn shares a story from when he was working in computer programming in the late 1980s. It follows how he made a groundbreaking discovery for his team, but only once he had found the right phrase to gain access to what he needed.  Shawn mentions our upcoming School Story Lab. If you’re interested in attending or know someone who might be, visit: https://ww...

Welcome back to another episode of Anecdotally Speaking! This week, Mark shares a story from his time in the airforce. The story describes how a design fault caused a Macchi jet trainer to crash at the RAAF Base Pearce. Mark often uses the story to encourage others to ‘stop transmitting and start listening’. You can find an image taken on the day of the crash via www.anecdote.com/podcasts.