Most of us have heard of storytelling. Or at least you’ve seen people’s stories on Facebook or Instagram. On social media platforms, people give us the best version of themselves. But what is business storytelling and why is it so important? And how can we get better at it to build relationships and connect with our stakeholders?
In this week’s podcast, we’re joined by Robert (Bob) Barnard, the Founder and Chief Curiosity Officer of Wanderdriven. It’s an app that connects people and places with the unfiltered stories you can’t find online and yet are essential to connect us to our communities. While Bob is a Solutions Architect, his passion is storytelling.
In our discussion, he provides valuable insight into:
- How many business people in small- and medium-sized companies have a preconceived notion that their individuality and stories don’t matter when compared to bigger, successful companies.
- Why competing on price is never the answer. You may get a good service once but if that person is willing to go the extra mile, that’s a distinguishing trait, part of their story; their Unique Selling Proposition. And that’s the differentiator you need in the marketplace. You can’t be afraid to share that because it’s what makes us relatable to our audience.
- How some companies are busy talking about what they do and how but never WHY they do it. Those who break the traditional rules of impersonal business practices and have a strong corporate philosophy, like Apple and Hootsuite, are very successful because of it.
- Going the extra mile. When working on an ERP implementation, he was reviewing the “must-do” business-critical checklist versus the “nice to do” that would remove some pain for users. He was able to reduce much of the stress of change management; because, as we all know, there is lots of change with these projects. He was able to take a bit of fear and anxiety away, improving their morale and their feeling of success. It just goes to show people are still the most critical aspect of any system.
YOUR SPEAKERS
MURRAY QUIBELL
President
As a Chartered Accountant, business owner and IT specialist, Murray’s insight into financial software is unparalleled. You’ll also love his business-first approach in every technology discussion.
SAMANTHA NITON-DEFORGE
Business Solutions Specialist
With experience deploying hundreds of ERP implementations and enhancements, Samantha brings a wealth of technical expertise to find the right solution.
ROBERT (BOB) BARNARD
Solutions Architect at Wanderdriven
Bob is a Solutions Architect with Long experience with both hands-on technical work and strategic discussion with executives allows him to use standard and creative means to help avoid pitfalls on the way to designing an enterprise-level solution. Bob helps you architect effective end-to-end solutions that shorten the distance from data signals to desired outcomes, leverage cloud technology and scale, and allow you to better understand your data.
While Bob is able to get extremely technical, his passion is Storytelling, connecting people, places, and events, through his current role as Founder and Chief Curiosity Officer of Wanderdriven.
