Welcome to the 2019 NEXT Conference Series. Recorded live in Chicago, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Brianna Sylver, president of Sylver Consulting. Find Brianna Online: LinkedIn Website: https://www.sylverconsulting.com [00:02] We are live at the NEXT Conference. Here’s an interview I was able to pull off with Brianna Sylver with Sylver Consulting. Enjoy. [00:11] Congratulations on a great talk because at lunch I had a table of... I was sitting at a table of six other people, me and… seven. I asked them their favorite moment of the day, and they all unanimously agreed that it was the Storytelling Workshop. [00:25] Oh, that’s fantastic to hear. [00:27] Yeah, swear to God. Yeah, swear to God. Anyway, and then they talked about it for a good five to ten minutes afterwards. It definitely hit a chord. Is that something you’re seeing in the space? Like, we need better storytelling. [00:40] Definitely, I think we need better storytelling. And I think... part of the reason why this talk exists is because I feel like a lot of the stuff that you hear about storytelling today is like it’s sort of very 10,000-foot surface level as far as how to do it. And this particular framework really gets into the nitty-gritty as far as how to structure a story and what is the purpose and why you’re telling the story. Who are you telling the story to? How do you connect with them? How do you communicate? So it goes through all the of four steps associated with that. But it makes me super happy to hear that because you know sometimes you’re talking and you’re like... [01:18] What’s happening? [01:19] Yeah, like are people resonating with this? Are they not resonating? So I wasn’t quite sure. It’s pure delight right now. [01:25] Yeah, yeah, seriously that’s absolutely the truth too. Anyway, it was good; it was really good, really valuable. Another thing that I think you’ll find interesting is... So, I’ve done about 140 episodes, which is to say I’ve talked a lot. I always ask, “What is your biggest problem?” in a full interview. Inevitably – I would say 7 out of 10 times – storytelling is the big problem, like a lack of storytelling inside of the organization, which then connects... effects change or empowers the insight or extends the power of the insight to effect change. Really, the quality of the story as opposed to the degree of quality of the research, which is a little bit counterintuitive, is in a lot of ways the missing ingredient from a brand point of view. [02:25] I would 100% agree. it’s interesting because I came to the market research industry by way of design. So, I’m actually a graphic designer initially, and then I have a master’s degree in Human Centered Communication Design and Design Strategy.
Welcome to the 2019 NEXT Conference Series. Recorded live in Chicago, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors and speakers at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Brianna Sylver, president of Sylver Consulting.
Find Brianna Online:
Website: https://www.sylverconsulting.com
[00:02]
We are live at the NEXT Conference. Here’s an interview I was able to pull off with Brianna Sylver with Sylver Consulting. Enjoy.
[00:11]
Congratulations on a great talk because at lunch I had a table of... I was sitting at a table of six other people, me and… seven. I asked them their favorite moment of the day, and they all unanimously agreed that it was the Storytelling Workshop.
[00:25]
Oh, that’s fantastic to hear.
[00:27]
Yeah, swear to God. Yeah, swear to God. Anyway, and then they talked about it for a good five to ten minutes afterwards. It definitely hit a chord. Is that something you’re seeing in the space? Like, we need better storytelling.
[00:40]
Definitely, I think we need better storytelling. And I think... part of the reason why this talk exists is because I feel like a lot of the stuff that you hear about storytelling today is like it’s sort of very 10,000-foot surface level as far as how to do it. And this particular framework really gets into the nitty-gritty as far as how to structure a story and what is the purpose and why you’re telling the story. Who are you telling the story to? How do you connect with them? How do you communicate? So it goes through all the of four steps associated with that. But it makes me super happy to hear that because you know sometimes you’re talking and you’re like...
[01:18]
What’s happening?
[01:19]
Yeah, like are people resonating with this? Are they not resonating? So I wasn’t quite sure. It’s pure delight right now.
[01:25]
Yeah, yeah, seriously that’s absolutely the truth too. Anyway, it was good; it was really good, really valuable. Another thing that I think you’ll find interesting is... So, I’ve done about 140 episodes, which is to say I’ve talked a lot. I always ask, “What is your biggest problem?” in a full interview. Inevitably – I would say 7 out of 10 times – storytelling is the big problem, like a lack of storytelling inside of the organization, which then connects... effects change or empowers the insight or extends the power of the insight to effect change. Really, the quality of the story as opposed to the degree of quality of the research, which is a little bit counterintuitive, is in a lot of ways the missing ingredient from a brand point of view.
[02:25]
I would 100% agree. it’s interesting because I came to the market research industry by way of design. So, I’m actually a graphic designer initially, and then I have a master’s degree in Human Centered Communication Design and Design Strategy. And part of the value of design is sort of taking a human-centered design approach is in your ability to visualize the vision, and a big piece of that is storytelling. And so, that’s always been just sort of my framework for how I approach my work. And so, when I started to bring in more of the market research side, which I did purposely because I think sometimes the insights gathering from a design perspective at least from a method and even frankly from a quality perspective sometimes can be a little lacking or flat... And so, I found that the market research side of the equation really helped to create robustness that was needed truly I think to make really solid decisions. But now bringing in these two pieces of like, I would say that the market research is kind of the “What,” and the design is the possibilities for what that could mean.
[03:38]
Oh, interesting.
[03:38]
And then the other aspect of our business brings a strategy and that’s kind of like,