Tell to Win by Peter Guber – Connect, Persuade, and Triumph with the Hidden Power of Story
Maya Angelou said about making an impression on people: “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Tell to win is all about how to make your audience feel to compel them to take action.
Effective communication is one of the most important skills a human being can learn. It is the basis of successful business, relationships and just life in general. This is why I highly recommend Peter Guber’s book Tell to Win. Reading Tell to Win utterly changed the way I communicate and the positive results have been substantial.
Peter’s message is simple but profound. If you can emotionally connect with your audience, you can get them to take action. And telling a story using emotion is the single best way to emotionally connect to people.
Tell to Win became an instant #1 bestseller in the New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal and on Amazon.com. Steve Denning, a Forbes contributor, said about Tell to Win “Every year over 11,000 business books are published. Only a tiny sliver of those books are what I would call “real books”, that is, books that talk meaningfully and authentically about a subject in a coherent way.” In Tell to Win, we learn how powerful story telling propelled Peter to Hollywood becoming an accomplished producer of films like Color Purple, Gorillas in the Mist, Rain Man, Batman and many more.
Peter says, “As I thought about the successes and failures in my life, I realized that the secret sauce to success is the ability to take information and orchestrate it into an emotional offering so that the audience metabolizes it, and it becomes resonant, memorable, and actionable to them.”
The book is filled with stories about how Peter has used his skills as an emotive storyteller to make big movies happen. Peter gives us all permission to get out of our comfort zone to emotionally connect with our audience, whether it’s one or a thousand.
The ‘emotional transportation business’
Peter says we all are in the “emotional transportation business”, remember that is the REAL business you are in and it will change the way you communicate. The process of telling a great story starts with the you being fully committed and motivated to achieve a goal. Your passion becomes infectious, engaging participants in a dialog which makes them take ownership and incites action. Gone are the days of soulless PowerPoint presentations filled with facts and figures. Not to mention the fact that we are all bombarded with so much information that’s it much harder for your message to stand out.
Peter’s tips to help you create stories with powerful calls to action include:
- First, fast and foremost, capture your audience’s attention
- Show your authentic self (be vulnerable) in order to motivate your listeners
- Build your story around “what’s in it for them”
- Transform passive listeners into active participants
- Use “state-of-the-heart” technology online and offline to make sure audience commitment remains strong.
I highly recommend Peter’s book, not only to transform the way you communicate, but also as a great read. After reading Peter’s book and using his techniques, you will be able to craft and deliver a story that is truly compelling which converts others into your viral advocates.