Jack Murray on Storytelling for Business

Joining me this week is Jack Murray.

Jack is the CEO of MediaHQ, a media contacts and press release distribution platform. Jack started his career as a political and media adviser to a political party in Ireland. He then went on to found his company Media HQ. He is also a talented author, having written and released an incredible book called, The Magic Slice: How to Master the Art of Storytelling for Business. The way he describes his company, using the framework in the book, is that they connect brands with audiences. You’ll realize from listening to this conversation just how powerful it is to reframe what the mission of the company is in that way.

In this episode, we talk through the six steps in the framework for The Magic Slice, which is the intersection between the mission for your company, and what your audience is interested in.

The Six Steps:

Start with finding your mission and articulating it.
Tuning into the different audiences that you’re seeking to reach.
Creating topics or categories for what you should be talking about.
Combining the mission, the audience, and your topics into a magic slice statement.
Generating compelling stories that fill those topics. In Jack’s words, it’s coming up with hundreds of stories that articulate the mission for your audience.
Revising and editing.

That last step is incredibly important. We spend a lot of time talking about practicing creativity, how creativity is not something that you are born with – it is a discipline, it is a way of doing things. One of the great things he says in the episode is how creativity is about putting yourself in the position where you’re forced to do the things that you want to be good at.

In this episode, we talk about:

Flow, and how that relates to creativity.
Some of the mistakes companies make when communicating, such as a lack of frequency, or how a lot of corporate employees are held back from truly communicating authentically for fear of failure.
How we’re in a golden age for storytelling, and the potential for companies that are good at storytelling to attract talent from all over the world to build learning cultures, and to change the world through ambitious missions for their audience and customers.

Whether you have a company or you’re working in a company, you’re going to learn a lot from listening to Jack, and you’ll learn even more from getting his book.

Please sit back and enjoy my episode with Jack Murray.

Full Episode

Guest Links

Show Notes

Building the foundation: Jack talks about his early political experiences and the skills and knowledge that he acquired along the way. (00:04:13-00:08:51)
Creativity: Putting yourself in a position where you’re forced to do the things that you want to be good at. (00:08:52-00:12:07)
Jack tells us about his political party’s mission and audience. (00:12:08-00:15:36)
What is the value of storytelling? (00:15:37-00:21:10)
Step one of The Six-Step Magic Slice Process: Finding a mission. (00:21:11-00:23:44)
Why finding a mission can be challenging for some people, and advice on how to get better at articulating your mission. (00:23:45-00:28:26)
What is The Six-Step Magic Slice Process? (00:28:27-00:33:20)
Communicating authentically: How to put out your story and mission effectively. (00:33:21-00:36:05)
Questions to ask as you work towards defining your mission, and characteristics of a great mission. (00:39:57-00:41:16)
Tips for tuning into the different audiences that you’re seeking to reach, as well as advice on creating topics or categories for what you should be talking about. (00:41:17-00:41:48)
How to combine the mission, the audience, and topics into a magic slice statement, and articulating that mission for your audience. (00:42:06-00:44:50)
We discuss the driving force behind curiosity and learning, as well as the significance of collaboration. (00:44:51-00:47:21)
Tips on selecting a good story topic for your business. (00:47:32-00:48:53)
Flow, creativity, and learning: How it helps in generating compelling stories. (00:48:54-00:53:28)
What Jack is excited about for the future. (00:54:29-00:56:56)
Where you can find Jack on social media. (00:57:07-00:57:26)

Selected Links from the Episode

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