Experience Is Not Best Teacher
All Selling Aside with Alex Mandossian | "Seeding Through Storytelling is the 'New' Selling!"
English - May 28, 2018 07:00 - 24 minutes - 14.7 MB - ★★★★★ - 91 ratingsMarketing Business Entrepreneurship Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Many years ago, in northern Asia, an arrogant samurai warrior challenged his Zen master to explain the difference between evil and goodness. The master’s response had a sense of mockery, even disgust, as he said, “I will not waste my time with such scum as you.” The arrogant samurai reacted by pulling out his sword and screaming in a rage, “Little man, I will cut you into pieces for your insults!” The Zen master responded, “That, my dear friend, is what evil is like.”
When he heard this response, the samurai calmed down and began to understand the deep wisdom that the master was teaching him. He thanked the Zen master for the insight, and went down on one knee in gratitude. “That, my dear warrior,” the master replied, “is what goodness is like.” The moral of this story is that experience is not the best teacher. Rather, experience is the only teacher.
Think of the words “empathy” and “sympathy.” Imagine trying to describe the difference to someone just using descriptions. This probably seems pretty tricky, right? Now, think of it through the lens of a story. You’re on a boat fishing with one of your friends. As the boat rocks, your friend gets seasick and starts vomiting over the side of the boat. Sympathy is putting your arm around your friend and reassuring him or her that it’ll be okay. Empathy is putting your arm around your friend and then vomiting with them. Suddenly the difference between empathy and sympathy is clear, all through the power of storytelling.
In today’s episode, you’ll learn that stories reach all four levels of consciousness. The first level is the mind, or the mental level of consciousness. This is the logical level. The second level of consciousness is the emotional level, or the heart. The third level is physical, which you can think of in terms of what you want your candidate to physically do. This might be writing something down, for example. The fourth and final level is all about spirituality. To be clear, this isn’t religious, but it’s ethereal; it’s something outside the mental, emotional, and physical.
Tune into this episode to learn more about all this and much more. If you want to become a world-class ethical influencer, everything begins with a story, and I’m ready to teach you how to how to use the power of storytelling.
In This Episode:
[01:59] - Alex talks about the three key insights into becoming an ethical influencer that you’ll learn in this episode.
[02:47] - We hear an insightful story that illustrates why experience isn’t the best teacher, but rather the only teacher.
[04:12] - From this story, Alex explains, we learn that we can understand things better through stories or experience than descriptions.
[05:18] - Alex explores the difference between empathy and sympathy as an example of what he has been talking about.
[06:27] - We hear how the power of storytelling relates to sales.
[07:10] - Alex recounts a story from early in one of his children’s lives, making it clear again why experience is the best teacher.
[08:35] - When Alex was four years old, he had a death experience (not just a near-death experience). He remembers exactly what he saw and felt.
[09:48] - Alex talks about some of the great storytellers, and points out that we learn most (and sell best) from great storytelling.
[10:41] - A story hits four levels of consciousness, Alex explains.
[13:47] - Movement is life, Alex points out, and that’s what stories offer.
[15:11] - Alex talks about how often and effectively some of the greats told stories.
[16:25] - Alex doesn’t believe it’s necessary to offer the “why” for your story before you tell it. Instead, just launch into the story without distractions.
[19:04] - Many influencers don’t use ethics, and use tricks while lacking sincerity.
[19:55] - Alex talks about propaganda, which uses stories that are called narratives.
[21:27] - Alex offers listeners a quick review of the specific insights that he has covered in this episode.
[22:09] - Did you enjoy this episode? If so, please type in your biggest takeaway from the episode as a review at this link! While you’re there, please rate the episode too.
[23:30] - Listeners who want a free gift are welcome to a free copy of Alex’s book Alexisms. To learn how to get your free copy, tune into the episode!
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