Nir Zavaro Interview on EuroNews Bulgaria November 10th 2023

Следущий тема в دخнов्यवस्थной истории заличеный спех и помагная хорота درسказ्वतу в лекатонус войта истории и те зина бизнеса си. Проставясь как то chief of happiness, в переводут английски, шеф отнестости это, ну последний тема с занигуа и стинскую спитани. То вездут порволить за уже сенатерор в Израел и что не رزкается занигу. Запорви्पत на пос्करудина तसи у тседню أكتوبر на самзе да дойдев Болгарија и до частво конфрентции та бранд талкс а сегав студио то на Евроньюз Болгарија. Проставиenvi marketologat predpremat i pisatel Nir Zavaro. Hello, Mr. Zavaro.

Nice to be here.

Thank you for being here. You are an expert in storytelling. How would you tell your story to Bulgarian viewers that may not know you?

So I've always loved stories and always loved selling stuff. So I think for me the combination was how do we enable other people to become better storytellers? I think that's the key.

Who are you? Introduce yourself to the Bulgarian viewers.

So, my name is Nir Zavaro, born and raised in Israel, and for the last 20+ years I've been teaching sales, marketing, and branding. I've written 3 novels, and I love to use storytelling techniques in different types of selling methods and raising funds, capital, and stuff like that. And I've been very fortunate to travel the world over the last few years teaching people how to become better storytellers.

Your 3rd book was recently published. Tell us more about F the Slides. What is it about?

Yeah, so F the Slides came to life because I couldn't hear any more bad presentations. I felt it was enough. So that's where the name came from. And usually when I have a good title, then I know I have to write a book. So I said, okay, but if people want to become better storytellers and storytelling is this nice buzzword that doesn't really mean anything, I said, how do we fix it? So I went on a 2-year journey to use every technique I know and the way I think to teach people how to create a short, compelling story. 3 minutes. And it became the thing I'm known for in the last few years. And I've been traveling the world. We work with startups, salespeople, students. Anything could work. By the way, we won the Tequila Patron World Championship last year with a competition. just because we are able to tell a better story. And the book helps you understand that first and foremost, you and I, this is how we interact— stories. And I want to teach people that they can become better storytellers.

What is the secret of good storytelling? Is it the emotion? Is it what you experienced in your life? What is it?

So I think the first mistake we most make is we think storytelling is a soft skill. It is not. It is a must skill. And in order to improve your skill, just like, I don't know, I run 5 times a week. I would never win a competition. I never won a marathon or the 10K in my neighborhood. But I became much better. The improvement is exponential from point A to point B. So the first thing is to understand that we are all storytellers and we need to practice. It is the skill we do the most, yet practice the least. Once we understand that, the next step is we believe that we communicate via telling you the right things. We don't care about the right things. We care about the emotional aspect of it. And in the book, I explain there are 4 key elements for helping the audience understand. The first thing is the emotion. That's the currency we trade. The second thing is the experience. We all know certain things. If I will talk to you about a restaurant, you will then imagine the restaurant you probably last night went to. And the third thing is we don't need all the information. We are very wise people. Most of us are able to take a piece of information and fill in the gaps. The best explainer I can give for this is when I wrote my novels. What is a novel? You read a white piece of paper in black ink. You are filling the gaps of the place, whether it's a submarine, space, a different city, a different world. You can imagine a dragon. But the book, white page, black ink. Only lastly, by the way, do we need the information. So in most cases, you and I don't need too much information. We need less. And we will convince ourselves. It's like you went to buy a car. You don't necessarily buy the car that minute. You go home. You think about it. You take into consideration all the information. You say, hmm, you know what? It's a good deal. It's a good price. I like the color and everything. You convince yourself. And I teach them in the book, the best sale is a no sale. If you have everything built up the right way, they will convince themselves.

You are in Bulgaria for Brand Talks, and this is actually the first time you leave Israel since the 7th of October when the terror attacks of Hamas started in your country.

Yep.

How did you see the war? How did you feel it? What happened? Tell us about it.

For us, it is the day life changed. There's everything up to the 7th and the way our life will be from now on. On the 6th, at about midnight, I wrapped up my whole marketing plan for the book launch. I went to sleep. Then I woke up to sirens and my life would never be the same. So I think for us, it is the understanding that something big happened. It's a national tragedy. There's no other way to look at it. And I think we are now learning how to behave in a new reality. By the way, I said that online in an interview on the, I think the 8th or the 9th of October. This is a new reality. Sadly, I also believe that it's not just my or my nation's new reality. I believe it is a global thing. The world will never be the same.

You are known as the Chief of Happiness. Where do you find happiness at such a difficult time for you, for Israel, for the Israeli people?

Chief of Happiness came as a title because I went to a startup meeting. There were a dozen people. All of them had these weird long titles. I couldn't understand a single thing. Leaving the meeting, I called my then-COO, amazing girl, Norma, and I said, we need good titles. I'm going to be the Chief of Happiness. It was a funny idea. And the Chief of Happiness turned to be my guiding light. When I'm not happy and I give a card, am I lying? When I'm saying something and I hurt someone, which sometimes sadly that happens, am I upholding my values or not? And I think personally, And I've been traveling the world for the last 200 days. I've met thousands of people over the last 6 or 7 years. I've been speaking in 40 different countries. On the 7th of October, something in me broke. I believe for many, that will never come back. There's something— I don't know if you've ever felt that sadness where something breaks. Giving that card today in a meeting before I came here, means that there's positivity and hope. It means I need to remember that we cannot go into the dark side. It will not serve any purpose. My people went through a lot of things throughout history. We always triumphed and built better and did more and came together, and we ideate and we think and we turn bad cooking into an amazing cuisine all over the world. We want positivity. And now, more than ever, coming and doing this interview, which is we can talk about the book, which I'd love to, but we need to also talk as a representative. Before that, I wasn't the representative of my country speaking all over the world. Now, chief of happiness and understanding positive and what is happening, this is what we need to do, and that's what we're going to do. So stay positive. It has to be.

What are Israeli people's hopes and dreams now?

Hmm.

I imagine it's first of all peace, right? But how does peace look like?

I don't think it's relevant how it looks like. Aspiration for peace is the key element. If you lose hope, there is no point. You know, there's a 46-minute video that my government will not publish. Make it public, they believe it might scar people for life. Some journalists, some prime ministers, some presidents have seen it, the atrocities that happened. By the way, if we publish it, I believe that the narrative or the story, the emotional aspect, will change forever in a lot of people's minds. But the damage it will cause is something I think at the moment we are not ready to give away. That's how you keep your humanity. If this understanding that this is there and we don't share it, then we first and foremost need to keep the idea that peace is available, it might happen. But I think we're also understanding for the first time that in order for peace to happen, the other side needs to say, I want peace. Then we can discuss.

As a great storyteller, you must know that every story has 2 sides. So what is your opinion about the death of innocent people in Gaza, the death of children, their suffering?

By the way, let's discuss that, which is horrible. First of all, in storytelling, I believe there are no 2 sides. A good story is a narrative that has a beginning, a middle, and an end. But that goes to storytelling. Now let's talk about real life. I don't have kids. We were sitting yesterday here when I landed in a restaurant, and I see 2 young girls eating and laughing. And I start— I have tears in my eyes. I can't imagine what families, what parents are going through on any side. This is not a 2-sided conversation. I think it's a 3-sided conversation. There's what happened on the seventh as a terror attack, horrible thing, unbelievable thing. By the way, I believe that most of the people in the modern world cannot comprehend the sheer evil that happened. And if not, and I hope you don't watch the videos that run around on TikTok or Telegram and stuff like that. Please don't. If you saw it. And you understand that it exists, how do you on the other side of the world are supposed to move on with your life? Because we are not. So I understand that people are having a struggle with that side. Then let's talk about the conflict. Let's also agree, you know, there's a thing in Judaism, every life is a whole world. But it doesn't only fall for Jewish or non-Jewish people. Every person is a world. Now, when that starts to multiply or quantify, it's horrible. But that is a different, in my opinion, discussion. You want to talk about the terror attack, that's completely fine. Then we can talk about what peace would look like, and I think it's a bit more complicated. By the way, is peace when we don't argue? If there's a couple in the house and they decide that we're not to argue, is this a good marriage?

Not necessarily.

Exactly. So we will take that, by the way. Let's not argue. And we have that with several countries. We consider it very good. We love to go. I went to Petra. I went to other places. I would love to speak in every country. In the book, I say people are people. It doesn't matter. There are differences in cultures, cultural differences that we can learn. But I need you to be open enough to teach me. I also believe that if we look at what's happening now journalistic-wise, and I studied communications, I teach in colleges about journalism, brand, the main problem is the wrong people are using the wrong languages to explain the situation. That meaning a Westerner cannot go into a conflict and explain what is happening. They only need to report what is happening. Once we do that, that means, by the way, mainly Sticking to the facts, not selling an emotion. And I believe today between TikTok and some channels, no one cares about what's really happening on the ground. All they care about is selling more. So that becomes an emotional. This is horrible. This is sad. This is good. This is bad.

How how did the war affect your businesses in Israel? You have several.

Yeah, businesses are affected. That they're gone. A big part of the decision that I'm going to start traveling and promoting the book, which, you know, it's a weird thing to do during these days. I'd rather be at home with my family. But it's the understanding that this might take a while. I don't know what this is, if it's a war, if it's rebuilding, we don't know. We need to start thinking about the day after. And that means now traveling instead of being at home and doing stuff. The businesses are closed and they're gone at the moment. I don't think whatever thing that happened, I don't think that's the relevant— we'll fix it. We'll rebuild it. We'll build it better. It's not about that. Now it's time to focus on these things. By the way, I believe that a big part of starting these discussions of the book is allowing me to talk to you now about something and spread, I believe, positivity. Understanding that we don't know the whole story. Understanding that I'm begging people, don't go on social media and talk about your opinion. Literally, nobody cares and it's hurting. Understand that if you're defining the message every time you post something on social media, a story could be a good story or a bad story, but you decide if the story is good. Again, what is the real thing that's happening. Not just, yeah, that's what I saw and that's my opinion. Nobody cares about your opinion, but you're spreading hatred. By the way, spreading hatred on both sides or whatever is not good. If we understand that there's a certain situation happening, and if I don't know enough about it, I won't post just because I don't know. And I think that is very important. And we're seeing now, I don't know if you've seen all these videos where people are chanting different things. And someone goes in the middle and starts chanting something completely different as a joke, and they have no idea what they're singing, and they're singing it. So don't spread hatred. Don't teach kids to hate. You can choose.

Thank you very much about this conversation.

My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

Нерзавару израelsкий предпримат, пишатель и лектор в ешенажго специалную за еуроньюз Балгарија. Усто нете с нас.