Catch the Full Episode:
Overview
Don Yaeger joins the Duct Tape Marketing Podcast to talk about his new book, The Business of Storytelling: Inspire Action, Build Trust, and Drive Results Through Story, and what it takes to turn storytelling into a working business habit rather than a skill reserved for the keynote stage. Yaeger and John Jantsch dig into why the book’s ten storytelling elements aren’t a formula, why artificial intelligence can’t write a business’s story for it, and how a founder with no communications team can still do the kind of research that produces a genuinely personal connection.
The conversation moves into the practical side of business storytelling: which three stories every company should have ready to tell, why the strongest ones often center on a customer or employee instead of the owner, and what the numbers say about storytelling’s effect on revenue. Yaeger also addresses the founders who believe their business is too ordinary to have a story worth telling.
This episode is built for small business owners, marketers, agencies, and consultants who want to use storytelling for trust and brand building but haven’t had a research team, book deal, or decades of interview experience behind them.
Guest Bio
Don Yaeger is a National Speakers Hall of Fame inductee, 13-time New York Times bestselling author, and longtime associate editor at Sports Illustrated. Over more than 1,000 interviews with athletes and executives, he has co-written books with Walter Payton, John Wooden, and Deion Sanders, selling more than 7 million copies. He returns to the podcast as a repeat guest to share what 3 decades of pulling stories out of people has taught him about making storytelling an operating habit inside any business.
Key Takeaways
- Artificial intelligence can produce words, but not the human “heart” that makes a story land. It also tends to invent details, so it can’t be trusted to build a company’s story.
- Public sources most people overlook, like old yearbooks and charity board bios, often hold small personal details that create fast, authentic connection before an interview even starts.
- Every business should have 3 stories ready at any time: an origin story built around why the business started, not just what it does, a customer story, and an employee story.
- The strongest business stories often aren’t about the owner. Customer and employee stories tend to build more trust and give a company a real edge over competitors telling generic claims.
- Storytelling has a measurable effect on value. A documented experiment turned $193.50 worth of ordinary objects into $8,000 in 4 days simply by attaching a personal story to each one.
Great Moments
- [01:22] – Yaeger explains why the book’s claim that “no formula governs a great story” doesn’t contradict its 10 specific storytelling elements.
- [08:21] – Yaeger traces storytelling back through human history, from cave paintings to the modern sales call.
- [10:34] – Yaeger recalls asking people if they’d be better salespeople, leaders, or parents if they told better stories, and how the answer is never no.
- [15:21] – Jantsch and Yaeger debate whether a good story has to be entirely true, and where embellishment crosses a line.
- [17:52] – Yaeger points out that the struggle behind every “overnight success” is usually the part nobody hears about.
Memorable Quotes
- “If I can build the story around people instead of statistics, the story always remains more memorable.” — Don Yaeger
- “I don’t want the story everybody else gets. I’m looking for something I can pull from you that you may not have wanted to say when the conversation began.” — Don Yaeger
- “Commerce occurs when connection is built.” — Don Yaeger
- “People like people who are like them, so you have to understand who they are and then draw out that point of connection.” — Don Yaeger
- “There are plenty of ways to let the world know how special you are without pumping yourself up.” — Don Yaeger
Resources
- The Business of Storytelling: Inspire Action, Build Trust, and Drive Results Through Story (Book on Amazon)
- Don Yaeger’s Website
AI marketing, brand trust, Content Marketing, customer stories, Don Yaeger, employee stories, sales connection, Small Business, Storytelling
