Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / Season 5, Episode 3: The Other End of the Line - Inside Sales Stories with Ceri Ruenheck

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Season 5, Episode 3: The Other End of the Line - Inside Sales Stories with Ceri Ruenheck · The Starfish Storytellers

0:00
Welcome to the starfish storytellers the podcast
0:03
that makes a difference one story at a time by
0:05
bringing storytelling to life I Got a call from
0:10
a national manufacturer And they wanted to do
0:14
a call a pilot calling program, but it was going
0:16
to be a big pilot calling big program and When
0:21
I heard it was the national manufacturer. I was
0:24
like you don't want me We're really small and,
0:28
oh no, we like working with entrepreneurs. And
0:31
so she said, just send a proposal. So I sent
0:34
the proposal out. I did the follow -up calling.
0:38
She never responded. I just kept on calling on
0:41
the proposal. And finally she was, she calls
0:43
me back and she goes, yes, we'd like to come
0:45
and see your facility. I said, we're virtual?
0:47
So if you want to come over to my house, you're
0:49
more than welcome to do that. If you want to
0:51
see an actual call center, then I'm not the company
0:54
for you. She said, no, I'll come over. So the
0:57
day that she's coming over, this was a while
0:59
ago. I was pregnant with my son. And she's, I'm
1:03
getting all the house already. And I stop at
1:05
Dunkin Donuts, making sure that I have coffee
1:08
and donuts already. And she has a mess. I have
1:13
a two -year -old son. and there's popcorn crumbs
1:15
and toys all over the place. And I'm wearing,
1:18
and I'm pregnant, so of course I'm wearing nothing
1:20
appropriate. And she knocks on the door and she's
1:24
a half an hour early. And I'm like, she goes,
1:30
hi, I'm early. And I'm like, hi, you have got
1:34
to know, I know how to dress professionally and
1:37
my house has seen better days. We sit down, and
1:42
I give her the coffee and the Dunkin' Donuts
1:45
and all that, and she starts asking me questions,
1:48
and they're really ambiguous. What would constitute
1:50
a hot lead? And I'm like, whatever you say, it's
1:53
going to be a hot lead. What would you turn those
1:55
hot leads over? That would really be determined
1:57
by you. So I have no idea how I'm doing. And
2:01
meanwhile, my cat walks in. And this is the cat
2:03
that never shows up when there's people. And
2:06
he walks in, he sits down right between us. and
2:10
she's about to pitch down to pet him and she
2:12
recoils, I mean physically recoils, the cat has
2:16
grass and mud and just dirty and she's oh what
2:22
a cute kitty and the next thing I know the cat
2:24
starts puking everywhere. I'm like okay this
2:32
I have to clean up so she I clean it up she She
2:36
just shuffles her papers and puts them away.
2:39
And she walks off. Actually, we talked for about
2:42
another half hour about everything else but calling.
2:45
And then she leaves. And I didn't even think
2:48
to ask her what her timelines were or anything
2:50
like that. But I called her after a week. And
2:53
I left a message. She called me back within 15
2:56
minutes. And she said, Carrie, I highly recommended
2:58
you to our VP of Sales and Marketing. When can
3:02
you start? Here I was pushing everything away.
3:07
No, you don't want me. You don't want me here.
3:08
Cat throws up. No, you don't want me. And we
3:12
got them and we ended up finding them like $125
3:16
,000 in sales as a result of our calling. So
3:19
we did the proof concept for them and they started
3:21
their own inside sales group. There you go. Oh,
3:25
and she did tell me that she never mentioned
3:27
about the cat puking to her sales, her VP of
3:29
sales. Hello, my name is Liana Henry and welcome
3:41
to the starfish storytellers. I'm the CEO of
3:44
the black dog group and your host I'm passionate
3:47
about storytelling and on a mission to raise
3:49
up the next generation of storytellers We're
3:52
called the starfish storytellers after the moral
3:55
of the starfish story which centers on the power
3:57
of one Because no matter how big the challenge
4:00
every action matters one step one starfish and
4:04
one story at a time Every episode, we'll welcome
4:07
a new storyteller who will inspire and connect
4:09
with you. So thanks for tuning in. Now let's
4:12
get started. Today's episode is on the other
4:16
end of the line storytelling under pressure.
4:19
And with me is Carrie Rouenek. I think I got
4:23
that right. Carrie is the president of It's Your
4:26
Call. a B2B telemarketing services company that
4:29
develops, implements, and delivers telemarketing
4:32
programs that help companies convert leads into
4:35
sales. She's been in business for over 30 years
4:38
and she's a leader in human connection. She's
4:41
someone who understands that a calm voice, the
4:44
right words, and genuine listening can turn a
4:47
moment into momentum, one phone call at a time.
4:51
Kerry works in an environment where storytelling
4:53
has to happen fast, calmly, and under pressure.
4:56
Every call is a moment of trust, tone, and emotional
5:00
intelligence. And often, it's the first human
5:03
impression of a brand. So welcome to the Starfish
5:06
Storytellers. Carrie, we're so happy that you're
5:08
here. Thank you. Glad to be here. My name is
5:13
Carrie Rooneck, and I'm the owner of It's Your
5:15
Call. We're a business -to -business outbound
5:18
telemarketing service where we make phone calls
5:21
for lead generation, lead qualification. customer
5:25
outreach, event promotion, database cleaning.
5:29
Anytime that companies have a large amount of
5:31
calling and they can't do it themselves, so they
5:33
don't have the resources to do it themselves,
5:35
they hire us. We work in all types of industries
5:40
and yeah, we work with mostly small businesses,
5:44
but we do have done projects for a lot of much
5:47
larger companies when they can't just dump a
5:50
thousand names on their inside sales group and
5:52
go, oh yeah. With that, with the rest of your
5:55
work, follow up on these, then they hire us.
5:59
Thank you for sharing your story with us. It
6:02
is such a story of authenticity. And we'll talk
6:06
today more about authenticity, but it's your
6:09
journey highlights that storytelling isn't going
6:11
to always happen with visuals, headlines or carefully
6:14
edited messaging. Your story pretty much showed
6:18
us that it happens in real time. And sometimes
6:22
you're just you're going to just say what you
6:24
need to say, right? You're going to be authentic,
6:27
but you were very much in your story. You were
6:29
very much present in the moment with that person,
6:32
which is what you have to do in your day -to
6:34
-day work with your clients too, is stay present
6:37
with the person on the other end of the line,
6:39
because sometimes they're distracted, they're
6:41
skeptical, they might be ready to hang up. And
6:44
it's in that moment that storytelling becomes
6:47
less about performance and more about trust.
6:50
In a business landscape where attention is short
6:53
and first impressions matter, the brands that
6:55
stand out are the ones that communicate clearly
6:58
and honestly through their people. And the work
7:00
that you and your team are doing shows that great
7:03
storytelling doesn't just explain what a company
7:06
is offering, but it helps somebody feel understood.
7:09
It gives people the confidence to keep listening,
7:12
maybe to ask some questions and to decide what
7:14
comes next. And that makes this kind of storytelling
7:17
really powerful. Would you agree? I definitely
7:21
agree. I definitely agree. So let's start with
7:27
your origin story. How did you decide you were
7:32
going to start this company, your journey as
7:34
an entrepreneur? How did you shape and build
7:38
this company? Okay. I was on maternity leave
7:41
with my first son. And one of my ex -bosses was
7:46
consulting to a company. And she said, they needed
7:49
to start an inside sales group. And you basically
7:53
started it for our company. Why don't you take
7:56
over the consulting gig? And this was our first
7:59
baby. And my husband and I were like, oh, what
8:02
are we going to do about child care? What are
8:03
we going to do? Should I take a second shift
8:05
job? All that. talking to them and it seemed
8:09
like a good idea, a nice balance. Here it was,
8:11
I could stay home and yet do this consulting
8:14
gig. And so I was helping them start their inside
8:18
sales group. And after about seven months, it
8:21
started petering out and I was like, how am I
8:25
going to find people that are thinking about
8:27
starting inside sales groups? And I just figured
8:31
I'm not that smart. So what I did was I realized
8:34
there's got to be a lot of small companies out
8:36
there that don't have the resources to do the
8:39
calling themselves, can't hire an inside sales
8:41
group. I can be banking the calls. So I just
8:45
went to a. Trade show. That was a small business
8:49
trade show. And anybody that had one of those
8:51
goldfish bowls out collecting business cards,
8:53
I just look at them and go, who's going to follow
8:55
up on those leads? And I got my second customer
8:59
and then I just kept on going. Nice. And did
9:06
you, how many people that you talked to that
9:08
day jumped at the opportunity to have someone
9:12
take care of their leads for them? That's huge.
9:16
I talked to seven specifically, ended up sending
9:22
follow -up letters too because this was back
9:24
in the day and what I did was I got a big bright
9:28
neon orange envelope and I wrote the person's
9:32
name on it with a black magic marker. I hand
9:34
wrote it out and one of the companies was actually
9:38
a very large internet provider and They said,
9:42
oh, you should talk to someone, the CEO of the
9:44
company. And so I sent it to the CEO with my
9:48
orange envelope and my black flair, Sharpie.
9:51
And I got a call back from that company and the
9:54
guy's like, do you know Bob? Like I was some
9:56
celebrity that, cause Bob, the CEO had actually
10:00
given him my letter to try and sell me, but that
10:04
was kind of got through. Cool. So seven in one
10:11
person that we just make about a 20 % response
10:14
rate. Which is great. Which is great. I don't
10:17
think that people really appreciate, and I think
10:19
we'll talk more about this today too. I don't
10:20
really think people appreciate how powerful and
10:24
important phone calls are. We do live in an era
10:28
where email marketing is really big and important,
10:31
but then after you've emailed for a while, you
10:35
need to take the next step. Yeah, that's one
10:37
of the things that we're finding a lot of our
10:40
current customers are doing. They're doing emails.
10:42
They're seeing people open the emails, clicking
10:46
on the links, clicking on, but never doing the
10:49
actual follow through call to action. My thought
10:53
process is you've got to be spoon feeding people
10:55
the whole way through. And the only way to make
10:58
yourself stand out is to get on the phone and
11:01
talk to them and find out where they really are.
11:04
Someone's kid just playing on their parent's
11:07
phone or on their computer opening things and
11:11
they have nothing. But you're seeing 65 opens
11:14
and it's all, this is great. This is great. This
11:17
is supposed to be a really hot lead. Yeah. No
11:20
it isn't. Yeah. By getting on the phone, you're
11:23
actually, you're doing the lead qualification
11:24
and you're getting to find out where exactly
11:27
people are in the sales cycle and where they're
11:29
just not interested. They're just polite and
11:32
they open their, all their emails. Yeah. I've
11:34
done my share of, I've done my share of emailing
11:37
and I definitely have seen people open it. And
11:39
I find that what they open is what I care about.
11:42
It's fine. The types of content that we send
11:45
out. you know, when they click on certain things,
11:47
okay, they're interested in this kind of content.
11:49
They're interested kind of, but when they open
11:51
the contact us and like time to make a phone
11:53
call. Cause if you're looking at the contact
11:57
us, then you must want to have a conversation.
11:59
So, and I had, when I had, I have a marketing
12:02
agency now, but I had run a newspaper magazine
12:05
for a long time and I didn't really do much email
12:07
marketing. Everything was by in person or by
12:10
phone. And I just remember calling I think it
12:14
was enterprise bank was one of my clients. And
12:18
I remember I called them for 10 straight months
12:22
over and over. And on the 11th month, they signed
12:25
on and they became one of my biggest, best customers.
12:29
Oh yeah. And it's just inconsistent. Yes. Yes.
12:32
And it feels like a victory, right? It's so sweet
12:35
when you like really the elbow grease into making
12:39
that work. Exactly. Exactly. Yes, yes. So let's
12:46
talk a little bit more about storytelling in
12:48
real time. When people think of call centers,
12:49
they probably don't think of storytelling, but
12:51
I think it's different because in your world,
12:53
every call is a live interaction with a beginning,
12:55
a middle, and an end, which is pretty much the
12:58
standard story arc. When you get someone on the
13:01
phone or one of your folks do, what is happening
13:05
in those first 10 to 30 seconds that determines
13:08
whether they're going to stay on or they're going
13:10
to hang up? Okay, so legally you have to say
13:13
who you are, what company you're calling from,
13:16
and the reason for your call. That has to come
13:18
out first. Usually what we'll do, depending on
13:22
customer and how they want to frame it, but usually
13:25
it's, we help customer, we help our clients do
13:29
blah, blah. So we're telling them what we're
13:32
solving, the problem that we're solving, and
13:34
then how we're going to do it. And then we take
13:36
it to the next step of we'd like to set up an
13:41
appointment or we'd like to have to send you
13:43
more information or are you interested in seeing
13:45
a demo or whatever the next step is, whatever
13:47
the customer determines. It's got to be, wouldn't
13:51
you like to save money? I've always said no.
13:56
Because if you just say no to somebody on the
14:00
phone and no other thing, nothing else, they
14:03
have to hang up. Wouldn't you like to save money?
14:06
No. We can save you money. I hate those calls.
14:11
We can save you money. No, I just said no. And
14:14
they still, they add their script of what to
14:16
do when they say no. But that's one of those
14:19
huge measure it by acreage amount of callers
14:23
where everything has to be exactly McDonald's.
14:26
You say this, they say this, you say this. And
14:30
we don't roll that way. So, well, I think that
14:34
you're... You use what you call, I think when
14:36
we met, you called them call guides. Correct.
14:39
I think people may call them scripts, but you,
14:43
you call them call guides. And I think people
14:45
who call them scripts might think, Oh, they make
14:47
conversations robotic, but they, that hasn't
14:49
been your experience, has it? You train your
14:51
team to use those. And there's gotta be like
14:54
a certain flow to that. But it sounds like the
14:57
human storytelling comes in because your people
15:00
are listening. You just said it. It's like, if
15:02
somebody says no. This conversation is over right
15:05
now. Correct. And just move on to the next. With
15:08
the call guide, what we'd like to try and incorporate
15:12
is the objections, the common objections that
15:15
customers have so that we don't have any money.
15:19
Oh, is that something that you're interested
15:21
in though? Do you think in the future you might
15:23
need to have a need for it? So they're able to
15:25
go back and forth as opposed to... Nope, not
15:28
interested, hang up, click. If the person on
15:33
the other end of the phone is objecting, then
15:35
they're waiting for you to respond. An objection
15:39
is never a no. But if they just say no or not
15:43
interested, then that's it. Now, you just said
15:46
an objection is something that it's not an outright
15:51
rejection or an outright no, but there might
15:55
be some objections. And I know from sales, there
15:59
is a whole list of different types of objections.
16:01
Is that the moment where it sounds like that
16:04
might be the moment where some storytelling would
16:06
work because it's like the stoplight, right?
16:10
Red, yellow, green. And green is yes, we're in,
16:14
we'd love to know more, set up the appointment.
16:16
Red is no, outright no. But it seems like yellow
16:20
is that sort of, I hate to say gray area, but
16:23
yellow is out of that midpoint where They might
16:26
be saying, Oh, I don't know. I don't know. I
16:29
have this or that. I would imagine that's your,
16:31
that's where it's your sweet spot. That's where
16:33
you're going to get in there and be able to talk
16:35
about your client and tell their story. Yes.
16:38
That's where it would make a difference. If one
16:40
would do calling for it's your call because we
16:41
do eat our own cooking. Sometimes people are
16:44
like, Oh, we're too technical. We have a lot
16:48
of a background in doing technical work. We work
16:50
with a robotics company, AI company. And so we
16:53
drop off, they have all the things to talk about
16:56
for technicals. And usually the people who are
16:59
doing the calling have actually been on those
17:01
campaigns so they can elaborate on that if need
17:04
be. We just, we make sure that if there's an
17:07
objection, here's the, here's what you pair with
17:11
it. We're too small. That's our specialty. We
17:13
work with small companies. We can be very flexible
17:16
in what we offer. Yeah. Yep. I always have to
17:19
be thinking about that too. When I follow up,
17:21
when we do emails and then we do follow up, it's
17:23
a variety of sized companies. Some companies,
17:26
I'm a marketing agency. And so some companies
17:28
have marketing departments, but we're a really
17:32
handy extra set of hands. I have a situation
17:35
right now where I'm working with a company and
17:37
they have a big event coming up in a couple of
17:40
weeks. We're going into February. So there are
17:42
events the first week of March and They have
17:45
a small marketing team and their marketing team
17:48
is a combination of marketing and product and
17:53
sales. And so the marketing person that they
17:56
is helping with the marketing is also has dual
17:58
roles. And so when I had been courting this company
18:03
for a couple of years and we just landed them,
18:05
but we landed them on a small scale just to get
18:07
our feet wet for them to see what we can do.
18:09
And we bring value because we can do all the
18:12
things they don't have time to do. And I would
18:16
find myself going into meetings with some of
18:19
these business owners or marketing directors
18:22
and they're frazzled and they're all over the
18:24
place. And it just gives me this wonderful opportunity
18:27
to just be this like calming presence. What can
18:31
I do for you? Yeah. It looks like you might need
18:33
this and this. Oh yeah. Did you think about this?
18:36
Oh no. Yeah. It sounds like we'll just take care
18:38
of that. And then we turn around and boom, we
18:40
drop it in there and they They're like, Oh, thank
18:44
you for doing that. That's the kind of response
18:46
I want. And, or you have a small business owner
18:49
who doesn't have any marketing help. And when
18:52
they might have a little budget for it and they
18:53
need some help and we just get in there and we
18:55
just didn't take that from off their plate. But
18:57
I think like you said, it's. Objection is maybe
19:01
if you treat it, you can treat it like a maybe.
19:05
Usually an objection means they're waiting for
19:07
you to respond to them. You just don't go, Oh,
19:09
okay. Click. You don't have any money now. Oh,
19:14
click. No future. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. So
19:21
in the situations when your folks actually have
19:25
to deal with just not just the objection, but
19:27
maybe some outright hostility or real impatience,
19:31
because that's not easy, right? What's it take
19:34
for you and your folks both emotionally and mentally?
19:38
Because you need to stay calm. You need to stay
19:40
present. You need to stay respectful when the
19:43
other person is shutting you down. What does
19:45
it take for you to be able to keep it together?
19:48
And like we just talked about the objections
19:50
is the places where you can weave that storytelling
19:53
in. Have you seen cases where maybe folks have
19:58
rejection or objections and you've been able
20:01
to get in there and talk a little bit more about
20:04
your client and it's turned stuff around? Absolutely.
20:10
I don't ask me specifics. But I was thinking
20:17
more of the people that, if we go on the idea
20:22
of talking about rejection, it depends on the
20:25
caller. I have one woman, she doesn't care. She's
20:27
on to the next. That's her job. She's professional.
20:31
She does it every so often. I'll get a call from
20:33
another woman and she's just, oh my God, they
20:36
just told me the... They picked up the phone
20:40
and they said off and hung it up on me. She laughs
20:43
about it, but she calls me. up to tell me about
20:47
it. That's her way of venting and releasing.
20:49
And every so often you get a caller, this list
20:52
is terrible. It's the wrong numbers. We're not
20:55
getting through. I think those are the things
20:57
that bother people the most is when we're not
20:59
making connections and we're not getting through
21:01
to the people on the list or I've died or whatever,
21:04
if it's an old list. Those are the things that
21:06
drag them down the most. As far as the rejection,
21:09
it happens. It's part of the gig. When I was
21:13
doing calling at one point, I had done a calling
21:16
campaign and it was for that trade show company
21:20
and or the one that had the trade show list and
21:23
I was calling this guy he's down in New Jersey
21:26
I can still remember him and the the receptionist
21:30
was like oh he's out in the warehouse let me
21:32
go get him and she puts me on hold and then she
21:35
comes back on like a 30 40 seconds later okay
21:38
he's on his way and then I'm so I'm waiting and
21:42
then Another 40 seconds go by and she's, oh,
21:44
he's just there. And I'm thinking, oh, this is
21:46
not good. This is for a cold call. She's really
21:50
so get on the phone. I do my little deal to introduce
21:54
myself. He's he starts swearing at me. You told
21:59
my receptionist that you met me at this conference
22:03
and you're going to be lying. And then, you know,
22:07
you could have. I wasn't going to let him get
22:09
away with swearing at me. So I just was like,
22:12
obviously there was a bit of a miscommunication
22:14
here. I never portrayed myself as meeting you
22:17
in the thing at the trade show. I said that you
22:20
were at the trade show and we have found customers
22:22
that have attended these shows. are interested
22:26
in our products. I said, I'm very sorry for that.
22:29
That interrupted your day. And I'm sorry, there
22:30
was a miscommunication hung up. And then I called
22:33
the customer right afterwards. Oh, you got to
22:35
hear about this. You're portraying them. And
22:38
yet somebody just swore at you for your portrayal
22:43
of them. Oh, anyway. Yeah, that's so challenging.
22:47
And you do have to have a thick skin to do what
22:49
you do. Yeah. Yep, you do. You do. You have to
22:53
have a thick skin. You have to be able to think
22:55
on your feet. That's why we call them call guides
22:58
because people are using the structure and yet
23:02
seeing the flow of the conversation, but they're
23:05
using all their own words and they've got to
23:07
be able to come up when people say something
23:09
like, Oh, you're calling from someone's the owner
23:12
of the CEO. That's my neighbor. You know, that
23:14
happened one time and she's like, Yes, he is.
23:18
It's pretty funny, but you got to be able to
23:20
think on your feet. You can't just, if it goes
23:23
off script, what do you do then? You have to
23:25
be able to think. Yeah. Do you feel that I'm
23:30
guessing you've trained all your people to be
23:32
able to do that? It sounds like that's really
23:34
important. Yeah, I don't hire people with that
23:37
are newbies. I just, we've always been virtual
23:40
trying to teach somebody to make a phone cold
23:43
call while they're not next to you. And they
23:47
get their first rejection. When are they going
23:49
to get, I'm not going to be able to say, okay,
23:51
pick up the phone again. I've learned early on,
23:53
I've got to find people that have years of experience.
23:55
And most of the people that are doing the calling
23:58
and actually all of them have double digit years
24:00
experience making phone calls. So they know what
24:03
they're doing. Yeah. That's good. That's good.
24:07
It's not an easy job. It's a skill. It's a skill.
24:11
It's not just a job. That's right. So when you're
24:16
working with a client and you fill out the call
24:19
guide, they're going to give you a lot of their
24:22
story in the call guide. They're going to give
24:24
you their business story, their brand story,
24:26
their history, their product story, whatever.
24:29
And so your team isn't telling their own story,
24:33
they're telling other people's stories. And I'm
24:35
sure you have multiple clients, so they have
24:37
to tell lots of different stories. Do you have
24:40
to do anything to help them authentically represent
24:43
the brand story? I'm guessing they pretty good
24:47
about separating who they're covering with. Covering.
24:52
Yeah, they're there. They are professionals.
24:54
They are skilled. They know that. And they take
24:57
on the customer's product or service. It's, Oh,
25:00
we got them to say, Oh, we did that. Or whatever
25:02
happened to that appointment. Did you find out
25:04
about that? Did that go well? They're following
25:06
up. They care. It's happy customer, happy callers.
25:11
Yeah. I think we've talked a lot about this,
25:14
but maybe you could just close the loop on it.
25:17
When people think about telemarketing or call
25:19
center work. There's probably a lot of assumptions
25:22
there and there's probably some wrong assumptions
25:26
there. What is something that people are misunderstanding
25:29
about the work that you're doing? I think that
25:33
a lot of times people are just thinking anybody
25:36
can do it. We just said it's a skill. There are
25:40
professionals, there's senior folks. They know
25:43
how to work the phone and it's not just anybody
25:46
can do. I was just talking to somebody who was
25:48
saying that they were Working with someone virtually
25:52
an intern to make the phone calls and she said
25:56
well every other word does not You could pick
26:00
up the phone and somebody saying like it's taking
26:02
away their credibility it's gotta be polished
26:05
I See there's two almost distinct demographics
26:12
of call for call centers. You've got your Sophisticated
26:15
which I followed too One's where you're hiring
26:22
by the acreage and call centers. So you've got
26:26
thousands of people and they're doing it the
26:27
McDonald's way and you have to follow exactly
26:30
the same words. Everybody's saying the same thing
26:32
exactly the same way with the same tone of voice.
26:36
Yeah. And that's, we talk about it. We talk about
26:41
it in marketing a lot about what's your differentiator.
26:46
That's important. It's important to know what
26:48
that is. And I imagine that the customers that
26:50
you have, you probably have to do a little work
26:53
with them around that. You have to kind of talk
26:56
to them about, what is your differentiator? Because
26:58
you're the one that has, you're on the front
27:00
line calling these leads. Yeah. As I said, with
27:05
the callers that we have, they're seasoned, they're
27:08
senior level folks. And that way they're able
27:11
to portray our customers in the best light. So
27:16
we have listeners who listen because they want
27:20
to learn different ways of storytelling. And
27:23
there may be listeners today that they're not
27:26
in sales, they're not in call center roles, but
27:28
they do have to have hard conversations or they
27:31
do have to make good first impressions or they
27:35
are facing a high -stake moment. So what storytelling
27:39
message or lesson from your world would apply
27:42
to everyday life? I think the being authentic.
27:48
Not using your own language as opposed to...
27:53
I can't think of the word. See, I can't even
27:56
think of the word. I'm being authentic here.
27:59
Not using popular lingo. How's that? Yeah, not
28:02
losing jargon or buzzwords. Jargon, that is the
28:05
word, yeah. Just being yourself and not being
28:08
afraid to tell the truth. If somebody asks you
28:13
something and you don't know the answer, don't
28:14
try and make it up because... Stupid shows. Yes.
28:21
And people will verify. Yes. Which is really
28:25
easy to do these days. Yes, it is. Yes, it is.
28:29
Yeah. Yeah. I think we live in a world where
28:33
there's a lot of things that are not real. There's
28:38
a lot of things that are fake. And I think all
28:41
the places where people can be authentic and
28:43
be themselves and be real and be genuine. Yeah.
28:47
And it comes across, getting back to being on
28:50
the phone, the smile and dial was, and I know
28:54
we don't dial anymore, but that was a chant for
28:57
a while. And you can hear the difference between
28:59
when somebody's going, hi, this is Carrie or
29:02
hi, this is Carrie. How are you? I don't say
29:06
how are you. I don't ask people how they are,
29:08
but you can tell the difference in the voice.
29:12
Yep. Yeah. When you're up, You can hear it when
29:14
you're down. You can hear it. Well, that's just
29:17
another tip, if you will. If people listening
29:22
are doing a lot of calling and they're getting
29:24
to the point where they just can't, one of the
29:26
tricks is to stand up. Just get up out of your
29:29
chair and stand up and make the call because
29:32
it just allows more oxygen and breathing and
29:36
changes your whole status and it changes things
29:38
up. It's a good technique to use if you're just
29:41
at that bottom line. I don't want to make that
29:44
next call. Stand up. That's a great tip. I'll
29:47
have to try that. So great. Carrie, this has
29:54
been great. This is all the time we have for
29:57
today though. And just thank you so much for
30:00
joining us and reminding us that storytelling
30:04
doesn't always have to happen on a page or a
30:06
stage. Sometimes it happens through a nice calm
30:08
voice or... moment of patience, or just a human
30:12
connection, one call at a time. Thank you. This
30:15
was fun. Thank you. Thank you. And to our listeners,
30:20
whether you've first heard us locally through
30:22
BTV studios in Bedford, Massachusetts, or you're
30:26
tuning in from across the globe on Spotify, Apple
30:28
podcasts, or Amazon podcasts, thank you for listening.
30:33
We hope you enjoyed this episode and we'll see
30:35
you next time. Happy storytelling.