“73% of the U.S. 12+ population (an estimated 209 million people) have listened to online audio in the last month, up from 68% in 2021”- Edison Research
“Narrative presentation of corporate strategy, comparative advantage, is more effective at producing a consistent and confident choice of competitive advantage among an audience than a presentation of corporate strategy using a PowerPoint style, bulleted list approach”- Journal of Strategy and Management
“Audiobook sales revenue has been on a steep rise since 2018, reaching 1.3 billion USD in 2020”- Statista
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
“[the way employees are on-boarded] sets the tone for the culture of a place, the people, and the values of a new institution and can have a significant impact on employees’ sense of belonging”- Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“Storytelling is essential to successful branding, since your brand is the sum of all your corporate behaviors and communications that inform your customers’ experiences with your product or company”- The Journal of Business Strategy
“Brands can bring their CSR (corporate social responsibility) efforts to life through authentic storytelling [and] Millennials want to know what companies are doing to make the world a better place”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“Storytelling that starts with the persona allows us to tap into these deeper recesses, where the influence of attitudes and emotions is greater… loyalty and trust are found there”- Journal of Business Strategy
“As technology evolves, people have more options available to them, which may explain why [reports] found younger adults to be more likely to opt for audiobooks and the multi-tasking they enable”- Forbes
“Audio platform superiority was about the desire to use an audio platform that is perceived to be superior to other audio alternatives, including on-demand convenience (time and place) and content (vari- ety and uniqueness)”- New Media and Society Journal
“Should produce positive effects on key audiences, such as increasingly positive attitudes toward the company and eventually behavioral intentions to support this company”- Public Relations Review
“Employees have a deeper affiliation with the message through organizational storytelling due to aligning stories with their own experiences and understanding”- International Journal of Business and Social Science
“The majority (79%) of Millennials want to work for a company that cares about how it contributes to society and 69% would refuse to work for a company that is not socially responsible”- Journal of Education For Business
“83% of Millennials would be more loyal to a company that allows them to contribute to social and environmental issues”- Cone Communications
“Over 71 thousand audiobook titles (were) published in 2020, a 39% growth between previous years”- Statista
“Audiobooks have had a big shift in popularity in 2018 where for the first time, “a full half of all Americans ages 12 and older have listened to an audiobook, up from 44% last year”- Forbes
“19% [of Millennials] say they have paid in the last year for a subscription service for eBooks or audiobooks such as Kindle Unlimited or Audible”- American Press Institute
“Stories are a device… [that] provide managers with a form of social and intersubjective interaction that reflects belief systems, role expectations, interpersonal norms and conditions for work behavior”- International Journal of Management
“[onboarding] can also aid employees in identifying values congruence which is critical to career contentment and commitment which can significantly impact retention to both the field and the institution long-term” - Journal of Research, Assessment, and Practice in Higher Education
“116% growth in spoken word listeners 13-34 years old in the past even years, with 18% growth in the last year”- National Public Radio Organization
“Corporate storytelling is suggested to help demonstrate the importance of the corporate brand to internal and external stakeholders… as well as help a firm to bond with its employees”- Product & Brand Management
“Maximizing success through onboarding by storytelling during orientations, [helps employees understand] the company's culture and values [and] its goals and history”- Society for Human Resource Management
“Researchers have shown that storytelling strengthens the connections consumers have to brands, so that to a great extent what a brand means to a consumer is based . . . on the narratives he or she has constructed that incorporate the brand.”- Journal of Business Strategy
“When it comes to digital storytelling for branding, there is, a more positive attitude towards the company when the employer branding message is using digital storytelling”- Management Dynamic in the Knowledge Economy Journal
“The audiobook market share shifted from 42% digital copy sales in 2009 to 87% digital copy sales in 2017”- Audio Publishers Association
“Audio narrative has recently benefited from profound cultural shifts in media consumption associated with on-demand television’s binge watching revolution and the advent of digital longform storytelling”- Journal of Radio & Audio Media
“Spoken word audio listening is up 40% in the past seven years, and up 8% year over year”- National Public Radio Organization and Edison Research
“The corporate world cannot ignore the demands and expectations of Millennials, who are devout in their desire to associate with companies aligned with their values”- Center for Social Impact Communication at Georgetown University
“There are currently about 1000% more titles published since 2011”- Audio Publishers Association
“A focus on social responsibility is particularly important to attract, retain, and increase the commitment and engagement of Millennial employees and talented women”- Center for Creative Leadership
“Story-telling is an important element… involving the sharing of experiences and creation of mental-maps of the environment in which people are motivated to perform to their full potential”- Leadership and Organization Development Journal
“A poor cultural fit is frequently cited as one of the main reasons [an employee] decides to leave an organization… defining the organization's culture through storytelling should start with branding of the organization and continue through the interview and onboarding process”- Physician Executive Communication Journal
“The storytelling process yields positive impacts on internal and external stakeholder outcomes including increasing employees’ thriving and meaningful work, as well as the attitudes and trust of multiple external stakeholders”- Journal of Strategic Marketing
“64% of Millennials consider a company’s social commitments when taking jobs and will not work for a company if they do not have strong corporate social responsibility (CSR) values”- Cone Communications
“Millennials are more technologically advanced than any previous generation [and] survey data has shown a correlation between age and reading preferences [where] younger people listen to more audiobooks than older Americans”- State University of New York
“Storytelling that integrates a moral and spiritual component can transform an organizational culture so members of the organization begin to feel connected to a larger community and a higher purpose”- Journal of Business Ethics
“Three uses for storytelling in organizations: (1) to motivate employees, (2) for education and (3) to consolidate corporate culture”- Journal of Marketing
“There is value in a story that is, designed to drive the simulation and to elicit the [employee’s] best performance”- Society for Human Resource Management
“The most recent era in audio entertainment… users are asserting power over the medium to select particular content at particular times”- Mass Communication and Society Journal
“Online audio (podcasts, radio shows, music and audiobooks) has become more popular than ever before”- Publishing Research Quarterly
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BUSINESS EDUCATION MEETS HOLLYWOOD!
Last night at the Pink Taco, on the Sunset Strip in, you guessed it, LA, a very special group of Hollywood actors gathered in a reserved table for a very special celebration. The production they had been working on for over a year was finally completed and launched. They were celebrating! And well they should! What they have been working on is no less than a breakthrough in business education, a new application of experiential learning, and the creation of a whole new genre of business audio books, Business Audio Theatre.
The actors weren’t in a movie, but they were in a “movie of the mind.” They performed in cinematic scenes with sound effects and an original musical score. They acted out real life situations that occurred in the early days of the founding of what is now the world’s largest wine brand. And they did it all in audio, where an outstanding female narrator set up the listeners for each scene with descriptions of the sets, the challenges, and the mentality of the characters. This was a private launch party for the Sherwood Players who produced The Barefoot Spirit Business Audio Theatre.
We are very proud of the professional job they did as performers. They definitely brought our New York Times bestselling paperback to life in a new, fun, and exciting way. Some of them are starting their careers. Others are seasoned veterans. We hope this opportunity will help them all move forward.
The venerable Ed Asner plays a very convincing skeptical supermarket buyer who originally refuses to take on Barefoot Wine, but ultimately paves the way for its success. Gigi Perreau, the longtime Hollywood actress who actually performed on original radio theater, plays Mabel, Bonnie’s mom and a WWII Rosie-the-Riveter, salt-of-the-earth type, who comes to live with us and pitches in with physical and emotional support.
Our narrator was Alamada Karatihy who beautifully carries the story through all its ups and down, twists and turns.
Interestingly, one of the actors, Tom Malloy wrote his own business book, Bankroll, to help Hollywood actors gain financing for their projects.
The original musical score was the brainchild of Tyler David Gilbert who also did a masterful job of editing… and re-editing! Thank you Tyler!
But like any team, its performance is only as good as its coach. In this case our director, Matt Weinglass, was responsible for leading his troupe! Matt understood what we were trying to do, which was to bring our business biography to life and demonstrate through dramatic performance – and a generous dash of humor – key business principles that can help others succeed. He artfully and skillfully brought all the pieces together to create continuity, purpose, vision, and team spirit. And after all, that’s what the story is all about …spirit!
Many thanks to Sherwood Players Productions and our dear friend and colleague Ryan Foland, who encouraged and supported us in this new venture!
So now it’s up to you. We produced this new style of business audio book in the hopes that more of you would benefit from the many lessons we learned the hard way – so you don’t have to! Just experience what happens to us in this modern seat-of-your-pants, cliffhanger adventure story about a brand you know. We’d love to get your comments and we would be thrilled if you would recommend it to your friends who can benefit. There’s ten, 40 min chapters with a short “live” interview with us at the end of each, perfect listening for your next jog or commute.
Hear a few scenes from The Barefoot Spirit, now available on our Author’s Direct page and at audiobook retailers everywhere!
To your success!
M&B
