Five Stars: The Communication Secrets to Get From Good to Great is a book by Carmine Gallo. It was published in 2018.
The book offers a synopsis of key ideas and communication techniques that individuals can use to improve their communication skills and become better communicators
Persuasion with emotion
Persuasion cannot occur in the absence of Pathos – an appeal to the audience’s emotion.
Stories are the best linguistic tool we have to build Pathos because humans are wired for it. There are three types of stories you can use in your next pitch or presentation:
(1) stories about personal experiences,
(2) stories about customers, clients, or other people, and
(3) signature stories about your brand or company.
Act III: The resolution
Just when all hope seems lost, Airbnb seeks admission to Y Combinator, the highly selective Silicon Valley accelerator that provides seed funding and coaching for startups. It is Chesky’s last-ditch effort, but in another all-is-lost moment, Chesky misses the deadline to apply. The tension rises. “If we didn’t get in, we would not exist,” Chesky’s co-founder Joe Gebbia says in his presentations. But at the last minute, they manage to apply late and are invited to interview. The tension rises again.
Y Combinator founder Paul Graham is initially skeptical. “People actually do this?” he asks the founders. “I wouldn’t want to stay on anyone else’s sofa.” The tension breaks when Graham decides to jump on board. He figures that anyone who could convince people to pay $40 for a $2 box of cereal is worth taking a chance on.
The resolution Part 2
Thanks to Y Combinator’s $20,000 investment and its coaching, Airbnb bookings began growing steadily, soaring 40 to 50 percent a month. Investors like Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia Capital, and celebrity Ashton Kutcher come knocking.
In 2014, Airbnb reached a valuation of $10 billion. In six years of renting air mattresses on the floor, Brian, Joe, and Nathan were each worth $1.5 billion.
Today, Airbnb is valued at $30 billion and is worth more than any hotel chain in the world.
Setup, conflict, resolution, and 30 billion reasons to live happily ever after
The Three-Act Storytelling Structure
Act I: The set-up
Two friends share an apartment in San Francisco and struggle to pay rent. Brian and Joe put three air mattresses on the floor and rent them out for $80 each. The two entrepreneurs decide to make a business of it. They hire a former roommate (Nathan) to design a simple website called airbedandbreakfast.com.
The three friends launch their startup at the popular South by Southwest conference. Far from being a huge success out of the gate, they only get two bookings.
Catalyst: The Democratic National Convention comes to town and it sparks an idea. The co-founders repackage cereal and design novelty boxes: Obama O’s and Cap’n McCains. They charge $40 a box and raise $30,000. It’s enough money to keep the adventure going.
Act II: The conflict
The co-founders are running short on cash. All seems lost.
AirBnB cofounder Chesky: “I would wake up in a panic. Everyone thought it was crazy. No one supported us. We had no money. It was the best weight-loss program ever. I lost 20 pounds.
I didn’t have any money for food. I would wake up in the morning with my heart pounding. During the course of the day I would convince myself that everything would work out. I went to bed at night really confident. “Like a reset button, I would be jolted out of bed with my heart pounding.”
Chesky reminds audiences that many people were skeptical of the service in its early years.
And they regret it. According to Chesky, “Twenty investors had been introduced to Airbnb. Any one of them could have owned 20 percent of the company for $100,000. Fifteen of them didn’t even reply to my e-mail. I met with one investor at a cafe. In the middle of drinking his smoothie, he got up, left, and I’ve never seen him again.”
