The Power of Storytelling

The need for creativity is most obvious in what Saxon said is the scariest shot in a movie: the push in on a closed door. “Our mind is forced to fill in what is behind the door,” he said – anything from a monster to an IRS agent.

Saxon translated much of his experience into practical guidance for financial advisors.

Advisors face clients who have a personal story that encompassed their fears, he said. When people think about money correctly, they think about themselves “heroically,” he said. The challenge is to recast the story from a disaster to a narrative where we feel more empowered.

The difference between good and great actors is the details they bring. Anthony Hopkins had very little dialog in The Silence of the Lambs. But he was able to make himself a likeable, sympathetic villain by caring for the character played by Jodie Foster.

He initially thought financial advisors were “dweebs,” Saxon said, or they were like the wolves of Wall Street. When clients go to an advisor, he said, they worry whether their advisor will steal it. But he found that advisors play a pastoral role, helping their clients flourish. “They are caregivers,” he said.

Good stories need tension, which comes from conflict, Saxon said. That can be in the form of man-versus-man or man-versus-nature. Advisors deal with latter, because they are protecting themselves against adverse health consequences. Another conflict is man-versus-self, which can be about drug addiction or the use of money or sex as a kind of narcotic, he said.

We are in the middle of the greatest revolution in communication ever, Saxon said, through the use of cell phones and related technology. This has drawn unusual players to become better storytellers. Indeed, he said, USC – a leading institution in advancing storytelling and related technology – has the Department of Defense as one its clients. It wants to help veterans with issues such as PTSD through storytelling.

Saxon described his role in a movie as the chief collaboration officer – helping people “play better” together. Things work well when everyone involved is motivated to identify ways to improve and produce a better product or service, he said. He provides a structure that facilitates collaboration. He cited the director Jonathan Demme, who described himself not as a puppet master but as a collaborator.

To be successful, he must keep people safe – making sure everyone knows their limitations and is appropriately encouraged. Directors need to know their budget; writers, who often turn in poor work at first, need positive feedback. If not and they are criticized, they don’t hear anything else – “it’s like telling people their baby is ugly.”

“Treat your problems like you treat your kids,” Saxon said. Life is nothing but a series of problems, and you can’t be constantly disappointed by them. You have to be as forgiving as you are to your children.

Be there for the tough times. Saxon said the people get fired regularly and he made it a practice to send champagne to anyone who met that fate.

Encourage community. “Nobody really wants to have the crew over for a barbecue,” he said, but it is vitally important to develop the friendships and respect that evolve from those sorts of activities.

Encouraging a sense of play is essential to facilitating collaboration. Improvisational theatre has a “big cardinal rule,” he said: Say “yes” and add some information. “That’s how improv works,” Saxon said. Each person in a skit needs to build on what the previous person said, and embellish it or add to it.

Advisors, he said, shouldn’t kill their clients’ dreams. Say “yes and…” When a client says they want a beach house, don’t say “no.” Say there are great beach houses on Airbnb.

The main thing filmmakers reshoot are the endings, which are “vitally important” to a successful movie, according to Saxon. Too often, he said, directors shoot the final battle, but leave out the sense of connection or emotion that comes afterward. “We want that sense of connection,” he said.

Collaboration requires listening. In the movie Philadelphia, the protagonist, Tom Hanks, needs a lawyer, Denzel Washington. Washington takes the case, although he doesn’t like gay people, as portrayed by Hanks. Hanks takes Washington to an opera, which Saxon didn’t think would connect with audiences. But it worked, he said, because Washington elicited a strong emotion connection in the follow-up scene to the opera. He went home and climbed into bed with his wife with his clothes still on and hugged her.

“It showed that how Washington had listened to Hanks and understood the consequences of what was happening,” Saxon said. “He needed a hug.”

Read more articles by Robert Huebscher