Building Community and Connection in Business with Gavin McMahon
Gavin McMahon, author, CEO, and co-founder of Fassforward and Story Business, joins The Bliss Business Podcast to explain business storytelling systems: why every team needs a shared story, how plain language beats corporate jargon, and why any organizational change takes two stories, a destination and a journey.
Business storytelling systems turn a good idea into something a whole organization can repeat, because even the best ideas go nowhere unless they are told well. In this episode of The Bliss Business Podcast, hosts Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski sit down with Gavin McMahon, author, CEO, and co-founder of Fassforward and Story Business, an engineer who began his career building submarines, sports cars, and steel plants.
🎙️ Hosted by Stephen Sakach and Mike Liwski
🎧 Produced by Tullio Siragusa
In this episode we explore:
• Why connection starts with the fact that everyone is the hero of their own story
• What running a steel plant taught Gavin about people, plans, and meritocracy
• How weekend speak and plain words beat corporate jargon
• Why storytelling is a system that runs from engineering to product to marketing to sales
• What Boeing and Fifth Third Bank show about culture storytelling
• Why every change needs two stories, the destination and the journey
Gavin started as an engineer who believed hard work always wins out. Running a steel plant showed him that people, not plans, decide the outcome, and that leaders who cannot “speak human” struggle.
From there he makes the case that storytelling is a system. A 5G handoff from engineer to product to marketing to sales shows where meaning gets lost, so he points to weekend speak, a term from Ronan Dunne, former head of Verizon Wireless: talk at work the way you would away from it.
Culture is the thread that holds it together. Gavin contrasts Boeing, where an engineering culture gave way to a financial one, with Fifth Third Bank and its corporate historian. He also shows how AI can read culture in open-text survey comments.
For change, he says leaders must tell two stories, the destination and the journey, and he closes on love: a story is information wrapped in emotion.
Zero Company builds marketing on the same belief, that a clear, human story told consistently across every team and channel is what makes strategy land.
Key Takeaways
• (2:19) On why connection starts with story: “We are always the hero of our own story”
• (10:02) On plain language over corporate jargon: “There’s some real basics, cut out acronyms, use really short words.”
• (14:37) On why story is a system, not a department: “It also speaks to why it’s everyone’s job to tell stories and be a better storyteller.”
• (22:47) On culture, quoting Brian Chesky: “culture is the machine that creates all future things, so you have to pay attention to it.”
• (33:45) On leading change: “You need to tell both those stories in a very human emotional way.”
• (37:22) On his definition of a business story: “it’s a piece of information wrapped in emotion.”
FAQ
What are business storytelling systems?
Gavin McMahon, co-founder of Fassforward and Story Business, describes storytelling as a system that connects engineering, product, marketing, and sales so one clear story passes from team to team instead of getting lost in jargon. He says it is everyone’s job to tell stories.
What is weekend speak, according to Gavin McMahon?
Gavin McMahon credits the term to Ronan Dunne, former head of Verizon Wireless. It means talking at work the way you would away from it: cutting acronyms and using short, plain words so people think about your message and not the jargon wrapped around it.
What two stories should leaders tell during organizational change?
Gavin McMahon calls them Story 1 and Story 2. Story 2 is the destination, where the company is going, and Story 1 is the journey, the route to get there. He says both must be told in a human, emotional way so people can see themselves in them.
When story is built into how a company thinks and speaks, strategy stops being something announced and becomes something people carry. Find Gavin McMahon on LinkedIn, read his book Story Business, or learn more about Fassforward and Story Business. Watch the video or explore more Featured Guest Series conversations.
Author | CEO and Co-founder of fassforward
Gavin McMahon builds things. Once, it was submarines, sports cars, and steel plants, big, complex systems built on logic and precise plans. But plans have a funny way of falling apart when people get involved.
As Gavin tried to figure out why, one truth became clear: People don’t move without a story. Business is more than just strategy and execution—it is persuasion and inspiration too. So he switched gears, traded engineering for business, and earned an MBA in Innovation, Strategy & Information Technology from the Institute Theseus in France.
Today, as CEO and co-founder of fassforward, he helps companies shape strategy, leadership, and culture through storytelling. Over the years, he’s worked with some of the world’s biggest brands and learned that even the best ideas will go nowhere if they aren’t told well.
Now, he’s written a book about it.
