Meet Paul

ABOUT PAUL SMITH



ABOUT PAUL SMITH

Paul Smith is one of the world’s leading experts on organizational storytelling. He’s one of Inc. Magazine’s Top 100 Leadership Speakers of 2018, and the author of three Amazon #1 bestsellers: Lead with a Story (now in its 11th printing, and published in 7 languages around the world), Sell with a Story, and The 10 Stories Great Leaders Tell; in addition to Parenting with a Story and his newest work, Four Days with Kenny Tedford. He’s a former executive at The Procter & Gamble Company and a consultant with Accenture prior to that.

As part of his research on the effectiveness of storytelling, Paul has personally interviewed over 300 CEOs and executives in 25 countries, and documented over 3,000 individual business stories. That’s allowed him to reverse engineer what works in storytelling and what doesn’t. His work has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Inc. Magazine, Time, Forbes, and Success Magazine, among others.

Paul has trained executives at international giants like Google, Hewlett Packard, Ford Motor Company, Bayer Medical, Novartis, Abbott, Progressive Insurance, Luxottica, Walmart, Kaiser Permanente, among dozens of others.

A 20-year veteran of P&G, Paul worked most recently as director of consumer and communications research for the company’s $6 billion global paper business where he led a research team across four continents. He also held leadership positions in corporate finance, manufacturing plants, and sales working closely with major global retailers like Walmart, Costco, Asda, and Sam’s Club.

Paul holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He lives with his wife and two sons in the Cincinnati suburb of Mason, Ohio.

PAUL’S PERSONAL STORY . . .

“I spent the first 24 years after college following the safe, traditional corporate career path. Then I did something crazy. And it was the best decision of my life.

First, I spent two years as a consultant with Arthur Andersen (now Accenture). Next, I spent two years in business school (The Wharton School at U. of Penn). Then, I spent 20 years in progressively higher levels of management at The Procter & Gamble Company. Ultimately, I served as head of consumer research for a $6 billion global business. (That’s not the crazy part).

During that time, I spent many of those years studying the art and science of leadership, communication, selling, and character. And I’ve spent the last 10 years specifically studying the practice of storytelling. For that, I personally interviewed hundreds of people from dozens of countries around the world. These people had different jobs, ranging from CEOs to comedians, and everything in between. I looked for those profound moments of clarity in their careers and personal lives where they learned an absolutely essential lesson. That essential lesson had to be worthy of passing along to the next generation of management and humanity.

What I found amazed me. In fact, it amazed me so much (and this is the crazy part) that I quit my job to dedicate my full-time efforts to sharing those lessons. I also started coaching leaders in the art and science of business storytelling. (You can read more about how I made that difficult decision here and how I found the courage to actually go through with it here.)

NOWADAYS. . .

I spend my time speaking to audiences all over the world to share the wisdom in these stories.

But after documenting thousands of stories along the way I learned something else: how to identify and craft an effective and compelling story. So when I’m not speaking or writing, I help companies and their leaders craft their corporate stories. Or I teach workshops and seminars on the art and science of storytelling and leadership so you and your team can be more effective leaders.

My days now are a long way from the corporate life I used to lead. But I do work I’m truly passionate about, which I’m confident you’ll find as inspiring as I do.”

— Paul Smith

10 Responses

  1. Paul, are you available for private story telling coaching?

  2. I am a 90 year old retired school teacher/librarian. Just finished Four Days with Kenny Tedford.. What an impact on an old lady who had spent her adult life advocating for children. Thanks for thinking the story was important and for writing it so others could meet Kenny.

    1. Glad you enjoyed the book, Doris. You sound like the kind of person who would have made a huge impact on Kenny if he’d been in your class, just like you probably have on others. 🙂

  3. Hello Paul,

    I am a business development manager with an IT services company based in India. we provide UI/UX design and mobile application development to startups.

    I need your help in creating a story for a variety of startups describing the technology, value add and our experience in the industry.

    Thanks!
    Vimal

    1. Hi Vimal, thanks for reaching out. I can certainly help you with that. Reach out to me at leadwithastory@gmail.com and let’s talk.

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