Storytelling for Business Characters

The narrator and central figure, a business storytelling coach who announces his new role on LinkedIn and shares it with his grandfather Opa. Across the book he coaches clients, runs experiments, gathers survey responses, builds a Story Bank, and performs stand-up to build confidence. He is obsessed with storytelling as a hidden superpower and wants to explain and teach it clearly.

Arc: He moves from reciting a dictionary definition and delivering an overlong story to developing CART and CAT, vivid storytelling techniques, the 4 C's, conversational delivery, confidence through improv, story-collection strategies, and advanced techniques. He ends by reflecting on stories as seeds after Daan remembers and shares his story years later.

• Opa — his grandfather
• Philipp's sister — his sister and a sales professional who critiques his stories
• Marcela — product manager he coaches on storytelling
• Daan — former workshop participant who remembers his story
• Jakob Manthei — his colleague whose café conversation sparks an insight
• Matthew Dicks — source of the Homework for Life exercise
• David J.P. Phillips — whose TEDx Talk inspires Philipp's technique review
• Tristan de Montebello — podcast founder whose confidence insight influences him
• Michael Gendler — podcast founder whose confidence insight influences him

Philipp's 92-year-old grandfather. Over coffee he asks what a storytelling coach is and then what a story is, and he stares confused at Philipp's dictionary definition.

Arc: His question forces Philipp to realize his definition failed and to simplify his approach; Opa himself does not change.

• Philipp Humm — his grandson

A sales professional for over a decade and Philipp's sister. After his buyer call, she interrupts his story and says his stories are too long and dramatic, not a casual conversation.

Arc: Her critique drives Philipp to study storytelling structures and create CART and CAT; she does not appear again in the notes.

• Philipp Humm — her brother

A product manager from San Francisco whom Philipp coaches on storytelling in July 2023. She tells him a story she tried on a call 'sucked'; watching the recording, Philipp sees her shift from natural energy into a polished performer mode.

Arc: The coaching call reveals her switch into performer mode; the notes do not describe a later change beyond that recognition.

• Philipp Humm — her storytelling coach

A former participant in Philipp's storytelling workshop three years earlier. At an Amsterdam food market in November 2024, he taps Philipp, reintroduces himself, and says he still remembers and has shared Philipp's avocado-and-nephew story.

Arc: No personal arc; his recollection prompts Philipp's closing reflection on stories as seeds.

• Philipp Humm — former workshop instructor

In an example story, she is running acquisitions for Pizza Express and arrives two minutes late, where a lawyer assumes she is there to get coffee. She makes him coffee, asks others, sits back down, and watches him realize his assumption; she says her weakness turned out to be her superpower and asks who walked out with the deal. In chapter 7 her story is saved in Philipp's Story Bank as the Coffee Assumption story.

Arc: No personal arc; her story illustrates CART and the Story Bank.

• Philipp Humm — her story is used as a CART example and saved in his Story Bank

As a twelve-year-old, he calls Bill Hewlett for spare parts for a frequency counter and receives them plus a summer assembly-line job at Hewlett-Packard. In the Pixar acquisition example, he asks Bob Iger to walk with him before the announcement and reveals his cancer has returned, offering Iger a chance to back out.

Arc: No personal arc; he appears as an example of asking and acting and as a source of emotional stakes in Iger's story.

• Bill Hewlett — called him as a twelve-year-old and received spare parts and a summer job
• Bob Iger — Pixar CEO and counterpart in the acquisition; not close with Iger at this point

In the example story, he waits in a conference room before the Pixar acquisition announcement and goes for a walk with Steve Jobs. After Jobs reveals his cancer has returned, Iger decides not to back out of the deal and promises not to tell anyone.

Arc: His decision shifts from legal and corporate considerations to going through with the acquisition; no broader arc is described.

• Steve Jobs — Pixar CEO and counterpart in the acquisition

Philipp's colleague who tells him at a small Amsterdam café about a five-day public speaking training in Estonia where the trainer answered every question with a story. His account sparks Philipp's realization about needing many stories.

Arc: No personal arc; his account sparks Philipp's insight that the best storytellers have the most stories.

• Philipp Humm — colleague and conversation partner at a small café in Amsterdam

The author credited with the Homework for Life exercise, which Philipp says he discovered in Dicks's book Storyworthy and has done every day since.

Arc: No personal arc; his exercise becomes one of Philipp's story-collection strategies.

• Philipp Humm — source of the Homework for Life exercise

He gives a TEDx Talk on the 770 Techniques of Communication and Public Speaking, which Philipp watches after a friend sends the link and praises.

Arc: No personal arc; his TEDx Talk inspires Philipp's month-long review of storytelling techniques.

• Philipp Humm — his TEDx Talk inspired Philipp's technique review

A podcast founder who shares an insight on the Ultraspeaking podcast that true confidence is about trusting your ability to handle whatever arises at the moment.

Arc: No personal arc; his podcast insight changes Philipp's understanding of confidence.

• Philipp Humm — podcast founder whose insight on confidence influenced him

A podcast founder who shares an insight on the Ultraspeaking podcast that true confidence is about trusting your ability to handle whatever arises at the moment.

Arc: No personal arc; his podcast insight changes Philipp's understanding of confidence.

• Philipp Humm — podcast founder whose insight on confidence influenced him

As a Nordstrom store associate in Fairbanks, Alaska, he accepts a man's tires, calls a local tire company to estimate their value, and gives the man a refund even though Nordstrom did not sell tires. He is used as an example of surprise.

Arc: No personal arc; his action illustrates the surprise technique.

She answers a coworker's weekend question with a story about trying pottery for the first time and her bowl looking like a squashed pancake. She then asks whether the coworker has started any new hobbies.

Arc: No personal arc; her story is used as a Connection Story example to break the ice and build rapport before business.

• Philipp Humm — his example of a Connection Story

She opens a team meeting on improving processes with a story about assembling a wobbly bookshelf after skipping step one. She connects it to rushing into projects without a clear plan.

Arc: No personal arc; her story is used as a Capturing Story example to grab attention before a presentation on planning better.

• Philipp Humm — his example of a Capturing Story

He kicks off a customer-satisfaction presentation with a story about mistakenly ordering anchovy pizza and being told no changes were allowed after ordering. He uses it to ask where the business is too rigid.

Arc: No personal arc; his story is used as a Capturing Story example to lead into creating small, thoughtful customer moments.

• Philipp Humm — his example of a Capturing Story

As a first-year analyst, he obsessed over to-do lists and crossed off eighteen of twenty items, then realized the two unchecked items were the project tasks that mattered. He stayed until 2 a.m. and afterward made a rule to tackle three progress-making things first each morning.

Arc: No personal arc; his story is used as a Coaching Story example underlining the lesson to focus on what matters most.

• Philipp Humm — his example of a Coaching Story

He recounts a call from a CEO who said his fees were too high and asked how much he would lower them. Mark refused to lower the fees, questioned expected business loss to a competitor, and the CEO chose him, leading to the deal.

Arc: No personal arc; his story is used as a Coaching Story example showing the value of not backing down too quickly.

• Philipp Humm — his example of a Coaching Story

She describes walking into James's office and seeing him frustrated by performance reviews. After hearing him, she proposes shifting to a two-category appraisal system.

Arc: No personal arc; her story is used as a Convincing Story example for convincing the company to shift its performance appraisal system.

• James — coworker whose performance-review frustration she describes
• Philipp Humm — his example of a Convincing Story

He is hunched over his desk frustrated by performance reviews and tells Kate he spent the day explaining the difference between rating categories. He says his team focused on labels rather than improvement.

Arc: No personal arc; his frustration illustrates the problem Kate later uses in a Convincing Story.

• Kate Fisher — coworker and HR director who asks about his review and later proposes a new system

She recounts sitting in on a customer focus group where Jen criticized a brochure as just a list of features. She proposes launching an AI-powered recommendation engine to deliver tailored solutions.

Arc: No personal arc; her story is used as a Convincing Story example for shifting to customer-focused content.

• Jen — customer focus group participant whose feedback she cites
• Philipp Humm — his example of a Convincing Story

A small-business owner from DC in a customer focus group, she holds up a brochure and says it does not tell her anything she cares about. She says she wants to know whether a solution saves time, saves money, or makes life easier.

Arc: No personal arc; her feedback is cited in Soojin Kim's Convincing Story.

• Soojin Kim — marketing manager who observes her feedback and cites it

In 1969, as a Stanford professor, he and Michael Clark tested 48 students to find the most effective way to remember information. The story group recalled 93 percent of words versus 13 percent for traditional memorization.

Arc: No personal arc; his experiment is cited as evidence that stories help people remember.

• Michael Clark — co-researcher and Stanford professor

In 1969, as a Stanford professor, he and Gordon Bower tested 48 students to find the most effective way to remember information. The story group recalled 93 percent of words versus 13 percent for traditional memorization.

Arc: No personal arc; his experiment is cited as evidence that stories help people remember.

• Gordon Bower — co-researcher and Stanford professor

In 2004, he set up an experiment showing volunteers videos about a father and son. The version with a cancer conflict raised oxytocin, while the zoo version did not.

Arc: No personal arc; his experiment is cited as evidence for how stories affect the brain.

In July 2009, as a New York Times journalist, he and Josh Glenn bought 100 random thrift-store and garage-sale objects for $129 total. They asked volunteers to write fictional stories about them, listed them on eBay with the stories, and sold them for $3,613.

Arc: No personal arc; his experiment is cited as evidence that stories increase value.

• Josh Glenn — co-journalist and co-researcher

In July 2009, as a New York Times journalist, he and Rob Walker bought 100 random thrift-store and garage-sale objects for $129 total. They asked volunteers to write fictional stories about them, listed them on eBay with the stories, and sold them for $3,613.

Arc: No personal arc; his experiment is cited as evidence that stories increase value.

• Rob Walker — co-journalist and co-researcher

He is the co-founder of Hewlett-Packard who answered Steve Jobs's phone call himself, laughed, gave Jobs spare parts, and later gave him a summer job at Hewlett-Packard.

Arc: No personal arc; he appears in the example of Steve Jobs asking and acting.

• Steve Jobs — twelve-year-old caller to whom he gave spare parts and a summer job

He is named as the source of the war-movie analogy: most people stay in the helicopter view, while great stories zoom into the trenches. The notes provide no other details about him.

Arc: No personal arc; his analogy illustrates vivid storytelling by zooming into the moment.

• Philipp Humm — Philipp shares his war-movie analogy

He is quoted in the chapter epigraph as a British novelist. The notes provide no further role or relationships.

Arc: No arc; he appears only as an epigraph quotation.