Nine story types that build trust, open doors, and turn conversations into clients — for coaches, consultants, and solopreneurs ready to lead with their message.
GROWTH PILLAR: Marketing & Branding
WHO THIS IS FOR: SMB owners / Solopreneurs / Coaches and consultants / Leaders building authority
WHAT THEY'LL GAIN: A practical storytelling framework that builds trust faster, positions your expertise, and makes it easier for the right people to say yes — before you ever pitch anything.
Most people think they don't have stories worth telling. Ben Gioia disagrees — and he has the receipts.
Ben is the founder of Influence With A Heart. He helps coaches, consultants, and experts write and publish their book in as little as five weeks — and start landing clients before it's even done. In this Canada Growth Network Power Hour session, Ben breaks down nine types of stories that anyone can use in their book, brand, or business to build trust, authority, and real momentum.
What you'll take away:
Ben draws on Robert Cialdini's six factors of influence, the Brian Tracy windshield wiper framework, and his own heart-centered publishing method to show that your next breakthrough probably isn't a new strategy. It might be the story you almost didn't share.
Want to know if your book will actually work? Visit InfluenceWithAHeart.com/book-success-guaranteed for a two-minute self-assessment. Ready to have your first draft done by summer 2026?
Check out Ben's five-week draft program at influencewithaheart.com/5wd or explore Brilliant for his full coaching offer.
Connect with Ben on LinkedIn.
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Ben (00:05)
these are nine kinds of stories for your book, brand, and or business. And so just because I'm a book guy doesn't mean that I'm only talking about books. We want to use stories because stories are super powerful.
Some of the oldest form of human communication, was stories around the fire and then just about everything else. So use stories, tell stories, make stories a part of your communication as often as you possibly can.
So, hey, did you know there isn't a business social change or paradigm shift that's ever happened without stories? Without stories, no one listens. But when you share stories, people can't stop listening to you.
And the good news is that you have so many stories worth sharing. You really, really do. Let me go back to this slide for a second. a lot of people I run into, I don't really have stories to tell. I don't have interesting stories to tell. didn't know... What am I going to talk about, right? The fact that you're still walking the planet, you have stories to share, right? They don't have to be epic unto themselves. They just have to help bring across something that you're teaching.
right, or help provide some inspiration in the context of something that you're teaching. The content, I don't want to say is immaterial, but you can make magic out of almost any kinds of words, right, if you're understanding who you're speaking to, who you're writing toward, et cetera, you know, your intention of, I would like to say your intention of service in doing so. And also recognizing that
one of the greatest gifts you can offer is to share people your stories, share your stories with people. So, these nine kinds of stories will help you deliver wisdom, expertise, and more while authentically resonating with your right audience slash ideal client. So, in this world of all the noise and all the AI and all the things, stories are so key for
expressing your authenticity and standing out uniquely in whatever space you're in. Because I know that there's other book coaches and publishers out there, right? Y'all know that there's other people who do something kind of like what you do, right? Although there's nobody like you. We know that, I know that, you know that. But the stories help the rest of the world understand that, okay? So, with the stories, it's easier for them to say yes, right? Stories like
flip the switch for the knowing and liking and trusting. And if you tell a story about work, it throws in the authority bit. So now you've hit four of the six psychological factors of influence according to Robert Cialdini, right? The knowing, the liking, the trusting, the authority. And that makes it so much easier for people not only to say yes, but for people to participate in how you help them and be committed and get the results.
Because it's one thing to say yes and it's another thing to do it. I've had several people say, yes, I want to write my book with you, Ben. Here's my money. They're not. So, two parts of this.
Ben (02:45)
done yet.
Ben (02:47)
So cool, right? this ability to open the doors to make it easier for them to say yes and to do it from a place of win-win-win. Right? Good for them, good for you. And I'd like to say good for the world in whatever ripples, repercussions and ramifications.
the good kind. So, hey, imagine, what if your next five, six or even seven figure client isn't waiting for a new strategy but a story? Right, not just any story, your stories. With stories, you can turn even ordinary moments into extraordinary impact. You have stories worth sharing, stories that can change businesses and lives.
So by knowing these nine types, you'll be able to use more stories more effectively every time you speak right lead. Stuff is key. I don't know if you all are, think this is, we are of the age that some of us might remember Brian Tracy, right? Brian Tracy, I just love the analogy he always said, you know, go from story to information like windshield wiper. Story to information, story to fact, you know, just to,
to hit both sides of the brain, right? Because there's the creative side that wants the story and there's the logical side that wants the fact and the information, et cetera. Right? So if you're telling a story or delivering a talk or on a podcast or whatever the case may be, and you overload people with information, your talk won't be effective. And by the same token, if you overload people with story, your talk won't be effective, right?
I y'all made it, I've had this experience of, I used to go to a bunch of live events back in the day. Remember when they were like three days long? I had like, don't sleep at this event, especially if it was like Tony Robbins, like don't sleep at this event ever. Walk on the coals, don't go to bed, whatever the case may be.
A lot of events that are so much on the rah rah rah and story and inspiration side, you get out of there and you feel great but you have no idea what to do because they didn't really teach you some stuff. And then the other ones that overload the information, you come out of there if you could stand to stay there in the first place because they're just hammering you with facts and stuff, you know. By that point, I mean if it's me, I'll speak for myself, like at that point I don't care, right?
I'm so overloaded with information, I'm not inspired, I don't care anymore. So, windshield wiper, right? Make use of those stories. And as we are going through today, please do take everything bouncing around in your mind and put it in the box. Easier said than done. And if you only remember one thing, remember this, you might remember it if you saw me speak previously, right? A light mind is the right mind to write.
I wrote this myself. A light mind is the right mind to write. Light mind is the right mind to lead, to have a difficult conversation, to create, to connect with one's intuition, to get past what's going on in your head and get into your heart so you can really know what to do. Not because your brain says so, but you know in your heart and your gut and your soul. Right? The light mind.
So I teach my authors.
book writers, whomever, right? When you're going to sit down and work on your book or work on the story or work on anything, take a couple of minutes and do a little smiling meditation, right? And you know, I'll invite you all to do that right now with me for just a minute. So please close your eyes. Please sit comfortably if you're not already doing so.
Put a little smile on your face, like not a crazy clown smile, but like a little Buddha smile.
Let yourself breathe easily, like let your body, let your breath breathe you.
and let yourself relax as you breathe in.
and let yourself relax as you breathe out.
Remember, the breath is the reminder to just relax, let your body relax. Don't make yourself relaxed, right? Don't achieve relaxation, right? Let go, surrender, smile, breathe. That's how you get that lighter mind, that more open space.
That's how you can connect more easily to what you need to connect to. That's where you can find the answers when situations are impossible. The answer might not be right in the moment, but you will have opened up the space for it to come forth.
So a couple more deep breaths.
Little more smiling.
And please start wiggling your toes and wiggling your fingers. And when you're ready, please gently open your eyes. And big surprise, please smile. And I invite you to smile for the rest of the session, the rest of the day, the rest of the week, the rest of the year, the rest of your life. And I say this without heart-purply, your life will transform dramatically, drastically and fantastically the more you smile.
There's that neurobiological feedback loop, right? Smiling will help you lighten your mind. And imagine all the people around you, like not the ones who don't get it, don't worry about them, but the people who look over and you're smiling at them. Like that opens up so many doors. So please do smile. So I teach my authors how to smile, obviously. A bunch of great books have come into the world thanks to people doing what I say.
I mean that in a good way. So, some fun examples that I want to share. So, Being Brown in a Black and White World, Top Center, which is Anne-Marie. Anne-Marie finished her book and about six months later got a speaking gig at Google because somebody at Google found her book, bought it, read it, called her up and was like, do you want to come speak? No pre-existing relationship, nothing, just wrote the book, right? Cost of Clutter, Monica. Monica got a five-figure workshop fee.
before her book was done. I helped her ⁓ talk to the organization and present a big package of possible engagements over a long period of time. And they're like, nah, we don't want all the engagements, we'll just take this workshop for 12,000 bucks. And she's like, okay. Right, so that's a great story. And then exception code, Jonathan.
Second row, Jonathan got a $50,000 coaching program before his book was done by having conversations about his book. And these conversations about the book that I'm talking about, I teach my authors how to do that, how to use the book specifically to not only get clarity on the book by talking to ideal clients about it, but to lay the groundwork for the person that the author is speaking with to become a client, to become a referral partner, to become a strategic partner.
because the book helped open up the door to a conversation with a decision maker or somebody who's close to a decision maker. So hey, books have changed my life. You may have intuited that. So this is a picture of me at the end of 2022 having made the decision to move to Spain. And I've been here for two and a half years now. It's been amazing. I'm super grateful. I count my blessings every day.
Books certainly changed my life, right? Because it wasn't always like this, right? For most of us, for all of us, it wasn't always like this, right? So I told the story about the four times, facing death four times in India in 72 hours, right?
Two years later, I went back to India. Silly man, why did you go back to India? Because the two year later, Mark, I was at the 14 year mark of having been on the party train in a big way for a lot of years and a lot of drugs, a lot of DJs, a lot of dancing, right? But never really saw the problem because I always had really good jobs. And I kept getting promoted to different companies and a lot of responsibility, right? But sooner or later, that stuff catches up.
So in India, many things happened, but figured out meditation or found my way to meditation and ultimately figured out what the, our very clever friend, the Buddha figured out like 2,600 years ago, right? That difference between pain and suffering, right? Pain is a part of our human experience and suffering is all the extra stuff that gets added on, right? So for me, I was hiking on the second where I was getting ready to hike
second time in India, right? And I didn't have boots. So I got my boots fixed and I got on the hike. And on day one of nine days, I had blisters on my Achilles tendons already. And then I had to walk for six days going, ow, ow, ow, right. But then day six, like I saw beautiful things. I was like, why are things beautiful? I'm not on drugs. Why are things beautiful? Right. And I was like, these painful footsteps are actually keeping me in the present moment.
I had never really spent time in the present moment in my life before, you know, for any protracted amount of time. And then 12 years later, because sometimes it takes a minute, 12 years later, I was like, oh, that difference between pain and suffering. I understood that, you know, there was still the pain on the hike from the footsteps, but the suffering stopped at day six because I let it go and I was just able to look and I stopped.
self-judgment and self-criticism and how could you be such an idiot and you're such a loser and da da da da da all the things. So a light mind is the right mind to write this is how this started. But hey, getting my mental and spiritual and whatever other act together was good, but I also had to get the debt taken care of because at this point in my life I had nothing in the bank.
$50,000 on credit cards and I had already taken all the money out of my retirement account because I had to bounce back from all the drug years where I spent all the money on the drugs. books helped a lot. You may know the story of when I wrote my second book. I wrote it in three weeks and produced, printed and shipped it in three weeks because I promised to bring a book.
to a speaking event at Stanford. I don't know how the hell I got a speaking gig at Stanford, but somebody's like, you want to come speak? I'm like, yep. I'm going to bring books that I haven't written. I didn't tell them that. I'm going to bring books. Hang up the phone six and a half weeks to write, produce, print, ship the book. Turned into more speaking gigs, right? At Stanford, turned into more speaking gigs in Australia the following year for the company that I was speaking to.
all thanks to the book, all because I gave everybody a copy of the book. Right? So, I 130 advocates at this company because they all had my book the next year. Right? And then, if we go back in time slightly as I'm frantically writing the book, I get the book cover designed. I put it up on LinkedIn, you can do this too. I put it up on LinkedIn, I said, hey, please celebrate with me, my next book is coming. And that led to somebody reaching out to me that turned into...
I'm cutting to the chase, a 10 month consulting gig with a Fortune 100 company because they saw my book, even though they only saw the cover of my book, they saw my book and they're like, hey, we want to talk to you about writing this curriculum for this video game that we're creating for 20,000 people. What? Right. So, so many possibilities with the book, so many possibilities because the book gets you to the conversation where you can figure out
what needs to happen and discover it with somebody instead of trying to sell it to them.
Speaking of which, you might be wondering if your book will actually work. Very important question, will your book actually work? You can go to, please do go to InfluenceWithAHeart.com slash book success guaranteed. And this is a great way to, in about two minutes, whoops, in about two minutes, see where you are with the book. Some really salient, helpful questions. Some of them will sound like some of the things we've been talking about today. No surprises.
So hey, a light mind is the right mind to write, innovate, lead, et cetera. And that takes us to the nine kinds of stories. So I invite you to smile and relax and breathe and take it in.
So big important story for your book especially, but good to talk about this anyway, like in your keynote or a talk is your origin story, your message success experience, your signature story, whatever you want to call it. But that point in your business and or life when you were at rock bottom and you saw the light, whether it was literal, metaphorical, figurative, it doesn't matter, but you were in really bad shape.
and you saw a way out and you started moving toward that way out and you're like, my God, it's working. And then you started doing it in your life and your business, and then more people started asking you. And now today that wisdom from that very difficult experience, or I should say those challenges from that very difficult experience, you've now transmuted into wisdom that you share with others. So this story is absolutely critical for your book. You don't have to air your dirty laundry.
Say whatever you want to say, but make sure to share this story. Another kind of stories, these are stories, are your case studies and highlights and professional successes. Not the six page version of them, you know, like the two to six sentence version of them.
When I was talking to this organization, they helped ask me about this thing and this is what we did. When this executive wanted me to help them overcome this thing, we did the thing and they got to this.
That's a story and you're building authority and you're giving people understanding of how they can work with you, right? So, personal successes, anecdotes, if they're relevant and they will help provide a bridge and connection and deeper trust with your ideal clients, absolutely, right? Testimonials. So, testimonials are stories. Book reviews are stories.
You can weave them into your content. They don't have to like stand as a quote with an attribution, weave them into a paragraph. Here's a big important one, analogies and metaphors. So, so, so important. Analogies and metaphors are little stories, right? And why they're so important is because you and I and people like us, we're trying to help people think differently.
Like we're trying to help them do the thing and the other thing, right? But first and foremost, we have to help them think differently and we have to see them, help them see what's possible, right? We have to bring them from how they think about something to how we think about something without forcing it down their throat, right? So analogies are really helpful to explain what we're talking about. So I'll give you a minute or so to read this if you want to take a picture.
Right? Because you say one of these things, the person goes, right, they understand something and then you can connect the dot to the next thing. Because otherwise, you know, you lost them. So quotes, factoids, references, these operate as little stories. It's almost like a little snapshot of something. Right? You all remember like four out of five dentists surveyed?
recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum? How could you not remember that after hearing it hundreds and hundreds of times in our earlier lives? But just dropping something like that in, right? According to the Wall Street Journal, da da da da.
According to Tony Robbins, da da da da. Notes from the field, super powerful. Hey, I was in a coaching session with the CEO and bam, doesn't have to be heavy handed.
Very important though, as you're rendering your stories, delivering your stories, make sure, and we'll talk more about this, make sure you don't assume people are going to get it. It's very important. And we'll talk about what to do about that in a moment. So, hey, bits of the news, science, history, literature, popular culture. You don't have to use all these things, but there might be some really nice nuggets.
There might be some quotes from historical figures that help, like not the regular Goodreads quotes, right? But there might be something that's really deep and powerful, right? There's a quote from Napoleon Bonaparte, which I often refer to, show me a family of readers and I'll show you who moves the world, something like that. I love that quote as a book coach, right? And as the publisher.
Lastly, wins, weird moments and what happened at the store last week. These kinds of stories can be really powerful.
Don't hold back.
If something struck you and you can use it to teach something, to bring a point across, then please do so.
Okay.
So we just went through the nine stories and remember I said, we've got to connect the dots, make sure people get it.
But first and foremost, we always got to check in with a smile. Keep smiling, keep breathing, keep relaxing. Because we're going to look at the nine kinds of stories the right way. The right way means making the shift from simply reporting what happened to creating a resonant human to human connection. In other words, breadcrumb trail. Very simple. Connect the dots, use the word because.
Because... Right? People's brains will latch on.
because it's such a power, I can't not use it. It is such a powerful word. Here's why this is important. You can literally use this phrase. Here's why this story is important. Here's why I just told you about my dog. Right? Here's why this. If you're a CEO, here's why you really want to pay attention. Right? Here's what this means to you.
Tell them, don't assume that they're going to get it. Everybody's smart, but everybody's busy and distracted most of the time. Connect the dots. This is why you want to do this. If you remember nothing else, right, you hear that kind of statement, like you're going to lean in a little bit, right? Maybe I don't have to read the whole book, but if I remember this, I'll have all my answers, right? So again, make sure you connect the dots.
because here's why this is important, what this means to you, etc. etc. And there's many more ways to do this, right? But just help your reader, right? Imagine that your reader, whether it's a book, you know, a blog post, imagine your reader's a 15-year-old child and you're taking them through the zoo, right? You want to keep them engaged, keep them safe, keep them off their phone, periodically stop in the bathroom and get water, right?
You're doing the same kind of thing in your book, same kind of thing in any kind of communication. You want it to be readable. You want to be a good tour guide. Some of it is the content, but some of it is the experience of the content, you know, for the viewer, reader, listener. So, your next breakthrough might not be a new strategy like I said before. It might simply be the story and the breadcrumbs you almost didn't share. So, share them, gosh darn it.
All right, so this is the nine kinds of stories anyone can use for their book, brand or business. Thank you so much. Speaking of stories, there are folks who will have the first draft of their book done by June 30th of this year. If you want to be one of them, please do visit influencewithaheart.com slash five WD, like five week draft. So we start next week, like one week from today, Monday, May 18th.
And it would be an honor and a pleasure if I can help you out or help someone out who you know, who needs to get the book out of their head and onto paper.
There is also a fabulous sale available. Sounds kind of funny, but the Spring Into Your Book special is there, so please do check it out because it's worth it. And I'm not sure, I'm probably not going to run this again until the fall. So if you want to have the first draft on paper before into the summer, it's a good idea. Now's your time. There are people who need you now more than ever.
Thank you very much.