Ron Ploof, creator of the StoryHow™ PitchDeck and author of “Read This First: The Executive’s Guide to New Media,” joins The Business of Story Podcast to discuss the importance of empathy in your story narrative to develop a successful relationship with your audience. The Business of Story is sponsored by ACT!, Sigstr, and Zignal Labs. ACT! helps individuals, small businesses, and sales teams organize prospect and customer details in just one place, ultimately driving sales. Visit http://actstory.com and enter to win a pair of BOSE noice-cancelling headphones. Zignal Labs is a real-time cross-media story tracking platform to make your life easier to see relevant data and reach your customers where they are. Stay ahead of what the world thinks with a free trial at http://zignallabs.com/story A company of just 100 employees sends 1,000,000 emails per year on average. What if you had a million new opportunities to engage your key customers and prospects? Sigstr opens up the marketing potential of employee emails. Learn 3 creative ways to unlock the power of email signatures: http://bit.ly/1P0bE9A In This Episode How a deck of cards can teach you elements and techniques to hone your storytelling skills Creating empathy and meaning for your audience How to work from the end of your story backwards Resources Mad Men, "The Carousel” Ron’s StoryHow™ PitchDeck “Save the Cat!” by Blake Snyder www.storyhow.com StoryHow workshops Griddlecakes Radio: Exploring the Lost Art of Audio Storytelling   Visit http://bit.ly/BizofStory for more insights from your favorite storytellers.