So this is pretty cool. Popular Australian business author/commentator Valerie Khoo wrote about me in her new book Power Stories: The 8 Stories You Must Tell to Build an Epic Business.

Power Stories teaches business owners and marketers how to use storytelling to inspire and engage potential and current customers. She shows you that when you tell the right stories, you can transform a brand into an icon, turn your customers into tireless advocates, and give your business – or yourself – an unbeatable advantage.

I’ll only give you a small excerpt from the book. You’ll have to buy a copy in paperback to read the rest.

CHAPTER 5: Your Customer Story

“An Angry Bird plush toy sits on Mark Hayes’ office desk. Next to it is a temporary tatto transfer, a DODOcase iPad cover and a row of Tabasco sauce bottles. No, Mark isn’t an oddball collector, he’s the director of marketing and public relations at Shopify, an ecommerce platform that helps entrepreneurs create their own online stores. In his office in Ottawa, other desks are strewn with an equally eclectic mix of products that include bagless tea, colourful socks and a vintage poster. They are all products sold by different businesses that use Shopify as their ecommerce platform.

It looks like Mark has his job cut out for him. He’s marketing a complex technology to businesses of all sizes in a broad range of industries. After all, his target customer is… anyone who wants to create an online store. With such a broad brief, it can be hard to develop a targeted marketing campaign. But there is one message that all business owners understand – the Entrepreneur’s Journey.

So rather than dwelling on all the technological features that make up the back end of the Shopify system, Mark and his team have developed Shopify Stories, an online mini-series of stories about their customers. “The stories tell the tales of interesting Shopify store owners – how they started their business, why they decided to sell online and how it’s changed their lives,” says Mark.

Mark is using one of the most effective power stories of all – the Customer Story. “

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“Mark Hayes sees these stories as far more engaging than any list of the platform’s features and benefits. “You don’t convert people with the technology. You convert them by showing them what the technology can do,” he says. “There’s still this idea that selling online is difficult. It’s not – at all. If you have 15 minutes and you can use email, you can build a fully functional, beautiful online store that’s open 24 hours a day, 365 days  year, and sells all around the world.”

Thanks so much to Valerie for making me a part of her newest book.

Check out Valerie’s popular business blog, columns in The Sydney Morning Herald, Twitter, and of course her book “Power Stories.“