How Empathy Fits Into a Recreated Story Structure With Ron Ploof

Exploring the Lost Art of Audio Storytelling

As a storyteller with a degree in electrical engineering, Ron identifies himself as “a socially well-balanced geek.” He is a story artist and consultant who has been working in the technology and business worlds for many years to help companies tell their brand stories.
Ron honed his storytelling craft through creating one of the first storytelling podcasts, “Griddlecakes Radio,” and by working at Epson America where he operated as the Manager of Social Media.
He created a new storytelling tool called the StoryHow™ PitchDeck, which he uses in his workshops to train users on how to create and live their brand stories.
Through his trainings, Ron emphasizes that to create a successful story, brands must truly communicate with their listeners and customers. This allows brands to take their customers’ needs into account in a tangible, impactful way and to structure their brand identity around specifically fulfilling those needs.
“You can’t tell a customer what the benefit you offer them is. They tell you,” says Ron.

 In This Episode

• How a deck of cards can teach you elements and techniques to hone your storytelling skills
• Creating empathy and meaning for your audience
• How to work from the end of your story backwards

 Quotes From This Episode

“On the technology side, we’re so data, data, data. However, if there’s a very easy way to explain something, why not use it?” —@RonPloof
“Just the very act of business is a story with multiple players.” —@RonPloof
“We are so focused on starting a campaign and ending it, and then continuing on and starting another campaign, that we actually leave threads for stories all over the place that we never follow up on.” —@RonPloof

“You don’t have a hard time finding stories; they’re all around you. But you tend to step over them. You ignore them.” —@RonPloof

“We are storytellers and we are always trying to make a story of what’s in front of us. And if you don’t tell your story, they’re going to put the story together in their own way. And in all likelihood, it’s not going to be what you intended.” —@RonPloof
“We’re meaning-making machines. We can go weeks without eating. We can go days without drinking. But we can only go about 35 seconds without making meaning out of something going on around us.” —@ParkHowell

Resources

• Mad Men, “The Carousel”
• Ron’s StoryHow™ PitchDeck
• “Save the Cat!” by Blake Snyder
• www.storyhow.com
• StoryHow workshops
• Griddlecakes Radio: Exploring the Lost Art of Audio Storytelling
• www.thebusinessofstory.com