EP435: Matthew Dicks - How To Connect Your Business With Your Story

Ad Read: our truth and our humanity is reflected in the story that's being told, and it's much more entertaining that way. So that's what we have to be thinking about first, whether we're telling a story or we're just reporting information. Reporting information is the equivalent of book report, and no one has ever wanted to hear a book report. You're listening to The Successful Bookkeeper with your host, Michael Palmer. Listen each week as inspiring guests share their secrets of success to help you increase your confidence, work smarter, and build a business you love. This episode of The Successful Bookkeeper is brought to you by purebookkeeping.com, the proven system to grow your bookkeeping business. Welcome back to The Successful Bookkeeper Podcast. I'm your host, Michael Palmer. And today's show is going to be a fun one. Our guest is the author of Stories Sell: Storyworthy Strategies to Grow Your Business and Brand. Matthew Dicks, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. It's great to have you. Now, telling stories, I know I love stories, and I'm sure that's a big piece of why they work. But I'd love to hear your backstory and how you came to be doing what you're doing.

Well, I mean, it started— I could go all the way back to when I was a boy, but I guess it really got started in 2011 when I was encouraged to go to New York City and perform for The Moth, a storytelling organization, true stories told on stage without notes. My friend said, "Go do that. You've had a terrible life where you have great stories to tell," which is not a nice thing to say to your friend. I agreed thinking I would tell one story and that would be the end of it. I'd get on a stage and tell a story and be finished. I went to New York with my wife. I got into the venue. I dropped my name into the hat. They only draw 10 names out of the hat over the course of the night. As soon as I put my name in the hat, I prayed that they would not draw my name and I could go home and say I tried and my friends would leave me alone. But the 10th name that came out of that hat that night was my name, and I got on the stage. I hated every minute of that evening until I began speaking into the microphone. And at that moment, I sort of fell in love with what I was doing. And so I thought I was going to be someone who told stories on stages around the world, ideally. And eventually that happened for me, but I thought that would be what I did. And then back in 2013, I was doing a