Episode 2: Unlocking the Power of Storytelling for Business Impact

The Storyteller's Mind Movie™ Makers Show

Episode 2 Transcript

Speaker: Melissa Reaves, Story Fruition
Well, welcome to the Storyteller's Mind Moviemakers show. Or it might even be a welcome back. But here's this show that we are going to study the science to the art form of storytelling. Because in business, we live off of our stories. Think about it. You are a personal brand. You have your own stories of your own leadership that you need to be able to tell perhaps in a job interview. Or you're going to tell a client success story to a prospect. Or you want to show the problem in an investor pitch and not just throw a stat at them, but actually have a story about people who are having that problem.

So today, I'm going to kick off this episode by telling someone else's story because everyone really should know your own company's key stories. And the founder's story is one of those usually. There's also vision stories, customer success stories, and things like that, like I've mentioned. But this one that I'm going to share with you, I think, is a great example of how a mind movie is sparked. So just to give you a little bit of context, I heard this story actually secondhand. I wasn't even there. Told so well that I was like, my goodness, I want to invest in this company. And I did. 

So it was because Caleb Carr, the founder, used a personal experience of loss in an investor pitch and it turned many heads his way because he went on to start a technology company. So we grew the story a little bit because I want to teach you how to sit back and let your imagination go as I'm telling Caleb's story. This is his founder story, okay? And if I were a salesperson working for Vita Inclinada, I would definitely know that I need to know this story. here's what we're gonna, so go ahead and just hear it and then think about what you're experiencing as I tell it, okay? So. This is a great example of the storyteller's mind movie method. So I can't wait to tell you. Okay, so here it goes. Okay. So Caleb was 15 years old and he was a great guy. Like all the mothers were hoping that maybe he would date their daughter. He had good grades, he was athletic. But today is the day that he is going to actually have a dream of his come to fruition. He was going to go out on a wooded hike with the guy that could teach him how to be a search and rescue professional. So Don was known to be basically the guy that you wanted to learn this from. He was sort of a cross between Sherlock Holmes and a bloodhound. If someone got lost in the mountains or in the woods or anywhere, they would send Don in to go find them because he had this amazing ability, almost magical. to be able to read like how the grass was moving, where were the water sources, where would they've walked around, the wind, all of it. He takes everything that Mother Nature's giving and he uses it as clues to find people. And he has literally found hundreds and hundreds of people who were lost in forests. Okay? So this day is very exciting to Caleb and it's raining and it's raining hard. They are about three miles into the Oregon coast wooded forest when all of a sudden Don grabs his chest and falls to the ground and he's completely white and his team, he has a troop of six, they know what's going on and they luckily have a helicopter walkie talkie ability.

They said he's having a heart attack and immediately they went to work on him and they were pumping and pumping on his chest. And the Black Hawk said, we can be there, but it won't be for 15 minutes. Now 15 minutes is a really long time to be breathing life into a dying man. And Caleb, just 15 years old, can't believe what he's watching. Now he's never even seen a helicopter, let alone one right above his head, who is now trying to lower the basket where they will scoop Don up and then they'll... hoist him up to the top of the helicopter and then take him to a hospital that's 15 miles away. But he'll be with professional medics. Well, that day, Mother Nature kind of wanted to play monkey in the middle. And so when the helicopter starts to lower the basket, the winds are blowing the basket. They cannot get it down to him. So these guys who are like 200 pounds, they are trying to hoist the thing back up and it's pretty hard and it's getting very dangerous. And on the third time of failing to get that basket down, they said we have to abort.

The winds are too strong. And unfortunately, Don died that day on the very mountain that he had saved so many people from. Just, you know, from failing. But I guess the mountain wanted to keep him to herself. Four years later, Caleb is now in college and he's studying medicine. His professor calls him in one day into his crowded little cramped office and he's sipping his bitter coffee. And he says, so Caleb, why do you want to study medicine? And Caleb told him the story of Don and how it impacted his life. And the professor puts down his coffee and he says, fix that. What? Fix that. That basket problem. You're here at a good university. There's lots of engineers that could probably solve that problem. So go do that. Okay. And so he did. And he found Eric Soroica, his partner. And together, they realized that if they could create drone technology that would stabilize that basket. So if it's blowing this way, the drone is gonna pull it that way. And they founded Vita Inclinada. And today, Vita now has three offices. They have one in Dubai, one in Denver, and one in DC. And they are now worth about $350 million. And every day, Caleb is getting up to be a search and rescue professional. He just has to wear a suit instead of what he thought he'd be wearing. Because now his drones are on military helicopters. They're on oil rigs, they're on construction sites. And every day, he's helping in the name and honor of Don to save lives.

Okay. Now that's a very sophisticated story that I just told, but I'm using it mostly as an example. Now, would you tell it that full length, maybe in certain presentations, you might have the ability to tell the full story. If you were in like a keynote kind of thing, but you would also condense it if you were just talking to clients. So you'd need to learn how to take that story and then be able to bring it down to like a Netflix description of it. So a shorter version of it could be, well, our founder, Caleb Carr, when he was 15 years old, he lost his mentor who was teaching him how to be a search and rescue professional. But he had a heart attack on the forest floor in Oregon. And when the helicopter tried to bring him to rescue with the basket, the winds prevented it from happening. And that changed Caleb's life. And so when he got to college, he was studying medicine at one point, but then he realized, I've got to fix the problem that I saw happen to my friend Don. And then that's how he met Eric, the co-founder, and they started Vita Inclinada. And now our drone technology is seen all over the world, from military to oil rigs and construction sites. And we're just getting going. But that's the reason why we exist as a company. It was always built on heart. See? Same story, condensed, broken down. But now, I want you to review as I was telling that story. What did you see? Did you see the forest? Did you see, when I said it was in Oregon, did you see Oregon on a map? I had one guy in a workshop said, he goes, I saw everything. And I go, did you hear anything? He goes, my goodness, yes. I heard the leaves crunching underneath their feet while they were walking through and I felt rain on my face. was sideways rain too. And so those are great signs because what was happening with that gentleman was that he was having a very active mind movie. He was in. He was absolutely in. Now there was other things that I was doing in that I made sure that I introduced every single character thoroughly. Right? So you knew who Don was, you knew who Caleb was, and then I introduced the professor. Right? And then, you know, there were some cameos. There were some smaller characters like the 200 pound guys on the helicopter. But all of that's happening. And just by saying these are 200 pound guys gave them some data for your imagination to see them. You know, I always see, for some reason I see them in white t-shirts and they're like hoisting things up but they've got like big heavy jackets on, you know, because they're guys, you know. And then I personified the mountain, you know, when she took Don, she wanted him to herself that day. And then I paused. Because I wanted you to feel that. Because it's sad. And then I did some time travel without saying anything cliche. I paused and then I said, four years later, Caleb is now in college. And when I say that, that's data. But do you see him with a backpack walking across the campus? Probably. And then when I introduced the professor, I created a little bit of his office, in his cramped office as he sipping bitter coffee. Now, did you taste Coca-Cola? Did you smell a milkshake? No. You smelled bitter coffee. And you may have even tasted it. And if you don't like coffee, you might have been like, gross. Maybe some of you might have figured he was probably smoking in his office too, if it was back in that day. Probably not. But maybe it doesn't matter because the audience is actively creating with you their own version of your story. But you are so powerful as the storyteller that you know that they are listening because they're leaning in. And what we've done is we've created neurotransmitters firing off. In this story, we've got oxytocin going because that's one where it opens the heart and it's usually very poignant. And those are the kind of stories that will Like if you're a nonprofit, tell a poignant story because that will open hearts and checkbooks. So storytelling is powerful. You know, I heard his story second hand and since that time, obviously I have worked with him being one of his fourth investors in his friends and family round and we've refined the story a little bit more. And it was so powerful that I ended up writing my book, The Storyteller's Mind Movie. Can't see really, there we go. And if you see it, you can see that that's Caleb. He's projecting the pictures in the audience's mind. That's a mind movie. So that's all I'm going to talk about for today. That's just a little bit of a taste. But in the next episodes, we're going to talk about the elements that make a mind movie. And so my book actually relies on some improv tense, and it's an acronym called C.r.o.w.. And I always joke, I'm like, crow is not just for the birds. tune in, keep coming, provide your comments, like let me know what you saw in your mind when you heard this story. Any questions you might have, let's engage. This is a very important essential business skill, storytelling. And this is why I walk the planet.

So I am excited to keep working with all of you. And so remember to like, subscribe, share, talk about it, watch us, give us comments. It's gonna be great. You are a part of my story now and I'm a part of yours. So let's tell our stories and tell them well. Next episode will be called Crow. It's not just for the birds. See you soon.