Empathy Expansion Kit: Authentic Storytelling Connecting with Customers

**SPEAKER_1** (0:04)
The Bliss Business Podcast, the show about empathy, connection, and consciousness in business. Today's episode is brought to you by Zero Company, your paid search, social media, and programmatic ad experts.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:17)
Hello, and welcome back to the show. In this short Empathy Expansion Kit episode, we are discussing authentic storytelling. I'm Stephen Sakach here with Tullio Siragusa. Hey, Tullio.

**Tullio Siragusa** (0:30)
Hey, welcome back. Happy to have everybody join us today.

**Stephen Sakach** (0:34)
So I think the first thing you need to do with authentic storytelling is be authentic. You got to be about it, right? We recently did episodes on financial services and automotive scandals. And I think back to that Wells Fargo ad where you've got the stage coach and it's been around for a long time. And there's this whole message of trust and safety. They were there from the days of the old west. And now scandals are breaking loose and that messaging just straight up falls flat, right?

**Tullio Siragusa** (1:12)
They fell off the wagon.

**Stephen Sakach** (1:14)
Yeah, they fall off the wagon. And once they started creating fake accounts for consumers like Tullio, that trust was long gone.
So first off, you know, if you're going to talk the talk, you must walk the walk. You got to be about it. We've done a lot of podcasts trying to help companies be about it because that's the first, more important step one and two and three is definitely be about it. So, though, let's get into authentic storytelling, assuming you're doing things right and working for your customer's best interests. Let's tell that story. Tullio, what are some of the key characteristics here of authentic storytelling?

**Tullio Siragusa** (2:01)
Well, first, I want to say the beautiful thing about being authentic and genuine is you never have to remember what nonsense you said. You just consistently tell the truth. You know, that's the beautiful thing about it.

**Stephen Sakach** (2:12)
But it's a good life lesson for people. I mean, just act like everyone can hear you at any time whenever you're talking about stuff and you'll be good.

**Tullio Siragusa** (2:20)
Exactly. You never have to remember what you said because it's always the truth. So so that just makes you genuine. And the stories really the key characteristics is about being genuine. You know, you want to tell real stories that are honest.
And that requires also avoiding exaggerating or manipulating, you know, using coercion tactics, being true to your brand's values and mission. So if you haven't established those values and mission, that's probably a good idea to do that because you can't be genuine and purposeful without actually having designed the backbone of your business. I'm surprised how many companies haven't defined their values as a company or their purpose as a company. That would probably be a good starting point to be able to be effective at this. Then it's about sharing real stories that are not fabricate and exaggerate. In fact, there was a book by Jerry Vass. It's called Soft Selling in a Hard World. Great book. A little hard to find, but if you could get your hands on, I highly recommend it. When I was at PricewaterhouseCoopers, we actually had implemented this system within the audit practice and the consulting practice about not using puffery in marketing or in messaging or in sales. Puffery is like, when you do business with us, we're awesome or we're the best of the best. Just puffery. You're going to get an extreme awesome savings. Just all these words that mean absolutely nothing. To avoid that puffery, it's actually be factual. That required being really diligent about understanding, what percentage of value do we create when we do X? The message was like, when you work with us during an audit, we can increase your valuation generally between 12-13 percent. Something that was factual because it talked to the companies and the auditors ability to capture stuff that someone would otherwise miss. That was actually not only genuine, but it was also memorable because people don't remember puffery, but they do remember factual numbers.

**Stephen Sakach** (4:24)
Tullio, that reminds me and I just thought of this just now, back in the days of when Google was first launching the paid search, and I think when Yahoo back before when their go-to and overtures launching paid search, they banned the use of the word best in your headlines and your search ads, because I think everyone was in there just the best shoes, the best, but it was just they were stuck on this puffery with no factual backing of it at all. And so it's like, no more. You can't use that. You can't use best anymore.