In this BNI Education Slot, Darren Jamieson delivers a memorable talk about the power of storytelling in BNI presentations.

He begins by referencing Homer, the ancient Greek poet traditionally associated with The Iliad and The Odyssey. Darren makes it clear that he is not talking about the yellow cartoon character from The Simpsons, but about the storyteller whose work has endured for approximately 2,700 years.

https://youtu.be/fS5dI0H_A1U

Darren explains that Homer was not really an author in the modern sense. He was an orator. The stories attributed to him were passed from town to town through spoken performance. These stories included the journeys of figures such as Odysseus, Achilles, King Agamemnon, Penelope and Telemachus.

The key point Darren draws from this is that stories last. They stay with people in a way that facts often do not.

He reminds the audience of two familiar ideas: “facts tell, but stories sell,” and that people may not remember exactly what someone says or does, but they will remember how that person made them feel. Stories, he explains, are what create that feeling.

Darren then encourages BNI members to use storytelling in their own presentations. This could include their 60 seconds, 4-minute launch pads, 10-minute presentations and even their one-to-ones.

He introduces the Hero’s Journey as a simple and powerful structure that can help members build better talks. Darren describes the Hero’s Journey as a framework that has appeared countless times in literature, film and television. It is the structure behind stories such as Harry Potter, Star Wars and many epic adventures.

The typical structure involves a hero who wants something better, sets out on a journey, meets a mentor, faces danger and conflict, overcomes a major challenge and returns with a new perspective.

Darren then brings this idea back to BNI. He acknowledges that simply asking for referrals might seem easier. A member could stand up, say what they are looking for, sit down and hope the referrals come in. But Darren challenges the room by asking who can remember what other members asked for several weeks earlier. The lack of response proves his point: facts are quickly forgotten.

To illustrate the power of storytelling, Darren shares an example from a previous 10-minute presentation he gave at a BNI Green Club event involving Cheshire West and Cheshire East at Warrington Golf Club. Another member had used slides and talked about their business, but Darren instead told a story about a client whose business nearly failed during COVID.

Rather than focusing on his own company, Engage Web, Darren focused on the client’s challenge, the danger they faced and how the business was able to pivot and achieve its best financial year ever.

That story, Darren explains, was structured around the Hero’s Journey. The client was the hero, while Darren and his business acted as the mentor.

This is the most important distinction in the talk: when using the Hero’s Journey in BNI, the member is not the hero. The client is the hero. The member is the guide, the mentor, the Obi-Wan Kenobi or Hagrid figure who helps the hero succeed.

Darren explains that people still speak to him about that presentation years later, not because he listed his services, but because he told a story that stayed with them.

He concludes by encouraging members to learn more about the Hero’s Journey. They could buy a book on the subject or use an AI tool such as ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini or Grok to help structure a BNI presentation around their business and clients.

His final message is clear: the BNI member who masters storytelling will master getting referrals. That is why stories like The Odyssey are still being discussed 2,700 years after Homer first told them.

Full Transcript

00:15
This morning, I would like to talk about the ancient epic Greek poet Homer.

00:22
Don’t. Yeah, I heard you, Colin, talking about The Simpsons this morning. I thought it was very fitting.

00:27
Not the yellow guy that works in a power plant and has caused a number of meltdowns in Springfield.

00:30
No, the 2,700-year-old epic poet Homer, who is attributed with having written The Iliad and The Odyssey.

00:37
Only Homer didn’t write them.

00:41
Homer was never an author. Homer was an orator.

00:45
Homer would travel around, if Homer even existed, Homer would travel around from town to town telling the stories about Odysseus, about Achilles, about King Agamemnon.

00:57
And then in The Odyssey, it was about Odysseus’s route to get home from the Trojan War to Ithaca, to his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus.

01:04
And that has lasted 2,700 years, that story, right to the point where there is a film coming out in July by Christopher Nolan about The Odyssey, starring Matt Damon.

01:15
Another one of those films with Matt Damon trying to get home, which seems to be the whole point of his career. He’s made loads about that.

01:20
But the point is, stories work. Stories stay with you.

01:29
Because you may have heard the phrase, “facts tell, but stories sell.”

01:34
And you may have also heard the phrase, “people will never, never remember what you say or what you do, but they will remember how you make them feel.”

01:42
And stories make people feel.

01:45
So what I’m suggesting to you today is that you incorporate stories within your BNI talks, within your 60 seconds, within your 4-minute launch pads, within your 10 minutes, within your one-to-ones.

01:57
And there is a simple way that you can incorporate stories into your talks.

02:01
And that is with something you may have heard, I know Karen has heard of this, which is the Hero’s Journey.

02:05
Show me your hand if you’ve heard of the Hero’s Journey.

02:11
Just under half, probably about a third of the room, have heard of the Hero’s Journey.

02:16
It is a structure for a story that has been used thousands, millions of times in literature, in books, in films, in TV series.

02:25
You will all recognise it if you see it.

02:28
The hero lives in a land where he wants something better for himself. He wants to experience a journey.

02:35
He incorporates a mentor who teaches him the ways to go forward and learn the potential within.

02:41
He encompasses danger. He encompasses conflict.

02:44
He defeats a great adversary before returning home with fresh perspective on life.

02:49
It’s the plot for Harry Potter. It’s the plot for Star Wars.

02:53
It’s the plot for countless science fictions, for countless epic journeys.

02:57
The Hero’s Journey has been used time and time again, and you can use it within your BNI to talk about what it is that you are looking for.

03:06
Now, you may be thinking, “This all sounds great, Darren, but can I not just ask for the referrals I want, sit down, and then go home and get those referrals?”

03:14
Because that would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it?

03:16
That would be a lot easier, wouldn’t it, Ray?

03:19
Indeed, it’d be a lot easier. Yeah.

03:21
But who remembers who Dave Bundy was asking for three weeks ago?

03:26
I don’t even remember. No.

03:29
Who remembers who Stephen was asking for two weeks ago?

03:34
No.

03:35
Facts tell, stories sell.

03:38
A few of you were in the room when I did a 10 minutes at the first Green Club we ever held, the joint Green Club with Cheshire West and Cheshire East at Warrington Golf Club.

03:47
Two members did the 10 minutes, one member from Cheshire East and I did it from Cheshire West.

03:53
The member from Cheshire East put lots of slides up, talked about his business, talked about what he did.

03:59
For the people in the room, does anybody remember that?

04:03
No. No.

04:04
No.

04:05
Whereas I told a story about one of our clients whose business almost went bust during COVID, about how he thought he was going to lose his business.

04:11
But because of the way we pivoted his business, it ended up being his best financial year ever.

04:16
I did it without any slides. I didn’t talk about Engage Web. I didn’t talk about what we do.

04:21
I didn’t show websites that we built. I talked about that client.

04:25
That was a structure based on the Hero’s Journey.

04:28
And that client was the hero.

04:30
Important distinction. When you use the Hero’s Journey, you are not the hero.

04:34
Your client is the hero. You are the mentor.

04:37
You are the Obi-Wan Kenobi. You are the Hagrid.

04:40
Your client is the hero.

04:42
I have had people come up to me ever since, years later, from both Cheshire East and Cheshire West, and comment on that story.

04:49
It stayed with them. They’ve remembered it.

04:53
You didn’t remember who Dave Bundy was asking for three weeks ago, but people remember that story I told three years ago because stories stay with you.

05:02
So, what I want you to do, and you can ignore me if you like, it’s totally up to you.

05:06
Go on Amazon, buy the book The Hero’s Journey.

05:11
If you don’t like books, if you don’t want to read, if you don’t want to spend money on a book, that’s fine.

05:15
Go to your favourite AI of choice.

05:18
It could be ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Grok, whatever you want.

05:22
Ask that AI, “Using the structure of the Hero’s Journey, based on what you know about me and my business, how can I incorporate the Hero’s Journey into a talk for my BNI meeting?”

05:33
Either 10 minutes or 60 seconds.

05:36
And it will give you that structure. It will give it to you, and it will be very good.

05:42
Now again, you’re thinking, “What’s the point? I can still just talk about what I want and it’s easier that way.”

05:49
Yes, it is.

05:51
But the BNI member that masters storytelling will master getting referrals, which is why we are still talking about The Odyssey 2,700 years after Homer first spoke about it.

05:59
Thank you.

06:01
Amazing.