As we continue to go through the fundamentals of storytelling, Kevin introduces the three kinds of business stories we're going to work on creating.
There are three main kinds of business stories to tell:
- Purpose Stories - These are stories about yourself. Why you do what you do, what your aspirations are, what skills your experience has taught you. When a job interviewer inevitably asks you to tell them about yourself, they're asking for a purpose story.
- Relationship Stories - These are stories not so much about relationships but about building relationships. Convincing someone that you're the right person to take on a project, or convincing someone that they want to come on board with an idea of yours, or anything along those lines. Relationship stories establish the trust and confidence for someone to do work or do more work with you.
- Possibility Stories - These are stories that show a process or a journey. They could be accomplishments you've already achieved or a vision you have for the future, or simply best practices you've found that have influenced what you're working on now. But they chart how you or your characters get from A to B, where you're thinking about C.
Sometimes these kinds of stories overlap, but these are the three main thematic points - remember the controlling idea that gives our stories meaning - which are useful to hit in a business context. Start brainstorming about all of these kinds of stories, because we'll go through them as the course goes on.
Examples: