I lead around 75 workshops and keynotes speeches per year on the subject of storytelling, mostly for CEOs, business owners, and other C-suite leaders.
Let me share an email I received last month, just two days after the training.
It came from a Chief Information Officer for a $400M company.
I’m fortunate to get emails like this often, but they usually come from CEOs, marketing directors, sales teams, or HR leaders. Most people assume my storytelling training applies only to external-facing roles or company culture—certainly not to IT, operations, or the factory floor.
This email tells a different story:
Joe,
Quick note of thanks. Your session yesterday landed at exactly the right moment for me. I had a presentation going to our Chief Sales and Marketing Officer this morning, and after watching you walk through the storytelling framework (the comedic delivery sold it as much as the content did), I went home and rewrote the whole thing from scratch last night.
The presentation landed. Got the win. Looking back at the draft I would have walked in with, I do not think the other business function would have reached the conclusion we needed. Your framework gave me a way to put the business in the hero seat and let IT play mentor, which is exactly what the room needed to hear.
You have completely changed how I am going to approach internal pitches going forward.
Thanks again for the great session.
Those are the kinds of emails I live for as a teacher and speaker.
Don’t get me wrong—I love hearing from sales reps who used my framework to close a massive deal, or CEOs who used it to launch a product. But what really fires me up is when someone like an IT or operations leader realizes that story matters everywhere, all the time. It proves my deepest belief about business:
That is exactly what my new book, Story Is the Strategy: Why Every Problem Is a Story Problem with a Story Solution, is about.
This is not a marketing book, nor is it about branding tricks or polished messaging or giving a good speech.
It is about the human operating system beneath all behavior.
Behavior follows belief.
Belief follows story.
If you want someone to buy, stay, commit, refer, change, or grow, you must change the narrative driving their behavior. This applies in companies, and it applies in your own life. You aren’t just making logical decisions; you are living inside a narrative that shapes every choice you make.
This book brings together the ideas I’ve spent more than two decades refining in workshops, leadership rooms, and one-on-one consulting. When smart strategies fail, the details of the strategy are rarely wrong—the story underneath them is.
I am fully convinced that storytelling is the single most strategic skill a leader can master.
This book will help you do that.
The book is scheduled for release on November 9, 2026.
Between now and then, I’ll be writing, refining, and pressure-testing this framework in real rooms with real leaders.
Preordering today is a massive way to support my work.
It allows me to free up my time to focus entirely on research and writing, and your early support means a great deal to me.
eBook— $20 -Get an early copy of the eBook before the release date.
Signed Hard Copy (and eBook) — $45 - Reserve your signed hard copy with the eBook also included.
Founding Story Partner — $300 - Everything above PLUS your name listed in a special “Founding Partners” section of the book and an invitation to schedule a private 60-minute 1:1 Story Strategy Zoom session with me.
The Story Partner tier is limited to 20 people with only 12 spots remaining. It helps support me as I write and includes a one-on-one coaching session focused on the story strategy for your personal brand and/or your organization.
I’ve spent most of my professional life teaching these principles.
Now, I’m building them into a resource you can access 24/7.
Strategy shifts when the story shifts.
Once you perfect the story, everything else falls into place.
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