There is a distinction between broadcasting your story — storytelling — and living your story, or “storydoing.” Understanding the difference between the two and shifting toward the latter is fundamental to building a business, says Rosemarie Ryan, CEO and co-founder of co:collective (cocollective.com), a strategy consultant that has copyrighted the term “storydoing.”
Storytelling has historically been the purview of the marketing department; storydoing must be on the to-do list of the entire organization, Ryan says.
“Storydoers are structured differently. They all put their story at the center of their business and build it into their products and services. They know what they are for and what they are against,” she states in an essay for Inc.com.
“Great storydoing companies are on a quest. They define an ambition, beyond commercial aspiration, that comes through in everything they do,” Ryan adds. “Being the biggest or the most financially successful is not a quest. There has to be a fundamental generosity for a quest to inspire. It has to be something that inspires people to join and evangelize.”
