How to Use Story and Humor to Rise Above Business Jargon

Simple Yet Compelling Storytelling

Kathy Klotz-Guest is an expert at helping business professionals become better storytellers for their companies.

With a resume steeped in Silicon Valley culture, you may believe Kathy to be a specific kind of marketer. But for a while, she led a dual life working as marketing director and consultant during the day and moonlighting as an improv comedian on evenings and weekends.

Fast forward to today, and Kathy now has a 20-year comedy and marketing career under her belt as well as a deep understanding of what makes a great story, both on- and off-stage.

Here, she shares her unique perspective on the confluence of comedy and business storytelling, while propelling the professional service world to humanize B2B marketing. After listening to this episode, you’ll be able to connect with your audience like you’ve never connected before.

In This Episode

• The two levels of business storytelling
• How to use your business GPS
• How to avoid “jargon-monoxide,” or terminology that clouds your story
• Using humor to pull an audience in
• “Yes, and…” the improvisation tool that will change the dynamics of your storytelling
• Kenn Adams’ Story Spine structure

Quotes From This Episode

“Don’t underestimate the power of a simple, elegant, memorable, pure story that’s honest and grounded in reality. (highlight to tweet) Look for the times that there was a human need met, get to the human need of that story.” —@kathyklotzguest

“Why are we not using the emotional arcs and narratives that happen onstage when that is what connects with audiences? Why are we so bad at that in business storytelling?” —@kathyklotzguest

“We don’t make rational decisions. We make emotional decisions and then we use logic to rationalize them.”  —@kathyklotzguest

“It’s not about dumbing anything down; that’s patronizing to your audience. You want to make sure that your message has a multiplier effect, and ‘simple’ ensures that people will tell your message.” —@kathyklotzguest

“Throughout history and across cultures, there’s something universal about the ‘once upon a time’ model because it’s the way our brains are wired to think—in story. That’s part of our DNA.” —@kathyklotzguest

“One of the things that business storytelling forgets is that change needs to be significant, but you can’t have change without conflict.” —@kathyklotzguest

Resources

• Keepingithuman.com
• Kathy’s blog
• Keeping It Human Podcast
• Kathy’s YouTube Channel
• Solution Storming Business Breakthroughs
• How to Be a Story Activist With Vincent Stanley
• Why Storytelling Is Essential to Science With Randy Olson
• Seven-Step Story Spine, created by Kenn Adams
• “Predictably Irrational,” by Dan Ariely
• Airbnb
• Warby Parker
• BusinessofStory.com