Everyday Business Storytelling

A practical, easy-to-use guide to transform business communications into memorable narratives that drive conversations—and your career—forward

In Everyday Business Storytelling: Create, Simplify, and Adapt A Visual Narrative for Any Audience, visual communication and storytelling experts Janine Kurnoff and Lee Lazarus leverage decades of experience helping executives at the world's top brands—including Colgage-Palmolive, Nestlé, T-Mobile, Medtronic and Meta—bring clarity and meaning to their business communications. Whether you're building a presentation, crafting a high-stakes email, or need to influence the conversation in your next meeting with an executive, or have to communicate with data, Everyday Business Storytelling offers an insightful exploration of how to develop compelling business narratives that meet diverse audience needs.

You'll discover how to use a simple, repeatable framework to transform your ideas, data, and insights into an authentic, persuasive story. Within this professional development book, you'll also find clever data visualization and visual display techniques to help humanize your stories and build an audience connection, leading to improved presentation skills and better data literacy. Whether you're looking to enhance your executive presence, align teams, become an expert at converting data analysis into data insights, or want to communicate change and influence audiences, Everyday Business Storytelling is for you.

Everyday Business Storytelling is an indispensable guide to making your communications stick in the minds of your audience and drive change. It enables you to display confidence and communicate with clarity regardless of how complex your message is. If you're a busy, talented businessperson looking for tactics to improve your executive presentations, one-pagers, emails, or virtual meetings, this communication book is for you.

Introduction

Storytelling Is How We Move Business Forward 1
What two Silicon Valley–bred sisters know about business storytelling (hint: it’s pure, irrefutable career gold)

Part 1 Once and for all—Let’s Unfluff the Reputation of Business Storytelling 6

Chapter 1: Meet the Brain Scientists 8

Chapter 2: Data (Yes, Sometimes Overused) Is Not the Villain 16

Part 2 Ok, I’m in—How Do I Get Started with Business Storytelling? 24

Chapter 3: The Four Signposts 30

Chapter 4: The WHY, WHAT and HOW of Business Storytelling 48

Chapter 5: Your BIG Idea 52

Chapter 6: Putting It All Together: Sample Story 56

Part 3 Thanks, got the basics. What Else Can Help Me? 60

Chapter 7: Push Your Story Forward with Active Headlines 62

Chapter 8: A Simple Path to Building Your BIG Idea 72

Chapter 9: Five Well-Tested Ways to Visualize Your Story 80

Part 4 Let’s see the magic! How Does Storytelling Show Up in Everyday Business? 106

Chapter 10: Making a Recommendation 108

Chapter 11: Providing an Update 144

Chapter 12: Crafting an Email 162

Chapter 13: Creating a One-Pager 176

Part 5 But wait! How Do I Flex My Story? 192

Chapter 14: Audience Is Everything: A Manifesto 194

Chapter 15: You’ve Got Five Minutes with an Executive… Go! 202

Chapter 16: Your Audience Is Diverse How Can You Please Everyone? 210

Chapter 17: You’re Told “Only Three to Five Slides” 216

Chapter 18: Team Presentations: Who Does What? 220

Chapter 19: When Your Audience Is Virtual 238

Part 6 All together now: Building a Common Language of Storytelling 252

Chapter 20: Fostering a Culture of Story Coaches 254

Chapter 21: Five Ways Managers Can Reinforce Storytelling 260

Chapter 22: Ready, Set, Coach! Five Tips for Peer-to-Peer Story Coaching 264

Conclusion

A Final Word From the Sisters 272
Your everyday business storytelling journey starts right now… #nomorefrankendecks

Gratitude 275

About the Authors 276

Notes & Photo Credits 277

Index 278

For over two decades, Silicon Valley-bred sisters JANINE KURNOFF and LEE LAZARUS have helped teams at the world's top brands—including Facebook, Nestlé, Marriott, T-Mobile, and Medtronic—become strategic visual communicators. As co-founders of The Presentation Company, they are dedicated to helping talented businesspeople in all functions, at all levels, bring clarity and meaning to their ideas and influence decisions through storytelling.

PRAISE FOR EVERYDAY BUSINESS STORYTELLING

"We've made storytelling a top priority at Nestlé, working with Janine and Lee's talented team to upgrade the skill, speed, and agility of our sales force. I'm a big fan of their remarkably simple and logical methodology. If your organization is serious about business storytelling, you need this hugely useful resource."
—JIM COYNE, President of Nestlé USA Sales

"You can have the most talented people in your organization, but if they don't know how to translate information into influential stories, you're facing an uphill challenge. Hands down the most practical and applicable way to craft business narratives. An invaluable resource for leaders and teams who want to inspire and motivate people to action."
—SHANE WALL, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology at the White House and Former Chief Technology Officer at HP Inc.

"This book makes a monster point: We absorb each other in personal stories all the time so why can't we use, as readily, the same attention-grabbing techniques to further our business pursuits? Janine and Lee's book is a brilliant and easy on-ramp to business storytelling."
—MICHAEL STREEFLAND, Executive Communications Consultant to Netflix, Walt Disney Company and Facebook

You've got one shot to get your ideas heard in your next big meeting, presentation or email. But you're busy. So you leverage what you can: facts, data, charts, slides…and end up with an avalanche of scrambled messages, impossible-to-read decks, and no clear call to action—what we've dubbed the FrankendeckTM.

Everyday Business Storytelling combats this crisis of missed opportunities by arming you with a simple, practical storytelling framework—loaded with real-world examples. Discover how to flex your story to diverse audience needs, visualize it and adopt a common language to craft audience-centric business stories that drive the conversation forward.

"It has always been challenging to find a comprehensive development solution that helps teach employees how to create and share compelling, audience-centric business stories. This approach is grounded in real scenarios and case studies that anyone can relate to. If you're looking to up-level your skillset in storytelling and drive business conversations forward, get this book!"
—Stacy Salvalaggio, Vice President, Retail Operations, Aritzia and Former Global Senior Director, Learning and Development, McDonald's

"There's no greater skill and ingenuity to propel your career than the ability to translate data insights into clear, authentic narratives. This book is the winning formula for any executive."
—Sydney Savion, Chief Learning Officer, Air New Zealand