Challenge:

USL had a one-day conference in Auckland in 2026 with the theme of "Being Better Together" with 40+ customer-facing sales staff. They wanted a fun but outcome-focused storytelling workshop to bring the team together.    

Deliverables:

I proposed a practical workshop where participants learned how to structure, write, and share client success stories that could be used by the sales team to influence their clients. I also asked the team to share some personal stories, with varying degrees of vulnerability, so they connected on a  personal, human level.  

Outcome:

All participants wrote and shared their client success stories in the session and have a bank of stories to use in the future. Secondly, all participants heard a personal story from their workmates that they'd never heard before, bringing them closer together. Some of the team had worked for USL for up to 30 years. The true outcome is deeper conversations "at work" to drive a culture of connectedness.  

Challenge:

Open ground provides a supportive environment that nurtures Year 13 students' entrepreneurial skills, encourages their personal growth, and equips them with the confidence and knowledge needed to pursue their entrepreneurial endeavors. It provides practical experience by creating and running actual business ventures - each student is tasked with creating a product or service, and they had a dragons den event upcoming where they had to pitch for legitimate funding. 

Deliverables:

I was engaged to help the boys use stories to sell their products. I took them through some story structures and helped them create a story that introduced their product and the problem it solved.  I provided ongoing online coaching for those that wanted post-workshop help. In the Dragons Den event later that year, the team that won told a story.  

Outcome:

Openground Director, Ant Ford 1 May 2026

"Well done today, John. You exceeded my expectations. The boys were engaged and delighted to learn the principles of storytelling."

Challenge:

A mix of under-grad, post-grad and business community students pitched their proposed business to a panel of eight judges in the six-week Velocity program, and they needed help with their presentation. 

Deliverables:

A storytelling and presentation workshop for 30 students to help them uncover their "why" or "insight" stories to better connect them and their business idea with the panel and some practical presentation tools to use on the day of their pitch.  

Outcome:

The students all had time in front of the room telling their personal insight stories. They did group work to record their stories and we finished with exercises on warming up, gestures, body language, voice, breathing and pausing.  

Challenge:

A program by Cheil, Samsung's global marketing agency, aimed to put sales ambassadors into retail environments like JB HiFi, One NZ, Noel Leeming, Harvey Norman, Spark and 2 Degrees, to educate and sell products direct to the public. For the categories of TV (2024) and mobile (2025-2026).  

Deliverables:

I was engaged to deliver this training on the back of my successful campaigns training brand ambassadors for Sony, LG and Huawei, and again I trained 65+ young people in face-to-face sales and engagement over three days. This started with the S24 mobile model and the 2024 range of TVs.

I incorporated storytelling into the training with games, exercises and training structures to ensure they were retail-ready.  This training has continued throughout 2024/2025/2026. 

Outcome:

Retail Experience Director at Cheil, Annette Loughnane, 18 Jan 2024

"Day one concluded here in NZ for the S24 and the brand ambassadors have been welcomed overwhelmingly positively by the stores. They integrated well and have made some amazing pre-sales.

Samsung visited the stores and the feedback has been positive. They tested them and their product and sales knowledge was second to none, thanks to you. Some stores now have a TV expert and a mobile brand ambassador, and they are bonding well. A fantastic result given the challenges of you training them online in India with the technology we faced along the way. You have again helped with a great result - thank you"

Retail Experience Director at Cheil, Annette Loughnane, 9 July 2024

"I just wanted to say thank you for delivering the sales & engagement training for the Samsung experts last week. You were honestly amazing, and the brand ambassadors absolutely loved you. The expertise in your work is exceptional."  

Retail Experience Director at Cheil, Annette Loughnane, 27 September 2024

"Thanks again John for your outstanding training this week for the Galaxy phone launch. Your content and knowledge is amazing, and the brand ambassadors love you. 45 of the 53 ambassadors rated you 10/10. Congratulations". 

Retail Experience Director at Cheil, Annette Loughnane, 30 January 2025

"Superior skills and always an honour to have John leading our Cheil/Samsung BA program coaching the team and teaching them to master sales and engagement in stores".   

Retail Experience Director at Cheil, Annette Loughnane, 27 February 2026

"You have a unique skill of building a rapport with our brand ambassadors, and you have them eating out of your hand. All 65 of them. They ranked your training 8.5 out of 10. With an average of 9.5. "There are not enough words to say how impressed the team are by your training".