Henry Has Spoken For

Keynote and Workshop Topics

“Persuade With a Story!”

3 Biggest Blunders People in Sales Make that Prevent Them from Persuading Prospects and Selling Their Ideas

You know how people who make their living through selling have this problem: they are frustrated attracting and closing clients.

From his experiences as a book publisher, ghostwriter, and best-selling author, as well as what he learned from being the president of an  marketing agency that doubled revenues in five years and vice president for marketing communications of a $5 billion insurance organization that doubled awareness through storytelling, Henry DeVries shows an audience how they can close more sales by persuading with client mess-to-success stories. Storytelling helps persuade on an emotional level. Storytelling is crucial in your speaking, your writing, and your face-to-face conversations.

Audiences learn how to overcome the following biggest blunders and make their storytelling more compelling:

3 – Not including the three must-have characters every story needs

2 – Not using one of the eight great meta-story formats

1 – Making yourself the hero of the story

In a funny way Henry DeVries shares his latest findings on the what, why and how of excelling at persuasive storytelling.

After this keynote or workshop participants will be able to:

• Craft persuasive stories to effectively promote their ideas and their business
• Utilize the top 8 most psychologically powerful story formulas
• Follow the 3-step fast formula to promote their company, cause, or career

Value to Audience

Nothing is as persuasive as storytelling with a purpose, and members will learn the techniques of telling a great story employed by Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Wall Street. In addition to humorous ways to remember the eight great meta stories, members will also discover how to include key characters into each story including the three-character formula of hero, nemesis, and mentor.

Speaker Biography

In the last decade Henry DeVries has authored, ghostwritten, and published more than 300 books for business thought leaders, including How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett, You’re Not the Person I Hired, Dirty Little Secrets of Family Business, and Persuade With a Story! He is the CEO of Indie Books International, which has published more than 100 titles since he co-founded the company in 2014. Formerly president of an award-winning Ad Age 500 marketing agency, he is also a former assistant dean for continuing education at the University of California San Diego. In addition to speaking to thousands of business leaders each year, he writes a weekly column for Forbes.com.

Introduction: Here to speak to us today on “Persuade With a Story!” please welcome Henry DeVries (note: pronounced Dee-Vreeze’, rhymes with breeze).

“Persuade With Your Story!”

It’s hero time and the hero is you. Nothing is as persuasive as storytelling with a purpose. The right stories can work wonders whether a business leader is using them in a one-to-one meeting, in a presentation that is one-to-several, or in a speech or publicity that is one-to-many.

There is one important story a business leader must tell that features them self as the hero: the defining story. A business leader’s defining story is an important business asset that helps prospects, job candidates, and investors and donors to understand why they should engage with the business leader and his or her organization.

This entire defining story session is interactive. Vistage members participate by creating their defining story using three main characters and the eight great story formats. Then the business leaders receive feedback coaching on how to make their defining stories even more powerful.

Because humans are hardwired for stories, business leaders should use storytelling in their presentations, articles, blogs, books, seminars, and speeches. When well crafted, these stories provide the psychological clues as to why prospects should hire you, why top tier job candidates should choose to work for you, and why investors and donors should back you.

Storytelling helps business leaders persuade on an emotional level. Maybe that is why companies like FedEx, Kimberly Clark, and Microsoft are hiring storytelling experts to teach their executives to tell relatable stories. This program identifies the eight great meta stories smart leaders need to tell to persuade and motivate: monster, underdog, comedy, tragedy, mystery, quest, escape, and rebirth (the top 100 business best-sellers employ one of these eight stories because psychologists like Freud and Jung tell us that as humans we want and need to hear these stories).

Value to Audience

Nothing is as persuasive as storytelling with a purpose, and members will learn the techniques of telling a great story employed by Hollywood, Madison Avenue and Wall Street. In addition to humorous ways to remember the eight great meta stories, members will also discover how to include key characters into each story including the three-character formula of hero, nemesis, and mentor.

Speaker Biography

In the last decade Henry DeVries has authored, ghostwritten, and published more than 300 books for business thought leaders, including How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett, You’re Not the Person I Hired, Dirty Little Secrets of Family Business, and Persuade With a Story! He is the CEO of Indie Books International, which has published more than 100 titles since he co-founded the company in 2014. Formerly president of an award-winning Ad Age 500 marketing agency, he is also a former assistant dean for continuing education at the University of California San Diego. In addition to speaking to thousands of business leaders each year, he writes a weekly column for Forbes.com.