Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chris Watson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Chris, thanks for joining us today. How did you come up with the idea for your business?

When I was 8 years old, I would impersonate characters from movies, cartoons, & tv characters around my family & friends. I remember that it would captivate the room for a short moment because they would stop talking & begin laughing. Now I realize that I was just telling the story of a character that everyone already had context into.

When I was 12 years old, my dad showed up in that small window of my art classroom. I was asked to grab my things & leave. When I asked my dad where we were going, he only said, “your grandpa is in the hospital.” As I waited in the waiting room with strangers of other patients I began to share stories of my grandpa to everyone. When my mom came into the room to tell us that grandpa had passed away, the strangers began to cry. They said, “we feel like we know him because of the incredible stories your son told us.” This was the moment I realized the true power of storytelling.

From 16-24 years of age, I would use storytelling for speeches, presentations, sales, & to compel people to take a specific action. After working for Fortune 500 companies, owning a sports training business, & working in education, I realized that every organization is run by strategic storytelling.

It hit me while I was writing my first book, Earn Your Story, every person is a storyteller, and every business is a storyteller, but the quality of that story impacts the success of a person & business.

After training salespeople for 4 years, I took the jump & started Craft and Compel. What I realized was that startup founders grow & present their business using a founder’s story (their origin story). But as the business grows, they ask their people to tell a story that isn’t their own & the business’ revenue, referrals, & reputation stall. Therefore, Craft and Compel help organizations to become Story-AlignedTM by equipping each person in the organization with a personal story to increase revenue, referrals, & reputation.

Our culture has been seeing a massive uptick of startups over the last 10 years this has led to crazy valuations, mythical unicorns, & complete failures. The main thing that sets apart the startup that succeeds from the startup that stalls & ultimately fails, is if the founder can shift the company from “me” centric to “we” centric. How does a founder accomplish this? They must have a strategic core narrative that every person in the organization can become aligned with.

I believe that all communication is storytelling. We tell ourselves and others the stories every moment of every day. I transform people into intentional storytellers.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

At Craft and Compel we transform organizations utilizing the StoryAligned Strategy. If we can align your organization around one clear strategic core narrative they are able to more clearly communicate to their high-value audiences. When an organization is aligned, the vision of the leadership can be executed, every needed change is more easily completed, & desired results are realized.

We have three target audiences: startup founders, individuals, & sales leaders.

Startup founders have grown their business using a founder’s story, but as they begin to scale they cannot ask people to tell a story that isn’t their own or they will see a decline in revenue, referrals, & retention.

*We help startups scale beyond the founder’s story.

Every individual has an audience that they need to compel to take action. If they have a personal brand story then they can attract that audience. If they tell a story more memorable than their competitors they can earn a meeting with that audience. If they can offer a better future story to the audience then they could gain a new customer.

*We help individuals become unforgettable to their target audience.

Sales leaders are always looking for ways to help their salespeople differentiate themselves from the competition. Most salespeople tend to sell according to a feature, function, and benefits approach instead of using an audience-driven approach.

*We help salespeople captivate their audience more effectively.

Craft and Compel have generated over 3 million dollars for the organizations & individuals in 2022. We have mentored over 20 startup organizations leading to funding, growth, & recurring revenue. We are equipping people with the ability to craft the right story for the right audience every time.

The goal of every organization is to compel their highest-value audiences, but they must determine how to stand out amongst their competition. Without a compelling story, a business cannot stand apart from its competitors.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

When people are working on a team they tell themselves a story about the people, relationships, & leadership every minute of every day. If leaders can begin to use a simple framework that we have designed to Craft and Compel. We should take an audience-driven approach to our teams. What is the story of my audience? How can I align my story with the audience? What is a better future together when we work together?

Leaders could really do well to look into Relationship Intelligence & the amazing tool that SDI Core Strengths has developed.

Have you ever had to pivot?

After closing the largest deal in the history of a regional company, I went on to work at two Fortune 500 companies. As my career was progressing within the organization my father suddenly passed away. I was shocked & shook to my core over the next 120 days I recalled a conversation my Dad & I had at his favorite “hole in the wall” restaurant. Dad asks me, “What do you want to do with your life?” I respond, “I want to major in soccer, haha, I would love to work for Pepsi.” Dad says, “I think you would be an amazing teacher & coach, you would impact so many kids’ life!” I laughed, “No way they don’t make any money & have to put up with students like me.”

After Dad passed away I took a hard look at life & didn’t like that I was drinking the corporate kool-aid and not impacting lives the way I had when I was younger. So I quit my Fortune 500 job made a move 500 miles away & took a 50% pay cut to become a high school teacher & soccer coach.

This shift actually taught me as much or more than the Fortune 500 training programs. If you can engage an 18-year-old audience who doesn’t care about 90% of what say. If you can find a way to hold their attention & explain why the information is relevant to their lives then they will ask thoughtful questions.

A combination of three things happened, Starting teaching late in my career would make it difficult to have the promised pension, then seeing expenses increase after having our first child & former students would ask for me to coach them on their careers led me to publish a book. I would launch Craft and Compel shortly after & begin coaching my own clients.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.craftandcompel.com
• Instagram: chriswatson_storytelling
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-watson-storyteller/
• Twitter: craftandcompel
• Youtube: Chris Watson Strategic Storyteller