Telling Shareable Stories to Sports Fans with Barry Blyn of ESPN
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Release Date: 06/13/2019
Building A Business And The Power Of Stories
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Episode: Building a Business And The Power Of Stories Guests: Hust Williamson, Mary Scott Jameson and Hodges Markwalter Welcome to another episode of What’s Your Story where we host in depth conversations with business leaders to explore how they use storytelling to engage their audiences. Taking on the journey of entrepreneurship is not an easy feat and it’s not for the faint of heart. It takes passion behind your product or service and quite a bit of gusto on how you deliver your messages to investors and potential customers. And today, we have two entrepreneurs joining us: Mary Scot...
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Reigniting Ideas & Strategies with Teams with Keith Wilmot
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
It’s safe to say we all wish we could wake up every day and bring everything we have to the roles we’re in. Each day would be a new day, every agenda a clean slate. But the reality is that many of us are in roles that are a little messier than that. So messy in fact that getting to new ideas or exploring an out-of-the-box concept isn’t easy. In fact, with a pile of problems and challenges in our every day, new ideas can feel impossible. Unless you’ve spent time with Keith Wilmot. In our latest episode of What’s Your Story, Sally talks with Keith about how his agency, , helps leaders...
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Talent, Data & People - The Strategic CHRO with Kim Sullivan
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
We all faced new dynamics and uncharted waters as managers and leaders navigating a pandemic, social unrest and different ways of working. But if you considered the corporate role that felt the most impact, the CHRO, Chief Human Resources Officer, would rank high in terms of the toughest leadership positions over the last few years. And that's why this episode is so timely. In this episode, Sally talks to Kim Sullivan, who has been an HR leader for three global companies and a CHRO for more than six years which means pre-pandemic, post-pandemic and during the pandemic, giving her great...
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Getting Down to Business with Kim Wilson of Lucy's Market
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Small businesses have gotten a lot of visibility over the last two years. As the world slowed down and dealt with a pandemic, we were more aware of the businesses on the corner that weren’t focused on five-year plans but were focused on next months’ payroll to survive. It brought front and center a look at how small businesses work and interestingly, as the world reset, it seemed to inspire a whole new culture of entrepreneurs and people who’d like to be their own boss. But running a small business isn’t for the faint of heart. As the last two years have proven, the safety net looks...
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Resetting & Reducing Social Distance with Karen Riddell
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Social distancing is a term that took hold during the pandemic as a descriptive way of creating boundaries from each other. But after two years of distancing and now going back to offices and social settings with colleagues and friends, social distance may take on new meaning. At a minimum, the re-engagement in groups feels awkward at first. We’ve forgotten some of the social norms and feel a little rusty at small talk. In a corporate setting, we realize that Zoom calls didn’t allow for much of a relationship with colleagues. So, we aren’t quickly at ease as a member of the team. Virtual...
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The Mastery of Skills with Kenny Selmon
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Every day, we talk to people about practice. And we explain that to become effective at communication, you have to work at becoming good at it. And we define mastery of a skill as those who become so good at a skill that you can count on their performance and outcome consistently. And once you begin to talk about performance and outcomes, it’s easy to draw a parallel between mastery of a skill like communication and mastery of sports like the Olympics. And that’s what we’re going to do for you on this podcast: connect the concepts of practice, mastery and outcomes. And accentuate...
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The Art of Coaching - How to Choose the Right Coach with Francie Schulwolf
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
In the last year, millions of workers took early retirement, which created a band of less-experienced managers and leaders in most companies. It’s a great career opportunity and accelerated promotions for several managers. But it also pushes a less-experienced leader to learn how to drive while the car is moving, and it can create risks within a company when someone is leading who doesn’t have a bank of experiences to draw on. That’s why coaching is a hot commodity. A Coach becomes a trusted advisor to a new leader. A good Coach becomes a sounding board… and a confidante. A good Coach...
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The Big Pitch with Rachel Spasser
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
This episode's topic is The Big Pitch. And it’s a discussion of one of the most important presentations you may ever give. It has a definitive and measurable impact. It’s rarely shared with a large audience. And while the audience may be small, they are a critical one. Because their interest and reaction to the presentation may change the future of a company. And in fact, that’s actually the point. Today, we’re going to talk about “pitch” presentations. Those opportunities when a start-up, mid-size or even a large corporation wants to be acquired. The Big Pitch is a different kind...
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Disrupted! A Talent Acquisition Perspective
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Disruption happens every day across the corporate world. As employees, we experience reorgs, layoffs and acquisitions, and as disrupters ourselves we move cross country, chase ideas and challenge norms. But amidst all the disruption we all experience, some of us seem to thrive in times of turmoil. These are the communicators who have mastered the two secret arts hidden within corporate disruption: learning how to establish a compelling brand and build an intriguing career narrative. They are skills that take time to perfect, but they’re the differentiator factors between those who are cast...
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Disrupted! A Talent Development Perspective
What's Your Story: How Leaders Tell Stories to Influence and Connect with Audiences
Disruption happens every day across the corporate world. As employees, we experience reorgs, layoffs and acquisitions, and as disrupters ourselves we move cross country, chase ideas and challenge norms. But amidst all the disruption we all experience, some of us seem to thrive in times of turmoil. These are the communicators who have mastered the two secret arts hidden within corporate disruption: learning how to establish a compelling brand and build an intriguing career narrative. They are skills that take time to perfect, but they’re the differentiator factors between those who are cast...
info_outlineBarry Blyn is the Vice President of Original Content and Brand Intelligence at ESPN. A graduate of the NYU Stern School of Business, Barry has worked with insights, data, and people throughout a variety of industries including politics, comedy, and sports. Currently in sports, Barry offers insight into the mind of the fan from ancient history until now and the nuances that lie therein. Do sports have meaning? And, if they don’t, why do fans engage in such deep loyalty practices, wearing their team’s colors and painting their faces? Can you convert a sports fan to a new favorite team?
He tells us of ESPN’s consumer image, sponsorship opportunities and how fans react to them, the virality of sports stories, and the ever-accelerating sports news cycles. Because of his time in other industries, Barry is able to home in on what really sets the sports industry apart, and what changes content creators and storytellers should make to target this audience.
Most importantly, Barry talks to us about stories themselves, often while using stories himself that demonstrate the concepts he discusses. How do you know when a story works? What if you hear your story repeated back—and what if you hear it repeated wrong? Find out in today’s episode!
- 1:00 Sports stories fit almost all types of business situations. But what about if you’re in sports? What type story do you use then to explain the business situations?
- 2:00 What does Barry Blyn’s team do at ESPN? What tools do they use?
- 4:00 How has the business of giving insights changed? What impact has Big Data had, and what’s important now when so much information is available?
- 6:00 What insights does Barry try to collect in regards to sports? How does history and brain wiring play a role in sports insights? Are all sports fans the same?
- 8:00 How have things changed over the years as it pertains to sports and events? Is that a particularly interesting or complex area of sports insights? How has the sports news cycle changed?
- 12:00 Stories are how information gets remembered and repeated. Are sports fans one of the audiences who repeat content the most? Are sports stories the original viral content?
- 14:00 How is sponsorship in sports different from advertising in other niches?
- 20:00 What were the early risks of Game Day?
- 25:00 Are the sports fans Barry profiles constantly changing or easy to profile? What changes can occur?
- 34:00 Are there times Barry’s stories get repeated back to him? Barry describes some important moments in his career that assure him his storytelling works.