Book Review & Giveaway: Tell to Win

In Tell to Win, executive and entrepreneur Peter Guber shows how to move beyond slides, facts, and figures to create purposeful stories that can motivate, win over, shape, engage, and sell. But don’t just take Peter’s word for it! He provides a diverse number of “Voices” and their experiences as concrete examples and methodologies you can employ. These Voices include:

• YouTube CEO and co-founder Chad Hurley
• Film director Steven Spielberg
• Editor in chief of Wired Chris Anderson
• Demand Media CEO & co-founder Richard Rosenblatt
• Former President BIll Clinton
• Founder of Warner Bros. Jack Warner
• News Journalist Anderson Cooper
• And dozens more …

Audience: Large Businesses, Small Businesses, Individuals – Anyone interested in telling and selling their story.
Tone: Conversational with stories and humor throughout. Case in point, Chapter 1 Title: “It’s the Story, Stupid”
Takeaways: Each chapter ends with aHHa bullet points and takeaways, so you can begin implementing these strategies today!

An excerpt from the book:

The hardest truth in the art of the tell is a simple human fact: You cannot control other people … All you can control is your preparation, setting, and telling. What your listener does in response will depend on a multitude of factors, which may have nothing to do with you. However, the more your audience feels as if they own your story, the more likely they are to act on it. So once you’ve told your story, you need to intentionally surrender control of it to them.

It may help, instead of thinking about a story as “yours” or “mine,” to consider it as “ours.”

As an author of fiction, a lot of Tell to Win resonated with me because authors are told over and over again to “Show, Don’t Tell” (SDT). Guber uses his Voices to display various stories and showcase real examples of how you can connect with your audience in a powerful, meaningful way. He even refers to using metaphors to illuminate your story – and choosing a hero to fit your goal – both being items I use in my writing.

I see this book as an important tool in a variety of aspect … giving voice to your blog, providing story ideas, helping to pitch your product or business, engaging an audience as a speaker, and more. Definitely pick one up when it comes out in March, or you can even win a copy here! Here are the rules:

• Leave a comment below, saying what you’d hope to learn from the book, to receive one entry.
• Tweet about the contest for a second entry.
• Entries must be received by midnight PST February 25th to be considered.