But I get calls all the time from people in all walks of life who want to become screenwriters. So I waited to hear him tell me about the script he wanted my help with.

Then I discovered he had no interest at all in writing a screenplay. “Next month in Baltimore,” he said, “my business associate Daegan Smith and I are having an internet marketing workshop for entrepreneurs. We wondered if you’d be willing to do a presentation there on storytelling.”

This was very tempting. I mean, who doesn’t want to go to Baltimore in the summer?

But I already had several other trips lined up, I was looking forward to some down time in between, and this sounded way outside my wheelhouse.

“Well that sounds really nice,” I said, “but I really don’t know that much [translate: anything] about internet marketing. So I don’t know what I’d have to talk about.”

“Oh, that’s OK!” he said enthusiastically. (Since then I’ve learned that Russell says everything enthusiastically.)

“We saw your video ‘The Hero’s Two Journeys,’ and we loved it! You can just talk about how to tell better stories using Hollywood principles, and we’ll be able to apply those to our sales funnels.” (I couldn’t even imagine what a “sales funnel” might be.)

“We’ll fly you there,” he added, “and we’ll cover all your expenses. And we’ll pay you a lot of money.”

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(Truthfully, Russell never said, “We’ll pay you a lot of money.” I honestly don’t remember how much he offered, but it sounded like a lot to me at the time. So I figured I’d just own my ignorance, tell them what I thought might be helpful to businesspeople, and sit quietly through the rest of the event.)

So, in spite of myself, I decided to venture outside my comfort zone. “Sure!” I said, and a few weeks later, I was standing in front of 50 or so people at Daegan and Russell’s event.

Now I don’t like to admit it, but at the time I’d always thought of business people, entrepreneurs and sales people as inhabiting a completely different world than I did—one where movies and stories didn’t matter very much, because their only real interest was in making lots of money.

I was about to discover how wrong-headed I was.

I listened as the participants, who were all very successful marketers already, shared their ideas and problems and hopes for reaching more and more people with their marketing.

Certainly they wanted to achieve greater financial success, but along with that they wanted to reach more people so they could help their clients and customers overcome whatever fears or circumstances were holding them back from the lives they could be living.

I met participants who wanted to provide people with tools, processes, exercise programs, health supplements or courses of study that would transform their lives. These entrepreneurs wanted to help people overcome their problems and challenges so they could be happier, or healthier, or more successful, or more fulfilled—and so they could in turn help other people.

That’s when I realized that Russell, Daegan, and all of their followers wanted to change the world.

As I gave my presentation, they were eager to learn how to tell great stories, and were excited to incorporate the principles I shared into their marketing campaigns. They even allowed me to coach them live in front of the group, showing them how to make their own stories more emotionally powerful by exploring the fears that had held them back, and the steps they had taken to achieve great success.

But the most important revelation I had that weekend was this:

The qualities that make movies great are the same ones that make speeches, sales pitches and sermons great.

That’s when I first realized that entrepreneurs, speakers, marketers and everyone can benefit when those principles are used to create stories that help people live better. And I never again worried that what I knew about storytelling wouldn’t work outside the bounds of Hollywood.

Oh, and Russell seemed happy I was there as well. In Chapter 7 of his bestselling book Expert Secrets, and in the testimonial he gave me for my own book, Storytelling Made Easy, he says: