Today, I conclude my series of three questions I asked of Michael Margolis, author of the new book, Believe Me: Why Your Vision, Brand, and Leadership Need a Bigger Story (see yesterday’s entry and Friday’s.)
Michael writes that the Believe Me manifesto is just the beginning. “Follow-up books will be more practical, with frameworks, case studies, and a how-to driven approach,” he writes toward the end of Believe Me
. “I am eager to explore more deeply the topics of 1) brand storytelling, 2) social innovation stories, and 3) the stories every entrepreneur must tell.”
I asked him to elaborate on his planned books:
Here’s my confession, I’ve always clearly envisioned writing at least 7 or 10 books in my lifetime (humble ambitions, right?). Yet, every time I’d sit down to write a book, all 7 to 10 books would show up at once, like competing voices arguing in my head. So writing was a pretty frustrating experience — with plenty of false starts over the years. In the case of Believe Me, I wrote the book in just 90-days (!) from the first word on paper to the “publisher’s proof” in hand. Clearly, technology (and a little elbow grease) is a game-changer, profoundly changing how we produce and consume stories today. I skipped working on my tan this summer, and instead produced a book. Joking aside, I’m in the midst of developing the material for the next four books. I’ve launched a series of free/paid tele-classes, new workshop offerings, and putting the finishing touches on a 6-month executive-education program called High Stakes Storytelling. I share all of this, because these current activities will form the basis of my next books — and will take a more practical, hands-on approach — guiding readers through a variety of real-world scenarios and business applications. I haven’t yet decided which of the four books comes out first, but the topics I’ll be covering in more depth include brand storytelling, entrepreneurial narratives, social media storytelling, and storytelling for social change. In essence, helping to map out the new paradigm of business especially for society’s change-makers, innovators, and pioneers.