What Is Story?
“Classically, Story is a three-step rhythm that creates expectation and then surprise. This is the fundamental structure of all books, films, speeches, jokes, and live performances. Storytellers refer to this sequence as Conflict / Crisis / Resolution.
Stories are event sequences over time that engage audiences emotionally and intellectually to deliver a climactic answer to awakened expectations. “ James McCabe, Ph.D.
My Story About Story – Travis Wright
I’ve always been successful in selling products and services. From childhood jobs to my adult career, I was always in the top ranks of sellers. Whether I was selling B-C (business-to-consumer) or B-B (business-to-business), it seemed to come naturally to me.
But instinctively, when I was selling, it felt like something else was happening. It seemed I was always telling a story about the product, me… or both!
People accepted me, and more often than not, I got a ‘yes’ to my solicitation or sales pitch. It seemed so normal that I never doubted my sales skills or seriously worried about rejection.
As I got older, I became curious about how sales actually happened between two people virtually unknown to each other. Was it chemistry, the right product at the right price, or just me being in the right place with the right customer at the right time?
The Turning Point
An invitation to a Story Leaders workshop helped me resolve my curiosity about how sales worked. What I had taken for granted clearly wasn’t natural for most salespeople. Even today, sales consultants and trade journals cite the 80-20 rule: In most sales organizations, 80% of the business is conducted by just 20% of the sales force.
There must be something to that, as most MLSs report that nearly 40% of their membership produces zero transactions in any given year. Zero.
2008 I sat in a hotel conference room in San Diego with 20 other sales executives from top corporations like Dell, Hewlett-Packard, Oracle, Salesforce, and Microsoft. We were the guests of Story Leaders and were about to be introduced to Story Leaders' research and why their belief that storytelling was the key distinction between low-producing salespeople and top-performing salespeople—whom they called the Eagles.
Over two and half days, we learned about an old cliché of brain science: that left-brain thinkers were generally analytical and fact-based, while right-brain thinkers were generally the creative spirits. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, and no clear scientific evidence supports it.
Brain Science
However, there is extensive data on the existence of neural networks in the brain. In 2005, senior researcher Kendall Haven conducted a series of fMRI studies to observe brain functions in subjects while they were exposed to a story narrative. Haven concluded that the human brain has created a complex neural network architecture that processes the inputs received from our five senses.
Haven calls one of those networks the ‘neural story net,’ a specific network of neurons designed to make sense of the information we receive by repackaging it all into story form. Haven’s research suggests that our brains have become ‘hard-wired’ to process information according to a story framework.
In other words, we will be understood when communicating with others using a story framework. If we don’t, the listener will struggle to make sense of our point.
After the Story Leaders workshop, I spoke with the founder, Ben Zoldan, and suggested bringing his workshop to the real estate industry.
Selling real estate is largely about creating and nurturing relationships, I said. So it follows that real estate salespeople would want to be proficient in storytelling for their listing presentations, their marketing communications, and even for their ‘elevator pitch.’
Ben’s workshop fee was $2,500 per person, and I knew we’d have to reduce that amount to a more acceptable price point for real estate agents. (ask yourself why!) Additionally, I felt the workshop had to be condensed from two and a half days to one or one and a half days.
After many brainstorming sessions with Ben, it became clear that he couldn’t abandon his corporate storytelling model to enter a new industry. So, I decided to figure it out alone, and here we are.
Research and Active Participation
Since then, I’ve immersed myself in story research and have read over 30 books on storytelling, including the classics of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, Aesop’s Fables, Plato’s Republic, and Aristotle’s Rhetoric and Poetics. I’ve also consumed countless hours of storytelling lectures and online seminars and analyzed the storytelling models offered as graduate courses at Stanford and Cornell.
I’ve attended three Story Leaders workshops and assisted in two of them. The more I learn, the better I understand why the sales profession has been so natural for me – I’ve always been a storyteller!
I’m also a member of a weekly ‘Story Parlour’ workshop with Prof. James McCabe in Dublin, Ireland, who tutors an international group of novelists, screenwriters, orators, and business leaders. We discuss the historical roots of stories, language, literature, and drama from ancient Greece and Rome and how we can apply stories in our businesses and personal lives.
Prof. McCabe on Story:
“Story is a mode of communication that emotionalizes facts, dramatizes reality, and engages our hearts. Story combines hearts and minds into a rounded form of communication which builds trust as it persuades, bonds with customers as it argues, and invests in lifetime client relationships as it sells current products and services.”
What Can Storytelling Do For Me?
Storytelling will enhance your sales skills, improve your verbal and written communications, and, most importantly, be your gateway to creating emotional and memorable connections with clients.
Did you ever feel like your listing presentation fell flat? Or thought you had connected with a client, only to see them choose another agent? How often do consumers compliment you on your website content, marketing brochures, or social media marketing posts? Might something be missing?
The Real Definition of Story and Storytelling
Let’s think of storytelling as a craft, an art form, the core of every successful movie or book ever produced. Let’s also think of storytelling as a ‘language’ – just like English – with specific rules and frameworks for effective speaking and writing.
Telling a story is not simply stringing a bunch of sentences together. Consider a story as a 3-act play. There is a rhythmic ‘arc’ composed of a beginning (Act 1-the setting), the middle (Act 2 – the conflict), and the end (Act 3 - the resolution). Each section uniquely serves to bring about empathy, suspense, and surprise.
In fact, our bodies respond to the three acts by releasing hormones and chemicals like oxytocin, adrenalin, cortisol, and dopamine. Do this correctly, and your story will make an emotional and hormonal connection with your prospects.
The storyLegends workshop is designed for you to learn and practice the language and framework of stories and storytelling. As you master this craft, you’ll discover how impactful it will be in virtually every aspect of your real estate business.
Story will help you attract new clients with your marketing messages, deepen your connections and trust with clients, and differentiate you from other agents who might be pursuing your client.
It’s widely accepted that real estate sales is a relationship business. Relationships depend on effective communication, especially empathetic communication, with which we strive to connect emotionally with our clients. Emotional connections foster trusted relationships, which are vital to a successful, long-term sales career.
What Do We Actually Sell?
Let me take that a step further. We don’t sell real estate, the brick-and-mortar of what we call a house. Instead, we sell the services necessary for a home seller to dispose of a property and for a homebuyer to acquire a property. As salespeople, we offer a bundle of services and must position ourselves as the orchestrators of those services.
There’s the rub. Real property is tangible, but services are intangible. As service providers, we are more aligned with selling services than physical objects. Since we are the providers of those services, doesn’t it follow that the most important sale we must make as real estate salespeople is ourselves, we, me, you, us?
Take another step with me. Assume that the menu of services—let’s call them the mechanics of doing real estate—offered by salespeople are generally similar, if not identical. If the appearance of services is identical, then on what criteria does a client choose an agent?
You might say that’s easy; clients merely size up each salesperson and choose the one they feel most comfortable with. Just being comfortable is not the same as trusting someone. Shouldn’t it be possible to create trust in just one meeting? We think so.
If all salespeople are viewed as identical in the client’s eyes, then it’s likely that clients will choose an agent based on the least expensive commission rate. Real estate services might be intangible, but the commission clients pay is very real.
storyLegends proposes a superior alternative for real estate clients: select the salesperson who exhibits their differentiation – their unique value proposition - and who is able to establish a genuine, authentic, and empathic connection with you.
Well, how does that work, you say? Attend the storyLegends Workshop, and we’ll show you how. First, we’ll open up the meeting with a brief discussion on the macro issues affecting your business success.
1. Holmes-Rahe Stress Index
Consider consumers’ emotional state when buying or selling real estate. They could be hurting.
2. Gallup Survey of Professions
How consumers rate real estate agents compared to other professions. It’s not pretty.
3. The Collapse of Distinction
With 1.5M Realtors in the U.S. and 54,000 in AZ, is it any wonder that consumers see little difference between agents?
4. Identity Labels
We are the imperfect narrators of each other’s identity. But there’s more to me than what you see or think.
What Will The Workshop Cover?
The History and Proof of Storytelling
1. The Greeks and Romans
2. fMRI Brain Science
3. Your Favorite Story
The Storytelling Framework
1. Story or Rhetoric
2. The Story Arc and The Rhetorical Triangle
3. The Hero’s Journey
Storytelling For Real Estate
1. Your Business' Story
2. Your Client’s Story
3. What's Your Story?
4. Connecting With Clients
The Facilitators
Travis Wright and Kayelin Wright
Travis has been a licensed real estate agent in four States since 1971. Over the years, his career journey placed him at the forefront of developing three nationwide real estate franchise networks: Coldwell Banker, Prudential, and General Motors.
He went on to Stewart Title to serve as founder and CEO of Stewart’s real estate technology division. In 2001, he was among the first in the industry to introduce electronic signatures, digital documents, and online transaction management platforms.
He concluded his corporate career with the National Association of Realtors as their Executive Director of the Real Estate Standards Organization in 2012.
Travis also served as a U.S. Army Aviator during the Vietnam War as aircraft commander of a combat helicopter.
Kayelin is a licensed Associate Broker in Texas and Arizona. Over the past twenty years, she has closed over 400 transactions in Houston, serving clients in the $400K to $2M price range. She joined Compass Real Estate in 2020 when Compass opened its first office in Texas.
Kayelin graduated from ASU and was professionally trained in ballet, jazz, and tap dance. She even performed as a finalist on the original Ed McMahon Star Search show. Her immediate family members reside in the Valley, and she currently lives with Travis and their son, Houston, in Anthem, AZ.
