HAVE SWAY.
We provide consulting and training for any industry where the sharing of important ideas is relevant.
In a world of memos, business cases, and technical briefs, there's no shortage of fact-based messaging. But as behavioral economics shows, people mostly make decisions with their subconscious minds—the emotional parts of their brains.
Facts don't sell.
And that’s where storytelling comes in.
Whether your audience is a patient, a jury, a board of directors, or a segment of your market, being armed with a great story means you can make a bigger impact.
Naked and cold…
…Truth had been turned away from every door in the village. Her nakedness frightened the people.
Strolling through the village, Parable found Truth as she huddled in a corner, shivering and lonely. Parable sat with Truth and listened as she spoke of being shunned and ignored. Seeing her great potential, Parable gathered her up and took her home. There, she dressed Truth in story, warmed her, and sent her out again.
Now, clothed in story, Truth was welcomed with open arms by those she met, and spent many nights by the warmth of the villagers’ fires.
–Jewish Fable
HAVE MORE SWAY IN…
Public speaking
“About Us” + other web copy
Investor pitches + decks
HR + onboarding strategy
Business development & sales
Legal arguments
OUR AREAS OF EXPERTISE
AUDIENCE ANALYSIS
Step 1: Understand whom you're engaging. Look at psychographics in a whole new way.
BRAND STORYTELLING
Unearthing who you truly are as an organization, and being perceived the right way.
ARCHITECTURE OF TRUST
The mechanisms of trust-building and winning over even the most skeptical people.
LEVERAGING COGNITIVE BIAS
Discerning when to combat biases and when to play into them.
BEHAVIOR CHANGE
Attitude change doesn't always mean behavior change. Bridging the gap is key.
NARRATIVE PERSUASION
Recognizing when to use fact-based arguments vs. stories that take folks on a strategic journey.
BIOLOGY OF ATTENTION
Attention is a currency. People earn it, pay it, and often lose it. Learn to leverage attention on a hormonal level.
STORY STRUCTURE
From character development to narrative arc, a story’s structure can make (or break) your message.
CLIENTS, PROJECTS, AND RESULTS
From Series A to Fortune 500, we're proud to have worked in the fields of
Law • Government • Healthcare • Investor Relations • Business Development • Non-Profit Initiatives • Technology • Athletics • Marketing & Communications • Energy • Manufacturing • Human Resources
berkshire Hathaway Energy -- a $3.5B IDEA
Worked with the legal team of one of the biggest energy utilities in the US as they built their strategy to get a $3.5B renewables plan passed by the state of Oregon. What a proud moment it was for our client, our team, and our planet! More info here.
Banfield -- Organizational Change
Collaborated with the largest privately owned veterinary practice in the country to roll out an improved physicians workflow. Together, we onboarded and empowered their 14,000 person team across more than 800 clinics to embrace the new system with excitement and longevity in mind.
Social stream -- Biz Dev & Outreach
Worked with an Israeli tech startup to research specific characteristics of their audiences, and devise outreach strategies based on these insights. We obliterated industry standards with a 70% email response rate and collected critical reviews of the product while converting evangelists who would then resell the software to their own clients.
CN + Lego -- Get the Votes
Helped Cartoon Network and Lego tell their joint story as an effort to land them a talk at SXSW, one of the world’s most renowned media & tech events. We turned their initial fact-based concept on its head and created an entertaining approach to win over their audience. Of 5000 applications, our client was selected as first choice. View the campaign here.
Invesco -- Internal Alignment
After 90 years, this global investment company needed to realign its team around a common purpose. Having grown through acquisition, Invesco was siloed—culturally and geographically. After a year-long “purpose journey” with over 200 stakeholder interviews, we collaborated with Saatchi to align their employee base around a shared story.
SERVICES
PARTNERSHIP
Consulting & strategy work on a project basis or through ongoing relationships where we become an extension of your team.
DIALOGUE
Interactive workshops that empower your team with new storytelling techniques for virtually any business context.
MONOLOGUE
Speaking engagements at your conference, lecture series, executive leadership meeting, domestic or international.
WHY we care in the first place…
Sway is the brainchild of Amina Moreau, co-founder of five-time Emmy Award winning film production company, Stillmotion. Knowing the impact a well told story can make, her passion for psychology, storytelling, and helping others comes to fruition through Sway. Driven by a relentless pursuit of meaning and impact, Amina is steadfastly committed to making every project truly purposeful.
Having grown up in a bubble of blissful unawareness, Amina’s earliest beginnings were full of love, support, and shelter... shelter from the real world. One day in her teens, it all came screeching to a halt and her world was turned upside down. Peace became turmoil, trust became fear, and life became death. Hanging on by a thread, she had a big decision to make: Become bitter? Or become better? While it’s taken her a long time to become trusting again, Amina takes pride in her choice to not just improve herself every day, but to improve the world around her piece by piece, project by project. This is why we’re here.
LATEST FROM THE BLOG
LET'S SWAP STORIES
Portland, Oregon is where we call home, though it often feels like seat backs and tray tables are more familiar!
Whether you're down the street or across an ocean, we'll go where the story leads us.
If you're not a fan of contact forms, feel free to reach out directly at discovery@swaystorytelling.com.
