Rob Biesenbach 
Stories can do amazing things for you. Telling the right story can help you nail a job interview, win over a customer, rally a team, motivate employees and many other things. But what exactly is a story? A colleague of mine went searching for a definition of story for a book he was writing. He … Read more
Sometimes you get passed over for a job or a project and you regret it. Other times you realize it was the best thing that could have ever happened to you. The other day I got an email from a company unveiling its brand new website. I quickly realized it was a project I bid … Read more
On this day of speeches, I’m reminded of something I wrote a couple of years ago about how Martin Luther King essentially winged major parts of his I Have a Dream Speech: When Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech, it electrified the audience gathered on Washington’s mall and inspired the nation. Almost … Read more
Whenever I’m involved in a big conference with multiple speakers I make the point that “it’s all one speech.” That is, it’s one big message and each speaker is telling a different part of the story. In real life, of course, that doesn’t always work out. But for any company that’s serious about reaching an … Read more
‘Tis the season for best and worst lists, and this one, of 2012’s worst words, is pretty good. Some of these words have been bugging me since long before 2012, so I think ascribing a timeframe is a bit arbitrary. For instance, I got over “epic” since around the time Facebook was invented. And people have … Read more
Such sad news this weekend. Josh Brent, a Dallas Cowboys football player, got into an accident that killed his best friend. On one hand, it’s another all-too-ordinary story of a drunk driving fatality. But something extraordinary happened. Something you hardly ever see when an individual or a company is accused of a crime. Brent immediately … Read more
The ancient art of storytelling is one of the most powerful forms of communication. If that’s news to anybody on the planet I would be absolutely shocked. Yet I see story after story about the science of storytelling. How we respond to them on an unconscious level. How they activate our brain. But rarely do … Read more
If it’s the holidays, then it’s time for the inevitable last-minute emergency projects from clients, bosses and others who are eager to clear out their outboxes at the expense of others’ inboxes. In honor of the tradition, I whipped this video together a couple of years ago during that 20-minute period when xtra-normal videos were … Read more
Just a few days before the Petraeus scandal blew up, I bookmarked this story from the New York Times. It’s your basic puff piece — the kind that frequently follows those who inhabit that rarified “hero zone” in popular culture. Heroes have taken quite a beating lately, from Lance Armstrong to Elmo, and I could … Read more
A blimp crashes in Florida. If it doesn’t fit the narrative, does it make a sound? To say you’re a big believer in the power of stories is like saying you believe sunshine is important to life on earth. But I am a big believer. We are raised on stories. We’re immersed in them, through fables and … Read more