Influence at Scale for VP & Dir-Level Leaders

4.7

(48 ratings)

·

7 Weeks

·

Cohort-based Course

Proven narrative methods to up-level your executive influence whether you're an introvert, maverick, or technical expert

These methods are in use by 350+ orgs

Google
Facebook
Shopify
Atlassian
Walmart

Course overview

"Narrative" is the #1 competency required to advance to a C-suite or VP role

Influence at Scale unlocks your ability to get investment, buy-in, and alignment.


This is a highly-immersive, learn-by-doing storytelling sprint. First, you'll select a high-value project: a strategic priority or OKR for practical application and measurable ROI. Next, you’ll shape and refine a compelling narrative to accelerate the project's velocity. Finally, you’ll enhance your power, people, and persuasion skills to execute and drive the narrative forward.


The more complex and technical your work the better. Including AI, DeFi, healthtech, product growth, agile, data governance, or any other disruptive technology or transformation. Designed to get you immediate traction, this exclusive community accelerates your career into an executive role, positioning you as a leader people respect, listen to, and put trust in your decisions.


COHORT 10 STARTS OCT 22 / 7 OF 15 SPOTS AVAILABLE / APPLY TODAY


6-week sprint (with a 1 week holiday break). Weekly working sessions via Zoom, with individualized real-time feedback from Michael and your cohort peers. You'll also get private 1-on-1 coaching with a Storied coach, plus extended Office Hours thru Q1 to ensure your successful implementation. You'll join an elite group of leaders with alumni from companies like Meta, Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, Salesforce, Cruise, Yelp, Nielsen, Discovery+, Accenture, Genentech, Bain Capital, and venture-backed startups.


While storytelling tips and tricks are helpful, they’re not enough to navigate the rapid pace of change and complexity. This program is different. Develop the mindset, skillsets, and capabilities for serious growth in your role and impact. If you put in the reps, we guarantee results or your money back.


WHAT YOU WILL ACHIEVE ⛰️

1. Build and ship a narrative that gets you investment, buy-in, and agreement with executives

2. Leave with a playbook of 20+ narrative methods & tools that you've learned and will use on the daily

3. Unlock the self-limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging behaviors that stand in your way

4. Build a peer community that offers quality non-judgmental feedback unlike anywhere else


WHAT YOU WILL LEARN

– How to get instant buy-in for your ideas

– How to demonstrate rigorous thinking

– How to turn complex data into a story

– How to reduce friction in rapid communications

– How to manage up, down, and across

– How to stand out and have your voice heard

– How to build trust with difficult stakeholders

– How to prepare for an executive presentation

– How to win at the game of “memo culture”

– How to overcome imposter syndrome


WHY NARRATIVE ✨

– We live in the era of data and information overload

– But the data never speaks for itself

– Those who can make sense of the story influence and drive complex decisions

– Narrative is not just ‘a soft-skill’ or a ‘nice to have

– It's a core capability of leadership

– It’s what you need if you’re trying to get buy-in, investment, or shared action on anything

– It’s #1 competency required to advance to a C-suite, VP, or Director role


ABOUT THE METHODS

You’ll benefit from more than 20,000 hours of testing and validating these narrative methods inside 350+ leading organizations. I've been a long-time advisor to executives and teams in Silicon Valley, influencing more than $13B in strategic investments inside Meta, Google, Salesforce, Genentech, Uber, and venture-backed startups. This includes more than a dozen product teams at Meta like Newsfeed, Monetization, Messenger on executive H1/H2 reviews with Mark Zuckerberg. I also deliver 30-40 storytelling training sessions a year to product builders and GTM teams across the worlds of tech, finance, healthcare, etc. If you work in a "highly-matrixed" environment, you'll find this to be a high-value approach for unlocking the intangibles that get you executive buy-in, investment, and agreement.


COHORT 10 STARTS OCT 22 / 7 OF 15 SPOTS AVAILABLE / APPLY TODAY

This is designed for VP/Dir+ leaders:

01

You have a new role or strategy to deliver on

Yet the value and complexity of what you're working on isn't properly understood by execs

02

You feel caught in the messy middle

You've been told to work on your influencing skills but you're not sure what to do to "level-up"

03

You have responsibility, without authority

You need to drive velocity/results but it requires buy-in from unaligned stakeholders

5 Pillars of the Influence Stack

How to Win with Your CEO, Win in the Board Room, Win with XFN

  • Make a persuasive business case that gets little resistance or push back
  • Be perceived as a rigorous thinker that speaks like an executive
  • Get investment, alignment, and headcount for your strategic priorities

How to Get Instant Buy-in for Your Ideas

  • Accelerate your ability to write, speak, and present persuasively
  • Build a reputation for solving ambiguous problem spaces
  • Overcome the invisible blockers that sabotage your message

How to Turn Complex Data Into a Story

  • Demystify technical and hard to explain things people don't understand
  • Zoom out and frame the big picture for high-signal relevance
  • Turn chaos into coherence that builds confidence with others

How to Built Trust with Difficult Stakeholders

  • Understand the motivations and needs of any audience
  • Remove unconscious triggers that make stakeholders defensive
  • Build a reputation for solving ownerless and ambiguous problems

How to Overcome the Inner Blockers That Stand in Your Way

  • Discover and apply your influence archetype (not everyone's is the same)
  • Unlock the 3 levers of influence: clarity, confidence, and conviction
  • Find your voice and be taken seriously, without having all the answers

This course includes

6 interactive live sessions

Lifetime access to course materials

In-depth lessons

Direct access to instructor

Projects to apply learnings

Guided feedback & reflection

Private community of peers

Course certificate upon completion

Maven Satisfaction Guarantee

This course is backed by Maven’s guarantee. You can receive a full refund within 14 days after the course ends, provided you meet the completion criteria in our refund policy.

Course syllabus

Week 1

Oct 22—Oct 27

    Oct

    22

    Session 1

    Tue 10/228:00 PM—10:00 PM (UTC)

    Develop Storytelling Agility

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    Frame and Focus your Initiative

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    Simplify the Complex

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Week 2

Oct 28—Nov 3

    Oct

    29

    Session 2

    Tue 10/298:00 PM—10:00 PM (UTC)

    Tailor your Communication

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    Frame your Personal Legend

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    Claim your Persuasion Superpowers

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Week 3

Nov 4—Nov 10

    Nov

    5

    Session 3

    Tue 11/59:00 PM—11:00 PM (UTC)

    Frames vs. Facts

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    Align with External Forces of Change for Frictionless Disruption

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    Legitimizing Possibility

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Week 4

Nov 11—Nov 17

    Nov

    12

    Session 4

    Tue 11/129:00 PM—11:00 PM (UTC)

    Recognize Stakeholder Desires & Dilemmas

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    Build a Structure of Belonging

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    Create a Momentum of YES

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Week 5

Nov 18—Nov 24

    Nov

    19

    Session 5

    Tue 11/199:00 PM—11:00 PM (UTC)

    Build the Value Stack

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    Use 3Ps of Credibility to Disclose Signals of Validation

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    Turn Data into a Compelling, Coherent Story to Reduce Data Overload

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Week 6

Nov 25—Dec 1
    Nothing scheduled for this week

Week 7

Dec 2—Dec 4

    Dec

    3

    Session 6

    Tue 12/39:00 PM—11:00 PM (UTC)

    Streamline Your Presentation

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    Drive Action and Sustain Commitment to Secure Seamless Buy-in

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    Make an Irresistible Offer

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4.7

(48 ratings)

What students are saying

Why narrative is the #1 skill to accelerate your career as a tech leader

What our alumni are saying

        Loved it. The cohort focused on teasing out the actual strategic story that you want to tell (vs just tips and tricks on telling it well). Michael is a pro and a fantastic teacher.
Irina Malkova

Irina Malkova

VP of Data & Analytics, Salesforce
        Incredible value for the money. I successfully presented my narrative to the exec team. Narrative Influence 5 week sprint got me up to speed fast with the right structures.
Shubhang Vishwamitra

Shubhang Vishwamitra

Senior Dir of Product & Engineering, Code & Theory
        Going through the sprint was incredibly insightful. The frameworks you taught have become an essential daily part of how I approach problem-solving in my organization.
Anne Goodrich

Anne Goodrich

Senior Dir, Product Marketing, Mozilla
        Life-changing tools and perspective. The sprint led me to get executive buy-in for an XFN taskforce. I transformed the perceived value of security into a center of value creation.
Sholomi Farrell

Sholomi Farrell

Principal, Global Security, Cruise (subsidiary of GM)
        Storied’s methods helped me close an eight figure deal. The 6-week sprint & cohort taught me how to differentiate our offer and win a big new contract. A real game-changer.
Dori Gurwitz

Dori Gurwitz

Partner, Digital Transformation, Globant
        Mastering the creation of a narrative has become an indispensable skill for me to lead change and innovation, and a successful GTM launch of our robot automation product.
 Rich Pirrotta

Rich Pirrotta

CEO, North America, Synergy Logistics
        Your storytelling frameworks led to transformational results! The peer feedback was top notch. When you run ‘0-1 ideas’ through the in-depth methods – it simply just works.
Courtney Hohne

Courtney Hohne

Chief Storyteller, Google X, The Moonshot Factory
        You made it easy. The playbook is phenomenal. Super clear tools for such advanced concepts like structured thinking. Plus a high energy, passionate, hands on community.
Paco Farias

Paco Farias

CPO/VP/Dir of HR; Addi, Snap, Amazon, GE

A few quick alumni success stories

The power of Narrative Intelligence ™

Michael Margolis

Michael Margolis

Trusted advisor, global keynoter, best-selling author

The son of a mad-scientist and teacher, I'm obsessed with how to translate new ideas into cultural acceptance. 


I've always been good with words and ideas. Except in front of a skeptical audience. Cynicism was my kryptonite. It didn't help: I was an awkward nerd growing up, often bullied. I know what it feels like to be misunderstood or lost in translation. To struggle with communicating your vision, to get your point across, and to be taken seriously. 


In my early twenties, I suffered a panic attack during a pitch for my startup. It was triggered by my boss's skepticism and dismissiveness who at the time I thought had my back. I decided after that moment to do something about it.


Long before "storytelling" was a buzz word, I devoted myself to advancing the field and practice. It's now 22 years later, having quietly built a reputation advising many of the most iconic companies in Silicon Valley and beyond. I've influenced $13B+ of investments inside Meta, Google, Genentech, and others. I've also given more than 500 talks to corporate audiences and events like TED, and SXSW. I'm an original thinker, philosopher, and empirical scientist, having tested and proven my methods over 20,000 hours.


Trained as a cultural anthropologist, I'm an expert in language systems and the meaning-making process. I'm also student of the Buddhist tradition and have pioneered a discipline of business storytelling rooted in non-dual, non-oppositional narratives. I call it Narrative Intelligence ™, an adaptive leadership capacity that allows anyone to take charge of their story no matter the circumstances.

Tested and validated by 350+ organizations

Tested and validated by 350+ organizations
A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

Influence at Scale for VP & Dir-Level Leaders

Q

$3,500

Dates

Oct 22—Dec 4, 2024

Application Deadline

Oct 16, 2024

Don't miss out! Applications close in 6 days

The structure: how it works

3-4 hours per week

  • High Touch, Learn by Doing

    1:00pm - 3:00pm PST

    • An intimate cohort of 12-20 VP/Dir level+ leaders in tech
    • Weekly 2-hour Zoom sessions (1 pm - 3pm PT / 4pm - 6pm ET)
    • All sessions are recorded, but best to experience live
    • Immersive breakouts, with peer to peer feedback
    • Action-driven, practical assignments (1-2 hours/week)
  • Power Skills, Persuasion Skills, People Skills

    Personalized, Individualized Attention

    • Two 1-on-1 private coaching sessions with your Storied coach
    • Influence Archetype Assessment to unlock your superpowers
    • Office Hours for additional laser coaching with Michael
    • Community forums for async input and feedback
  • Office Hours: Deep Dive Presentations

    A Place to Practice, Iterate, Validate

    • Weekly Office Hours for live practice presentations and feedback
    • Bonus modules on affective presence, authority stacking, and more
    • Group accountability to ship your narrative and get ROI
Free resource

Why "narrative" is a growth hack to go "fast and far" with Morgan Brown - VP of Product/Growth, Dropbox AI; Ex-Meta, Ex-Shopify.

Enjoy the replay of our recent roundtable with VP & Director level leaders in tech. Explore our thesis: Narrative Intelligence™ and why so many executives say storytelling is the #1 most important skill for you to take charge of your career in an AI-driven future.

Watch the video replay now

Learning is better with cohorts

Learning is better with cohorts

Active hands-on learning

High-touch, peer to peer, learn by doing

Interactive and project-based

You’ll be interacting with others through breakout rooms and home pod teams

Learn with a cohort of peers

Join a community of like-minded people who want to learn and grow alongside you

Frequently asked questions

Trusted by the world's best teams

        Best investment we ever made. The "quality data" narrative is out there, lighting it up, transforming our industry. Your special magic is changing the world.
Maria Chanley

Maria Chanley

Head of PDQ, Business, Risk, Governance, Roche
        This work influenced the stock price to grow 30%! Your narrative enabled executive sponsorship and the launch of Dolby APIs as a disruptive business model.
Stephane Giraudie

Stephane Giraudie

Senior Dir of Product, Dolby
        Michael and Storied's methods have dramatically influenced Facebook. You conceptualized how to present our product vision and goals at the billion-person scale.
Alex Deve

Alex Deve

Director of Product, Meta
        You help innovators express their ideas. Thanks to Storied, my team can now communicate our vision in language the C-suite understands.
John Couch

John Couch

VP of Product Design, Hulu
        Your guidance on building a compelling narrative was like a "Storytelling Waze"...supporting our re-brand, go-to-market and even IPO. Your impact reaches far and wide.
Tim Minihan

Tim Minihan

CMO, OneStream
        Michael helps teams distill complex strategy into clear coherence. He's been a secret weapon for me at both Shopify and Meta to successfully win hearts and minds.
Morgan Brown

Morgan Brown

VP of AI Product & Growth, Dropbox
A pattern of wavy dots

Join an upcoming cohort

Influence at Scale for VP & Dir-Level Leaders

Q

$3,500

Dates

Oct 22—Dec 4, 2024

Application Deadline

Oct 16, 2024

Don't miss out! Applications close in 6 days

$3,500

4.7

(48)

·

6 days left to apply