"YOUR IDEAS MATTER - PART 2" with Comms Guru, Patti Sanchez

PATTI SANCHEZ 2 AUDIO - FINAL

[00:00:00] Gonzalo: If your organization is going through radical changes. This episode will really help you and your team. Today on idea tellers podcast we have corporate storyteller and Comms Guru Patti Sanchez teaching us, about using storytelling to help others catch our vision and become part of our mission. We'll study how our teams can adopt your perspective as a leader and bring them aboard your quest.

[00:00:27] Patti Sanchez: You need to find your own purpose and values so that you can really clarify, put a fine point on what you offer to people. Story can help you to look back on, your career, your previous experience and write down some stories about pivotal moments when, you made a really important decision or you made a big change in your life. And what motivated you to do that? What value were you trying to uphold or achieve? For me, you said it before a few times, empathy

[00:00:58] Gonzalo: On minute nine of the podcast make sure you hear the five church bells describing the five stages of the Venture Stage model from Patti Sanchez. They will help you learn more about how storytelling can help you and your team in change management.

 Stick around so you can learn how you can convert your team into your own vision.

 This is idea tellers.

[00:01:25] Gonzalo : Hola mi gente, welcome to another edition of Idea Tellers. Today we are back with corporate storyteller and communicator Patti Sanchez. She's an authority in messaging and leadership storytelling as well. So welcome back. Bienvenida.

[00:01:46] Patti Sanchez: So happy to be here. Thank you.

[00:01:47] Gonzalo : Patty is the, , author of, presenting Virtually, Communicate and Connect with Online Audiences. I must say, I'm fascinated because this It's a very, , round, , book, , because you covered from the empathy side of things to organizing your thoughts, to communicate the message, to creating the message, to deliver as well.

So I want to know, how to think so thoroughly to create the book, please.

[00:02:18] Patti Sanchez: I am nothing if not thorough and methodical. That is to my core. I always want to give people the complete toolkit so that they can be successful on their own. And that's why I organized the book the way that I did following a workflow. Uh, for preparing a virtual presentation, because I wanted everyone to feel like they had a guide at their side.

Uh, you know, not the sage on the stage who is helping them through every step.

[00:02:50] Gonzalo : And thank you for doing that, because, the book came in the context of COVID. And yet, when I was reading and, . You give the reader a very personal treatment so the reader gains confidence on telling their story, , in my opinion, that says a lot about your style of leadership and that's empathy.

Would you agree with that?

[00:03:10] Patti Sanchez: Yes, it's 1 of the hallmarks of the way I work and the way I try to live as a human being is, , to practice empathy and to teach empathy, because I think it is the foundation for. Effective communication. I think it's the foundation for effective collaboration. I think it just makes life and work better when people understand and respect other people.

[00:03:34] Gonzalo : And thanks for being that way. We need more examples like yours. Mi Gente, just to let you know, I see Patty Sanchez as one of the world authorities in storytelling, you know, and I feel so honored that she's here with us. So, Patty, let's begin with. The story itself, what, what would be your concept about what a story is?

Please.

[00:03:58] Patti Sanchez: Well, a lot of people talk about storytelling. Every TV show I watch, even the home design shows, they say, oh, I'm going to tell a story with this design. And I love that. Yet it's different than the way I think about story to me. Story is 3 things. It's a skill. It's our ability to talk about our experiences to other people.

 it's also a structure, and. Most importantly, story is a strategy, and I say most importantly, especially for business leaders for people in organizations that are trying to achieve their goals. Story is a way to help you achieve your goals a way to, , help people understand what your organization is about what you're trying to do and, , and align them with that.

[00:04:45] Gonzalo : I love it. And when you're talking about their organization, I think there is power in telling a story from the collective point of view, like this is what defines us as an organization. And this is the message we want to give to you. It takes a bit of a, an artist, I think, , a strategist and little bit of science there as well, and, , what I've seen in your trajectory is that , you've kind of applied all three aspects, especially in the way to deliver a story, a message, and in presenting virtually, I saw that you even tell us how to present whether it's a pitch or a presentation in a linear way. You tell us how to do it in a way that is going to keep the audience there. Would you like to tell us a little bit about that, please?

[00:05:33] Patti Sanchez: It's hard to keep the audience there particularly in a virtual presentation, right? Because we have so many distractions around us and we can have other windows open on our desktops if we're audience members. So, the speaker has to draw that audience in keep them interested. Really grab them by the lapels. Make them pay attention , but not just make them want to pay attention.

And that requires storytelling to make your content more interesting, to take the audience on a journey so that they're not only thinking, but they're feeling too. And that makes them more likely to stay engaged.

[00:06:15] Gonzalo : When you say, taking the audience to a journey, would you say that there, there should be Some continuity is some sort of ordering which we present the ideas as well. The reason why I'm saying that is because I've seen very good pitches and I've seen pitches that are just all over the place and, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't.

But I mean, good storytelling, can you tell me a little bit about the flow of ideas and how to make sure that we presented the right way, please.

[00:06:42] Patti Sanchez: you need to organize your thoughts, , before you communicate them. A lot of times, , people get frustrated when an audience doesn't walk away understanding the right thing, or they just didn't get it. and I fault the speaker for that, because it's your job as a communicator to organize your thoughts in a way first that will make sense to your audience.

That's the table stakes. That's the bare minimum for communicating well, and it's logic. Point a leads to point B leads to point C, , and story gives you a logical structure as well to organize information by because every story, a good one that doesn't wander and confuse your audience has a beginning, a middle and an end.

and in that beginning, you set up, a challenge, , which just like in any great story, a hero faces and the audience is your hero. , and then you explain in that middle, how to help your audience overcome that challenge. And in the end, , you want to summarize. What do they get? What is the ultimate value or outcome that they will achieve when they do things your way?

When the ideas that you explain in your talk, , are working for them when they embrace those ideas. So, it all comes down to a point having a clear point that you want to get across to your audience and that you want them to embrace.

[00:08:14] Gonzalo : Thanks again, Patty. Let me ask you again, there is another model, if you will, of communicating the message, the idea, the story. And it's venture stage. And would you like to tell us about that concept that you created, please?

[00:08:31] Patti Sanchez: it's a really amazing process to write illuminate and to study the kinds of changes that businesses go through and individuals. And what I found in all of the case studies that I read in the research that I did is that, , change has a structure to it that everybody experiences it the same way.

And it actually breaks down into 5 stages. This venture scape of change that follows a story structure. So, in the beginning of the process of change, it starts when you communicate your vision or your dream. That's the dream stage. That is where you're articulating , the future that you want to create, but your audience is not ready yet to embrace that future.

You have to pry their fingers off the status quo, make them want to go into that future with you. And so you need to convince them to leap into that future with them with you, which is that second stage of the change journey, and how you communicate makes all the difference in whether they do say "yes" to help you or not. And then once they do, if you're very persuasive in your case for why that future is so great for them and how it's going to reward them for the risk that they're taking, then they enter the middle stage, the 2nd act of the change story, which is the fight stage and climb stages.

 That is when the real change starts to take hold as people are trying to actually execute on your vision, but they encounter obstacles and challenges and they have to battle them and you use story and face the journey to help people believe that they're capable of overcoming those and as they do conquer each obstacle, then they climb a little closer to your goal, which is the next stage as they're making progress and small wins on the path to realizing your vision, and then the final act, the final 3rd act, it contains the arrive stage. That's that 5th stage of the change journey where you realize your goal, or maybe you fall short a little bit of it, but that's the time to acknowledge the process that everyone went through and to tell stories about what you experienced and what you learned, , so that you can internalize that learning, before you go on to your next change effort.

 So, it's a process for describing what changes this venture escape, but it's also a prescription for using storytelling at each stage of the change journey to give people the emotional, support and resources that they need to be able to make it through.

[00:11:14] Gonzalo : I love that it's special because , emotion is what is going to convince and sell. And I love it because you're pretty much building a narrative for the audience to be the hero, someone who is able to conquer the obstacles, and giving them self confidence, telling them like, actually, you can achieve your goals through this.

There is, , the Patty Sanchez who has developed, these, models, if you will. But there is also Patty Sanchez, the one who is very intuitive. At the same time, it's strategic.

At the same time, very empathetic. , would you describe yourself the same way?

[00:11:54] Patti Sanchez: Others have described me that way and

[00:11:56] Gonzalo : ha ha.

[00:11:57] Patti Sanchez: it feels about right. Yeah. Thank you. I think those are all qualities that any leader needs if they want to influence people, , to make positive change, you need to be intuitive, to be able to sense what people need, as you said earlier, , emotion, is what, actually causes people to change.

It makes decisions. We like to believe that we make decisions in our heads, but we actually make decisions in our heart first, and then we rationalize them in our heads. So, you have to be able to intuit. What people need and give that to them, which takes empathy as well to want to help people succeed to want them to find their own reasons to embrace your change.

And that also takes strategy. It takes strategic thinking, to know where you want to go, where you need to move your audience to , how you want to communicate to achieve the objective you want to achieve.

[00:13:00] Gonzalo : Lastly. There are people out there in different organizations or in entrepreneurial ventures, if you will, that are transitioning from an operator role to an entrepreneurial role or from personal contributor. Thank you. To a decision maker, it's a bit of a challenge to communicate, their ideas and visions, and decisions with their respective audiences, whether it's the customer or the team itself, it can be very daunting or overwhelming. what would you tell that new leader, that new manager, that founder, , that is trying to convey their idea and they don't know that they can do it through story and they don't know how. What would you tell them? Please?

[00:13:43] Patti Sanchez: You need to think about your audience first and what you want them to do, as I was saying earlier. And so when you want to convince people to, back your business or your team to believe in you, , you need to start by defining what they will get. When you help them or what they will get from your product or your business. So, craft that value proposition to them. If you, buy this product, you will achieve. if you follow me as your leader, we will achieve. if you back my business, you will see this is the impact and we'll make in the world. so always frame, what your offer is in terms of how it will benefit your audience.

Sometimes, especially if you're starting something new, like starting a business, , you also need to know what you stand for. You need to find your own purpose and values so that you can really clarify, put a fine point on what you offer to people and story can help you to look back on, your career, your previous experience and write down some stories about pivotal moments when, you made a really important decision or you made a big change in your life. And what motivated you to do that? What value were you trying to uphold or achieve? And for instance, for me, you said it before a few times, empathy.

 Empathy is a strong value of mine and I can think of stories in my previous career experience when I have prioritized meeting the need of an employee over myself as an example of empathy or of empathy helping somebody who was struggling as an example of empathy. And when I remind myself of those experiences, I reinforce that that's an important value to me.

And then that becomes a value that I can offer to others if it's important to them too.

[00:15:52] Gonzalo : Wow. Thank you once again, Patty Sanchez. That was. The author of presenting virtually communicate and connect with online audiences. Thank you once again, Patty, for being here with us.

[00:16:06] Patti Sanchez: Thank you. I love the conversation.

[00:16:09] Gonzalo : And you're invited to come back anytime to our podcast. Okay?

[00:16:14] Patti Sanchez: I'm counting on it.

[00:16:15] Gonzalo : Perfect. Perfect. This is Idea Tellers.