“I love storytelling. What’s the best career for me? How can I best use my storytelling skills in business?”
I have a problem with this question.
11 -Storytelling is a problem-solving tool, not an end in itself.
When you have a business, y9u solve problems for your clients. When you work within someone else’s company, you help them solve problems for their clients or customers.
What kind of problems do you like to solve? Chances are you can be a better problem-solver with storytelling.
Do you like to work with the people side of business – in HR or organizational design? You’ll use stories to understand organizational culture and introduce newcomers to the culture. You’ll use stories for changemaking.
Are you an engineer, tech expert or designer? You’ll use stories to understand the application you’re developing. You’ll develop better applications if you understand the story of the end-user. You’ll explain to the decision-makers and end-users.
Sales? Good salespeople are storytellers.
You can share stories around the campfire, the family dinner table, or sharing drinks with friends. You can enter storytelling contests. But for your career, think of the business purpose.
2 – Sometimes you shouldn’t tell a story.
When I ask the real estate agent, “What year was the roof repaired?” the last thing I want is a story.
When you ask the dentist, “Why is this tooth hurting?” I suspect the last thing you want to hear is, “Well, let me tell you a story…”
3 – When your marketing requires creating a significant online presence, you can become more productive by telling stories.
Storytelling helps you create lively, persuasive content. Content creation is the key to growing an online presence. Storytelling makes content creation more productive.
I created a podcast episode on how storytelling makes you more productive. Listen on Spotify, Apple, or the platform of your choice (Episode 40).
Bottom line:
No need to major in literature or build a business around your interest in storytelling. Think of storytelling as a core skill, like writing or speaking. You can reach high levels of success with those skills without becoming a professional writer or speaker.
Good in math? The world is your oyster! Many sciences – including computer sciences and financial modeling – use math as the foundation. You can create stories to illustrate complexity.