Build The Story

Founders, coaches, executives, and agencies ask me to co-create the stories they need to be heard, understood, trusted, and remembered.  I've written 850+ stories that have unlocked sales, investment, senior executive positions, and opportunities.

Whether you are selling yourself, your ideas, your business, your products, or your services, it's easier to sell with a well-designed story. I design these stories to help people understand your idea, so they can say YES.

Chief Story Designer

Firepower Concepts, LLC

Works with executives from business, non-profits, and governments to use applied creativity to unlock ideas and solve tough problems.  Blending decades of military experience with the latest academic research into creativity, neuroscience, and psychology, I help precisely define problems, develop solutions, and craft action plans to put those solutions to work.

Founder

FounderUp

I build custom, interactive learning experiences to help startup Founders develop themselves and their ventures.  Story-based, exercise-based, game-based, human-based experiences create impact.

Chief Learning Officer and Co-Founder

#HumanIntelligence

I create customized, interactive, user-focused training to teach tech-minded leaders and teams the "soft skills" they need to get to more YES!.  Workshops focus on critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication.  Transforming the world by eliminating crappy pitches and presentations one person at a time.

Chief of Helping Clients Hear More YES!

United States Air Force

Leads a team of 50 to strategically implement Security Cooperation activities around the globe.

Deputy Director of Regional Affairs

Deputy Director Combined Air Operations Center

Drafted speeches and advised senior Air Force leaders on strategic communications.

Speechwriter

Chief, International Fighter Training

United States Department of Defense

Defense Attache / Senior Defense Official

A-10 Fighter Pilot

Storytelling for Underestimated Founders | Startup Founder Mentor with Techstars & gener8tor

I move ideas from your brain into someone else's using a 100K+ year-old technology.

I'm a storyteller.

Founders, executives, and coaches by the 100s have trusted me to help them be heard, understood, trusted, and remembered.

Sometimes they hire me directly to interview them & build the story myself.
Others join my Storybuilding courses to learn to do it for themselves.

Either way...they see results.

I'm not a copywriter.
I'm not a ghostwriter.
I'm a story specialist. 
I build short, impactful stories that hold attention long enough to get to YES!

It's easier and faster than you think. In a free 15-min call, we can change your business.
Doubtful?  Check out my top recommendation below.

How did I become a storyteller?

I’ve done some crazy stuff. I’ve flown fighter aircraft. I’ve negotiated hundreds of times with the Russian military to ensure we didn’t shoot at each other (unless that is what we intended to do). I’ve lived in Central Asia where making friends meant I ate more sheep brains and eyeballs and drank more vodka and fermented mare’s milk than I care to remember.

I’ve been a speechwriter for the most senior officials in the US Air Force. I also took out the trash, swept the floors, and “embraced the suck” with everyone else.

I’ve spent a lot of time studying…to get an undergraduate degree, to be a pilot, to get a Master’s degree in International Relations, and to work towards a PhD in International Development—until I realized fighting the bureaucracy was not how I wanted to spend my life.

Now, I help people move their ideas to create the impact they dream of.

Let's chat: Dan@buildthestory.com

I met several people yesterday who spent $$$ to learn storytelling, but say they still struggle.  Why?


This week I’m at a thought-provoking story conference this week. 

So, I’m meeting lots of story-believers.
Most people I talk to have 2 things in common:
- They pay for storytelling courses
- They don’t think they are good storytellers

Maybe I OVER-focus on practical application, but how can this be?

Why is it that so many people pay for “the best” story training but still struggle to tell effective stories?

Dan Manning

Helping Founders Tell Stories to Drive Action | Startup Mentor with Techstars & gener8tor | Millions Sold, Millions Raised, Millions Spent With Stories

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While eating alone at a cafe, a sad entrepreneur taught a sales lesson that took me years to learn.

I was eating alone, and man at a nearby table was too.
We nodded at each other as men do.
Then, we started chatting.

He was a black man, about my age.
Like me, dressed casually for a solo dinner out.

He was the owner of a moving business.
He told me it was great.
He was making lots of money.
"How'd you get started?"

He told me he used to be a drug dealer.
He didn't have much money growing up.
Got involved with the wrong people.
Then caught, convicted, and sentenced.

After a few years in prison, he got out.
Starting a moving business wasn't hard.

"Wow...but now you are doing well."

He took a long, slow drag off of his cigarette.
He gave me a long, too-slow answer: "Yeah."

I waited.
Watching him think...reflect.
More of that answer would arrive if I let it.

After several long seconds, he kept going.

He told me he lived nearby in a nice, expensive neighborhood.

He said, "My house is full of things."
"The best electronics...big TVs, top-of-the-line speakers."
But.
"I don't want any of it."

"Why do you have them, then?"

Another drag.

"Because I like to show people I have them.
People come over and they're impressed.
It feels good for them to think I'm ballin'."

Even though I didn't realize it for several years, he validated the unconventional marketing wisdom I discovered by working with 100's of entrepreneurs.

💥People pay to relieve pain, not to fix problems.
But, sometimes the pains are a few levels deep.💥

Sure, those speakers have crystal clear sound.
They solve the problem of distorted sound.
It's a problem ALL of us have.
But, only a few people fix this problem.
Why?
It's not painful for most of us.

For an audiophile, pain of distortion ruins the music.

For a musician, the pain of their creation sounding off drives a purchase.

For some people, the pain of FOMO is enough to buy.

But, for this man...
the pain of being seen as 'less-than' was severe enough for him to trade cash for relief.

Marketers say to sell "more money, better health, better relationships"...but they don't look deep enough.

At the root is pain.
You don't have to poke it.
You don't have to agitate it.
You need to connect with it.
You want to be the person who "gets it"
You can be the person who let's them be seen.
You can be the one to let them know they aren't alone.

Sure, your "thing" solves a problem.
But, how would someone know they have that problem?
What are they symptoms they'd feel?
That's where the pain is.

--------------------------
Hi, I'm Dan.
I'm a Storyteller.
But, I am also a Storyteacher helping people design stories that move people to action.

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